Current Events and Updates of the Ministry

Let me bring you a quick update on Theresa and me from the Texas / Mexico border:

Tractor and Implements Loaded and Ready to head to Cd. Valles

Theresa arrived in Houston on Friday, November 25^th and we were finally reunited after many long months apart. We spent several days in Houston with friends while Dan Slaubaugh and his friend Fred drove Dan’s pickup and trailer from North Dakota to Manhattan, Kansas where they picked up the Ford 8N tractor and several implements from Tractors for Our Daily Bread. From there they headed south to Donna, Texas where we met up with them on Wednesday evening, December 30^th.

I have been wrestling with the problem of how to get the tractor and implements into Mexico now for the last several weeks. We are so very blessed to receive them, and now need to get them to the actual work site. As I mentioned in my last blog, this is not really a problem, it simply presents a new challenge in which God can show his glory and power.

When Dan and Fred arrived here I still did not have a clue how we should proceed. Dan needed to get back to North Dakota, and was unable to let me use his trailer to go into Mexico. I spend Wednesday night tossing and turning with strange dreams of building trailers and other stress-filled sleep. On Thursday I called around the valley and found that the price of trying to hire a company to transport the tractor and implements down to Cd. Valles was completely cost inhibitive and ridiculous. Still no answer.

We then began to look at the possibility of using the ministry van itself for hauling a trailer down. Dan decided that it would be pushing the weight to the limit on the van, but that it should be possible, and that the suspension should be okay for the load. We looked around at several wreckers for a used trailer hitch for the ministry 1996 Dodge Ram (a needle in a hay stack hunt for such an old van), and found a perfect match for $50.00. We attached the hitch to the van with only minimal problems. Thankfully, Flame of Truth Ministries, where we are staying in Donna, Texas has a shop, and Melvin High, the founder of the ministry graciously allowed us to use it.

Melvin also had a heavy duty, dual axle hauling trailer which was sitting out the back, unused since the 90’s. He said

The Tractor Arrives on Dan's Rig

that if we would get it road-worthy and licensed it, we could borrow it for the haul to Cd. Valles. All four tires were gone and needed to be replaced with others. Unfortunately, the lights and the complete wiring had also been removed at some point over the past twenty years as well. After some long hours and late nights we got the trailer road-ready and the tractor and implements loaded and chained down.

Dan and Steven Preparing Tires for Trailer

Dan and Fred headed north again on Saturday afternoon at about four o’clock for a rather gruelling 1,700 mile drive through a snow storm in Nebraska. I got a call this evening (Sunday) saying that they had arrived safely – tired and road weary, but safe.

At the moment (Sunday evening), Theresa and I are sitting in a Burger King in Alamo, Texas using a bit of free wi-fi and getting caught up on some correspondence – our office away from home. Tomorrow, the Lord willing, at 1 o’clock I will meet with a pastor from Reynosa. He is an acquaintance of Javier’s, and has some possible contacts for us with the Mexican Customs. Hopefully after this meeting with him I will have a more clear idea of how we will begin the process of getting the tractor into Mexico, and to Cd. Valles.

I have never been a person who likes to make a “big deal” out of things, and who wants to make himself look like a hero just to draw attention. However, in all honesty, it is probably a good time to be praying if you do think of me over the next couple of days. Mexican Customs is probably the least of my worries. We have all of the donation paperwork for the tractor and implements, and we will be taking it in under the auspices of Obreros Unidos para Cosechar, the legal, Mexican-registered non-profit which covers the Bible Institute and our work in Cd. Valles. Theoretically this should make the actual crossing into Mexico fairly easy – in reality it is never truly simple – nonetheless, hypothetically it should be fairly straight forward with the physical border crossing itself.

The unknown element enters after getting into Mexico. Again, unless you have been in another solar system for the

Reloading Tractor onto Mel's Trailer

past several years and have only now returned to planet Earth, you are no doubt aware that Mexico is not a very safe place to be conspicuously doing anything, and certainly not driving down the road with a vehicle with Texas plates pulling a trailer fully loaded with a tractor and implements. Many of the villages and highways are terrorized and controlled by various murderous groups of cartels – the main ones in our area being the Gulf Cartel, and their mortal enemies the “Zetas”. I must pass through territory which is only tentatively being held by the Mexican military, and it is pretty well known that “los malos” have more fire power than the military. I don’t look forward to the transport, but it must be done if we are to get the equipment that we so badly need to do our work. I would appreciate your prayers.

