Current Events and Updates of the Ministry

Am I the only one who feels as if the world is careening swiftly into madness and insanity, or would you agree with me that Isaiah was correct over twenty seven hundred years ago when he warned “Woe (judgment is coming) to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness; Who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!” Isaiah 5:20 (Amplified Bible)

Much has happened in the world since my last blog post back in April. Again, as I have stated many times over the years, I am immeasurably grateful that our God is sovereign and that He rules the heavens and the earth. He never slumbers or grows weary. He is never taken by surprise, nor does he ever wring his hands in distress or worry. Indeed, “He who sits [enthroned] in the heavens laughs [at their rebellion]; The [Sovereign] Lord scoffs at them [and in supreme contempt He mocks them].” Psalms 2:4 (Amplified Bible)

How wonderful it is to know that as the world seems to be in “meltdown mode” around us we can cling to our Rock and our Defender; our Lord and our Savior, and rest securely and safely in Him!

Since we arrived back in Manitoba in the spring (as per my last blog) Theresa and I have remained close to home over the summer except for a couple short excursions. In June we took the opportunity of spending about a week and a half being blessed by our friends Dan and Marlys in North Dakota as Dan put the final touches on our little camper and sprayed it with a brand new coat of paint. Truthfully I had no idea of the amount of work that I was asking of him, but both Theresa and I will be forever indebted to them for their generosity. Now we proudly pull our little 49 year old Triple E Surfside camper which we’ve dubbed “Li’l Ruby” and get a cheerful thumbs-up from other baby boomers along the way who also remember the days when life was simpler, and camping was more basic.

From North Dakota we meandered our way south with Li’l Ruby on our way to Nebraska where Theresa spent about a week and a half visiting her mother and I worked on the repairs to Theresa’s mother’s house that I mentioned in the last blog.

In October we were blessed to be able to spend about a week back in North Dakota volunteering our time at the Father’s Farm (https://www.fathersfarmnd.org/). We were blessed to be able to be there with the men, and in a small way assisting in their mission of “preparing men to thrive in a broken world.”

We knew that we were pushing our camping season by going so late into the fall, but we were blessed by unseasonably warm days and totally manageable nights while we were there. No sooner had we arrived home than the bottom of the thermometer dropped out and we were hit with snow and freezing weather. We were indeed wonderfully blessed.

Since leaving Mexico in March I have remained in close contact with Javier and Cristina. As usual they have been extremely busy and live very full lives of ministry.

Over the summer months Cristina and her teams of young people presented week-long Vacation Bible School programs in ten villages and assisted in three others, both in the region around Cd. Valles and Solidaridad as well as up into the mountains to the west among the Pame tribal people where the gospel has so recently come. Javier told me that in many of the Pame villages both children and adults attended the Summer Bible School programs because, since many of the adults can’t read, they learn best by oral and visual presentation. The flannel graphs and other predominantly visual and tactile content designed with the children in mind actually were a great teaching tool for these adults as well. Perhaps we can all learn from this and not get too uppity in our self-importance in ministry.

Besides the Vacation Bible Schools Cristina continues very busy with the children’s ministry “Hidden Manna” in Buenos Aires where they feed and bring the message of the love of Jesus to the children and youth in this little impoverished squatter’s village. Many of these children also bring their mothers who then hear about the love of Jesus for them as well.

Cristina and Alicia continue very busy in the sewing program which also trains and creates income for a number of women and girls. Through this sewing ministry women who would otherwise probably not be open to a church-based program are able to hear the gospel of salvation and of the love of Jesus for them.

Javier, for his part, besides pastoring the local church in Solidaridad, functioning for the past year as Presbyter for the Cd. Valles region for the Assemblies of God denomination, and being very much involved in other local ministries, is also extremely focused on missionary outreach and planting churches in the mountainous Pame tribal region to the west of Cd. Valles.

Recently Javier was able to set up a low-wattage radio station in the home of the Wycliffe missionary in the community of La Parada, just down the mountain from the larger village of Santa Maria Acapulco. You will remember from some of my previous blogs that the village of Santa Maria Acapulco is the spiritual and cultural seat of power for the Pame tribal region and is steeped in deep witchcraft and very dark spiritism. [Refer especially to blog dated August 8, 2022]: http://www.vitwministries.com/wordpress/2022/08/that-joy-may-be-made-complete-by-having-you-share-in-the-joy-of-salvation/

Although the door has not opened so far for Javier to be able to have a physical presence directly in the village of Santa Maria Acapulco as was hoped, including the purchase of a small property in order to establish a ministry with the children, nonetheless the broadcasting of Christian radio into the community has become a powerful tool for evangelism.

Better equipment is now needed for the little radio station including a professional microphone and faster laptop computer, as well as a more powerful transmitter and antenna. These improvements would greatly expend the radius of the station’s broadcasting, and since it is literally the only radio signal received in the region there is no competition for audience. Javier is hoping to be able to include community-serving programing and announcements as well as Christian broadcasting. Also, because Catalino and Jose Santos, national brothers who work in Bible translation into the Pame language are involved in the broadcasting as well, they are able to minister the Word and preach in Xi-Ui, the heart language of the Pame people.

Further, although the purchase of a property in Santa Maria Acapulco has been denied so far, Javier and his missionary teams have been allowed into the community and have even been granted permission to hold evangelistic campaigns directly in the heart of the village, utilizing the community open-air galera (it’s open-sided community building in the center of town).

Although new Pame villages continue to open to the gospel and new churches continue to be planted throughout the region, a perpetual burden on Javier’s heart is for local leaders to be trained and established to pastor these fledgling Christians. One of the huge hindrances to any continuity is the impoverished nature of the region. There is minimal paid employment in the whole area and many of the men must leave for large portions of the year in order to try to earn money to support their families. Because of this, even though the local bodies of believers are growing in these far-flung and isolated villages as people give their hearts to the Lord, there is a high level of migration throughout all of the communities and it is very difficult for Javier to be able to find consistent leaders to train.

One praiseworthy and notable exception to this is brother Ciro Apolinar in the village of El Coco whose miraculous testimony is related in the December 17, 2021 blog: http://www.vitwministries.com/wordpress/2021/12/oh-the-depth-of-the-riches-of-the-wisdom-and-knowledge-of-god/

Ciro’s life has been 100% and radically changed by the transformative power of God. He is now not only a godly husband and father in his own home, but he is also growing as a wise and faithful leader under Javier’s careful guidance for the whole of his village of El Coco as well as other surrounding communities

There is tremendous poverty in many of these mountain villages and Javier and his team often bring food and clothing to assist the local communities if and when they have the funds to do so. One of Javier’s dreams is to be able to supply some sort of employment in order to assist the local believers economically and physically as well as spiritually. One very simple example that he suggested to me is to employ men in the various villages to build outhouses or latrines. In this region it is not the custom for anyone to have any type of toilet facility, and people simply use the bush around the village for their bathroom needs. Building latrines would obviously bring great health benefits to the village, but it could also provide paid employment. Of course the question that this immediately brings to mind is where the funds would come from for such a project.

