Current Events and Updates of the Ministry

Ready to begin putting up fencing

Well, we did it – we hit 98° degrees on Tuesday, February 12th. Today it is down to a cool and pleasant 83.6° again. I am afraid that our “winter” has ended and we are back into sweltering heat again. It was really a very short and warm cold season this year, even when compared to what normally happens here.

We are also getting very dry again. We need rain soon. The sugarcane is growing, but very slowly due to the lack of moisture in the soil. The dryness also means that the weeds and grasses are not growing very quickly either. This has given us a respite from our battle with the weeds, but I will take the rain any day.

We are also facing a new and unexpected battle now with the farm – the prices of sugar in

Digging holes the hard way

Mexico. I don’t know very much about how the system works here, and I certainly don’t want to pretend that I understand it at all. But what I have gleaned is this – due to lack of good agricultural controls, and no doubt bad planning on the part of the government, Mexico has been importing cheaply from foreign sugar producing countries at a rate that undercuts what the domestic market can produce. This has put a glut of sugar on the market and has driven the price of sugar (and hence sugarcane) down to an incredibly low price on the domestic market. I am not sure that my figures are 100% accurate, but I believe that the price of sugarcane dropped down into the mid $400 pesos per ton range as compared to the usual range of $600 plus per ton. The cost of sugar in the stores dropped down to about $10 pesos per kilogram. This, of course, has drastically affected the sugarcane farmer (and us).

Palo del sol branches. They look dead but will take root and grow to make a living fence

This year was a very good year across the country for sugarcane production. Apparently not only were we blessed with a good harvest, but nationwide the sugarcane crop has been good. With the glut of cheap, imported sugar flooding the market, and the high volume of cane grown this year, the bottom has dropped out. The law of supply and demand has kicked in big time.

The sugarcane growers unions across the nation have been striking and putting pressure onto the government to get control over the system that is presently spiralling out of control. For the last several weeks all sugarcane processing plants across Mexico have been monitored and watched by the sugarcane unions to prohibit any processed sugar from leaving for sale into the domestic market. Sugarcane is still being milled, and sugar can still be exported out of Mexico, but none can be directed into the domestic market until the cost reaches a value back in the $600 peso range ( I can’t remember exactly what that set price is).

On Monday night Javier and I took our turn at the ingenio (the sugarcane processing

One post at a time

plant). It was an all-night vigil in which we drank too much coffee, ate too many tacos and pan dulces. In all truth, after a long day, I must confess that I cheated and took a couple of hours of shut-eye in the van somewhere around two or three in the morning. But, it is interesting to me how God uses even a protest to his glory. During our long and quiet evening and night we were able to visit with, and get to know some of the leaders of the particular growers union that we belong to, as well as some of the truck drivers and other farmers.

Several interesting things happened over the night. Javier was able to talk at length to several of the union leaders about the Lord and the Christian faith. Also, camaraderie and friendship developed between us and farmers that we did not previously know. Further, we were accepted as being “one with the farmers” – a good place to be as a Christian witness in a rural area. Then, incredibly, we are invited by the union leader to come by his office the next day to pick up a packet of liquid fertilizer that he would give us.

We need more in between still, but this is almost done. They will root and sprout as soon as the rains begin

When I arrived at his office the following day, not only did he remember me well, but he even remembered details of the production on the farm and the vision that we have for the school. Then, instead of a single pack of fertilizers he gave us three – enough for the whole five hectares – and each valued at approximately $850 pesos per pack. This means that he gave us a gift valuing about $2,550 pesos (about $200 dollars).

It is interesting to me how almost everything in life comes back to relationships. God can use even a night vigil in the strike line at a sugarcane plant to produce good. Out of a night of wakefulness came friendships, relationships, and trust, not to mention an incredible gift of fertilizer for our farm. Sometimes the boxes that we build for God are just too small. I think that he often takes pleasure in the “common”. Sometimes he can more easily be found in places that we consider odd, and then totally ignores the haunts that we think that he should frequent. Am I irreverent to say that sometimes he meets with us around the coffee pot and sweet rolls and does not show up in a programmed church service? Hmmm…I had better get

The galera - what a beauty!

onto safer topics…

The galera - soon there will be a staff house under half of this building

We have looked all over in order to try to find anyone who still hammers through rock by hand with a bar and sledgehammer. We have found that this is a dying breed (literally). The only ones left who know the trade are very old men who apologetically explain that they can no longer do the hard physical labor of the job. The young men are no longer interested in the art of piercing through rock by hand. So, we will try to do so with a hydraulic hammer.

