Recently, God did the same for another man who is called Lupe, through the work of the team at La Cosecha. This man had been chained to a tree, living outside in the dirt like an animal because he had become so violent, uncontrollable and a threat to his family. In fact, his family brought him to La Cosecha restoration center still chained up in the back of a truck!!

Oti and the gang cut the chains off of him and received him with much love, compassion & prayer. Lupe no longer has long, matted, filthy hair & black fingernails from eating his food off the ground … the Lord has cleansed him inside and out! and now, Lupe has even been giving people hugs and greeting them for worship!!!  ( Lupe is shown below, far right ) We serve a mighty & loving GOD!!!

This is your opportunity to pray for him and the rest of the team, so stay tuned for more stories about Lupe and others!!

Little did either one of us know, how God would not only use our friendship …But the plans that HE had to use it … in a mighty way!

God began to work in Felipe’s heart and convict him of many things. One of the things that he learned early on, was that, we don’t have to be anybody special by earthly standards before God can start to use us, we just have to be obedient to Christ and He will teach us the rest.  Well, I can honestly say, that Felipe took that to heart … and ran with it!

As God saw Felipe “really” surrender his life to the Lord and be willing to follow Him at all costs … this is when God really started opening up doors for him to minister to others.  The interesting thing about being put in a teaching role,  is that it forces you to prepare yourself … in order to teach others and Felipe does this with a passion!

On any given week, he’ll be hours away from home and in some pretty remote and rustic areas … simply sharing what great things God has done in his life and then taking the opportunity to love others to Christ as well.  Some of the most memorable worship experiences that we’ve ever had, have been in some of the most unlikely places.

When you get a chance, please take a few minutes and pray for this missionary, pastor, dad, accountant, etc. and perhaps drop him a note of encouragement as well, because there’s always a lot going on behind the scenes, that most people will never see.

Felipe, it’s a privilege to work with you, my brother and we are very proud of you!

A lot of our friends in Oaxaca right now, are busy trying to get their gardens prepared before the rainy season comes.  Many of you have done some gardening before and realize how big of a job it can actually be, but it still may have been considered a hobby at most. But what if that’s really all you had to eat? You might have put a little more effort into it,  the whole family probably would’ve been involved and no doubt you would have been in your garden the majority of the time.

Well, that’s the real deal for most of the indigenous people out in some remote villages in Oaxaca. They continue to be subsistence farmers and quite simply put … “You grow to eat and if you don’t grow very well … then you don’t eat very well either”.  So that’s where we come in as helping them to help themselves and perhaps do what they do a little better.  Most of the people are already experts in farming,  but they might need help with obtaining water, some seed and perhaps a little fertilizer.  Most of us take these essential items for granted while gardening or maybe farming on a larger scale, but these ingredients make or break the harvest and they can be quite difficult to obtain in remote areas.

So here’s the deal … Share your ideas about primitive gardening, farming, animal husbandry or any other homesteading kind of news or articles at the e-mail below.  You might be amazed with the impact you can have on others that are less fortunate and for those that haven’t had the same opportunities that you and I have been blessed with.

burro-on-the-go@earthlink.net

“Crawly Cuisine”

“Don’t bug out, but the UN’s Food and Agricultural Organization is working on a policy to promote insects as food worldwide. Turns out beetles, crickets and many other types are rather nutritious. A serving of small grasshoppers, for instance, packs nearly the same protein punch as ground beef.”

Hmmm … you don’t say,  I say.  Well, the UN is way behind the smart people of Oaxaca.  We regularly partake of such healthy delicacies down there, with the grasshoppers and the ants practically being a staple food! … that’s why the birds are so skinny, because they’re having to fight off the villagers for food.

So the folklore from the Oaxacan people is this, ” if you eat some of the grasshoppers … you’ll come back to visit Oaxaca again ”.  Or rather I say,  for some of you wimps … you’ll never come,  to try it out.  Either way, you’re missing out on a healthy, cheap dining experience … just read National Geographic.

