Current Events and Updates of the Ministry

I bring you greetings from an ever increasingly fall-like Manitoba. As you will recall from my last entry, at the end of 2017 Theresa and I moved to the small town of Pinawa nestled on the shores of the Winnipeg River system and approximately an hour and a half from Winnipeg. We are beginning to feel more like Pinawayans every day; even casting our first votes for town councilors this year, making us official bona fide residents. Wahoo!

Theresa has settled into her work at the Ironwood Personal Care Home as a Tenant Companion and has made her indelible mark there, being loved by all of the residents (and most of her fellow workers). As of several months ago I also joined the staff there at the care home on a very casual basis, picking up a vacant night shift now and again. However, I was blessed to be able to get an almost full time position as a home care attendant out of the Lac du Bonnet regional office – about twenty minutes north of us – where I care for clients in a broad geographic area, putting on over 100 miles of driving each shift. However, since my mileage is paid for I don’t mind the extended distances, and the driving breaks up my day.

Both of our current jobs, as well as the work that I was able to do in writing (which I mentioned in my last blog entry) have been a blessing and we recognize them as God’s financial provision for us. When we made the decision to sell our place in Steinbach and move to Pinawa last winter we got many responses of “nice place, but you’ll never find work there”. The naysayers were not inaccurate or overly pessimistic in their estimation either, and we did recognize that it might be a very difficult place to find employment since it is at the end of the road (literally; the road coming to an abrupt end at the river about a mile from the town) and there are precious few work opportunities in the area. We had no desire to drive the half-hour or more back into any of the larger towns around the area, and certainly not the hour-plus trip into Winnipeg every day. So, again, although the work is not always fun and the night shifts become long and very tedious, we are thankful for the work that God has provided.

We are also close enough to both Winnipeg (where many of our children and grandchildren live), and to Steinbach (where my mother and some of my siblings live) that, although all of our lives always seem to become filled to the brim with the tyranny of the urgent, we are able to see each other with little ado whenever we can all set our minds to do so. This, of course, is very different from when we were living thousands of miles away in Mexico, and we are also grateful for this gift as well.

The leaves have all been off of the trees for weeks already here in Manitoba, and we experienced our first snow fall on the 3^rd of October this year (much to the weeping and gnashing of teeth and great moaning and sighing of all of us). We knew that it wouldn’t last the winter (and of course it didn’t) and we all kept anticipating an extended grace period – a glorious Indian summer which would give us another respite until the inescapable howling gales of winter arrived. But it never happened! Or more correctly, we did get one day of warm weather about a week ago – it actually managed to go to a bit over 20 degrees Celsius for one day before it all went south again and degenerated into rain and snow once more. By now we have given up and have resigned ourselves to the inevitable. Sigh!

So, remind me again, why did we move back to Manitoba?

But this too shall pass, and spring will once more arrive. Even in Manitoba!

Lest I wear out the strings on my violin and make my beard soggy with the tears of self-pity running down my cheeks, let me change the focus away from us to what God is doing; in Mexico with the work of Voice in the Wilderness, as well as in the world.

This year has been a very difficult year for the Training Center Farm financially. The first financial blow came when 100% of the seed sugarcane planted at the end of the last harvest was lost due to the lack of sufficient rains last fall when the replanting was done, and none of it germinated.

As you will recall, often we were fighting with extreme flooding conditions during planting and our seed cane would either rot in the soil or be completely washed away as torrents of water flooded the fields. Last fall they had the opposite happen right at the critical time of planting. Doing what was normally done, Javier oversaw the replanting of seed cane when the first rains of the rainy season began, banking upon the fact that, as had always occurred every other year before, this would mean that rain would continue throughout the rainy season months bringing the necessary moisture for good growth. However, it didn’t happen!

Javier had purchased crop insurance knowing that there is constantly a danger of loss due to the extreme fluctuations in the rains at this critical time of the season. However, due to some sort of technicality, the growers union (through which the crop insurance is provided) refused to pay out a dime. This meant that not only was the complete cost of replanting lost, but the next harvest was also gone, along with the cost outlay of the insurance and the associated interest charges that they levied against the farm. Since the actual amount of income from the sugarcane is extremely small and the margins of error are very narrow, this was a huge financial blow for them. Thankfully there were only three hectares lost and the other two hectares were still in sugarcane since they had not been replanted.

This year the rainy season has been more normal and Javier tells me that the crop looks good for the upcoming harvest. For this we are very grateful.

The vegetable gardening was very successful last season; however, they soon found out that even with a good shade-screen covering over the growing beds they were limited to growing during the cooler months of the year. When the intense heat of summer began the plants simply burned up, irrespective of any amount of watering. However, they were able to continue with most of the tree planting that they have been doing. Also, the animals did fine, although they did not pursue expanding the herd or flock much over the summer. Now with the cooler weather beginning they will once again begin vegetable production, possibly also expanding it into an area around a holding pond that they put in last fall.

Javier and Cristina, along with Armando and Alicia have been very busy in the ministry of planting the new work in the Pame village of Tanlacut and the surrounding mountainous tribal region. I spoke about this new work in my last blog and introduced you to this vision. Since then Javier has been trying to get back to this area to minister at least every two weeks. Although the work is difficult there continues to be openness to the gospel among this people group.

In my last blog I also told you that a small property and an abandoned building in a small cross-roads village called Agua Nueva had been donated to the work in this mountainous region. Javier still dreams of developing this site into a training center for Pame Christians within their own tribal area. This is still in the visionary phase and will require both financial resources as well as personnel in order for it to become a reality.

The Bible Schools – both Luz de las Naciones and Project LAMBS have been moving along well under the guiding hands of Janny and Mario, the directors of each of the schools respectively. Although they don’t have many students presently the work is proceeding, and they continue to work with Dr. James Humphries and Hka Win on the Project LAMBS modules, rewriting them into more legible Spanish. This work is keeping both Mario and Janny busy, especially since Dr. Mario is also an anesthesiologist holding down work in two separate hospitals in his “other jobs”. Incidentally, besides raising two very active boys they are also planting a local church in their home as well.

The sewing school which Theresa began and then handed over to Cristina when we left is doing very well and is growing. It has become not only a center for training women in a trade, and a place where the women can learn how to develop a home-based income source, but more importantly, it has become a place of ministry and refuge for many women who would otherwise not be open to the gospel. Besides all of the other hats that Cristina wears as she works alongside her husband in the ministry, this school has become one of her focal points. Alicia has become her right hand at the school.

Cristina and Alicia are also both very busy with the children’s ministry in Buenos Aires. As you will recall from other blogs, this work is with children in a very poor squatter’s village several miles north of Cd. Valles itself. This area of ministry began some years ago when Cristina’s heart was broken by the physical and spiritual needs of these children, many of whom live in shacks that are little better than animal shelters. Many of these children are also part of Javier and Cristina’s little congregation at Solidaridad – only a couple of miles by muddy foot paths from the squatter shacks in Buenos Aires. Because of this intense need the work with these children began for Cristina.

Presently, although the facility where they meet is still no more than an open-walled “galera” with mud for the floor and several little wooden tables and benches for the children, the work is growing. Besides new children coming, there are now several mothers who also attend along with their children in order to receive Christian teaching and to be loved on. Also, some of Cristina’s young helpers in the ministry are beautiful young teenagers who began to attend when the work was in its infancy, and when they were young children themselves. They are now Cristina and Alicia’s right-hand assistants and are ministering to other children in their village. Rain or shine, heat or cold, the children in this little squatter’s village receive a nutritious meal every Saturday morning along with age-appropriate teaching from the Word of God. But most importantly, lives are being changed and hope and the love of God is being brought to these children.

Incidentally, Javier was just telling me this summer that since many of the children from these villages come from homes where their fathers have abandoned them, the children themselves need to work to help to support their families by the time that they are nine and ten years old. So, as soon as school is out for the summer many of these little ones are working ten or more hours a day in hard physical jobs attempting to bring in a little money so that their family can eat.  Although I know that this scenario is repeated in many places around the world, still such situations of abject poverty are just so foreign to our North American understanding. Sadly, some of the families caught in this terrible situation are women with children that I have known practically from the day that they were born.

The economy of Mexico is currently in terrible crisis. This is especially affecting the poorer classes of people; unfortunately, the very ones most fragile economically. For the poor, Mexico’s out-of-control inflation makes life almost unbearable. It is predominately the poor that Voice in the Wilderness has historically ministered to, and whom they continue to serve.

There are several needs that I wish to bring to your attention so that you can be in prayer as God moves your heart for the work in Mexico.

First of all, please pray for the health of both Cristina and Javier. Both are under tremendous pressure and stress – physically, spiritually, financially, ministry-related, family-related, and in all areas. Unfortunately these pressures never end, and there is precious little reprieve. There is no such thing as a paid pastoral vacation, a Pastoral Appreciation Day, or retirement benefits for them. I am always amazed and humbled by their unflinching desire to serve God. However, the strain is taking its toll on their health. Javier has had physical issues over the past year – many of which have been stress related. Cristina has also recently requested prayer for a physical condition that has been affecting her over the past months and which has almost immobilized her at times. It has to do with physical issues such as diabetes and her heart, but I have no doubt that unrelenting stress is exacerbating her physical condition as well. Please pray for both of them.

Please remember to pray for Mario and Alejandra (Janny) as well. They are also carrying a huge load in ministry. It is their unwavering passion to train and equip men and women in the Word, and to prepare and train leaders. They are giving generously and liberally of themselves and of their finances to the work of the Lord. Please pray that God will bring more students into the Bible Schools, and especially that He will raise up leaders with a passion for their own people.

