The Harvest

Despite the warm sunny day, a chill went down my spine as I looked out over one of the biggest cemeteries in Juarez. We passed a funeral at the Catholic church across the park from Promesa de Vida. It is the fourth one I've seen in the six weeks I've been here. I was walking with three youth from Promesa de Vida and one of them commented on the recent violence at a corner market.

Perched on the side of a hill overlooking the graveyard we stopped at a humble dwelling and tapped on the wrought iron gate. The door opened and every wrinkle of the woman's sun worn face melted into the most incredible smile. A small middle aged man appeared, and he too broke into a huge smile revealing two rows of crooked teeth. A boy of 12 peeked out revealing striking green eyes.

The man apologized for his humble accommodations as he turned over some buckets in the yard and sent the boy for some cardboard to protect our church clothes. Jorge, Guadalupe, and Cristiano expressed a desire to study the Bible as a result of our evangelism in the neighborhood. The boy pulled out the Bible and study materials we had left them. He read the passages to his caretakers and we discussed the importance that Jesus had to be fully God and fully man.

Jorge is a remarkable guy. Between the age of 6-10 he tended cattle that grazed along the Rio Grand not far from Juarez. We joked that now the River is neither big (grand) nor fierce (The Mexicans call it the Rio Bravo or "Fierce River"). He used catch big fish in the River. And one time the cattle strayed into the US. He said that the "migra" (immigration) came and helped him get the cows back to the other side.

At age 10 he left home and lived on the streets of Juarez. He was one of the kids that would stand under the bridge trying to catch coins that the tourists would drop down by the river. Now he sells corn on the streets and corn husks for tamales. The corn boils in the outdoor kitchen, and we sit in front of the grinder to make the masa for tortillas or tamales.

This family is one of five who have responded to our recent evangelistic campaign. Today we are studying the new relationship we have as sons and heirs because of the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ. I am amazed how Eder, an engineering student, takes this profound doctrine and explains it in terms that connect with this uneducated family.

After the study I asked why Jorge has corn tied over the top of the door. He said that it is an old custom to offer the spirits some corn to ensure a good crop. Despite centuries of Catholicism,
I am surprised how many traditions like this persist in the Mexican culture. The renewed interest in Santa Muerte and the brutal mutilations in Juarez demonstrate the diabolical origin of this fascination with spirits. But the light of Christ is shining even brighter in this dark time, and people are coming to the light.

Luis is also involved in one of our evangelistic Bible studies. His scars and tattoos are reminders of his life as a gang member and drug addict. He says, “I can’t take credit for getting off drugs. It was the power of God. I pray that that same power will help me be a good father to my four boys, so they don’t have to go through the stuff I have.” Luis’ enthusiasm for the Gospel is contagious. He asked me for the notes of the Sunday school I taught, so he can go share it with his friends that are still in drugs and gangs. Pray that God’s Word will continue to pierce the
darkness. Pray for these young believers to grow in their faith.

First month in Juarez

For one month now I have been working with Promesa de Vida Church in Juarez. I have enjoyed getting to know pastor Juan Antonio Garcia and the members at Promesa. There have been 5 murders within two blocks of the church in October, and 100 murders in the colonia this year. These tragedies have caused the community to consider what happens to them when they die. Just as a jewler often uses a black backdrop to highlight the brilliance of his diamonds. The darkness in Juarez highlights the splendor of Jesus Christ, the True Light of the World. The church is in the middle of an evangelistic campaign to share Christ with their neighbors. We have had a great response. In October four people from the community have joined Bible studies introducing the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and two weeks ago a lady professed faith in Christ.

I have learned so much from my brothers and sisters in Juarez. In the United States we often make sharing the Gospel too complicated. We have glitzy programs and media blitzes. But this church is simply using the access we have as children of God to bring the community before his throne.

They go out in groups of two or three to knock on doors and ask people how the church can pray for them. Then after praying for those people at the Tuesday night prayer meeting, we make a follow up visit to see what God has been doing in their lives. I shouldn't be so surprised, but it has been amazing to see God answer those prayers. The first Sunday in October I went with a group and we met Patricia. Two men were murdered that Friday in her brother in law's store around the corner. She has asthma and was experiencing difficulty breathing because of fear. We prayed for her and followed up with a visit two weeks later. She was moved by our prayers and said that she hadn't had to use her inhaler in two weeks. Now she is interested in what we believe and wants to visit our church with her husband. Pray for Patricia and many others like her living in fear and looking for hope.