I am sad to say that the continued drought throughout the whole of the region is again bringing added suffering to an already dire situation. This is now the sixth year of well below the level of needed rainfall throughout the Huasteca. Once rushing rivers have again dried up as they did last year. Wells which once produced abundant water are now again dry. And insult to injury, in the valleys wherever sugarcane has been monocropped (as has been done virtually everywhere where it can be grown throughout the whole of the Huasteca region), fields are again yielding almost nothing this year. Sugar mills are shutting down because there is not enough cane to process, and others are incorporating into single mills. Where there were once sugar mills throughout the whole of the region, there are now only several still able to remain open. The problem is that, for good or for bad, sugarcane had become the one-legged foundation and economic base of the local region – the growing of it, the field labor, the harvesting, and the milling of it into sugar – had all been the chief employment base for a large portion of the population, especially for those in the lower socioeconomic strata. With the prolonged drought the ever waiting, insidious, and unforgiving nature of monocropping has struck and has injected its venom.

A ministry need that is becoming very obvious is for a different truck for Javier in order for the missionary teams to be able to continue to minister into the mountainous Pame region. The roads in this area are unthinkably brutal on both vehicle and human bones. Human bones can heal, a vehicle just deteriorates. The little Ford Ranger which the ministry was able to purchase for Javier many years ago has just about reached its shelf life even within the rather exaggerated limits of rural Mexico. Javier’s “burro” is getting very tired and is pretty well on its last leg. He keeps patching it up and continues to pound his brutal way back into the villages, but his guardian angels are growing weary. On his last trip back to Cd. Valles last week with his ministry team with him after a week-long ministry campaign in the high sierra, he lost his front brakes and wheel bearings. He limped home (somehow) through steep mountain passes and hairpin curves making it home safely. In his communication with me after the incident he quoted one of my oft-stated lines: “A life without adventure is not a life worth living”. However, even I had to write back with a recommendation that we don’t push the “adventure envelope” too far.

The bottom line is that if he is to continue ministering among the Pame people and planting churches in the far flung villages in these mountains then he needs a reliable vehicle to do so. Unfortunately, because of the nonprofit laws of Canada any funds that will be used for this type of a purchase must come through non-receipted giving. If you feel that you would be able to do so, and if you feel that God desires for you to assist with this need please contact me directly. I can be reached by email at: steve_frey-74@yahoo.com, or by phone at (431) 205-1819.

Or alternatively, Canadians can contact Pastor Fred Erb at Listowel Community Church in Listowel, Ontario.

In the United States giving can go to New Song Church in Grove, Oklahoma earmarked for Voice in the Wilderness Ministries. But in this case I should be told so that the gift will go directly towards a vehicle and not enter into the general VitW Ministry funds.

Again, as always, both Theresa and I thank you so much for your love and care for us over the years as well as for the people of Mexico. We thank you for your faithfulness in standing with the ongoing ministry through prayer and finances. May God bless you richly.

Keep your focus upward. Lift up your eyes and your head, your redemption is drawing near.

Maranatha!

Your fellow laborers in Christ,

Steven and Theresa

“You are my hiding place; you will protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance.

I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my loving eye on you.” Psalm 32:7-8

Theresa and I arrived safely back to Manitoba on the evening of the 22^nd of March after having been gone for nearly five months. Upon our arrival at home we were somewhat shocked to find that there were still piles of snow drifted everywhere and temperatures that made us wonder if we shouldn’t have decided to stay in more southerly climes for a little while longer. To add insult to injury, today we are being slammed with a “Colorado low” and another huge dump of snow. The schools have been cancelled in our region due to the dangerous conditions of the roads, and it looks like Christmas, not spring. What happened to “April showers bring May flowers”?

Nonetheless, I think that at times both Theresa and I were beginning to mutter Johnny Cash’s Country hit under our breath:

 “I’ve been everywhere, man
Crossed the deserts bare, man
I’ve breathed the mountain air, man
Of travel I’ve had my share, man
I’ve been everywhere”….

and we were both feeling that it was time to touch home plate again, at least for a little while.

However, having said that, our time away was extremely profitable and we saw the hand of God move in many ways. I want the share some of these with you without running the risk of being tedious by trying to cram too much of the five months into one single blog. Because of this I will attempt to pick out highlights only.

As some of you know, Theresa’s 90 year old mother fell about a year ago and broke her hip, making it necessary for her to move into a nursing home. Because she lives in Nebraska it makes everything difficult for the family since we all live a considerable distance from where she is. We were blessed that she could get into a wonderful care home last spring, and after a brief period of adjustment she found that she loved living there and is presently doing very well.

Nevertheless, this still means that on occasion Theresa and I need to spend time in Nebraska with her, as well as caring for the repairs and the cleanout of the family home in which she had lived for many years. Because of this we spent the first five weeks in Nebraska after leaving Manitoba on the 6^th of November.

On the 10^th of December we left Nebraska and headed east to Campobello Island, New Brunswick in order to celebrate Christmas and the New Year with our children and grandchildren who live on the island. We thoroughly enjoyed the milder weather (at least in comparison to Manitoba), the rugged and beautiful coastlines, the lighthouses, walking the beaches (despite cold winter winds), and the picturesque and unique beauty that is distinctively “east coast”. We enjoyed lobster and crab feeds and had pleasure in spending time with our grandchildren and seeing them growing up.

From Campobello we headed westward again taking the opportunity to pass through Elkhart, Indiana in order to spend a couple of nights and a delightful day with the extended Plett family; friends of ours originally from Manitoba.

We were blessed and refreshed by them and ready to again hit the road back to Nebraska “en route” to Mexico where we had established plans to spend the later part of January and the complete month of February reconnecting with pastors and other friends and the ongoing work in the Cd. Valles region, and especially being able to be introduced to the new work among the Pame tribal group in the mountainous region to the west of the city. We ended up spending six weeks in Mexico and were very blessed to be able to reconnect with many friends whom we had not seen for years, and left feeling that this had been perhaps one of the most fruitful mission trips that we had been involved with for many years.

We were also very blessed on two counts, both of which made the trip possible at all: first of all in finding friends in Pinawa who were willing to wonderfully look after our house here in Manitoba for the months that we were to be gone. Secondly, be able to rent a lovely little place in Mexico at a very reasonable rate so that we could have a home base in which to live while there and not become a burden to anyone. Despite generous and loving Mexican hospitality one does not want to be the “guest who never leaves”, especially considering the poverty of so many of our friends there. Indeed, having our own base became important as well because we hosted other guests for three weeks of our time in Mexico. None of which would have been possible if we had not found a suitable place to rent.

A considerable focus of our time in Mexico was to be centered on the new Pame outreach which pastor Javier and his mission teams have begun – a work to which many of us had never yet been personally introduced. To this end pastor Fred Erb from Listowel Community Church in Listowel, Ontario along with Oscar Salazar from Monterrey, Mexico (who was to translate for Fred), arrived to join Theresa and me in Cd. Valles on the 1^st of February.

We spent the following days in the high mountains to the west where Javier introduced us to the different communities where churches had been newly planted among Pame believers. In each of these far-flung and isolated communities the believers were encouraged and also invited to a conference which was to be held on Saturday, the 4^th.

On Saturday pastor Fred was the keynote speaker at the conference held for Pame leaders and Believers in the little community of Santa Catarina. There were about 150 people in attendance at the conference, arriving from many remote Pame communities across the whole of the region. Fred’s teaching was translated three ways – from English into Spanish, and then from Spanish into Xi-Ui (the language spoken by the Pame). It was a very blessed time with the Pame brothers and sisters and brought encouragement to many who often feel deeply cutoff and isolated from other Pame Believers due to the difficulty of travel and the fact that many of these Christians are very new in their faith and are surrounded by the deep witchcraft and animism of the predominant culture around them.