I guess they thought that being adults, Chinco & I had an unfare advantage, so we were tied up together, also due to the fact that none of the sacks would fit us!

We have played a lot of volleyball in the past and some basketball as well, but this was a little more intense. 

We were doing some serious hopping at about 8,700 feet above sea level and feeling every inch of the sack race.

I must say that we did all right for a while, but their endless supply of energy started working on us and they wanted to continue the battle, especialy after they saw us totally wasted! It was well worth all the suffering (afterwards) and most of all … it’s always about spending quality time with people and having a lot of fun! … even though they are fierce competitors!

There’s a lot that goes on behind the scenes of building relationships with people, earning their trust and respect.  Sometimes it’s working hard with them and sweating with them out in the fields, other times it’s enjoying a birthday party or special occasion with them, but yet at other times it’s agonizing with them while someone is sick or has just passed away. It’s at these times we live out our testimony among the people … the same people that are trying to understand why we would want to be with them in the first place. You see, it just doesn’t make sense to love people unconditionally … by the “world’s” standard of thinking anyway.

When we first started working there, most people would not give us the time of day and would never have invited us into their home. Now days, things have changed drastically … and for the better. We can’t hardly get in and out of the village now without being stopped and asked to get out and go eat with them and by far the most amazing feeling of trust … is when the kids come running up to greet us as if we were long-lost family members. Well, we are family members now … eternal family members, as several people have surrendered their lives to Christ and last Sunday, the first five people wanted to publicly show their obedience to Christ through baptism.

It was amazing to see how God orchestrated everything, as the day started out rainy and cold. We had purchased a small children’s swimming pool, but soon realized that we didn’t have enough water available to fill it even halfway. So we constructed a small frame out of PVC pipe, and used a heavy tarp as a liner and then connected to a hot water shower that we had previously installed and started filling it up.

As we started preparing everything, the rain stopped, the clouds started clearing out and the sun even started shining!  After each person was baptized, they stayed in and helped baptized the next person. It was a great opportunity to teach the people that not only are they capable and authorized to do the great commission … but they are commanded to do so!  They are learning from the start that it should be an expectation of every Christ follower to serve others.

In some of these villages, a public display of allegiance to Christ can be costly. Sometimes they are ostracized by their family members or the rest of the community, sometimes they are denied basic rights in the village and other times they are run out of the village or even something worse … so this was a very big deal and we’re very proud of each and every one of them!

As we finished up and headed out of the village we looked behind us and saw an amazing sight … the clouds had started moving up the mountains from out of the valley below us, as if they were given permission to come back.  And so they did, it turned cold and cloudy on our way out and it started raining again.  What an awesome day the Lord gave us!

As I looked out of the office window of the house we rent, I could see an elderly woman quietly and as quickly as possible, move to an area that had any kind of decent grass growing, spread out her bag and quickly cut the grass as low as possible with her hand sickle and lay it on the bag.

Everybody here knows that it’s a big No-No, to trespass on somebody else’s land and even more so when you take without asking … from that land, so I was surprised to hear her outside, but I could see her desperation. I noticed an elderly man off in the distance, that was presumably her husband. After I admired their efficiency for a while, I made my way down out of the house and went to go greet them. I tried my best not to startle them, but the look on her face when I came out the front door said it all and then she said “I didn’t see anybody around and thought it would be okay to take some grass for my animals … there is less land available for the animals to feed on now, than before”. I greeted them both and told them that they are welcome anytime and in fact the very place where they are searching for animal feed, will have a lot more of it in the future.

I enjoyed the great smile on their faces when I told them that this parcel of land was actually a mini experimental farm, that will be used to train people just like them, so that they can get more yields, out of less land and with minimal water usage.

So in the end, it was a great opportunity to meet new people and to let them know that not only are they welcome … but bring their friends next time as well!