How Can They Hear?

the meeting

2008-08-13T21:14:00.000-07:00

This is John again. Thank you for your prayers today. The visit with Pablo and his family went very well. They have a great peace that God will continue to do His work and if our family needs to move, someone else will step right in. They were also very aware of their on-going role in reaching their people group and I will continue to work with them in finishing a complete story set that they can use as a guide.

After meeting with Pablo, I was able to visit his aunt who lives with them. Josefa is 105 years old and stays in bed pretty much all the time. There are about 5 generations living under one roof in Pablo's very simple house. Their family dynamic reminds me of the many family members in Christ that we have met in countries all over the world. How good it is to feel "at home" when you are with brothers and sisters in Christ.

I was also able to visit with our original (not saved) language helpers and explain what was going on in our lives right now. They were very understanding and concerned for our family. The wife said she would pray to the "virgen Juquilita" for me, and knows that she will cure me. Ummmm, can you say "Christian cultural moment" here? I explained that I know that God is the Great Physician and my life is completely in His hands. That our lives on this earth are not for our own pleasure but to bring honor and glory to Him. Whether in life or death, whether in good or bad - our job is to adore Him. I would ask you to continue to pray for "B" and "E" as they have a concept of truth, but it is so intertwined with idolatry, spiritism and empty hope. I will still be able to maintain contact with these very dear people and will continue to share Jesus Christ as often as possible.

There is such a sense of hopelessness in the area where we live as well as I'm sure could be stated in the entire world in general. God makes it so clear for us to worship the Creator and not the created, and yet so many are so desparate to lay their hands on what is just beyond their reach that they simply fail to receive the free gift that is right in front of them. This gift of course is a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. On our web-site (http://whatsupwithweaver.net/ ) under John's Journey, I share how I personally received this gift. If you have much and still don't have God's peace in your life, or if you have little and feel like God doesn't even know what continent you are on, I encourage you to read it and then ask if God has a similar story written especially for you.

Pamela is not going to like that I have gotten "preachy" on her blog, but I feel that for someone, it was important to share. May God grant you His perfect peace.

Meeting with the team

2008-08-12T22:05:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow morning - August 13 - I, John, will be meeting with Pablo to share with him about our recent health update. Pablo and his family just returned from a 2 week trip in another village where he sold things.

This will be a difficult meeting in some ways, but also a time to "pass the baton" as one of the books by Tom A. Steffen that I read in seminary encourages. Everything that we teach and live needs to be reproducible by those who live here. That does not only apply here in Mexico, but everywhere that we go as Christians.

Though I may be passing the baton (a track term) quicker than I planned or wanted to, I realize God has already prepared this stage of the race, and that He does not make mistakes.

I ask you to pray for wisdom, clarity, and peace as I share the fuller vision with our team tomorrow. Also, that the work will proceed even faster, more natural, more cultural and even more biblically contextual through this exchange.

To God be the glory, for His story!

my other blog is blocked

2008-08-01T10:27:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure what happened but I can't get into my other blog.
It says it's blocked and will be deleted within 20 days because it's been flagged by some automated checking service to be a "spam blog".
I sent in the request for them to have a person check to verify that it's a legit blog.
Hopefully they'll unlock it and not erase it.
I guess I had better start backing it up!
The notice said they get false positives, so it might have been an error in their system.

I'll blog here until then.

I forgot to give the update on Ike---- he saw the dermatologist and he's fine. No skin cancer.
With the eye it looked suspicious, but once she used her microscope viewer, she could see that it was normal.

John has a few helpers lined up

2008-07-24T10:13:00.000-07:00

John and Pablo went to the village on Saturday morning. A few of the men they wanted to speak with were not there and another guy said "no"---- he did not have time to help. But, 2 ladies agreed to help with our stories. One is a believer and the other is not. John and Pablo will go back to talk with the men another time. They did not set a specific day to get started yet. They want it to be very organized and not a surprise when they show up. :-)

Pablo will be going out of town for a couple of weeks after VBS is over on Sunday. So, I'm not sure how much John will do while he's gone. I know we have a lot of "behind the scenes" type of work to prepare ahead of time for future stories, etc. I'm sure he'll be very busy.

