Missions Around the World
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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!   Update and Prayer Requests: October 2023
Valerie and Nicasio Martinez Translating God's Word with and for the people who speak Quiatoni Zapotec Thank you for praying for the second part of the course on 1 Corinthians that Beto, Fernando and Rebeca attended. I was sad that I wasn’t here to attend the closing program for it but Nicasio asked them to write up for me what they shared during the program. Beto and Fernando were both impressed by learning the background of Paul’s teachings about Communion. Rebeca was most affected by learning about spiritual gifts. She wrote, “Through an activity we did, I realized that I had spiritual gifts or that what I do is because of my spiritual gifts. I used to be envious of people that could pray, that could heal people, who could easily speak to large crowds and I wondered why I couldn’t do any of those things nor did I know how to be able to do them. But now, through studying 1 Corinthians and learning that God gives different gifts to each person so that we can help our brothers and sisters in Christ.” Rebeca realized that her gifts are hospitality, which we have often experienced!, and evangelism, which we are seeing as she distributes materials in Zapotec. She ended her report by saying, “Thank you so much for the opportunity to learn more and understand better what God tells us through His Word.” And we thank YOU for making it possible for them to attend the course! Nicasio has been busy this month with all his regular things: teaching through 1 Peter in the Zapotec church service, checking 1 Peter and the Gospel of Mark (which is what we’re reading through at the beginning of the Zapotec service), leading the youth group, teaching a course in Indigenous Language in the university, and preparing for upcoming events: Nicasio, Beto and Candy will be leading a workshop on Indigenous Leadership during the conference we are attending in Colombia, from Nov. 28 to Dec. 1. Nicasio will be speaking about the challenges that indigenous people face, such as shame and fear, and how Jesus calls them and prepares them for what He wants them to do. Beto and Candy will speak on the practicalities of leadership. Part of the preparation to go to Colombia involved getting Beto’s and Candy’s passports, which involved getting Beto’s birth certificate corrected. Then Nicasio took them to Puebla to actually get their passports, which they had in hand in less than two hours! While Nicasio was waiting for them, a colleague called him and asked if he would do one of the plenary sessions at the conference! (Someone had to cancel his participation in the plenary session.) He has accepted that challenge and asks that you pray a lot for him as he prepares for it. Nov. 2 is the yearly Quiatoni youth conference that Nicasio started some years ago. This year he won’t be involved in any leadership roles but our church’s youth group will be doing some of the music for the day-long event. Just a couple of days ago, the organizers asked Beto and Candy if they will teach the younger children who will be there. They were delighted to say “yes!” Rebeca asked if she could take some USB drives with our Zapotec materials on them and some copies of our Zapotec hymnal in case anyone is interested in buying them. We were delighted to say “yes!” to that request. Rebeca loves to distribute the Zapotec materials and is such a blessing to us in that area. This weekend (Oct. 28 and 29), Nicasio will be distributing more Kulumi audio devices (https://kulumi.org/kulumi-x/) that the Cahaya Foundation has given us (https://www.thecahayafoundation.org/). These have all our Bible materials in Zapotec on them. On Saturday, after church, he will be giving one to each family in our church here in Tlacolula. (You may remember that most of those who attend our church are from the Quiatoni area.) Sunday evening we will be visiting another church here in Tlacolula where several Quiatoni families attend and giving each family a Kulumi. (About five years ago, Nicasio led a Bible study in Zapotec in this church, which included learning to read and write in Zapotec.) We appreciate your prayers that the Kulumis will have a big impact on people understanding the Word of God as they hear it in their own language. Shortly after I sent out our September report, Mike and Tara got the disappointing news that it would be another 4 to 8 weeks for the closing on their house sale. We all agreed that it would be better for me to fly home instead of waiting that length of time to drive down with them, so I flew home on October 13th, after spending five days with Rusty. Even though Rusty was working (I went shopping while he was at work), we decided that after work was vacation and enjoyed going out to eat (fast food places that are not in Mexico) and doing things together. I enjoyed watching him play pickleball; I’ve heard about pickleball but this was the first time to see it! He enjoyed playing in the tournament and even though they came in towards the bottom, it was a good experience and he’s ready to do it again! Mike and Tara are still waiting for the exact date for the closing on their house but understand that it should happen by the end of October. We appreciate your prayers for them as they deal with the uncertainty as well take care of the final details of moving out and driving to Oaxaca. (I won’t be able to go up to drive back with them because of the Colombia trip.) They are so ready to be done with selling the house and are so ready to be living here! I have been humbled and honored by how many people (colleagues and Quiatoni people) have said that they missed me and are glad I’m back! I’ve been busy processing LOTS of donations into the children’s library. We are pleased to have Nicasio’s mom with us for a week. It was a little hard at first for her since she hadn’t been back since Dad passed away in February, but she seems to have adjusted. She loves to listen to her “radio” (Kulumi), especially the songs! Your interest, prayers, and support for our ministry of Bible translation into Quiatoni Zapotec means so much to us and keeps us going! We love to share with you how God is working through His Word. Thank you for making it possible! love, Valerie and Nicasio www.cten.org/NicasioMartinez Dear Pastor Mike,
Thank you so much for your prayers. They were greatly needed and deeply appreciated. Of course I thank God for hearing your prayers. He is able! I have very recently returned from 28 days of ministry in the MECANA Region of the world. God gave us many wonderful opportunities to let our light shine for His glory in dark places. We were in a three countries. You probably never thought you would hear me say that I'm at a loss for words, given that some have been reading my updates and newsletters for almost 25 years! So why in the world am I at a loss for words? You may know that one of the countries where we served is Israel. We took a medical team to a poor village where men, women and children have limited access to medical care and they are in the bondage of spiritual darkness. The clinic went well. A community leader said that our team "brought joy to his people!" It was our prayer that God would reveal the joy of knowing Him through faith in Jesus, to those we ministered to with God's love and compassion. On the morning, and the very hour, my co-leader and I were preparing to depart the country with the team, is when the horrific attack happened. Our driver and friend arrived to take us to the airport, with these words: "We are under attack! You must hurry!" Shortly we learned just how dire the situation was in our beloved Israel AND as the conflict continues... well, I'm at a loss for words. And, probably like you, I'm NOT at a loss of grief and heartache and desperate cries to our Lord. This is an excerpt from a newsletter from the president of Chosen People Ministries, Mitch Glazer. I really appreciate his words of advice how to pray. "These terrible events today will be a game changer for Israel, and as Scripture tells us, we need to pray for the peace of Jerusalem (Psalm 122:6). We know the Lord gave the land to the Jewish people, and that he will protect them, but that’s not to say that along the way there will not be considerable pain. Finally, pray for the citizens of Gaza, many of whom are oppressed by Hamas, especially the believers. Pray that their leaders will come to their senses and release those who have been kidnapped, that they would stop sending missiles into the various territories, and that efforts will be made on all sides to make peace.........." Please pray God will cause the seeds that were planted in our time of ministry to bear fruit for His glory! And for the Jews in Israel as we pray for them, "They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the LORD for the display of his splendor." Isaiah 61. God, they need your healing. Thank you! Blessings! Julia Good News!There is actually good news coming out of Israel and Gaza.
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