Friday, March 20, 2009
3 months!
Today is our 3 month anniversary. Sunday was the one year anniversary since our first date. Life is good!
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Divine Interruptions
The story of the Triqui family is a neat testimony of how God is leading us to people who are open to Him. Friday the 20th in the morning we prayed that God would really lead us and that we would be open to His plans for the day and not just stick to the plans we had made, if He had something different. That afternoon we made our weekly trip to the market to buy our fresh produce for the week. We were just getting in the van when a man and his wife came up to Nick with their 11 year old son telling him (in Spanish), “Talk to him in English” then telling Nick, “He speaks really good English.” Having been in Mexico for a while now, we have become used to this type of encounter. Parents push their children to us telling them to practice their English and the poor kids are scared to death and don’t want to say a word. However, Nick politely conversed with them for a while and when they asked what we do here, he told them about our clinic. They wanted to see where it was and asked if they could follow us home. We took them to the base and they asked us what we were doing on Sunday and proceeded to invite us to their village so we, as Americans, could experience their village. They also asked if they could invite everyone else at the base.
Sunday morning came and the man, Sefarino, and his son, Carlos, showed up at the base in their truck to take us to the village 1.5 hours away. They asked where everyone else was and we told them they were busy. Sefarino couldn’t seem to understand why no one else wanted to go, when he had clearly told them the day. He asked Nick several times if he should go and get the others, and after Nick assured him they could come, he looked to his son and told him to ask Nick if others were coming because, “Maybe he didn’t understand me.”
They seemed excited to introduce us to others in their village and invited several families over to eat with us. After feeding us two heaping platefuls of food, tortillas, and 20 oz. bottles of Pepsi, they fed the others, to whom the spoke in Triqui. The only words we recognized were “California” and “Sacramento” after which everyone turned to us and smiled. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realize that we were the topic of conversation!
There were several older women there who seemed to have quite a bit of difficulty walking. Nick really felt like he should pray for them for healing. One of the women was still there in the kitchen (more accurately described as a small wooden building with dirt floors and a fire going) so we went and asked if we could pray for her. She didn’t understand Spanish, so Eugenia (the women who invited us to come) ‘translated’ for us. We quickly discovered that her Spanish is also very poor, but we were able to get the main idea across. The woman agreed to let us pray for her crippled feet, then as we were praying, she pointed to her thigh which was also hurting, then later her stomach as well. As we finished, Eugenia asked if we would pray for her mom who also couldn’t walk well and has difficulty hearing in one ear. We prayed for her as well, then another woman asked for prayer for her back pain. We had a hard time knowing if they were feeling better as a result of the prayer, because when we would ask Eugenia to ask them how they were feeling, she would just repeat what was wrong with them to begin with.
Before we left we invited them to come over to our house the next time they were in town. We set the date for Saturday morning before they went into town for their shopping. They took us home and we invited them in for cafecito.
Saturday we were expecting them to arrive between 9-11. We had the food all prepared, then began to do some work around the house while we waited. Finally at noon we went ahead and ate. Around 2 we heard voices outside then a knock on the door. We invited them in and the first thing they said was that they wanted prayer for their son who supposedly has been losing weight and not eating well. They also wanted prayer for Eugenia who has stomach problems and for Sefarino for blurry vision. They also asked for us to pray for their house as they felt that witchcraft had been performed against them and that there was a demon there. So we fed them, shared some Scriptures with them, then prayed with them. After we prayed, they said they needed to go and got up and left.
We are praying that this family will really open doors for the Kingdom of God to come to the Triqui peoples of southern Mexico.
Sunday morning came and the man, Sefarino, and his son, Carlos, showed up at the base in their truck to take us to the village 1.5 hours away. They asked where everyone else was and we told them they were busy. Sefarino couldn’t seem to understand why no one else wanted to go, when he had clearly told them the day. He asked Nick several times if he should go and get the others, and after Nick assured him they could come, he looked to his son and told him to ask Nick if others were coming because, “Maybe he didn’t understand me.”
They seemed excited to introduce us to others in their village and invited several families over to eat with us. After feeding us two heaping platefuls of food, tortillas, and 20 oz. bottles of Pepsi, they fed the others, to whom the spoke in Triqui. The only words we recognized were “California” and “Sacramento” after which everyone turned to us and smiled. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realize that we were the topic of conversation!