Yesterday we ate in the home of another family here in town. He is from the village our friends are working in, but she is from our people group. Last week, John introduced him to the other man working in his language and village. They invited both of our families over for lunch yesterday so the men could discuss our work. He is going to be able to help our friend with stories now, so that should help him a lot. It is really hard to get people to help, but then also to get good stories out of them. Sometimes you have to scrap the ones you have several times until it's really what you need. Our friend has run into that problem some, so John wanted him to meet this guy. I think they're going to try to record one of his stories on Saturday.

Maybe I can work with the wife some later as a language helper. I don't have a lot of time for that as my family and home school is pretty time consuming and I have my other helper, but we'll see what hours she has free. It's hard to find a woman who has free time to help. They really stay busy here, as I do, and it can be a little more challenging to get our schedules to match. It's a lot easier for John to get with men any time of the day.

Going to talk to men in the village

2008-07-19T06:00:00.000-07:00

John and Pablo are leaving in a few minutes to go to the village. There are 3 men Pablo wants to introduce to John and talk to about helping us with some stories. They are not believers. It has been dry here for a couple of days. Ok, maybe a day and a half, so the road should be passable. (if you know John, he'll "make" it passable.......... I don't want to know when he gets back!)

Pablo will be out of town for 2 - 3 weeks at after this week, so he is trying to help John get this going so we can work while he's gone.

I think there are a few men in town they may talk to today, as well.
We're hoping we can get people to help since it's not a "church" or certain "denomination" we're pushing with trying to record stories------it's just Bible stories and even the Catholic church there doesn't have the Bible stories in their language. Maybe we won't get much opposition.

other news:
"R" was here for several hours yesterday helping John put together a new grill. (yippee!) and John told him he had the Bible study material. "R" was still interested, so they should start soon. They had to go several places to figure out how to change this one part so it wasn't chinese and would work with things you can find here. It took hours to do that and was a lot of trouble. So, I invited "R" and his wife and baby over for a cookout on Sunday afternoon. He has to work today so couldn't do it until tomorrow. It should be fun.

John plans to start a Bible Study with "R"

2008-07-17T15:56:00.000-07:00

John came back from his trip around 4:30. (yeah!!!)
He was able to buy some really nice Spanish bibles and get some Bible study materials.
He plans to give "R" a bible and start a study with him.
I'm not sure if I will be inolved. It would be fun to do a study together with a group of people, but this may be better as a one-on-one situation to start.
As soon as John pulled up today, "R" and his brother were at the gate talking to John. (I didn't even get to talk to him for a while.) They really like and respect John, so this is a good thing that they were there to greet him and talk for a while.

I just played "Martha" and brought in the goodies he had loaded into the car. (LOL--- teasing about"Martha")

by the way--------- you know you're a missionary when your husband comes home from the "city" with treats and the kids are most excited about liquid soap!!!!

gotta love it.............................

The poor will always be among us.........

2008-07-17T14:35:00.000-07:00

There is so much poverty here where we live. We're actually "sheltered" from it a bit here in the town we live in---- compared to the villages. It is still very poor here, even in the town.

I just had a man at my door begging for money. It's so hard to know what to do in these situations. I'm not quite certain of the culture here yet and what to do/not do about that. He was a very poor man. He had an official government letter stating that his wife had just died and a bunch of other stuff. I did not read the whole thing. Honestly, I'm not sure if he needed money to bury her, or if it was for help in raising their son. The letter said that he was in extreme poverty.

In Brasil, we did not give out $ at our gate when people asked for a need. We would go buy the prescription or whatever it was that they needed, but tried to avoid giving money. Especially in language school. The missionary houses were literally marked out on the gate somewhere and there was a whole group who would go around from house to house.........

We kept rice and beans to give out and other things.

I gave him a little. I could have given more, but I didn't want to be targeted for constant beggers either. It's so hard........ He was so softspoken and humble. They are like that here. He was from a different indigenous group than the one we work with. I really felt sorry for him. That is a hardship with his wife gone and children. I'm sure she probably wasn't a believer either.........

