Sharing the Bread of Life

Being back in the US now, I find it difficult to connect "communion" with the little tasteless wafers and watered down juice offered in most churches.  In fact the picture of true communion in my mind is one of being in a wheat field in Oaxaca with a short-term team from Ohio.  As we were introducing the field hands to the Bread of Life, they shared with us bread which they had baked from wheat they themselves had planted, harvested, threshed, and ground in a local water mill.  Eating those little loaves with glass bottles of Mexican Coca Cola with the group who had come to share in the spiritual harvest of Mexico touched my heart as the epitome of true fellowship and communion.

The Bible is poetic in the simple verse in Deuteronomy 8:3, which says "...that man does not live on bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD."  Another bread verse that comes to mind is when Jesus declared in John 6:35, "I am the bread of life.  Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whomever believes in me will never be thirsty."

These bread metaphors communicate clearly to people living in agricultural societies once they can actually hear them in their own language.  In Mexico, it might be translated more literally “Jesus is the Tortilla of Life.”  For the people groups of Oaxaca, corn is the main crop, and tortillas are the basis of their daily life and sustenance.  However for this particular indigenous group, wheat and bread spoke very clearly to them.  What a privilege it was to see the workers with sickle in hand, literally "bringing in the sheaves," listening to the precious words of Life in their own language for the very first time.

After years of painstaking linguistic study and translation work, followed by weeks and months of recording the New Testament, it is a humbling experience for visiting teams to be the ones to hand deliver the audio scriptures, and to watch the joy and awe of the listeners as Jesus comes to life for them.  In some cases, the linguist who dedicated his life to the translation process has already departed this earth, and our distribution teams are the ones to bring the project to completion.

  

While Jim and I have sacrificed the more tangible blessing of living on the mission field to live in Michigan closer to the home office, we realize that we still need people to go and provide audio scriptures to the many people who have yet to hear God speak their language.  It is a team effort, from translators, to native language helpers, to those who can record the scriptures, and finally to those who will fund the projects and those who will supply the audio players.  Will you consider devoting a week of your life in order to hand carry audio Bibles to those who need to hear it?

As you are perhaps contemplating year-end giving, would you consider a special gift to provide audio recordings and players in areas where people still have not heard the Good News?  Click here for more information. Write to us at jim-jamie (at) lokerfam.com if you have questions.

And he said to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest."  Luke 10:2

All photos are by Hannah Loker.  Please do not reprint without permission.

Guatemala in the Rear View Mirror

What a difference 25 years makes!  When we returned to Guatemala early this year, we were thankful to find our former coworkers still following the Lord and faithful to His Word.  It took a bit of effort to locate the homes of our dear friends, since everything in the villages had changed so much. 

We realize that they have seen many missionaries come and go, and wondered if they would remember us.  It was a joyous reunion as they greeted us with obvious recognition, even though we have all grown a bit older. 

Their homes are much more modern now, and the streets are paved.  Running water and electricity are the norm, and in fact, we found a cell phone tower right down the street from our old house in the Mam village where we lived.  What an amazing transformation.

 Jim with Emiterio, our main language tutor and the voice on the Jesus film and the audio New Testament in Mam of San Juan Ostuncalco, and his family

Emiterio with his family about 24 years ago

Jim and Santiago, who is the son behind Emiterio in the photo above

 Norberto, pictured here with Jim this past January, was our neighbor across the street, and a vital member of our team as a native missionary among his own people.  Notice the phone tower in the background and the paved street.

 This was the front of our house back in 1987.  Today the road is paved and the house is replaced with a big 2-story building.

Emiterio and Norberto promoting scriptures in the local market

From MV Medical Missions....

Sadly the audio is missing due to some copyright issue, but the original contained audio portions of the scriptures being read in Mixe, which we certainly have rights to publish online or otherwise.  At least you can see some of the work done by this last team.

This coming week Jim will be going to another Mixe village to help another ministry who is conducting a similar medical clinic.  Please keep them in your prayers.

Medical Missions Journal...

Dr. Arlen Stauffer, director of Missionary Ventures Medical Missions, U.S.,  has posted his daily updates and photos from their week here in Oaxaca.  Rather than putting their experiences in my own words, I thought you might enjoy reading his tribute on his church's blog.  Click here to see more photos and read some awfully nice things about the Loker family.

Here's a bit of a teaser.  These photos I downloaded from our friend Glen Ball's Facebook.  Glen went with the team to help as an interpreter. (Thanks, Glen!)

Dr. Stauffer, Jim, and a Buckeye fan in the village

Portable dental chair

Patient returning across the river after dental and toe surgery

Slight detour was necessary after rains washed this road away

Veterinary Missions - this was a first

The group, plus Debbie (photo by me, I think)

Village Recording Process (new photos!)

Miguel and Lupe, our traveling recordists

This particular village at dusk

Like many other villages in Oaxaca, set on a hillside

Mazatec readers for the dramatized New Testament recording

Blankets help make the room more sound-proof

Make-shift recording studio with all portable equipment

This is one of several New Testament recordings in process.  Faith Comes by Hearing (Hosanna) is sponsoring this dramatized, multi-voice recording to be formatted for Proclaimers, a digital device with a rechargeable solar panel and large enough speakers for a group of listeners in a church or home setting.

Thanks to Lupe for these great photos, and thanks to FCBH for their partnership with us in producing and distributing the Word of God in the language of the people in San Jeronimo, Oaxaca.  Thank you, too, for your prayers covering this ongoing ministry to reach the unreached of Oaxaca.

Zapotec Village Trip

Click here to view this photo book larger

Tejate - a traditional Oaxacan drink

After eating the higaditos on Saturday, we were offered another special treat: a cup of Tejate. (Click on the link to see a photo of the actual drink.)

