{"id":1342,"date":"2014-04-30T22:54:34","date_gmt":"2014-05-01T03:54:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.vitwministries.com\/wordpress\/?p=1342"},"modified":"2014-05-01T21:15:24","modified_gmt":"2014-05-02T02:15:24","slug":"my-friends-be-glad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vitwministries.com\/wordpress\/2014\/04\/my-friends-be-glad\/","title":{"rendered":"My Friends, Be Glad"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Steven

Steven and a little Huastecan cutie. We were able to give this little girl a doll that was donated from a friend of ours from Oklahoma<\/p><\/div>\n

My friends, be glad, even if you have a lot of trouble. You know that you learn to endure by having your faith tested. But that\u2019s not all! We gladly suffer because we know that suffering helps us to endure. And endurance builds character, which gives us a hope that will never disappoint us. All of this happens because God has given us the Holy Spirit, who fills our hearts with his love. (James 1:2-3, Romans 5:3-5)<\/p>\n

\u00a0More than a month has passed since my last blog entry, and some of you must have been wondering what has happened to the Freys. We are still here, and both well. However, we have been going through \u201ca lot of trouble\u201d of late as James speaks about in the verses above. I have not wanted to write anything over the past month because too much was in limbo and we had no idea what the outcome would be. Further, I just didn\u2019t have the heart to sit down and write a blog.<\/p>\n

Now however, although the fat lady has not yet sung, she is certainly nearing the microphone and we are feeling confident that the conclusion will end well for us, and for the ministry. With this in mind, I will give you some details of what we have been going through over the past several months, and how you can continue to pray for the work. After that, the Lord willing, we will close this chapter and not speak of it again.<\/p>\n

You will recall that over the past year or so some of my blogs have spoken about the<\/p>\n

\"Let

“Let the children come to me. Don’t stop them! For the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to those who are like these children”<\/p><\/div>\n

opposition and antagonism that we have been facing as a ministry. Unfortunately this has come through one specific couple with whom we once worked very closely, and who were leaders on the Board of Directors. Because of the years of ministry together and trusted friendship with them, several years ago we unwisely placed power into their hands that in the end they proved unable to handle. The relationship with them continued to fragment over the past year and a half as they began to vocally abuse, and actively work against the rest of the leadership of the Bible Institute and Project LAMBS, as well as Javier Santos and I as we developed the Casa del Obrero (the Missionary Training Center).<\/p>\n

Because of Mexican laws specific to the type of land that we had purchased for the Missionary Training Center farm, at the time of purchase we needed to place the title of the property into the name of an individual until we could receive clear title on the land and it could be transferred directly into the name of the non-profit Obreros Unidos para Cosechar (Laborers United to Harvest). With the full understanding of everyone, the land title was placed into the name of this person in trust until it could be transferred. Documents of trust were signed and legalized. Because of the years of Christian ministry of this person, and because of the years of trusted friendship with him we felt confident that there would never be an issue of greed or dishonesty within our relationship.<\/p>\n

\"Church

Church planting team headed up by pastor Javier Santos in the village of San Antonio Huichimal<\/p><\/div>\n

Mexican laws are very difficult to understand on occasion, and at times seem very convoluted. Over a year ago this person renounced his position on the Board of Directors and signed a letter of resignation stepping down. However, he then subsequently refused to relinquish his position and control of power over it.<\/p>\n

\u00a0In February of this year, Fred Erb, from Listowel Community Church was here to oversee the closing out of old ministry business, and the stepping forward into new. Part of this involved the voting in of a new president of the Board, as well as a second officer who had asked to be relieved of his role as treasurer on the Board.<\/p>\n

At this point the bomb exploded and the former president again refused to release his power despite several signed documents stating that he had resigned and given up his role on the Board. He further refused to hand over the original documents of the non-profit \u2013 clearly the property of OUpC, and worse yet, he claimed himself to be the rightful owner of the land and refused to sign over a release of rights to the Board of Directors. This, despite the fact that he had signed legal documents with this promise when the land was originally purchased three years ago, and despite the fact that he clearly knew that he was simply holding the land in trust for OUpC.<\/p>\n