Frustrations with changed plans

2008-07-15T09:51:00.000-07:00

Well, you think we would be used to it by now---- it seems that nothing here goes as planned or as promised. I won't go into the many, many examples we have had recently............. It's very different than it was in Brasil.

We did not get to meet with Pablo last Thursday at his home here in town either. (Remember we had to cancel the trip to the village he is from because the roads were so bad?) Thursday afternoon, John left the house to go meet with Pablo and the others and he was back in about 15 minutes. I thought maybe something had happened to them. It turns out the roads were flash-flooded and he could barely get through. The road Pablo lives on here in town is not a good one and he knew if he couldn't get through by our house he would not make it all the way to theirs.

It gets frustrating because every time we have it all planned out it gets changed.
But, John is gone this week and he will be back on Friday. We should not have any more trips to take for a long time, so we can actually settle in and work straight through. Now, don't hold me to that, because you know from one post to the next it can change drastically!!! LOL!

It will work. At least we have one great thing going for us-- we have a team and they do want to help. We have people to work on our stories. That right there is the key, so we're not discouraged. We did hope to have a couple of stories done by now though!

I'm sorry there's really not much to report here. I had hoped to have many details to give you by now. It will come with time.

On a side note, I had planned (once again "planned" being the key word) to study the new language a lot this week with John gone. I've had sick kids and a birthday in there. Faith had a bad cold and low-grade fever for about 4 days. Then Sunday I was a little sick and yesterday I was achy all day and felt lousy. Megan started running a fever last night. We had Levi's birthday right in the middle of that, so we tried to make his day special. I had hoped to rest more yesterday but that didn't happen. It looks like I'm on the 12-year plan to learn this language----Meggie should be getting out of school about then. HA! I'm doing good just to keep my head above water this week, so I'm not sure how much studying is going to take place.......... I'll try!

Cancelled trip to village

2008-07-09T13:47:00.000-07:00

Today was a pretty wild day! As you can see, we're in the middle of rainy season. Sorry these words are showing up on the side. I've tried to change it and but it's not working.

We canceled our trip to the village tomorrow because the roads are too bad. It's rainy season here and many roads are dirt. Right now they're pure mud and washed out. Even the "good" roads are flooded and covered with mud and rocks which have slid down the sides of the mountains.

We tried to go to a place outside of town today to check on having Levi's birthday party there. We got stuck and never made it all the way there. It took about 20 minutes to get the van out of the mud. We do not have a 4 x 4, but you really need one on many of these roads. We're using a big Dodge van until this weekend because we didn't fit in our vehicle with all of our luggage after our trip to Guatemala. John will take it back this weekend and get our car. It's not any better than the van on the roads. At least the van had space for us. (It was the best trip we've had so far because we weren't all on top of each other and holding everything in our laps for 5 hours. ) It is very hard to get around here in it though because it's so big and the roads are so narrow.

I'm not sure what we're going to do about the stories. Maybe we can get started with some people here in town. During rainy season it's very hard to get around. We're meeting with Pablo and the team at his house tomorrow at 4 p.m. instead. We'll have to figure out a way to start the stories if we can't get to the villages.

Here are some pics of our town. And these are the "good roads". You wouldn't want to see the mountain roads! It took us an hour to drive a stretch of road that usually takes 5 minutes! You can walk it in 5-10. The roads were flash flooded, one side was shut down for repair and the police were making a huge drug bust and had a convoy of vehicles trying to get there for it. It was like sitting in traffic in Sao Paulo again. Ok, so maybe not---- you see the pics. LOL!

I'll admit that I am a BIG BABY when it comes to the roads. I really hate the roads here. When I saw the road we needed to go down and that it was muddy, I begged to get out. Of course John thought that was crazy and kept driving anyway. I told him we wouldn't make it. I did say an "I told you so" (LOL) when we got stuck. (I know it wasn't necessary, but it made me feel better. haha) So, I got out of the van and walked back up the hill. I didn't want to slide off of the side of the mountain in that big van. I took the kids with me. It started to rain as we were trying to get unstuck. It's a good thing we got out when we did, because just a few minutes later it was pouring and I think we may have been stuck there for the night!

