July/August 2012 “Let all the nations be gathered together, and let the people be assembled … let them hear, and say, ‘It is truth.’”

July/August 2012

“Let all the nations be gathered together, and let the people be assembled … let them hear, and say, ‘It is truth.’” Isaiah 43:9

About 600 years before the birth of Jesus, the dreadful king of Babylon made commitment very difficult for three captive Jewish young men, friends of Daniel, who believed in and served only the one true God.  Their determination to remain faithful and God’s personal presence with them in the most impossible of circumstances convinced the wicked king that there is “no other god that can deliver after this sort.”  It is truth.

Nearly three millenniums later, life continues to present difficult circumstances in which faithfulness to the task and God’s personal presence convinces “the nations… to hear and say, ‘It is truth.’” This short update highlights just a few from the past two months in Tepic.

The IBBM-Tepic pastors’ wives, Erén and Lorena, and I were invited to take the ladies from the Tepic church and team-teach at a ladies’ retreat at the Iglesia Bautista Libertad in Ixtlán del Rio, Nayarit. We had a wonderful time of fellowship and sharing as we studied Sweet Moments in: Adoration, Service and Sharing. “Let the people be assembled… let them hear, and say, ‘It is truth.’”

Young people from IBBM-Tepic went to camp in Oaxaca this summer, more than a 24-hour drive from home. The trip started out with one of those “difficult circumstances” when the OANSAmobile in which they were traveling broke down three hours from home. Commitment, faithfulness and God’s personal presence proved again that there is “no other god that can deliver after this sort.”  The young people assembled for the week at camp, they heard and applied God’s Word, and they came away affirming, “It is truth.”


Diligent training, canvassing homes, looking for opportunities to share the Good News and praying for an open door to begin a satellite of the Iglesia Bíblica Bautista Misericordia on the other side of Tepic preceded our very first meeting in Los Sauces this past month. The neighborhood president offered to loan us a community-owned, enclosed vacant lot. The team of IBBM-Tepic “church planters” planned an AWANA-like activity, inviting local children and their parents to participate. In spite of a tropical downpour (This is our rainy season!) that started an hour before the scheduled gathering and continued, twenty-five people showed up. Sebastián and Humberto creatively used an old broom lashed to the flannelgraph easel as a tent pole to support a temporary tarp roof to repel the drenching rain. 

Lorena told the Bible story, refusing to be distracted by the cloudburst. A team of loving and dedicated young people who have grown up in the Tepic church, joined in leading the music and organizing game time. Nobody left without feeling loved by the team, without hearing of the greatest love of all, and without taking home a printed copy of the Truth. When Pastor Nacho turned in the key, the neighborhood president asked when we could come back stressing that there is much need in his community. “Let the people be assembled… let them hear, and say, ‘It is truth.’”

It’s hard to imagine a more joyful illustration of the desired outcome of nations being gathered together, and people being assembled for the purpose of hearing and ultimately saying, “It is truth,” than Marisol and Daniel’s wedding this month. Marisol and Daniel both graduated from the Universidad Cristiana Las Americas in Monterrey, Mexico, last year. Marisol was the recipient of the Kirt Mellberg Memorial Scholarship during her four years at the Bible college. Eleven years ago, when little Marisol moved to Tepic with her mother and two older brothers, her father has just been murdered mafia-style, and her mother determined to leave everything behind so her children would not be further entangled in that lifestyle. The tiny 12-year old began coming to OANSA. She heard the Truth, gave her heart to Jesus, and was faithful and obedient in memorizing and applying God’s Word. In time, she became a prized OANSA club leader and a Sunday school teacher. She accepted Kirt’s challenge to use her musical abilities to learn to play the violin, and her example prompted little David, Josué, Shadai and Érika to study violin, as well. Little did Marisol know that one day those little musicians along with piano and Caleb’s clarinet would comprise the ensemble to provide special music at her own wedding.  It is truth.

“Let all the nations be gathered together, and let the people be assembled… let them hear, and say, ‘It is truth.’” Isaiah 43:9