Current Events and Updates of the Ministry

Our Thanksgiving turkey – truly a day for Acción de Gracias with our many friends around the table

One month, and a lot of water has passed under the bridge since my last blog, and I think that it is time that I put pen to paper (or fingers to the keyboard, as the case may be), and get one off again.

Celine Dion is warbling “Blue Christmas” in the background, and the Christmas tree is twinkling in the corner of the living room. The season is “fixin’” to by jolly (according to the lingo of my Texas friends), and we are all looking with expectation to the days and weeks ahead. According to the online chronometer there are only 9 days, 3 hours, 4 minutes, and a rapidly decreasing second countdown until Christmas day arrives. Wow! Where has the year gone? And what have we accomplished in it?

Very quickly, in order to bring some continuity with a few of the things mentioned in my last blog:

The police have proven 100% inept, or unwilling, or both, in solving the case of the stolen

Give Thanks – we truly have so much to be thankful for

farm implements. I suspect that they have long-since been sold, become scrap metal, or a boat anchor somewhere. I guess we will need to try to go on without them, or attempt to try to import others as we are able.

The field work has finally been finished, and we have recently had rain on the seed planted. Things are growing – slowly due to the cooler weather – but they are growing and looking hopeful. Praise the Lord for this report at long last. The weeds have been placed under control for the moment, and we are truly blessed to see that some of the stress of the farm has been diminished.

But, what is there new?

Actually a lot. There are a whole lot of good things to report!

The Oklahoma Gang (and a few extra)

Over the past month Theresa and I have had the privilege of being asked to share on missions in two separate churches in the area, once in the city of Valles, and once about thirty miles away in the little town of Zaragoza. It was a special blessing to be to be able to share in Zaragoza because my parents, and brother Larry and his wife LaVonne were all instrumental in funding the building of the church there about fourteen years ago. I had not been back for at least ten years, and it was good to see old friends again.

We also had the privilege of being asked to have our house used as a “host spot” for celebrating Thanksgiving. This was unusual since Thanksgiving is not a typical Mexican celebration. However, since there are enough people who are aware of the northern tradition we were chosen to host it. We began with about fifteen around our table, but by the end of the day I think the final count was around twenty-five people who were fed – including a couple who walked up to our gate from the street asking for food. We were blessed to be able to extend Thanksgiving to them as well.

Then, over the very first part of December pastor Marty Dyer from Newsong Church in

The panther has returned – face painting in the children’s ministry with the Oklahoma team

Grove, Oklahoma, along with a team from his church, and friends from Jimenez, Mexico, arrived to present a two-day conference for national pastors from the southern area of the Huasteca. Theresa and I were blessed to be able to be a part of the team, and to attend the conference as guests on Friday and Saturday, the 5^th and 6^th of December. Then after the session on Saturday night, the men headed out to a little village the middle of the mountain wilderness of the southern Huasteca where they slept on the floor of a church building. In the morning, Sunday, they hiked about two hours down into, and across a mountain canyon in order to speak at a little indigenous village church on the other side of the gorge. Things would have been a little bit less dicey if it hadn’t been raining all night, and if the sheer drops into oblivion hadn’t been quite as slick. But, praise God, we made it, and are none the worse for the wear.

While this little Sunday adventure was taking place with the guys, the gals were blessing about seventy children in the town of Huichihuayan with a Bible lesson, crafts, lunch and backpacks with school supplies. When the men arrived back in the late afternoon they were just finishing with the all-day program for the children, and loading them on the back of pickup trucks and other vehicles so that they could return to their villages scattered in the mountains around Huichi. It was good spending time with Marty and our other friends from Oklahoma and Jimenez.

The excitement of new backpacks and school supplies – “What did you get in yours?”

The Oklahoma team had no more than gotten down the road for points north when we had another delightful visit – this time from an eighty five year old couple from the southern Huasteca. Fransisco Martinez Hernández and his lovely wife are from the little mountain village of Coxcatlán. We “happened” to run into them several months ago when we were at a wedding party celebrated with our friend Ollie Lovett from Rancho Louisiana following a ten-couple, mass wedding, as mentioned in my September 24^th blog (http://www.vitwministries.com/wordpress/2014/09/why-i-dont-play-the-lottery/).