First of all, I confess that many teams have asked me about the lumpy frothy drink served in the open market in Oaxaca, and I have simply gagged unobtrusively and said I didn't know.  Something about seeing a woman with her bare hands in a big bowl, swishing unknown ingredients around, adding water as they go... I don't know, it just didn't appeal to me enough to ever try it.

Finally I have actually tasted Tejate and even learned to pronounce the name properly, not to be confused with Tecate, which is a brand of beer.

Tolerable is the word I would politely use to describe it (the Tejate, not the Tecate).  Truly it wasn't bad at all.  The texture is a bit of a put-off, but the taste is mildly nondescript.  Not sweet.  Not anything recognizable.  The amazing thing was how stuffed I felt after drinking half a cup of it.  It is a very heavy drink to follow liver and eggs, bread and hot chocolate, especially when I've been on a restrictive diet the past few months.

Doing a bit of detective work on the internet, it looks like the main ingredients are maize flour and cacao beans and fermented flor de cacao , which I kid you not (click on the link for proof), is the Funeral Tree.

Thinking it would be nice to provide a visual aid, I took a short video clip with my digital camera.  Being even more thoughtful, I turned the camera sideways to zero in on the Tejate-making process, blocking out all the other distractions.  Note to self:  horizontal videos are much more effective.  Just turn your computer screen sideways to view this.  Either way, it is likely to leave you with your head cocked to one side wondering why this drink should be such a special treat.

As a friend pointed out, it is an interesting study in the old mixed with the new.  Outside the women are stirring a cauldron of soup and making Tejate by hand when probably inside one of the shrink wrapped wedding gifts is a brand new blender they might have used to simplify the process.  They still choose to do things the traditional way.  That's just how it is in our little town of Mitla and other indigenous areas of Oaxaca.  I respect them for that.

Little Wedding Livers

 This delicacy is typically served in Oaxaca on the morning of weddings, and therefore called higaditos de boda, which translates as "little wedding livers."  Generally the family begins a day ahead of time, preparing the spices and the broth, and then the day of the wedding they make an enormous cauldron of the soup-like dish to serve to all well-wishers who come bringing wedding gifts. 

Last night, as you know if you read the post Mexican Weddings on my other blog,  I was to serve as "ring bearer" for the wedding of some friends' daughter.  (More on that in a separate post.)  Earlier in the day I took Bekah and Jonny with me to a special afternoon meal at our friends' house. 
First we were served little loaves of bread to dip in hot chocolate. Whatever we didn't finish was added to the huge decorative loaves of bread they gave us to take with us.  At any party in our town, the guests expect to be given plastic bags or buckets to take home extra food.

The next course was the higaditos which we ate by using corn tortillas as a scooper.  This makes the meal twice as filling, and we were struggling to pick up as much liver and eggs with each scoop until finally we were given spoons.  We're always thankful for spoons!  Just when we were despairing of ever getting close to the bottom of the bowl, the hostess gave each family a small plastic bucket (with the bride and groom's name and the wedding date printed on it with a permanent marker as a souvenir) to pour the leftovers in to take home.  

By this time my kids were antsy and begging to be excused, so I sent them home with the bread and the bucket of wedding livers.  This was a social faux pas because the hostess intended to fill the bucket the rest of the way with yet more of the dish to take home for another time.  Too bad.  Some of us really like it. 
 

 In case anyone is interested in tasting this treat, here is a recipe I found online.  Enjoy!

Eggs with chicken livers: Higaditos by Karen Hursh Graber © 2008 

This recipe, with its fresh salsa, is adapted from Seasons of My Heart by Susana Trilling.  I suspect the version they make here is much more elaborate and time consuming.

Ingredients

For the sauce

• 4-5 plum tomatoes, roasted and peeled
• 3 cloves garlic, peeled
• 2 fresh green chilies, seeded if desired
• Salt to taste
• 3 sprigs cilantro
• ½ cup water

For the higaditos

• ½ cup vegetable oil
• 1 medium onion, finely chopped
• 1 pound tomatoes, finely chopped
• 1 pound tomatillos (tomate verde) husked and finely chopped
• 6 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
• ¼ pound chicken livers, boiled and finely chopped
• ½ cup parsley leaves, finely chopped
• ½ teaspoon dried oregano leaves
• salt and pepper to taste
• 15 eggs

Preparation:

Grind all sauce ingredients in a molcajete or food processor, leaving the sauce a bit chunky.
In a large, deep non-stick frying pan, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the onion, tomatoes and tomatillos, and cook until soft. Add the garlic, livers, parsley, oregano and salt and pepper to taste. Continue to cook for10 more minutes.

Beat the eggs well and add to the pan, mixing them in gently. Push the eggs away from the sides of the pan as they set. Continue cooking for another 10 minutes, until the bottom is set and browned.

Using a spatula, divide the egg mixture into quarters and flip each quarter. Continue cooking until set and remove the eggs section by section, draining any excess oil. Cut into smaller pieces to serve. Serve with sauce and warm corn tortillas. Serves 8.

Link to Source Article

More photos:

I guess we'll be having bread and hot chocolate for breakfast a while

Enjoying a family style meal with some dear friends

No pressure to clean your plate; just take the rest to go

Gifts are generally displayed in clear shrink wrap

Victor and Ruth, the happy couple

Team Trip Video

This is a video made by a team from World Mission in Michigan back in 2008, I believe.  Just skip fast over the beginning part.  The photo of Jim and me was taken at the airport the day they left, around 6:30 A.M.  I didn't intend to even get out of the car, and thus no make-up.  Eek!  Also the correct spelling of the language group is Mixe, pronounced Mee-hay.

The team this week is ministering to the same language group.

Photo journal of a summer team