June 2004
Dear Friends,
Writing a newsletter always presents itself as a challenge for me,being one who’s forte never was expressing his thoughts with either written or spoken word. I never-the -less take up the challenge, notonly out of a sense of obligation to those of you who support this ministry, but also as an opportunity to share with you the marvelousway in whichGod is using our partnership to build His kingdom.
In the last few days, I have been giving a lot of thought to the teaching of Jesus in the parable of the sower. You are all aware of the story. A sower wentabout spreading seed and the seed fell upon different types of soil. The kind of soil where the seed fell determined whether or not the seed eventually bore fruit. As I contemplated this parable, it began to strike me that this is not really what a farmer does. He doesn’t just throw seed on the ground. A farmer has a pieceof ground on which he wants to grow a crop, the first thing he does is assess what type of ground he has and how conducive it will be to that crop taking root.Once he knows the kind of soil he has, he sets about preparing it for planting. If the ground is hard and packed, the farmer will run the harrow through it to break it up. If there are rocks, he’ll use a root rake or pick them up. If there are thorns and weeds, he will pull them out or plow them under. The farmer goes to great lengths and expense to give the seeds the best possible chance to grow.In other words, the farmertakes the type of soil he has available to him and tries to convert it into a type of soil receptive to the seed.WhenJesus taught his parable, he obviously spoke the truth. If a seed falls on a certain type of soil, the result will be in accordance to the soil type. For example, a seed on rocky soil, no root. However, Jesus did not say that a particular soil was incapable of being changed. In fact, changing the soil is exactly what we should be trying to do.
The Evangelist travels from place to place. He never knows what types of soils he has in the audience. He never knows if a seed that seems to sprout will eventually take root. He never knows if some take root but are in need of cultivation because of the weeds that spring up.All he knows for sure can be condensed to; there is some kind of soil present and he is throwing out good seed.
We as Christians, in your daily lives, have an opportunity to affect the condition of the soil when the seed is planted. By our testimony, by our attitude, by a serving spirit we can begin to break up the hard packed soil that is the heart of the unbeliever and get it ready to receive the seed of the Gospel. As the seed sends down roots and the tender shoot begins to push its way upward, we should be present to chop away any briars and weeds that would choke out the new growth.When the birds would come to pull the little shoot from its moorings, we should be there to shoo them away, until the roots are strong enough to prevent the plant from being snatched up.
This pretty much describes the work of Agua Viva Ministries. By the outreach and community service that we try to provide, we are plowing and preparing soil for the planting. Some of the outreach we have includes providing medicine in cases where individuals simply don’t have access to it. The area is prone to frequent flooding and landslides. In the case of such occurrences, wetry to provide as much disaster relief as possible, including emergency housing. We hold annual vacation bible schools to begin preparing and planting in young soils. We are also providing medical care to jungle villages, preparing soils in remote locations.It is our desire to expand our effort in the jungle by beginning to build bridges and water filters in some strategic areas. And of course it goes without saying, that the entire time we are preparing soil, we are also planting seed in previously worked ground.
We also understand, it is important to make provision for the care of the young sprout.We make an effort to frequent as much as possible new converts to make sure they are well rooted.In the town of Bribri, that is not a problem. We have the church and the forum present to see to their care. The jungle however, is another problem. The remoteness of the villages, the time and effort required just to reach the villages, makes effective cultivation of new sprouts very difficult. For that reason you have heard me speak, probably more than once, about our desire to acquire a helicopter. The helicopter, as an example, would change the current five day hike to the village of Alto Telire into a 40 minute ride, the three day hike to Bajo Bley into a 25 minute ride. This opens up the possibility of using lots of people in the discipling and teaching of new converts that we can not currently use because they can not make the hike. Right now there are villages that we are able to visit only once a year. Some villages we have never been to. You can see why with our present methodology and equipment, we feel inadequate to the task.We simply are not effective in discipling. We need to move into the twenty first century with the method of our ministry.
The church in Bribri continues to grow. We are especially pleased with the addition of more and more children. We continue to work on the construction of the fence, which will eventually enclose all the church property. The slowest and most costly part of the fence has been the retaining wall built along the inside of the drainage ditch, which forms one border of the property. The ditch is about 8 to 10 feetwide and 12 feet deep at its deepest end. It is also about 60 feet long. During the rainy season the small amount of waste-water,which normally flows in the ditch, turns into a raging river. As you can see, it is not a small retaining wall that is required.
The church building itself has actually been under construction now for 8 years. There were several things in the building, which needed maintenance and we needed another storage area built. We were blessed by and want to thank Sandra Frazier, apediatrician from Birmingham, Al.and a group from Edgewood Baptist Church in Mebane, NC for their help during the month of June.We have been able to build the storage area, address the majority of maintenance items and make significant progress on the fence.
I will close as usual and rightly so, by thanking God of His unfailing faithfulness. He continues to send the right people at the right time to keep this ministry moving forward. It certainly has not done so because of any brilliant insight that I might posses. More often than not, God is accomplishing great things inspite of me rather than because of me.And let me express my gratitude for you. Because without your financial and prayer support, none of what has happened since 1991 would have been possible.Each one of you is a more important cog in the wheel than I. Without you, I would only be a man with a small vision and a desire for the people of Talamanca. But together, with God’s help, we are making it a reality.
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