Please remember to pray earnestly for the Casa del Obrero – the Training Center Farm ministry. Pray for Javier and Armando especially in this regard; for wisdom and absolute clarity of vision for the purpose that God has for it, for personnel and trainees to come forward who desire to have God impart change into their lives through the hands-on mentorship offered at the farm, and that God will bring forward men and women with a vision to assist Javier with this tremendous load. There is a huge need for student housing, for increased finances, for more willing workers and personnel to help to shoulder the work (both physically and spiritually), and for churches across the region to begin to catch the vision and to get more involved in the work and not to see the work as “Javier’s project”. The needs are great and it has been obvious over the years that God has a purpose for the Center; however, Javier cannot do it alone. He needs helpers. We must pray that God brings a breakthrough or he will burn out, and the vision may run the risk of being lost.

I also want to keep you posted on two sisters in the Lord that I spoke about over the past. First of all I want to update you on our sister Marina who has taken in her four young, orphaned great-grand-children. There is some good news along with bad in this situation. Marina herself is not doing well physically. Her diabetes has become a major issue for her and has caused her to need an amputation of one of her toes recently. Also, while taking the youngest children to school one day she stumbled and fell along one

of the footpaths and broke her arm. Because of her weakened condition this break did not heal well. All in all, Javier tells me that her physical condition is weakening noticeably and she is no longer able to work anymore to support herself or the children. However, as I promised, there is also some good news; the children seem to be doing well under Marina’s love and care and are thriving with her. Further, although there is not much possibility of financial assistance from any of the family members, or from the biological father of the children, still, Javier tells me that they are trying to help where possible. As the children, especially the two boys get older, there is always more hope that the family unit of children will be able to fend for themselves together if, and when Marina can no longer do so.

I also ask that you remember to pray for Rosaura and her family. Rosaura has been a very dear sister in the Lord for many years and has been an integral part of the ministry and loves the Lord with an intense passion. I told you in my last blog that she was diagnosed with cancer. The cancer has been progressing quickly and painfully, and she is now at the point of death. In many ways I envy her because she will beat me to heaven, but please pray for her in this time of intense suffering while she is in the process of dying. Soon she will be among the truly living, and we who are left behind will remain among the dying. She will leave behind a husband and two daughters who will miss her tremendously, as well as many who have grown and benefited spiritually under her ministry.

I want to bring this blog to a close by speaking about what has become an increasing passion for Theresa and me over the past months. Are we alone, or has anyone else noticed that there are tremendous upheavals and unprecedented events happening around us with increasing rapidity? As I have heard it said: there is a “convergence of events” happening almost daily. I believe that it is becoming obvious that one has to be blind or have his fingers in his ears not to understand that events are taking place throughout the Middle East as well as here at home, observable on our daily news reports, which make prophecy come to life before our eyes. I believe that we are living in the times of the end, or at a minimum that we are drawing closer every day to the finish line.

It is with this in mind – the return of our Lord and Savior, King Jesus – that I will close with this passage from 2 Peter 3. I have taken a little bit of liberty with it by using the Amplified translation and combining some of the verses, but I’m sure that you will recognize it. Peter’s words are mine as well: “Knowing this then, what kind of people ought we to be!”

First of all, know without any doubt that mockers will come in the last days with their mocking, following after their own fleshly human  desires saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? What has become of it? For ever since the fathers fell asleep in death all things have continued exactly as they did from the beginning of creation.”

Nevertheless, do not let this one fact escape you, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day. The Lord does not delay as though He were unable to act, and is not tardy or slow about what He promises according to some people’s conception of slowness, but He is long-suffering and extraordinarily patient not desiring that any should perish, but that all should turn to repentance.

But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will vanish and pass away with a thunderous crash – a mighty and thunderous roar – and the material elements of the universe will be dissolved with intense heat, and the earth and the works that are upon it will be burned up.

Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought each of you to be in the meantime in consecrated, devout and holy behavior – that is, in a pattern of daily life that sets you apart as a believer – and in godliness displaying profound reverence toward our awesome God, while you earnestly look for and await the coming of the day of God!

So, since you are expecting these things be diligent and make every effort to be found by Him at His return, spotless and blameless, in peace in serene confidence, free from fears and agitating passions and moral conflicts, inwardly calm with a sense of spiritual well-being and confidence, having lived a life of obedience to Him. And consider the patience of our Lord and His delay in judging and avenging wrongs as salvation, allowing time for more to be saved.  2 Peter 3:3-15

 

Your fellow laborers in the vineyard.

Maranatha,

Steven and Theresa

Dear friends.

The format of this blog will be a little different than those of the past. As most of you already know, Theresa and I are now living in Manitoba, Canada again, having moved back in the summer of 2016. What you may not know is that we sold our place in Steinbach this past winter and moved to a little town in northeastern Manitoba called Pinawa. Here in the “wilderness” we purchased a little geriatric bungalow (to match its aging owners) and are beginning to feel more settled bit by little bit.

Pinawa is a cute little town of some 1,300 souls nestled on the shores of a large lake system formed by the damming of the Winnipeg River at Seven Sisters just several miles downstream from the town, as well as several other hydroelectric dam sites further down river until it all eventually empties into Lake Winnipeg. The town has lovely walking trails along the lakefront as well as a deer population that walks (and chomps their way) freely throughout the town. We do have a guest bedroom; so, please just give us a day’s notice before you show up on our front door step. We would love to have you visit.

Theresa has just started a brand new job at the Ironwood Senior’s Home here in town and is thriving there (except for the night shifts that she gets called in to do on occasion). They also love her and are moving her up the shift ladder as quickly as the union’s sensitive toes will allow. I am working with an elderly friend on writing a book for him on healthcare reform – (and I’m not even joking – cross my heart)!

Pinawa is located only about an hour and a bit from Winnipeg where most of our kids and grandkids live, and about an hour and a half from Steinbach where my mother and the rest of the family are. So, we are nicely situated within visiting distance of most of the family (one of the prerequisites to our choice of Pinawa).

I was also privileged to go back to Cd. Valles, Mexico over the end of March and into the beginning of April (March 17th – April 3rd) in order to celebrate a graduation and to catch up with the leadership and other friends there again after having been gone for two years.

It was a wonderful, even if extremely busy time there, and was an exceptionally valuable and timely fortnight. When I got to Cd. Valles Carl Thompson was already there, having arrived two days previously. I arrived with Fred Erb who spent the first week there with me, and James and Hka Win Humphries who were able to spend the full two weeks.

The following is written basically in a report style and I ask your indulgence if it is a bit more stuffy than normal. Also, I apologize straight-up for its verbose nature and I fully understand if you begin snoring before you reach the end. However, so much happened, and I have so much to say that there is little else to do except chop mercilessly at what I want to say, and I am not willing to do that. So, without further ado…

Onwards!

____________________________________________

Fred Erb, James and Hka Win Humphries, and I arrived in Tampico on the evening of March 17th and were picked up at the airport by a friend. Arriving in Cd. Valles later that night I met Carl Thompson for the first time at the new building purchased by Mario and Janny for the Bible Institute where we were to be housed over our time in Mexico.

The next morning being Sunday we went to Javier and Cristina’s house where we were served breakfast. At their house we also met two pastors from out of town who were working with another Mexican nonprofit called AVITA. Both pastors were blind and both had come to be a part of the agricultural workshop that Carl had put on the previous day at the Casa del Obrero Training Center campus. Not only are both men being powerfully used by God in the areas of social ministries as well as Christian outreach throughout Mexico, but Adrian is also the president of this nonprofit. It is precisely these brothers as well as the broader membership of AVITA that God had unexpectedly opened doors for Javier and Carl to meet during what humanly might appear as a mistake in the attempted importation of a compressed stabilized earth brick machine some months back. However, instead of being a blunder, God used it as a huge victory in that it opened doors both at the level of interacting with another national-level nonprofit in which many of the leaders and directors are Christians, but also to high levels of the state government and indigenous affairs itself for Javier and the ongoing work of Obreros Unidos para Cosechar (OUpC), the nonprofit covering the various ongoing ministries in Cd. Valles – including that of the Training Center farm. These two brothers were instrumental in bringing in the people for the workshop that Carl taught on Saturday.

After breakfast we accompanied Javier and his family, as well as the visiting pastors to the church in Solidaridad were Javier and Cristina are pastors of the local body of Believers. Brother Adrian preached a powerful message at the morning service where he compared his physical blindness to the spiritual blindness that is in each person who does not know Christ, and asked which one was more blind.

After the morning service we spent the afternoon with Javier and Cristina and their family, along with Armando and Alicia and a number of the other leaders, at the Training Center farm where we ate our midday meal. I was thoroughly impressed with the progress that they have done on the farm campus as well as in the ongoing vision for the ministry there. They have been producing vegetables, tree seedlings, and animals (pigs and sheep), as well as chickens, besides the continued production of sugarcane. Everything looks green, productive, and lush. Presently three retaining swales have been dug on the high side of the property as well as a diversion ditch in order to reduce erosion and entrap topsoil during the rainy season. A further and larger swale will be placed in the upper area of the field, but it is presently covered with sugarcane, and work cannot advance on it until after the cane harvest. The vision for the training ministry on the farm is strong – both that of the teaching and training in the Word, as well as that of training in farming and animal husbandry and agroforestry. Javier clearly sees that all that has been done in all of the areas of vegetable growing, farming, animal husbandry, and agroforestry is only the very beginning and experimental in nature so that they themselves can learn how to best do it in their particular harsh climate. From here he sees the potential for continued development in growing and training. In his heart, as in mine, there is no division between the spiritual (“sacred”) focus of the farm Training Center and the “natural”. There is no clergy / laity divide in our walk in Christ.

On Monday and Tuesday Fred, Carl, Javier, Cristina, Mario, Janny, Blanca, and I met at the Bible Institute building in order to cover the leadership topics that were a large part of the purpose of the whole trip. I had purposed to keep these meetings very intimate among only the core leaders – those who had a reason to be there – and who were directly involved in the direction seeking issues at hand.

