Tim’s Blog

It was special to see many P’s just last week while in Colombia, one of which was Jesús Mayadón. I’m not sure how long it had been since I’d seen him. Probably 20 years. During all the years we lived in Venezuela, Jesús lived just down river from us in a village called Santa Fe. He was a leader in his village and one of the most influential evangelists I think I’ve ever witnessed among many P’s, an eloquent speaker with a powerful spirit of conviction and confidence. He has gone out on several missionary trips to various parts of the P nation and the Lord has used him to bring thousands of P’s to Himself. While I was there in Colombia Jesús wanted me to pass on a video message to Fred Findley who (among other founding P missionaries) was the most prominent in establishing Christianity among the P’s before Robin and I arrived on the scene. Jesús was from that generation and said in his video message that Fred had sent him out to be a missionary as a young man, (which would have been in the 70’s). It was fun for me to hear this bit of history as I took the video and it was meaningful for me to be able to send it on to Fred who told me later that the videos brought tears to his eyes. Jesús now at the age of 64 was reporting to Fred his continued faith in Christ all these years. Here is a photo of Jesús sitting next to me taken on June 6.

Three days ago I got a message from E who reported that after Jesús got back to Santa Fe, he lost the use of his legs. The next day he was found face down on the ground, dead. E could not hold back the tears as he relayed this to me. This is a big loss to the P church and a big loss for Jesús’ family and for his village of 240 people among whom Jesús was a pastor and leader.

Please pray for the P church, for the family and the nation as a whole. A death like this of a major evangelist will be seen among the unbelievers as a victory for the powers of shamanism and witchcraft. They will likely say that the God whom the believers profess is less powerful and therefore Jesús was punished by them and defeated. Some of the believers, pastors and teachers may be tempted to fear for their own lives. May God, the one true God, speak peace, truth and life into the hearts of each soul by His living Word.

Thank you Father for the life of Jesús, your faithful servant of all these years. Thank you for blessing me by being able to see him this last time. Multiply your word in the lives of all the P’s and make your gospel flourish all the more.

t.

After many miles of travel in various ways of transportation, it is good to be home. We left San Carlos Mexico June 19th and made it home to Clearwater, BC Thursday evening on June 23rd. Wednesday was a particularly long day departing from San Jose CA and arriving to Bellingham late that night. We put a 12 hour day in assuming we would find a hotel around Portland OR, but we couldn’t find one. They either looked like shady areas or else they were full. So, we just kept going and checking as we went. Finally, at Bellingham we found one hotel which only had one room left. It was 12:30AM and after 17 hours of highway we hit the hay and slept like rocks!

I continue to reflect over the blessings of my recent trip to Colombia. It had been some 15 years since I had been present with the P’s. Some of them I hadn’t seen in 25 years. We arrived to Cumaribo, unloaded our bags at the hotel, and then went out to the village where the conference was being held. The Sikuani pastors who were hosting the conference were humble and received us with much honor and love. They were eagerly anticipating our arrival and participation in the conference through teaching, but I felt like it was me who needed to learn humility from them.

As I mentioned in a previous email, we all met as a large group and held meetings in Spanish, but in the afternoon of that first day, I felt it would be good to meet separately with the P’s and hold the meeting in P. Many of the P’s don’t speak Spanish. The P’s arranged a place under a mango tree with benches, a small table and chair for me. They picked the spot under the tree saying it would be cooler. I sat down and we visited for a little while. I wasn’t sure what the Lord may have for us to discuss. Lorenzo opened the meeting with a prayer. Following that, I asked them what they wanted to talk about. They began to share their questions. The topics mentioned were pastoring, electronic Bibles, primers, a hymn book, Bible lessons, maps, radios, denominations, and organizations. So we talked about each of these topics until everyone seemed to be content and on the same page. Facilitating them with these materials is a challenge, but we are working on it. None of them are as important as having the Bibles. They expressed their great joy and thanks for having the Bibles.