There is a young man who Pastor Juan has been working with. He is in a drug rehab center down the street. Nicolas is the director of the center. He showed us around and explained that he was a drug addict 8 years ago. But God got a hold of him through a 12 step program. He came to faith and now is pointing others to Jesus as their only hope for coming clean from drugs. He lamented the fact that the church doesn't have the same vulnerability and honesty that many guys find in a 12 step program, because all of us are addicts to different forms of sin and need the support and accountability of Christian brothers and sisters.

I was a bit apprehensive visiting the rehab center because the drug cartels have been targeting these centers in the past couple of months. For more information check out this El Paso Times article. Nicolas asked for prayer for these guys trying to leave a life of drugs, crime, and violence.

Please pray for safety for me and the church members. Pray for peace for the Los Alcaldes neighborhood. And pray for me as I grow in my ability to share the Gospel in Spanish.

Sports Camp

Last week Las Tierras Community Church hosted a sports camp for 100 kids in our community. A team from Village Seven PCA in Colorado Springs came down to help. It was helpful in deepening budding relationships and cultivating new ones. The other day I went into Walmart and a young boy ran up waving excitedly. "I know you, you're one of my teachers from sports camp!" This opened an opportunity to meet his father. Heather has eaten lunch with another lady who has children our kid's ages. Please pray that God would continue to use us to demonstrate his love to those in our community.

More Pictures of the Rodriguez house

Heartland guys, We appreciate the work you did last week. It was a great encouragement to us and I got to meet several people in the community because of your presence.

Thanks

The Vaughns

New Project in Montana Vista

Jesus and Maria Rodriguez are expecting their fifth child any day now. They currently live in a 20ft. delapidated trailer. There were two other trailers on the property housing other relatives. But last week, an county inspector forced Jesus' brother Eduardo to move his trailer. The new site is a thorn infested plot of desert with no water or electricity. So now they are all crammed into two trailers.

Jesus' father had begun a brick home on the property, but he didn't have proper paperwork and was deported. A social worker familiar with our work on the Peña home alerted us to their need and asked if we could help. In February, my cousin Mike Bacon and a crew from Chattanooga Christian came and helped us lay block. Then we had a team from Shelterwood in Missouri who helped finish the walls. It was neat to meet some folk that knew Nate Humphries and JD Willis from this crew. March 14th -20th a team from Hearltand Community Church, our home church in Wichita, came and helped build trusses for the roof. In April or May we are trying to get a crew of people from the community here in El Paso to help put up the roof. Then in June we have a team coming from Covenant Pres in Chattanooga to put on flashing and shingle the roof.

Projects like this help build trust and form relationships in the community. They are also a practical demonstration of grace, because these folk did nothing to deserve the help. Please pray that God would use this tangible demonstration of love to transform people's hearts and build a spiritual dwelling here in Montana Vista.

Violence in Juarez

The City of Juarez, just across the border from us, has become a war zone. There have been over 200 murders in Juarez in February. Most of these fall into two categories, either the bodies are riddled with hundreds of rounds from an automatic machine gun or they are bound and decapitated.

The violence has caused us divert our short term teams ministering in Juarez this summer to Laredo. There is not only danger for the teams, but it can make the churches we work with targets for extortion. God is sovereign over the violence. I talked with a missionary yesterday who was pulled over by two men with guns, then for no apparent reason, the gunmen turned around and left. A similar situation occurred with one of our pastors. God is using the violence to awaken a spiritual hunger. I am convinced more than ever of the need for prayer to combat the spiritual struggle at work among us. Please pray that God would bring people to faith and repentance, and that the Prince of Peace would reign in Juarez.

Our local NBC affiliate carried the following broadcast connecting the violence in Juarez to the pre-Catholic worship of Santa Muerte. This has become the patron saint of the drug dealers and reminds us that our struggle is not "against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against teh cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. So please pray against the darkness. Pray that Jesus, the Prince of Peace, would reign in this city and region.

http://www.ktsm.com/news/only-9-the-dark-religion-santa-muerte

http://www.ktsm.com/news/shes-here-santa-muerte-icons-believers-el-paso

Frank and Alicia

Frank and Alicia are some of our best friends here. Frank helps me study Spanish, and our families get together often. Two years ago Franks mother died of complications from diabetes. This struggle caused him to question what he believed. Although he grew up in a Catholic home, he had left the faith during high school. Frank met Christ through a pastor in the hospital waiting room. As a courier he spends a lot of time driving and listening to Christian radio. This was his major source of spiritual nourishment until he joined our church last year. It is exciting to see his enthusiasm for the faith. Through his testimony his neighbors and some extended family members have started attending our church. Frank is one of 7 brothers and I believe Alicia has 9 siblings. So through this family we've gotten to know a lot of people.