In our discussion and prayer time together on Sunday night about the plans for Monday and Tuesday’s direction, Carl discussed a format of listening with Fred and me that he had been introduced to, and which seemed to be what the Holy Spirit was indicating to be a useful tool for discussing the topics which needed to be addressed over the following days. Both Fred and I agreed that this was a wise and solid way to go, and I asked Carl if he would mind leading the sessions following the suggested format since he was neutral, and didn’t have any history of the issues on the table.

During all of Monday and the morning of Tuesday we all sat and listened to each leader individually share without interruptions his or her visions and passions for life; for ministry, but also, and very importantly for all areas of life including family, personal, and any other areas that each person wished to present. The final question for each person was always “If all of this was taken away – all ministry, all of your family, all of your finances, everything was stripped away – what would you then do? What then would be your remaining passion? If nothing was left humanly speaking, what would then be your heart?” In truly hearing each other’s dreams in this way there were many things that we all learned of each other. On Tuesday Armando and Alicia, the direct trainee-leaders of the Training Center farm were also asked to share their visions and passions as had the others on Monday. After a brief lunch break after which Armando and Alicia were dismissed, the meeting moved into the second phase more directly involving leadership issues and decisions.

The overriding message that Fred and I attempted to bring throughout the afternoon session was that of the releasing of the leadership from any perceived burdens that they may have been carrying, and the negating of anything whereby they felt that they needed to perform in a certain way due to any external demands or desires from us. Rather, we desired that they understand that they are 100% free to seek what God has for the specific ministries that each of them is directing. There was also a time of prayer for the leaders for continued clarity of purpose and vision in ministry.

On Tuesday after the afternoon session we met with Cristina and her students and trainees at the sewing school. I will address this aspect of ministry in a later part of this report. However, let me simply state here that this is a powerful evangelistic ministry which is touching women’s lives for Christ, and that it is a labor of love given by Cristina which I believe we absolutely need to continue to support financially and spiritually through prayer.

On Wednesday I drove Carl Thompson back to Tampico in the evening in order to catch his early morning flight. It was a pleasure to meet Carl on this trip and to have found my heart closely woven with him in vision and purpose of ministry. I trust that this will not be our last time together.

The rest of the week was very full for me personally because I had a long list of things that I needed to take care of involving various aspects of the work besides simply that of the three main areas of the ministry. One significant part of this was that of visiting with Marina and her four orphaned great grandchildren that she is now raising. I will also address this in a separate area of this report. However, I believe that it is absolutely necessary that we complete the commitment that we have made to God in caring for this widow and these precious orphans. It is impossible that we should expect her to have to do it alone. However, Javier and I have also come up with a plan; the concept of which I believe was placed into Javier’s heart by the Holy Spirit.

One of the other urgent needs during these days was to provide James Humphries, the founder and international director of Project LAMBS, along with his wife Hka Win with time to meet with Mario to formalize the ongoing work of LAMBS in the whole region – of which Mario is the regional director.

On Friday evening Fred and James were the keynote speakers at an intercity pastor’s and leadership conference presented in the Bible Institute building, and on Saturday the week culminated in the graduation of students from all three Bible schools – Project LAMBS, Casa del Obrero, and Luz de Las Naciones (Light of the Nations). In total there were twenty one graduating students present at the ceremony as well as one who was unable to come because of illness. Represented were also teachers from each of the schools, as well as pastors from various churches across the city, several board members, and current students of the Bible schools, along with friends and family members.

On Saturday morning we also visited the children’s feeding and teaching ministry where Cristina and Alicia are pouring out their hearts and love to the children in an impoverished squatter’s village where housing is such that most Canadian and American farmers would not even keep their animals; and where there is no running water, electricity, or sewage, and most shacks are made out of pieces of scavenged scrap. Some of the children who have been a part of this ongoing work for several years are themselves now teenagers and are faithful Believers and are becoming helpers to their own peer group as well as to the younger children. I also want to address this need separately in another area of this report as I believe that there is a tremendous necessity for financial support for this wonderful ministry to the poor.

On Sunday afternoon I took Fred Erb to Tampico in order for him to catch his early Monday morning flight back to Canada. Although the distance is only a bit over a hundred miles to Tampico from Cd. Valles the round trip always takes a minimum of six hours and I did not arrive back until after midnight.

On Monday James and Hka Win and I drove with Javier and Cristina and their three boys to a small Pame community called Tanlacut – some four or five hours west of Cd. Valles and across a number of circuitous and almost impassible mountain ranges. The Pames are an indigenous and historically extremely closed tribal group with a very distinct language and culture. Tanlacut itself is a village of around a thousand souls and the doorway to the Pame zone – a region of some 20,000 indigenous people who populate a large geographic area. It is here that God has burdened Javier and Cristina to begin a work to this largely unreached people group. During the practicum ministry month of Armando and Alicia’s Bible school training they had spent an entire month living and ministering in the village of Tanlacut.

However, it is not only Javier’s burden to plant a new mission outreach to the village of Tanlacut itself, but into the surrounding mountain family-group communities scattered across the region where the true gospel of Jesus Christ has seldom been preached, and where the name of Jesus has scarcely been heard in an accurate way other than entrapped with pagan and religious accoutrements. One of the Believers that we visited after bouncing our way for two hours up an almost impossibly-bad mountain path painted a striking word picture for us during our ministry time with them. She said that many times she feels like a plant that is withering due to the lack or water, and that when someone comes to preach the Word to them it is like a refreshing watering which again brings spiritual life to the wilting plant. No wonder, since any time that they have to go to the nearest store or village requires a two hour walk each way with the youngest of the children strapped to their backs; the older children must walk on their own. It is little wonder that there is a dearth of spiritual refreshing, and a hunger for fellowship among these scattered Believers.

It is also here in the little Pame family community of Agua Nueva, about a half hour drive down a rocky road from the village of Tanlacut itself where a property and building is being donated to the ministry. It is here in Agua Nueva where Javier envisions a ministry training center and base for a vast work amongst the Pame tribal people group. It is here where people from the far-flung and almost inaccessible mountain communities can then come and be trained in the Word, in farming and growing techniques, and in other practical areas so that they can take the Life of Christ back to their own communities. As Javier sees his ministry and that of the work of Jesus Christ, it is all-inclusive and not divided out into compartmentalized “spiritual” and “secular”; but rather, all is Jesus, and the Life of Jesus involves all. He does not see any difference in teaching and discipling someone from the Bible, or in them training in how to grow vegetables to feed their family and community. Nor do I.

There is another astoundingly obvious truth that is all too often missed in transcultural ministry. What do we truly expect when we uproot a person from his mountain community where he has grown up and attempt to transplant him (with religious, but misguided zeal) into the city for Bible and educational training? Do we truly expect that they will wish to go back to their own people? Do we naïvely believe that they won’t be changed and/or contaminated by the “lights and mod-cons of the big city”? Do we incredulously think that this will develop men and women who will go back to win their own tribal groups?

On the other hand, a place like Agua Nueva is located in an isolated tribal area and can quickly be developed into a culturally appropriate and very natural training center where Pame nationals can come, study, and be trained in all areas of the Life of Jesus Christ, and from which they can then walk or ride their own horse back to their mountain village. This vision is sound!

It was “interesting” (perhaps not the best word to use here), but on Monday night James was just ending a teaching on the Kingdom of Light and that of darkness and was emphasizing that there were only two choices – either Light of darkness – when five shots rang out in quick succession only a building or two beside us in the public “galera” in Tanlacut, and then were followed very shortly by a sixth. I wanted to believe that it was fireworks, but we were assured that they were bullets and that this type of thing happened often in these wild mountains were the police do not enter, and where there is no law and the pistol rules. The next day we found out what had happened. A thirty year old man who was notorious for drug trafficking and violent cruelty and power in the region was also known to “play” Russian roulette. This time his sixth cartridge hit. The funeral was on Wednesday as we were leaving the area. Truly Jesus is the only Light in the impenetrable darkness of sin. Nothing, and no amount of good works will ever bring us to God except for Jesus.

On Friday evening and all day Saturday several families among the leadership celebrated our friendship in an overnight campout and all-day party at the farm Training Center. Some of the families had tents while others made make-shift covers on the back of their vehicles. I found an old army cot that was still stored in the “bodega” at the farm and slept on it. We ate too much, and visited and fellowshipped together. It was also a valuable time to share memories and history as well as vision and dreams for the ministry among the leadership in a casual and very family-friendly way over a huge batch of donuts that Armando created “out of thin air” for us.

On Sunday morning I celebrated an early morning sunrise service with the Believers at Solidaridad and Javier preached a powerful message of our resurrected Lord being our only hope and purpose, and that it is only because of the empty grave alone that we have salvation.

After an extremely to-the-last-second-busy Monday, James, Hka Win and I were driven to Tampico by Javier and Juan in time to find a hotel for an early morning flight back to Winnipeg on Tuesday morning.

That is a very quick encapsulation of a fortnight of intense ministry. God’s presence was clear, and valuable direction was begun in many areas of the ongoing work. Ministry is never one-dimensional, nor is anything a simple slam dunk when human beings are involved. But God is faithful, and he is doing a powerful work in the Cd. Valles region of Mexico through our brothers and sisters there. I was very blessed and impressed to see the ongoing ministry as it is being walked out by the leadership. I was in no way disappointed or left with any inkling that things are not progressing forward, or in a way that God is not directly guiding. I am happy to say that God is faithful, and that the ministry of which Theresa and I have been privileged to be a part of over the years is growing and continuing strong, and that the leadership is faithful and single-minded in their devotion to Jesus Christ.

