"Let Me Get This Straight...."

My mom's infamous quote from last fall:  "So, let me get this straight.  You have one daughter with TB and one with either malaria or zika?"  We both chuckled even though it isn't exactly funny (or entirely accurate in hindsight).  Her motherly advice was for us all to stay safely in the U.S. from now on! Yeah, well, that's not going to happen.  In fact, Jim is in Central Africa even as I am writing this.  He dutifully received all recommended vaccinations and took malaria meds beforehand.  Our son, Mike, and his family are leaving for Indonesia in a few months, and on it goes. (Sorry, Mom.)

What I have noticed through the years is that certain things strike a chord with people "back home" and trigger not only prayers, but actual responses to our email updates and Facebook notifications.  Exotic-sounding diseases always send people to their knees on our behalf, but what we'd prefer are preventative prayers of protection. 

The infamous missionary ladies retreat when we all got e-coli

To date, our prayer buddies have carried us through...

• hepatitis
• esophageal reflux and failure to thrive
• miscarriages (including one at five months)
• botched surgeries
• rabies
• typhoid
• ITP (Immune Thrombocytopenic Purpura)
• whooping cough
• head lice and broken ribs
• bed bugs
• dengue
• swine flu (which our children were actually at "ground zero" - giving added distinction for that)
• life-threatening heat exhaustion
• multiple concussions 
• a bug bite infection we feared was a bot fly
• e-coli
• cyclical vomiting syndrome, which is an ongoing prayer need for our daughter, Debbie

 For the record, the doctors never did decide what to call the sickness Bekah got after her mission trip to Guatemala last August, but it wasn't zika or malaria.  Also, Debbie does not have an active case of TB, but a latent case, in the blood but completely asymptomatic.  She is almost finished with her six months of medication for that.  We are not concerned.  The doctors had to treat it since she is taking phlebotomy at the vocational school, and otherwise she would not be permitted to draw blood.

So, with all this said, could you please just pray that we would have no health issues to write about over these next two months of travel for Jim?  Thanks.  Monday he flies to Nairobi, Kenya from the Congo.  When he returns, he is only home a few days before he travels for Mexico for a few weeks.

Prayers for Mike, Amy, Titus, and Silas are appreciated, too, as they embark on their own kingdom adventures overseas in April of this year.

Click on the highlighted words to read the related stories on my other blog, which I am currently revising and updating.  If you are not receiving our prayer updates by email, please let me know, and I'd be happy to add you to the list.  You can email me at jamiejofrommexico (at) gmail. 

Thanks!
Jamie

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

 

Please join us in praying that the Son would shine over this dark region, lifting the fog and darkness from people's hearts and lives.  We were privileged to witness the first-ever showing of the Jesus film in the church, and to distribute audio New Testament translations.  We'd love to see the gospel spreading over this Zapotec town and region.

January Update

Dear praying friends,

While many of you are being hit with terrible winter storms, I was on the verge of putting away the blankets earlier in the week.  Then some sort of front blew in, and it is unseasonably cold.  I just checked the weather report on our ministry website, and it is currently 45 degrees F in the middle of the afternoon!  That, folks, is cold with no indoor heating.  Not that I am complaining, mind you.  I'm watching your weather reports and thankful to be here and not up there.

Jim is up in Orlando this week attending some leadership meetings and our Missionary Ventures World Conference.  Please pray for wise decisions to be reached and for people to be encouraged at the conference.  After that he will go see his mom for another week and a half or so, hopefully connecting with some supporting churches and potential teams while he is in Ohio.  Please pray for just the right teams to be recruited for 2011.

This year I opted to not go to the conference, but instead made a brief trip to visit my own mother in Dallas after getting Hannah settled into her new school and housing in Colorado.  For more information and photos you can read my M&M blog (Memories and Musings).  Thank you for praying for our road trip from California, which went without incident.  No roads were closed due to ice or snow and Hannah got there in time for class on January 3rd as scheduled.  Now we are awaiting results from some blood work done last week for a mystery ailment causing her hands to turn black at seemingly random times.  We'd appreciate prayer for Hannah's health, too.