If we find a good source of water on our land it will revolutionize what we can do there. Besides being a source of water for the school, it could potentially also be enough to irrigate the farm, or at least vegetable plots. Please pray that a miracle will happen, and we will hit the mother of all veins when we begin to break through the rock.

We will then also use the equipment to remove topsoil from the building site and bring in

Javier enjoys the shade under the roof of the newly completed galera

fill “choy” to build up the area so that we have a firm foundation for the construction. It is all exciting because this means that we are actually beginning to move towards building.

However, we are also pretty much out of money. God has miraculously provided enough that we should be able to get the excavation and fill done. At that point though, we will need to stop and pray for God’s provision in order to continue.

One plan that we have come up with which should help make things move faster, is that we are hoping to be able to finish off temporary staff housing inside the newly completed “galera” by pouring a floor and building cement block walls. We will probably use half of the structure for a staff house, and the other half for equipment storage and a lockable shed. When the actual housing is completed at some time in the future, the small house in the galera can still be used for an assistant staff couple. However, in this way we can get a presence set up on the farm sooner, with less money initially, and in adequate housing to begin the work more quickly. If need be, we can house students in town until God provides the funds to begin building the actual dormitories and attached staff house. At least, that is the idea and the plan.

We have begun fencing the Training Center site with living fences. These are really very interesting. The scientific name of the tree is Gliricidia sepium. It is useful for forage, shade, firewood, and many other uses. However, the really unique thing about this tree is that you can hack off a dead-looking branch, stick it into the ground, and in several months you have a living, growing tree; and in our case, a living fence. Cool!

Theresa continues to be very busy. Between her other work she has finished off the curtains for the Bible Institute. Her sewing classes are going very well. She will probably soon begin teaching English as a Second Language classes again. And today she is finishing off a couple dozen Valentine’s Day decorated cup cakes for the young people’s party that will take place above the church on Thursday evening. No rest for the weary I am afraid.

The Bible Institute and Project LAMBS continue to go well and to grow. Exciting things are happening, and God is doing good things.

I need to run over to the new Bible Institute building and finish off some last minute details in preparation for the classes on Saturday morning, so I had better close.

Thank you for your love, giving and prayers.

Blessings,

Steven and Theresa

Some of Theresa's sewing class students

Don’t worry about the formula in the title. It will only be of interest to an engineer. But have you ever felt things accelerating around you and the velocity increasing and had to wonder what God is doing? I think that is where Theresa and I are at right now. It is good, exhilarating, and sometimes breathtaking, and not a little scary at times as well.

It has been some time since my last entry because it has been very busy here. I will try to quickly bring you up to date with what has been going on.

Theresa’s sewing classes have gone into overdrive. She has about twelve students, but has had a request from about twenty more who hope to be able to attend. She also has had numerous requests to begin teaching English classes again, with about twenty potential students asking. She has also had numerous requests to begin teaching baking and cooking classes as well. Wow, where do you start, and where do you stop? She certainly is not finding her time boring, and a day where things calm down a bit is now a blessing for her.

On the farm front: we finally got the backhoe out to the jobsite to work on removing the

Work begins on removing stumps

stumps out of the newly cleared area. It took the operator a day to remove the stumps and a half day to pile them onto stacks for us so that they can be burned when they dry out. This day and a half saved us months and months of absolutely backbreaking labor in trying to remove them and/or pile them by hand.

Since the backhoe was already at the land we took advantage of the situation and had him spend another day and a half digging a containment “pond” for us – really just a big hole. There is an area of the farm that is lower, and when it rains the water runs across our field and into the neighbor’s property. We decided to try to hold this water if possible. We now have a big hole at the edge of our property 8 meters X 11 meters X 4 meters deep (about 26´ X 36´ X 13´ deep). How exciting! The downward digging stopped when the backhoe hit a horizontal layer of solid rock hardpan at the 4 meter mark.

Backhoe digging out stumps on land

But the real excitement came the next day when I took Theresa to the land to let her admire our great accomplishment, and she pointed out that there was water at one corner of our pit – not much, but water nonetheless.

