But did they have fun?

This morning we were up at 4:00 A.M. to take our Michigan team to the airport after a week of running them ragged. Looking through their photos, they are smiling and laughing, and there were obvious good times had by all, but in general it was a brutal trip. They distributed about 50 "Treasures" - gold colored audio New Testaments - among non-literate, monolingual Mixe (pronounced Mee-hay) speakers in the mountains of Oaxaca. The living conditions were rustic, the outhouses were interesting, the trails were muddy, and even the drive was an adventuresome experience, crossing rivers and bumping along hairpin turns on unpaved roads, sometimes stopping while the driver took a pick ax and shovel to make improvements in the road before continuing.

The question we always ask in the end is "Did they have fun?" I suspect they didn't. Not much, anyway. A better question to ask is "Was it worth it?" That's where I think 100% would agree that it was certainly well worth the effort to make the trip, endure the discomforts, and eat interesting local food... just to witness the joy and awe on the faces of the recipients when they first heard God's Word communicated to them in their heart language. That is priceless!

One early highlight of the week was visiting some refugees in Tlacolula, the town closest to ours, who were Mixe believers who had been run out of their village because they refused to participate in the local pagan celebrations. Our visitors were surprised to hear that Christians are still being persecuted in southern Mexico. It was humbling to share a meal with these folks whose houses and fields are abandoned in their village, and it was an honor to pray as we drove through their village later in the week. For me personally, it was a joy to experience all this firsthand after so many years of praying for the Mixe people. Jim and several of our kids have been up in that area many times over the past 15 years, but it was a first for me.

Please join us in praying that the gospel message will penetrate hearts, and that the town officials will welcome back these exiled believers to La Estancia. Pray that the audio scriptures distributed among the Mixes up near Santiago Atitlan will be shared and that God's kingdom would be established among these precious people, and His will accomplished in each life. Pray for the seed to be planted in rich soil and result in an abundant harvest in these regions.