I hate curvy mountain roads. I'm not sure what is worse--- when they're muddy and slippery or when they're silt and slippery............... It's gonna be a long rainy season for me!

Going to the village

2008-07-09T06:28:00.000-07:00

John met with Pablo and the others on Monday afternoon. They are taking us to their village Thursday morning to talk to a man about recording some stories for us. I think the plan is to try to get started right then. Please pray that he will agree to do this and that he will be good at it.

That last part might sound a little weird, but it often takes several people and a lot of practice before you find someone who is a really good help with the stories.

We're all going with John. I'm sure that won't attract any attention, of course! HA!
I think I am going to spend today "cramming" on the language.

We met a lady at church who is willing to help us. She is from our people group and her husband is from another group. They both speak spanish, but they also speak different languages. She speaks ours and her husband speaks another. Her husband is actually from the village our friend is working in, so he wants to help him. They are believers and understand what we're doing, so they are very willing to help us in any way they can so that their people will hear in their heart language.

She might be a good person for me to have as a friend. She could really help me with the language then. It's kind of hard as a woman because I can't just go hang out with anyone to learn. It definitely needs to be a woman------ and the women are so busy (me too!) so it's hard to find a good time. John can find a lot of guys to sit around and talk to pretty easily. If we get out the the villages more now we'll be able to hear it and practice regularly.

John leaves Sunday for his 7-day trip. After he gets back we can come up with some sort of routine schedule to be in the villages. It would have looked very suspicious if we would have tried to move in somewhere and then kept leaving to travel so much. We thought it would be best to wait until most of that busyness was past.

John had a chance to share

2008-07-04T21:17:00.000-07:00

After our little 4th of July party tonight, John was outside and our landlord came over. He's a young man about 30 years old. They talked for a while and then he started to ask a few questions that led to spiritual things. John asked him if he had a Bible and he said no. John gave him one with a simple modern translation until he can get him a nicer Bible. He explained to how to use it and a little about how it was set up and what it was about. "R" had no idea what the difference was in the Old Testament and the New Testament or anything about the Bible. He is open to studying the Bible with John, so we'll be praying and will see how that goes.

I think he really likes and respects John because he comes over and talks to him a lot. He's the one who rode with John on the 9-hour trip to get internet in our house when we first moved in. He also arranged for his friend's parents to be our language helpers.

(Of course, once again I look like the anti-social one. You know how I joke about our Mary/Martha relationship! LOL John spends hours talking to people and I'm behind the scenes cleaning up or preparing for something. Tonight, he got to be Mr. Social (Mary)and I (Martha) spent 2 hours cleaning up from our party and helping the kids. The neighbors actually said they thought I didn't speak spanish when we first moved in because I was in the house unpacking, working on our schooling, etc. and John would just sit and talk to people. They thought I stayed inside because I couldn't talk! Oh well. At least one of us looks like we like people. haha They just don't get it why I don't sit outside my house all day and watch people go by and talk to anyone who passes. I do try to go out some and do that in the evenings, but I can't for hours like they do every day.)

But, back to the main focus here: it was a great opportunity for John to talk to "R" and we'll pray God will use this to begin speaking to his heart.

Prayer requests and vision

2008-06-30T07:42:00.001-07:00

We're back, so we need to get to work!
Here's how you can specifically pray for us, our work and our people.

Pablo and 3 others meet regularly with John---- several times a week for 2 hours or so each time. They are all from our people group, but now live in our town instead of their village. They are also believers. They are being trained by John and have taken the "lead" on our project---as far as the footwork goes. They have talked to 8 or 10 non-believers from the villages about helping us get the stories told in their indigenous language. These people will hear various versions of scripture in spanish and then retell it in their language. Then, we will have another bilingual person tell us in spanish what they said in the indigenous language word-for-word. This will go back and forth until the stories are correct. (This is a very basic summary of what we do and how we do it!) We will continue this process until we have 60 or so stories completed. It is a lot of work and a long, hard process---- even though it doesn't sound it by the way I described it. There is a lot of technical stuff involved.