After the conference on Saturday afternoon we all piled back into the vehicles again and pounded our way back to Cd. Valles where pastor Fred was to present another conference in Javier’s church in Solidaridad on Sunday morning. Timing was a little bit precarious as well since we needed to leave the mountains early enough so that we could make it back to the city before late into the evening since it is not wise or safe to be on the roads at night in Mexico.

On Monday and Tuesday morning, after the conferences held on Saturday and Sunday, pastor Fred and Theresa and I spent time reconnecting with friends and leaders with whom we had worked for many years in Cd. Valles. Then on Tuesday afternoon Fred and Oscar left to return to Monterrey from where Fred would fly back to Canada on Wednesday.

For Theresa and me Wednesday meant turning the wheels of our little Mazda 3 eastward towards Tampico in order to pick up Clinton and Janet Miller who were arriving at the Tampico airport from Oregon. The Millers spent the following two weeks with us, again making us very thankful that we were able to rent a place sufficiently large enough for us all to stay.

Thus began the “second phase” of our time in Mexico.

The following two weeks and beyond were divided between intensely reconnecting with pastors, friends, and ministries more locally in the Cd. Valles area as well as being exposed even more deeply to the fledgling ministry among the Pame tribe in the mountainous region to the west.

As a result of the conference the previous week in Santa Catarina it was also a joy to be able to be introduced to other pastors and Christians completely outside of the usual circles within which we would have normally moved. This brought about spending time with Christian Pame leaders in the little village of La Parada who, along with a Wycliffe missionary are translating the Bible into Xi-Ui. To date this is still not a written language, and all translation must be done orally and recorded. There we were introduced to a little device called the “Proclaimer” which allows for people who rely on oral rather than written language to hear the Bible read to them in their “heart language”. The connection for these Pame translators is an organization called “Faith Comes By Hearing” (https://www.faithcomesbyhearing.com/blog/an-answer-to-prayer-the-proclaimer).

I’m very interested in finding out more about these little devices and seeing if we can also utilize this technology for Javier so that he can record doctrinal Bible teaching for the new leaders in the far-flung villages where churches are being planted (conceptually, a complete oral Bible School curriculum). If this could be done it would enable him to continue to train them in sound doctrine while freeing him up from the necessity to personally go to each of these difficult-to-reach villages every fortnight. I will keep you up to date as I find out more information on this.

We were also privileged to get to know pastor Jorge Luis Resendiz and his wife Rosalva who have planted a church in the city of Jalpan de Serra, again far outside our “normal” circle of involvement as it is a distance to the southwest of Cd Valles. We spent a delightful couple of days with this ministry couple, along with others from their little church in Jalpan. It is wonderful to have one’s perspective opened to the broader scope of what is happening in the Church, and to gain a bigger and more complete picture of what God is doing.

I often feel as if our time in the Sierra Madre Oriental Mountains with the new Pame Believers was similar to reliving the Book of Acts over again. The ways in which God has opened villages to the gospel within this closed and tribal-orientated culture are often supernatural, and the individual stories of the awakening of spiritual eyes of faith are often miraculous. The love of the New Believers for the Lord is obvious and profound. Still, many of them lack a depth of sound biblical doctrine and on occasion fall back onto old animistic and cultural, pre-Christian belief paradigms.

Because of this, Javier, like the Apostle Paul before him is seeking to quickly find leaders in each of the newly-planted churches and into them instill the teaching of sound doctrine so that they can pass that instruction on to the local Body of Believers in each individual scattered village.

This approach is urgent because of several things: first of all, because of the distances and the brutality of the roads into many of the villages it is very difficult to access them. Javier and his team are attempting to reach at least some areas of this large Pame region every two weeks, but this is extremely physically taxing on them all. Besides this, the cost of doing so – even for gasoline alone – is an extreme burden on the ministry. Javier’s aging little Ford Ranger pickup that makes this outreach possible at all has definitely “seen better days” and is being held together on a wing and a prayer, and there is no money to replace it. Besides all of this, Javier is not a young man anymore and also has many responsibilities as a pastor and leader back in Solidaridad and Cd. Valles. The missionary, church-planting work among the Pame people requires that he is gone for days on end every two weeks, and even then it is impossible to cover all of the work that should be done – truthfully, in either place – among the Pame, or with his responsibilities at the home church.

Please remember to keep this work in your prayers. It is critical that Javier is able to quickly establish local, indigenous leaders in these communities for all of the reasons listed above, and no doubt for many more. Believers are coming to faith in the Lord, but many times there is inadequate depth of Bible-based doctrinal accuracy even in the local Christian leaders who must be relied upon in these fledgling churches.

As I mentioned earlier, although much of our attention on this ministry trip was focused towards the missionary outreach into the Pame region to the west of the city, that was not, and is certainly not the only thing happening in Mexico, nor is it all that Javier and Cristina are involved with.

One of the very encouraging components of the ongoing work is Cristina’s ministry with the poor children and their families in the squatter’s village of Buenos Aires just outside of the village of Solidaridad where Javier and Cristina’s home church is located. This Children’s Feeding Program called “Hidden Manna” has been feeding, helping, and loving the poor in this little squatter’s village for enough years that there are mature young people who are themselves now serving the Lord who began as little children in this program many years ago.

Because of this work with the children there is now also a thriving youth and adult church established in the center. Further, Cristina is reaching out to the poor, mainly unchurched women in the village and discipling them into the ways of God. Javier is also training a group of youth and adults in a mentorship Bible School using the facility as well.

Some of you will be somewhat familiar with the Hidden Manna Children’s Program because of Cristina’s monthly pictorial ministry reports if I have been forwarding them to you. If you are not receiving them and would like to have me send them to you, please email me and let me know where to send them.

An ongoing work that brought joy to Theresa’s heart in particular was to see the continuing ministry of the women’s sewing program which she began in our living room many years ago. This program has now gone full circle and during a graduation celebration that was held to honor the students, Cristina was recognized as the mother of the program, and Theresa as the grandmother. During the ceremony many of the women openly wept stating that except for Cristina and the focus of the sewing school in their lives during times of personal crisis they could not have made it through. Many also stated that it was because of Cristina’s loving and non-judgmental acceptance that they gave their lives and hearts to the Lord. It was also pretty amazing to see the dresses, skirts, blouses, pants, suits, etc., that these women and young girls are now producing!

Theresa and I are now home in Manitoba again – at least for the summer. We do have to return to Nebraska sometime this fall before the weather turns too cold so that I can finish some repairs on the house there before things freeze. Beyond that we plan to plug in locally over the summer and see where the Lord leads us.

It seems likely that if the doors remain open for us to do so we will plan on returning to Mexico again next winter for another visit. I believe that it is important for us to continue to be a link between the work there and the North American church.

Thank you for your love and prayers. Thank you for remembering the Church in Mexico. Please continue to hold Javier and Cristina and the others up in your prayers. Thank you for your giving and generosity towards those serving the Lord in Mexico. There are many monetary needs for the ongoing work, and it is often the lack of finances which hold up its advancement.