Mostly I just wanted to ask for prayer this month, which is resembling last September, with Jim and me taking turns at single parenting while the other makes a necessary trip.  Pray that I succeed in managing things here at home and on the field, and that we maintain good communication while separated.  With modern technology Jim can stay on top of field operations via email, phone, and Skype from anywhere, but marriages somehow benefit from a bit more close contact.  My heart goes out to those whose husbands are deployed.  It isn't ideal, but it can't be helped.

Thank you for standing with us in ministry and also personally.  We truly are blessed with some very wonderful friends and supporters.  May the Lord grant you peace and joy in this new year, 20-Eleven.  We love you all.

Partners in reaching the unreached,
Jamie and Jim Loker

To receive these updates by email, send a blank email to prayerupdates-subscribe@lokerfam.com

Pray for Medical Team this week

Jim is back out in Santiago Atitlan this week, helping with another ministry's medical outreach among the Mixes (beyond Tlahui). It is a small group from the U.S. with just two doctors and one nurse, plus the coordinator, Jim, and one MK who is helping as a translator.

We'd appreciate prayer for this outreach which just happened to fall on Day of the Dead, a holiday about like our own Thanksgiving in importance to the people here. It should prove an interesting experience for the team.

Thanks!

10/10/10

Dear praying friends,

This is just a lame excuse to write a letter on 10/10/10.  What an amazing date.  Mostly I just wanted to let you know that we have set up a new ministry website, Until All Have Heard, where we will be posting each of our updates and any urgent prayer requests.  You will also find some helpful information, photos, and links that explain a bit better what we actually do in Mexico and why.  For those who have only recently begun receiving our email updates, sometimes there are unanswered questions you might have.  However I never want our letters to sound like those awful sequels, incessantly retelling all the things you already know from prior books in the series. 

So... feel free to visit our blog, pass along the link to anyone who might be interested, and leave a comment from time to time.

While I was at it, I also resurrected my old personal blog, Memories and Musings from Mexico, where you will find a hodge-podge of stories from the early years up to the present, including my recent trip to Colorado.  In it, I mention Hannah's intention to begin school in Aurora, Colorado for a seven-month program in massage therapy, starting January 3rd.  If any of you know of a single or family in the Denver area who might take on a poor MK as a boarder for seven months, Hannah is looking for an inexpensive place to live.  Please contact her with any suggestions for housing.  Thanks!  We are trusting God to open the door for her there.

Since we've sent more than our quota of emails to you this past month, I will close with one simple prayer need.  Over the last two years, we have gradually lost a number of monthly donors due to divorce, death, job losses, and the economic downturn.  People who once gave are no longer able to continue.  Many are continuing to give as they are able, but a reduced amount.  Churches who have supported us since the beginning are having financial struggles and cutting back on their missions giving.  We are not going hungry, but we are feeling the pinch. 

• Please pray that God would provide an additional $1000 a month needed to bring our support back up to what it was two years ago.

• Please also pray for our friends and churches who are going through difficult times, that God would comfort and supply all their needs
  
• Praise the Lord that the rains have stopped, bridges are being rebuilt, and muddy roads (and laundry) are drying
• Pray for housing in Colorado for Hannah from Jan. - July 2011
  

Thanks so much for your continued friendship and concern for us.  We appreciate each and every one of you.

Partners in reaching the unreached of Oaxaca and beyond,
Jim and Jamie Loker

Urgent prayer need

September 28, 2010

Dear praying friends,

It is with a heavy heart and a torrent of tears that we bring news of devastation in Oaxaca.  Our hearts are aching and grieving for one particular people group that we have prayed for for many many years.  Just a few weeks ago we shared how the translated New Testament was finally being recorded for the Mixe people of Tlauhui, and how we still want to see this unreached people group come to salvation in Christ.

Sadly it is too late for perhaps 1000 of these people who are presumed dead after mudslides washed their homes away last night as they slept.  I am sitting here literally sobbing for those who are inevitably beginning their eternity of suffering and anguish without Christ.  How is it possible that there are no known believers in that region after all these years?  I pray that we are mistaken.  Please join us in fervent prayer that the survivors' hearts would be softened to the gospel, and that physical help would reach them soon (roads are completely impassable for now), and that we can complete formatting the New Testament to be distributed to the Mixe of Tlauhui.  Maybe this situation will open the door to ministry where we were forbidden to go before.  That is our prayer.