So, prayer requests:

1. Pray for Pablo to be a leader on this team.

2. Pray for helpers from the villages to actually record stories with us. (many times they start, but don't finish. or they get pressure to quit, etc. because evangelical has a very bad stigma here)

3. pray for John as he leads the team.

4. pray for more villages to join in on the project. (we've met people/contacts from a few other villages and need to follow-up with them this week)

5. pray for us as we talk to people we've met from other villages and cast the vision before them.

6. pray for our language learning.

7. pray for our decision about our housing arrangements--whether or not to live in a village and if so which one and under what circumstances, etc.

8. pray for the people who will be helping us---- there is often persecution

9. pray we will have discernment to know which stories to tell, which villages to start in and for every other decision we need to make.

10. pray for our family as we jump head first into this big project this week--- you know the enemy likes to attack or do anything to keep the work from happening.

Our goal is to have the project done by August 2009.
That is a big project to have done in that amount of time.
We can do it though. Well, no "we" can't, but GOD can!
We would really like to see the stories completed by that time and then see the stories used to start small groups and eventually churches.
This same project is being used all over the world.

It's typically a 2-year project. Although, so far it hasn't really been done by families--- it's mainly been young people and singles, etc. That makes a big difference. It's challenging with a big family because I can't really help to the extent I am supposed to be. I have to homeschool the children and other things that are very time consuming for a family of 7!

This is why we are so thrilled to have Pablo and our team working with us. We want it to be their own project anyway, not "our" project. We do not want to be the front people. It's best if it's all done by indigenous people. We can direct from behind the scenes. So far, it seems to be leaning that way with us. We'll see what happens and how God opens doors this week.................
We don't want to get in the way of the Gospel going to these people just becasue they can't see past "us" to really hear the stories.

We're back in Mexico

2008-06-30T07:23:00.000-07:00

I think I will take a few posts to tell a little about our trip and to write our specific prayer requests and let you know what we are doing now.

I'll start here with "the trip in general".

It was a very nice trip.
Guatemala was very beautiful. We did not get to go there, but supposedly right by where we were, there is a volcano which has lava flowing every day. It was the highlight for many of the tourists we talked to who were able to go hike it. The markets had beautiful things and great prices. (I know all the ladies really want to know how the shopping is before anything else, right?????) We were in a very "touristy" area. (I know that's not a word....) We mainly stayed at the hotel except for a few ecxcursions out to get something at the market or pharmacy, etc.

The kids really enjoyed their week. They swam and swam and swam. Faith is getting a nice little tan. I, on the other hand, look like I spent my week helping count penguins in Antarctica.
She greatly improved her swimming skills also. They all met new friends and got to spend time with old friends. Annual meeting is always nice for that!

2 teams from Missouri came down to work with the children. It was fun to meet people from "home". (although we can barely claim it anymore) The kids are already planning trips to go see them when we go back. They are near where my grandma lives, so we hope to visit their churches sometime.

We actually had some free time during the week. That is rare for our annual meeting time. It was nice because if gave us a chance to sit and talk with coworkers and share ideas and info about our work. Those spare minutes are usually hard to come by. Everyone really appreciated that this year!!!

And the food.......................... oh, I had better not get started here!
The food was fabulous. It reminded me of Brasil. 6 or 7 cold veggie "salad-type" dishes to choose from at each meal. Cooked, but crisp veggies served chilled mixed in with other veggies. It was like the food on the salad bar at the churrascarias. Yummy stuff! They had delicious soups at each meal and great main dishes and hot veggies and other sides. Homemade bread rolls.................

As you can see, it was definitely a week of suffering. haha
It is nice to go once a year and see your coworkers and touch base with our organization though.

Meeting update

2008-06-23T05:05:00.000-07:00

We've really had a nice time so far at our meetings in Guatemala. We did things differently this year. Normally everyone arrives on Sunday afternoon and then it kicks off. Instead, this year, they flew everyone working in the "indigenous fields" of our region in on Friday. We all met that evening and then spent time together in a little "retreat" until Sunday afternoon. It was very nice because we sat around in a circle and got to tell a little about who we are and our work. It was very informal and interesting.

