World Religions and Cults

Our latest conference focused on World Religions and Cults and was a great success in terms of attendance, interest and fellowship. Fernando Perez did the teaching with the help of a couple of videos. The favorite subject of all was Spiritism which was no surprise as witchcraft pervades every aspect of the lives of the great majority of the mountain peoples. Please pray for our Christian brothers and sisters who have to battle against demonic forces at every turn.

New Video and Drama Classes

We're always searching for new and effective ways to help our Zapotec friends learn and apply God's Word to their lives. Our latest project will be to make a short film based on a passage from the Bible. The plan is to bring together a team of Zapotec Christians and teach them the basics in movie-making and script writing. The most significant learning will be when they take a Bible story and adapt it into their own culture. Please pray with us that God will give us success in teaching how to interpret the Bible as well as having a finished product that can be used for evangelism and teaching.

Pastor Asisclo to re-establish Mission in Guatalupe

Good news! While Fernando and I were ministering in a couple of villages, we received two invitations. The first is to participate with Pastor Asisclo and his congregation to do an outreach in Guadalupe. There used to be a church where Christians gathered in Guadalupe but for many years it has empty and the group of believers has diminished. Lately Pastor Asisclo has been visiting Guadalupe in an effort to re-establish the work of the Church there and the up-coming outreach in September will be a part of that. The second invitation is to attend a two-day regional meeting of churches. We look forward to the opportunity to network with many pastors that have been outside our reach due to their remoteness and plan to distribute our training materials and Bibles for new believers. Thanks always for your priceless prayers!

Missionary Conference

We are back in Oaxaca after visiting family for Christmas. Upon returning I attended a missionary conference where for three days indigenous pastors and leaders were given the opportunity to share their perspective of the ministry to the indigenous peoples. Eye-opening and sometimes painful to hear, but extremely valuable for those of us dedicated to the growth and development of the indigenous church. The things we learned there will help us to be more effective in training and equipping pastors in the mountains. This week I will be meeting with a pastor from the very remote Mixe village of Coatlan to plan our next series of conferences. Your prayers are appreciated!

Jan 2010 Update on our online Conference School

 Director Garett Jackson and family only recently returned from the states where they spent the Holidays. Said they came back to no electricity or water. Three days to get back on. 


He told me today, "Right now I'm at the COMIMEX conference where I'll be promoting the pastors conferences and giving out some discs.  I'm planning on going to Culiacan for 2 weeks in Feburary.

COMIMEX is a gathering of leaders who work with ministering to indigenous peoples. A great group. Garett will be able to share with individual pastors who have no way of going to a Bible School for training.  Culiacan is where many indigenous groups go  to harvest crops. Garett not only can help with ministering to those who have never heard the gospel but also work to let pastors also know about our online school.


Please be in prayer for him and also the president of Agape Missions who will also be in Culican.

Waking Up To Jesus

The coffee cherries are quickly turning red signaling the arrival of another harvest. Meanwhile Armando has been busy working in the Lord's vineyard, or coffee plantation if you will. Using what he has learned from the Pastor's Conferences, Armando has begun a weekend devotional that is broadcast to the whole town of Lachiguiri every Saturday and Sunday at 5 a.m. What's the name of the program? Waking Up To Jesus! The thirty minute devotional is presented in Spanish and in Zapoteco and the response has been overwhelmingly positive. Many people of the village struggling to find hope and meaning in their lives look forward to Armando's messages of living for Jesus Christ. Some who do not speak Spanish have been moved to tears hearing about God's love in their mother tongue. We recently gave an mp3 player to Armando loaded with the Audio Bible. Armando's first idea was to include it in the program!

Joel Goes to Spain

The ministry is a work done as a team. Without a team, there is not much ministry. One member of our teams has been Joel Hernández, in charge of recording the conferences. He makes us sound good. This month we say good-bye to our brother and his family as they depart for Spain to serve as missionaries to the Islamic world. We are very proud of our brother in the Lord and we commit ourselves to supporting him and his wife and their three children in prayer. They are a testimony to others of what the Lord can do. May God bless them in every way!