God has always been faithful over the many years, but like the widow in Elijah’s day, there is never more on hand than a little oil in a jug and a handful of flour at the bottom of a jar. But our commitment has been, and always will be that as long as God continues to provide the finances to do so, we will continue to make them available for the advancement of His work in Mexico.

Maranatha – Oh Lord, come!

Your fellow laborers as we await the Lord’s return,

Steven and Theresa

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“While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.” Genesis 8:22

 “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.” Isaiah 55:10-11

This week I was in our back yard raking leaves as a cold Manitoba autumn drizzle dampened my sweater and made the grass wet and slick around me. Fall time and the change of season was evident everywhere.

In many aspects I love autumn and was reminded of the verse from Genesis 8 which I quoted above. As long as the earth remains and the constancy of the seasons continue we see the goodness of God displayed in His common grace to everyone. And as the Apostle Paul states in the first chapter of Romans (my paraphrase): “What can be known about God is plain… because God has shown it… For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world in the things that have been made.”

Tragically though, the first chapter of Romans does not end there, nor does it conclude happily. Indeed verse 32, the last verse in the first chapter states: “Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.”

Common grace, undeserved blessings that all of natural man receives from the hand of God is not enough alone to draw the hearts of men and women to Him. For, as the Apostle Paul continues: “Although they knew God (as evidenced through his creation and the common grace of God all around them everywhere), they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened” (v 21).

That was the sad and desperate condition of all of us before we were drawn by the mercy of God to salvation through the message of the gospel of His Son Jesus Christ.

I was recently introduced to a song which I believe beautifully and clearly shows the progression of divine revelation – through creation God whispers; through the Holy Scriptures he speaks; and through Jesus Christ God has shouted. Jesus, God’s greatest Word to men…

God Has Spoken (words by: Chris Anderson)

God has whispered through Creation
Making all with Let there be
His creative voice still echoes
Through the works we hear and see
Oh what power oh what wisdom
Oh what kindness God has shown
God has whispered through Creation
He exists and may be known

God has spoken through the Scriptures
Breathing out His sacred Word
Spirit-led the holy authors
Have declared Thus says the Lord
Teaching us of sin and sinners
Of God’s saving sacrifice
God has spoken through the Scriptures
Pointing us to Jesus Christ

God has shouted through the Savior
Greatest Word of God to men
Word made flesh Christ took our nature
One of us without our sin
Jesus highest revelation
Seeing Him is seeing God
God has shouted through the Savior
Praise the living Word of God

We must also clearly understand that this message of the gospel, the good news of God for the salvation of sinners, has always been the center of God’s dealing with man from the beginning of sin, and is contained throughout the whole of the Bible – both Old and New Testaments. The Old Testament scriptures point towards Jesus, while the New Testament reveals plainly the reality of the promised Savior and the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Indeed, It is only through Jesus as revealed to us through the written Word of God – the Holy Bible, that we can be saved. There is no other way to find or attain salvation than through faith in Jesus Christ.

But what does faith in Jesus mean? What is this gospel, this good news that saves? What is the message of salvation distilled into its most basic and indivisible elements?

I believe that the bible is clear on this and its message unwavering. Indeed the gospel is not good news to the sinner at first, and he cannot receive the good news of salvation until he first receives the bad news – the reality that he is a sinner and cannot save himself or come before a Holy God on his own, and that he needs salvation in the first place.

When a person has his spiritual eyes opened by the mercy of the Holy Spirit to see that he is a sinner beyond all hope of coming on his own before God, then I believe that there are six elements of the gospel that must become internalized and believed – not in some sort of head approval, but rather, deeply into the soul and heart causing a complete life change – a true conversion. These are as follows (I Corinthians 15):

Jesus Christ has come in the flesh: Virgin born, the Son of God, fully man and fully God – God incarnate.

Jesus died for our sins: Paying our debt that we could never pay and making a way that we can have peace with Holy God.

Jesus was buried: He body was dead and laid in a tomb for three days.

Jesus was raised on the third day: His body was resurrected from the dead by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus is Lord: The central message of the Bible is that “Jesus Christ is Lord.” When we accept Jesus Christ as our Savior, by definition it must also involve the recognition of His lordship in our life, because the Savior who saved us when we received Him by faith is the Lord Jesus Christ himself.

Jesus is Judge: The Bible makes it very clear that both the righteous and the unrighteous will be judged by God. To those who are perishing this should be fearful beyond belief because as the writer to the Hebrews states: “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God”. In Matthew 10 Jesus’ own words of warning are: “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell”. But to the saved believers in Jesus the Apostle Paul exults in Romans 8:34 “Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us”.

Mercifully for all of us, as Isaiah stated in chapter 55 as quoted at the beginning of this blog; God’s Word as contained in the Bible, and His effectual call through the Holy Spirit, is powerful beyond all measure and will never return empty, “But it shall accomplish that which [God has] purpose[d], and shall succeed in the thing for which [God] sent it.”

But there still remains a human link of faithfulness in the chain of God’s call upon the human heart. Because, as the Apostle Paul stated in Romans 10: 13-15: “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” But then he poses the obvious question:  “How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can anyone preach unless they are sent?”

Paul then concludes this thought with the words: “As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”

This is a quote from Isaiah 52:7. In fact, Isaiah added the words “on the mountains”, reading “How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news.”

How beautiful indeed!

It is my joy, as always, to direct your attention once again to the ongoing ministry as it is unfolding literally on the mountains and across the valleys of Mexico though faithful servants of God. Not perfect, but men and women unflinchingly and unbendingly faithful, whose feet are incredibly beautiful because of their selfless faithfulness to God’s divine call on their lives.

First of all, I urge you to remember to pray for Javier and Cristina and the ministry teams that they have developed around themselves as they labor for the Lord. As I have mentioned before in other blogs, both Javier and Cristina minister long and very difficult hours and sometimes I fear for their health and wonder if they could possibly face the danger of physical burn-out. They have every candle lit on both ends as well as in the middle. However, in truth, what a way to go – flaming out for the Lord! Still, they are human, and I encourage you to pray for their health and strength.

God continues to open doors for missionary outreach into new areas as the teams go ever deeper into the far-flung reaches of the Pame zone. Churches that have been established over the past months and years among Pame Believers are maturing, and new disciples are being added continually. Communities of Believers are now established in Tanlacut, Milpas Viejas, Agua Nueva, Chacuala, El Coco, Tanlú, Santa Catarina, and beyond.

There has also been a beachhead established into the very religious and cultural heart of the Pame region – into Santa Maria Acapulco itself, along with the sixteen surrounding communities which make up a combined population of 16,000 souls in that district alone, and a fledgling body of Believers has been established in San Diego, one of these surrounding communities.

The leadership conference that I referred to in my last blog did take place with much success, and Pame pastors and leaders were strengthened and encouraged. Javier hopes to continue with leadership training and encouragement on an ongoing basis.

Believers continue faithful to the Word and to Christian fellowship. An example of this is the tiny community of Milpas Viejas where Believers walk five kilometers up and down the side of a mountain pathway to fellowship with the Church gathering in Agua Nueva in the valley below.

The instrument of Christian radio continues to be a valuable tool in this far-flung mountainous region, bringing the gospel in their own native language to many who would otherwise not be able to be fed spiritually. As I challenged you in my last blog, I do so again: as an individual, your Sunday school class, your family, your coffee group, your quilting guild, your church, or to the limits of your imagination – to take this opportunity to raise funds for this very hands-on and practical project. If you would take it upon yourself to collect and raise funds for the purchase of the small radios being distributed by Javier and the missionary team many more new believers could be mentored in their walk in the Lord. If you are interested in giving towards this need please feel free to email me at steve_frey_74@yahoo.com and we can come up with some plans.

