Current Events and Updates of the Ministry

Fred Erb shaking hands with land owner.

Here we are already at the end of the first week of March and I have yet to get off a blog that was begun back in the middle to February. Theresa began one at that point, just after Fred Erb had been here and we had been involved in a couple of heavy weeks of meetings and preparations for the land purchase. Fred had also been very busy with teaching another cycle of Project L.A.M.B.S. courses every evening as well.

From that point until now we have not stopped running, and I will simply tweak her blog from February and post it along with an update of what has happened from then until now.

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In February Theresa wrote:

Pastor Fred Erb from Listowel, Ontario spent the last two weeks in Cd. Valles with us skillfully balancing many roles.  By day he served in various meetings as the Board Administrative Representative for Listowel Community Church and Voice in the Wilderness Ministries (Canada). In the evenings he became the Project L.A.M.B.S. (Light Abroad Mobile Bible Schools) teacher and trainer.  In between, he was a sounding board for Steven, and a good brother with whom to discuss again the vision for a unique Bible and Vocational Training School here in the Huasteca region of Mexico.

So what did the multitude of meetings accomplish?  Well, the truth is, we are finally, at long last, only a few steps away from the completing of our second goal.

Our first goal, as you may recall, was to officially set up a registered nonprofit association under which the Bible School and Vocational Training Center could legally function under the laws of the Mexican government, while also satisfying all the Canadian nonprofit regulations. This nonprofit association, named Obreros Unidos para Cosechar (Laborers United for Harvest) was finalized last month, and its corresponding Scotia Bank account was opened. This now means that money can be sent from the Canadian Ministry bank account into the Mexican nonprofit account.

Our second goal is to complete the purchase of the 6.5 hectors of land which we have already located, and which we believe God has chosen for us to use for the School and Training Center. After hours of meetings in which we hashed out the legal details of how money can be raised, transferred, distributed, and accurately accounted for, we were finally able to fulfill all of our responsibilities. Since the legalities of a work between three countries is much more complicated than working with the regulations of one government alone, we have a Board of Directors for VitW Ministries (Canada), as well as a completely separate Board of Directors for OUpC. Both Boards then have delegates in a Management Committee representing both of its respective members.

Since the relationship between the Canadian Ministry and that of the Mexican nonprofit is in the form of a Joint Ministry Agreement, a very formalized arrangement needs to be maintained between both ministries, and careful accounting made of what each party in the joint ministry brings to the table.

Into this mix, Steven is also responsible to keep careful accounting with the Voice in the Wilderness (U.S.) counterpart. This all makes for some stressful times for Steven, but thankfully he is “gifted” (or cursed) with a pedantic nature which drives him to look after the boring details required in this arrangement.

We now simply need to wait until after the Ejido (land cooperative) meeting on March 6^th for final permission to transfer the land title, including the full sugarcane contract into the name of Obreros Unidos para Cosechar. After this formality is taken care of and we have been received by the ejido as acceptable buyers, we can make the final payment to the landowner. This payment will take place in front of a Notary on March 7^th and will complete 1 ½ years of legal paper work on our part.  Now the REAL physical work can begin in earnest!

The OUpC Board of Directors has chosen to hire Javier Santos as the Farm Administrator and Production Manager, representing it to the Sugarcane Grower’s Association and the Sugarcane Company in Cd. Valles. As soon as the final payment has been made on the land, and as soon as OUpC holds title and cane contract in hand, Javier will begin to prepare the soil for planting in late summer when the rainy season begins.

Javier is a husband, father to three young sons, pastor, native evangelist, Project L.A.M.B.S. graduate and teacher at Light of the Nations Bible Institute. He also has a background in sugarcane farming and has a godly passion to train young men and women to become servant leaders for Christ.  We know God has prepared him with all of these needed skills to be used to further the work of His kingdom in this region of Mexico today. We are so excited to have him as our right hand man in this whole endeavor since Steven and I have no knowledge or skill whatsoever in sugarcane production!

