Hey Uncle Richard-
What’s going on? I pray this finds you and the family and the Church of Our Lord very well. I suppose the weather there is truly grueling by this date. Even we, perched on the Pacific Coast are feeling summer in its earnest heat. I can see a line of cars, antlike, down on the highway headed towards the Bufadora. Although, we have not seen Northamerican tourists in the usual number, the heat in Sonora and Chihuaha have driven vacationing Mexicans into our area. The people who rely principally upon the tourist trade are scrambling to make up what they have lost this year due to the implementation of martial law.
Five more days to election day….the advertisements have taken a tone very familiar to any American, everyone is “tough on crime” and determined to, if elected of course, “incarcerate the delinquent and dangerous element of society made up by drug abusers.” One candidate’s ad starts out showing a fellow in typical gang dress holding a woman at gunpoint. The image is gritty and the candidate goes on about the insecurity and fear that law abiding citizens live in, as they pan out to close the shot, curiously the guy who was dressed as a gang member is now dressed as a student. I had seen this particular ad many times before I actually caught that subliminal trick. Pass the laws to deal with the delinquents, use the laws to arrest and incarcerate the unruly, the people who dare to protest. It is indeed a slippery slope.
But why do I prattle on about that?? I don’t know! I have so much GOOD NEWS to report!
The Lord has come thru in so many ways, UR.
First of all , I have to thank God for another year of life. On the 25th, I turned 41. Wow. Never thought I would be “that old.” Now I know it is not so “old” after all! I still easily hearken to the days when I didn’t trust anyone over 25.
I got an amazing gift. Early the morning of my birthday, (7am-won’t fib that is early to me as I have never been a “morning” person) the phone rang. Marilu caught the call. I listened to a short one –sided conversation. Marilu hung up and said, “Mama, I need to go get Daddy at the Church and FAST because the generator guy is ON HIS WAY.” I am like what? Still rubbing sleep out of eyes still between dreaming and waking. We don’t have the money to pay a mechanic right now, I am thinking-not to mention I have caught wind of a plot afoot to surprise me for my birthday by taking me to the beach it would be our first family trip to the beach this year. As I roll out of bed and stumble towards coffee ( that reminds me..thank you Glenda! Glenda Cooke in Oceanside blessed us with a two months supply of coffee last week. The exact same coffee 52 oz is $99pesos here. Approx. $10 US. For a can of beans. Praise God!) anyway I was stumbling towards coffee, thinking, “Why did Frank have a guy come out today of all days?” I mean he is working all day at the church , the kids are plotting a celebration….hmmm.” To make a long story short, sure enough, not ten minutes after the phone call a guy in a white truck shows up asking where the generator to be fixed is. By now, Marilu has taken off to get her Daddy. I know we are down to one generator and I know that the big diesel is the most useful so I dubiously point the guy towards the generator shed, thinking he’s probably not a diesel mechanic, he probably just came to pick up the small one that has been frozen for some time now, but not nearly as long as the big one which hasn’t breathed since one of our Vietnam Combat Vets took it apart last year then impulsively left for Anchorage. Bless his heart.
By the time Marilu returned with her Daddy, Ramon, Marcial and this stranger who is totally bi-lingual are elbows deep into the Chinese generator. Marilu is visibly upset that her birthday plans have apparently been thwarted.
Francisco , under the pressure of some self imposed deadline to get the cabinets put in at the building, looks positively steamed. We are both still under the impression that the other called a diesel mechanic, but both of us are wondering silently,“Why today?” We didn’t have to wonder for too long. 14 minutes after his arrival, the mechanic has our big generator chugging smoothly, running as smooth as a brand new car. It has not cranked in so long that some pictures I had recently hung, actually popped off the wall when it started! All of us are excited that it is running! We can take real showers again! No more bucket-baths! You see, the diesel is the only generator we have that can pull the pump that brings water into the house. We can wash dishes in a normal fashion and running water is available now! We are all talking and being amazed at this guys evident talent, when we finally turn to settle accounts with him, no more than 5 minutes after he had it started and he is GONE. With not even a puff of dust to mark his trail. What the heck? “So where did you find this guy?” I exhuberantly ask my husband.
“What?”, he answers. “I didn’t call him.” It takes just a minute to confirm that none of us called him. Not in the conventional manner, anyway.
