November/December 2018 "...a new heart and a new spirit..." Ezekiel 36:26, 27

“I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put My Spirit in you.” Ezekiel 36:26-27 

Nothing is ever the same after the very Spirit of God performs a divine transplant of the heart of one who in humble repentance accepts the Gift He offers. Life is never again the same, possessions are not the same, goals are not the same, and momentary affliction is certainly not as significant as preparation is made for an unseen, but very real, eternal weight of glory. Following is a small sample of multiplied dozens of transplants of once rock-hard, cold hearts that recently in Tepic have been converted miraculously to vibrant ones of flesh, now-inhabited by God’s Spirit, discipled by His obedient followers, and prepared to seek out and share the life-giving Gospel with other broken hearts of stone.

Julio was the shaman of the Huichol village of Guásima del Caimán a dozen years ago when José López and his team of five missionaries first made contact there with the Gospel, and 36 rebellious hearts were replaced with hearts of flesh. Instigated by Julio, the determined and relentless persecution of the new believers began, never once letting up, especially when Mauricio, Julio’s son and next in line to become the shaman, believed. Eventually, the persecuted believers relocated to La Bendición. Mauricio’s siblings, all but one (who is in the state penitentiary), and Julio’s wife, their mother, gave their hearts to the Savior, as well; but Julio refused to listen to the Gospel…until this past September. At long last, he was persuaded, repented, and invited the Spirit to inhabit his obstinate, hardened heart. Just two short months later, Julio died. Pastor Martín, Erén, and I traveled to La Bendición for Julio’s funeral. The same brothers and sisters whom Julio had so stubbornly persecuted made the arrangements, bought the burial plot, paid his medical and funeral costs, dug the 9-foot hole for the casket with picks and shovels, and sang songs of praise as his body was being lowered into the ground. And I will put My Spirit in you.

The children from the OANSA club in Zapote de Picachos have reason to celebrate! They have learned that God Himself sent His only Son, Jesus, to be born of a virgin, live a perfect life, and give Himself as a ransom so that their disobedient, little hearts of stone, now hiding God’s Word, may be transformed to the dwelling place of His Spirit. Their lives, and those of their leaders, are fresh and meaningful.

The children from the OANSA club in Tepic also have reason to celebrate--lots of reasons to celebrate! Yeimi, a 9-year-old girl in my little group called “Flames,” came from a complex, dysfunctional, amalgamated family, with little hope. But Yeimi has been faithfully hiding God’s Word in the heart of stone with which she was born, and not long ago, she made the choice to invite the Savior to be her Lord. She has consistently asked her father to help her review her memory verses, and in time, Juan Antonio, along with the rest of her family, believed.

Yeimi told Pastor Martín that she wanted to prove her commitment to Jesus and be baptized like He was, even though the water is quite cold right now. Her father, as well as four other OANSA students, Rigo, Christian, Antonio, and Teresa, followed Yeimi’s example.

This year’s Christmas Celebration at IBBM-Tepic was the best ever. Every single actor was one whose heart of stone has been wondrously transformed into a Spirit-filled heart of flesh. See their 9-minute dramatic presentation here.

The little band of mother-tongue-translators, dedicated, persevering, and faithful servants, has been at work for 11 years on the laborious task of translating the Old Testament of the very Word of God into Huichol. That precise Word of God has penetrated their once stone-hard hearts with life-giving Truth to such a degree that they, along with some others from their villages, enthusiastically gave up their Christmastime at home this year to travel to various remote mountain villages to share the Good News with Huichols who are just now hearing and learning its Truth and experiencing the miracle of new birth, a saving relationship with its Author, and hearts of flesh inhabited by His Spirit.

May we not lose sight that it is only the living Word of God, Whose birth we have celebrated just this month, and the written Word He has left us that replaces hearts of stone with hearts of flesh and accomplishes His miraculous work by means of His very own Spirit within. This is grounds for celebration today, and every day of this new year.

“I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put My Spirit in you.” Ezekiel 36:26-27 

See more November/December Tepic activity pictures here.

November/December 2017 - finishing well

November/December 2017

He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. Philippians 1:6

Paul echoes the Master/Teacher’s exemplary words: “I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do.” (John 17:4) What a privilege it has been to be with my family this week as we have said, “good-bye” to another year and embark on a new one. Seventy-some immediate family members (of my parents’ 90 offspring) gathered at their house the day after Christmas to share, sing, praise, and celebrate our Savior and His provision for our tribe. What a privilege to hear my dad’s words of wisdom to his family, “I am so blessed … We will finish well.” Our patriarch will turn 86 this week. Life for him has not always been easy or painless, but it has always been in the perfect company of a sovereign and loving Lord. “Finishing well” is to set an example for the generations that follow and ultimately, to bring glory to Him Who began the good work.


Finishing well is a goal that also has been foremost in plans and activities lately in Tepic and the surrounding villages. The nine Mother-Tongue Translators (MTTs) who each had promised last October to pray all year for a pastor-partner from India were saddened to hear that Pastor Phil, from NVBC, was injured in a fall while teaching in India. When he returned to the US, he had a severe infection and a brain bleed requiring hospitalization, surgeries, and continued rehab. The MTTs are persisting with their prayer-commitment for the pastors in India, and every day of the 37th two-week Old Testament translation workshop, they prayed diligently for their convalescing friend. Not only are they committed to finishing well the enormous, laborious task of the translation project, but also, they are dedicated to putting into practice the application of its Truth.


Pastor Phil brought back a woolen Sherpa hat for Pastor José López. He was thrilled to have been remembered and to have a nice warm hat for the mission trip that he and 9 other Huichols planned for Christmas week. They agreed to leave their own villages and rendezvous in Tepic to travel together to the remote mountain village of Los Aires to share in teaching, discipling and encouraging the “family” this Christmas. This faithful Huichol pastor is determined to finish well, the good work that God has given him to do.