Theresa and I had briefly met Fransisco and his wife at the wedding party and exchanged telephone information because of the fact that we were both hailing from the Huasteca (while in a different region of the country). You know how it goes: “Oh, so you’re from the Huasteca too. Well, my wife and I live there as well. We will have to visit you sometime. Where exactly do you live? Blah, blah…”  Never expecting, of course, to ever see them again.

But God had other ideas – Fransisco kept calling me up out of the blue. Unfortunately, I

Transportation Huastecan style

didn’t remember who he was when he called. I put a quick ‘lilt’ and an “Oh, how good to hear from you my good friend” tone (hopefully) into my voice when I answered. But, in all honesty I didn’t have a clue who he was. But then, several weeks ago he called me again and said that he and his wife were in town and would love to see us. I was working at the farm and didn’t know who was calling, but I told Javier that I had better come in and meet them, and excused myself and returned to town to find them. As soon as I saw them I remembered them. How could I possibly forget!

We visited briefly that day, and they promised to come back to visit again, next time for a longer stay. They called me up a couple of weeks later and said that they would be in town for a couple days, and would love to visit again.

What a delight they are. Everyone needs grandparents in the Faith. This faithful couple has been ministering the Word in the Huasteca since the early 40s, long before there were roads to most of the area. They are filled with wit, wisdom, godliness, and confidence in the Lord. They delighted and encouraged us with stories of deliverance from machete attacks, stonings, snakes and wild beasts, and, well, basically the 11^th chapter of Hebrews in vivo. They truly fall into the category of a man and woman of faith. He also excitedly told us that they had just celebrated their 60^th wedding anniversary the previous week, and that he was as delighted in his bride today as he was when he married her sixty years ago. He then whispered to me that she was celebrating her birthday next week as well, and he hoped to buy her a little gift while here in Cd. Valles (the big city). What a fun and delightful couple. It was even a joy to give up our bedroom for them, and to sleep on the floor while they were with us. It is in this way that one sometimes entertains angels unawares (or, in this case, perhaps in full knowledge).

Our precious grandparents in the Faith – Fransisco and his dear wife

But, it was really for Javier’s sake that God brought them to stay with us for two days. Javier and Cristina had just been stabbed in the back and beaten up by their denominational leadership again at an inter-district pastor’s conference. I had invited him over to meet with our new friends, and when he came he was obviously deeply hurting. We spent almost two days visiting and drinking deeply from the depth of wisdom and godliness of this dear elderly couple, and Javier’s spirit and soul were healed, and he was refreshed with new vision and direction for the work.

Thank you Lord for men and women who have labored long for you, and who have remained faithful. It was a needed time of refreshing and encouragement after seeing so much of the seedy underbelly of religion so often.

Then, the big, big news, and the mega-praise report is that we have a couple who will be living in, and beginning to take over the work at the Casa del Obrero. What an answer to so many prayers!

Armando and Alicia will be beginning on the first of January. They need your prayers.

Armando in the red shirt on the left. He is already faithfully ministering in the church-plant in the village of San Antonio Huichimal

They are young and very “green”. But they are also eager, and very willing to be clay in the potter’s hands. We believe that they are the couple that God has prepared for the long-term of the ministry. They will be the first trainees and workers, as well as the first couple that will be mentored into leadership. We believe that God will prepare them to take on more and more of the direction of the work at the Missionary Training Center, and that they will be able to be co-laborers with Javier as well as disciples.

We praise God for them, and that they were willing to answer “yes” to this call. It is not going to be an easy work for them. As I explained to Armando just the other day – we are not asking them for some of their time each day, we are asking them for their lives. But we are also offering them a chance to enter into life-changing ministry. Please lift them up in prayer.

Alicia with Theresa. Unfortunately I don’t have another good photo of Alicia. But this is usually where I find Theresa and Alicia anyway, so it is pretty accuarate

Theresa and I are very consciously in the role now of preparing others so that we can hand over ministry to them. We are planning on leaving Mexico in the month of April in order to begin the process of returning north to Canada. I say “beginning the process” because there will most likely be a one-year layover in Texas in order to work to put aside funds for the ongoing support of the ministry before we actually return to Canada. But this is all in the exit plan, and a way that the continuing viability of the work can be assured until it/they can become self-funding on their own. But our role now is to prepare and train others, knowing that our own time here is short.