While we did that, a small team from Missouri came in to work with our children. The kids have had a blast! Since it was a smaller group of children for the weekend sessions, they let them spend about half of the time at the pool and just playing while supervised. They also did VBS type of crafts and activities. All of the children have loved it!!!

It has been a very relaxing time. Our "official" meetings start this morning. That will be a bit more business oriented and such, but we'll still have a little spare time here and there. The rest of the people working in our region arrived yesterday afternoon. So, now it's a big group and mixed with city work, rural work, business office people and of course the indigenous field. Another team from a church in Missouri will be arriving today to start working with the MKs. I think the small weekend team will stay and help for another day or 2.

We are so thankful for those extra few days to really relax, let the children have fun and form bonds between our coworkers who "get it"----- we're all on the same "page" doing the same type of ministry, facing the same types of situations, etc. so they completely understand what you're talking about. Wow, what a difference that makes. It was very interesting to hear the stories of some who have been on the field for 20 years and more.

We're in Guatemala

2008-06-20T16:31:00.000-07:00

It's that time of year again------------ we meet with all of our coworkers for a week. This year we get to have our meeting in Guatemala. We arrived today. We flew in this afternoon.

We had a good flight, but hit some major turbulance about 25 minutes out of Guatemala City. I was glad when that was over! We left Mexico City this morning, flew down to Panama City and then flew from there back up to Guatemala City. Then we took a bus for about an hour to get to the hotel we're meeting at.

I've never been to Panama or Guatemala before. I must say, they were absolutely beautiful from our aerial view from the plane when we got close to landing. It's rainy season, so everything is bright green and lush. We flew over the Panama Canal. That was kind of neat.

It was so cute to hear the kids. We couldn't see anything during any of the flights until it was landing time because of thick cloud cover. But, as soon as we got out of the clouds for Guatemala, Faith exclaimed: "Wow! It's beautiful!"

The kids really enjoy flying to various places. Meggie's not feeling so well. She got a fever yesterday afternoon, so she's on fever meds. But, when we got in the bus to drive here, she said, "I really like these places". She's so "content" in latin america...........

I don't have any new "work updates", but wanted to mention we are here.
It should be a good week. The kids are really looking forward to a week of VBS and fun. The hotel is very beautiful and peaceful.

We woke up at 2 a.m. and "officially" got up (LOL) at 3 a.m. this morning. We are TIRED! We had to leave for the airport at 4 a.m. We barely made the connection in Panama. We only had 30 minutes between landing and taking off. It's a small airport, but it was still very close! The plane was already boarded when we got to the gate.

Ok, enough of this boring stuff. Ha!
I'll try to post a little more on and off this week about our people group and relationships we have begun to form with them.

Update on our project

2008-06-15T05:41:00.000-07:00

I know many have asked what we do here and how it is going. I still have to be a little cautious about what I can post on-line as far as details go, but I will try to share as much as I can as time goes on.

John is really running with the project. He is really supporting me as I put most of my focus during the day on our family and home school with the kids and as I minister through our home to neighbors and people we work with. (High school for Ike is really going to change the intensity of our school this fall!) So, he really does most of our "work" during the daytime alone at this point. We can join in in the afternoon, evenings and weekends. Once we have some stories going, I will be doing a lot of the behind the scenes work on the computer using the software we have to work with, etc. It's pretty detailed.

Right now, he has a team of 4 and they meet about 3 or 4 days a week for several hours. They are all nationals from here and from our people group (but they live in town here, not in a village currently). He has shared the vison with them and explained what we are doing. They are really excited about it and 100% behind it. They have spent hours talking through the Bible stories and deciding which ones will really address needs/issues culturally, etc. They have chosen our initial set and then have all looked ahead to what the completed set will look like when it covers the entire Bible.

John is really working with a good group. They have 8 names of people lined up to possibly help us get these stories crafted. Every time they meet, John can really see the progress and initiative they are taking to make this "their" project and not just "ours".

This past week they worked on getting all of the versions of the various passages recorded for the first few stories we will craft. It will all be done orally, so you start with oral---- not just show them a written version in spanish. They worked really hard on all of this. Now we are ready to actually meet with some bilingual speakers (spanish/target language) and have them listen to the spanish and then give the story back to us in their language. We will go back and forth several times on this, translating and back translating, until it is "perfect" and all of the keye elements, etc. are there. (We have some great software from Wycliffe we get to use to help with all of this, make sure every little detail is anchored to Scripture, etc.) We'll do this for about 60 stories. It's a long process for each story.

