September/October 2017 The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life; and he that winneth souls is wise.

September/October 2017

        The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life; and he that winneth souls is wise.   Proverbs 11:30

King Solomon shared that there’s a permanent legacy awaiting those who make the wise choice to obey God’s instructions for building His Kingdom. There’s been a lot of fruitful, legacy-building, tree of life branch-expanding, and wise activity going on lately in Tepic, the surrounding villages, and worldwide.

I received a phone call from Pastor Phil from NVBC during the 36^th Huichol OT translation workshop. He and Steve Evers from ITMI were headed to India for a teaching conference for 100 indigenous pastors in Madras; he wanted to know if there would be any Mexico volunteers who would commit to praying, one-on-one, for a specific national pastor, daily, for an entire year (With only 18 spots available). The Huichol mother-tongue-translators jumped at the opportunity to participate. Only one problem; they didn’t know where India is. And they wanted to know what language they speak--Tamil (Funny they should ask!). All of them left with a poster-sized world map in hand (India highlighted) and a firm promise that each one’s village church would pray for the trip, for the pastors’ conference, and specifically, for one pastor-partner from India for one year, at least. There were lots more ladies than available pastors left over to pray for, but 11 sisters from the ladies’ ministry that evening accepted the challenge for the same. Our worldwide vision and the tree of life grows by caring, sharing, and praying.

An observable result of winning souls and making disciples is the next step of obedience. Pastor Nacho baptized his beautiful daughter, Rebecca, adding even more branches to our bountiful tree of life and to his legacy. I wish I could take the space to tell the stories of each one. Our choices, whether wise or foolish, lead to ultimate consequences. Not only is the winner of souls wise, but he or she who chooses to receive the Truth, also, is wise.

That tree-of-life-legacy does not come easy, it’s not cost-free, and it often requires careful and tedious pruning along the way, but the fruit is a trail of real people whose souls, by God’s grace, have moved from death to life. IBBM-Tepic celebrated her 26^th anniversary since she was first planted. New Life-Scottsdale sent Pastor Luis and Carrie to share in the wisdom-getting process this year. They did an excellent job of watering, adding nutrients, and a little expert pruning of undergrowth. Twenty-six years…and counting!

Huichol pastor, José López, came from his village to join in the 26th celebration. He’s doing a little celebrating of his own. He’s been praying for several years that God would send a companion to accompany him in his ministry. It’s been nine years since Benita graduated to heaven; Juanita from La Bendición (who has been widowed for 4 years) is the answer to those prayers. They will be married as soon as they can get their legal documents in order. This is the closest you’ll get to smiles.  J

Juanita went along on her first mission trip last week accompanying José and a team from Loma Alta to the fledgling village work in Paso de Álica. Lídia was born in Paso de Álica, and her life is a shining testimony to God’s grace. Before Lídia heard of the one true God Who sent His Son to pay for her sin, she lived with a man who constantly and violently abused her. The last she saw of him, she was expecting their first child, but he beat her so severely that she lost the baby. Meanwhile, God’s grace was extended to Casimiro, a Huichol man who spent most of his young life, drunk. That’s another long story, but both, Lídia and Casimiro, heard the Gospel message, and their lives were transformed from that day forward. They were married, and they have determined not to waste their lives. Lídia’s father, from the village of Paso de Álica, recently divided his property among his children. Lídia chose to donate her inheritance to the baby church they are planting in the village. Because of Lídia’s injuries, she never has been able to have children of her own. That problem, short of a miracle, never will be resolved, and that’s very sad; but her biggest problem, her separation by sin from her holy Creator, has been completely resolved, and she and Casimiro are committed to sharing that remedy with every person within their reach. They have “children” throughout the mountains and the best legacy ever, a fruitful tree of life that God gives to His special servants who wisely share His Truth.  

Neither foolishness nor wisdom is predetermined. Either is the result of an intentional choice. The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life; and he that winneth souls is wise.   Proverbs 11:30

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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.