Miraculously, there was just enough money – with $60 dollars in the black – to pay for the land and legal issues in

Theresa gingerly walking across a very rickety foot bridge.

setting up the nonprofit. However, we do not have any money left over to begin working the land, nor planting the crop in the fall. We hope to take a loan from the Sugarcane Growers Association to begin cleaning out the old cane and cultivating the land, as well as for the purchase of seed cane for planting.  It will cost approximately $8,000 dollars to cultivate and plant the five hectares of sugarcane. However, once planted the crop should be able to produce annually for the next eight or more years if it is fertilized and kept irrigated during the dry months. The one-time heavy initial investment will produce many years of harvest, and a loan should never need to be made again since the expenses can be budgeted into the returns.

This brings up one of our next expenses – a well. Since there are two creeks running nearby, one on the north, and the other on the south side of the land, we are convinced that the property has a good water table. We have contacted a ministry which has told us that we should be able to have a good well dug for about $5,000 dollars which will provide an ample water supply for the crops as well as facilitate the entire Bible School and Training Center needs. Without water we cannot even hope to begin. We are praying for the funds to drill a well.

A second need is for a small, used tractor and implements in order to do our field work. The tractor need not be big, and some pretty basic implements would be all that we will require. If God provides these there will be several natural spin-offs – first of all, we will be freed from the expensive need to rent fieldworkers and equipment every time that our land needs to be worked. Secondly, we can then rent out our own tractor and workers to the surrounding farmers for a source of revenue for the School. Then, finally, we have a very natural “classroom” to teach heavy equipment mechanics to our students. We are praying that God will lay it upon someone’s heart to donate a tractor and implements for the school for an income tax deduction. Surely there is a farmer somewhere who has a very useable tractor which he would love to donate to the school.

If God has touched your heart concerning any of these needs we will be greatly blessed.

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So, now it is several weeks later, and in fact the day when the ejido meeting took place. I was not there, but Ezequiel represented OUpC to the ejido. Everything went very well, and now the next step is simply to sign all of the paperwork and make final payment to the land owner. Then we will own the property, and can begin cultivating for planting in the late summer.

Huastecan vistas.

We have been very busy. Theresa and I are still “moving” into our new place. Actually, we are living in it, and have been here since January. The trouble is that since we are in the process of finishing off another little room by the market area where the computers and computer desks will be utilized, until it is finished they are all being stored in our second bedroom. Because everything is stored hither and yon we are still in the living-from-the-suitcase-mode. Also, I still need to finish the kitchen cabinets – varnishing them and putting the doors back on. This means that Theresa is still stashing her kitchen stuff anywhere that she can. But, it will all get done when it gets done I guess. Mañana is still a good sentiment in this case. I am trying to juggle administrative work, ministry outreaches, painting and patching walls, etc., etc. But how is this any different from what any one else is doing – we are all living full lives. Life and work in Mexico is not really very different from anywhere else.

In two weeks Cleo Yoder arrives for another two-week cycle of Project L.A.M.B.S. classes. The very exciting thing that is happening with this Bible School now is that national teachers are being trained to take over the school. Last month when Fred was here a brand new twelve-course cycle began. Fred worked with two young women – graduates of the L.A.MB.S program – who were his teaching assistants. This time Cleo will do the same with two of the men who are also graduates. The whole concept is to work with them, and hand more and more of the course load over to them, so that by the end of the twelve modules, the national teachers will be able to continue without any more assistance from Canadian and American teachers. This is very exciting to me.

Project L.A.M.B.S. times are always busy times for Theresa and I. We are not only responsible to the hosting and cooking for the men, but also I need to make sure that the administrative things are taken care of before they arrive, as well as putting out any fires while they are here for the two weeks that they are teaching. But it is always a good time as well. Each of the teachers who have been coming down over the years are our friends, and it is always good to spend time with them.

I apologize to all of the northerners who are still shoveling out of the snow drifts for what I will say next, but it is beginning to get very hot again. The pleasantly cool days are a thing of the past for another year I am afraid. While you shovel snow and shiver wishing for warmer weather, we sweat and wish for cool. We both end up paying in the end, just at opposite ends of the spectrum.