As I puzzled over this, Holy Spirit nudged me. “Remember?”, He says, “ What did you say yesterday?” OH, MAN! It hit me. The day BEFORE, as I was taking a bath with cold water from a bucket hauled up those long stairs, I HAD SAID, VERBATIM, “Lord if I want anything for my birthday, it would be to have that big generator running again.” God is so good and He cares so much about us and He hears every WORD we speak and He ACTS upon OUR WORDS. Think me a fanatic, a weirdo, whatever- He actually sent an angel to fix our generator. No other explanation folks. So I just have to Praise Him!
You all might think it is not a big miracle but to us it is. Think about how much you utilize running water- that generator is our only means to make that water RUN. It changes our quality of life. Eliminates being WORRIED about the last generator giving it up and leaving us in candlelight! We couldn’t afford to fix it. By Wednesday morning we were down to $100 to our name, plus $23 in the bank. Every time we repair a generator we pay at least $2,000pesos. ($200US) Praise the Lord! What a gift! To have the love of my Daddy confirmed in such a way. The Lord of the Universe took time out on my birthday to give me a gift. My earthly Dad didn’t even call or email me but GOD HIMSELF did better. The most amazing thing about the whole situation is my state of mind when I asked for this gift, people. Literally naked before him. Absolutely NOT in the midst of a “religious” activity. In the shower, He heard me. Although having that generator running is awesome, it is not the true gift that I received. I have to say I received Faith- my faith and the faith of my family was boosted in a big way. Then, LOVE- the affirmation that I am loved by the Lord of Lords. There is a truth here, folks, a truth of special importance. The truth is that Our God-Yahweh- has given us His Word, that Word tells us to pray without ceasing. To ask in Jesus’ Name, to keep seeking until we find. These things are real and they work. Your face does not need to be screwed up into an intent religious prune to be heard by God. He is listening ALL of the time. Just waiting on us to say the words he needs to hear for Him to act.
I have another miracle to report. On that day, my birthday, too much had to be done to allow for a trip to the beach. So we set out late Thursday, after the cabinets were in, to catch a couple of hours at the beach. The family including the dog were all piled into the car, sweating, only to find it won’t start. Frustrated, we finally change vehicles and leave, disappointed by the late hour. Lost in my frustration, I did not recognize the people in the Volkswagen flagging us down at the intersection of our dirt road to the main road. By now, I don’t really want to go, I know the kids are going to want a soda or something and this time of month we are stretched thin financially. Real thin. I refuse to be afraid this time. We have water, we have a weeks worth of food, the Lord WILL provide, I say over and over under my breath. “Mom, those people are waving at US. Who are they?”, asks Ramon. I take a better look. It is a couple with three kids crammed into an old vw bug, luggage strapped to the roof. My brain fumbles around to place the faces- it is Janeth Jimenez and family, they had come up to the mission base one time last year, they were lost looking for a place to camp. We stopped and spoke, they are a sweet Christian family, she is a schoolteacher, he works at AM/PM in Escondido CA. They are leaving town for home having spent a week on vacation here. She had an urge to see us. We exchange email and phone numbers which I stick in the glove box. We say our goodbyes. Arriving at the beach, really late by now, Marilu asks me if I want to leave the money in the glove box. What money? Daddy has all of it. No, mom, the money that lady gave you. WHAT? I open the glove box and on top of the paper containing the lady’s email addy is a crisp $100 bill. Praise God again! Come on! Lord, bless them. Again we are all jumping around in a praise fit. How can you help it?
We all walk towards an empty spot on the sand and as we walk I hear a clink and look down at my hand, the left one, the one that HAD BEEN holding the keys. Oh, NO! They are gone. The keys somehow slipped out of my hand. That was the clink I had heard. I look dismally back at the hundred or so yards of sand between the van and us. Somewhere in that expanse now lie my keys. I walk it twice desperately searching. Everyone is searching. After an hour of frantic useless searching we realize we can’t ever find the keys for the sand has apparently swallowed them. Francisco prays and looses angels to get them in Jesus’ Name. We have a spare key, but the church keys are gone for good it seems. Just a minute after he prays, I notice our basically useless little mutt digging in the sand. Maybe he’s looking for the keys, I think sarcastically. Not 5 minutes later, Marilu hollers, “He found the keys! The dog found the keys!” Now I know that dog isn’t that darn smart so I am praising the Lord again. He never ceases to amaze me! These might seem like such minor things, but these are the things that when strung together, make up our days and nights. Small things, when touched by God become so WONDERFUL to me.
