25 December, 2011

Dear Friends,

First of all, we want to wish everyone of you a very Merry Christmas. We pray that you enjoy the celebration of the birth of our savior with your family and friends. What a thought! To think God gave everything He had to save us. It will take an eternity to understand and appreciate all it cost.

Today is Christmas day here. As is tradition in Mexico, the Christmas meal is prepared and eaten Christmas Eve (La Noche Buena). We decided to do the same as a family and enjoyed a baked turkey. This morning we opened gifts and then went to church for a Christmas program. We were then invited over to our pastor’s house along with other friends, where we enjoyed leftovers and some traditional Mexican Christmas food (Romeditos: shrimp patties cooked in a mole sauce, Tamales and Bacalao: dried fish cooked with capers, olives and pickled jabanero chiles.) The kids got to hit the piñata and let of fireworks.

Tomorrow we are getting ready to go to Lajas as a family. It’s been a long time since all our kids have been in Lajas and so we are going to make a trip out and spend just a few days. Our Tepehuan friends have been longing to see our kids and they have grown so much. It may well be the last chance we get to go out as a family.

My last stay in the village went well and we also held a dental clinic for the last week out there. We’re thankful for Dr. Dan Bentley coming down from Houston and John and Linda Steinbacher from Chihuahua for coming down and helping out. We saw around 120 Tepehuan. We’re pulling less teeth and filling more and each time there are more patient that after a consultation, need no work at all. It is really encouraging to see that the past 12 years of dental clinics have had an impact on the village and the overall dental health has drastically improved. We’re so thankful as a team for how the Lord has provided us with really good dental equipment, two really great dentists in Dan Bentley and Jim Boyd, faithful helpers in John and Linda and the funds to continue carrying at these bi-annual dental clinics. I’ve actually learned to assist the dentist of which you all should be very thankful you don’t have me staring down your throats and swishing the suction tube around.

Here in the city, I have had the opportunity to begin teaching the Bible lessons to Placido’s family. 3 of his wives and their kids live in a small house on the outskirts of the city near the chile fields, and one wife lives at on a pecan farm. Twice a week in the morning I teach Filemona at the pecan farm, and then twice a week in the evening I teach the other 3 and whatever kids decide to listen at the other house. It’s been really amazing how interested they have been in hearing God’s Word and how they are willing to accept it as truth. A number of times they have brought up their own cultural beliefs and traditions that go in direct contrast to God’s Word, but it is truly miraculous to see how the Holy Spirit has worked to bring down these barriers. After one teaching session, Placido and his wife told me they were going to take a number of their children to a Tepehuan witchdoctor to have them cured. Placido said that he realized that perhaps once he had heard more of the teaching, he probably wouldn’t take his kids to a witchdoctor, but he said he would do it this last time. They asked me what I thought. At first I wasn’t sure what to say, but as I thought about it, the Holy Spirit gave me the words to say. I told them that if they wanted to take their kids to a witchdoctor, it was their choice, but I told them that if they would continue to listen to God’s Word and believe it, they would learn that their ancestors had been deceived by Satan, and that he has twisted their minds to practice shamanism and to worship idols and spirits. I went on to say that they would learn that God’s son is the greatest healer of all and not only can he heal disease and sickness, but can also heal our sin problem and wash us and make us whole. I wasn’t convinced I had said things well nor very convincingly, but amazingly, Filemona said that she didn’t want to take the kids to the witchdoctor and could see that in the past none of the sorcery and shamanism had really worked. Placido also agreed. While perhaps it is only a small thing, it is encouraging to seeing the Lord battle for the hearts and lives of the Tepehuan people. I’m not sure my lessons are that great, nor am I confident I can say everything well in Tepehuan, but the power of God’s Word is truly evident and I can see it changing the way these folk think. Thank you for praying and continue to pray for the salvation of these dear friends.

We’re looking forward to teaching in the village and see God’s Word change people’s lives. May this new year be a year of salvation for the Tepehuan people and the village of Lajas.

For Jesus,

Andrew and Anne Marie, Joseph, Madeline, Julian and Sophia

3 November,

Dear Friends,

I just called Placido and it’s all set up for Anne Marie and I to head over to his house in a couple of hours, to begin teaching he and his family the Bible lessons.

They live right on the outskirts of the city and have been asking for a while when it will work out for us to teach them.

The first lesson simply covers that God’s Word is. How God gave it to man and why, and how we came to have it in our language today.

Pray that Placido and his family will understand clearly that God’s Word is for them. It contains God’s message to them and he loves them. Pray that they will begin to see that God’s Word is the authority on all truth. Pray also that I would be able to communicate clearly in Tepehuan.

It is an exciting time, and while we may not be teaching in the village just yet, we are looking forward to starting very soon.

Thank you to all of you who have labored in prayer for many years to see the Tepehuan hear the Gospel in their own language. This say is simply due to your faithfulness and commitment. Thank you for sustaining us in prayer.

For Jesus,

Andrew and Anne Marie.