Until our next blog…

the house from the outside

Yes, the Freys are still around and they are doing well. There has been the hum of a silent phone line  from this end I am aware, but there has been a whirlwind of activity and many hundreds of miles under the wheels since my last blog. With your indulgence I will bring you up to date with what has been going on in our lives.

On a personal level, Theresa and I have been extremely busy with the move and transition which I spoke about in my last entry. The shift over to the new place has been a much bigger task than either of us realized that it would be, and thankfully

the kitchen we received with the house

we had no idea before we began. Isn’t that the way it goes with most things in life – if we had known, we would have never begun!

However, we are more-or-less completely transitioned as of the middle of this past week. Yesterday we put the final spit and polish on the church apartments and we are officially out of here (except for office space which we have asked to reserve in our old room since we have no internet connection at the new place yet). This means that we still need to come by fairly often to access the computers and to make any phone calls that we need to make on the VoiP phone, but we come as guests, not as residents.

a tiny bit of patching in the living room

It all feels rather odd I must admit. I have spent a lot of years here in these apartments. The stuff that still sits here was almost 100% brought here by me, or at least through my arrangement. I was the one who painted the walls, hung and repaired the ceiling fans, brought all of the cabinets and installed them, bought the beds, etc…you get the picture. Now when we come back and see the bathroom floor dirty and muddy, the waste basket full beside the toilet (in Mexico one does not ever flush used toilet paper and it is collected in a waste basket beside the toilet), and see a layer of dust over the complete kitchen and living room area it seems strange.

Who said that transition was going to be easy!

Theresa and I still have tons of work to do on our new rental house, but it has taken leaps forward since we began, and is already very comfortable. Friends of ours from Listowel Community Church and from Landmark Christian Fellowship, both in Canada, decided to bless us this Christmas and raised money for us to use to buy appliances for the new place. We were surprised and very blessed with their generosity and love. We were able to buy some kitchen cabinets, a new kitchen range, and a used washing machine with the money. We are blessed to be renting the house from a gentleman who fixes refrigeration and washing machines. He is giving us a loan of a refrigerator, so we are quite modern indeed with all of the mod cons (modern conveniences). Throughout this blog are pictures of the before, and mid process look of the place. I was going to put some in as well with ones now where we are a bit more towards the finish line, but my camera does not seem to work any more…hmmm

the kitchen being prepped

Besides moving out of the church apartments, organizing and storing VitW Ministries property into the “bodega” room off of the kitchen in the church apartments, renovating, patching holes in walls, painting, installing cabinets and plumbing, etc., into the new rental place…oh, and let’s not forget moving everything out of the church apartments and also from the Chedraui House where all of the school desks and computers (etc.) were stored, and getting it all into and stashed away in the new rental, it has been a tad busy around here of late for Theresa and I.

kitchen cabinets going in

Just to keep things spicy, we also drove to Florida and back to Mexico in the interim, as well as took the pastor and his family down to a church conference in Villahermosa, Tabasco – a gruelling 18 to 20 hour drive over innumerable “topes” (speed bumps) and bottomless potholes. Not to be outdone, and because of his busy schedule back in Cd. Valles, Pastor Ezequiel decided that the trip both ways would be done straight through. However, Mexican-style, we didn’t leave Cd. Valles until after midnight on the way down. On the trip back we didn’t get off until 6:00 in the evening (there are some things that I will never understand I am sure).

Christmas and New Years went well. Of course it is always different when one’s personal family is thousands of miles away. But it was good, and we felt loved by our friends here.

We are one payment away from having the land completely purchased and in the name of the Mexican non-profit – Obreros Unidos para Cosechar (OUpC). This is as big move forward, and has taken place after many months of work and waiting. As you will recall, we needed to scrap the old non-profit for a variety of reasons and begin a new one in the later part of 2010. We needed to get banking accounts set up in the name of the non-profit and arrange for money

the new stove - complete with ribbon and bow

transfers into the non-profit accounts (which at that point still did not exist until we got finalized approval from the Mexican government). After frustration, phone meetings with Canada, meetings here in Mexico, scratching our heads and praying (or maybe praying and scratching our heads), finally, at long last it looks like it is a done-deal.