I do have some further suggestions and reflections concerning specific needs that I have observed as I have already indicated above:

a) Concerning the sewing training school/sewing classes:

Cristina has a passion to equip women and to bring Jesus to them. She currently has around seven or eight new women, along with a group of teenage girls which she has been training from the poor, squatter’s village of Buenos Aires. Alicia is currently working alongside Cristina in this outreach and training school. The former Bible school building is being rented for this program and is currently costing around $200 Canadian per month to rent (just a tad more depending upon the exchange of the Canadian dollar). What this building provides is a good, clean central location close to bus traffic, and large enough for one of the rooms to also be utilized for children to play in when women come with their little ones. It also has an area which is prepared for a kitchen, but which doesn’t have appliances. The building is large enough to have storage, there is a clean bathroom, and it is well situated. The rent is not high for a building of its type in the location where it is situated in the city.

A testimony of one of the women in the program will illustrate Cristina’s vision and purpose for the school. This young woman with a seven year old daughter found herself and her daughter abandoned by her husband. She is not a Christian and had no reason to live. She was at the point of suicide when she heard about the sewing program being offered from Alicia who has her own daughter in the same school as this young woman. She came to see what was being offered; knowing nothing about sewing at all, but desperate for any kind of love and hope. She still has not given her heart to the Lord, but she now is totally transformed and is filled with purpose and hope for her daughter and for herself, and her face shines. She is bringing other new women to the classes as well in order to introduce them to the love and hope that she has found. She is quickly learning the trade, and when I was there she proudly showed me the dress that she had just finished for her daughter. In fact, Cristina sees her as the one who might possibly be able to go on to higher training in order to teach other women as well.

She is just one of the women; each of them has her own story. However, the sewing school may never in fact become a money-generating center for the women as was initially intended, but rather always a place of ministry. Sure, some of the women, and certainly Alicia and Cristina have used sewing to generate income, and others will no doubt do so from their homes as well. However, most of Cristina’s income from her sewing work goes back into the running of the school, and in the end it is the ministry that the school provides to hurting women and girls that she has a passion for, and not the money. Cristina’s vision for this ministry is that it remain an evangelistic tool and not necessarily an income generating co-op. In fact, even if it never generates one centavo of income for the women involved but is a means through which they find eternal salvation in Jesus Christ then it is an overwhelming success. Some will probably use their training to generate income from home and some may not, but that is all beside the point. From my perspective we need to continue to support Cristina’s ministry of sewing through continuing to finance the paying of the monthly rent for the building. Further, there is a great need for more furniture such as fans, chairs, a stove for teaching cooking and baking, and possibly other needs as well. Further, there will always be a need for small ongoing purchases such as fabric rotary cutters and blades, thread, sewing machine repairs, etc. Unfortunately, since the vision is for it to be an evangelistic outreach the idea of it being self-financing at any time soon is probably completely unrealistic and I believe that this is a valuable work which we should continue to support as a ministry.

b) Concerning Marina and her four orphaned great grandchildren:

Marina is sixty eight years old and is tired. When I met her she told me that she was feeling very sad because she had just buried her brother a week before and her eldest daughter is now dying of stomach cancer. She is now also raising her four young great grandchildren alone after their mother, Elizabeth, was brutally murdered by her common-law husband after it was revealed that he had been sexually abusing the little girls for many years, and that he was about to be turned in to the authorities.

[For more on this family look back at the following blog posts:

http://www.vitwministries.com/wordpress/2010/08/the-face-of-poverty/

http://www.vitwministries.com/wordpress/2012/01/671/

http://www.vitwministries.com/wordpress/2010/08/manzanas-maravillosas-dona-marina/]

The children look good, and on the surface seem to be happy and adjusted. However, it doesn’t need someone with a PhD in psychology to understand that when your mother has been bludgeoned to death and you have been sexually molested for years that there will probably be deep emotional and spiritual scars. The little twin girls are eight years old and the brothers are ten and eleven. They all live in a two-room shack. Marina earns about equivalent to $10 – $12 (Canadian) after a long day of making donuts and then walking door-to-door to sell them. Twelve dollars in Mexico buys about as much as twelve dollars does in Canada. She has not had the energy to make donuts now since her brother died. She said that she is tired. There is little to no help coming in from the children’s biological father who also has another family now that his meager wages as a day-laborer must support as well, and there is no one else to help.

When Javier and I discussed ideas with her of how she might be able to generate an ongoing income for herself and the children she ruled out selling food or having a little store on her property because all of the neighbors also have no money, and promise, but do not pay their debts if anything is given to them on credit. However, she stated that what she could see is to raise some animals for sale – specifically pigs.

Marina now lives in a small shack in the town of Citlalmina, however she does own a small property a bit south of town where she lived for many years. During the years that she lived there she kept the place planted and usually had some animals that she raised – usually several pigs. It has only been in the last ten or so years, since she is older, that she has moved to town. Javier and I went with her and the children to look at her property again with her. It is now completely overgrown, but does have an unfinished cement block house on it. Although she has been trying to sell the property for many years, no one will buy it because it has little value because of its location. However, with an investment of very little money into finishing the house and cleaning the property it could again be lived in, and animals could be raised there. The main thing that would need to be done is to run a line into the property so that it would have water. There is no power, but that is of lower priority than water, and lanterns could easily be used for light as Marina did for many years.

There is also an older Christian brother by the name of Marcelo who lives several houses down from her. He is somewhat older than Marina but is also forced to do daily jobs for which he earns about equivalent to $2.50 Canadian per day. Javier’s idea is simple and brilliant and would assist not only Marina and the four children, but would also make her self-supporting and not dependent upon handouts, would provide the children with ongoing training in life-skills and potentially an ongoing inheritance, and would also provide a job for an elderly Christian brother as well. If funds would be made available to run a water line to the property, to do basic finishing on the house itself, and for a small salary for Marcelo, he could be hired to cut down the weeds and overgrowth on the property and to live there and be the caretaker of it for Marina. If further funds would then also be made available for her to invest in several animals and chickens then Marina and the children, as well as Marcelo could look after them as well as take care of the property. It is easily accessed from Marina’s current house being only a several minute walk from it. This would be a win – win situation where Marina and the children would be able to be independently self-supporting through raising animals and food, and an elderly Christian brother would also have an income and a place to live where he could feel useful and loved. It is my strong recommendation that this is a very valid need, and that we as God’s people must be faithful to fulfilling God’s priorities in regards to caring for widows and orphans.

c) Concerning the Saturday morning feeding program and children’s outreach in the squatter’s village of Buenos Aires:

As I have already mentioned above, Buenos Aires is a squatter’s village where the inhabitants do not have any land rights at all, and where they have lived in complete insecurity of immediate eviction for many years. Most of the people who live there do so because they are extremely poor and cannot afford to pay for land elsewhere. However, this puts them into a position where they are unable and unwilling to invest any amount of money into housing or property betterment because they literally could be burned out or evicted at any moment. The children in these families often come from fatherless homes where the man has long-since abandoned the mother and children. These women are the poorest of the poor. There are very, very few social catch nets in Mexico.

Here, in this little squatter’s village Javier and Cristina began a ministry many years ago of caring for the needs of the children. They have a Saturday morning feeding program in a little covered area which always also involves a teaching in Bible principles. Many of the children have grown up through the children’s program and are now active Christian teenagers and are themselves helping in the church as well as in the children’s ministry itself. Some of the girls are also very much involved in the sewing school and are some of Cristina’s trainees there. Alicia has also helped in the children’s program in Buenos Aires for many years and it is mainly Cristina and Alicia’s vision and passion which keeps it running.

The money to buy the food comes mainly from the personal giving of Javier and Cristina as well as from Armando and Alicia; neither family of which can really afford to do so. Some donations do come in from others in the church in Solidaridad where Javier and Cristina are pastors, but although generous givers, this is also a very poor church. Javier confided in me that although this ministry is the passion of Cristina’s heart, the financial burden of running it is personally crushing for them.

I believe that this is a very needed and viable ministry to the poor children of a very impoverished village, and that we should assist it financially. I have seen the spiritual growth in the children over the years, and I have certainly been witness to the poverty and the physical and social needs that are being met by this ministry. By assisting with even as little as one hundred dollars a month along with what they are already doing locally, a large portion of the financial burden that is currently being carried by Javier and Cristina could be reduced, and the ministry could continue to change young lives for Christ, and allow these poor children to experience firsthand the love of Jesus for them. I highly recommend that a monthly amount be given by the ministry for the feeding and children’s program in Buenos Aires in order to buy food to feed these children and to continue the ministry there.

 

________________________________________________

This ends a report/blog post on my trip to Cd. Valles this past month. I was overjoyed to see the progress of the work, and to be with friends again. God is doing a wonderful work, and the vision which he began is strong in the hearts of the faithful men and women in leadership. He is also raising up others who are faithfully moving into areas of leadership as well – notable in this area are Blanca and Juan as well as Armando and Alicia who I know will very soon become leaders in their own right.

On a sad note for all of you who know our sister Rosaura – she has recently had her second chemotherapy treatment for metastasizing cancer and has requested that I send out her request for prayer. Although she is ready to go home, she is trusting God for healing because she believes that she is not yet finished with the work which He has given her to do. Please remember her in your prayers.

Thank you for your faithfulness in praying for, and giving financially to the ministry of Voice in the Wilderness over the years. Your love and generosity is what is making it possible for these faithful brothers and sisters in Christ to continue to bring the message of the Good News of our Lord and Savior to a lost and dying world in the Huasteca region of Mexico.