It's not a traditional storying project where you have an evangelism track, a discipleship track, etc. This is all one set with the same redemptive thread running through it. It is all in there together and builds on each other. It's an amazing project. We'll do an initial set of 15 or so --Genesis to early church-- and then go back and start filling it in with more stories until everything is covered. It's really fun to story through a ton of stories at once. In some of our trainings we have done that. At the end of the week, we take turns standing up one after another and we'll story through 20+ stories in a row. You kind of anchor each story to the previous one with a lead in. It's fun. For this last training we did the whole book of Acts. During the training before, we did from Genesis through Acts.

Anyway, I think I'm getting off track here............... (imagine that!)
So, John is doing great with the project. We have a team of helpers, and they are ready to officially do the first 3 or 4 stories.

We are so thankful for our team. They will be "out front". We really like that aspect. We don't want it to be something "we" are bringing. The gringo's religion............... We want it to be "their own". From them, by them, all based 100% on the Bible.

We go to Guatemala this week for our annual meeting. I think we'll be waiting until we get back to start recording the crafting. (although they did mention trying to have someone ready to start Monday. we'll see!)

Our goal is to have all of this completely done by next August (2009) or sooner. It's a slow process to get it started, but once it's going it gets easier--- you have people to help (that's hard to get at first), they know what they're doing so it gets quicker, etc.

We have to REALLY work on the language when we get back!!!

We have our work cut out for us!!!

2008-06-13T19:18:00.000-07:00

One of our language helpers just spent 3 hours at our house. We were "supposed" to have class, but it turned into a 3-hour conversation about the spirit world in the villages.

WOW!!!

I asked John, "how soon can you get us tickets out of here???"
It was some WILD stuff!

We started by having her read a little poem out of a 3rd/4th grade textbook we received from someone --- it's in the langauge we're learning. We had no idea what it was about. It turns out it was about death and spirits. She translated it after she read it in that language. We recorded it so we could practice pronunciation later.

It lead to a major discussion. She has been so open with us lately and has really shared cultural insights. Some I wish I still didn't know! Hah!

It's sad and a little scary. The "spirit world" is very real here. Possession is a big deal. Everyone (even the non-indigenous) is afraid to go out at night in the villages because they believe spirits turn into animals and kill people. I know this sounds crazy to most of us because we don't really live in that reality, but it is a real thing here. (I'm not going to put the details and examples on here of some of the things she shared with us about what they believe has happened through various "spirits" and how they think some people are "born like that". You can ask me through e-mail if you are curious though.)

Anyway, after 3 hours of talking about various people who were possessed and the "cures" for it, we definitely had some good insight into our people group. We understand a lot more of their logic and their fears and thoughts. There is still sooooo much to learn! She shared so much good info with us. Things that we really do need to know here before we're with very many people from the villages. Things we could do innocently and not realize that it had some major significance among them, etc.

I won't go into a lot of details here, but it's pretty heavy on our hearts.
I would ask you to pray for us as we live among this and try to shed light in the darkness.

The first time I ever visited here last year, I didn't know how to describe it, but you can just "feel" the oppression all around you. It's a very strange feeling.

You know how crazy our last month got right when we were heading out to the villages to start working on the stories. It's definitley going to be a struggle to work here.
Please pray for us!

Ministry Opportunity

2008-06-13T13:57:00.001-07:00

Here's a recent entry I wrote telling about a ministry opportunity we have with our neighbors.

http://weaverfamblog.blogspot.com/2008/06/ministry-opportunities.html

First Blog

2008-06-13T13:40:00.000-07:00

I have decided to start another blog. This one will be specifically ministry related. I know many like to keep up with our ministry and know how to pray for us, yet they don't really want to have to wade through all of the details of what we're doing in our home school this week or what plans I am making for future studies, etc. I will keep my other blog for those types of things.

Check back often, as I am sure I'll have many stories to tell!