There is a distinct miracle involved with the purchase of the land as well – when we tallied up all of the costs involved, we found that we had about $60.00 dollars more than we needed to purchase the property. It is fun to see how God works – bread and meat for the day like Elijah by the brook Jabbok, but never steak to put in the freezer for tomorrow.

On Tuesday we are holding a meeting at our new place to brainstorm and discuss what the next logical step is. Do we continue with sugarcane, or do we try other types of crops or animal production? I have invited a rather eclectic group of people from across the city, and I am excited to see who shows up, as well as where the whole discussion goes. I would appreciate your prayers as we seek God’s direction in beginning the Training Center now. We now need to begin to put one foot in front of the other and move forward – but exactly how, and in what direction!

So, I guess that pretty much sums up the past weeks. There is a big women’s retreat (the “aposentos” which I spoke about in my July 14^th blog) going on this weekend, and the women will be returning to the church this evening and sharing what God has done for them. Next weekend there will be one for the men. These are always a huge breakthrough for the church, and many lives are always transformed and restored because of the weekend.

Pastor Fred Erb will arrive at the end of the month for another two week Project L.A.M.B.S. Bible School cycle. What is exciting this time is that he will be only doing part of the teaching and mentoring two L.A.M.B.S. graduates who will do the rest. This training will continue through each cycle over the next couple of years, and in the end the nationals will completely take over the teaching and the running of the L.A.M.B.S. program. Just one more move away from paternalism (as I stressed in my last blog).

By the way, our new house is located at 423 Reforma – hence the reference in the title.

The music is about to begin downstairs in the church and I had better close. Thank you for your love, support and prayers. We need all of the above.

Be blessed,

Steven and Theresa

Thanksgiving with the Freys

pa·ter·nal·ism (p-tûrn-lzm) noun; – A policy or practice of treating or governing people in a fatherly manner, especially by providing for their needs without giving them rights or responsibilities;

Telling people what is best: a style of government or management, or an approach to personal relationships, in which the desire to help, advise, and protect may neglect individual choice and personal responsibility

Hmmm… Doesn’t sound good does it!

Let me take a couple of minutes of your time to share a bit of what has been on my heart of late.

I am not a theologian, nor a missiologist, but I have been around the block a couple of times, and I do have an opinion on a couple of things. Indeed, some who know me would be very quick to say that I have too many opinions on too many things – but be that as it may…

We all know that in an incorrect handling of parenting, paternalism is sometimes evident in dealing with one’s children – the child is treated in a fatherly manner, having all of their needs provided for. But in the parent’s desperate desire to help and protect, the child can be stripped of personal choice and their personal responsibilities negated.

I am of the strong conviction that one of the often occurring failures in missions is that of falling either intentionally, or unintentionally into paternalism as well. It is a very difficult thing to hand over a work to others, especially when we feel that we know best, and that someone else cannot, or will not do it as well as I want it done.

Where the double whammy comes in missions is that too often we still have a feeling that we would never, ever verbalize, but which is lying just under the surface nonetheless – the feeling of superiority that says that the “uneducated savages can never do it on their own, but need our help”. Secondly, we like the feeling of paternalism. It makes us feel needed, and that others rely on us for their daily sustenance. Then finally, we, in mission circles, face the added stress of the responsibility of stewardship for God’s resources. We are charged with the care of money and other assets which have most often been donated for the advancement of Kingdom work. We legitimately feel the need to discharge this responsibility with care and in a trustworthy manner, and not in a willy-nilly fashion. This makes transference even more difficult because we have to wrestle with our consciences in the area of stewardship as well.

While I was growing up, my parents worked under a mission in northern Canada. Over the years that I observed the work that my parents were involved with, I saw examples of both good and bad missions techniques. Unfortunately some of the handover of the work from the “great white missionary” to national leadership did not go as smoothly as it should have, and there were some obvious hiccups along the way.

