As Jesus sent out the 12 in Matthew 10, He gave them the motive for their ministry in verse 8: “Freely you have received, freely give. Their mission of mercy–healing the sick, casting out demons, and even raising the dead is the logical response to the mercy that they had already received in the form of God drawing near. They had seen Him, touched Him, and from Him received divine power. In Matthew 10, they are sent out to tell others about Him.

What Jesus modeled is the end of any discipleship program. He made disciples who in turn made disciples, and, here in the Yucatán, we had the privilege of seeing this cycle come full circle. This past Saturday night, the ministers and members of the Assemblies of God of Yucatán met to commission and send out Norma Uitzil, a missionary, born here in Yucatán, who will be ministering among the “Untouchables” of Calcutta, India.

Yucatán has freely received. Silverio Blanco, the director of the Bible Institute, took time during the service to tell of the first evangelical missionaries who arrived in 1866 to preach in what was then the inhospitable conditions of this predominately Maya state. Since that small beginning, many have come, Presbyterians, Baptists, and Pentecostals among others. In what was once an area devoid of believers, now roughly 1 in 10 attends an evangelical congregation. Granted, there is plenty of work to be done, but the work here in the Yucatán has entered a different stage. It is time for this district to take its place in the evangelization of the world, and missionary Norma Uitzil is one of the first to respond to that call.

About a year and a half ago, I spoke of Jaime and Jaqueline Chacon, missionaries from Costa Rica that are now serving in the U.S. I echoed in that post the words of our regional director, Dick Nicholson, who said that missions is no longer the U.S. or the traditionally Christian Nations that are sending missionaries to the ends of the earth; missions has become a movement in which God is calling people from everywhere to go to everywhere. We believe more than ever in that idea. To that effect, we are currently heading up the missions program in the church that we attend, and we are committed to continually preach missions in the various congregations in which we are invited to speak.

Some might say that it is an impossibility to promote missions in an area where the minimum wage is $5 a day, but people like Norma are proving that we serve a God who makes the impossible possible. So, as we were called forward to pray for her, I asked as well that God would begin to call others to respond to His world-wide mandate, that others would hear His heartbeat for the nations and dare to believe that they can make a difference. After all, freely we all have received, its only natural that we all freely give.

Now, I know what you’re thinking, testimony night has gone the way of Sunday morning prayer requests in most churches, they’re just not done, but here in Mexico, testimony night is alive and well, and two weeks ago last Sunday a certain recently turned 5 year-old decided to step forward and thank God for another year that God had allowed him to complete.* Not only did he testify, he also sang “Open the Eyes of My Heart” (”Abre mis Ojos, Oh Cristo”) in Spanish.

To me, this is the sign of two things happening:

1. that our son is rapidly acculturating: Testifying is expected of church members when they celebrate their birthday. That Jonathan noticed this and wanted to do it tells me that he’s becoming more “Mexican.”
2. that our son is recognizing God as part of his life: It was hard for me to choke back the tears as I listened to our “baby” asking Jesus to help him to truly see Him as he is. It’s my desire as a father to be a part of the the answer to that prayer.

*Spanish idea: We don’t “turn” years old as we celebrate birthdays, we complete years or “cumplemos años” hence the Spanish salutation “Feliz Cumpleaños”

1. Day of the Dead–Written as a response to a request of an friend, this post is by far our most popular post of the past year, and, with the celebration of this event less than a month away the hits are building again. This piece reveals the difficulty that we have as we try to understand the culture of the Yucatán and their ancient traditions.

2. Oh the Humanity!–is a piece I wrote about how God uses our humanness, something very evident to me as I suffered through a prolonged sinus infection, to reveal his perfect power.

3. Like riding a bicycle–is a family update/reflection on what it is that we do as missionaries. By the way, mastery of the bicycle is something that our kids are still working on. Come to think of it, we’ve still got a lot to learn about missions as well.

4. Topes–Life has a way of springing surprises on you, much like speed bumps that seem to appear when you least expect them on roads here in Mexico, but, as this post suggests, the jolts bring with them valuable learning experiences.

5. Coincidence or Confirmation?–This post about our providential guidance on the way to Mérida generated some lively if not completely related discussion.

As I look through these posts, one thing becomes increasingly clear. The job that we have been called to is not an easy one, but the God that has called us continues to guide and form us so that we can accomplish His work.

Phil presented his vision for a continuous wall of prayer across Mexico as I interpreted. The photo to the left shows one of our more in sync moments. It was a stretching experience for me to be sure, but it was extremely rewarding as well as tens of volunteers signed up to be a part of a 230 strong group of prayer warriors interceding 24/7 for Mexico.

Again thank you for your prayers and notes of encouragement as I stepped out in this ministry.