Beautiful handwork

 

Blessings,

 

Your fellow laborers in the harvest,

 

Steven and Theresa Frey

 

Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unfathomable (inscrutable, unsearchable) are His judgments (His decisions)! And how untraceable (mysterious, undiscoverable) are His ways (His methods, His paths)! Romans 11:33 (AMPC)

Do you remember riding a roller coaster – especially one of those old, vintage wooden ones that are probably banned now for being unsafe? I haven’t ridden one for years, and in fact I think that I got violently nauseated from motion sickness the last time I did ride one; but I still remember the sensation as it slowly clicked and rattled its way laboriously up the incline only to crest and then careen madly and seemingly out of control down the curved and undulated downslide.

Sometimes I think life feels like that, or at least mine does. Much of the time life is just kind of clicking and clacking along up the incline with not much to show for much of anything. Clickity, clack, wake up, go to work, clickity, clack, do the necessary things around the house, rattle, click, clack… But just wait until the thing crests! Whoa, hang on baby, and try to enjoy the exhilarating ride.

My last blog entry was the 25th of April, not because nothing has happened in the mean while, but rather because I simply have not sat down to my computer and written. I will attempt to briefly bring you up to date on the events of the past months.

I think that the best way to begin will be to place a vision and planning report that Javier Santos has just recently sent me on the various aspects of the work in Cd. Valles. After his letter I will flesh out some of the ministry highlights.

So, to begin; Javier writes:

To the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who gives us the victory be all of the glory.
God says: “Write out the revelation, engraving it clearly on the tablets, so that a courier may run with it. For the revelation pertains to an appointed time—it speaks truthfully about the end. Though it delays, wait for it, because it will surely come about—it will not be late! Habakkuk 2:2-3

O Lord, fulfill your purpose in me. O God of Israel; till the appointed time. In the name of Jesus.

Civil Association:

1) To protect the Civil Association “Obreros Unidos para Cosechar” (Workers United to Harvest) with men and women who do not seek dishonest gain and who have a vision to serve and teach. To achieve this goal this year by placing into the Civil Association people who have the same heart of servanthood and that of laborers.

• to this end; to bring two married couples with like-minded vision into the Civil Association, OUpC. These are namely: Juan Mendoza and Blanquita, and the other couple is Samuel and Blanca, all of which are also workers in the church.
• Renew the Civil Association’s constitution by placing new board members who are willing to work, and remove those who do not presently wish to participate in any part of the work

Projects on the Farm (Casa del Obrero):

1) Increase the production of vegetables; planting in seedling beds or directly for production in order to become self-sustaining for consumption on the farm itself, as well as being able to produce sufficient food in order to be able to feed others. Always with the aim of the level of vegetable production growing until it can become commercialized. In order for this to take place there must always be a careful and constant collection and conservation of seeds.

2) Simultaneously develop the agroforestry of fruit trees, ornamental trees, as well as shade trees. This will make the site more attractive and will serve as a model for those who will have the opportunity to come to the farm to learn techniques of land transformation and of continuous sustainable production.

3) We will expand the present vegetable and agroforestry site by one hectare in order to accommodate further reforestation. We will also place a quarter hectare if this area into the direct production of food.

• This year four or five further swales and holding ponds will be created to capture water and soil in order to conserve the soil and organic resources which are currently being lost to erosion, and to improve the land. By utilizing these ponds we will also have enough water to begin raising fish.

• With the soil collected in these ponds from the annual runoff from adjoining farms, the soil of the farm will be gradually improved and the production of its sugarcane and agroforestry enriched.

Casa del Obrero (House of the Laborer):

1) Build an apartment with facilities including a kitchen and bathroom for a young couple. I intend to build onto the top of the concrete septic tank which is currently 2 meters x 4 meters, also adding two more footings in order to make its footprint into a full 4 meters x 4 meters. This will allow for an area of 3 meters x 4 meters for the bedroom space, and 1 meter x 2 meters for the kitchen, and a square meter for the bathroom.

2) Build a shaded receiving area (porch) in front of the house where Armando and Alicia live. This will be 4 meters x 10 meters – the full width of the house. This area will be constructed of metal framing with corrugated tin (lamina) roofing, and flooring and the lower portion made from cut stones and rustic wood.

3) We will make shaded seedling nurseries and growing beds from the wood of otates (a type of bamboo that grows locally) covered with shade producing mesh where we will germinate and grow the young fruit plants and vegetables. We will need a shaded, mesh-covered nursery area of 10 meters x 10 meters, or at a minimum of 6 meters x 8 meters.

 Tanlacut Mission Church Plant:

This is a place where many servants have labored. There is a church of Christian believers in the village. However, what is urgently needed is to buy a space or plot of land in order to build a building, either a more temporary wooden structure or a more permanent building of more solid material, for a center of Bible teaching in order to continue to disciple men and women within the Pame tribe. Tanlacut is the logical starting point to enter the other towns that correspond to the Pame tribal ethnic group.

I feel burdened and called to this place. I intend to sell the van that God gave to me in order to buy a small property for the meeting place of my brothers and sisters there. I know that the price that I will get for my burro (“my donkey” – referring metaphorically to his van) is very little, but it will be enough to make a down payment on a small property for a house of prayer; the rest of the money God will provide. I want to achieve this as soon as possible with God’s help. God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is with us. The seed has already been sown; it has already germinated; it has already grown; it is ripe; is ready for the harvest.

Mission Plant: Buenos Aires – Miravalles (under Samuel and Blanca):

1) I am assisting the work at this new mission plant by providing some otates wood to build a roofed shelter for their meeting place.

2) With my finances, as God provides them, I want to help to finish the footings and foundation for the shelter, since it is not yet finished. God will provide the economic resources.

Children’s Feeding Ministry – “Hidden Manna”:

1) Continue to support the teachers who serve the children’s needs and who instruct them in Bible truths, and to ensure that the finances and facilities needed to continue to offer Saturday breakfasts to children in the community of Buenos Aires continues to be made available.

Mission: San Antonio Huichimal:

Encourage and help Armando and Alicia to achieve the purposes that God has given them for this place. Develop a small meeting place for prayer and worship of God within this village. By God’s grace helping to break any taboos and spiritual bondages that exist within the Tenek culture in this community.

In Academic Areas:

1) In this coming year we will finish with the formal academic preparation of Armando and Alicia – the first couple that we are going to send out into the Lord’s harvest field.

2) For the upcoming year I have in my heart to adopt two further couples to be prepared for ministry at the farm training center. I know that God will provide the workers and the finances to do so. Notwithstanding, knowing that this will require finances for the personal support of the couples (food and clothing), as well as for the needs of their children. This support will be necessary for a period of three years only, during which time they will be trained at work on the site, in academics, and in missionary work.

3) We have didactic resources of common subjects; however, I lack some books which I require. Those missing are:
– Eschatology,
– Explanation or Manuals of the Pauline Epistles,
– The Universal Epistles,
– Biblical dictionaries, etc.

4) This year, although we already have an identity as an organization, we want to give more prominence to the identity of the Training Center for Laborers (Casa del Obrero); registering it with Catastro (see footnotes at end of this heading concerning Catastro); putting up new signs; and managing the logo for dissemination on the internet.

5) To use Armando and Alicia to teach classes for the preparation of new workers.

(The Municipal Property Office (Catastro) deals primarily with technical aspects of real property, such as measurements, tax codes, mergers of parcels, subdivisions, property taxes, etc. The purpose of the Catastro agency is to provide the government and individuals with accurate descriptions and information about the existing real estate in Mexico)

Iglesia Casa del Alfarero (House of the Potter) (in Solidarity):

During this year, and since 2004 when God first granted my wife and I the opportunity to minister in the Colonia of Solidarity, there has been a lot of adventure; however primarily it has been a testimony of struggle and much work.

1) After a long time we are beginning to see the church functioning little by little in the labor of the Lord and in hospitality. Although we lack an electric hookup to the church, we hope this year to be able to reach the amount of $7,000 pesos necessary to hook up electricity to the church so that we will have power. This year we also hope to be able to be able to request the introduction of water and drainage to the church which will cost a further $8,000 pesos. We have already installed the electrical wiring and light and switch terminals. The building is a very enclosed place with little air movement, but little by little we are acquiring fans for the very high temperatures.

2) Build four bedrooms above the church building to house my brother missionaries coming from both outside the country as well as inside the country, as we constantly have the joy of receiving visitors from other places.

 

3) In the church we have local workers. God has given us the privilege as a church body to support the breakfast feeding program for children in Buenos Aires, and to send workers to San Antonio Huichimal, and to Rio Verde (where Hazael Moreno labors). We also have Samuel and Blanca and Heriberto who have also been added to the work teams, etc.

Thanks be to God because he always fulfills his Word by raising laborers.

May the God of peace bless you today and always.
______________________________

 

As is immediately evident from Javier’s visioning and planning report, there is a lot going on in the work in Cd. Valles and the surrounding areas.

In the April blog I mentioned that the decision had been made to network together with Provision of Hope, and that my cousin Karen Barkman (the founder and CEO of this organization), had applied to Hope for the Nations (which is the registered charity of which she is an agent), asking them for an agency agreement so that Provision of Hope could do some projects for Voice in the Wilderness Ministries, in Mexico. I am delighted to report that the application was accepted by Hope for the Nations and that we are now able to receive funding for specified projects from these organizations. Praise God for this provision.

Through this newly opened door God further blessed the ministry by laying it on the heart of a brother in western Canada to donate a substantial amount of money to the work in Cd. Valles in honor of his parents. These funds make it possible to quickly expand the work on the training center farm, as well as that of the sewing training ministry that the women are involved with.