Do you remember the story of Elijah and the prophets of Baal when Elijah called fire down from heaven? After a drought of three and a half years he prayed for rain and then sent his servant out to look towards the Mediterranean to see if any clouds were going to rise in the absolutely cloudless sky. After many futile trips to look, the servant finally saw a cloud the size of a man’s hand beginning to form, and that was all it took. Elijah advised everyone to book it for home toot sweet because the rains were about to begin big time. And they did! We see the water in our “pond”, all six cupfuls and a bit of dampness, as the cloud the size of a man’s hand.

Water is life, and we have no water source at the land other than the rains which are so

Stumps removed from land

very seasonal and unpredictable here in the Huasteca. For much of the year our land is bone-dry and rock hard. Sugarcane can tolerate quite severe dryness and heat, but it does so much better with water. The lack of water limits most other crops as well. A good source would make a world of difference to the production on the farm. We are believing that there is indeed a source that we will be able to find.

We have been told that there is a vein of water that runs through this area, but probably about three or four meters below the rock (a type of solidified clay called “choy” in Spanish) that stopped the downward digging of the backhoe.

Stump burn piles

We hired a couple of guys with a pick, shovel and bar to help us see if we could break our way into the rock layer. After a day of backbreaking labor almost nothing was accomplished except to further convince us that the water was down there, seeping upwards through the cracks in the hardpan. We called “uncle” for now, but will see if there are any alternatives. Some good drilling and several sticks of dynamite to blast through the rock layer would be a godsend, but I don’t know how we can find that here. Maybe it will be back to sledgehammers and picks again, but the prospect does not sound like fun. Still, if we would find a reliable source of water all would be worth the while – or “vale la pena” as is said in Spanish. The fat lady has not sung on this one yet. But, worst case scenario, we will have runoff water for some months in our “pond” when the rainy season begins. We would appreciate your prayers on this. Please pray that we can find a good, reliable, and abundant source of clean, life-giving water on our land. And that we can access it at a cost within our budget.

With the stumps removed on the last area of land, and with this piece now cultivated, we

Digging the pond

have 100% of the total property either in crop, ready for planting when the rains begin, in fruit orchard seedlings, or readied for building. Of course there is the never-ending need to battle with weeds and invasive grasses on the farm, but I suspect that this will be ongoing as long as we are farming. This is exactly where the students living and working on the Training Center will be able to keep occupied when other areas slow down.

We are also in the process of negotiating to buy fill to build up the area where we hope to soon be placing the buildings for the Training Center. We are also trying to locate a grader to scrape back the black soil to a level so that we will have a solid enough base in order to be able to fill. All this is exciting, and points towards forward movement in the vision. However, we also have very little money to continue. A fact which is slowing down the work as well. But, we desperately need to begin to build something on the farm if the Training school is to start. It is impossible to have students living and working there until we have some sort of housing for them, and for a staff couple. I believe that this year will see the needed structures up, and a functioning Training Center operating where men and women will be prepared and equipped to advance the Kingdom of God within the Huasteca region, and throughout Mexico.

Water - the size of a man's hand

The real velocity and acceleration though is evidenced in what is happening with the Bible Institute Luz de las Naciones, and in Project LAMBS. If you recall my October 29, 2012 blog entry you will remember that I mentioned that at the business meeting of the Board of Directors of OUpC the decision was taken to divide the work into three parallel streams of ministry, each under the covering of OUpC (Obreros Unidos para Cosechar), but each with its own national director. The separate streams are the Bible Institute (Luz de las Naciones), the Project LAMBS Bible School, and the Discipleship/mentoring Training Center located on the land and based around the farm using a hands-on mentoring/training format rather than the more academic model on which both the Bible Institute and Project LAMBS are based.

The Bible Institute is under the direction of Alejandra (Jani) Lozano. Project LAMBS, a

Outside of the newly rented Bible Institute and OUpC office building. The bottom floor is ours

modular and mobile Bible School is under the administrative guidance of Mario, Alejandra’s husband. Mario has the vision and call on his life to take this short-term Bible school into the villages of the Huasteca and beyond. Finally, the discipleship/mentoring Training Center, based on the farm, is under the direction of Javier Santos.

In the December 20^th blog I mentioned that we had rented a building for the Bible Institute. This move would allow the Bible Institute to become independently set up outside of the Assemblies of God church building which had housed it until present. It would also be office space for OUpC (Obreros Unidos para Cosechar), a legal necessity for the nonprofit.