May God have mercy on these people who have remained fiercely resistant to the Good News which is their only hope in these dark times.

Here is a link to the news we just received: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39398543/ns/world_news-americas

Yesterday we visited with our neighbor, Juan, a Chinantec pastor many short-term teams have worked with or at least prayed with in the past.  His people, too, are isolated by mudslides, and food and supplies cannot reach them.  The old landing field is overgrown with weeds, so no airplanes can reach them.  Also the Mexican arm of MAF, Alas de Socorro (Wings of Help), has no permission to fly for now.  Please pray that the officials would restore their papers so that help might be at least air-dropped to those in need.

Another area we have invested in is the Mixe region of Atitlan, where several teams have ministered in recent years with medical outreaches, showing the Jesus film, and Megavoice distribution.  As far as we know, they are cut off from help as well.  Please pray for a miracle that their food supplies would hold out.  Their crops have all been washed away.  It is truly a desperate time for so many we have worked with.

For us it remains simply a laundry problem since we rely on solar-powered (clothes line) dryers.  It is almost inconceivable that these unrelenting rains have caused so much devastation.  We are fine where we live.  Jonny refused to take a shower yesterday afternoon, firmly expecting to get a phone call from neighbors needing help once their houses began to flood.  It had rained non-stop for over 24 hours, and we expected the homes further down the road to be in trouble.

In the night, I slept fitfully as the rains continued, having a very uneasy feeling about the plight of the folks living on hillsides in surrounding villages.  I am in agony now, realizing my fears had become a reality.  I dreamed about this.

Bless you as you stand with us in faithful prayer.  Thank you for passing this along to your churches and prayer groups.  We will let you know if there is anything you can do to help in a more physical way.  For now, please just pray.

Partners in reaching the unreached,
Jim and Jamie Loker

Here is a photo of the town, taking a few years ago by one of Quezadas' prayer teams.  

Thankfully later reports indicated that in fact only 11 people died from the mudslide, not 500-1000 as original news indicated.  We are amazed at all the prayer that resulted from this media hype, and thankful to God for sparing the lives of these people who have yet to hear the Good News.

Keep praying for Tlahui!

September Update

September 7, 2010

Dear praying friends,

Or as some missionaries we know would call you, "Knee-mail buddies."  We find ourselves again in need of prayer, not just for us, but for the people of Oaxaca.  Nothing urgent, but nonetheless important.

RECORDINGS

As far back as I can remember we have been targeting one Mixe language area for prayer.  Some of you have come on team trips where we prayed for the people of Tlahui, where the scriptures have been translated but unused for over twenty years.  This is truly an unreached people group.  There is no Christian witness in their villages.  In fact, they are very adamantly opposed to the gospel message, and will violently "encourage" outsiders to leave their area.  We have never taken prayer teams there, but have only prayed from a safe distance.

Since summer our technicians have been recording the Tlahui New Testament with one willing participant who speaks the language, but lives outside the target area.  One Christian Mixe from a neighboring dialect has a grandfather from Tlahui, so he is reading the text and having the native speaker repeat it for recording.  It is a laborious process as always, using this "non-reader" method. 

• Please pray with us that Hermano Luis will listen well and catch any mistakes in the recording, and that the man from Tlahui will persevere in this work, and perhaps come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ through his exposure to the scriptures.

• Most of all, please pray that the darkness will flee from Tlahui as people hear the gospel in their own language for the first time.  Pray for many to come to Christ.

• While you are at it, please pray for another Zapotec recording in process.  This dialect also was translated over twenty years ago, and never widely used.  This production, likewise, has a few interesting challenges.  Please pray that it would be completed, formatted, distributed, and used.

CHURCHES

Last week Jim made a trip down to the coast, along with all the recording technicians and representatives from the Bible League and Hosanna (Faith Comes by Hearing), to celebrate the 52nd anniversary of the Southern Baptist Church where they speak Huave.  The 87-year-old (still young) translator and some of his family were also able to attend.  Jim had also celebrated the dedication of the New Testament in Huave about ten years ago, and has worked with the church leaders in that area for all these years. 