I believe that the work of in Cd. Valles has arrived at the place where we must make a definite and purposeful handover to national leadership, and a drawing back on our part. I pray that we can learn from the past, and not have to repeat the negative things that happened then.

In some ways the work in Cd. Valles has a great strength in that Voice in the Wilderness Ministries and its precursors – Earthen Vessels and CornerStone International, under which the work was developed, has always placed itself under the cover of the national church, and specifically under that of Ezequiel and Veronica. We have always seen ourselves as serving as an evangelistic arm of the national church, and never as any sort of great white leader who is seeking recognition. That was/is a good thing. However, we do need to recognize the danger of inadvertently, and very unintentionally slipping into paternalism. Surely no one would ever seek to intentionally do so…still, the heart is desperately wicked, who can truly know it!

We need to be very, very careful now as the vision of the Bible School / Training Center moves closer from dream to reality. We must hold lightly all ownership and control. This issue is made even more difficult for the Canadian work than for its U.S. counterpart because of legal issues as stipulated by Canadian charity laws. Revenue Canada demands control of tax-receipted funds which go through Canadian non-profits. This can bring fear into the hearts of those who legitimately do want to be faithful in handing a work over to national leaders, and themselves taking a back seat in the direction of the work.

The one area in which we as leadership in VitW Ministries (and probably specifically me, Steven Frey), has felt that we need to make changes is with the staff housing above the church building in Cd. Valles. Any of you who have been here will know that over the past twelve or so years very usable and comfortable apartments have been built above the church building. This building process began when Dr. Heinlein and I arrived back in 1998 (as chronicled in the May 10^th blog “Reflections: Past and Future”, as well as that of May 27^th entitled “What Do These Stones Mean”. I encourage you to go back and take a peak at these so that the past will help you to understand the present and future).

Today, after much hard work, sacrifice on the part of many people, and perseverance, there are beautiful facilities above the church which have served the ministry well. The easiest thing now would be to sit back with folded arms and enjoy the status quo. However, for a variety of reasons we have been feeling an urgency to make a handover of all of the property to the national church as of the end of 2010.

Our logic is several-fold. First of all, I think that the time is ripe for the handover, and the end of any type of paternalism which may have unwittingly been established. Secondly, Theresa and I do need (at least would like) a bit more privacy. Thirdly, and I think very importantly, we need a place where we can have people over to visit in a more “normal” way. At present, we live in Grand Central and there are many, many who flow up and down the stairs and by our rooms. The problem is, though, that it is really very difficult to simply have someone over just to visit or for any sort of a purposeful private time. Theresa and I look forward to having a home which is available to have friends in for a visit or a cup of coffee – a place where we can host a Christian movie, or simply have an informal group of people over to visit and talk.

This all sounds simple except for the underlying element of paternalism with which I began this blog – if we hand it over will it be maintained as we would desire it to be? Is this the best use of God’s money? Are we being good stewards? Will the place be comfortably prepared when guests arrive to work or teach here? etc., etc.

The answer is “yes”- we must not act as paternalistic parents. So, we have made the hand over. As of the end of the year Theresa and I will no longer be living in the apartments above the church building. These apartments will no longer be VitW Ministries staff housing, but rather, will be owned and controlled by Iglesia Esfuerzo Magdiel (the national church onto which they are attached). We have asked to continue to be able to have them available to visitors and work teams if possible. All visitors will now need to expect to pay a nominal fee for staying in the church-owned apartments. This fee will go toward a fund which will be used by the church to pay for the ongoing maintenance of the apartments as well as towards the extra expenses incurred by them towards utilities when visitors are staying there.

A leap of faith? Sure. Uncomfortable and inconvenient? Without a doubt. This now means that Theresa and I must rent a place. We must now go out and look for a fridge and stove, a washing machine, as well as other basic necessities. We will take some – a bare minimum of things, with us to the new place. However, the status quo is always more comfortable – after all, we have been there for years and it is comfortable. Now we need to start over again, and that is never comfortable.