Besides all of their work among the Pame tribal people in the western mountains both Javier and Cristina are very busy in Cd. Valles and the surrounding communities as well. They not only pastor a church in community of Solidaridad where they live, but this year Javier is also serving as regional presbyter for the Assemblies of God, a role which he takes very seriously.

Cristina is very involved in various women’s ministries as well as serving the children and youth and their families in the Hidden Manna Children’s Work in the little squatter’s village of Buenos Aires. Besides this she heads up extensive Vacation Bible School programs throughout the region during the summer months. The past several years she and her team (many of them youth that have matured in their love for the Lord through the ministry of Hidden Manna) have held week-long Bible School programs for the children not only in the region surrounding Cd. Valles, but also in the far-flung corners of the western mountains in Pame villages.

I am grateful to be able to tell you that the drought that has crippled the region for the past three or four years has finally come to an end and the rivers and wells are once again filling up as much-needed, and much prayed-for rain has finally returned to the area. But please pray that the rainy season this year will be adequate to “finish the job” and not peter out too soon before the job is completed. Basically what falls during the twice-annual rains is what provides the region’s water for the year.

Also, I am personally grateful to report that God has been faithful, and that so far we have been able to meet our obligations financially to the ongoing ministry in Mexico. There is never much, but like the widow’s flask of oil and handful of flour there always seems to be another drop or pinch when needed for the work.

We continue to financially assist Javier and Cristina in their missional work among the Pame tribal group, ministry locally, the ministry with the children, and in keeping the vehicle road worthy for the mission outreaches up into  the western mountains. To those who are faithful in this giving; I thank you. God will reward you richly for your faithfulness.

My pledge to God has been that as long as there are funds to do so, Voice in the Wilderness will continue to assist the ongoing ministry in Mexico. It is my duty, however, to keep the need ever before you, the Church.

Notwithstanding all of the blessings which I have enumerated above I want to repeat a warning that I identified in my last blog entry of August 8 where I stated: “Please continue to hold up Javier, Cristina and the missionary teams as they continue to penetrate into this region of deep spiritual oppression and darkness [ie., among the Pame tribal villages]. Let us not be lulled into apathy or lack of prayerfulness because we see that God is apparently bringing spiritual advancement into this region so dominated spiritually by evil forces and demonic powers.

We must always remain mindful of what Paul stated in Ephesians 6:12: “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places”.”

Indeed, there has been a powerful new opposition to the gospel encountered in the Santa Maria Acapulco area – the pagan religious and cultural seat of the region. After at first being received with apparent open arms, there is now renewed hostility. But are we surprised? Did we think that Satan and his minions would give ground without a fight? Or do we not realize at what level the battle really is?

Please continue to pray for laborers to assist Javier and Cristina in their work. They cannot do it alone. God is providing helpers, but the fields are white and the heads of grain full. Please pray to the Lord of the harvest that he will provide more workers.

Then finally, please also pray for Theresa and I as we make plans to spend a month with Javier and Cristina this winter. As plans stand at the moment, Pastor Fred Erb, and possibly one or two other brothers from Listowel Community Church in Listowel, Ontario will meet Theresa and I in Mexico around the end of January. Pastor Fred will assist Javier in a pastor’s/leadership conference in the western mountains, as well as meet with leaders and friends in the Cd. Valles area during the week that he and the other brothers will be in Mexico.

After they leave Theresa and I hope to offer vision clinics utilizing the tools of Global Vision 2020 in the poorer of the Pame villages, training one or two nationals how to also do the vision clinics so that the work can go on even after we leave. (https://gv2020.org/)

You will perhaps remember that we had hoped to do this back in November and December of 2020 but had to cancel the outreach due to the newly introduced Covid-19 restrictions at that time: [http://www.vitwministries.com/wordpress/2020/08/the-lord-remains-in-his-holy-temple-let-all-the-earth-keep-silence-before-him/]

The Lord willing this time we will be able to fulfill this vision, thus providing the ministry with one more evangelistic tool. Please pray for us, and that the funds needed to purchase the vision kits will come in in a timely way before the end of the year.

And as always, thank you for being a part of the ongoing work. Thank you for being faithful in your prayers, giving, and love for the people of Mexico.

Your fellow laborers in the love of Jesus Christ,

Steven and Theresa

We are writing these things to you so that our joy [in seeing you included] may be made complete [by having you share in the joy of salvation]. 1 John 1:4 (Amplified Bible)

The summer is swiftly passing and I have been neglectful of including you in the powerful things that God is doing in the work in Mexico, especially among the Pame tribal group in the Sierra Madre Oriental Mountains to the west and southwest of Cd. Valles where Javier and Cristina and their missionary teams have been ministering for the past several years. I want to update you so that you too will find delight in what God is doing among this isolated people group and will be able to share in the joy of the salvation that they are also beginning to find as Believers.

I think that it will be beneficial to begin with a letter that Javier wrote at the end of May of this year. It gives a rounded look at how God began to open doors for Javier and Cristina to begin working in the Pame region within the historical background of their ongoing ministry over the years. Ministry and Christian service do not happen in a vacuum. Rather, they are the fruit of lives that are already yielded to God.

Since Javier wrote this letter about two months ago much has happened, and God has continued to open doors for the gospel and to tear down strongholds of the enemy. But first of all I will let Javier speak in his own words:

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To the God of Israel be the glory always in our lives because he is Lord and the owner of our very existence.

Jesus told us “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit” (Matt.28:19, Mark 16:15).

“Go” is an imperative word that my wife Cristina Núñez, and I, your humble servant Javier Santos, have taken as part of the core of our being – as a part of who we are as workers sowing the Word of God into communities in response to Jesus’ command.

Throughout the journey of our spiritual labor the Holy Spirit has guided us to enter various communities in different ways, and using differing techniques. In the communities of San Ciro and Palo Alto it was through utilizing evangelistic campaigns to preach the gospel. In San Rafael, through our contact with friends we planted a church. In Ciudad Valles we were able to minister to a small group of believers, touching their lives daily until an autonomous church was established. In 2015 we began to work among the Tenek ethnic people group and churches were established among the Tenek villages.

In 2017 God clearly directed us to another ethnic people group located in the southwestern regions of our state of San Luis Potosí – the Pame tribal group – making His call to us very clear and unmistakable. This tribal group has historically been very closed and distrustful of any outsiders. They speak their own language called Xi-Ui, and live in the rugged regions of the Sierra Madre Oriental Mountains to the west and southwest of Cd. Valles. This call has all been very new and stretching for us, but it is also very interesting.

I myself am ethnically Tenek and speak the Tenek dialect. However, I do not speak or understand Xi-Ui, making communication difficult at times. Thankfully many of the Pame also speak Spanish as well, making this our common language. Still, having ethnic roots myself, even though not Pame, nonetheless allows me to be identified with them and gives me a point of acceptance and connection with this usually closed tribal group.

God has opened doors for us throughout the Pame region and it has become clear to us that there are four specific religious centers made up of several communities within each. The first of these that opened to us is the town of Tanlacut with its surrounding district. In the town of Tanlacut itself God has now established a group of Christian believers, and through personal evangelism and witnessing we have managed to touch four communities in the surrounding region with the gospel, and a Body of Believers has been established in these.