Flats and Floods

My recent trip to the mountains was, among other things, to plan our next conference for the pastors of Loma Esperanza, a village that is starting to grow in the Gospel once again. But once I arrived in Lachiguiri the priorities began to change. I found that Sheri's house there had been flooded by a broken water in the kitchen that was made worse because the outside valve was broken also. When it rains, it pours! Needless to say there was lots of work to be done, fixing the plumbing, cleaning the house and washing rugs and piles of clothes. Even so I was still hoping to continue on into the mountains even if I had to extend the trip. The next day I discovered that the car had not one but two flat tires. When it rains it pours! I rejoiced when the neighbors told me that Lachiguiri now has a shop that fixes flat tires so I wasted no time in procuring their services. The first flat got fixed lickety-split but the second proved more difficult. In fact, it proved impossible. In the end the tools broke, the tire was further damaged, and all we could do was put the spare tire on in it's place. But that meant I wouldn't be able to go to Loma Esperanza several hours away on roads where you better have a spare tire. I was feeling like Paul when he was hindered from going to Thessalonica by Satan. Since I couldn't go to Loma Esperanza I finished cleaning up the house and did some other repairs with the help of our friends there in Lachiguiri as well do some visiting and praying for people. Best of all was being able to see Israel and Virginia's new baby girl. So precious! And so the trip ended with blessings and also an unforgettable reminder why we pray: because God wants to reach all the mountain villages with the Gospel of His Son Jesus Christ and because Satan doesn't.

MP3 Players

We just received a couple of mp3 players from our friend Bill that he pre-loaded with the Bible in audio in Spanish. Next we will load our courses for pastors on the mp3 players and distribute them to pastors in the mountains. We are really excited about the possibilities as new means of distributing our materials for pastors and leaders. If you have an old mp3 player lying around that needs a home, we could it put it to good use helping our indigenous pastor friends. If you're interested in donating an mp3 player please contact Sheri Burk at lachiguiriproject@gmail.com.

Congratulations!

A baby girl was born to Israel and Virginia on July 24, 2009 sometime early in the morning. The new baby and the mom are doing well. Congratulations to the proud parents as well the other siblings Veronica, Esteban, Ema, and Prisila.

Remembering Tito

Tito, one of our students, recently went home to be with Father. He and wife were some of our most eager students, hungry for the things of the Lord. Years ago, doctors had given Tito only a few weeks to live but God saw fit to extend the years of life. Even though Tito was often uncomfortable and in pain, he never complained. We will miss his quiet, sweet, steadfast spirit. His wife Graciela continues to attend the conferences and participate in the work of God.

"He is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living..." Mark 12:27

We went but...

We've returned from Lachiguiri. But because we had to change the dates of the conference twice and because of some other factors, like rain which impedes the movement of people and information in the mountains, nobody was able to make it. In fact, a group of pastors had come from several hours away the week before, oops! This is a good example of why we do everything we can rather than change dates. However, our Christian brothers asked if we could reschedule the conference so we are planning to return soon. So while we were in Lachiguiri, Fernando and I went into the studio for a couple of days to record the conference. In the evenings we visited people in town encouraging them and praying for them.

Conference Rescheduled

We were getting ready for another Pastor's Conference in Lachiguiri this week when several unexpected circumstances came our way: First, my grandma passed away and I thought I would be going to Arizona to be with family. The bad: we all miss her and her fiery spirit that made her so much fun. The good: she is no longer suffering and is now with Jesus, the lover and savior of her soul. Second, the suburban that we use for ministry in the mountains broke down. The bad: there was zero oil in transfer case for many months. The good: by a miracle there was no apparent damage. The mechanic put in the oil and everything seems to be working just fine. And last, a storm poured rain and thoroughly soaked everything. The bad: the rain makes the mountain roads dangerous and sometimes unpassable. The good: it's already drying out and we've already rescheduled the conference for next week.

Conference Dates for July

Classes have been rescheduled for Thursday through Saturday, the 9th, 10th and 11th of July. Virginia's baby is due on the 24th of July.

I see a huge tropical storm headed toward our part of Oaxaca on the satellite internet site so pray it stays away from our area as when that kind of storm hits Lachiguiri one can't get in or out of the village. So help us pray.

Here is a clip from last years attempt to reach Lachiguiri.


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April 2008 Upcoming class

April and May are our hottest months here in the Isthmus of Oaxaca. I have been in the resort area of Huatulco since we got back from our trip to visit the villages in the mountains. Baltazar has made some trips back into a few of the areas where he has taken the classes for the Indigenous Bible School. His report from Coatlan was that the pastors really appreciated the first class he took to them on "The Integrity of the Pastor" that Roberto Morales taught. Baltazar had his last class in Ixcuintepec and I haven't gotten his report from there yet. Baltazar shares the Integerity class which is on CD and then works with the pastors to be sure they understand and give them their exams etc. Garett is editing the classes for video.