Missions Around the World
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Click the file below for the letter and pictures from Valerie and Nicasio. 
Family & Friends,
We wanted to share with you our latest newsletter entitled "Be Still". In it Ezra gives updates of what's happening in the ministry, and we give a reflection on what God has been showing us these past two months. We hope you enjoy some clips and photos of the ministry in action, and also Kezia and Isaiah sharing some joy :) Thank you for your unwavering support that allows our family to continue to minister here in Honduras. We pray God blesses you and draws you closer to Him each day. CLICK HERE to view "Be Still" - Feb & March 2024 Update For His Glory; In His Love, Ryan & Kelly [email protected] psalms963.weebly.com UPDATE AND PRAYER REQUESTS: FEBRUARY 2024 VALERIE AND NICASIO MARTINEZ TRANSLATING GOD'S WORD WITH AND FOR THE PEOPLE WHO SPEAK QUIATONI ZAPOTEC In our January update, we asked you to pray for various things that were on the calendar for February. Thank you for praying! We don’t want to bore you or ruin your eyesight by a lengthy update, so here are some “snapshots” from February. (If you would like to know more, I’ll happily tell you more!) On Feb. 3rd, we went to La Reforma, a Quiatoni town I’d never been to before and Nicasio had been there briefly about 20 years ago. The road into the little town was amazingly steep and narrow, with amazingly tight hairpin turns. We went there by way of the new toll road but when we were getting ready to leave, everyone recommended going home “the old way,” so we did. These roads are now at the top of my list of The Worst Roads I’ve Ever Driven. Then, since the road doesn’t go near the church, four church men each shouldered a speaker and set off down the hill to the church. (And of course, brought them back up to the truck afterwards.) The pastor had told Nicasio he could have all morning for the service so he decided to have some songs (we’d taken our Zapotec music group along), then he would give a short sermon; more songs, then Beto would give a short sermon; more songs, then Fernando would give a short sermon, then more songs. Then it was time to hand out the Kulumi audio devices, all loaded with our Zapotec materials. The church is quite small; we were told there are 15 members, but Nicasio handed out 30 Kulumis! One young teen asked Nicasio if he could have another one for his brother who was away on an errand to Quiatoni, and of course, Nicasio gave him another one. While we were having dinner (after three hours of church!), one of the men said, “It’s still early, we could have another service!” So we did! Since we’ve been studying 1 Peter 3 in our Zapotec service here, Nicasio preached on how Christian couples should act. Afterwards we heard that the women were quite happy that he told the men how they should behave, too! Two weeks later we went to Río Lachiriega to distribute Kulumis there, too. The regular road was closed since they are paving it; a Christian that lives there told Nicasio we should go on the construction road where they are continuing to extend the toll road. That road is also near the top of my list of The Worst Roads I’ve Ever Driven but I will be happy to drive the toll road when it’s finished! (We came home a different way.) We got to the church earlier than we were expected. While we were waiting, a truck stopped to talk to a couple of people in our group. It turned out to be the person that had been begging Meche, our song leader, for audio devices! Apparently, she has fields in this town but goes to church in Quiatoni itself. Meche had tried and tried to call and let her know we were coming but never was able to get ahold of her. And it "just happened" that they were driving by on their way to Quiatoni while we were! So Nicasio gave her the audio devices that she asked for and they went on their way. Nicasio and I got to meet our new three month old “grandson” before church started. We are grandparents in Zapotec reckoning since the “real” grandma is Nicasio’s sister. He’s darling and it was good to see Nicasio’s niece and her husband again. This church service was more “normal,” other than that the pastor wanted the service outside since the church building is quite small. After our music group had everything set up and had practiced, it started to sprinkle. (This is not a normal time of year for rain here.) They decided it would be better for the group and the instruments to be on the church’s porch with the congregation outside. That worked well until Nicasio was preaching and the sprinkles were almost rain so then we