The second Pame religious center that was opened to us is Tanlú and the region surrounding it. Here churches have now been established in the two communities of El Coco and Chacuala.

God has also established another third group of Believers in the Pame municipal seat of Santa Catarina where five more families have come to the Lord. From Santa Catarina, with much labor of personal evangelism and the whole of the local church working, doors have slowly begun to open into the next stronghold and religious center – that of Santa María Acapulco – an important tribal center with sixteen surrounding communities, and the very heart of the Pame ethnic region and religious area.

All contact here into the Santa María Acapulco region has been very difficult because of their strong cultural, animistic, and tribal roots. They have customs and traditions that are different from ours, they have their own government which they maintain autonomously, witchcraft and sorcery are powerful and deeply entrenched into daily life, and no one has been able to effectively enter here to date with the gospel. Government statistics have calculated that there are more than 16,000 indigenous Pame people living within the sixteen communities in the Santa María Acapulco region alone. Only a few of these have ever heard the gospel, but there are no pastors who go there.

The reason for this negligence is several-fold; first of all it is very far from so-called civilization. There are almost no toilets and most people simply defecate in the open. It is not necessarily that they live in poverty, but that there is a deep and profound level of ignorance.

However, here we also see a field ripe for harvest with communities full of children and people loving their language and their culture, and we recognize that the only way to reach them is by providing for their needs and belonging to their communities.

I ask God to give us grace so that they will receive us and consider us as a part of their community. It is for this reason that I believe that we need to buy a property within the community where we can build a simple structure and rooms where we can begin meeting the felt-needs of the community by attending to the necessities of the children and giving them meals and instructing them in the Word of God. By working with the children we will be able to gain the confidence and friendship of the whole of the community. In this way, when trust has been established, we will be able to go even deeper into the community by beginning to educate the adults in personal hygiene (since it is common to see human excrement everywhere). Then finally, after having gained their confidence we will be able to freely introduce the Gospel of Jesus from a vantage point of trust, having earned the right to be heard.

In truth, their religious adoration is purely demonic, and the whole region is steeped in deep spiritual darkness. They worship a human skull in their temple. They practice witchcraft and shamanism, and worship various gods. They are zealous of their beliefs and animistic religious observances and pagan practices: mainly that of the Cult of Death. That is why we need to establish Life through the Word of God. He will strengthen our arms to conquer hearts with the Word of God.

We thank you in advance for your prayers for us. We know that the God of Israel will cast Satan and all of his spiritual hosts from that place in the name of Jesus, and that together with your help we will conquer hearts through the Word of Christ Jesus.

Your prayers have mighty power. Together we bring down demonic strongholds, false religion, witchcraft, and sorcery in the name of Jesus.

Blessings my beloved brothers and sisters in Christ

Your servant,

Javier Santos

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God continues to miraculously open doors and show unimagined favor to Javier and Cristina and the missionary teams throughout the whole of the Pame region. New Believers are being added to the Body of Christ almost every time that the team goes into the region – usually every second week for several days.

The first evangelistic conference ever held in the region (mentioned in my last blog) was extremely fruitful, and many new souls gave their lives to the Lord. Besides this, there was also great favor shown to Javier and the team throughout the region, even in the governmental seat of Santa María Acapulco, heretofore closed to them. In fact, the town leaders even gave Javier permission to hold meetings in the grounds of the local Catholic Church yard because a priest never comes into the region unless paid several thousand pesos to do so. The leaders even assigned their local police force to the task of ensuring that nothing took place against Javier or the team during the meetings.

Indeed, it appears as if the community leaders in Santa María Acapulco will even grant permission for Javier to purchase a property there and give approval to continue to come into the community on a systematic basis to offer social and spiritual services. One of the men in leadership there told Javier that although he is not a Christian he could see the profound difference between Javier and others who proclaimed religion, and he was happy to assist his people by doing what he felt was a positive thing for them. God is miraculously opening doors that have been tightly closed for many years.

One Christian worker spoke to Javier in wonder at how God has rapidly been opening these communities to the gospel in recent months. He said that for many years no one has been able to penetrate these iron bars of darkness and hostility. However now, suddenly, God is blowing open formerly barred strongholds.

One of the tools that God is also using in the evangelization of this region is the Christian radio programming network called “Somos Radio Familia”( We Are Family Radio) that I mentioned in my last blog. They continue to broadcast Christian preaching and music into the region, and have built a new transmitter tower which has allowed their message to be heard even deeper into the mountains. For many Believers this is the only way that they can systematically be fed spiritually due to the great distances and difficult terrain between communities where they could worship with other Believers. A team from Somos Radio Familia have also come down to assist Javier and Cristina in the Pame evangelistic ministry on occasion.

This Christian broadcasting has been so successful that Javier and the mission team are now using a new tool in ministry among the far flung villages – they are giving small transistor radios to new believers. I love the ingenuity and common sense of this approach to evangelism! Javier told me that he is able to purchase simple transistor radios for around $225 pesos (about $15.00 dollars). With this tool these new believers can be mentored and grow in their knowledge of the Word.

With this in mind I would personally like to challenge you as an individual, your Sunday school class, your family, your coffee group, your quilting guild, or your church to take this opportunity to raise funds for this very hands-on and practical project. If you could collect and raise funds for the purchase of these small radios for Javier and the missionary team to distribute, many more new believers could be mentored in their walk in the Lord. Perhaps rather than the $3.65 per day for a Starbucks Cinnamon Dolce Latte coffee we could rather give the amount for a week or two to this ministry among the marginally-reached Pame. If you are interested in my challenge please feel free to email me at steve_frey_74@yahoo.com and we can come up with some plans.

A new group of Believers was “discovered” by Javier only very recently in a small community close to the already-established work in Tanlacut. Until only months ago Javier had no idea that they were there, and they had no fellowship with the other Believers only miles away where a Church has been established for some time. This small group of Believers was planted some years ago by an American missionary who has since returned to the United States. They have no pastor, and until “found” by Javier they had no outside fellowship with other Believers. Javier’s intention now is to involve them into the larger community of Believers already established in the area, namely that of Tanlacut, Agua Nueva, and Milpas Viejas.

Javier’s profound burden is to raise up leaders to advance the work among the unreached Pame tribal people. He also sees a deep need to strengthen and deepen Believers in sound doctrine.  Unfortunately many who have had some exposure to the gospel in the past have no sound roots, and even some in spiritual leadership lack any depth of solid doctrinal training and teaching. As stated in my last blog, Javier’s own words are “I also feel a burden to begin training men and women in leadership positions among these fledgling churches in doctrinal truths. I believe that in the very near future God will open the way for us so that we can teach systematic, foundational biblical truths among these Pame leaders so that the Church will be strengthened and grow into purity”.

As I also mentioned in the same blog, Javier sees a need to attend to the personal spiritual needs of pastors and other spiritual leaders already serving among these secluded groups in order to encourage them so that they can continue to minister. I further stated that Javier was told by these leaders that they felt a great need to be ministered to themselves so that they would have the strength to serve their flock. Many of them said that they often feel isolated and alone in the service of God. Javier then went on to say “The work of the Lord is difficult, and in many cases lonely”. He then reiterated, “As I also mentioned previously, there is also an urgent need to teach the truths of sound doctrine to these leaders. Many of them have a very limited knowledge of foundational doctrinal truths. To begin, I hope to have a full day conference for church leaders, elders, and spiritual laborers in the month of September to encourage and build up these dear brothers and sisters as they serve the Lord”.