My attitude at 41 is different than it was at 40. In a 24 hour period the Lord has touched our lives in such a way as to make me much more aware of His tender mercies, much more grateful and much more eager to please my Father.
I hope this encourages you. I truly do, because Yahweh wants to be involved so obviously in everyone’s daily life, know He does. Nothing is too big or small for Him to touch.
This is running long, but I must go on a bit more.
I want to report on the growth of our indigenous community and on the doors that the Lord continues to open, even upon the doors that He keeps closed.
Although Francisco has asked, we are not sure exactly what is happening to cause the huge influx of Oaxcan peoples to our area. The new ones are so shy. Their dialects are more undecipherable, their ways more exotic. Like worker bees they continue to flock to the recently built yurts between the greenhouses. These people are not into posing for pictures. I know because I asked Francisco to try to get a shot of a yurts for you all. He asked an intermediary and was told it would offend them and although I think we can get a long distance shot without them knowing I am not going to do it against their will. I can’t chance offending them. Right now, we represent the Lord to them and I cannot mess that up. They are super suspicious of everything. They make a funny clacking sound when they speak their language which sounds distinctly Asian to me. I, in all of my whiteness freak them out. The children, about a 100 new ones are the only ones that look at me, always furtive measured glances, not meant for me to notice. When I turn to walk away I feel dozens of pairs of eyes drilling into my back. Much to my initial dismay, they won’t accept candy, which I am sure you agree, is usually an equalizer with children. In reading newsletters of other missionaries in the area I gather that two groups are claiming that they support these people with food and shelter. Sorry, but I can’t say that truthfully and I don’t believe that ANYONE is “supporting” them. Geez, in my experience if the kids won’t touch the candy the adults will be virtually impenetrable. This frustrated me for a few days. Now though, I just see it as the Lord protecting these people. They don’t need “SUPPORT” they need the WORD. Creating another people group DEPENDANT upon anything but the WORD is such an injustice. As you said, UR, unless a mission becomes a church family as the Lord desires it will only perpetuate the “welfare” mentality of most missionaries in Mexico. I mentioned in passing last week an incident with Francisco and another pastor, which escalated almost into physical violence. I have thought of it often and how contrary it is to the desire of Jesus for all of us to be in unity. I am stymied at times by the “middle wall” torn down by Christ, then re-erected by men which I think stands for denominationalism/religion. I remain amazed by man’s disposition to accept theories and traditions of men rather than the Word of God. The great gap between Truth and error, Christ and Satan seems to do nothing but intensify as days go by.
The Lord has shown me that I need to search my heart for all traces of religion and eradicate them before He will allow those people to hear me.
‘Opposition is the lot of all whom God employs to present the Truth unadulterated by religion. Between truth and error there will always remain an irrepressible conflict. Light and darkness cannot harmonize and to uphold and defend the one is to attack and overthrow the other. These are not ideals but kingdoms, my brothers and sisters. We need to regularly take inventory of which kingdom we belong to.
So I have no photos of cute little kids to show ya’ll this week. Just not time.
All goes well here. Francisco continues with what seems to be a never-ending stream of finish work in the kitchen. He and the kids also poured two giant columns that will support our porch soon. They are awesome. Francisco continues to be amazed at how the Lord enables him to do things he has never done, thus eliminating the need to pay a contractor! Yahweh is so willing to be in the midst of everything we do if we invite Him.
Francisco continues to grapple with keeping that healing of Typhoid, thankfully blood tests reveal that he is secreting less of the typhis now Praise God, although he still has pain which is insupportable at times.
We have come to time to renew our status as “non-profit” or apply for new status as a “religious” group which is what we are in the governments eyes. We are unwilling to take that name upon us but remain in prayer. We have no idea what it will cost to renew, but we need to check it out. With the government tightening up on its control of everything the protection that having the AC up to date offers is important but we hesitate to do anything out of anxiety or fear, better that it be prayerfully borne.
Salutations to everyone. We continue to pray for you all without ceasing. We have a couple coming in to detox Monday and we ask that you pray for the Lord to take them through withdrawals in a way that will cause Him to be glorified.
Love to all,
Deedee
Marilu’s Testimony-On Monday morning I was listening to Uncle Richard’s teaching CD on the computer while I was doing my chores. It was good, but the battery was about to go dead so I prayd and asked God to make the battery last and it did all the way to the end!
Ramon’s Testimony- When we went to the beach I stepped on a jellyfish and my toes got numb. I did not get out of the water I took authority over that venom and told it to “STOP.” And it did. THank you Jesus.