Theresa will be staying in Texas until I get back. I am unwilling to expose her to the aggravation and potential danger which I will encounter on the road with the load. The Lord willing I will do a straight down and back trip with a two-day turn around. Then I will hook up a chipper which is also sitting in Donna, Texas at Flame of Truth Ministries, and Theresa and I will then head back to Mexico and settle into our place by next weekend.

The second trip down will be with a simple load and should transpire without a hitch – or at least much more simply than the load with the fully loaded trailer with tractor and implements.

Loading Implements onto Trailer

So that is the update. I don’t want to be an alarmist in any way – if you know me at all you know that I tend to err on the “where angels fear to tread” end of the spectrum rather than on the other. Nonetheless, I think that we do need to be realists. This is reality in Mexico at the present time.

However, God is still on his throne. This is his work. This is his equipment. The work in Cd. Valles is his. The need is clear for the equipment which was so generously given for the work. Our lives and our future are in his hands. What is there really to fear?

I will send an update soon – the Lord willing it will include photos of the little Ford 8N sitting on the landsite in Cd. Valles ready to begin the task of land clearing, stump pulling, and cultivating.

May you be richly blessed as you partner with us in this work.

Blessings,

Steven and Theresa

Ford 8N Tractor (Not Ours - But Same Basic Tractor)

Time for another blog, and so very much to be thankful for…

On top of the list of thanksgiving for me personally is the fact that Theresa will finally be joining me in several days. I will be leaving Cd. Valles early on Thursday morning and heading north to the border. Then, early Friday morning I will leave Donna, Texas for Houston where her plane will land at around 8:00 o’clock pm on Friday. It has been a very, very long haul for us this summer with so many months apart – more than we had ever planned. However, it is job well done, and we will finally be reunited. I am married to a wonderfully giving woman, and God will most certainly bless her for her love and giving service to the family over these months.

Then, we are extremely thankful to both Floyd Dowell and Tractors for Our Daily Bread, as well as to Dan and Marlys Slaubaugh for making it possible for us to soon have a tractor and farm implements for our work here at the Bible Institute land site – Floyd and Tractors for Our Daily Bread for donating the tractor and implements, and Dan for volunteering to deliver them from Kansas to Texas for us. Theresa and I will be meeting Dan in southern Texas where he will be delivering the machinery for us a couple of days after Thanksgiving. This is appropriate timing for this delivery, and it will certainly be a day for great thanksgiving for us.

At present Javier and I are hacking weeds and field grasses out of the sugarcane by hand. Twelve and a half acres of field doesn’t sound like very much to take care of when one climbs up into the air conditioned cab of a tractor. However, try doing field work with a bent back and a machete. Suddenly the rows seem very long indeed. Also, add to that near 100° weather, and you have a combination which can make a grown man cry.

So, needless to say, we are extremely grateful for the soon-to-be arrival of our latest addition to the farm. We anticipate that much back pain will suddenly be alleviated, and work can soon be accomplished that at present looks like merely a dream – stumps removed, land cleared, fields tended, etc., etc. After all, I am not a spring chicken any more, and hours spent bent over and hacking with a machete are, well, just plain hard work for my old back. I am realizing that I am not twenty one any more.

And finally, we have had RAIN! Don’t stop praying as we do need much more, but do rejoice with us. The cane is looking so much better, and the soil is actually moist now. Praise the Lord for answered prayer.

We do have some ongoing prayer needs for you as well concerning the Bible Institute/Training Center/Farm Site.

First of all, concerning the arrival of the tractor:  As I have already indicated, we are thrilled to be receiving this gift. However, we now have a new problem on our hands – not a problem really – just a new way for God to show his power.

As you are probably well aware (unless you have really had your head in the sand for the past several years), Mexico is not in good shape as far as national security. It is going to be a very difficult mater bringing the tractor from the border to Cd. Valles. We have been told by the Mexican customs agency that unless one pays off the Mafia cartels it will not be possible to pass, and one may find the equipment burnt beside the road. We don’t have the money to pay for transport from the border to Cd. Valles, and I certainly don’t see why God should have to pay off the drug cartels to get his equipment to the place where it is needed.