In May God provided a much needed vehicle for the work. As I have indicated in past blogs, there was a huge need for a reliable vehicle for all aspects of the ministry, including, but not limited to the work on the training center farm. Up until May, Javier had a beat-up, eight-cylinder van that was hanging together with a wing and a prayer, and which guzzled gas like a thirsty camel sidling up to the watering trough. My attempt to import a little pickup truck for the work had failed the previous year, and we determined that the best recourse was to try to find one locally – not an easy task; at least to find one that was suitable, and reasonably priced. God graciously provided an excellent little, well maintained 2007 Ford Ranger crew cab for the work. Exactly what the doctor ordered. Praise the Lord for his provision and for the finances which were made available to purchase this tool for the work.

I have personally been blessed by Carl Thompson’s ministry in Cd. Valles. In talking to the leaders there I know that they are even more blessed by his willingness to serve them than I am. We all look forward to Carl’s return to Cd. Valles in the beginning of the new year. With Carl will be another brother, Kim Warawa who will be going there for the first time. We look with expectation to see what surprises God has “up his sleeve” for that visit in January. One thing that I am personally very excited about is that while in Mexico they will be receiving a brick making machine which utilizes a soil and cement mixture to manufacture interlocking bricks. This excites me to pieces because I can see how this simple piece of equipment could be utilized, first of all, to supply building materials for the increasing housing needs on the farm site as well as in the church plants into the villages. Then, secondly, it takes only a little imagination to see the equipment being fabricated and duplicated in order to be utilized at the farm site as well as in the surrounding villages as a cottage industry and trade which will be able to supply income for national Christian workers and missionaries. I am very excited to see where God takes this.

 

This year’s rainy season has been very hot and with heavy rains. Planting has been delayed due to the intense rains, and to the water-logged soils. We will need to wait and see how the sugarcane responds this growing season. The animals are doing well. More shaded growing beds are needed for the vegetable crops and tree seedlings. Javier told me last night that the shade mesh that is needed to cover the growing beds is very expensive there now. We trust God for the provision of the funds necessary to purchase the amount that they need for the farm.

Mario and his wife Alejandra (Janny) have now finished the purchase of a new facility in Cd. Valles for the Bible Institute and Project LAMBS, as well as a place for visiting missionaries to reside. I have only seen pictures of it, and I am not sure that I remember the building, but it is close to the downtown square, and is a large old stone building that they purchased and refurbished specifically to house the Bible Institute. May God richly bless Mario and Janny for their commitment and service for Him; to mention nothing of the personal finances which they give so generously towards His work.

Currently there are three students attending the Light of the Nations Bible Institute in Cd. Valles of which Janni is the director. There are also around twenty students in the Project LAMBS program of Christian leadership training which is currently being held in Tamazunchale, approximately two hours south of Cd. Valles. Mario is the director of this school, and is also faithfully teaching the program in Tamazunchale. Mario is not getting any reimbursement for his teaching or travel. This speaks of his high commitment to Jesus, and to training other believers in the Word of God.

The Light of the Nations Bible Institute is also solidifying its association under the cover of the Berean Bible Institute in Monterrey, Mexico. You will remember that I spoke of this some time back, and that we were excited to see what God was going to do with this spiritual union. Recently Mario and Janny, as well as Javier and Cristina spent some time in Berea again in order to continue to develop this relationship with them as their parent school.

The women are very busy teaching and expanding the sewing classes and the cottage industry associated with it. Cristina is the director of this program in Cd. Valles which currently incorporates several churches as well as women from a number of very poor, squatter villages in which Javier and Cristina serve, as well as young girls from the feeding ministry and children’s work in Buenos Aires (which Javier mentioned in his visioning letter). Many of these women are now able to produce income for their households through this newly-learned trade.

As Javier indicated above, they have very recently begun to renew contact with a village called Tanlacut, about two hours south west of Cd. Valles. This is predominately a Pame tribal area and has up to now been very closed to the gospel. Back in the early part of 2000 we began a church plant into this village and its surrounding region. We continued monthly medical clinics over a period of six months or more in order to prepare the ground there for a church plant. A group of believers was established in the village at that time, but subsequently the national missionary couple who headed up the work there moved away, and the believers had no ongoing spiritual leadership and they no longer flourished. Only weeks ago God laid it upon Javier’s heart to revisit these villages and to reestablish a Christian outreach there. He spoke about this in his visioning letter above.

Last week pastor Marty Dyer and a group from Oklahoma spent some time in Cd. Valles, Rio Verde, and Tanlacut, joining Javier and others of the leadership team in their work. Marty reported an excellent time of ministry, and men and women with a passion for Jesus and who are focused in ministry. What a wonderful report from a trusted brother. I am so privileged to know that God has placed strong, trustworthy, and dedicated men and women in leadership of His work in Cd. Valles, and I am honored to be able to have had a small part in laboring beside them.

How different Mexico is presently from the time that I first arrived in Cd. Valles some nineteen years ago. In those days I had zero communication out of Mexico and made only the extremely rarest of phone calls outside of the country at a huge cost per minute. This procedure required one to go to the corner public phone somewhere and feed pesos into the insatiable coin slot. Just very recently, at my urging, Javier has purchased a “smart phone” on which he has downloaded the “WhatsApp”. We now communicate with each other at will on video calls for free. What a crazy world we live in. In fact, technology creates monsters, and I am now constantly receiving little random “thinking about you” spam from Cristina. Sigh! A new social media victim!

I suppose, to follow my own implied advice above, I had better close this thing down before it turns into unwanted spam and excessive media junk mail from my own desk.

Theresa and I appreciate each of you and are so grateful for your prayers and support of our brothers and sisters in Mexico. Please continue to faithfully lift them before God’s throne. Nothing that they do is easy. They struggle against many issues, both physical and economic, as well as spiritual. I am so thankful for their faithfulness.

Your brother and sister,

Steven and Theresa

I knew that it was a long time since my last blog, but January 2^nd; that is ridiculous! As usual, much has transpired since then; and as always, God has been good.

So, without further ado, let me begin…

Both Theresa and I are working full time – neither of us in dream jobs to be sure – but nonetheless, we have been blessed with work. I am driving a small three-ton truck for a courier company and pick up and deliver between Winnipeg and Steinbach where we live. My hours are ridiculously long; but it does provide an income, and it keeps the wolf from the door. Theresa is still working with the intellectually challenged population (or whatever the politically correct way is to say that at the present moment), and is finding it very challenging as well at times. Still, we prayed for work, and this is what God has provided for the present time. I still believe that He will open something better suited and more closely fitting “us”, but this is what he has placed in our hands for now.

My health “issues” have seemed to calm down now. I am still dealing with the residual of my shoulder displacement, but that is apparently something that I will have for the rest of my life. The “bone doctor” said that there is no point in surgery, and indeed there is not even a good prognosis for surgery in this situation, and basically other than for cosmetic reasons he would not recommend that anything be attempted. Basically, other than strengthening the muscles that have been shifted around I simply need to “suck it up Buttercup and stop bellyaching” (that is a very loose paraphrase of what he told me).

I am also slated for a follow up with my retinal detachment issues and will be having cataract surgery in the near future. I am scheduled for this already; however, it can apparently take longer than a year or more to finally be able to get the surgery done here in Manitoba. The cataract is due to the initial gas bubble that was placed into my eye to hold the retina in place while it reattached and healed. The good news is that it really doesn’t hinder my vision too much yet, although it will continue to get worse as time goes along.

I’m beginning to sound uncomfortably similar to a declining geriatric complaining about his chronic lumbago and bowel complaints, so I had better switch to other, brighter topics…

In fact, many exciting things have taken place in the work in Mexico since my last blog entry back in January, and I want to quickly recap some of the highlights for you.

In November of last year I met with my cousin, Karen Barkman, who was here in Manitoba visiting with her mother at the time. Karen and her husband David have founded a work in Liberia, Africa called Provision of Hope, of which Karen is the Director and CEO. We had a lovely lunch with her mom, and Karen and I had a chance to catch up after not having seen each other for many years. During our time together Karen told me that God had recently begun placing a desire in her heart for Mexico again, and that He was reviving a burden within both her and her husband for the work there that they had been a part of some eighteen years ago when they had spent some time with me in medical outreaches. (Incidentally, their financial gift at the time was primarily the money which built the church building in which Javier and his wife Cristina are currently ministering). We agreed that we had no clue where God was going in this, but decided to leave it in His capable hands and see where He would lead us. We said goodbye, and agreed to be in touch.

Shortly after this “chance” meeting with Karen she sent me information about a six-day agroecology and biointensive training program being offered at Las Cañadas, Huatusco, in the state of Veracruz, Mexico and suggested that it would be very beneficial to send Javier and Armando to it in order for them to receive hands-on training in the many and varied areas of alternative agriculture that they offered there. God made the funds available to send them, and they were available to go during the time that the course was being offered during the beginning of February.

Beginning in the new year a group of committed people from across both Canada and the United States also began to meet together via Skype conference calls with the specific purpose of functioning as a steering and visioning committee desiring to see what God desired of us in our part of the ongoing work in Mexico.

Javier and Armando returned to Cd. Valles after their training time in Veracruz both invigorated and inspired to continue the work, and full of innovative ideas on how to practically put these new concepts into place. During his time in Huatusco God profoundly confirmed the vision that He had placed into Javier’s heart for the ministry of the farm-based Training Center. He also reaffirmed and began “fleshing out” a prophetic word that had been spoken over Javier many years ago (at a point in their lives when he and Cristina had absolutely nothing); that through Javier’s hands many would be blessed and fed. Javier knew that this “feeding” that was spoken about prophetically had not been meant as purely spiritual in nature, but that God had indicated clearly that it would also mean a literal feeding of many. At the time he had had no clue how this could ever be possible. However, with the new training in how the land could be utilized more productively and naturally in both growing vegetables and in animal husbandry, he was filled with renewed vision of how God was logically beginning to fulfill the prophetic word spoken so many years ago.

