Dear praying friends,
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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