I wanted to thank you for your prayers for that time together with them. I felt the presence of the Spirit of God in my own heart as He gave me wisdom and power to speak to them on each topic. I was particularly blessed to have a Bible in P in front of me on the table. I had never wanted to translate the NT. From those early days in 1991 when God changed my own heart and put a great zeal in me for the message of His grace, my deepest passion was to share that message. But in order to share that message with authority, one must have a Bible to do it. As I sat there feeling the presence of the Spirit in my heart, words of life flowed out from me in some of the best P I have ever spoken. As the Spirit directed our thoughts, I personally noticed how it was SO nice to be able to just open the P Bible to the place He was directing and to find the words of God written there in perfect P. That moment really struck me as it was the first time I was able to teach from the Bible we had done. Fernando took this little video of that moment.

We spent about 3 hours there that afternoon. The women had been cooking soup and they brought us food. Fernando and I enjoyed being served and the soup was SO good. They are amazing with herbs and seasonings. Here is the video of the pot of soup.

Russell has another location in Colombia which is much closer to the border of Venezuela and it’s a place where he said we could receive up to 200 P’s. We are praying about that and I’m open to the Lord’s leading. Russell said we would have the potential of building a recording studio right there which the P’s could also use. He talked about even the potential of a dedicated P radio transmitter. We have lots to ponder and look to the Lord about. I would appreciate your prayers on these potential projects. I would love to see the P’s themselves running a radio station some day.

All for now, more to come,

t.

Every year when we come here to Mexico to work on P translation and now this year on radio broadcast teaching for the Ps, the Lord seems to always connect us with new people and things that you would not have forethought. Attached is a photo of Dalia. She’s a tennis and Pickle Ball coach/instructor here. I met her a few years ago through tennis. We were recently invited to a birthday party of some other folks (Malu and Scott… also a new relationship which the Lord has given us) and Dalia was there. Everyone was speaking English and I saw Dalia there alone, trying to soak it in. She’s trying to learn English because much of her clientele is American/Canadian.

In that moment, it dawned on me that there was an English course starting this week. At the CEC Bible School where I teach, there are other missionaries (Ken and Ruth) who operate an intensive English course for two months to Mexican believers who are working with English speaking missions. It’s a specific English course which is meant for Mexicans who are going into ministry with English speakers. But as I looked across the patio and saw Dalia sitting there alone, something just welled up in me with this thought, “why not see if she wants to go to the English course”. So, I put a chair next to Dalia and began visiting. I asked her if she would want to go. She said “yes! I really would”.

I then informed her that the course is specifically designed for believers and it takes place at the Bible school. She said that was okay. I actually ended up talking about the Lord with her for over an hour regarding Christ and the resurrection. Her father had been studying to become a priest, but passed away 5 years ago (I think from cancer). It was a very heart felt discussion about the resurrection and the new body which God will raise up. She said, “that’s why my mother doesn’t want to be cremated. Mi mamá says, well how will God raise up a body from all those ashes”. We talked about how nothing in this entire world is lost to God. All things consist in Him. I said, “even science teaches us that this is a closed energy system. There is no new energy that comes into it or leaves. God knows where everything is and is able to raise up new bodies from the ashes or remains of every body no matter if it’s been burned, lost at sea, eaten by animals etc.” She said, “of course… if He made all of this out of nothing, then why couldn’t He do that?”

I spoke to Ken and Ruth about Dalia and they decided that even though they weren’t sure where Dalia was spiritually, that she would be welcome to come to the course as she may just come to know the Lord during the course if she doesn’t already. They reduced the fee for her since she wouldn’t be staying at the school, so Dalia is enrolled! This morning, I introduced her to Ken and Ruth and to the class. She is there as we speak.

As you think of her, ask the Lord Jesus to reveal Himself to her. I sense this whole thing came about by Him. You can see attached photos which I took this morning. There’s Dalia in the worship session which they sing in both Spanish and English each morning.

t.