Exhausting, but oh, So Rewarding

Dear praying friends,

The "Treasure" (Audio New Testament) in Chatino

So much has happened since our last update, it's hard to know where to begin.  Last night Jim and I returned from a weekend at the beach with the kids following a grueling week of hosting a very rugged team from Michigan.  

Driving back up the mountain from sea level to over 5000 feet, I watched the compass on the rear view mirror vacillate from N, to NE, to N, to NW, to W and back, and sometimes even SW and SE, as we darted potholes, bounced over speed bumps, veered around washed out sections, and drove in an almost continuously snaking "S" up and down the mountains.  The outdoor temperatures ranged from 70's to 90's Fahrenheit depending on the altitude.

Sometimes our ministry feels like that.  It's a wild and bumpy ride, casting seed all over the place, through balmy lowlands and foggy highlands, and everything in-between.  Sometimes we get stuck behind slow moving vehicles, averaging a frustrating 20 mph when we'd rather be doing 60 on a straighter road, but eventually we get there.

Chatino believers and American visitors at the village church

Some villages warmly receive us, and are ripe for the gospel, and others are foggy and confused, cold to the message we bear.  This past week we had the privilege of visiting a Chatino village where believers have faithfully sown the Good Seed, and we were blessed to participate as several individuals gave their hearts and lives to Christ.  Talking with the native missionary who accompanied us on our audio Bible "Treasure" distribution effort, we learned about several near-by villages where the same variant of Chatino is spoken, but where there are no known believers, no evangelical witness.  The more we do, the more work there seems to remain.  Yes, sometimes it feels overwhelming.

Maybe I will blog about the actual week of long hikes, sleeping on the ground, living, eating, and ministering with the local people (minus anything remotely resembling an adequate wash room).  For now I just want to say thank you for your prayers - even though my last email listed the wrong dates for this trip.  It was a physically, emotionally, and spiritually stretching week, not just for our visitors, but for me, too.  Looking back, I realize I should have anticipated the level of spiritual warfare we might encounter, and I acknowledge that more prayer backing would have been helpful.  It was intense.

Shangana Christians with their Megavoice scriptures in Mozambique

Jim had only returned from his trip to Mozambique shortly before this team arrived, and he is still trying to get caught up on life and ministry details.  Maybe being disconnected from the internet for a week at a time is beneficial in some ways, but in other ways it is certainly a challenge.  He thoroughly enjoyed his time in Africa, seeing the recording studio there, and participating in a MegaVoice distribution outreach.  Already he is checking the calendar to see when he might return early in 2013.

Currently (today!), I am trying to get the kids caught up on school work, doing mounds of disgusting laundry and hanging it out to dry, hoping to get a new gas tank to replace the one stolen while we were away - so I can cook dinner tonight, and answering a long back-log of emails.  Jim is handling the ministry "business" plus looking to get both cars checked over and repaired with auto parts the team brought down for us.  Bless his heart, it looks like he has made getting gas to my stove a high priority.  Maybe I will reward him with an Aldi's chocolate bar that the team brought down, or better yet, some pumpkin muffins with the canned pumpkin they gave us.

A new generation will grow up hearing God's Word

Meanwhile out in other villages, our recording technicians have just finished another Zapotec New Testament which was sent up to the U.S. to be processed, they're continuing with Chinantec of San Felipe, and looking to start a different New Testament next week.  The technicians will invest three or four months for each New Testament recording, and then the fun begins as we distribute them to native speakers who have never seen or heard God's Word in their own language.  It's the same ol' same ol'.  In case you can't tell, we love it.

Life is good.  It's exhausting, but oh, so rewarding.  We wish each of you could experience a week in a rustic village just to catch the spirit of what we do and why.  Then again, it sounds cruel to wish that off on people we call our friends. 

Praise the Lord with us for safe travels all week in both our high mileage vehicles, for relative good health, for receptive hearts in the village, for new believers, and all that transpired.  Praise the Lord we survived and that we are looking at it from the rear view mirror now.  Please pray for current and future distribution efforts, for the Seed to be planted in good soil, as Jim preached to the Chatino people this past week.  Pray for the young believers to grow strong as they hear the Word in their language, and for more people to come to faith as they listen.  Pray for us to remain faithful and to not grow weary.  Pray as God leads.

Thank you for standing with us and behind us, for your encouragement through prayers and financial backing.  We thank God for each and every one of you.

Partners in reaching the unreached,

Jim and Jamie Loker and family