We are blessed to have faithful men and women with whom we have been working, and who are ready to continue after we leave. Please pray that the changeover will be relatively painless, and the continuation of the work seamless as we transition out and Javier, Cristina, Alejandra, Mario, Aminadab, Armando and Alicia, and others will be shouldering the load without us beside them after we leave.

Theresa and some of her friends have been busily sewing curtains, table runners, table cloths, and I am not sure what all, all for sale in order to raise funds for the rental payments of the Bible Institute building. Tomorrow they will be holding the first pre-Christmas sale from our porch. I trust that they will sell all of the items that they have toiled over for so many weeks.

Also, Theresa and I will be heading north to Manitoba for a quick visit with family and friends over New Years and into the first part of January. We look forward to time with family, and a time of refreshing before we return for the last burst to the finish line.

The Lord willing, we will post another blog before Christmas. If not, then we wish you a blessed and joy-filled Christmas and a very happy New Year. But we will try to post before that.

Be blessed,

Steven and Theresa

Theresa training Alicia on new sewing machine

This blog may be more personal and self-revealing than you wish to read. But I think that sometimes as Christians we like to try to exude the aura of being saintly sages who emit a perpetual halo. This temptation is especially strong for anyone serving in some sort of “ministry” capacity (what ever that means).

Truthfully, I have never liked to read biographies of great Christian men and women because, instead of leaving me feeling encouraged and challenged, I usually end up wondering if I am even playing the same game as they, and knowing with absolute certitude that I am not in the same ball diamond, and certainly not catching the same fly balls as they.

I know that discouragement stems from the feeling of a lack of hope and an inability to see an end, or a solution in sight. I confess to struggling through some very heavy and dark days of late. This is especially true as Theresa and I seek to transition out of our work here in Mexico and hand it over to national leadership. Exacerbated by these changes, there often seem to be so many issues that are screaming in our faces that have no apparent solution.

Let me list some of the crushing issues over the past several weeks that seem to be unsolvable:

–         there is a never-ending amount of work that just keeps piling onto Javier and my

Alicia practicing on her new machine while her daughter watches

shoulders in relationship to the Missionary Training Center farm. You may have had a little chuckle, a cluck of the tongue, and a headshake over the fact that we had the sugarcane which we planted destroyed four times in a row this year due to torrential rains, and that we have had to replant the same field each time again. Let me assure you that we have had no chuckling on this end. Each time has been hours and hours of back-breaking toil with hand tools and bent backs to reopen furrows in sheer mud, haul sugarcane on our backs to replant, and then to recover the rows of muck with heavy mattocks. Because of the fact that we could not spray to kill the weeds initially due to the heavy rains, we are now growing more weeds and grasses in some areas than sugarcane, and we now have to clean each furrow by hand with machetes. Over the past week, and yesterday and today we have worked 160 man hours just to hand clear the invasive grasses and weeds from the field so that we can replant once again in the areas where the seed cane did not take the last time due to the heavy rains on that occasion. We still have several more days remaining to cut and clear weeds before the field is finished. Then, we need to hire someone with horses and a hand plow to open the furrows. We then need to cut new seed cane and haul it into the field on our backs in order to replant it. Then we need to hand cover the seed again – this time for the fifth time. We have not been chuckling I can assure you.

–         we have hired several men to help us clear the weeds and grass from the field, but if we are not directly there working alongside them they do not work. It is like having to baby sit constantly.

–         on Friday of last week I went to the farm as usual to begin working at 7:00 am and found that we had been robbed during the night. Our plow, subsoiler, and boxblade were stolen, along with the three-point extendable connector. Truly, it isn’t even the monitory value of the implements that is the issue; it is the fact that we will probably not be able to replace them. They are not available here in Mexico, and I sweated blood to get them down here in the first place. So now what are we to do? We are reduced to machetes again. Thankfully we still have the tractor, but our implements are gone.

–         last month we ended up in the red in our ministry accounts in Canada. Our ministry funds are drying up for the ongoing work.

