March/April 2011

“and his Bride has made herself ready; it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure”— for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints…‘Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.’”  Revelation 19:7b-9a

Fresh in mind, weddings are the perfect symbol for giving us a glimpse of the joyousness of Jesus’ return, as well as a reminder of how that future event impacts our present.

…and speaking of the righteous deeds of the saints, never did I imagine that mentioning the status of the Tepic “property project” in my last bi-monthly update would bring about such an entourage of friends who would promise to pray and have a tangible part in helping their Tepic brothers and sisters in reaching this admirable goal. Amazingly, we are ahead of schedule with the plan to pay off the church property, and the helpful nudge from friends all over the world, literally, has added an incredibly encouraging incentive to keep up the good work. Thank you!

…and speaking of those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb,  these past 2 months have been filled with activities focusing on the objective of getting RSVPs in order for attendance at that Royal Celebration of celebrations.  The Tepic OANSA (AWANA) club celebrated its 16^th birthday last month.  Kids have been added to the “family,” discipled, and placed in the King’s service as a direct result of the OANSA program. 

Some of those “kids,” who are now young adults in the Tepic church, planned, prepared and carried out our very first camp ever for Huichol young people.  Not only did they dream up the idea, they invested their Spring break in fulfilling the responsibilities for serving 80 Huichol young people who came to Tepic from 5 Huichol mountain villages. As a result, at least 13 Huichols who heard the Good News, placed their faith in the Lamb, and will be included at His Marriage Supper.    

Also, baptisms were held on Easter Sunday in at least three different Huichol churches:  32 new believers were baptized in Zapote, 27 in La Bendición, and 13 in Loma Alta. In addition, Huichol teachers, Hilario and Román, traveled from their respective mountain villages of Los Aires and La Quemada first by United Indian Mission (UIM) airlift with pilot, David Wolf, then 4 hours on foot from the nearest airstrip to the most remote of the Huichol villages in our state to teach the subsequent segment of UIM extension seminary material for a week to 11 followers of Christ at Codorniz. For the next two weeks, Hilario and Román, along with the other 5 mother-tongue translators and 2 Wycliffe linguists, will be back in Tepic for the 15^th Huichol Old Testament translation workshop to continue preparing essential materials documenting in their heart-language the prophesied festivities at the Marriage Supper. 

…and speaking of the B­­­­­ride who has made herself ready, on April 10, our family witnessed the joyous wedding of the last of the single Mellberg kids as Tim and Heidi vowed to follow Christ’s example, sacrificially loving each other for life. I had already planned that as Heidi’s mother rose to give the cue for the rest of us to stand in honor of the entrance of the bride, and all eyes turned toward the father and his radiant daughter as they approached the altar, I would turn for a split second to drink in the look on Tim’s face as he glimpsed for the first time that day, the bride, who had made herself ready for him.  I was not disappointed; I pray that this rapturous moment will linger as a graphic reminder to be about the task of being clothed with bright and pure fine linen--righteous deeds, for Jesus’ return, the ultimate pageant, which could be any day. 

…and speaking of the frosting on the cake, J Jeremy and Jessica presented the Mellberg family with my 6^th grandbaby on March 6. Anders Kirt (5) and Mara Kate (2) got a new little sister, Tenley Hannah, and she’s a healthy blessing from heaven. We thank God for her safe arrival. May all of these grandbabies follow Jesus’ example and “grow in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man” as they learn from our example the importance of being present at and prepared for the most extravagant wedding of all.