Around the same time, the decision was made on this end to network together with Provision of Hope. Karen has applied to Hope for the Nations (which is the registered charity of which she is an agent), asking them for an agency agreement so that Provision of Hope can do some projects for Voice in the Wilderness Ministries, in Mexico.  Right now this application is in progress.

Karen expressed keen interest in raising funds through Provision of Hope to be used to improve the farm, better enabling it to become self-supporting, and a center for training in food production to the region. She is also interested in assisting the sewing and tailoring school with new machines, and the further training of its teachers, so that it can continue to grow and to train women in a trade, thus providing them with a viable income. Karen’s heart is to reach out to at-risk mothers and children.

All of this lines up with the vision which Javier and the others in leadership already have, and this gives us a sense of peace that God has gone ahead of us to set up this connection.

Voice in the Wilderness Ministries, and those who have faithfully supported the work in Mexico in the past will continue to be involved as they have been all along, and these changes in funding will not affect them in any way. Joining with Provision of Hope will simply amplify the potential of the work and provide a means to touch many more lives, thus expanding the work of the ministry which has already been begun. Please pray with us that God’s will may be accomplished in this.

Then in March a BIG miracle happened which I personally believe began to change the course of the Mexican work. During a time of prayer, God placed a person specifically by name onto Karen’s heart with the impression that she needed to call him and ask if he would be able to become involved in the work of the farm with Javier. Carl Thompson and his wife Kathy have worked in international missions for many years and have a wealth of ministry experience. Carl is also an expert in alternative agriculture and farming, with a specific love and passion for permaculture and the restoration of land so that it can produce God’s way to feed the poor. Carl had worked with Karen’s ministry in Liberia, and through this has become a close friend of hers. So, when God placed his name specifically onto her heart with the urgency to call him, she picked up the phone and obeyed.

The little niggler however, was that Carl was on his way to Spain in a matter of weeks, and VitW Ministries certainly had no funds to use to get him to Mexico; but my question was “could he please go anyway” Rather a brash request on my part I suppose, but God is a big God, and no challenge is too large for Him.

The outcome was that Carl’s immediate response was “yes”, and he would do it right away during the very narrow window of time before he needed to leave for Spain. What’s more, he would go down for ten days. Karen was able to provide for the finances needed through Provision of Hope, and before the ink had barely dried, or the phone lines stopped humming from our Skype chatter, Carl was in Cd. Valles.

Wow! God is good!

Carl was an encouragement to Javier and Cristina and the other leaders in Cd. Valles. He was a wealth of information to them in the development of the farm in a proper direction. He reinforced and confirmed what they had learned at the training course in Veracruz and encouraged them that they were going in the right direction. He rolled up his sleeves and got sweaty and dirty alongside them. He ate (and from all reports fully loved) the food placed in front of him. He slept without complaint on the floor at the Bible School. He even put up with the 120 degree heat without complaint. But perhaps most importantly, during his time there, God knit his heart with Javier and Cristina and the others; and the Lord willing, he plans to return sometime in the fall to continue what was begun in March.

I have a very strong conviction in my heart that Carl is the man who God is placing into the work “for such a time as this”. As the Apostle Paul stated in the third chapter of first Corinthians, one person has been given the role of planting, one of watering, and another of reaping, but it is God who makes things grow. All of the workers are simply fellow laborers in God’s field; or as Paul puts it:^“So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. The one who plants and the one who waters have one purpose, and they will each be rewarded according to their own labor. For we are co-workers in God’s service”.

At this very moment, for such a time as this, I believe that God has given Carl a very important role in assisting Javier, Cristina, Alejandra, Mario, Armando, Alicia, and the others in the local ministry in Mexico to move into new vistas in the work. Coincidentally (OR NOT), this also coincides precisely with an infusion of “new DNA” into the ministry through the work of Karen and Provision of Hope, as well as the others on the newly formed steering committee. I don’t really know what this all means, and we are certainly only beginning to see what God has in mind, but it is all very exciting to watch.

As far as what is happening “on the ground”:

A small barn has been constricted and they now have five adult sheep and a newly born lamb, and the flock is growing; they are raising laying hens and are growing their flock; they have three pigs – both of the sows pregnant; they are learning to produce most of the feed for the animals on the farm itself, and are purchasing almost none from outside sources; they have built shaded seedling beds and growing beds for vegetable production, and are already growing tree seedlings as well as other plants for both food production and for sale; they are planting trees around the farm “like crazy” with the intended purpose of preventing soil erosion and improving aeration of the soil; the sugarcane has been harvested and a good crop was taken off this year; work is shortly to begin on trenching and contouring the land on the farm with swales and entrapments in order to utilize the principles of permaculture to stop the constant loss of soil through erosion during the rainy season, as well as to preserve precious water for the periods of drought during the dry (principles taught in the course in Veracruz and reinforced by Carl); disciples are beginning to ask for training and healing at the farm (perhaps ultimately looking different from those whom we first envisioned); women and young girls are being trained in trades through the work of Cristina and Alicia in the sewing school; children are being fed and loved and taught about Jesus in squatter villages; churches are being planted and people trained in the Word in the surrounding villages; the needy are being ministered to in the hospital, as well as the drug and alcohol rehabilitation center in the city; men and women are being trained in leadership through Project L.A.M.B.S. in Tamazunchale; the Bible school, Luz de las Naciones continues to train future leaders in Cd. Valles; Alejandra (Jani) and Mario continue to reach the surrounding community for Jesus through ministry beginning with children in their area of the city and a church which meets in their own home; Javier and Cristina continue to pastor the work fulltime at Solidaridad; and much, much more is happening that I know I have forgotten to put down.

The work is advancing in exciting ways, and God is moving. Your prayers and support over the years are bearing fruit, and God will not forget. Please continue to pray for those involved there.

Please pray for God’s direction in this transitioning into working side-by-side with Provision of Hope in various projects of the ministry in Mexico, and that Hope for the Nations will accept our application for this to become possible. Please continue to pray for clear direction for the leaders of the ministry in Mexico, as well as those on this end who continue to work behind the scenes. Please pray that funds will be provided which will make the practical “nut and bolts” of the stuff able to happen on the field. Please pray that God will continue to bring forward, and to make obvious the disciples who he intends to have living and training on the farm. Pray for practical wisdom and understanding of the physical principles which God has put into place in his creation so that Javier and Armando can begin to heal the land – the actual soil of the farm, so that food can be produced to feed many, and so that the principles of farming the land in a godly and natural way can be taught to the surrounding communities – thus becoming a touch point, and a means of evangelism to the region. Pray for strength and refreshed vision for all of those working so hard on the field. Thank God for his provision of Karen and Carl and others into the ministry, thus providing new vision and hope, as well as DNA for the work. Pray that many, many would come to Jesus in these difficult days.

And please see if God is asking you to give financially so that the work can continue.

 

The fields are truly white for harvest, but the laborers are few.

 

Your friends and fellow laborers,

 

Steven and Theresa

Happy New Year. Happy 2017!

I am sitting at my laptop in our home in southern Manitoba realizing that it has been many, many months since I have last posted a blog, and that much water has passed under the bridge since my last entry at the beginning of September. At that point I was still in Texas and was just getting over the crisis of my bike accident.

Despite the fact that Theresa and I appear to have dropped off the radar since then, we are indeed still very much alive. Things are moving forward well in Mexico and exciting things are taking place there. God is still good, even if sometimes his plans and purposes are difficult to understand. There is much to tell you about concerning the intervening months – new treasures as well as old from the storehouse.

So let me begin…

My recovery from the sciatic nerve and shoulder damage that happened because of my accident in August did continue slowly. My huge concern at the time was whether I would be able to take care of the packing and physical work that would be necessary for my move back to Canada. God was gracious, and I was able to slowly and carefully take care of all of this in time for my move. Further, miraculously, just at the final end of my time in Texas I was able to sell our trailer despite a very bad market due to the drop in petroleum prices causing a glut of used travel trailers everywhere. We were not able to get the price that we had hoped for, but we were able to sell it – a huge blessing and burden off my shoulders. I was able to get our things moved up to Manitoba without any problem, even being able to enjoy several days with my daughter Laura on a final road trip back to Dallas to pick up one of the vehicles left there. As per my usual MO, that particular trip was short and sweet and we slept in the vehicle, taking turns alternately driving and sleeping. Nonetheless, it was wonderful to have the time together with her again, something that we had not been able to do for many years.

My last shift in Allen, Texas with the security company was on the last day of September. The move from Texas to Manitoba took me through to the middle of October before it was all completed since it required two trips from Texas to Canada. Once back in Canada my days were filled with working at settling in and renovating your house which had been rented out for seven years and now needed a face lift. Thankfully we have a small loft apartment above our garage where we had been staying over the years when we returned to Canada on short visits from Mexico. Theresa had moved into it when she returned in July. It is adequate but small, and has also been used as our storage area over the years, each added item making our living space smaller as the years went on.

We are very thankful that Theresa had been able to find employment here in Steinbach when she arrived earlier in the summer because it is her paycheck that keeps us going financially. For my part, along with looking for employment I have been occupied on a daily basis over the past months with renovating our house and giving it a complete freshening up inside. Some weeks back I thought that I had a job that I was really hoping I would get, but in the end it was given to someone else. I am still looking for employment, placing applications, and waiting.

Cold weather finally drove us out of the little upstairs apartment in the second week or so of December and we moved into our house. I am still not quite done with the renovations, but the house is certainly livable and I can finish the trim and other uncompleted items over the next several months. It is just easier to do everything before moving back in, and my problem is that if I don’t do things initially often the “out of sight, out of mind” syndrome takes place and ultimately things never end up getting finished. It is simply easier to step over something rather than complete it.

But then came another unexpected crisis!