did crowd inside the church! After the service, Nicasio explained where the Kulumis came from, how they were a gift to each one, and how, if they were to give theirs away, he would send them replacements. One lady said, “It’s like giving tracts away!” They were all fascinated with the Kulumis and could hardly wait to try them out. When we went to our host’s house for supper, we could hear different Kulumis "talking” in different areas of the house! We are planning on distributing Kulumis in Cerro León (Lion Hill) and Cerro Culebra (Snake Hill) on March 22 and 30. We appreciate your prayers for all aspects of these trips. A week later we went to the church in Oaxaca City where colleagues attend and had organized a service to celebrate the Internation Day of the Mother Tongue. They had invited our music group to do two songs during the service. It was a fun service with lots of different kinds of participation and lots of different languages that are spoken in Oaxaca. Nicasio said that the pastor who shared about the impact of Bible translation on people’s faith said that his wife loves our group’s songs and plays them all the time, even though she doesn’t understand the words. (They speak another variety of Zapotec.) The pastor told Nicasio that he’s like the title to the song that he’d never heard before in Spanish; he was surprised to find out that Nicasio had written it. Last Tuesday (Feb. 27), Beto did a formal presentation of the thesis he wrote on his project for his Bachelor’s Degree: The Use of Riddles and Tongue-Twisters in Teaching Reading and Writing in Quiatoni Zapotec. Neither the thesis nor the presentation was required but his advisor pushed him a bit to do them. He did a great job on the project, thesis, and presentation; he graduated with Honors and with Academic Excellence. As if that weren’t enough, he is also the first one to graduate in Teaching Languages with a Specialization in an Indigenous Language! (Of course, he can still teach English and Spanish, as well as Zapotec.) The university asked Nicasio to certify Beto as a competent speaker and writer of Quiatoni Zapotec and also to be on Beto’s thesis jury, along with Beto’s advisor and the director of the Department of Languages. We are so proud of Beto and Candy! A couple of weeks ago, a young woman we know in Quiatoni asked us to send her four copies of each of our secular books—and did we have a book display that she could use, too? since she wants to sell the books. We were delighted to send her the materials since those who previously had sold our materials had quit some time ago. The day after the package arrived, she told Nicasio that she’d already sold all four copies of one book and three of another, and would he please send her more copies of those?! Also during February, Nicasio had a thorough eye exam for glaucoma. We are happy to report that everything is within normal limits and he hasn’t lost any sight. He has another appointment for April to continue to monitor how the new drops are controlling his eye pressure. Thank you for praying about his eyes and sight. And in the more normal times of February, Nicasio continues to check the Gospel of Mark and Acts, he works on his doctorate thesis, teaches the youth group, teaches during the Zapotec service, teaches and facilitates a master’s level class at the university, and is on the church council. Beto continues working with Nicasio on the translation, he’s translating and revising Exodus, teaches and is in the music group in the Zapotec service, is the church secretary, is teaching English twice a week to 6th graders in a local public school, and for two weeks was in charge of his brother’s affairs and the paperwork involved in the brother being hospitalized for severe pneumonia. I’ve been busy with random things like income tax, processing books into the Children’s Library, writing reports, and printing more copies of our Zapotec materials. Yesterday I was happy to pick up 100 copies of a workbook we made for practicing using and writing the Zapotec number words. We will be presenting it to two bilingual schools on March 4. I’m attaching a page of photos from February. Thank you for being part of the team giving the Word of God in Quiatoni Zapotec to the people whose heart language is Quiatoni Zapotec. It’s been a long haul and we are thankful to be able to share the fruit with you! Our praise to God who makes it all possible! Love, Valerie and Nicasio www.cten.org/NicasioMartinez These Updates are posted as we receive them. Please through and catch up on the activities of our Missionaries. In fields of ministry where we cannot otherwise reach.
