Good News!

[Sherri]

We took up our annual Passover Offering for missions on Friday night at our Good Friday Service. I got up and spoke a little about why I'm passionate about Global Missions, and then we took the offering. I'm so excited to say that we got over $26,000 for Belize!!! Eddie and I are going down the first part of May to pay the property off, and hopefully soon we can start construction.

I thank God for a church full of people who love to give to missions!

[Sister Alvear]

Sherri, that is awesome! Just last night Raul and I were talking about you folks and I told him you had plans in the future to visit some Wycliff missionaries in Brazil. Today about 350 million people do not have the Bible in their own language according to World missions...Oh how blessed we are to have His precious word...He asked me if any Jesus name people did that work? I told him I doubted it but I would ask you...Anyway we do not know how much Bible the Indians in Arlei's area have. I do know an Assembly of God preacher was working on translating some things. Is there a way I can get in touch with the ones you know in Brazil?

I wish where we preached last weekend would have taped the message you would have found many things interesting...

My sister told me the tape you sent arrived also. Thanks.

What area of Belize will you travel to? We went there once to visit a mission field and loved it there.

The UPC had (have) some works there also. We have met several churches on this trip that support them...the missionaries we know are the Joiners. They are in the Orange Walk area if I am not mistaken.

There are lots of Mennonites in some areas.

The dream....the precious stones.....

[Sherri]

Originally Posted by Sister Alvear

Sherri, that is awesome! Just last night Raul and I were talking about you folks and I told him you had plans in the future to visit some Wycliff missionaries in Brazil. Today about 350 million people do not have the Bible in their own language according to World missions...Oh how blessed we are to have His precious word...He asked me if any Jesus name people did that work? I told him I doubted it but I would ask you...Anyway we do not know how much Bible the Indians in Arlei's area have. I do know an Assembly of God preacher was working on translating some things. Is there a way I can get in touch with the ones you know in Brazil?

I wish where we preached last weekend would have taped the message you would have found many things interesting...

My sister told me the tape you sent arrived also. Thanks.

What area of Belize will you travel to? We went there once to visit a mission field and loved it there.

The UPC had (have) some works there also. We have met several churches on this trip that support them...the missionaries we know are the Joiners. They are in the Orange Walk area if I am not mistaken.

There are lots of Mennonites in some areas.

The dream....the precious stones.....

The Wycliffe workers are Kelly & Prissy Smith - precious people. They work with some remote village tribe - very uncivilized, but I don't know the tribe's name - in the interior of Brazil somewhere. I met them this past November right before I came to your place, and now we help support them.

I have never heard of any oneness people working with Wycliffe. But you just have to believe that if the Bible gets in their hands, God will shine light on his Word and the Holy Spirit will guide them into all truth.

We are in the Cayo District of Belize - about two hours from the coast where you fly into Belize City. We are just south of the big Mennonite settlement. I am VERY excited about going and seeing the property for myself.

[Sister Alvear]

Originally Posted by Sherri

The Wycliffe workers are Kelly & Prissy Smith - precious people. They work with some remote village tribe - very uncivilized, but I don't know the tribe's name - in the interior of Brazil somewhere. I met them this past November right before I came to your place, and now we help support them.

I have never heard of any oneness people working with Wycliffe. But you just have to believe that if the Bible gets in their hands, God will shine light on his Word and the Holy Spirit will guide them into all truth.

We are in the Cayo District of Belize - about two hours from the coast where you fly into Belize City. We are just south of the big Mennonite settlement. I am VERY excited about going and seeing the property for myself.

that is what we were talking about...where oh where are the oneness people??? You are right we must trust God to shine his light but when all is said and done...I just wonder how many things will weigh in HIS scales...I shutter to think of the fate of the lost....

It is so sad that many of us who claim truth preach to ourselves...shout at our conventions and let those with lesser truth go where we have never been...May Jesus help us all...Just wish I had another life to give on the field...and a thousand friends like you!