About a month ago, Heather hosted a baby shower for Alicia. Many of her sisters and some of Frank's family came. And about a week later Caleb was born. Please pray for this family as they grow in an understanding of God and his Word. Pray especially for Alicia. Although she is spiritually searching herself, she has been hesitant to embrace Frank's new found faith. She has been studying with the Jehovah's Witness. Pray that Alicia would recognize that Jesus Christ is God and the only hope for her salvation.

Peña Profession

Our last post highlighted the construction project we did on the Peña house in Montana Vista. Hector and Alma were culturally Catholic, but didn’t have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Both of them gave testimony to the change God has done in their hearts as they have repented of sinful patterns and their lives have been transformed by the power of the Spirit.

The first week of February, they made a profession of faith. The Spanish Bible study we have in their home has grown as well. A couple of weeks ago we had three more ladies come. We just started a Spanish version of Walk thru the Bible.

The Peña Family

As the wind swept fire through their mobile home in September of 2006, the Peña family didn’t have time to save any belongings. Alma Peña said, "The most important thing was getting the kids out. The boys didn't even have their shoes on." They watched as what little they had burned to the ground including the dress for their daughter’s quinceañera, or 15th birthday party, which was just three days away.

They had no homeowners insurance. Assistance from local agencies was limited, in part due to the family’s inability to speak English and navigate the bureaucracy. The property on which the trailer was set, a car salvage yard, belonged to Mr. Peña’s employer. After the fire, the family moved into the salvage yard’s office, a one-room space with a bathroom (no shower or tub) and no running water. They lived in that space for almost two years.
Hector Peña works as a car mechanic and only earns about $300 per week. While trying to supply the needs of a family of five on this meager salary, Hector used as much money as possible to buy materials to build a new home, one 2X4 at a time. He started building on a lot paid for by donations from the community.

Las Tierras Community Church, a BEAMM church plant led by Manuel Padilla, had been praying for God’s direction in starting mercy outreach and community development ministry in the “colonia” of Montana Vista just outside the Eastern limits of the City of El Paso. A “colonia” is an unincor-porated community that springs up with little or no public services.
Las Tierras Church and BEAMM pulled together resources and volunteers from the community and PCA churches throughout the country to do an Extreme Makeover type project to finish the Peña’s home last summer.

Our family’s focus is to lay the ground work for a Spanish speaking church in Montana Vista. Jeff has been forming relationships and scouting out the opportunities for service. He and Manuel Padilla lead a Spanish Bible study in the Peña home on Sunday nights. It is a joy to see the Peña’s grow in their knowledge of God and his Word and begin to help others know him as well.

Please pray for the Peña family

Please pray for the Peña family as they mourn the loss of their cousin, who was shot five times in Juarez this weekend. The violence subsided after the Mexican government sent 7,000 troops into Juarez. But now the violence is rising once again. Last weekend their were 30 assasinations pushing the number of murders in May to 120. Pray for peace in Juarez. The believers of Promesa de Vida continue to go door to door sharing the love of Christ in the midst of the violence.

Montana Vista

Our family is working with Las Tierras Community Church in far east El Paso. Las Tierras is a multi-cultural church in an area that is 90% Hispanic. Jeff is leading worship and teaching Sunday school. He also preaches once a month. Both Jeff and Heather are helping organize youth activities. We couldn’t ask for a better mentor than Pastor Manuel Padilla, who served with Mission to the World for 15 years in Spain before coming to the border.

While Las Tierras Community Church serves a primarily 2nd and 3rd generation Hispanic area, the bulk of our family's ministry is in Montana Vista, a "colonia" or an unicorporated area in the desert outside of El Paso.

The thing that surprises me the most is that almost all the houses are works in progress. Almost everyone is working on their house. Many of the buildings were started and never finished. Others are pieced together over time with the materials available. Some of them have faded and ripped black tar paper around them, but no siding. Other homes are made of concrete block using the construction methods common in Chihuahua and other parts of Mexico. But of these few are finished. There are a few beautiful homes, with stucco and painted with clean bold colors. Some of the houses are painted with bright colors. But the majority of the homes are still trailers.

Each house tells a story of hope, ingenuity, hardship, toil, and sometimes tragedy. There are not a small number of charred remains of trailers and homes burnt down or badly damaged by fire. I am told that these fires are caused by people using unsafe methods of heating their home in the cold winter months.

It seems like the community of Montana Vista is much like one of these pieced together homes. People staked out a future on the edge of the desert. It was rough and barren, but people worked hard to build a better life. Over time the community took shape. People came and people left. Various churches and community organizations came in to help cultivate the community. Through hard work bit by bit, family by family, the community grew. New schools were built. More services were added. You can still see the tar paper blowing in the wind, but a beautiful home is taking shape. Will it ever be a finished product?