We have some potentially helpful contacts on the Mexican side of the border that I will be looking up when I get to Reynosa in several days. In the mean time, I am seriously considering driving the tractor from the border to Cd. Valles on its own steam. If the tractor is being driven here by road, the Mafia-types will just suspect that it is being driven from one field to another, and there should be no problem (at least that is my theory). I will need to do some serious checking into all possibilities before anything is done. However, step one will be to at least have the tractor at the Mexican/Texas border and not in Kansas.

If I do indeed drive the tractor from the border to Cd. Valles, any of you who know my father, Alvin Frey, will see a certain bit of déjà vu in the whole incident.

Secondly, we really need to find some way at the land site to access water to irrigate crops. We have explored the possibility of drilling for a deep well. But unless God does something spectacular for us, hydrology maps show that the land is located in an area where it doesn’t look like a reasonable probability of locating ground water. We can dig a surface well, which is certainly an option, but this is limited to rainfall and surface water and as such has limited use for us as an irrigation source – especially since it is precisely at the times of draught and low rainfall that one needs irrigation.

Secondly, we could perhaps pump water from a stream not too far down the road from us. However, this has the exact limitations that the surface well does – it is full of water in the rainy season, but runs dry in the times of low rainfall – exactly when we need the water. I don’t have any answers at present, but ask you to keep this mater in your prayers. Irrigation would make a huge difference in our potential production.

I continue to pray for a person, or a couple knowledgeable in agriculture that can join us in the work. We would be so blessed to have someone come who knows how to run a small farm and who can join us in the vision, and train us in agriculture. I believe that the Lord will provide that person(s).

Then, finally, there is potentially a more complicated mater which I want to present to you for your prayer. I will preface the next bit by saying that when one is hacking away at weeds with a machete for hours and lugging them to the edge of the field, he has plenty of time to think. Please forgive the following allegory if it becomes too graphic, but it does get my point across I believe:

The status quo is always the easiest thing to strive for and to maintain, and it is never easy being the harbinger of change. Indeed, by definition, change implies that things are done differently than the way that we have always done them, and this change can cause stress – especially when one places religion and tradition into the mix. Sometimes pet objects and belief systems must be looked at and questioned, and perhaps, God forbid, changed.

That is to say, the status quo is always easier to strive for unless one begins to get the uncomfortable sense that the stench that has slowly been working into his consciousness may perhaps come from the very body that he is laying beside within the confines of the coffin into which he has so willingly and gladly became entombed. As one searches the beloved and accustomed face beside him which he has so lovingly caressed for years, he cannot help but begin to wonder if indeed the sunken features and hollow eyes are lifeless instead of emanating the breath of life – of God. Is it possible that true life is not evident within the confines of the coffin, but without? Is it possible that for true life to be realized we must burst free from tradition and the way that we have always “done” religion? Not from God – that is self evident – but from the encased God that we have enshrined within religion for so many years. How can we become free from the self-inflicted confines, and be truly free to be the men and women that our Jesus wants us to be? To be the men and women of the cross – of the “stuff” which is becoming transformed into to very image of Christ?

Please pray with me that we as a ministry and as a Bible Institute/Training Center can be freed from the confining box of tradition and be free to find our wings in Jesus.

We love you and ask for your continued prayers.

Blessings,

Steven and Theresa

Cleo Yoder and Luis Flores examining fruit tree sappling on land site. This is approximately where one of the buildings will sit.

A warm greeting from Cd. Valles. As the northern storms begin to let you know that winter in on its way, we continue to melt in the sweltering fall days. The nights are getting mercifully cooler, and the mornings are beautiful. There have been several days recently in which I have commented that it is a true pity that the weather was not that temperature all the time in Valles.

Well, the big count-down is happening. In 16 days I will be heading up to Houston to pick up Theresa after yet another too long separation. This has been a marathon summer of separation for us, but the mission has been accomplished. James is arriving in Winnipeg this evening, and everyone is overjoyed to have him home – his family certainly, and me, because this means that Theresa is now free to join me again. I will anxiously await the publication of James’ Masters Thesis on his research and work in Bali, Indonesia. Of course, it will have special significance to me since I spent several months in Bali as well.

