Missions Around the World
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Update and Prayer Requests: May 2023
Valerie and Nicasio Martinez Translating God's Word with and for the people who speak Quiatoni Zapotec We thank you for praying for our church during this time of so many changes. Tomorrow (Saturday, May 27) there will be a service for the denomination to install Max as our pastor and Eduardo as the assistant pastor. We are thankful that all this has been settled without too many problems. In the church meeting when the assistant pastor was voted on, Beto was also elected to be the church business secretary, Nicasio was elected to be the youth pastor, Fernando and his wife were elected to be deacons. (Four of the five people elected faithfully attend the Zapotec service!) You may remember that Nicasio has been the youth pastor for many years; he enjoys it and has a wonderful rapport with the youth. During the pandemic, when we weren’t attending church, Nicasio continued the youth group online. Then our (then) pastor decided that there should be an in-person youth group and so the youth of families who were attending church in-person dropped the online group and started attending the in-person group. So even though Nicasio has just been elected to be the youth pastor, he has continued to be one! He would appareciate your prayers as he molds the two groups into one; their first meeting will be on June 11. The new deacons, Fernando and Elizabet, were elected to aide the deacon couple that is responsible for unlocking and locking the church for services, setting up chairs, reminding parents to quiet their children, and waking those who have nodded off. Since Fernando plays bass for the Zapotec service, he suggested that they take care of the Wednesday night service and that the other couple cover the Thursday (Zapotec) service. We are so pleased at how this is working out: the other couple have resisted attending the Zapotec service but now that they have to, are happily participating in the Zapotec Bible study! Last night, as Nicasio was closing the service, Angel said, “We could go til dawn—and that would be ok!” Someone also heard him say that there wasn’t any need to be waking people up during the Zapotec service, since no one dozed off! A few other people are also starting to regularly attend the Zapotec service; we are thankful for them and for the Zapotec service being announced during other services to encourage people to attend. In our last update, we asked you to pray for the classes we’d be having with several Quiatoni pastors, to teach them to read and write in Zapotec, to learn songs and hymns in Zapotec, and to learn how to evangelize. Even though not everyone attended, the seven pastors and leaders and the two teens that attended really seemed to enjoy the day long class. For their writing assignment, Nicasio asked them to write about why they had left the Catholic church or why they had stayed in the protestant church. A couple of the older men gave verbal answers, instead. We were saddened and not very surprised that no one said it was because they’d believed in Jesus as their Savior. The lack of truly understanding the Gospel is a direct result of church always being in Spanish. They heard the Gospel clearly in Zapotec several times during the day, when Beto taught about how Jesus used parables to share the Gospel and when Candy told how she’d become involved in spreading the Gospel in Zapotec, especially teaching the children. (She told us later that her dad had asked for the day off work so he could attend the class! He videoed her reading a large, classroom sized book about creation and the need for a Savior.) There were many highlights to that day—but it was long! The pastor had asked Nicasio to preach in the evening service and then we had supper before leaving. We had left home at 5 am to be there for breakfast and got home at midnight. I took a nap in the truck between class and church, so I could drive home since Nicasio was “on” all day long. The second day of classes was scheduled for May 27—before that day was selected for Max’s installation service. Nicasio told them that the date would have to be changed (several of those pastors will also be at the installation service, too) and for them to let him know what date they decided on. He didn’t hear anything from them and was thinking that they were not wanting more classes. Rather depressing! But he got a call yesterday, could we come on June 3rd? Yes! We’ll be there! Once again, we ask for your prayers for the classes, for open minds and hearts for those who attend. (We’ll be leaving again at 5 am; I don’t know if there’ll be an evening service or not.) One of the two teens who attended the first day of classes is interested in attending a Bible school. Nicasio talked with her, and because she wants to study the Bible, suggested that she attend the four week workshop on 1 Corinthians that SIL will be giving in mid-July. She agreed and will join Beto and Fernando in the workshop. Fernando, besides playing bass for the Zapotec service, also alternates with Beto doing the opening part of the service. We are going through the Gospel of Mark for that part and we have been amazed at Fernando’s abilities in teaching as well as the studying he does in preparation. So Nicasio thought it would be good to “stretch” him a bit and invited him to attend the 1 Corinthians workshop, which he agreed to. Beto suggested to Nicasio that he have an online class with Eloisa and Fernando to prepare them for the workshop. He taught them the difference hermeneutics (interpreting the Bible, usually through one’s own point of view) and exegesis (studying the background, culture, language, etc. of a book of the Bible). Beto used the parable of the prodigal son and asked them how they imagined the prodigal was dressed when he returned home. They answered “dirty” “ragged” “stinky.” Beto said, “When I imagine him, I see him dressed in ragged pants and a ragged shirt—but that’s not how they dressed in Jesus’ time.” Fernando said, “That’s looking at it hermeneutically!” Please pray for them attening the workshop and thank God with us for Fernando and Eloisa as well