“Finishing well” is to set an example for the generations that follow and ultimately, to bring glory to Him, Who began the good work. This year’s IBBM-Tepic Christmas Celebration was designed, directed, and finished well exclusively by the “next generation” of young church leaders who did a wonderful job of working together on the task they accepted for community outreach: Celebrating Jesus.

We have made the plans, written the curriculum, and begun the preliminaries for the upcoming 7th annual Huichol youth camp during Easter week. Seven is the number of completion, and we will finish well with the theme: Jesus is Coming. This will be the last year that Martín, Erén, Nacho, Lorena, and I will select the theme, write the curriculum, organize the activities, and be “in charge.” Next year, the year of new beginnings, will see Huichol leadership taking over that task. Of course, we, along with the IBBM-Tepic youth staff, are working and will continue to work alongside them, hand-in-hand, as they go about the job of learning to lead. We held a 3-day workshop at the village church of La Bendición to teach key leaders who came from their various mountain villages how to dig out what the Bible says and doesn’t say about the Rapture, the Tribulation, the Marriage Supper of the Lamb, the Millennium, the Judgement Seat of Christ and the Great White Throne, and at last, Eternity. The Huichol team is excited to have learned what God has shared with us in His Word for those who finish well. They are determined to make sure that every single Huichol teen who comes to camp hears, understands, and has the opportunity to make the choice to finish well. Preparing the next generation of leaders isn’t easy. It involves teamwork, sacrifice, and God’s grace. It involves a future-focus, essential to finishing well.

He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. Philippians 1:6

Enjoy more finishing well pix here
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May/June 2011 “And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work:”

May/June 2011

“And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work:”  2 Corinthians 9:8

"Your mission, should you choose to accept it is..."   No such thing as Mission Impossible; God’s all-sufficient grace has proven to be always more than enough for every good work.

15^th Huichol Old Testament translation Workshop - Mother-tongue-translators (MTTs), diligently committed to the project, have worked in their respective remote mountain villages to finish nearly 90% of the Huichol Old Testament in first-draft form. They all faithfully attend workshops in Tepic along with the trained linguist consultants for the purpose of team-checking the drafts. 10 % has been printed for community testing. A back-translation, consultant check and final proofreading are still necessary steps before publication. The team has a long way to go before this virtually impossible job is done. They met in Tepic the first 2 weeks of May to continue reviewing God’s work in history through the Genesis patriarchs and begin reviewing Job. The task is formidable, but there’s no such thing as a Mission Impossible.

José Lopez returns to the Sierra Madre – June 3 was a day of practically impossible historic significance! José López finished a week of teaching Theology Education by Extension (ETE) to students in the remote village of Los Aires. Remember…we prayed after his excruciating surgery last year for his leg to heal for this very purpose? UIM pilot, David Wolf, airlifted him to the Tierra Blanca strip; José hiked 45 minutes to Los Aires, then we picked him up at Tierra Blanca a week later. Though we had our doubts that José would ever again return to the Sierra Madre villages, there is no such thing as a Mission Impossible.         

Discipleship trip to Mojarras - Román, an MTT, and 9 other Huichol believers from La Quemada followed their nearly impossible Divine calling to hike 6 hours with musical instruments in hand to the village of Mojarras (They got lost on the way which added another hour to the trek.) for the purpose of fellowshipping, teaching and encouraging in their Christian walk, the brothers and sisters of that very remote village. (The young people who came to the seemingly impossible first ever Huichol camp in Tepic in April returned to their villages with a spark that has reignited the thirst for God’s Word.) Emilia, another MTT (another impossible feat… for a Huichol woman), discipled several of them in her recent “mission” trip to Los Aires.  

Just before Román left Mojarras to return home to La Quemada, one of the brothers who had been happily photographing events of the “fellowship meeting” with his newly-purchased, second-hand digital camera, agreed to pass the pictures from the memory card of his camera to Román’s OT translation laptop, Maricuxi.    (I sure would have loved to have seen those pix!) Of course, Román was incredulous and horrified when the alarms sounded that an invading virus was detected…from a CAMERA memory card, no less. Another valuable cyber lesson learned, but alas, too late. This was a very costly and time-consuming setback, but thanks to Kaspersky, Panda, Wycliffe tech support and mostly God’s all-sufficient grace in all things, it was not a Mission Impossible. 

IBBM-Tepic Baptisms - Ten new believers from the Iglesia Bíblica Bautista Misericordia – Tepic (IBBM) gladly identified themselves publically as followers of Christ. We planned an all-day church-wide outing to a campground near Tepic to celebrate with them their determination to place their faith in the All-sufficient One who promises to fulfill in them this Mission Impossible. 

IBBM-Tepic OANSA - The Tepic OANSA (AWANA) Club observed the end of the 2010-2011 term with the annual visit from Sparky on Awards Day. The kids were excited to receive the medals they have been working hard to earn all year long; and we leaders are elated to know that each award represents the hiding of God’s Word in the tender hearts of the children with whom we have been working. Then we exerted one last effort for the year to prepare the OANSA Fair on the following Saturday afternoon when each clubber got to spend his or her hard-earned OANSA pesos on games, prizes, ice cream, cotton candy and other treats.  

Four exemplary clubbers have fulfilled all the requirements for becoming brand new leaders-in-training. All 4 started out as Cubbies and have completed all of the OANSA manuals. They are now working to complete a 16-week discipleship class and a year of internship hoping to achieve the privilege of serving in the OANSA club as official club leaders at the end of next year! Developing future church leadership is a Mission Impossible, humanly speaking; no such thing for the Supreme Commander… There’s always more than enough grace for every good work.