[About the photos: The planting, the watering, and God giving the increase.]
Dear friends of Mexico Ministries:
When the time came for Abraham and Lot to go their separate ways, Abraham said to his nephew, “Please let there be no strife between you and me, nor between my herdsmen and your herdsmen. For we are brothers…The whole land is before you.” Then Abraham told Lot to choose any direction he desired. Lot chose the valley of the Jordan River, which the Bible described as looking almost as beautiful as the Garden of Eden. Abraham then chose the land of Canaan as his habitation (cf. Genesis 13).
Last month I wrote, “I went to Mexico alone and now we are many.” Those “many” work in many areas of Mexico, and a significant number focus on the beautiful valley of Chenalho where a gorgeous river runs through the lush mountains and the people dress in their colorful traditional attire. Over the years we have built all the facilities needed for a base of ministry operation, and compared to the Tuxtepec area, it must look like the Garden of God.
While I have always worked all throughout Mexico, for the last 20 years or so Chenalho and Chiapas have been such a major focus for me. Now that focus once again shifts. While I will always stay connected and involved with Chiapas, the Lord has impressed upon me to turn my eyes toward Tuxtepec and Oaxaca. Since I turned 80 four years ago, in the Tuxtepec area we have already built 11 churches, two houses, a stadium that seats 1,500 people, facilities for a new Bible school, and we currently have petitions to help with seven new church buildings! Everything is poised for great and rapid growth, just like it was in Chenalho when we entered there in 1989.
In Tuxtepec, we are not dependent on work groups from the United States to build new churches (although they are certainly welcomed and appreciated) - we now have capable groups of local people standing ready to serve when needed. How our brothers and sisters from the U.S. make such a huge impact is by standing with us in funding these new projects, helping with purchasing the building materials as needed.
I so appreciate our supporters in the U.S. I so appreciate our co-laborers throughout Mexico. I so very much appreciate pastors Carlos and Diego, who travel back and forth between Chiapas and Oaxaca and are instrumental in helping this new region of labor to blossom into another Garden of God. We all plant, water, and nurture these fields of the Lord. But MOST of all I so appreciate God, for though we all labor together, “it is God who gives the increase.” (1 Corinthians 3.6)
God bless you,
Larry