–         no one wants to help Javier and me on the farm, and no one seems to truly grasp the vision of the Training Center. Unfortunately this also includes the Board of Directors to a large extent. Everyone is quick to give a slap on the back and a hearty “great work, may God bless you as you labor”, but no one is willing to lift a finger to help. Also, to date we still have no one who is willing to live in the Casa del Obrero staff house and work on the farm, being the overseeing staff couple there. Well, it isn’t really that they don’t want to live in the house – it is a very nice place – but that they are not able to embrace the vision, and when they hear that it is a place of work and ministry their eyes glaze over. When their first question is what their salary will be, one realizes that they are not the ones with God’s call for ministry on their lives. Still, we desperately need someone living there, and soon.

–         there is no apparent, or at least, quick, end in sight. Javier and I struggle daily with primitive hand tools where our machete, gancho (hooked stick), and azadón (heavy field hoe, or mattock) become our tools of choice in much that we need to do.

–         when Theresa and I do leave, and when the work is handed over to 100% nation leadership who will help Javier? It is becoming very evident that there is no one who carries the vision with us, and until God specifically provides someone, we do not have any one at all other than Javier. He cannot carry the burden alone.

Curtains packaged and ready for sale. These are the creations of a newly formed cottage industry run out of the Bible Institute

At the end of a particularly stress-filled day like yesterday I echo the deep desperation of David when he cried out in Psalms 42:5:

“Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God. My soul is cast down within me”.

But, within this very verse is the answer to the pain as well – “Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God”.

Back in May 27, 2010 I wrote a blog that I entitled “What Do These Stones Mean” (http://www.vitwministries.com/wordpress/2010/05/what-do-these-stones-mean/). In it I reflected back over the past years and stated “I feel like the children of Israel when God told them to set up markers and monuments at strategic places where great victories were won in battle, or where God had marvelously moved in some way. The reason was this – so that in the future when their children would ask, “What do these stones mean?” they could clearly give an explanation of God’s mighty acts”.

I think that we often need to do this in our lives, and especially at times when things are not clear, and when the future looks like it is in deep fog. If we lose perspective of the way that God moved in our lives in the past we can become disjointed and unable to find our way in the present, or the future. With this in mind I humbly wish to present several things. However, I do so with hesitance and some trepidation because, first of all, I don’t know what much of it even means, and secondly, it could easily be misconstrued into something “saintly and holy”, or uppity that I have no intention for it to be. So, please do what Mary did in Luke 2:19, and keep all these things, and ponder them in your heart. I am not claiming to know what they mean. However, I do not wish to despise prophecy either.

1) I confirmed what I am about to write yesterday with Alejandra (Janny) to ensure that I had it correct: In 2001 Janny had a dream where she was clearly shown a large building sitting exactly in the area where the ministry farm is presently located. It was explained to her in her dream that this building was a Bible Institute in which she was involved. On the building she saw a sign with the name of the institute, and heard a voice read the sign to her – the name of the building was “Centro de Entrenamiento Misionero” (Missionary Training Center). At the time, in her dream, she questioned the location because it was known for flooding. When we first spoke about the possible purchase of land in this exact area some ten years later during a Board of Directors meeting this dream was brought vividly back to her. Yesterday she told me that she recalls the dream, and the voice telling her the name of the Bible Institute as if it had only just happened.

2) Quite a number of years ago, during a time of extreme poverty in Javier’s life, a pastor spoke a prophetic word over Javier. The gist of the prophetic word was that from Javier’s hands many would be blessed and fed – both in the spiritual sense, but also in the natural – and that he would produce food which would support, and feed many. At the time, Javier and his family had just moved back to Cd. Valles from pastoring a small village church in San Siro. They returned with nothing except a single kitchen chair, and were all sleeping on the floor without any furniture in their little rented house, and barely enough food to feed their two hungry boys. He believes that perhaps God is beginning to fulfill this prophecy over his life now with the vision of the Missionary Training Center – Casa del Obrero.

3) Twice in my own life, and once by someone who didn’t know me from Adam (and the other time by a person who may have had a vague idea that I was working in Mexico, but not much more details than that), prophetic words were spoken over me concerning Mexico. I do not speak of this often, and never in a public way as I am doing now because I don’t understand it; however, the prophecy both times was something to the effect of me being a father to many in the mountains of Mexico. Obviously the meaning was spiritual, and represented spiritually birthing many children in Mexico. I don’t know what that means, but I wonder often if this present ministry isn’t somehow a part of the fulfillment of these prophecies spoken over me during the past fourteen years.