[Sherri]

These missionaries in Brazil have lived among this tribe for nearly 20 years, if I remember right. They have raised four kids (now teens) there. They lived right in there with the tribal people - they slept in hammocks with no privacy in their long huts. They cooked the food they caught over an open fire in the floor. They lived just like them, so they could learn the nuances of their language, which had never been written down before.

They now have a house outside the village, but at least one month a year, they go back and live among the tribe. Little by little, they are translating God's Word into this strange and remote language. Little by little they are seeing people asking about the good God, because their god is "mean". It's been a slow process, but the people had to learn to trust them first.

This year at Christmas, all the kids came home from college/boarding schools. They decided to do Christmas in the tribal village. The kids all said that it was the best Christmas - that they could relate so much more to how Jesus' parents must have felt in that stable.

Do these people baptize in Jesus' name? I doubt it, but they do call on Him! Do they speak in tongues? I have no idea, but I also have no doubt that I'll see them in Heaven. They've given their whole lives for the cause of Christ.

[Sam]

Originally Posted by Sherri

These missionaries in Brazil have lived among this tribe for nearly 20 years, if I remember right. They have raised four kids (now teens) there. They lived right in there with the tribal people - they slept in hammocks with no privacy in their long huts. They cooked the food they caught over an open fire in the floor. They lived just like them, so they could learn the nuances of their language, which had never been written down before.

They now have a house outside the village, but at least one month a year, they go back and live among the tribe. Little by little, they are translating God's Word into this strange and remote language. Little by little they are seeing people asking about the good God, because their god is "mean". It's been a slow process, but the people had to learn to trust them first.

This year at Christmas, all the kids came home from college/boarding schools. They decided to do Christmas in the tribal village. The kids all said that it was the best Christmas - that they could relate so much more to how Jesus' parents must have felt in that stable.

Do these people baptize in Jesus' name? I doubt it, but they do call on Him! Do they speak in tongues? I have no idea, but I also have no doubt that I'll see them in Heaven. They've given their whole lives for the cause of Christ.

I think this is a situation where we know what they are by their "fruit" not by their "doctrine". I can't help but believe that what is in their heart is far more important than what is in their head.

[Sarah]

Originally Posted by Sherri

We took up our annual Passover Offering for missions on Friday night at our Good Friday Service. I got up and spoke a little about why I'm passionate about Global Missions, and then we took the offering. I'm so excited to say that we got over $26,000 for Belize!!! Eddie and I are going down the first part of May to pay the property off, and hopefully soon we can start construction.

I thank God for a church full of people who love to give to missions!

That's awesome, Sherri!

It is great to have a 'church full of people who love to give to missions', but more than likely, they didn't get that way on their own. Most congregations reflect their leaders, and it's obvious you all have a passion for missions.

Praying for you, and your efforts...

[CC1]

That is great news about missions for Belize. I have two funny stories about belize.

The first is back in the mid 80's when Belize was still pretty primitive and not very developed at all. I worked at a Ford / Linclon Mercury dealership in Central Texas. One day a guy in his 30's came by driving an old beat up pickup truck that was so rusted it literally had hole in the bed the size of a football. He wanted to trade it for a new Ford Explorer. It was literally a case of where we were going to have to pay someone to haul the truck off but I think we gave him fifty bucks for it. He then paid for the new truck in cash.

I had noticed he was limping badly. As the finance manager he had to come into my office to sign all of the legal paperwork. He told me he had just gotten into town and could I suggest an inexpensive hotel for his family to stay in until they could buy a house. We then started talking and I found out he was an American who had just DRIVEN that rusted hulk of a pickup from Belize to Central Texas.

He had been a cattle farmer in Belize with a lot of acreage complete with giant freezers for the meat, etc. He had married a native of Belize (who spoke no english) and they had a five year old son.

The reason he had just moved to town and was buying a new truck and house had a lot to do with the bad limp he had. He said that Belize was like the Old West and there was such a bad problem with cattle rustlers that when they shot him in the leg during a confrontation he called it quits, sold his operation, and had driven to Texas. He told me he had to find a doctor to get surgery on his leg. A few months later I ran into him again and he was no longer limping. He confirmed he had found a surgeon and they had repaired his leg and things were going well.

This story was so long I will save the second one for another post!