Still, as I mentioned above, there are some very big benefits that can begin to happen in the area of relationships when we live within a “normal” community setting rather than in the unnatural setting above the church building. Also, a strong advantage is that it will make impossible the tendency of developing an “American enclave” where we all speak English, think American, and live an American lifestyle bubble within Mexico.

However, the status quo is always more comfortable…remember us in your prayers as we transition.

A Good Morning to You To!!

I feel like Theresa and I are floundering with broken wings in the information age. Have you ever seen the histrionics of a whippoorwill with its wild and daring broken-wing display as you approached too close to its nest? That would be Theresa and me at present.

We arrived back to Cd. Valles on the 5^th of November to a very, very busy household. However, we also arrived back to no internet connection – hence, the feeling of flapping wildly with a clipped wing. Our lifeline to the outside is 100% through the internet. Things run differently as soon as you cross the border into Mexico. One cannot so easily simply pick up the phone and call. There has been a rather roaring silence from our end.

We still are not completely back on line. We can get on sometimes, but within minutes we get kicked off line. Oh well…hopefully we can eventually get this hiccup resolved as well.

It has been a long time since my last entry, and for that I apologize. I have meant to keep much more current, but there have been several things which have prevented this over the past two months.

Our Latest House Guest

Of course, as you all know, Theresa and I were back in Manitoba for several weeks. Due to our haphazard internet access from our Manitoba apartment, and our rather less-than-consistent schedule while there, some things fell by the wayside. Emails and blogs were some of the things that were moved aside and took second priority.

As I already mentioned, Theresa and I arrived back to Cd. Valles two weeks ago to an even larger than normal whirlwind. Things always move at a rather intimidating pace around here on a normal day. However, this time we also arrived to a houseful waiting for us. Winston Penner, and Cleo and Char Yoder – teachers for the Project L.A.M.B.S. Bible School – had arrived in Cd. Valles a week before us. We had told them that we were coming later than originally planned so that we could be with James and Jessica when they received Jessica’s oncology report on the 29^th of October. This was no problem with them, but it did put a finite deadline on our return.

Everyone was fine when we got here, and I would venture to say that we were only marginally missed at all.

Theresa and I both spent the first couple of days upon returning in cleaning and reorganizing everything in the staff apartments. It is amazing how much dust and dirt accumulated over the weeks that we were gone. Also, since we had moved many of the household things into our bedroom for storage while we were gone, we needed to reorganize everything simply in order to use our room again.

LAMBS Graduates

The two weeks of Project L.A.M.B.S. courses went extremely well. Fred Erb also arrived on the 9^th of November, and the teachers were very busy in both teaching and taking care of administrative business related to the continuation of the program. A beautiful graduation was held on the 13^th for L.A.M.B.S. students, as well as for the graduating student of Instituto Biblico Interdenominacional Luz le las Naciones.

LAMBS Graduate with Certificate

Theresa and I took Cleo, Char and Winston over to Tampico on Sunday so that they could catch their plane home on the following early morning flight – the only one north daily. The 100 mile trip to Tampico sounds easy until you know what the roads are like. There are many bone rattling and suspension wrecking potholes and “topes” along the way.

On Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of this week we spent hours in meetings with Ezequiel, Veronica, Fred, Theresa and I. We had a years worth of business to plough through, and future plans and visions to develop for the continuation of the work of Voice in the Wilderness Ministries here in Cd. Valles. It went well, but as meetings always

Meetings in Progress around Steven and Theresa's Kitchen Table

go – it was draining and left one exhausted at the end of the day. None-the-less, we covered much ground, and I believe that we all felt that much has been accomplished.

The result of all of this though, is that I now have a ton of work to do to get everything organized and into proper order. I took a picture of the state of my work desk as it appeared this morning. I am beginning, slowly, to hack my way towards the bottom of the mess. There is much to do in the weeks and months ahead, and things are exciting and moving in a good direction. It is obvious that God is moving, and that much is happening. I will try to keep you informed along the way.