4) In 2005 the vision was formed in the hearts of several brothers and sisters here in Cd. Valles to begin a Bible Institute and training center. Out of this vision, and after much hard work and prayer, Luz de las Naciones Bible Institute was birthed and continues today.

All of the above mentioned things are evidenced, and are bearing fruit today. But we need hope – we need to see a glimmer of light during these intense and trying days that we are in now. But, I am also reminded of the clear words of James and Peter, as well as in Romans where it is stated unequivocally that we should embrace the testing of our faith because it will develop the spiritual muscle of patience, character, endurance, hope and perseverance.

Today as we sat on the ground at the farm sharing tacos for lunch Javier opened his heart to me. He said that last evening he was also struggling with the pressures and feeling weary and discouraged with everything, when God spoke clearly to him that one cannot find fruit on someone else’s tree. Rather, you must grow your fruit from your own trees; from those which you have planted. What this meant to him is that one cannot look to others to fulfill the vision that God has placed in your heart. You must produce your own spiritual children which will continue to bear fruit. In other words, others may never enter into what God has spoken to you to do. It is your responsibility to raise up spiritual children under you which will then carry this vision forward. The masses will probably never do so.

I believe that what this means for us is that many, and maybe even most, will not necessarily embrace the vision of the Missionary Training Center farm. It is too far outside of the religious, church box that most are in. However, what we must do is begin with one or two who will be trained and raised up through the work. They will become the next leaders who will then train others, and the growth of fruit will continue. (Somehow this is not coming across as clearly as I see it in my spirit, but I hope that you understand what I am trying to say).

So, in practical terms, what does this fruit-bearing tree look like? I believe it looks something like this: Theresa teaches sewing to several women – specifically to Cristina and Alicia. These women then develop a cottage industry in Cristina’s home using the training that Theresa has given them. They then take on some other women and train them how to sew so that their little cottage industry can grow. They are now working hard and making a good income from the custom sewing jobs that they can take in. That is a tree producing fruit after its kind – not trying to find someone else’s fruit from someone else’s tree, but rather growing their own – raising up their own children, so to speak.

Or perhaps it looks like this: Theresa teaches women how to sew curtains. These women then begin a small business of making, packaging, and selling curtains in order to raise money to pay for the rent of the Bible School building. This business has become income generating.

That, after all, is the vision of the work – to equip and train nationals, both indigenous and non-indigenous, in the areas of Christian leadership, trades, alternative farming methods, sewing, baking, micro-business, and entrepreneurship in order to empower them, thereby enabling them to break the mentality of poverty and oppression that is so prevalent. The mission is to raise up national men and women who can return to their own people in order to bring the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, as well as freedom from the slavery of alcoholism and other addictions, poverty, and a mentality of inadequacy so that they can become missional Christians, as well as productive citizens within society.

How is this done? One-on-one. One at a time. The farm gives us, and our spiritual children, the right to speak into people’s lives one-on-one; not in a religious way, but by sharing labor, training, and the Gospel of our Lord, Jesus Christ.

“Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God”.

Please pray for us, and with us. We desperately need God to break through some of the impasses that we currently face in the ministry.

We love and appreciate you,

Steven and Theresa

Alfredo demonstrating the true meaning of – I only have eyes for you

I have lost count – I can’t remember if this is the third or fourth time that we have been forced to rework the same field to replant the same seed sugarcane that the rain has washed away – however, I think that it is the fourth time.

Today Javier and I slogged away in the muck one more time to try to finish off. We have only several more rows to re-cover, after that we pray that there will be no more torrential rains for awhile, at least until the seed can gain enough rooting so that it will not be washed away if it does rain again.

If you remember our saga last fall while we were trying to build the house on the land we also faced a very unusual year of rain that seemingly did not want to end. This year appears to be a repeat of last.

Lupita and Alfredo at their wedding reception. They make a beautiful couple

The rainfall is a huge blessing for us as it gives us the precious moisture that this climate needs so badly. Still, moderation is a good thing, and when the skies open and the floodgates burst it is hard to keep ahead of the devastation that follows.