On January 19^th the first classes of the new year of Luz de las Naciones began in the new building without many frills – without chairs, tables, window covers – and in fact, with nothing. There are now three separate levels for each of the three years of the school – first, second, and third year students. Over the past week we scrambled to get the new building prepared for the second weekend of classes. Theresa has been sewing curtains for the windows, and Javier Santos and I have been working to get the inside set up. At 11:00 pm on Friday night Javier and I finally closed the door to the school confident that things looked good for the students to arrive in the morning. Other than a bit of final spit and polish here and there the new office space and classrooms look wonderful, and the students and teachers can now take pride in their Bible Institute. I look forward to watching as the school grows under the capable direction of Jani and the other members of the staff.

The new OUpC and Bible Institute office. Notice the beautiful curtains that Theresa made

Project LAMBS kicked off as a brand new creation on January 21^st. Up until present the teaching staff and driving force were brothers from Canada and the United States. Over the past years national teachers were trained as assistants, taking more and more responsibility in the actual teaching process. Last Monday marks the beginning of Project LAMBS (Mexico) being 100% directed and taught by nationals – mission accomplished, praise God!

In March, Mario, the director of Project LAMBS, will be taking it to the city of Monterrey, about five hours north of Cd. Valles in order to begin a new extension school there. Later, plans are being made to take it to Rio Verde, about three hours to the west of us, and perhaps later in the year to Tamazunchale, about three hours south. The plans are big and the prospects exciting. Also, since the school is interdenominational, the new teaching sessions will be set up in the various churches across the city. The plans are to have churches host the school for two months at a time, at which point it will then move on to another church to be hosted there. What an excellent plan.

Then the latest “wow, what is God up to” moment came last weekend when we were approached by a representative of a nondenominational association of about twenty pastors from Rio Verde (three hours to the west of us) bringing the request to have our Bible Institute cover them as a satellite Bible School in Rio Verde. They already have a building, trained teachers, potential students and a desire to be further equipped for ministry. What they are asking for is for covering. Whew – talk about stretching for us! We are scrambling to get our own ducks in a row, can we take on more? Please, please pray with us in this. We desire to do God’s will, not simply to take the easiest course, as stretching as that may be.

So, there you have it – the update on the Freys. We are well. The weather is back in the high 80s again – today it was 86.9° when Theresa and I walked to town. It is hard to remember that others are shoveling snow. We are excited about the new year ahead. We recognize that God is doing big things, and we are praying and wondering how we are to fit into what he is doing.

We love you, and thank you for all your prayers and support.

Steven and Theresa

All decked out to go after the weeds with a backpack sprayer

Do you remember your elementary school days when riddles were so much fun and so very intriguing? I do. Let me try a couple of them on you:

Riddle: When are eyes not eyes?

Answer: When the wind makes them water.

Riddle: When is a door not a door?

Answer: When it’s ajar.

How about this one: What is yellow, weights 1,000 pounds and sits in a tree and chirps?

Answer: Two 500 pound canaries. Okay, okay, it was a bit lame even when I was ten, but I thought that it was hilariously funny at the time.

So, how about this one: When is a sixteen acre farm a five thousand acre spread?

The new children's center in Buenes Aires

Answer: When you are fighting every weed, tangling vine and invasive grass with a backpack sprayer and a machete in order to get an upper hand before they take over the new growth sugarcane crop.

Yep, that is where we are right now. We had a wonderful harvest. The field has had its first cultivation and the new shoots of sugarcane are coming through. But so are the invasive weeds and grasses. It will be a battle for the next while until we can get on top of the weed issue. The trouble is that it is 100% labour intensive – even when we use the herbicides that are so prevalently used here. But what would we have to do with our time if we didn’t have this? Lord willing, we will prevail!

I anxiously wait for notification that the paperwork to import our disk has finally completed its slow way through the government channels. It has been well over a month now, and we still don’t have the needed permits to bring it across. But I suspect that this will happen sometime in January, after the government holiday shutdown that usually lasts much of the month of December. The disk will help us so much in being able to control the weeds.

The children meet for the Christmas party

Theresa and I had a quiet Christmas. We were invited out to eat at the home of friends of ours on the night of the 24^th. Christmas Eve is the main celebrating time here in Mexico. Usually there is a meal, gifts are exchanged and opened, and the festivities generally go on into the wee hours of the morning. We had a lovely time with our host family until after one o’clock in the morning and then came home to a karaoke party outside our bedroom window.