Apparently things have been fairly stable here in Cd. Valles while Theresa and I were gone. However, the same is not necessarily true for the nation in general. Yesterday I took Fred Erb to the airport in Tampico to catch his early morning flight back to Canada. Since we needed to leave at 3:00 am in order to be there in time to catch his flight, I dropped him off at the airport and headed to the Burger King parking lot which was close by, and got a couple of hours of shut-eye so that I would not fall asleep on the drive home. I was awakened to the very close staccato of semiautomatic gun fire just around the corner from where I was sleeping. Apparently there was a shoot-out in process at about 8:45 in the morning in Tampico, and I just happened to be where the action was taking place. People were running for cover and waiting out the gunfire. After it was all over I got out of the van to look around a bit, and someone yelled that there had been a shootout (no kidding), and that I should get out of Dodge fast. I decided to take his advice, and drove off without any further incidents. I made it home without any more excitement except the horrifically bad road to keep me entertained.

Tomorrow Ezequiel and Veronica leave for a ministry conference in Merida, Yucatan. This will certainly be a grueling bus ride for them – I suspect it will be at least thirty hours of not-so-comfortable sitting to get there, and then the same to get back.

There is much to report, and much to look forward to. It is exciting, and the coming months and year ahead promise to be busy and blessed.

I will keep you informed…

It has been a long time since I have entered anything into this blog, and high time that I do so.

As I indicated our intent in my last entry, Theresa and I are back in Manitoba. We got here in the wee hours of the morning on the 9^th of September. Life has been very busy since we arrived back. We are trying to juggle all of the daily things that need to be taken care of whenever we are back, as well as fitting in as much time with all of the kids as possible.

Jessica finished her first round of radiation and chemo about a week ago. Once again, I encourage anyone who is interested in what is going on in their lives to look up their blog at: mainlandmessage.blogspot.com. I know that you will find it not only a very good read, but also uplifting, at times an occasion to look into the depths of your faith, sometimes shed tears, and many times you will find it straight out hilarious.  It will also give you a good window into what is going on in our lives while we are here in Manitoba with them.

We are in fact staying with James and Jessica and the boys this week. We have been changing off with Leonard and Leona, Jessica’s parents in helping out with the boys. Ari and Jude, five and three years old, take a lot of energy to keep up with. There is a reason why God gives us children when we are in our twenties, and not in our forties and fifties.

Theresa and I are doing well. We are busy. Theresa is trying to visit all of her friends and get caught up again after being gone for six months. This also has to be fit in around all of the other things that are going on now in our lives.

One of the rather “crazy” and bold things that we are trying is to see if we can manage to survive while we are here in Canada on the income from an import business that we have set up. Before we returned to Manitoba, Theresa and I went to Southern Mexico to the silver cradle of the region, and purchased jewelry with the intention of reselling it when we arrived back in Canada. We then went through the process of applying for a company registration through the Canadian government. We are currently registered as Silver Valley Imports and are importers of fine silver jewelry and handcrafts.

Our dream is eventually to be able to utilize this business in “tent making” in such a way that we can become self supporting while on the mission field. The next step is that we hope to be able to provide fair trade prices to the artisans and villagers throughout Chiapas, Oaxaca, Guatemala and other regions where we purchase the handcrafts which we will import. Many times there is no good market for these local artisans, and they receive far less than their handcrafts are worth.

At this point we lack the ability to find a good venue for sale here. We have sold some, but certainly not enough to be self supporting as we had hoped and envisioned. We are looking at possibly setting up home jewelry parties, and possibly selling through a website. However, both take time to establish – time that we don’t have on such a short visit. Any suggestions from any of my readers as to how we can do this would be appreciated. I still believe that the idea is sound, and that we should be able to be self supporting in this way – freeing up money for ministry rather than personal support.

Just a little “heads-up” as to what is coming to the VitW Ministries website soon.  We will be adding another tab along the top of the home page marked “Archives”.  Here you will find the old ministry newsletters which I sent out over the years while I worked under Earthen Vessels and CornerStone Ministries. For some of you, this will be an opportunity to reread old mail. For others, this will be a chance to catch a picture of the early history of the work of these ministries in Cd. Valles, and the Huasteca region of Mexico.

Until later…