Such has been our toil since the first part of September. What should have been three days of hard labor have ended being a month of non-stop drudgery with large field hoes, hacking away at muck and heavy, wet clay soil. The Lord willing we shall accomplish the mission assigned, sweeter after difficulties “datum perficiemus munus”, “dulcius ex asperis” (for a little play with Latin – thanks to Google – certainly not reflecting my grasp of the language. Unfortunately I am not like my son, James, who decided to study Latin as a lark because he just enjoyed the challenge and the language).

Of course, we have lost our chance at spraying the field with herbicide before the new shoots of sugarcane began to break through the soil. That was one of the main reasons for disking the whole field under and replanting it in the first place. We have been fighting with massive grass problems since the first planting three years ago. We were to spray the field as soon as the seed cane was covered in order to kill

Pastors represented in the state-wide day of prayer held in Cd. Valles

all of the invasive grasses, and their seeds. However, with the struggle over the past month we were unable to get any spraying done. Since sugarcane is itself a grass, any herbicide now which would kill the invasive weed grass would also kill the sugarcane. So, spraying will have to wait. We will be happy just to get sugarcane growing now.

September 27^th marked the second year that Christians of Cd. Valles met together in a time of state-wide prayer. The main downtown street was blocked off to traffic and the worshipers met for several hours of prayer. At the same time Christians were meeting in central plazas and parks in major cities across the state of San Luis Potosí to worship, praise God, and seek his favor in prayer for continued safety for the nation, for the government, for leaders, both religious and secular, for the churches and Christians represented across all denominational lines, and for God’s continued favor in our lives. Many of the pastors from across the city participated in leading the public prayer, and hundreds of people came and joined in prayer and worship. It was an incredible thing to stand with hundreds of fellow believers, knowing that we were all worshiping and praying to the same Lord.

Worshipers at the day of prayer held in one of the main streets of Cd. Valles

Theresa and I also spent several days in Monterrey since my last blog entry. A friend of mine, Lupita Diaz, who worked with me back in the medical clinic days, was married on the 4^th of October. Theresa and I were asked if we would consider being the padrinos de arras at her wedding. Being asked to be padrinos is an honor since it means being included closely with the couple on their important day. The “arras” are wedding coins, or “earnest money”, and can be presented in a whole variety of containers and boxes specially designed for weddings.

Since being godparents of earnest coins (or of Bibles, lassos, pillows, rings, or oil) is not a part of our wedding culture I did a quick Google search on “arras”, and this is what I came up with:

Theresa at the Fundidora Park in Monterrey

The word “arras” means “earnest”, and is a legal term that signifies a form of security deposit made in a major transaction such as the purchase of a house, land, or some other large contract to demonstrate that the applicant is serious and willing to demonstrate an earnest of good faith about wanting to complete the transaction. In the wedding ceremony the idea is that the groom makes a deposit to the bride to indicate to her his intention to close the deal. It is his guarantee to her. As a part of the wedding ceremony the groom gives 13 specially designed coins to the bride as collateral for his promise to marry her. The tradition has also grown that the coins represent the full trust that the groom places in the bride in that he places all of his material wealth into her hands.

The wedding was picture-perfect, and God blessed them with a wonderful, sunny day. The day before the wedding had seen torrential rains and flooding throughout the city of Monterrey (as well as Cd. Valles, as was indicated by the latest wiping out of our newly planted crop). But Saturday dawned sunny and beautiful – the perfect answer to many intense prayers by Lupita and Alfredo, her new husband.

Steven in front of a rather cool fountain in the Fundidora Park in Monterrey

I have rarely seen such focused attention and love in anyone’s eyes and face as was displayed by Alfredo for his bride and new wife. As I watched them I couldn’t help but think of the love affair of Jesus for his bride. In fact, the whole of history from infinity past throughout all of time has been a love affair of Jesus with his bride. From before time was created Jesus longed for his bride. As he kneeled in the clay and formed man, breathing into them the breath of life, his heart throbbed with a passion of love for his bride. The whole of the Old Testament relates the story of the longing of Jesus for his oft wayward bride. As she chased wildly after foreign gods and false lovers, Jesus pursued her – his bride.