I am thankful to be able to tell you that the September conference that Javier was praying about will become a reality. On the 8^th of September Pastor Marty Dyer from Newsong Church, a long-time friend of the ministry and of Javier, will be teaching in an all-day conference along with Javier. We pray that this will only be the beginning of many such times of edifying the Pame Church.

Please continue to hold up Javier, Cristina and the missionary teams as they continue to penetrate into this region of deep spiritual oppression and darkness. Let us not be lulled into apathy or lack of prayerfulness because we see that God is apparently bringing spiritual advancement into this region so dominated spiritually by evil forces and demonic powers.

We must always remain mindful of what Paul stated in Ephesians 6:12: “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places”.

Then, finally, I want to remind you to pray for the continuation of the finances needed for Javier and the teams to minister in this mountainous and difficult region. These ministry trips, pounding up and down the very bad mountain roads take a terrible toll on both body and vehicles alike. The cost of gasoline in Mexico, like everywhere, is increasing almost daily and is becoming a major expense for the ongoing ministry there.

Remember to pray for the people in Mexico as they face their fourth year of drought. Rivers are again dried up, crops are almost nonexistent in some areas, and the poor, especially, are suffering due to the heat and drought overlaid by out of control inflation.

Please remember to pray for Javier and Cristina personally as they pour themselves out in ministry. Locally, as they pastor the flock in their church in Solidaridad and the surrounding mission churches; Cristina as she ministers to the children in the Hidden Manna Feeding Program; and as she serves the women in the sewing program that she tirelessly runs. Besides all of this, please remember them as they spend more and more time ministering among the Pame Believers. Neither Javier nor Cristina are young anymore, and Cristina, especially, is not in good health. Please pray for health and strength for both of them as well as for their entire missionary team.  Javier confided with me very recently that the work, although exhilarating and blessed to be in the center of God’s will, is nonetheless exhausting, and that both he and Cristina are physically weary.

Also, Theresa and I covet your prayers as we are in a time of transitioning in our lives as well.

We love each of you and thank you for your prayers and your love for the people of Mexico.

Your fellow servants in the love of Jesus Christ our soon-returning King,

Steven and Theresa

As we prepare our hearts to remember the death and resurrection of our Savior may we never forget the profound and limitless price that was paid for our salvation. I’m afraid that too often Easter becomes just another occasion to celebrate family gatherings and the church community – all good things, but not to the exclusion of the true heart of our redemption.

Thank you Jesus for paying a price so profound, so beyond imagination, so immeasurable, one that I could never pay, and certainly one that I can never repay. Thank you for salvation.

I want to take this opportunity to post some recent communication which I have had with Javier in Mexico. I am so profoundly blessed to be a part of the ministry and labor of Javier and his dear wife Cristina, even if only vicariously.  

What a privilege it is to be able to be involved in their work through prayer and giving, and to see the Kingdom of God being advanced through them and the passion that they have for our Lord and Savior.

I trust that you will find the following correspondence to be an encouragement as well.

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Javier writes:

March 14, 2022: This week, in a village called Poytzen, I saw the meeting place of the brothers and sisters in Christ. They have been trying to build their house of prayer for almost two years and have not been able to do so due to lack of funds. I felt sadness in my heart to see their meeting place in this deplorable condition. This village is a mission that God allowed me to preach in while I was still pastoring in San Ciro many years ago. We went to Poytzen every fifteen days, as well as to Octzen. Poytzen is where a brother-in-law of mine donated a small  property for a church to be built, and although they have been trying to do so now for years they have not been able to because of the extreme poverty of the believers in that village.

The present condition of the meeting place for the believers so far is only a ditch where they plan to pour a footing for the walls, and a little thatched roof built on poles for protection from the sun. It has been in this condition now for two years.

Of course the Catholics in the village of Poytzen make fun of the condition of the Believers who have nowhere to congregate and worship.

I feel the need to support them from my personal resources wherever I can so that they can buy material to build their house of prayer – rock, blocks, cement, etc., in order to sow into the kingdom of God. It has been almost twenty two years since I was preaching there, and now to see the sad state of the brothers and sisters makes me very sad for them.

I believe that God has placed the desire into hearts to assist in this labor, and that Jehovah has already prepared hearts so that His work may not be put to shame.

On the second of April we are going to have the first regional evangelistic crusade and Christian conference in the Pame ministry. We will hold services in the gallery in the village of Tanlacut as well as open air gatherings.

God has given us the victory to be able to hold such an event in this formerly extremely closed region among the Pame people.

Our missionary team continues to push up into these mountains every second week in order to minister to, and encourage the new believers scattered throughout the outlying villages, as well as to present the gospel message to those who have yet to give their lives to Jesus Christ.  The work is difficult and has its distinct challenges, but it is a joy to be able to serve in this way, and to see the lives of men and women transformed by the gospel as it reaches into their hearts and shines the light of Jesus into the one-darkened and hardened places.

We have also been able to utilize a new tool for this work in the form of a newly established Christian radio programming network called “Somos Radio Familia”( We Are Family Radio) broadcasting from the city of Matamoros, and with a local relay tower in Rayon. In this way we are now able to reach into many homes in these mountains with the gospel of Jesus Christ, and hearts are being opened to the Good News.

https://www.facebook.com/103696048034434/videos/3056856581296105/  (hopefully this will open in the correct Facebook page. It should say Facebook Live and have the heading: Pastor Javier Santos De Ciudad Valles S.L.P.)

Utilizing this tool, and through the wonders of technology I am now able to speak through WhatsApp on my cell phone from my home in Cd. Valles, and connecting through the main station transmitting out of Matamoros my voice is now heard throughout the mountains in this whole region.

This has been a powerful tool for the proclamation of the gospel, and through it God is beginning to open doors that were once closed to His Word. This programing has also been a real encouragement to Believers who were once extremely isolated, and who had little ability be in contact with other Christians. They can now listen to Christian programing of preaching and music, both in Spanish and their native Pame language of Xi’ui.  

Although this in no way diminishes the need for us to continue to personally minister in these mountain villages, still, we are encouraged with this tool which God is using for the advancement of his Kingdom.

March 19, 2022: This evening our missionary team arrived into the mountain village of Santa Catarina where we will spend the night at a house that one of the local believers has loaned to us for a place to stay while here in this community, as well as a place to hold church services while in the region. We will now be able to use this village as a hub, spending our nights here and then going out to minister in other communities in the region from this base of operation.

We want to program the upcoming evangelistic campaign in the village of Tanlacut for April 2^nd with a concentration on missions for that day. We are spending time in intense pray for the Pame region and for the activities of the campaign. We are believing God for a change in the heavenly realms for Tanlacut and the whole surrounding region, and for a spiritual breakthrough specifically among the Pame people.

The Christian Pame brothers and sisters are also promoting the missionary campaign in their native tongue of Xi’ui.

Drought has come again this year for the third year in a row, and we are once again struggling for water. Formerly full and strong rivers are again drying up and are reduced to dry gravel beds and waterless gullies. Last year even the wells in the region dried up and the people had to carry water by whatever means possible for many kilometers for even basic needs.