If you know Mexican culture at all you know that it is warm, open, loving, friendly, and very, very loud. There is absolutely no concept of there being a problem with noise, or any notion of thoughtlessness in placing your speakers into the street and cranking up the music so that all can “enjoy” it with you – at any time of the day or night.

Our immediate neighbours have a large extended family and they thoroughly enjoy times together as a big, happy family group. Unfortunately they also adore karaoke and the sound of their own, and each other’s voices. They cheer and clap loudly with, and after each rendition. To our chagrin however, there is not one of them who can hold a tune,

Children intent on their Bible lesson

and the style of “ranchero” music which they love is, well, lets just say, not our style! But it is lovingly belted out at cranked-up volumes until the windows of our house literally rattle – until the early hours of the morning.

So to use the term “a quiet Christmas” is somewhat misleading. The quietness was certainly not in the sense of volume, but rather in Theresa and me just kind of kicking back around the house for Christmas day itself. We got in some phone calls to the kids and to friends and family. We had some folks drop by to visit, and just enjoyed the day together.

On the Saturday before Christmas (the 22^nd) we were invited by Javier and Cristina to participate in the dedication of a little “galera” which they had just finished building in Buenes Aires. This village is where they have one of their mission outreaches, and where they have a very active children’s ministry complete with feeding program. Several friends of the ministry were able to make a special donation of funds to help them in buying the posts and corrugated roofing to put up the building to house the children’s ministry. There is still much missing, including chairs, tables, walls for the kitchen – actually anything other than the posts and a roof – but the ministry is growing fast and the children keep coming in greater numbers every day.

Coloring their pictures from the class

Theresa and I were blessed to be a part of the dedication time and the Children’s Christmas program with the village children. Cristina and Javier had received some used toys which were given out to the children after the Bible lesson, breakfast, and Christmas party. A piñata made the party complete.

I can’t help wondering sometimes if we have lost the joy of simplicity. I was talking with our son and daughter-in-law after Christmas and we were discussing some of the after-Christmas-gift tweeting that was posted on a certain site. It all included the griping and rude statements of kids who were burned because they just got an iPhone or an X-Box, or what have you, and not the gift that they had told their parents that they really wanted.

When I watched the children receive their used toys – some of them more “used” than not – and the joy and excitement that they brought to their faces, I couldn’t help but wonder if my life would be fuller with less. We have been so very blessed.

In the new year Theresa’s sewing classes will begin again. In January she will be organizing it into a much more formal

The children receive breakfast after the lesson

classroom style, beginning to teach the women how to make clothing and other more complicated items. To date it has been pretty much an introductory-type of setting since most of the women had never used a machine before. Now they are at a level where they can be challenged to more complicated things. The ultimate goal is that they will be able to use their skills to teach others, and perhaps to develop a home business. Most of the women are doing very well indeed, and if they begin to get down on themselves Theresa is quick to point out to them “from whence they came” only a few short weeks ago. Her classes are a great success.

We also need you to be praying with us concerning the new year. As I have been writing in my last blogs, we are facing the uphill climb now concerning the need to begin building at the Training Center land, and the lack of finances to do so. Theresa and I are probably looking at spending some time traveling in the States so that we can visit churches and friends there in order to present the needs in person. This is not something that I find easy to do. I am rather a “man of the trenches” than of promoting for finances. Nonetheless, without the latter we cannot move forward. Please pray with us for wisdom in this, as well as for open doors and open hearts if indeed we are to go.

Their Christmas tree

Unfortunately the friends that I mentioned in my last blog have been unable to come down to visit after all. We will miss them. I think that for New Years Theresa and I will go to a little mountain city about an hour south of us called Xilitla. It will be an occasion to get away and do something different for a couple of days. And anyway, as we learned last year – our neighbours’ karaoke on New Years Eve literally goes on all night. Last year I don’t think that we slept more than an hour or two all night because the windows were rattling until about eight in the morning when they finally packed it in. So, a little trip out of town looks like a good idea on every count.

Xilitla is really a very interesting and beautiful little colonial city. It also has a wonderfully crazy collection of surrealistic structures built by Edward James, a very rich and eccentric Englishman. If you are interested, take a peak at the following website and you will see why we want to go and explore Las Pozas again. All you need to do is click on the blue below and it will take you to the website. It will give you some good pictures of what we will see:

http://www.google.ca/search?q=las+pozas+xilitla+edward+james&hl=en&tbo=u&tbm=isch&source=univ&sa=X&ei=v07eUKnqMs7nqAGbnoCIBg&ved=0CFYQsAQ&biw=1280&bih=639

Well, I will sign off for now and probably will not post until next year.