During the beginning of December my sight slowly began getting worse in my right eye. It sort of crept up on me over a period of time because it has been weaker than my left for many years, and I just thought that the changes indicated worsening vision due to age and that I needed new glasses or something. Anyway, I was too busy to worry much about it. But when I began to completely loose inside peripheral vision in my right eye and a dark “fog” began moving over my line of sight I realized that I had better begin to take it more seriously and went to see a ‘walk-in clinic’ doctor. He immediately sent me to see an optometrist who diagnosed me with detachment of the retina in my right eye and made immediate arrangements for me to be seen by a specialist. So, miracle of all miracles within a Canadian medical system where it usually takes months to be seen for anything, I went from my first visit to a doctor to eye surgery in four days. On December 14^th I had laser repair work done on my left eye and the next day, the 15th, I had surgery on my right eye to reattach the retina and an overnight stay in a Winnipeg hospital.

The surgery actually was a walk in the park compared to the aftercare. The surgery itself involved the filling of my eye with a gas bubble in order to hold the retina in place so that it could heal properly. This meant that for a full week post-op I needed to keep my head facing down, nose pointed at the floor both night and day, 24/7. This might not sound like a great burden until you actually try it. The back of your neck and shoulders soon begin to scream in agony, not to mention that there is absolutely no way to get comfortable to be able to sleep. Any “doughnut” cushions or pillow contraptions don’t account for the fact that you still actually do need to be able to breath. Also, I never could sleep for any length of time on my stomach without my back hurting. But, I did get through it, and thank God, my sight, although still blurred and “wonky” in my right eye appears to be coming back with full peripheral vision – something that the specialist wasn’t sure would happen since the retina had apparently been detached for some time – certainly longer than the maximum four days that is optimal. My Mother was a real blessing during the first recovery week as she fed me and administered my eye drops every few hours while Theresa was at work.  Mom also prepared delicious evening meals for Theresa and me. Now continues my regimen of eye drops at home and a final follow up visit with the specialist on the 10^th of January; hopefully at that time to get the “all clear”. But, the real kicker is that I have been given very strict instructions that I cannot, absolutely dare not, lift anything heavier than ten pounds for six weeks. This means that until the end of January I have to become an invalid and need to let others do the work around the place while I sit back and watch. This has been a difficult and unnatural situation for me, and it feels strange to have Theresa out shoveling snow and doing the heavy work around the place. It has also certainly put the kibosh on job hunting.

Interestingly enough, God’s timing is always spot-on, and I realize now that if I had gotten a job before this last medical crisis it would have made things rather difficult as well. It is not every employer who would smile cheerfully as a recently hired employee explained that they needed to take several weeks off immediately for medical leave. So, as much as I would have liked to have a job already, God’s timing can still be trusted. However, I would appreciate your prayers for the right job for both Theresa and me now in the very near future.

So, that is where Theresa and I are right now as we enter into the new year. Theresa is working at a job which, although it is keeping the wolf from the door, we both know that it is not going to be long-term work for her and we are praying that God will provide another, better fitting job for her soon. I am still unemployed, and now banned from lifting anything over ten pounds through to the end of January. However, I do have my eyesight in both eyes. We are now living in our house again, although the renovations are still not 100% completed. We are able to be closer to family and children and grandchildren because all of them, other than James and Jessica and their boys, all live in and around Winnipeg – about an hour drive away from us. And, we are blessed in so many ways. This does not mean that the transitional issues that I spoke of and eluded to over the past year of blogging have not become a reality for me. Theresa has basically sailed over any hiccups in this area, while I have been hit hard between the eyes. Still, God is good, and he is faithful and will be my path through these tempestuous waters as well.

Shifting now to the ongoing work in Mexico – many very exciting things are taking place there and God is moving in a big way through the ministry. I think that perhaps it will be easiest to simply attach ministry summary and projection reports that Javier sent for 2016 and 2017.

 

Javier writes:

May the peace and grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. We do not wait for men to do something for us, but rather we wait in God who is the Father of mercies, our provider, who always fills us with blessings. To Him be the glory forever.

It is a privilege to arrive at the end of the year and find our purposes fulfilled. 2016 has been a year filled with much work but also with the beginning of new horizons in ministry. The new year brings with it the beginning of a new dawn, new expectations, and a time to tell of the great deeds that God has done in our lives.

MINISTRY PROJECTION PLAN for the Centro de Entrenamiento, Casa Del Obrero:

1. Build the walls necessary for installing the electrical pole and wiring for the connection of the existing Casa del Obrero house to the power grid. Install the power transformer at the Training Center farm (completed 2016).

2. Complete concrete septic tank for Training Center (completed 2016).

 3. Burn and harvest sugarcane crop. Continue with sugarcane production because, although sugarcane does not provide enough income for the farm to be self supporting it does provide a financial base to help to launch other projects (ongoing).

 4. Pile and burn all sugarcane tops and remaining garbage after harvest to clear rows.

5. Cultivate sugarcane to accommodate good growth.

6. Replant three hectares of sugarcane (2017 season).

7. Fertilize second-growth sugarcane in remaining two hectares.

8. Clean the weeds affecting sugarcane growth between the rows.

9. Cut a diversion ditch at the top end of field before the rainy season begins (2017 season).

10. Continue general maintenance of the property and the specific development of the following:

a)   formation of watering areas with gravity flow to develop drip irrigation.

b)   seek income sources in order to develop shaded growing areas for ornamental plants as well as for vegetables.

c)   search for funds to the set up barns and cover start-up costs to begin raising hens.

d)   establish pens in order to raise sheep. Begin raising sheep.

NOTE: in 2016 we built and outfitted enclosures in a 5 meter x 8 meter barn for pig, sheep, and chicken production. We currently have four sheep, three ewes and a ram for breeding purposes, as well as a breeding pair of pigs for further production. We also have begun with several laying hens.

11.  Plant shade trees onto the property (ongoing).

12. If it is possible to do so we would like to begin a greenhouse production.

13. Begin working on the foundation of a dormitory building for students at the farm as resources begin to become available to do so.

14. Continue planting grass cover in the developed area as well as continued care of the fruit trees which have already been planted on the farm (ongoing).

15. Create jobs

16. expand our range of vision so that we will be lead to broaden our expectations for further productive projects always with the vision of glorifying God.

17. Always continue looking out for the needs of others thereby following the command of the great commission where Jesus told us to give them food to eat.

ADMINISTRATIVELY:

Continue to wait for the arrival of the title documents for the land from the Government Land Titles Office in order to begin working on new projects. Specifically pursue accessing available government resources for the following:

a) develop greenhouse projects and vegetable growing opportunities.

b) large-scale farming.

MINISTIRIALLY:

1.  Continue morning Prayer Times from 5:30 to 7.00 a.m.

2.  Continue evangelizing in hospitals, rehabilitation centers, nursing homes; and if God permits, we will be preaching and bringing the gospel to the prison as well.

3. Continue to serve in the village mission churches already established and plant further mission outreaches. 

 4.  Establish a mission in the ejido La Lima, and engage in house to house evangelism in the community of El Cabrol.

5.  Continue to work towards the completion of the church building in the community of Solidaridad; finish plastering interior of building, complete electrical wiring, paint name onto front of building, and finish plastering the outside.

6.  The Prayer Team will continue visitation of those that they are evangelizing.

7.  As God permits, continue to assist in the planting and the development of the church in Rio Verde (House of Prayer), as well as the Christian radio station, Radio Rio, FM.105.3.

8.  Find land or space for the House of Prayer church plant in San Antonio Huichimal so that the church there will have a place to meet.

9.  God has placed it on my heart to start another mission in Cd. Valles proper this year.

 ACCADEMICALLY:

1. Continue discipling  Armando and Alicia and forming their character for ministry by dedicating three days per week for Bible School training (Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays).

On Wednesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays they will continue with their work on the farm, interspersing this with continued missionary work in San Antonio Huichimal where they are already preaching and responsible for the church. They are also dedicated to opening another mission outreach in the same area.

2. Continue to push forward in promoting the Missionary Training Center, Casa del Obrero, as well as the Nondenominational Bible Institute, Luz de las Naciones (Light of the Nations), and Project LAMBS. Focus on seeing the strengthening of their academic level with increased care given to this area.

NOTE: Concerning the Bible Institute “Luz de las Naciones” – in 2016 our brother Mario and sister Jany got the green light from the Berea Bible Institute concerning legal covering through them, and the paperwork that they needed to give them official identity through Berea as a Bible Institute. We now have a bilateral working relationship with the Berea Bible Institute of Monterrey.   

3. Assist in these training programs by teaching the subjects of the curriculum corresponding to the months of January through June which I have been given to teach.

4. We hope to accept two residential students at the Missionary Training Center farm this coming year who will be a part of the discipleship training program and the ongoing work of the Center.

5. The Lord willing, in July of this year I will be teaching classes on the topics entrusted to me to the students of the Assemblies of God Bible Institute, Reverend Juan Ramirez.

May the almighty God help us and give us life so that we can achieve what he desires.

Blessings,

Javier Santos Hernández

 

Although lengthy, I include the above because it will give you a better understanding of the ilk and character of the leadership at the helm of the ongoing work of Voice in the Wilderness in Mexico. Javier, Armando, Alejandra, Alicia, Mario, Cristina, and the others are men and women of vision, integrity, and faithfulness. I thank you for your continued faithfulness in prayer and financial generosity for the work. It grieves me personally when I hear whisper that the work has ended because Theresa and I are no longer physically there. Far to the contrary, if anything, the vision has grown and continues to do so since we are gone. God is faithful, and the vision that he has begun he will bring to completion as the Apostle Paul confidently stated in Philippians 1:6, “For I am confident of this, that He who began the good work will continue to perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus”.

May you have a blessed and wonderful new year as you continue faithful in the journey.

Your friends and fellow laborers,

Steven and Theresa