We are blessed to have Nathan and Diana, our daughter and son-in-law, drive Theresa to Henderson, Nebraska where she will visit with her mother for a week. After that time Diana and Nathan have paid for a flight for Theresa to Houston. It is humbling, but brings a sense of being loved when ones children do things like this to bless their parents. I know that Theresa especially is blessed since the alternative was a very long trip by Greyhound.

Cleo Yoder is with me again this week, having finished teaching the Project L.A.M.B.S. course on Romans last week. This week he is teaching on Biblical Theology.

The exciting thing for all of us is that he is once again team-teaching with assistant teachers in preparation of turning the running and teaching of the Project L.A.M.B.S. Bible School over to Nationals.

I, for my part, have been learning what heavy manual field work is all about. We spent a couple of weeks now in the

Until the tractor arrives all of these weeds must be pulled and removed by hand.

sugarcane field. Last week we hand sprayed for spittlebugs. This meant that we strapped on backpack spray tanks and walked the field spraying each individual plant.

We spent today hand pulling weeds and dragging them to the edge of the field. But the good news is that we are only paperwork away from getting a well seasoned Ford 8A tractor. This will revolutionize our labor, and make things much easier on the farm. What is now done almost 100% by machete and a strong back can become more mechanized. We are praying that the tractor can be brought down very, very soon.

We are desperately praying for rain. Today we watered the fruit tree saplings that were planted several months ago. The water literally rain into the cracked and parched soil as if one was pouring it down a drain. Please pray that God will be gracious to all of the farmers in the Huasteca region and give us rain. We need a week-long gently soaking rain which will penetrate deeply into the soil.

We have an area of need that I ask you to pray with us about, and to see if God lays anything onto your heart – we really need a couple, or a person who knows agriculture, loves the land, loves the Lord, feels God’s tug onto their hearts into missions, and who loves to teach others. I strongly believe that God has placed a “shepherd’s staff” into each of our hands, just as he did for Moses. We often look at the practical staff and fail to see its significance. For Moses, it was just the staff that he used to move his sheep around as a shepherd. But if you read the passage in Exodus you see that it took on great significance, and after Moses’ “burning bush” experience it was thereafter referred to as the “staff of God” in Moses’ hand. Wow!

I believe that God has given someone, somewhere, an agricultural staff of God. I believe that God has given that person a love for the land, and a love for teaching agricultural techniques to other. We desperately need that person to come and teach us how to farm using alternative methods – using the soil and climate of the Huasteca wisely. If we are to be a training center where disciples can grow in God as they study The Word and labor in the communities and on the land, then we need to have someone with the practical agricultural staff of God in his hand who will walk with us and train us.

First growth sugarcane at the landsite.

If that person is you, and if you feel God tugging at your heart, and if you feel the excitement of possibility growing inside you then please contact me. You can email me at steven@vitwministries.com.

I know that Theresa would be overjoyed to have a couple come down to help us. She would love to have another English-speaking woman that she could relate with.

Until later, may God bless you richly.

Please remember us in your prayers,

Steven and Theresa

Javier and Cristina with newly planted sugar cane on land site

It is interesting that the above parable that Jesus told concerning the growth of the Kingdom is recorded only by Mark. In it Jesus reveals that spiritual growth is a continual, gradual process that is finally consummated in a harvest of spiritual maturity. Jesus states that we can understand the process of spiritual growth by comparing it to the slow but certain growth of a plant. He also states definitively that the growth of the plant – from germination of the seed, to the fully matured head of grain – is not dependent upon the work of the farmer, but upon the DNA – the life within the seed itself.

Since it is a fairly universally accepted fact that in writing this gospel Luke was acting as scribe for the apostle Peter who carried the first-hand account of Jesus’ life, it brings certain questions to my mind. Since Peter was presumably an old man when this gospel was written, and since Peter was a man of jump-to action during his lifetime – the kind of man who tended to shoot off his mouth, and then try to retrieve the foot stuck in his throat after he was finished – I assume that he spent years reflecting over his life by the time that Luke began to write. Did Jesus’ words have a special meaning for Peter? Did Peter often have pause to reflect back at the mystery of the life within the seed as I do? Was this perhaps why the Holy Spirit brought this particular parable back to Peter’s mind so that it could be recorded for us?

I often feel as if I must somehow assist the growth of the seed. Somehow I am not satisfied to simply scatter the seed

Javier with seedling

and then “go on as I did before”, as the faithful farmer in the parable. Somehow I have missed the fact that Jesus states that the soil itself – the Holy Spirit, and the spiritual DNA – the life within the seed itself – is that which produces growth all by itself. I don’t have to try to strain to bring life and growth from the seed. In fact, it is impossible, and foolish of the farmer to try to do so.