• Praise the Lord for the Huave area where the gospel is being proclaimed. 

Jim's primary purpose for the trip was to distribute the audio New Testaments among the Huaves and a neighboring Zapotec language, and to instruct listening groups how to utilize them. 

• Pray that the Proclaimers (digital players) will bear much fruit among the Huaves. Click on the link to read more about this new format for the recordings.

This past weekend we celebrated with our local Mexican church, Dios es Amor, as they had their very first worship service in their new building.  We had provided a work team to initiate the building project four years ago, and finally it is completed.  Our recording technicians also serve as pastor and music leader, so it was a fun day to rejoice with them on Sunday.  Jim helped facilitate the completion of the building last week amid ridiculous amounts of mud and other obstacles.  Thankfully the rain stopped all day on Sunday during the service and the meal that followed.

• Praise the Lord for Dios es Amor Church, and pray for spiritual health and growth for this small group of believers in our town of Mitla

HOME FRONT

On the home front, well, it's been an interesting adjustment being back once again.  Our usual desert is green and muddy like never before.  It literally has rained daily since we got here three weeks ago.  Getting laundry dry was already an issue because of the rain, but now I can't even wash the clothes (or shower, or wash dishes very well) because our electric pump is broken.  We are contemplating what it would take to form a bucket brigade, hauling water up from the cistern.  (Just when I finally need a large family, half of them are gone!)  In the meantime, we are bringing buckets from the neighbor's house for washing dishes. 

• Please pray that our local mechanic can fix the pump soon!

The other glitch was that the internet modem decided to burn up last week.  Jim lost a day while trying to diagnose and remedy the problem.  Sadly that was our usual day for visiting with Chris and his bride, Amy, and I had neither access to Skype nor our Lingo phone. Now we are back up and running again.

Oh, and the garbage truck hasn't come by for a couple of weeks... but I'll stop here lest I sound whiny, when actually we are very glad to be home in spite of it all.

UPCOMING TRIPS

Both Jim and I have trips back to the states this month.  I am flying up to Denver September 14-20, and Jim is flying to Atlanta on the 20th.  (Yeah, I know.  Poor timing).  My purpose is to meet with my editor from Women of the Harvest (WOTH), and to speak briefly at a fund-raiser on Friday.  I am particularly excited about a side-trip to visit some long-time supporters I haven't seen once since we left for the mission field 24 years ago!  That has to be a record.  This family has faithfully given to our ministry from the very earliest days without even one personal visit to say thank you.  Patsy remembered that I used to play the piano, and asked if I'd like to play an offertory at their church that Sunday.  I jumped at the opportunity, and quickly panicked afterward. 

• Please pray that I will actually worship through music, and not just feel like I am performing, and pray for just the right words to communicate my appreciation for the ministry of Women of the Harvest as I represent thousands of women serving the Lord worldwide.
  

Jim is attending the ION (International Orality Network) annual conference.  He hasn't attended one for the past few years, but it is always an encouragement to meet with like-minded individuals and organizations who are trying to reach non-literate, oral learners. 

• Pray that he would return to Oaxaca inspired and challenged to persevere in this never-ending task of networking to reach the unreached.

• Please pray for the kids to continue in their studies, minus a substitute teacher, while I am away. 

I have written out detailed assignments for them, and trust to work double hard this week to keep them on track. 

• Again, please pray for Bekah and Jonny as they travel to and from the city three times a week, often by bus, to the Oaxaca Christian School, for safety and protection, that they would be hidden from any who would desire to hurt them. 

They are taking English and Science at OCS, so at least two classes will happen while I'm gone.  Debbie has Math and Spanish on the computer, so those classes should happen, too.

Bless you for your partnership with us!  Each prayer and gift does make a difference.  Together we are accomplishing great things with eternal rewards.

Partners in reaching the Unreached of Oaxaca and beyond,
Jim and Jamie Loker
Bekah, Jonny, and Debbie (at home)

Please continue to pray for our older children, too, as the Lord leads:
Mike and Hannah, in college in California
Tim and Heidi, in Moncton, New Brunswick (Canada)
Chris and Amy, in Worthington, Minnesota

To subscribe to email updates, send an email here.