Update and Prayer requests Valerie and Nicassio Martinez - January 2024 Translating God's Word with and for the people who speak Quiatoni Zapotec Our New Year’s Eve trip to one of Quiatoni’s little towns went well. It was a very long day since we left home at 11:30 am and didn’t get home til 4 am New Year’s Day. I’d forgotten that this town is not on the paved road, so it took longer to get there and back home than I’d thought. Our music group was very well received and were asked to play several times. You can watch 30 seconds of their music here: https://youtu.be/wdpBtjNprnM Instead of a meal after midnight, we had a supper break about 9 pm; our group provided music while the women made the tortas (sandwiches, Mexican style). Then the service started again and went to 1 am. We were also happy to sell some of our materials, especially USB drives with our Zapotec New Testament books, Bible stories, songs and the Jesus film dubbed into Quiatoni Zapotec. Since we saw “Mr. Kulumi” from the Cahaya Foundation in Colombia, we knew that the 1,000 audio devices that had been donated to us with all our Zapotec materials on them should arrive in January. We picked the Kulumis up when they arrived; then my job was charging them since they are shipped with only 30% of charge. I was very thankful that we’d bought a 24 unit charger but even so, it took five days to charge them all! It took about 20 minutes to open each little box, take out the plastic plug, and connect them—after having disconnected those that were done charging, replacing their plastic plugs, and putting them back in their little boxes; after 30-45 minutes of charging, repeating the process. We are planning to visit a church in a different Quiatoni town once a month. February, though, seems to be a bonus month because we’ll be visiting two churches in two different towns. The “extra” one comes from a middle-aged man who was baptized in our church last fall. He played his audio device for someone who liked it so much that he gave it to the friend. Then asked Nicasio for another one since Nicasio always told people that if they gave theirs away to someone who was interested in listening to it, we would replace it. Then he gave another one away and got another replacement! Apparently, the ones he gave away made their way back to his hometown and people there are asking for them! So Nicasio talked to the pastor there and we’ll be visiting that church this Saturday, February 3! (I’m looking forward to going since I’ve never been to this town in the 35+ years I’ve been going to the Quiatoni area.) We will also visit the church in Río Lachiriega, in another section of the Quiatoni area, on February 17 to distribute audio devices there. Our Zapotec music group goes with us; it’s fun to see people enjoy songs in their own language! Please pray that people will listen to the audio devices and learn from them. We appreciate your prayers for our travels and that we are a blessing to the churches that we visit. A colleague has asked our Zapotec music group to sing in their church in Oaxaca City as they celebrate the International Day of Mother Tongues on February 25! We appreciate your prayers for the Zapotec church service at our church here in Tlacolula, too. We would like more people attend since we see that those who do attend learn so much more about the Bible and Jesus when they study in their own language. One middle-aged lady, who doesn’t read easily, basically quoted a few verses from Hebrews during the service; we are quite sure that she’s been listening to her Kulumi and really understanding God’s Word! For the opening part of the Zapotec service, we are studying through the Gospel of Mark. (Those of you who have been with us for a long time may remember that Mark was the first book we translated. Nicasio has been revising it and when we study it in church that checks how it’s communicating.) We are on chapter 11 and for the section about Jesus cursing the fig tree, we took in some fresh figs for everyone to try. It was fun to watch people’s reactions! (Figs do grow here but aren’t very common.) Nicasio has started working on his doctoral thesis again and would really like to get it finished this year. He would appreciate your prayers for him to focus on writing it and for wisdom as he works on it. Today Nicasio had his eyes checked, especially with regard to the glaucoma. The doctor said their pressure was up a bit, prescribed another eye drop, and will see him again in three weeks to give him the full battery of tests. Please pray that the new drops will control the pressure and that he’s not lost any sight. Mike, Tara, and Royan are doing well. They would appreciate prayers for Royan as he is having a sedated hearing