[About the photos: How are you spending your “quarantine” time? My little cabin is where I get away every day to pray, to study, and do what Peter, Andrew, James, and John did: fish!}
Dear friends of Mexico Ministries:
“In a severe test of affliction…they gave according to their means…” This is what St. Paul wrote about the Christians in Macedonia, but the entire long sentence is very much worth taking a moment to read slowly:
We want you to know, brothers,[ about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia, for in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. For they gave according to their means, as I can testify, and beyond their means, of their own accord, begging us earnestly for the favor[ of taking part in the relief of the saints. - 2 Corinthians 8.1-4
The Macedonian believers, themselves enduring “extreme poverty,” were nevertheless insistent on helping care for other far away brothers and sisters in Christ who were suffering even more
We are in a “severe test of affliction” today as well. A few months ago none of us could have imagined the difficult times brought on as the coronavirus sweeps through the world, causing harm not only physically, but mentally and economically as well. Our little town of Denison has now reported 9 cases, and it will only increase in the days to come; one dear friend had to close his restaurants and lay off 100 workers. It will take years for everyone to recover from the effects of this pandemic.
In times like this we must stand together. Mary Lou and I have received calls from all over the U.S. and Mexico from friends and fellow laborers checking on our wellbeing. I have been in communication with the leaders and pastors of all the areas we serve in Mexico, and they too are struggling at this time, most of them living week to week even in the best of times. I have no answers to the many struggles. I don’t have the finances to meet all the needs. But I can weep and pray and encourage them that this too shall pass and that, “it will be well.” (2 Kings 4.23)
I received a video this week of several Latin American presidents (from Mexico, Bolivia, Uruguay, Panama, and other countries) imploring their people to stand together in unity, prayer, and repentance. Now is not the time to despair. Now is the time to seek God, to have hope, and to stand together. We shall overcome.
Paul ended his letter with words of blessing and hope and I pray them for you today: “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” (2 Corinthians 13.14)
Larry