Due to the nuances of Mexican law he held the title in his name, and was now claiming that<\/p>\n

\"Traversing

Traversing the pathways of the village. This is how churches are planted – house to house – along the dusty pathways<\/p><\/div>\n

he and his family were the legal owners of the property. Legally this may have been true, but morally, as everyone across the whole city knew, this was a blatant lie. He had not put even a penny into the purchase of the land, and worse yet, had attempted to work against and block the vision of the ministry for the property for the past several years. In the end it came down to a conflict of power, control, greed, and abuse of confidence and trust. However, legally he held the cards in his hand and knew that he did.<\/p>\n

This all transpired in the months since February. It has never been our desire to take legal action or to publicly bring charges against our brother even though his actions have been unconscionable and blatantly corrupt. What we did instead was to send a petition for help to the directors of his denomination laying out the facts, as well as those of the sixteen years of ministering with him and the denomination. We did not seek to expose or humiliate him, but rather to ask for sanity and godliness to prevail in this issue, and that they would pressure him to act correctly and justly and to sign over the property to the rightful owners, namely OUpC, and the person designated by them to hold the title.<\/p>\n

\"Pastor

Pastor Javier is waiting outside a house to receive an invitation to enter. This is real-life church planting<\/p><\/div>\n

We had no idea what would happen due to our request, and we waited and prayed for God\u2019s hand to move hearts. We were well aware that legally he held the cards, and also that he had some powerful friends in high places among his denominational leadership. However, we also knew that we have a God who holds ALL of the cards.<\/p>\n

We continued to wait.<\/p>\n

About one week ago we received the news from his denominational Board that they had ruled in our favor, and that he had received the mandate to sign over all rights to the ministry land to the nonprofit, its rightful owners, and that he was to cease working against the ministry of OUpC and the Bible Institute, Project LAMBS, and the Missionary Training Center.<\/p>\n

Sometimes I get the feeling that Theresa and I needed to be here in Cd. Valles \u201cfor such a time as this\u201d as it speaks about in Esther 4:14. Certainly the past months have been a time of intense trouble and testing, not only for Theresa and me, but even more so for the other brothers and sisters that we work so closely with in the ministry. But my prayer is that the truth of Romans 5 will become real in all of our hearts through this testing \u2013 that because of the suffering we will learn to endure. And that that endurance will build character in us which will give us a hope that will never disappoint us. And that this will all happen because God has given us the Holy Spirit, who fills our hearts with his love.<\/p>\n

Certainly we have grown by leaps and bounds since the Board of Directors and the<\/p>\n

\"Life

Life in the village of San Antonio Huichimal. This grandmother is sweeping her dirt patio<\/p><\/div>\n

nonprofit civil association was first formed some four years ago. At that time we were an ignorant and visionless bunch of mute sheep. Today when I look at the Board I see men and women representing a variety of different denominations across the city, various language and cultural backgrounds, different socioeconomic roots, a richness in the variety of experiences and vision that each one brings, and perhaps most importantly, men and women with the desire to see God\u2019s Kingdom advance in the Huasteca and beyond through the work of the ministry that we are all involved in. Much of this freshness has come through the honing of the trials and pain of the past months. There is certitude and conviction that we dare never allow a loophole or way that the sins of greed and desire for power displayed over the past months ever have a way to corrupt a member of the Board again. With this in mind, the constitution has been rewritten with better checks and balances in place, a surveillance committee has been established, the Board has been expanded, and multitudes of other safeguards have been put into place to protect against even the possibility of another rogue member attempting to take over power and control. Truly, God does work all things together for good. It has been directly due to the pain that we have grown.<\/p>\n

\"And

“And I have opened a door for you that no one can close”<\/p><\/div>\n

So, like I said earlier in the blog, although we have not heard the sweet melodious song of the fat lady yet, she is certainly near the microphone now. And we are working hard to get everything taken care of legally so that when the papers are finally all signed, and all of the \u201ci\u2019s\u201d dotted and the \u201ct\u2019s\u201d crossed we will not have missed anything that will give the enemy a change to once again manipulate someone away from the path of righteousness and into greed for personal gain and power.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Please pray for all of us as we continue to seek to walk for him. Also, please pray fervently for the couple who have allowed themselves to be blinded, and to be used as a tool of the enemy in this way. Please pray that God will bring them to repentance and a change of heart before him once again.<\/p>\n