test done on February 8th, and he will be starting with speech therapy this month as well. They are also excited that Tara is going back to school and would appreciate prayers as they get everything ready for that. Rusty says, “I really enjoyed my two weeks in Mexico over Christmas break, spending time with friends and family and eating good food! I'm now back in Indiana and in my normal routines. I'm playing lots of pickleball but also glad to be serving at church with my 4th grade small group!” We thank God for you and your part in giving His Word to the people who speak Quiatoni Zapotec. You are a blessing to us and to the Quiatoni Zapotecs. May God richly bless you! Love, Valerie and Nicasio www.cten.org/NicasioMartinez Update and Prayer requests e3 Partners - Julia Schatz Dear Pastor Mike and my family at Christ Church, I pray this finds you doing well! It's already Valentine's Day! You may feel like it was just yesterday when you took your Christmas decorations down! We can rejoice in the Greatest Love Story and celebrate it on Christmas, Valentine's Day, Easter... AND we have reason to celebrate and give thanks, worship and love our Lord and Savior, Jesus, EVERY DAY! He stole my heart 38 years ago. What about you? Thank you so much for your love and encouragement. Your partnership and support! Prayers and cares! I hope you know that I'm doing this alongside you, together for God's glory! I know I say this often but I really don't know how else to express the depth of my gratitude. Simply saying "thank you" seems to fall short and is only a glimpse of the gratitude I have in my heart for all of you! And more than that I am thankful to God for you and our friendship and partnership. Thank God He gave your heart an excitement, commitment and passion to reach the lost and make disciples! So here we go, with this jammed packed update....If you would like to partner with me in God's work, please click here! Family & Friends,
We are excited to share with you that we have returned to Honduras after a trip to the States to visit churches and our families at the end of 2023, and are already kicking off the new year here at the Rec Center and Enlaces Church. Also, the kids have created their annual recap video for 2023 and we hope you can take a few moments to listen to their excitement and hear a special announcement from Ezra! Click here to watch the video "In Their Eyes" We pray your 2024 is full of the Lord's presence and we thank you in advance for all of your prayers and support. We hope to update you again soon! God Bless For His Glory; In His Love, Ryan & Kelly [email protected] psalms963.weebly.com "Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous deeds among all people" - Psalm 96:3 Dear Friends, December was a busy month for us; our update is attached because I've included a couple of pictures. We hope you had a good Christmas, celebrating Jesus' birth and are ready to start a new year! Love, Valerie and Nicasio www.cten.org/NicasioMartinez
Dear friends, It's late here in Colombia and breakfast will be at 6:40 tomorrow morning so we can go on an outing! (A little more about that in our November update, which is attached.) But I want to send this to you now since I probably won't have much time in the next few days to send it. There were some problems in getting us connected to the Zapotec service (at home) via zoom and are very thankful that it got worked out. We enjoyed attending the service via zoom and are so impressed by Fernando's teaching. The assistant pastor did a good job reading the section of Mark in Zapotec and teaching a bit on it. (You can read more about that, too, in the attached update.) We are certainly blessed by the people God has moved to work with us! Thank you for your part in all this! We hope you enjoy reading the update--although Nicasio said it's more like a newsletter! (Lots of pictures this time, too! That's why I'm attaching it as a PDF.) Praying God's blessings on you! Valerie and Nicasio www.cten.org/NicasioMartinez
Dear Friends, We realize that it hasn't been *that* long since we last sent out a newsletter but we want to share what's been happening through Quiatoni Zapotec and a bit of our family updates. So our November 2023 Quiatoni Crier is attached. We hope this newsletter is a blessing to you; you are a blessing to us through your interest and prayers. Thank you! love, Valerie and Nicasio www.cten.org/NicasioMartinez   Dear Father Mike,
