Merry Christmas!

RV Medio outreach!

On Friday we gathered with several of the believers from the church here to present a Christmas program in the community of Middle Rio Verde, about an hour’s hike uphill from the bridge crossing the Rio Verde river. We thank the Lord for strength and energy, good weather, and for the large group that received us warmly! It was a joy to be able to talk about Jesus’ birth to this needy group. Kevin and Paulino each shared, reminding the folks that God’s word is really important, and worth listening to. Milton told the story of Jesus’ birth. We invited those who were interested to let us know if they would like to hear more teaching. Pray with us that God would open up at least one home in this community where we would be welcome to go to teach regularly!

We often tell folks that the Awa don’t live in villages, but rather scattered out in the mountains. This month we feel like we ARE the village, as we have been surrounded by Awa full-time, for several different reasons. Paulino’s daughter Sandra has been staying here for the last month as she waited for her 2nd baby to be born (the little girl was born in the wee hours on Dec 4th---Kathy and her sister Chrissy got called into the birthing room to help out, as the ‘partero’, baby-deliverer man, felt like things weren’t going well. It was quite the experience as they learned more about Awa birthing customs, especially when the baby didn’t breathe right away! Thankfully all ended up well and the baby is now doing fine.) Of course, many of Sandra’s siblings and relatives took turns staying with her. Many others have also showed up for other help, some spending the night and eating meals with us. Some days we have felt a bit weary, being ‘on call’ from dawn to dark, but at the same time we are so thankful for the many opportunities to share God’s love both in action and in word. We are seeing God at work in many different lives. Anyhow, we’d appreciate your prayers for strength and stamina!

One of those who has been hanging out here quite a bit is Teacher Andrew. Last year we asked for prayer for him, as he has been listening to the teaching each month in P. Community. Andrew had asked us to help him with a thesis paper for his teaching degree. The first day he came, he asked if we could also use the opportunity to teach him more about God. “The community has been grumbling that I am bad, because I’ve argued with different folks. I realize that I lack character. Since you follow God, I think you could teach me about having character,” he told Kevin. We were a bit amazed, as this is probably one of the best opportunities we have had in many years to clearly teach the Word of God. Since then, we have talked for hours, sometimes going through Bible lessons, other times just answering his questions about God. When I shared the gospel with him, Andrew quickly agreed, at least in theory. Please pray with us that his understanding will make it from his ‘head’ to his ‘heart’!

We wish each one of you a merry Christmas season! May you rejoice with us in remembering God’s gift to us!

In HIS grip,
Kevin & Kathy

<for a printable version click here>

A recent snapshot of us

Cool Bugs

Here is a link to some pictures of cool bugs we've seen over the last year!
Cool Bug Pics
If you are into that sort of thing!
:-)

Another perspective to give us balance!

This video is shorter, but also gives another important perspective on cross cultural missions!

How does this interview impact your life?

This is a bit old (from 2011), and a bit long (abt an hour) but well worth the watch!

Nov 2013

Here in Rio Verde, we recently finished teaching through 1 Peter with the believers, and have now returned to the OT to go through the life of Moses in more detail. We have a dual purpose in doing this: first, for a few of the folks, we’d really like to highlight our helpless state in the face of the Law, and our need for God’s provision in the blood of the lamb, as pictured in the Passover.  Manuel and his wife Maria, as well as several others, are among those who have been listening to the teaching for quite awhile but have yet to make a clear testimony that they understand the basic message of salvation. We pray that it will become clear in their minds as we go over these truths. (Please pray that they will faithfully come to the services over the next few weeks!)The second reason for teaching thru Moses is that we’d like to prepare the believers for studying thru the book of Hebrews in the next year.

Again we thank you for your prayers! It’s difficult to adequately express the gratitude we feel toward our Awesome God for the way He has worked in several of the ‘dark’ situations we mentioned to you last month:
• Thank the Lord, although it took several months, Kathy is now feeling much better! She hiked with me to P. Community over the weekend and did fine.
• It was true that one of the believers was involved in a situation where he was drinking and being a poor testimony, but we have seen him admit his sin, repent, and return to walking with the Lord with a humble attitude.
• The other believer who owed the debt has been able to pay that off, and has returned to the body of believers to worship with us each Sunday, with a good attitude. He is also feeling better health-wise.

Another note of praise: This weekend in P. Community, we stopped by the house of the community president, Guillermo. While his wife Gloria fed us a meal of rice and fried fish, he pulled out his map of the community center, and showed us the lot he is saving for us to put a church, Lot #76. He also reminded us that the church will need a pastor (‘That would probably be you for now,’ he said…) and that the pastor will need a house as well, so he put my name on an adjacent lot. Wow! Guillermo is not even a believer (his wife is), but he made it clear that he does desire our presence in the community. So just like that--free of charge!--the Lord has provided us with an open door to this community. In the future we would like to transition to living in this community.

On a sad note, please pray for Oscar and Lorena (in picture on right), Guillermo and Gloria’s daughter and son-in-law.  Ten days ago they lost their first baby, as he died suddenly in the middle of the night. From what we understand, the cause must have been something like Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, as the baby wasn’t sick at all. Lorena just woke up at 3 a.m. to find the baby not breathing and already getting cold. While Oscar and Lorena, and the grandparents, have been outwardly stoic about the loss of their little son, we can sense their sadness. Lorena and Gloria are believers, while Oscar has been listening to the teaching. Pray for their hearts to be strengthened by the Lord’s grace in this loss.

We enjoyed a few days out in town last month with some special visitors from Germany. Two of the mission leaders from the international headquarters (both named Martin) came to share with us as a field. As with any multi-national mission, language was a bit of challenge, with German, English, and Spanish all thrown in there. I had the privilege to translate from English to Spanish for a couple of the Bible studies. We very much enjoyed the fellowship together with our mission coworkers (and time in the hot spring pools!)

In HIS grip,
Kevin & Kathy

<for a printable version click here>