Jeremiah 31:3 states “I have loved you, my people, with an everlasting love. With unfailing love I have drawn you to myself”. We know that here God is speaking of his people, the Jewish nation, because the verse begins by saying “Long ago the Lord said to Israel”. But the mystery of our salvation as demonstrated in the New Testament through Jesus’ life here on earth is that we, gentiles, have now also been grafted into the vine. We are now loved as well. We are now the center and passion of Jesus’ love for his bride as well.

Wow!

And you thought that you would only find an inuksuk in northern Canada. Here is one that was in the Fundidora Park in Monterrey

If the adoration, wild joy, and passionate love that was expressing itself in Alfredo’s eyes, and that was written all over his face for his new bride, Lupita, is any indicator at all of the love that Jesus has for his bride, than – wow! Just wow!

Please continue to pray with us for the right couple to take over the ministry on the Missionary Training Center farm. We really need someone there with the vision and passion for the ministry of training and equipping national missionaries. We are also praying for the right people as we begin to develop small-scale businesses on the farm so that the ministry can become self financing. We are presently trying to develop welding and carpentry shops so that they can supplement the finances of the work, besides being a place to train the ministry students in the area of trades.

My real world at the moment

Theresa is busy preparing a team of seamstresses who will begin a small industry of sewing curtains, and perhaps other kitchen and household items for the purpose of selling them in order to fund the Bible Institute and Project LAMBS.

Please pray with us. Nothing is moving as fast as we would like to see it move.

We appreciate each of you, and are grateful for your prayers and love.

Your friends and fellow laborers,

Steven and Theresa

This is the level of the water that we found in our newly planted field this morning after last night’s deluge

“To not go forward is to go backward”.

Last evening I had no more than hit the “publish” button on the blog when the rains began again. Torrential rains fell all throughout the night and when Javier and I rolled up our pant legs and slogged barefooted through the muck this morning we found total devastation to a large section of the field that we have been struggling so hard to salvage.

We would appreciate your prayers. Farming is fickle at best, and in the tropics it is an absolute balancing act.

We are placing it all aside for a couple of days so that things can dry out a little. There is no point in struggling as long as the continued rains keep washing away every forward step that we make – non progredi est regredi.

The devastation that we found this morning. Notice the seed cane piled up along the sides of the furrows which have now become streams

If you want to take a peak at some recent shots of this year’s attempted planting click onto the large red “New Photos” button at the top of the page. I will post them into a file called “Planting 2014”

Thanks for your prayers through a rather discouraging phase of the journey.

With our love,

Steven and Theresa

The work crew has arrived

I think that it is definitely time for another blog lest you think that Theresa and I are still stuck in Jimenez, Tamualipas with a broken down van, or have fallen off the map somewhere. We did get the motor rebuilt, everything up and running, and even arrived in Nebraska in time for Theresa’s deadline. So, all ended well on that little adventure.

Theresa and I arrived back at the Texas/Mexico border on the 30^th of August where we were able to take care of some business and ministry items before heading across the line for points further south. We dropped by Jimenez again on our trip back to Cd. Valles and spent two nights with our new friends there. On Sunday morning we attended the church service in the little community of Esperanza with pastora Anna and her extended family. It is in this little dusty village where they faithfully minister. After the service we took Sara, one of the sisters of Anna to Rancho Louisiana, a children’s home where she serves, about an hour away from her place in Jimenez.

Cutting the seed cane for planting

We spent a delightful afternoon and evening with Ollie Lovett, the founder of the work, and were graciously hosted by her sister and her husband Merrell and Terry Long. It was a delight to see the beautiful, well cared for children at the children’s home as well as attend the church service in the afternoon with them where a group wedding took place with ten couples taking the step of having a church wedding. All of these had been married in a “civil” ceremony at some point in the past, many of them having been together for many years, raised children, and some of which even had grand children. However, they now wished to perform their vows in a Christian church ceremony.

The planting begins

After the vows and Mexican pageantry of the mass wedding ceremony complete with the lazo (lasso), the arras (the decorated box containing thirteen gold colored coins), the pillows, the presentation of Bibles, etc., the service was ended with a baby dedication – all in a good Sunday afternoon service I would say. Then everyone was invited to the back of the building for a fiesta of tacos, flautas, and wedding cake.

On Monday morning we learned to know and appreciate our hosts better over a good Southern U.S.-styled breakfast (hence the name Rancho Louisiana), and were blessed and sent on our way to Cd. Valles with the promise that they would look us up when they happen to be our way.