Sometimes on our missionary ventures even some of the National team members find themselves stretched. My wife is very adventuresome and enjoys presenting us with new dishes local to the mountainous area. Our “natural food” on our last trip consisted of rice, beans, and pemoche flowers which Cristina prepared for the team. The pemoche flowers are actually very delicious if prepared correctly, and make a lovely vegetable to accompany any meal. (https://youtu.be/1hKIgavvT7g).

April 6, 2022: This past week from April 1^st though the 3^rd we experienced the power of God in an evangelism campaign in the Sierra Madre Mountains among the Pame people. We ministered in the villages of Tanlacut, Santa Catarina, El Puente,and Cardenas. God gave us victory and more souls in those communities were won for Him.

The picture below was taken in the village of Tanlacut where there was a great harvest of souls for Christ. Also on this day a property was donated for the construction of a church building in the village. Praise God for this gift. We are excited to see His kingdom grow strong and take root.

Upon arriving to minister in the village of Santa Catarina where we have already established a fledgling church among Pame Believers we were met by representatives from two surrounding communities, those of Del Barranco and the ejido of La Parada who came and insisted that we come and minister the Word of God to their communities as well. In this way two new missions were also opened in these communities during this visit.

The story of the gospel in the ejido of La Parada is an interesting one. Quite a number of years ago a National couple from a different state came to this little ejido in order to begin translating the Bible into Xi-ui, the language of the Pame people of this region. Apparently they ministered here for some time in translation work, and a group of believers was established in the village. Later a small team of foreign missionaries also followed. Their work also focusing on Bible translation into Xi-ui. Today, although the whole of the Bible has not yet been translated, we are able to benefit from the fact that portions of the Word of God is able to be heard and read in Xi-ui, the heart-language of the Pame people, and we are grateful for the work of these missionaries who labored in this region in past years.

We are also very grateful for the tiny Body of Believers which was established in the little ejido of La Parada where this ministry was centered. However, since the work of these missionaries of the past was focused almost exclusively on translation and not necessarily upon the preparation of leadership in the fledgling church, today it is painfully evident that there is an overwhelming need for basic doctrinal teaching among the Christian leaders in this community, as well as in the whole of the Pame region.

After the evangelistic campaign in Tanlacut the brothers and sisters of the local church fed all the people who came. There is a new fire in the hearts of these brothers and sisters. I thank God for the victory that He has brought, and my own heart burns within me to see what He is doing among the Pame people!

During the three days of the evangelistic campaign God allowed us to spend time with the extended evangelism team, a number of which came from the city of Matamoros, as well as and a group of Pame brothers and sisters who came from the ejido of La Parada. It was wonderful to be able to spend time together with these brothers and sisters, especially with those of the Pame ethnic group, getting to know them better.

We returned to Cd. Valles to find a city on fire once again. This year it looks like we will again be repeating the history of 2013 where much of the Huasteca region and huge areas around the city itself burned due to the intense heat and drought conditions that we faced that summer. Unless God intervenes and sends desperately needed rain very soon and breaks this multi-year drought we will face this same disaster again this summer. 

While we were ministering in the mountains 100 hectares just to the north of the main city of Valles were burned due to high temperatures which have soared daily from 43⁰ to 47⁰ degrees Celsius (117 degrees Fahrenheit), and from human provocation and error.

The house of one of the Christian sisters in Buenos Aires, along with that of a neighboring family were burned to the ground due this flash fire that got out of control in a neighboring village called Montecillos due to the extremely dry conditions. Thankfully our Children’s Ministry Center, Hidden Manna, also in Buenos Aires was not involved in the fire.

Everything is tinder dry, and without water to fight the fires it is almost impossible to stop their spread once they have begun. In 2013 thousands of hectares were burned in the Huasteca region.

Sometimes with disasters such as this, and the extreme poverty and needs of so many I feel totally overwhelmed and unable to even scratch the surface of need in order to help.

We have now been facing drought for the third year in a row, and inevitably it is the poor who suffer the most from these hardships – the very ones whose lives are already tragic in so many ways.

Please pray with us for God’s mercy, and for rain. Already rivers are again drying up and temperatures are souring – and the dry season has only begun!

May God have mercy!

On the 26^th of March some of the children who are a part of the Children’s Feeding Program in Buenos Aires which Cristina and I run came to us crying that their school was being destroyed. We discovered that the kindergarten building in this squatter’s village was being torn down and destroyed due to a legal dispute over land title. Please pray with us for this village, and specifically for these children and the families affected. These poor children have already suffered so much in their young lives.

Nonetheless, I encourage my heart in the victories that God is giving us among the Pame people where He is opening further paths for the gospel among new communities even deeper into the mountains. There are now eight communities where there is either a newly established Body of Believers, or where the door is now open and we have an invitation to continue to bring the gospel. These communities include: Milpas Viejas, Agua Nueva, Tanlacut, El Coco, Chacuala, Santa Catarina, Buenavista and the ejido of La Parada. (The ejido of La Parada is where Bible translation was begun by missionaries in the past, and because of this work we now are able to benefit from portions of the Bible in the Pame language of Xi-ul).

My heart is so blessed, and I consider it a great privilege to be able to be a part of this ministry of bringing the gospel to the Pame tribal people.

But after soaring to the great heights of spiritual victory with the evangelistic campaign and the opening of communities to the gospel I arrived back in Cd. Valles with a limping, tired, and broken down burro. My pickup truck needed to receive some much-needed maintenance. It no longer wanted to start or run properly and I needed to have a tune up done on the engine, the radiator hose changed because it had broken, the transmission worked on, and then finally a wheel alignment done, shocks changed, and two new tires put on because the extremely bad mountain roads had chewed the rubber on the old ones to pieces and they were no longer safe.

My burro needed time with the doctor. Poor burro!

On April 1st I met with a number of pastors from the communities of Cardenas, Rayon, and El Puente and I saw again the necessity to attend to the personal spiritual needs of these men of God, and to encourage them so that they can continue ministering. They told me that they felt a great need to be ministered to themselves so that they would have the strength to serve their flock. Many of them feel isolated and alone in the service of God. The work of the Lord is difficult, and in many cases lonely. As I also mentioned previously, there is an urgent need to teach the truths of sound doctrine to these leaders. Many of them have a very limited knowledge of foundational doctrinal truths.

To begin, I hope to have a full day conference for church leaders, elders, and spiritual laborers in the month of September to encourage and build up these dear brothers as they serve the Lord.

I also feel a burden to begin training men and women in leadership positions among these fledgling churches in doctrinal truths. I believe that in the very near future God will open the way for us so that we can teach systematic, foundational biblical truths among these Pame leaders so that the Church will be strengthened and grow into purity.

Thank you for your support and prayers which make this work possible. Please remember to keep us in your prayers as we serve the Risen Christ Jesus, and that many souls will come to Him. Please pray that God will bring us much needed rain, and that this drought will be broken.

Blessings,

Javier Santos

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I trust that this has given you a better insight into the day-to-day work of the ministry in Mexico and the heart of Javier and Cristina as they faithfully serve the Lord there.

Please also remember Theresa and me in your prayers. This has been a difficult year for us so far in a number of ways. God is good, and he is in control. We praise Him for that!

Your brother and sister in Jesus Christ,

Steven and Theresa