There were several older women there who seemed to have quite a bit of difficulty walking. Nick really felt like he should pray for them for healing. One of the women was still there in the kitchen (more accurately described as a small wooden building with dirt floors and a fire going) so we went and asked if we could pray for her. She didn’t understand Spanish, so Eugenia (the women who invited us to come) ‘translated’ for us. We quickly discovered that her Spanish is also very poor, but we were able to get the main idea across. The woman agreed to let us pray for her crippled feet, then as we were praying, she pointed to her thigh which was also hurting, then later her stomach as well. As we finished, Eugenia asked if we would pray for her mom who also couldn’t walk well and has difficulty hearing in one ear. We prayed for her as well, then another woman asked for prayer for her back pain. We had a hard time knowing if they were feeling better as a result of the prayer, because when we would ask Eugenia to ask them how they were feeling, she would just repeat what was wrong with them to begin with.
Before we left we invited them to come over to our house the next time they were in town. We set the date for Saturday morning before they went into town for their shopping. They took us home and we invited them in for cafecito.
Saturday we were expecting them to arrive between 9-11. We had the food all prepared, then began to do some work around the house while we waited. Finally at noon we went ahead and ate. Around 2 we heard voices outside then a knock on the door. We invited them in and the first thing they said was that they wanted prayer for their son who supposedly has been losing weight and not eating well. They also wanted prayer for Eugenia who has stomach problems and for Sefarino for blurry vision. They also asked for us to pray for their house as they felt that witchcraft had been performed against them and that there was a demon there. So we fed them, shared some Scriptures with them, then prayed with them. After we prayed, they said they needed to go and got up and left.
We are praying that this family will really open doors for the Kingdom of God to come to the Triqui peoples of southern Mexico.
Friday, March 6, 2009
Neighbors
One of our most frequent visitors at our house is the little 3-year-old neighbor girl, Yami. The night of our staff bonfire with smores, after everyone left, Nick and I were enjoying the fire and the night sky when we saw Roberto, Vero and Yami come outside to burn their mattress (I guess the springs were poking through and the easiest way to get rid of it was to burn it). We went over and asked Yami if she wanted a marshmallow. She readily agreed and came over for a smore. The next night Vero, a bit embarrassed, brought Yami over and said she kept begging for another marshmallow. We gave her a marshmallow, but she wanted it roasted on a stick. We didn’t have a fire going, so she settled for a cold marshmallow on a stick. Same thing happened Thursday evening, and we invited them in for pizza. A few days later I was out washing dishes and I could hear Yami pestering her mom for another marshmallow. Vero told her to come over and ask for one. Yami refused to come by herself, so Vero brought her to the back patio and told her to ask me for one (meanwhile I kept washing the dishes, facing the other way, trying not to laugh at what was going on). Yami refused, so Vero took her home, wailing. I took pity on the poor girl, and when I was done washing dishes, I went over to chat with them, as they were still sitting outside. Yami then asked me for a marshmallow and came with me to get one. Of course, she had to share with her Dad and Mom, so she took 3. After eating 2 ½ she decided she was done A couple days ago we heard a little knock on our door. We opened it up to Yami who asked for ‘pan de tortilla,’ which translated means ‘tortilla bread.’ We had no idea what she meant by that and asked if she wanted a tortilla. She replied, “No, pan de tortilla.” I asked her if chocolate would do. She took it and went away quite happy. We never did figure out what she wanted to begin with.
Thursday, March 5, 2009
The Big Idea
So, as promised in our email, I'll do my best to answer the question, "Why are we here?" (This will be beneficial for me, too.) In common missions vocabulary we would describe our work as church planting. However, Jesus tells us that He will build his church (that's His job) - He's told us to make disciples of all nations (and the words he uses in Matt. 28:18-20 suggest that He had all people groups in mind, not just political nations). Southern Mexico is home to the largest concentration of people groups in all of the Americas and at least 40 of those groups are unreached. "Unreached" means there is no church in the group capable of evangelizing the rest of the people in the area. For more information on the area we're working in check out: http://www.globalfrontiermissions.com/oaxaca.html.
Our goal here is to make disciples (people who fully obey the commands of Christ); and our role (as foreign workers) is limited and temporary. Our part is to first scatter the seed broadly enough to find and then train the first generation of good soil, the people who will reproduce themselves in a spiritually sense 30, 60, or 100 times over (Read Luke 8: 5-15 if this sounds too agrarian.) Once we see the people we have taught to follow Christ teaching others to do the same we'll know that we're close to working ourselves out of a job.