May you be blessed, and have a wonderful New Year.

With our thoughts and love

A party is simply not right without a piñata

Your friends,

Steven and Theresa

Christmas is full of children's laughter in every country

This morning the heavens boiled and dark clouds were driven across the murky sky. Great gusts of wind drove dust and dirt into every nook and crevasse and covering everything with grit and grime. Unexpectedly the foreboding sky never did produce the imminent rain that it seemed to foretell. Instead, what we are experiencing is a “cold front” which will hopefully bring some Christmas respite from the heat that we have been experiencing up until now – that is to say, when I checked just moments ago, the temperature has “dropped” to 74.4° Fahrenheit (23.5° Celsius) – my only comment can be “cold front”, in comparison to what?

Sometimes we experience a boiling and rolling of the atmosphere in other areas as well. Recently Theresa and I have been experiencing just such a turbulence and disquiet. Over the past months there have been things which have been taking place in some of the churches with which we relate that have brought many believers into an area of intense distress and anxiety. In fact, some have been so troubled with what has been taking place within the churches that they have chosen to break fellowship completely and go elsewhere. There have been damaged and devastated relationships in the resulting carnage.

Our Heavenly Father is never a God of disorder and ruined relationships. It is never his will that brothers and sisters should be at odds. In fact, Jesus’ commandment as recorded in John 13: 34-35 is very clear and leaves no doubt to the contrary when he stated “I give you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, so you also must love each other. This is how everyone will know that you are my disciples, when you love each other.”

I believe that God is beginning to bring a turnaround and healing, and we are very grateful to him for this. Just like this

Mama and daughter - one of Theresa's really keen students

morning, even though the darkened sky boiled and threatened, no deluge came. To the observer there was no hope that the gloomy skies would not open in a heavy downpour, but none came. In a similar way, even though there has been turmoil and unrest among Christian brothers and sisters, I believe that God will bring healing and unity again, and that the threatening clouds of continued broken and disjointed relationships will be driven away and the potentially deadly deluge will not be allowed to ruin his Church.

However, please pray for the believers here in Cd. Valles. There has been a tremendous attack against the Church, God’s body of believers across the city. Please lift us up in your prayers.

Javier and I are at a place of frustration at the moment at the Training Center. At present we are completely dependent upon being able to hire equipment and machinery to move forward. We have worked very hard to complete the harvest, and today we received word that the first payments are to be placed into the ministry bank account by Monday. This is very good news, and now we can begin to pay Javier for his labor over the past two years, as well as our other farm-related loans. But this still leaves us waiting.

Theresa showing Angel and Veronica the art of making cinnamon rolls

We spent weeks working with machetes and our backs clear-cutting an approximately two acre area of land along one side of the sugarcane field. We are now waiting for the ability to get a backhoe in to dig out the stumps so that this piece of land can be cultivated for planting. We are daily loosing ground to the return-growth trees and grasses that are once again taking over. We have equipment promised, but none is arriving.

Last week we staked out and chalked where we hope to place the Training Center buildings and septic tank and field. All of the building area will need to have the black soil scraped aside and it will then need to be raised and filled. There is a tremendous amount of soil which will need to be moved and an equally incredible amount of fill which will be needed. All of this will need equipment and money. One of the Christian brothers has expressed his desire to help by renting us his equipment. His intentions are wonderful but he is a busy man, and still we wait, and wait. Besides, we don’t have the money to pay for the equipment or labor anyway.

We are trying to get some estimates on the costs for the buildings, septic and other needed construction. We have promises, but still we wait, and wait. Besides, we don’t have money anyway.

But our God is a big God. He doesn’t seem to have any trouble with the fact that our bank accounts are empty, nor with

The test: the verdict? Delicious!

the fact that we have no way, in the natural to come up with the resources needed to build the much needed buildings. The fact remains that the vision and need is still there and he will provide if we do not “choke” or grow weary.

I am reminded of God’s rebuke in Jeremiah 12:5 where he states “If you have raced with men on foot and they have tired you out, then how can you compete with horses? And if [you take to flight] in a land of peace where you feel secure, then what will you do [when you tread the tangled maze of jungle haunted by lions]?”

I don’t have any idea how, but I know that God will provide the finances needed.