One especially noteworthy event was our Carnaval service. Every Tuesday before Ash Wednesday, the date that marks the beginning of the Catholic season of Lent (Cuaresma in Spanish), the city of Mérida hosts Carnaval. This event, which is very similar to Mardi Gras in New Orleans is one big day of “sinning” before the purification of the Lenten Season begins. Of course, as Christians, we don’t believe in this binging and purging habit when it comes to living a Christian life, so our church offered an alternative Carnaval service.

During the service, there was an atmosphere of celebration for what God had done in the lives of the believers, participation in games and singing, and a wrap-up teaching before we sat down to experience the culmination of the event, sharing some great yucatecan food!

I was in charge of the afternoon’s message. It was an opportunity to share with the people my message on the tongue. (You can read the message in Spanish here.) I was able to share that it is not only sufficient to avoid the apparent sins of the world (e.g Carnaval), but that it is necessary to subject our entire self, all the way to the unruly tongue, to the power of the Holy Spirit.

During the course of the message, I was able to utilize Kelly’s pink dish washing glove as an example of being filled with the Spirit, as well as invite others to try and refill toothpaste tubes as an example of the difficulty that we have in taking back the words that we say. The picture above is of one of the church members, Joel, as he attempts this impossible task. The wonderful payoff, though, was seeing several of the church members come forward to pray for a new experience with the Holy Spirit.

So, yes, we’ve taken a few steps backward due to illness, but we’ve also seen God taking a few steps forward utilizing His power through us. Thank you for your continued prayers on our behalf!

In our work as missionaries, relationships are the key to effectiveness. Without an open door, we have no work. So we have been praying for pastors with whom we could share our vision, pastors with whom we could partner and assist in discipling their people and equipping them to reach out to the lost all around them. Also, we have been praying for a church that we could call home. As foreigners, it is difficult to “fit in” in all circumstances. We have the fairest skin, speak the poorest Spanish, and probably drive the nicest car (thanks STL). We need people who can accept these realities, and yet be open to accept us into their circle of intimacy, take an interest in our well being, and that of our kids. This Sunday we decided that Golgota was that place.

Not only was the church conveniently located to us and strategically located to reach out into an unreached area, but we found at Golgota an attitude that drew us in. The pastor, Orlando Vazquez (pictured at the pulpit) a minister for over 50 years, has shown an openness to new ideas and a vision for reaching the world that I have seen in few congregations. In the 4 services that I had attended prior to last night, Mexican world missionaries were preaching in 2 of them, sharing their work and giving opportunity for the people to join with them in prayer and giving. For a church of about 60 members in Mexico, that was an amazing sight.

So we have a new church home away from home. Now that is not to say that we have been assigned to work with only one church, but in working and relating with the members of Golgotha Assembly, we now have another open door both to minister and to be ministered to here in Mérida.

Our prayers and support go with these who have responded to the call to go, and our desire is that more will follow their example so that this largest Spanish speaking nation in the world will extend its influence for the good of those who have yet to respond to God’s love.

The course, Dynamic Evangelism, is a subject that strikes fear, guilt, or both in the heart of many Christians in the U.S. and, I’ve come to find out here as well. Three of the seven students told me that they hope to be able to learn, through this class, how to get overcome fear that they have in talking to others about Christ. What I hope to do is to assist these students to begin making evangelism part of their lifestyle so that it becomes, not a dreaded task that they have to do, but a natural outgrowth of their Christian lifestyle.

I was reading another Guy Muse’s M Blog yesterday, and it seems as though he has the same idea. His post: What is the most effective way to evangelize is about finding God’s method to “continuously evangelize,” and he and his group is waiting for God to answer the question.

So we begin this prayerful foray into the experimental task of reaching people: How do we open minds and hearts to the Gospel? How to we pull away all that is culturally and traditionally bound to what we call Christianity in order to present the message of Christ to a culture that has deemed our message obsolete? How to we remain faithful to the biblical message and yet relevant to the society in which we live?

Stay with us as we embark together on this adventure with God. Follow along with our experiences, which I hope to post frequently, and above all pray for God’s direction and intervention in our class and in the work that takes place because of it.

What they were assigned to do was to determine the component parts of the passage, verbs, pronouns, conjunctions and the like, as well as to find any comparisons, contrasts, and cause and effect sequences that there might be within the text. From there, I began to show them the way that their observations can lead to questions that can guide their study of the passage.

I found it interesting to note that, although these students had taken a class in hermeneutics, before, many of them had never mined a passage in this way. While I find that to a certain degree alarming, I also see the opportunity that we have. We have the opportunity to teach them what it means to be true students of the Bible, disciples of the Word, and it is my prayer that they will be disciples that will make change in Merida and throughout southeastern Mexico.