Current Events and Updates of the Ministry

Fifty five years ago this world was blessed with the birth of a beautiful baby boy –

Stevie Ray. Today he officially becomes a senior citizen – go figure!  Happy Birthday to me.

…Okay the chit chat is over – down to business!!

I am going to try to bring you up to date with what has been going on here in Cd. Valles over the past months since my last formal mail-out.  Of necessity, this will be an encapsulated, and somewhat generalized birds-eye overview. From here forward we can keep you up to date on a more blow-by-blow basis.

In my last blog I eluded to the fact that we have been blessed to have had quite a number of visitors and mission volunteers join us over the winter. Taking the risk that I may miss someone, I will attempt to list them:

–          Allen Ko joined us in December, bringing along his surveying equipment and skills. We surveyed boundaries, cleared the job sites, and took elevation readings on both the properties for the new church auditorium, as well as the one which we were in the process of purchasing for the Bible School (more on this later…).

–          Shortly after Allen left, Theresa was overjoyed to have her sister, brother-in-law, and niece join us. They were with us for Christmas and New Years, taking some of the sting away from her first Christmas season separated from our children and grandchildren.

–          Very shortly following their arrival at the end of December our friends Ben and Anna Sawatzky arrived with the purpose of staying until the latter part of April. They were joined for a couple of weeks over New Years by their niece Jessica as well. Ben and Anna had been in Cd. Valles for a number of months several years ago, and came back to a very warm, and much anticipated welcome.  Ben, an excellent finish carpenter by trade, and an all around jack-of-all-trades, made a tremendous contribution to the work in many areas. He will always be remembered for the fine quality desks that he built for the English School (more on the school later…). Anna, much loved by everyone for her generous and gregarious personality, once again made friends with everyone who passed through our home, fattened many a happy passerby with her delightful cinnamon rolls, and encouraged many in their walk in the Lord. As of this posting, they have only recently returned to Canada.

–          On the 9^th of January Fred Erb, his daughter Bethany Erb and Jeremy Little arrived to teach “The Life of Christ” and “Galatians” in the Light Abroad Mobile Bible School (Project L.A.M.B.S.) portion of the Bible Institute. As always, the two weeks that they were here were good, intense, and exhausting for everyone involved – most certainly for the instructors as well as their students. It is always good to have Fred Erb here in Cd. Valles, as many of the directive decisions of VitW Ministries go through him and the board of elders of Listowel Community Church, and it is necessary to have him here on occasion to appraise situations first hand.

–          While the LAMBS team was here our friends Cliff and Colleen Martens arrived for a quick visit for five days. Despite the whirlwind nature of the visit, we packed a lot of living into the days that we had with them. They returned to Manitoba taking with them our love and best wishes to the friends which we left there.

–          Only days after Fred and the team headed back to Canada, Theresa and I headed up to Texas. We were on our way to San Antonio, Texas to pick up our friends Len and Leona Gerbrandt. However, on the way there we took a slight detour and headed to Houston and Gladewater, Texas where we spent several intense days of meeting with a variety of people and ministries. It is always amazing to watch as God opens doors, making a network of like-minded believers wherever one goes.

–          Upon picking up Len and Leona Gerbrandt at the train station in San Antonio where they arrived after traveling from Grand Forks, North Dakota, we headed back to Cd. Valles. We have a special link with Leonardo and Leonarda (collectively called “los leones”, or “the lions”), since their daughter married our son, and we share grandchildren.  Len and Leona have been a great asset to the work in many areas, not the least appreciated of which is Len using his skills and love for playing with Excel to make beautiful, clean spreadsheets for the ministry books. They have been extremely helpful in beginning the English Language School – Easy English (once again, more on this to follow…). They also came to Cd. Valles with the intention of teaching ESL (English as a Second Language) classes – a much appreciated skill which they will begin utilizing tomorrow when our first teacher-based classes begin.