I often reflect back on this when I think of my friends Nyoman and Ketut, and Jero Kom and his wife back in Bali. The seed was scattered upon the soil of their lives to the best of my ability. Now, as the farmer in the parable, I must trust in the work of the Holy Spirit to bring the broadcasted seed to germination, stalk, head, and then finally fully ripened head of grain. I confess that I so often fall back upon the unbelief of not trusting in the life-producing factor within the spiritual DNA of the seed – the living, energy-filled, bursting-forth power of the Holy Spirit himself. I still want to help him.

Secondly, I so often lack the patience of the farmer in the parable. He fully understood that the production of the mature head of grain was a process. Seed was planted, and step by step the mature head of grain would form. How often I lack the faith to see the mature head in the fragile and frail tendril which first appears from the dead-looking soil. Too often I despair of ever seeing a whitened, mature head when I look with near disdain at the green, fruitless stock. God, give me the ability to see yet-unseen fruit with spiritual eyes of hope.

I am back in Cd. Valles. I arrived back on the evening of the 11^th to a warm welcome. I hit the ground running, and there are many exciting things on the move. I will quickly bring you up to date on the “goings on” around here:

As you are aware, Theresa is still in Winnipeg, and will not be here with me until the middle, to the end of November. I miss her tremendously, and things are certainly not the same without her here.  But she is doing a wonderful work in caring for our grandsons in Winnipeg.

We definitely have the tractor waiting for us to pick up from the ministry Tractors For Our Daily Bread, in Manhattan, Kansas. Dan Slaughbaugh, our good friend from North Dakota, has committed to bringing it down to Mexico with his truck and trailer as soon as we can organize the paperwork to do so.

Besides meeting with, and enjoying a brief time together with several of our precious friends in Houston, I had a very good and helpful meeting with Living Water International, in Stafford, Texas on my way through Houston. We still do not have all of the dots connected for the drilling of a well for water, but we feel as if we are at least finding the dots, and that we are getting them into order so that we can know how to begin this vital work for the land site.

Land site

The sugar cane looks good on the 5 planted hectares at the landsite. The weeds are also growing, and herbicide was applied to the field last week. Javier and I are also beginning the slow and tedious task of clearing weeds by machete on the hectare and a half of land that is not yet planted. This is a back-breaking and hand-blistering task.

Then, on Friday afternoon and Saturday morning of this past week Ezequiel and I went to a little town about 45 minutes south of the city in order to have a “mini retreat” and spend some time in prayer and planning for the work of VitW Ministries. We had an extremely warm, open, and Holy Spirit-filled time together. I feel as if we made tremendous progress, and that we can now begin to move forward into the direction that the Holy Spirit is leading us. Everything still needs to be presented to the Board of Directors of Obreros Unidos para Cosechar as a recommendation for them to either accept, modify, or reject. However, I feel very confident that we will advance in the direction which we are proposing. As such, I am free to describe some of this direction to you more fully.

We are proposing the following for the use of the 6.5 hectare landsite:

1. The five hectares already planted into sugar cane will be kept as a cash-producing farm. This will allow an on-going and secure income for the Training Center.
2. We will initially begin by building one staff house for the farm manager and a couple of small houses for around six to ten apprentices for the farm.
3. We will begin intensive work on the remaining hectare (plus) of land and become knowledgeable (and train the apprentices) in building up the soil with composting, the use of green manures and cover crops, finding alternate local and sustainable crops and plants, raising animals in alternate fashion, raising non-typical animals for food, growing non-typical forage crops that require low-water input, developing non-typical methods of cultivating for water conservation, looking at non-typical methods of raising food (ie., reducing the complete dependence of local small farmers on the farm-factory production which is now dominating the region with sugar cane and cattle, etc.) etc.
4. We will utilize resources such as ECHO in Florida, other NGO organizations, universities, Christian ministries, interested individuals, etc. who will loan us personnel to train in alternative farming techniques for short-term periods of time until our own farm manager becomes sufficiently trained to himself become a teaching resource for the area.
5. We will access publications and resources available in Spanish on alternate and sustainable farming. Develop the farm as a resource center.
6. We will approach the Mexican government at both local and higher levels for their support – both financially, and as a resource base for training (agricultural universities, Dept. of Agriculture, etc.).
7. We will develop the farm as a Small Farm Resource Development Center (SFRDC) where innovative ideas can be developed and tried, while always working with, and training the apprentices. The training will have a trickle-down affect with local farmers as well as with people in the villages who have small amounts of land around their houses – new ideas can be taught in composting, mulching and cover crops, use of unused soil through better growing practices, planting new types of crops for food, etc. Through using the farm as a SFRD Center there will be no pressure if ideas do fail. The farmer / landowner will not be left with profit loss if ideas fail (as some inevitably will).
8. We will experiment and find appropriate food, forage, green manure and cover crops for the area (appropriate for growing in areas of extreme heat, poor and varying water supply, etc.). There are many seed banks and centers which can be accessed for this.
9. We will develop the farm as a discipleship training center whose purpose is to be a non-academically streamed training center where men and women can be mentored and taught, both in the Word of God, as well as in hands-on training, so that they are better prepared to work for God in whatever area he has called them into. It will continue to be the purpose of the Training Center that each student who goes through the program will have both a Bible training as well as a practical skill with which he/she can earn a living. It is expected that the focus of the school, and hence, of the student-base, will be village evangelism / Native Missionary work to the poor of Mexico. The secondary affect of the development farm will be the doors which it will open in the local region due to the potential for training in alternate food production and land use. It could potentially also eventually become a recognized agricultural resource in Mexico in general.

In Conclusion:

The function of this hands-on mentorship/discipleship model would be to train servant workers in village development

land site looking west

and evangelism as well as in farming methods. It would, by its very nature, meet the needs of the poorer farmers of Mexico at a grass roots level. Because of its nonacademic focus it could accommodate students who can neither read nor write. Stated in other terms – the farm would be designed upon a mentor / apprentice model rather than an academic model.

For the Bible Institute, Luz de las Naciones, we are proposing the following:

VitW Ministries will rent the second floor rooms – the former staff housing rooms – from Iglesia Esfuerzo Magdiel for the use of the Bible Institute. It is understood that this is a temporary solution to the fact that the Bible Institute still does not have a “home”. However, this will take the pressure off for the need to build a facility at present while VitW Ministries does not have the funds to do so.

There are many more aspects to the ministry which we are looking at, but I will not bore you with the details at the present (and besides, this blog is more than long enough already). Suffice it to say that things are getting fast, exciting, and certainly not boring around here.

I will try to write again soon and keep you up to date with what is happening. Until then, may God richly bless you as you faithfully continue to keep us in your hearts, minds, and prayers.

Burmese Woman

“People may make plans in their minds, but the Lord decides what they will do”. Proverbs 16:9 (NCV)

I realize that there have been no blogs for several weeks, and many of you must be wondering where I am and what ended up happening now that I have left Indonesia. This verse from Proverbs is very appropriate for what my past several months have been like. We make plans, think up ideas, and establish courses of action for our future, but it is God who decides what we will do.

As you are well aware, if you have read any of my blogs over the summer, my plans for my months in Indonesia were completely stood on their head. Basically nothing, nothing at all, turned out like envisioned and carefully planned. This does not mean that the summer was awash, nor that it was not in God’s plans. I believe in fact, that many things were accomplished during my time in Indonesia and Thailand. You can catch some of this in the blogs which I posted over those months.

I know for a certainty that Theresa’s time here in Winnipeg has also been very crucial for

Kites in Bali

James and Jessica and their two boys as well. Further, it has been a time for her to be closer with family and friends over these months. None of these things have necessarily been easy, or quite what was expected either. But again, God has had his hand in what has been accomplished.

In being able to give of ourselves to our family over these months we have been able to find God directing our daily walk along the path. Further, I believe that during my time in both Bali and Thailand, God has directed my mind and imagination into some new possibilities and vision for the work in Mexico. Once again, as the scripture states, we make plans in our mind – we must envision, dream, strategize and make plans. But it is the Lord who decides what we will do, and which of the plans he wishes to bless.

I am finding some frustration over the past weeks since returning to Canada as well. I am behind at least a week, if not two in my plans for leaving for Mexico. For several of a variety of reasons I have been unable to leave for Cd. Valles. The vehicle is literally loaded and ready to have me turn the key and point the wheels south. But so far I have been unable to do so.