We arrived in Cd. Valles on Monday evening (September 8^th), hitting the ground hard, and have hardly had a chance to breath since.

Seed cane is laid into the furrows

What plopped hard and heavy on my plate the second that we arrived was the replanting of the two hectares of sugarcane field that we had cultivated earlier in the summer. Since the original planting had been very badly done three years ago, and since the sugarcane had come in very poorly, we had decided to disc it all under this year and start again fresh after we had had a chance to kill the grass and weeds that we have been fighting with for the past three years.

We had grown our own seed cane and arranged for a crew to come in and do the actual planting. This was accomplished during the latter part of our first week back, and the final seed cane was placed into the furrows late on Saturday evening. We also had a group of guys arrive on Saturday morning – Iván, one of the young men on the Board of Directors, and a couple of his friends – with a load of fertilizer and sugarcane compost that we deposited into the furrows. After a grueling, backbreaking day of labor we finished this part of the planting as well. On Saturday night everything looked great!

Bags of compost and fertilizer being laid out for dispersing

Since it had gotten too late on Saturday night to cover over the furrows of freshly planted seed cane, the tractor was to return first thing on Sunday morning in order to cover them. When that was finished we would be ready first thing on Monday morning to strap on the sprayer backpacks and spray the field with herbicide in order to finish the on-going battle with the invasive weeds and grasses. A good day or two of spraying and the job should be done. At that point we could sit back and watch the sugarcane grow – how sweet life is!

Uh-huh! Guess again.

Fertilizer being carefully metered out

Somewhere during the night on Saturday the skies opened and the rains began. I think that there were colliding hurricanes from both the Pacific and the Gulf or something, but the details really don’t matter too much. What does matter is that we have now had almost non-ending rains since that fateful Saturday night on the 13^th.

The tension of farming in this type of tropical climate is trying to find adequate rainfall for planting, as compared to the extreme heat and drought conditions that exist during the dry season. Even sugarcane, a relatively forgiving crop suited for the hot conditions that we have, does require adequate water. Combine that with the fact that sugarcane requires hot soil and cannot germinate or grow in cool conditions, and you have a balance act. So, the optimum time is usually over the hot rainy season of later summer and fall.

The field as of this morning

Last year, if you will remember, we faced the same dilemma – a washout after our planting in which we lost everything and had to start all over again. This year we had a repeat – at least of the first part. We trust and pray that we won’t have a recurrence of the second part of the scenario.

On Friday of last week we were finally able to get a horse-drawn plow into the field to begin covering over some of the furrows which were not waterlogged. We followed with large hoes to finish the covering.

But the rains would not quit. On Saturday we had to give up with the horse, and we slogged backbreakingly along with the hoes alone, fighting against time, rain, and muck. Soon the seed cane would begin shooting and it would be impossible to spray it with herbicide. It needed to be covered, and no shoots could be exposed.

Each cane stock now has to be stomped down and covered over with muck

On Sunday we had a deluge all day, and what had been impossibly wet conditions were now complete rivers running through the field, washing away all of our seed cane into gullies.

On Monday morning we went back to assess at the damage. The whole field was a disaster zone. Furrows were rivulets with snarled-up piles of seed cane lying exposed around the lower areas of the field. But we now were running out of time completely, we needed to get the field back in shape and the seed covered – SOON! However, we could do nothing on Monday since one could not even walk in the field.

How farming is done in the real world

Yesterday and today (Tuesday and Wednesday) we rolled up our pant legs, took off our boots, picked up hoes and began working barefooted in the muck re-laying seed cane into the furrows and stomping down the muck around them. It has been slow, tedious, and backbreaking work and I can hardly straighten up at the end of the day, but we hope to finish tomorrow.

Today we finally have gone 24 hours without rain. The Lord willing we will not have any more for several weeks so that things can finally dry out.

That, my friend, is why I don’t play the lottery!

So, that has been the mundane and labor intensive part of what has been going on since we arrived back in Mexico. There have also been very encouraging things taking place, and God is bringing together something big.  But I am falling asleep at the keyboard, and the rest will have to wait until the next blog.

We covet your prayers and thank you for your friendship and ongoing love.

With all of our hearts,

Steven and Theresa