–          A little later in the month of February, Clinton Miller from Oregon arrived for a visit. Clinton, an RN, returned to Cd. Valles for his third visit in order to continue exploring the possibility of introducing Church-based, or Parish Nursing to the local believers. Clinton is also studying Spanish, and took the bold move of requesting that he be able to stay in a local home while he was here rather than staying in staff housing with us. His stay is much remembered and appreciated by his hosts Roman and Lupita and their family.

–          As the saying goes – “it never rains but it pours”. Only days following Clinton’s arrival, the Project L.A.M.B.S. team – Winston Penner and Cleo Yoder arrived to teach “The Church, The Body of Christ” and “Church History” for two weeks. Erwin Friesen accompanied them and we were blessed to have his help as well.

–          On the 4^th of March I dropped Clinton Miller off at the airport in Tampico, and hurried back to Cd. Valles to pack my own suitcase to leave for Manitoba the following morning. As things turn out, it is necessary for Theresa and I to return to Manitoba every six months in order to reestablish our out-of-country health insurance. We also need to leave Mexico every six months in order to get a new visa and vehicle permit. This also allows us time to visit family and children, as well as churches along the way.  On the 5^th Theresa and I turned the wheels northward and began the 2,000 plus mile journey back to Manitoba.

–          This time we had some deadlines to meet as well. First of all, we needed to be in Grove, Oklahoma by Sunday where we had the opportunity to share with our friends at NewSong Church. Then, we also wanted very badly to go through Indiana to meet with our new friends Dan and Gloria King from Elkhart. Earlier in the fall God had placed it upon their hearts to supply all of the windows which would be needed for the construction of the new schools, and we desired to meet them in person. We took a bit of an easterly detour and were able to spend a wonderful evening learning to know them, and to be blessed by their love for the Lord, and their untiring passion for missions. From there we headed quickly up to Manitoba where we spent a non-stop couple of weeks cramming several months of “stuff” into days.

–          On the 25^th of March we turned the wheels south again and made our return trek. This time we had “in-tow” a team of workers from Landmark Christian Fellowship who were returning to Cd. Valles to finish the addition which had been begun one year previously. The next two weeks were busy, exhausting, and glorious in many ways. Polyurethane foam was used to insulate the building, and OSB sheeting was used to cover the walls and ceiling. It looks great!

–          The LCF team headed north on Friday, April 9^th and drove like mad-men to arrive back in Manitoba for work on Monday. The only downer of their time here was that I managed to have an accident where I broke my right wrist in two places. I am still being slowed down with a bum arm, and realistically, I know that it will take an extended time to completely heal.

–          On the 14^th of April Theresa and I left for Puebla, Mexico for an “Orality Evangelism” conference. (There will be more on this later…).

As you can see, life has been full – but that is certainly enough for one Blog. I promised short-and-sweet, and I will try to deliver. So, adieu dear reader – until a later entry…

In my last (and first) Blog entry I admitted my blatant failure as a communicator.  So now where does one begin?

Let me say first of all that Theresa and I are doing well. We have enjoyed the fellowship of a number of other missionary volunteers over the past months (more on this later), and

on a little personal note – God has been very gracious to us so far this year. By now, usually we should be melting in humidity and heat here in Cd. Valles. May is generally the hottest month of the year, and temperatures of 50°C (122° F) are usually very common, with the mercury even hitting 60°C (140°F) not unheard of. Of course, the killer on top of the heat is the humidity that goes with it. This year has been unusual for us so far. The winter months (December and January) were unusually severe, with cold snaps being much more frequent and longer than usual. Coupled with this is the fact that we have had a much longer rainy season than usual. Of course, the severity of one’s winter is a relative term at best. We had at least one spell of a couple of days where the bulb dipped to 5°C (41°F) at night, and a number where it bottomed out at 8°C. For those of you who I can hear sniggering into your shirttails at my wimpiness, let me remind you that many houses (ours included) have almost no actual windows, but rather only window openings, and certainly no way to heat the rooms. When a cold wind blows into the house you hang up some sort of curtain, and simply add more layers of clothing and blankets.

