March/April 2016 - Keneutanautsa - …So run, that ye may obtain. 1 Corinthians 9:24b

March/April 2016

…So run, that ye may obtain.  1 Corinthians 9:24b

It’s a given. Every single true believer in Jesus Christ is in the race. We’ve been selected, exhorted, trained and disciplined to run legitimately, with self-control and patience, enduring to the finish in order to obtain the prize of God’s upward call to be with and be like Christ Jesus in all His glory. The prize is not exclusive; it’s offered to every single certified athlete who finishes the race.

For the past two months, the work in Tepic and the surrounding Huichol villages has been chock-full of the reality of the selection process, training, discipline, and the endurance of some very motivated athletes in this marathon.

“Keneutanautsa” is the Huichol word for “Run!” That was the theme of this year’s Huichol youth campthat was patterned after the upcoming 2016 Olympics. We laughed out loud as we reflected on the disaster it would be if the Olympics were held in the Sierra Madre:  On your mark, get set, Keneutanautsa! Six syllables! This helps explain the difficulty of the Huichol Old Testament (OT) translation process. The nine mother-tongue-translators (MTTs) are modeling amazing discipline and perseverance on this project. The goal is in sight.

We made the decision early on, that in spite of very limited resources and the very rustic facilities we have available for hosting our camp, we would not limit admission. Every single person who wanted to come was welcome. The logistics of getting everyone to camp are overwhelming. We expected around 100 Huichol campers; 147 came, along with 20 Huichol volunteer cooks, an army of outstanding IBBM-Tepic youth staff, a few observers from other states who wanted to learn by experience how to go about organizing a successful youth camp, and a team of well-prepared Huichol teachers for a grand total of 222.

We wrote the curriculum in Spanish, and the OT MTTs translated it into Huichol. The IBBM youth staff organized and carried out corresponding extreme games, music, and related activities. The campers learned what God’s Word says about becoming one of His athletes (like Timothy), the race that believers are to run (not like Demas, but like John Mark who, though he deviated from the track, got back in line for a winning finish) and the prize He has prepared for all who finish the race (like the incorruptible one Paul received).

The day after camp was over, Good Friday, Pastor Refugio and the believers from the church at La Bendición hosted a big baptismal celebration.  Eighteen new team members who have recently joined in this race proved their willingness to run legitimately. Several of those 18 are from Tutuyekuamama, a very remote village that the La Bendición teammates have been painstakingly evangelizing and training. (Salvador’s story is here.)

The following week, nine diligent, disciplined, self-controlled, and patient Huichol students finished a big lap around the track, completing five years of the Theological Education by Extension (TEE) course. Pastors Martín and Nacho from IBBM-Tepic have also run with endurance as dedicated and exemplary coaches. The student graduates have already branched out to a half-dozen other Huichol villages to hand off the torch they’ve been passed, teaching other racers who are anxious to join the relay and run, as well.

Pastor Hilario from Los Aires has taken on the job of “trainer” for the relatively new little village church at Mojarras. He travels on foot for hours from Los Aires to reach the village, and he has worked with them in establishing their own local church. They have diligently dug the foundation, made their own adobe blocks by hand, and raised the walls for their new meeting place. The team members from IBBM-Tepic came alongside to help to finish it off before the rainy season hits, giving them a missions offering to buy the metal roofing materials and pay for transporting it as far as a truck can go toward the “uttermost parts of the earth”. From there, the heavy pile of 3¢ x 6¢ metal sheets had to be hand-carried for hours to the village. Diligence and endurance in the race are easy concepts for them to understand.

There is, no doubt, a great cloud of witnesses who have gone before us, as well as many teammates still here cheering on and enabling the runners of this amazing squad. May we all run well, the race that is set before us, with our eyes fixed on the Goal as we press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.  …So run, that ye may obtain.  1 Corinthians 9:24b

January/February 2012 "...shine as lights in the world; holding forth the word of life…”

January/February 2012

"...shine as lights in the world; holding forth the word of life…”           ~Philippians 2:15, 16

Huichol evangelists from five distinct villages prayed for open doors as they scheduled a week-long trip to the village of Guamuchilillo. They have earned the right to share the truth by shining like lights in their exemplary lives in which their relationship with the one true God, Kakaɨyari, has made a radical difference. The joint-effort gave birth to a brand new church in which the eager body of believers began a course of discipleship, 28 were baptized in the icy stream, and Felix (center, in white) was called to be pastor of the hungry little flock.   

The 7 Huichol mother-tongue-translators (MTTs) involved in the Old Testament project met for their 16^th 2-week workshop. They have now finished 100% of the first draft!  There is still much need for prayer and a very long way to go in team checks, community testing, back translations, and consultant checks before publishing the word of life in the Huichol language.

UIM pilot David Wolf returned to Tepic to transport Huichol pastors José Lopez and Manuel to the remote mountain villages of Los Aires and La Quemada to continue their scheduled appointments for teaching extension theology classes to the students of those respective villages. Hilario and Angelina met José at the airstrip, 40 minutes hike from their home, with little 2 ½ month-old Manasés in their arms. (Manasés’ miraculous story is highlighted in the December 2011 prayer update.) May Manasés and his family never forget God’s provision for his life as they fulfill their task where He has placed them to shine as lights in the world; holding forth the word of life.

For the fifth year, we were selected by the Samaritan’s Purse organization to be the recipients of shoe box gifts for Operation Christmas Child for two Huichol villages and for IBBM-Tepic. One thing everyone knows is that very little is expedited through the border at Christmastime, so we were unable to have our big gift-giving celebration until Valentine’s Day. A big evangelistic outreach, “Friendship Party,” was held for the children of the two Huichol villages of La Bendición and Loma Alta, and one in Tepic. Hundreds of children were given personal invitations and lovingly-packed and delivered gift boxes; but best of all, they received the opportunity to listen to the word of life and experience personally, the greatest gift of all, forgiveness of sins and a permanent place in God’s family. Only the Greatest Giver of all knows what the final result will be of this mega effort involving the teamwork of an army of workers and prayer partners shining as lights in the world, some from places we’ve never even been.

Way back in November 2005, two days after the dedication celebration, some of the national church leaders were at my house rejoicing over the completed project of the new church building in the Huichol mountain village of Zapote de Picachos. Eight months after Kirt’s graduation to heaven, God had miraculously provided the funds necessary for the purchase and transport of building materials, and many willing Mexicans and Huichols offered unimaginable sacrifice and physical labor in getting the materials to the site and in the building process. Mention was made, implying that since Kirt is no longer with us, this would probably have to be the last of the mountain village building projects since “provision like that doesn’t grow on trees… future village churches would just have to be content to congregate under thatched ramadas and mango trees.”  What a mistaken assumption that was! The detailed story is too long for this update, but rejoice along with me at God’s constant provision, not only of leaders, evangelists, teachers, students, disciples and true servants, but also for the tangible provision of more-than-suitable places for His followers to congregate. Construction is underway of a beautiful multi-purpose church/education center in the very exemplary village of La Bendición (The Blessing). Everybody in the village is having a part as they shine as lights in the world; holding forth the word of life…”