Today we have made a further decision which will affect the future of the Bible Institute Luz de Las Naciones, Project LAMBS, and in a more limited way also the future of the Training Center as well. We have closed a rental agreement on a building very centrally located in town for the offices and classrooms for the Bible Institute and the nonprofit OUpC (Obreros Unidos para Cosechar). This rental building will allow the Bible Institute to become independently set up outside of the Assemblies of God church building which has housed it until present, thus allowing it to truly become interdenominational and inter-church in focus. Until now it has been very difficult to try to remain outside of the realm of control of the denomination.

A gringo Santa visits the kindergarten

Further, with an actual physical and recognizable office for the nonprofit, the Bible Institute, Project LAMBS, as well as an in-city office for the Training Center, all of the divisions of the ministry will become more legitimized. The building is large enough to house the office as well as serve for classroom space, is well located, spacious, clean, and nicely set up for the uses that it will serve. We feel that it is God’s provision for this particular need.

This does not in any way diminish the need to proceed with building on the landsite outside of town because the schools will serve two very different functions. This simply will mean that the Bible Institute can now grow and find its wings. Further, we will have a place for the legally much-needed office space for the nonprofit OUpC.

Okay, now I will try to shift gears…

My mind has been filled with these technical and legal issues of the ministry of late, but pushing them aside – Christmas is almost here!

We have been so blessed over the past months. Theresa has developed a full-blown and vibrant ministry around her sewing machines. As I have written in other blogs – the house always is ahumm and abuzz with the sound of sewing machines and the chatter of women. Yesterday she taught friends of ours how to bake cinnamon rolls, make a variety of salads, and lasagna so that they can expand the menu of their restaurant. The results were delicious and the audience appreciative. Relationships and love are sometimes built on simple things.

We will miss our parents, children, grandchildren, and friends tremendously again this year. But God is good and in

The shops as they still sit - we continue to wait for their completion

other ways he fills the voids. We are excitedly looking forward to having our close friends Greg and Sylvia Russell come down for two weeks over the end of the year and into January. We are very blessed because they could easily have chosen any one of many beautiful and touristy areas of Mexico to spend their year-end holiday, but instead they chose dusty Cd. Valles and us. They are our Christmas gift this year.

In all honesty, I am afraid that neither Theresa nor I are finding ourselves in the “Christmas mood” this year. For one thing, it is difficult when the temperatures are in the high 80s and it is so sticky and hot at night that it is difficult to sleep. But then, also, as I alluded to at the beginning of this post, things have been rather less than “peace and brotherhood” around here as well, and it has been very busy.

Still, Jesus is Lord. It is his birth that we are remembering and celebrating during this season. Really, it matters very, very little if I feel all “warm and fuzzy” about snowflakes, Christmas cookies, Santa Clause, jingling bells, or even the delightful sounds of children’s laughter. These are all lovely and wonderful, but they are not the heart and soul of Christmas. Jesus is the essence and spirit, the only reason that any of the other can exist. Sometimes I need to be reminded of that fact, especially at times when I begin to feel myself badly done by.

Javier and Marelino chalking the area where the new buildings for the Training Center will sit on the land

May we never forget the true and only real reason for the season of Christmas – Jesus, our living Lord and Savior.

Wishing you and yours a Merry Christmas, and a wonderful season of love and friendship.

Steven and Theresa

Feliz Navidad - Mother and daughter. Two of Theresa's sewing students showing their latest project.

This blog is written to our Canadian friends and supporters. Please accept my apologies for an error in my last blog entry. In it I said that gifts for the payment of national personnel that we need for the farm could be sent to Listowel Community Church but could not be tax receipted due to certain Canadian nonprofit laws. Unfortunately I was not clear enough in the blog, and I need to correct one thing:

Please note that the cheques can still be sent to the same address:

Listowel Community Church
156 Halstead Avenue, North
Listowel, Ontario N4W 3C4

However, please do not make the cheques out to Listowel Community Church. Rather, all donations for the payment of national workers must be made out in my name – “Steven Frey”. Please write “Personnel” in the Note area of the cheque so that we know its designation.

These designated cheques will then be noted and recorded outside of the church books. I will be notified of the amount in the fund, and I will personally pay staff out of this fund. Remember that gifts for this designated fund will not be tax receipted.

I apologize for the bulky inconvenience of this, but this seems to be the only way that Canadians can give for a designated fund for national staff. Again, please accept my apology, but also my thanks for your willingness to partner with us in this very important way.

Blessings,

Steven Frey