We acknowledge that there are many long-term workers serving Christ in foreign countries through medical missions, overseeing orphanages, and many other worthy things. While we see benevolence as an integral part of following Christ we don't feel led to oversee long-term compassion ministries here in Mexico. Nor do we see a point in serving here long-term as pastors or administrators for the churches that we see raised up. Rather we want to equip our disciples to appoint their own local leaders and to take responsibility for impacting their communities with the love of God as they respond to Christ's commands in the context of their own culture. ultimately depend on the Holy Spirit rather than foreign missionaries. With that said, one can see just how definable and definite our role is and why one day (hopefully in the not-too-distant future) we hope to be packing our bags and entrusting the fulfillment of the great commission to the local believers and the Spirit of God that guides them.
Our church planting team is not the only group working to see this accomplished in this region. Hopefully soon we'll be able to post again to give you an idea of some of the others who are on the same mission.
Our goal here is to make disciples (people who fully obey the commands of Christ); and our role (as foreign workers) is limited and temporary. Our part is to first scatter the seed broadly enough to find and then train the first generation of good soil, the people who will reproduce themselves in a spiritually sense 30, 60, or 100 times over (Read Luke 8: 5-15 if this sounds too agrarian.) Once we see the people we have taught to follow Christ teaching others to do the same we'll know that we're close to working ourselves out of a job.
We acknowledge that there are many long-term workers serving Christ in foreign countries through medical missions, overseeing orphanages, and many other worthy things. While we see benevolence as an integral part of following Christ we don't feel led to oversee long-term compassion ministries here in Mexico. Nor do we see a point in serving here long-term as pastors or administrators for the churches that we see raised up. Rather we want to equip our disciples to appoint their own local leaders and to take responsibility for impacting their communities with the love of God as they respond to Christ's commands in the context of their own culture. ultimately depend on the Holy Spirit rather than foreign missionaries. With that said, one can see just how definable and definite our role is and why one day (hopefully in the not-too-distant future) we hope to be packing our bags and entrusting the fulfillment of the great commission to the local believers and the Spirit of God that guides them.
Our church planting team is not the only group working to see this accomplished in this region. Hopefully soon we'll be able to post again to give you an idea of some of the others who are on the same mission.
The hottest place in town
We’ve been back in Mexico a total of 7 weeks now and, as a newlywed couple, we are adjusting to what ministry looks like for us here now as a couple instead of individuals. One of the ways we really enjoy reaching out to others is through inviting them over to our home. Now, with a house of 120 sq. ft. total, you may think that to be a difficult task, but we always seem to manage. The most we have fit inside of our house at one time is 28 people and a dog. Granted, most people were standing, and they didn’t stay inside long, but they fit. Here’s a bit of a look at what our entertaining schedule has looked like since we’ve been back:
Jan 20- Roberto and Vero over for coffee (our neighbors)
Jan 22- Nick’s birthday party (see post below)
Jan 23- Mike and Daysi for dinner (a couple from the mission training school- MTS)
Feb 3- David and Rhonda for dinner (fellow workers here)
Feb 4- Roberto and Vero for dinner
Feb 5- Gord and Deb and family for dinner (leaders at GFM)
Feb 10- Tucker and Pam for dinner (fellow team members- also newlyweds)
Feb 13- Laura and Valaria for coffee (the women we buy our produce from)
Feb 15- all the staff and families for dessert- the final stop of our staff progressive dinner (the 28 people plus one dog)
Feb 17- several MTS students for smores
Feb 18- Alejandro and family for coffee and Bible Study (a family we are discipling)
Feb 19- Vero and Yamilet (her daughter) stopped by and we invited them to stay for pizza
Feb 22- the Triqui family for coffee (complete story coming in later post)
Feb 24- Geraldo and Susana and family for dinner (the family Sarah lived with last spring)
Feb 27- Chris and Erin for dinner (the leaders of our church planting team)
Feb 28- the Triqui family for lunch
Mar 1- family from Nick’s language learning route for coffee
Mar 3- Liz and Tasha for dinner (fellow team members)
We prayed when we moved into our home that God would bless it and make it a place that people feel welcome and feel his presence. He seems to be answering that prayer!
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