Of course, for most of the year you want, and indeed pray for any amount of breeze that may penetrate the concrete rooms in which one is stifling – enclosed by block walls which are radiating heat like an oven. Mercifully, so far this year has been much cooler than normal. Once again, everything is relative, but as I glance at my little weather unit I see that it is a mere 32.8°C (91.0°F) at the moment, and only 53% humidity.  This is a long way from what it usually is.  Thank you Lord. I will enjoy it as long as you see fit to give it to us. Probably the most pleasant thing is that it drops down at night, becoming very beautifully “cool” by morning making it possible to sleep at night with only the bedroom windows open.

This does bring up another praise item – we have been very blessed over the course of this past year to be able to put air conditioning units into the bedrooms in the VitW staff housing apartment.  Last fall I grabbed hammer and chisel and began to chop holes into the cement block walls. We then bought “window” units which we hung through the walls.  If one can sleep at nigh – even if you are sweating and miserable throughout the day – survival is possible.

There will be more (and weightier issues of more import) following. However, I do want you to know that we are actually people as well – people with likes and dislikes, preferences, and wishes just like you. For example, I definitely prefer a cool climate with lots of rain (so what am I doing in Cd. Valles?).

I must run now. Over the past year Theresa and I have been involved in a mission outreach in a place called Las Pitas, a small village about forty-five minutes to the north of Cd. Valles.  Tonight we will be showing the first movie in a new film ministry outreach program. We have chosen to begin the outreach at Las Pitas. The ministry team will arrive any minute, so I must prepare the equipment.

So, now comes the learning curve for you the recipient, as well as for me the sender.  Please take some time and look through the website www.vitwministries.com (this of course stands for Voice in the Wilderness Ministries).  It is a beautifully constructed site with many hidden treasures, dropdowns, and surprises along the way. We will constantly be adding new pictures and updates to the site as well, making it fresh and fun to keep up with the work of Voice in the Wilderness Ministries in Mexico.

Then, the “crem de la crem” – the very best of the best, is the Blog site which is directly linked to the vitwministries.com website. At this point it may be wisest for me simply to admit my failures directly up front. I have failed miserably and repeatedly in all areas of being even an adequate communicator, let alone a good one. Months (and months, and months) have slipped by without me getting letters and updates off. Many of you must have wondered over the course of the past year if Frey still existed at all, and more importantly, if there was anything at all still going on with the work of VitW Ministries. I can give a definite affirmative to both, and mumble excuses into my beard about the tyranny of the urgent, long hours that do not allow for sitting down to compose letters, etc,. etc..  However, the plain, simple truth is that I have failed miserably. I apologize.

But now – thanks once again to my friend Jason – there is a fun, practical, and simple tool which will make the past history, and turn the corner for me in communications. Of course, there will be some rough edges, and perhaps a hiccup or two as I learn the system and how to link the blog to the website, add pictures, change articles, etc., but the vision is this: I/we will add constant, short updates, photos, thoughts, prayer needs… You, for your part, can log in and catch up with our activities as you wish. In this way there will be less tedium for you in reading, as well as for us in writing.

To make all of this happen, simply log in as you have already done into the www.vitwministries.com site. Then, look for the bright orange tab along the top marked VitW Blog.  Click onto this tab and you will be taken right into the Blog.  Even better, make sure to Click onto the spot marked “Subscribe to VitW Blog by Email” (you will find this in the top left area).  This will take you through several easy-to-follow steps which will require you to enter your email address and some squiggly letters. The weird letters are there to ensure that you are not simply a computer entering the site to spam, but that you are actually a person (a computer cannot read, or enter the weird letters). You will then need to open your email that will follow, and this will verify that you wish for updates to be sent to you. You may need to check your “Junk Mail” file if you don’t receive notification right away as your computer may not recognize the address and place it as junk. If you go through these steps you will always get a notice via email that there has been a new Blog added to the site. Cool!!

There will also be an RSS site, and soon a Twitter.  But we can discuss this further in a later blog. I first need to learn how to do it myself  (old guys need a bit more time to learn new tricks).

So that is the plan – now to make it work…