Although much of our time and energy over the past months has been taken up with the<\/p>\n

\"Village

Village housing in San Antonio Huichimal – this is the real world here<\/p><\/div>\n

legal issues involved with the land, over the past weeks we have also begun to take on new projects at the farm again. As you know, our harvest has been concluded for the year. We are finishing off work on the galera house at the Training Center. I have been doing tractor work and cultivating. Tomorrow I hope to begin painting the interior of the building and setting up shelving and storage area for tools and equipment. We are finishing off the venting and windows. And getting ready for someone to live there and continue the work on site. Further, over the past months I have had the privilege of working together with Javier and some of the young men from his church in Solidaridad to begin to plant a church in the little Tenek village of San Antonio Huichimal. Last Saturday we had a family open their home to us to meet. This means that a church plant has begun. We continue to be excited to see what happens in this community as God begins to open hearts to receive his Word and healing in their lives. There seems to be a hunger in this community for God, although there is also evidence of the abuses of alcoholism and other vices that so often present themselves in these indigenous communities. San Antonio Huichimal is very close to the Missionary Training Center farm and a natural ministry point for it.<\/p>\n

\"Javier

Javier and Cristina’s children’s ministry in Buenos Aires<\/p><\/div>\n

We need you to continue to pray that God will bring the correct couple to live and teach at the farm. It must be a couple called by God for this ministry as it will be a difficult role to fill. They must be people who love the land and know how to work and teach, but they must also be people with the ability to teach the Word. They must have lives squeaky clean and above reproach as they will be living and working 24 \/ 7 with the missionary trainees. Above all, they must love the Lord with all of their hearts and exude this passion to the trainees that they will be serving.<\/p>\n

Then, finally, I will end with a financial request. There is a well drilling rig sitting about a half mile from the Missionary Training Center. They arrived last week and are in our area for only for a couple of weeks. They are rather hungry at the moment and are offering us an 8 inch diameter, deep well drilled for $1,000 pesos a meter rather than their usual $1,200<\/p>\n

\"What

What a beautiful little girl. This is the daughter of friends of ours from one of the poor villages in which Javier and Cristina minister<\/p><\/div>\n

pesos. This translates to about $85 dollars per meter of drilling (depending upon the dollar exchange). We expect to need a maximum depth of 20 meters which will be $20,000 pesos, or about $1,700 dollars. Then we will need about $6,000 pesos worth of metal casing which is about $500 dollars. This means that we need roughly $2,500 dollars, but even better, $3,000 dollars would put in the well and provide the pump also. We are praying that God will lay it on hearts to give for this need. Without a good source of water running a Missionary Training Center becomes impractical. Certainly, the dream of running greenhouses and agricultural projects so that the Center can become an economic base for the ministry becomes impossible without it. We are believing God for the impossible. We do not have $3,000 dollars. God must lay it on the hearts of his children to give if he wants us to have a well.<\/p>\n

Theresa also wishes to point out that if someone wishes to take on this project and give the money so that a well can be drilled, we would be delighted to name the well after that person \u2013 placing their name on it as a reminder of their love for the people of the Huasteca and of Mexico. Wouldn\u2019t that be cool!<\/p>\n

I will close. Please accept our thanks for your continued prayers and for you love.<\/p>\n

Your friends,<\/p>\n

Steven and Theresa<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My friends, be glad, even if you have a lot of trouble. You know that you learn to endure by having your faith tested. But that\u2019s not all! We gladly suffer because we know that suffering helps us to endure. And endurance builds character, which gives us a hope that will never disappoint us. All […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vitwministries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1342"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vitwministries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vitwministries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vitwministries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vitwministries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1342"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.vitwministries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1342\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1362,"href":"https:\/\/www.vitwministries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1342\/revisions\/1362"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vitwministries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vitwministries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vitwministries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}