I pray you will receive the gift of faith and the blessing of hope this Thanksgiving! Thanksgiving is such a beautiful day with a wonderful purpose! We are thankful for so many reasons. Family, friends, purpose, provision and the presence of God in our lives is only the beginning. Before you are consumed by the activities of the day this Thanksgiving I hope you are able to make time to spend a quiet moment with the Lord and express to Him your heartfelt gratitude. A heart overflowing with THANKSGIVING! PEACE! It is impossible to look at the world around us which is full of conflict, hatred and revenge... war and death, and not be thankful for the PEACE we have in our life here in our little corner of the world and in our hearts. Because of Jesus and faith in Him we are given a beautiful and most important eternal gift, received by faith! Peace with God, Forever! Your friend, with deep gratitude! Julia Schatz Dear Pastor Mike, GREETINGS AND HAPPY THANKSGIVING! As we witness the turmoil in the world around us I think we are all eager to set aside a time to give God thanks and praise for the wonderful peace we have in our hearts because of Jesus, the Prince of Peace! I pray you can deeply ponder this powerful truth with family and friends as we pray for those who a reeling and mourning the loss of loved ones in the Middle East and beyond. May God draw them near and give them comfort. As promised, here is the news about the ministry in the Republic of Georgia and Azerbaijan.... continued from my previous newsletter. (Please let me know if you didn't get a chance to read the newsletter I sent prior to this one, with news from the ministry we did in Israel. I will gladly resend it to you. [email protected].) Thank you for sending me! Republic of GEORGIA: When we landed in Georgia my co-leader and I were a bit exhausted and just a little shaky. We had spent more than 40 hours at the airport in Israel because of cancelled flights. The awesome team with us the previous week in Israel were able to depart on time, safe and sound, THANK GOD! This all happened very close to the exact time the attack on Israel happened. Steffoni and I did not leave on time! About 40 hours later we were on our way, and miraculously to the place we had planned to go to begin with! The Republic of Georgia! Our small but amazingly compassionate medical team, including a doctor from Georgia, was already there and had completed the first day of clinic. Everything went as scheduled for our time in Georgia. God raised up an awesome team and we were blessed to serve with brothers and sisters in Georgia. It was also a great vision casting trip - a time to plan for future partnership and ministry in Georgia. We are invited back next fall! The Republic of Georgia has close to 4 million people. It's a small country in many respects, but it has 39 people groups, 16 of them are unreached. 80% of the people are culturally Christian, they do not have the peace that comes from the Prince of Peace. Less than 2% of the population are born again believers. This country first came to faith in Christ in the 3rd century. God sent a single woman named Nino to Georgia to share the Gospel and heal the sick. After God healed the Queen of Georgia and miraculously saved the King from death, they both came to faith in Christ. Georgia borders the Black Sea and is located north of Turkey. Georgia and Armenia are 2 Christian countries surrounded by Muslim countries and Muslim territories of Russia. AZERBAIJAN: When we departed Georgia, Steffoni and I went on to the country of Azerbaijan to train and equip in Trauma Healing. Thank God for the 12 believers we served in this beautiful country. We spent every day for 7 days in a row with them! Wow, it was a powerful time! We went through all 7 sessions in New Hope Trauma Healing and we also had a chance to share the gospel with another group of young people - some who did not know the Lord. Please pray for them. They are being followed up by our brothers and sisters in Azerbaijan. This group expressed great gratitude for all they learned and plan to begin to lead groups in Trauma Healing. That's what we long to see! That's what our Lord desires! Multiplication! We are excited to continue with them by zoom and to help them start their own Trauma Healing groups in Baku! Believers who receive healing from past trauma in their lives become bold and confident Ambassadors for the King of Kings! Equip the Saints for the work of service to the building up of the body of Christ! Ephesians 4:12 Please click here if you would like to give. Good News! There is actually good news coming out of Israel and Gaza.
Please click here if you would like to give. Hopefully you will get a kick out of this photo. While enjoying our tour day, someone we partner with while doing the ministry in the Republic of Georgia asked me to try on this hat! They is famously worn in this part of the world! Hey, I like it! I think it will work well in Ohio too!   |
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