as Beto, Candy and Elizabeth. Thank God also for a very generous gift that will pay the expenses for them to attend the workhop. Thank you for your interest, prayers and support of our ministry of Bible translation. Your part in making all these things happen is a real blessing to us! love, Valerie and Nicasio www.cten.org/NicasioMartinez Update and Prayer Requests: April 2023 Valerie and Nicasio Martinez Translating God's Word with and for the people who speak Quiatoni Zapotec Thank you for praying for our church during this time of upheaval, after our pastor’s death. There have been lots of long meetings, some with just the church members, others with representatives from the denomination. We are thankful that the meetings have been calm and respectful. So far, it’s been agreed that Max, who started the church more than 30 years ago, will be the pastor, with an ordained pastor supporting him. (Since Max isn’t ordained, he can’t officiate at weddings, baptisms, baby dedications, etc. so this is where the ordained pastor will step in.) Still up in the air, however, is whether our church should belong to the Quiatoni district or the Central Valleys district. It has belonged to the Quiatoni district because our pastor was from Quiatoni, had planted many churches in the Quiatoni area, and was the ordained pastor covering most of those churches. The denomination says that the church should belong to the Valleys district because that is where it is physically located. We don’t agree with this because the church is overwhelmingly made up of people from or with ties to the Quiatoni area. The language, culture, and traditions bind the church closely to the Quiatoni district. We appreciate your prayers for a good resolution to this. Last month we asked your prayers for the state-wide pastors’ convention that our church hosted, barely a week after our pastor’s death. Thank you for praying for this, too! It went very well; I heard that the church fed about 300 people for five meals over two days. (The 300 people include our church people who were cooking, setting up tables, etc. etc. and their families.) Quite an accomplishment for our church of almost 80 members! A couple of months ago, the Quiatoni pastor who invited our Zapotec music group to participate in their New Year’s Eve celebration asked Nicasio and Beto to join him and a few other Quiatoni pastors in a meeting to talk about evangelizing the Quiatoni area. During the meeting, Nicasio encouraged them to first make sure that their own church members understand that Jesus died for their sins and want Him to be their Savior, before branching out into large evangelistic campaigns. Nicasio has seen how many people don’t really understand the Gospel, even though they’ve been baptized and going to church for years, because sermons are almost always in Spanish. So he also encouraged them to evangelize in Zapotec and, as a result, they decided it would be good for Nicasio and Beto to give them Zapotec reading and writing classes, and for Beto to teach them how to use the evangelistic tools he’s been using. As part of their reading practice, Nicasio will have them read the Gospel of John in Zapotec and Beto’s wife Candy and our Zapotec song leader will help them practice songs in Zapotec. This will be a series of four day-long classes over the next six weeks or so. We are so very thankful and excited about this! This is the first time that pastors (or churches) have asked for help in using Zapotec in their churches. You know that we’ve worked with lots of bilingual teachers over the past few years but the pastors just haven’t been interested. Thank God with us for this change in attitude! And please pray for the classes and that the pastors will be committed to attending them. With all this upheaval during the month, much of our regular things have been put on the back burner. (Both Nicasio and Beto have been named as part of the church council and are very involved in helping to resolve the issues the church is facing.) The Zapotec service continues (although it was cancelled a couple of times due to the funeral and then the pastors’ convention); we finished studying the Book of Acts and last week started learning about the background to Peter’s letters. Nicasio and Beto continue going over the consultant’s comments on the translation of Acts, in the hopes that it can be checked off as “completed” soon. Nicasio had been working on his doctoral thesis, but again, this is on the back burner, especially now with the classes for the Quiatoni pastors. He said, “We’ve been waiting so long for the churches to be interested, they have to have priority now!” In our February update, I told how the building that houses “my” children’s library and the homeschool resource room was to be reroofed because of the asbestos in the original roofing. That project is almost done. I’m so thankful for the employees who covered all the bookshelves with the books still on them in sheets of plastic to protect them against the debris and the unseasonable rains we’ve been having, including hail! (I understand they rented a big tarp to also provide more protection from the rain, even though this picture of the children’s library doesn’t show either the tarp or the rain clouds!) Thank you for standing with us and taking our needs to our heavenly Father. This is His work and we couldn’t do it without Him or without your support. Thank you! love, Valerie and Nicasio www.cten.org/NicasioMartinez  Dear Friends,
We hope and pray you and your families are doing well. Praise God, we are all well here in Honduras and glad to share with you a little of what has been happening here in the ministry. We have posted our newest newsletter entitled "Let Us Rejoice and Be Glad". We want to thank you all for your faithful support of our family here, in both prayer and finances. We are encouraged by your words you send, and by knowing that you share the same passion with us, to bring His Word and love to the Honduran people. God bless you all, Ryan, Kelly, Ezra, Kezia & Isaiah April 2023 Newsletter - Let Us Rejoice -- 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 |
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