Market Pet Shop in Bali

The latest issue is our inability to get health care coverage for Theresa and me while outside of Manitoba. For the past two years of our time in Mexico we have been able to continue our coverage under Manitoba Provincial Health Care. However, our two year provision expired as of the beginning of September. We have spent the past week swimming through the murky waters of private health care providers in order to find some kind of coverage which will be adequate, but also affordable for Theresa and me while we continue our work in Mexico. I can thankfully say that it looks like we have finally crossed this crevasse, and that I will finally be able to make my way south.

As I mentioned in my last blog, it will be necessary for Theresa to stay in Winnipeg until at least the beginning part of November while I head to Mexico without her. We feel that it is critical that we fulfill the commitment that we made to James and Jessica and our two grandsons. It will be lonely and incomplete without Theresa, but God will also be with me.

I have some very important business to accomplish along the way south. We already know that

Balinese Grandma In Her Kitchen

the tractor is still waiting for us at the ministry Tractors For Our Daily Bread based in Manhattan, Kansas, and headed by Floyd Dowell. I hope to meet with friends on the way south in order to make plans for transporting the tractor to Mexico.

We also will need to find finances to be able to transfer the tractor to Mexico, as well as to purchase some used implements for the fieldwork that we need the tractor for. I will keep you informed as to how, and where you can give for this particular need.

Another stop along the way will be with the organization Living Water International, based in Stafford, Texas. We are very hopeful that we will be able to work with them to drill a well on the land site. Water is critical in order to complete the vision that we have for the work. We already know that it will cost us at least $5,000 dollars to drill the well that is so badly needed. At present we don’t have any money at all for this, but we believe that God will provide through his children.

Outrigger

I will probably swing east through Grove, Oklahoma and spend a day or two there with NewSong Church. We are in desperate need to begin working on the construction of staff housing and dormitory space on the new farm site. I unabashedly bring this need to the churches that I will visit. How incredibly wonderful and unifying it would be if several churches could work together in this vision and be able to come down as a joint team to build these. None of the buildings needed are complicated or expensive, and a multi-church, united project of this sort would be totally doable for any church.

Then, I must get down to Cd. Valles as soon as possible as well because Cleo Yoder will be arriving at the end of October in order to teach Project L.A.M.B.S. courses for the first two weeks of November. Once again, one of the most exciting parts of this for me is that he is continuing to train national co-teachers so that they will soon be able to completely take over the L.A.M.B.S. program without the on-going need for expatriate involvement. In this way the brothers from Canada and the United States who have been so faithfully serving and giving of their time and personal resources in order to come to Mexico to teach, will be able to take their passion for God to other, and new fields of service.

Please pray for me. As I have already said, I return to Cd. Valles with new vision, new passion,

Balinese Temple Umbrellas

and perhaps new direction – or at least a tweak to the present vision. I will keep you informed as the ideas become plans, and then as these plans begin to move towards becoming reality. At the moment I am not free to elaborate or explain. However, I ask you to please hold me up in prayer as I return and present the new vision. May we all hear God’s voice and be sensitive to what he desires. My prayer is for open hearts to hear and understand the changed emphasis and direction if this is God’s will. If it is not, then may we hear His cautioning and correcting voice and be able to sense what he does desire.

I simply long to be constantly moving in the flow of God’s will, both in my personal life, as well as in ministry. Sometimes we move in a direction assuming that we continue to be in the center of his will because we heard his voice last year, last month, or yesterday. Sometimes, however, we need to be attuned to the slight changes of direction in the outworking of it. That is what I need prayer for especially now as I return to Mexico. There are no drastic changes which will take place, and nothing earth shattering that I am holding back from you. I will bring you all up to date when I am free to do so. In the mean time, please pray for me as I return. We all desire to hear God’s voice clearly.

Cooking Pot in Bali

I will spend several days on the road before I reach Cd. Valles. I would appreciate your prayers for safety as I travel. Also please remember Theresa as she stays behind and continues to help in the care of our grandsons.

Blessings, and I will keep you posted.

(by the way, I suppose that it is apparent by the photos in this blog that I am having some trouble in transitioning. Also, I like to post photos in the blog, and I don’t have any other newer, and interesting pictures to put in other than these).

Steven