September/October 2019 - Search the scriptures for … they are they which testify of me. John 5:39

September/October 2019

Search the scriptures for … they are they which testify of me. John 5:39

Jesus is the living Word of God. He is the Spirit of Prophecy -- God Who became flesh because God is holy, sin is serious, and people need a Redeemer. The entire sacrificial system of the Old Testament points to His death, burial, and resurrection, and everything in the Old Testament drives lost people to Jesus. What the Living Word had to say about the written Word of God and how to read it was and is important; it is the foundation of the Church.

More than fifteen years ago, José López came to this startling conclusion. From a thoughtful reading of his much-loved Huichol New Testament, “the Book” from which he learned to read more than 40 years ago, he realized that what he held in his hands was incomplete in his people’s heart language -- missing those significant words to which Jesus repeatedly made reference, “the Scriptures”. His classic statement to Kirt was: “It was important to Jesus, it’s important to us. We want the Old Testament in Huichol!” Shortly after that divinely-ignited encounter, Kirt was in Heaven, but José’s heartfelt petition that would require incredible investment, participation, collaboration, and 12 years of persistent discipline, hard work, and sacrifice - a “long obedience in the same direction” - from the Mother-Tongue-Translators (MTTs) and their support team, was about to be granted.

MTTs with final OT draft - last lap around the track!

This month, the MTTs received their preliminary copies (two weighty volumes) of the final draft of the fruit of their labor. Along with an updated version of the New Testament, as well, it is now in the hands of the Scripture Publications typesetters, and it is being posted to scritpureearth.org making it available for download to cell phones and other devices. After typesetting and obtaining the needed funding, it will be sent to South Korea for the final printing of the entire Huichol Bible in a single volume.

This final picture, worth multiple thousands of words, says it all. This man is José López. He had left his village, abandoned his family, was in big trouble with the law, heard the message in his own language, and acknowledged the truth that his serious sin absolutely separated him from the one true and supremely holy God. “Kakaɨyari” loved him to such a degree that He would give His only Son to die for him and buy him back, just as he was, lost, unclean, and immensely unlovable. That Kakaɨyari gave José the faith to believe, and he was a transformed man who never once looked back to his old life. He learned to read from the only book printed in his native language, the New Testament, and was discipled by Román, the first Huichol believer who came to Christ during the NT translation process, and by Kirt, the man God sent to follow-up walking alongside José to help him fulfill his divine calling. José sits on my front porch two days after the completion of the last word of audio and textual versions of the Huichol Bible. He is awaiting his UIM airlift to Tutuyekuamama, an airstrip a “relatively-close” hiking distance to his natal village of Guásima del Caimán. The people of José’s natal village, that nearly 40 years ago unyieldingly rejected him and the Good News that José carried back to them, now are a church full of believers. They hosted a Bible conference for all the Huichol church leaders throughout the Sierra Madre who could come on foot, by boat, in beds of trucks, by UIM airlift, however they could. José, wearing the uniform from the recent Huichol youth camp (Jesus, Take the Reins of My Life), attended by over 200, is listening to the audio version of Psalm 23 being read on his smartphone by Refugio. He’s a young man from Guásima del Caimán, the first from his village to believe after 25 years of praying for the people who had rejected the Truth. Refugio is now the pastor of the church at La Bendición, and he became a vital part of the MTT team, though he was not even a believer when we began the process of the translation of the Old Testament to Huichol 12 years ago. What a massive accumulation of miracles, nearly impossible to imagine and to share! José decided to follow Jesus, and he never turned back; the Lord is his Shepherd; and even in times of great oppression, his Good Shepherd has cared for him and never has left or forsaken His follower. God has been faithful to His promises in both testaments of His Word, and José is being rewarded for his “long obedience in the same direction.” That’s how it works. During the last Old Testament audio workshop, the MTTs decided to make a list of the villages throughout the Sierra Madre in which there is a body of believers that meets regularly with its own pastor or leader to study the Word and follow its teachings and mandate to travel to present the Gospel to the unreached and teach new believers. The total came to 71! Imagine that!

Search the scriptures for … they are they which testify of me. John 5:39

Check out albums of lots of September/October 2019 Tepic activity pictures here.