Dear Praying Friends,
We hope that this letter finds you well and enjoying the Lord�s daily blessings. We can�t believe that this is the last prayer letter of 2001. The year has gone by too fast. The ideas and opportunities for ministry have been abundant and exciting. It has been a busy year and we are thankful to have had the privilege of serving the Lord here in Mexico. Your help and encouragement have made an eternal investment for Christ and we are grateful for you. Only God knows the magnitude of the difference you are making in the lives of the mountain people.
Our family is doing well and getting adjusted to the idea of winter weather. We had our first snow the other night and temperatures are in the teens. Even so, we still see some of the Indian children without shoes. Having Jessica and Isaac away at college for Thanksgiving Day this year was hard, but they had a lot of special activities scheduled at the college and the three of us, Craig, Deb and Bethany spent a quiet day together and enjoyed a good meal that Deb and Bethany prepared. Jessica and Isaac are planning to spend their Christmas break with us in Mexico and will be arriving on December 15th. We can�t wait to see them. It still seems odd that Thanksgiving Day is just like any other day here. Being an American holiday, it is not celebrated in Mexico. We caught ourselves starting to wish people a �happy thanksgiving� only to realize that they had no idea what we were talking about. We certainly have a lot to be thankful for and pray that more and more, people here will come to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus and understand what it is to be truly thankful.
Our Bible services continue to be a blessing and a challenge. Studying the Bible is new to our people, so we use a lot of review to reinforce basic Bible doctrines and principles. We are always looking for ways to keep things interesting and exciting. As in churches in the States, attendance can vary and harvest time is especially busy here. A couple of months ago, we had an outdoor service and the people enjoyed it so much that we thought we would hold another before the cold weather set in. We had a good group, so much so that we had people riding on top of the van on the cargo rack. It seems everything we do is new to them and during the first activity, the people didn�t know quite how to fit in. But this time, everyone was ready and looking forward to the special day. Two of the men went out early to help set up the area and during the service we had young people helping with reading Scripture and holding up song charts. It was a great day with invited visitors and everyone had a good time together. Once the mission property is ready for use, we want to offer other types of activities that will further develop their sense of unity. We plan to use the mission facility for a special Christmas service and are looking forward to having a good time in the Lord.
Another blessing came when one of our men asked when we were going to have a baptismal service. When we talked with him about his desire, he said he was ready and wanted to be baptized. Praise the Lord! That was a wonderful testimony in itself. We wanted to have a special service this year, but the timing just didn�t seem right. We have been praying about it and it seems like the Lord is preparing the way. We have been teaching about physical baptism in water as well as the spiritual baptism of the Holy Spirit at the time of salvation. We have prepared certificates of �Bautismo En Agua.� (Water Baptism) When we shared the man�s desire with the people, several others also expressed interest in baptism. The challenge we face is that we have to baptize in the lake and it is getting too cold for that. Perhaps, we will have to wait for warmer weather, but it is exciting to see the people�s faith growing and becoming stronger.
We would like to ask you to pray for one of our ladies. Her name is Lupe. She was running late one Sunday, and missed our van route. She didn�t want to miss the service and was literally running in order to get to the service. We knew that Lupe has a problem with asthma, but didn�t realize how serious it was. When she arrived we were singing. Arriving already out of breath, having run in the cold air, singing was too much for her. A few minutes later she stood up and tried to make it to the door to get some fresh air when she passed out. Her body went completely limp and slid to the floor. By that point, we had rushed to her side, realizing that she was in trouble. For the next several minutes, she suffered an asthma attack that had all of us concerned and scrambling for anything that might help her. Thankfully, we were able to help her through it and in a short time she recovered.
Please pray for Lupe and her family. They have been under a lot of pressure to move out of the house they live in. They are trying to build a small adobe house but it still needs a roof, floor and windows. Their landlord wants them out of his house as soon as possible. We were able to help them with some left-over cement that we had at the mission property, but there is a lot of work to do. The whole matter is compounded by the fact that Manuel, her husband, works at the sawmill in town that has been having trouble meeting their payroll because of the current economic crisis here in Mexico. We would like to help them and would appreciate your prayers on their behalf.
We want to thank all of you who continue to pray for us and for all of the details of our ministry. The Lord has answered our prayers once again. The Mexican government has finally approved our visa to live and work in the country. We thought there might be a problem because we have been waiting eight months. The visa has to be renewed every year, so we have just four months before we must apply again. We praise the Lord for the visa and the authority it grants us as ministers of the Gospel.
Another opportunity for which we have been asking your prayer is a carpentry ministry. Several men are interested and it seems like God is opening the doors to go forward. We �just happened to meet� two men in the last two months that crossed our path just at the right time. One man works for the Mexican government and helps small carpentry shops get organized and market their products. The scope of his work is far beyond the small ministry we hope to have, but he helped us with valuable information. The second man has actually started a couple of carpentry shops. He was passing through our town on his way to a village a couple of hours away. He invited us to visit a shop he started. We made the trip and he gave us a lot of tips on tools, products, and how to manage the shop. His shop is for the community as a whole, where as we would like to operate using those people with whom we have a personal ministry on a spiritual level. The input he gave us was very helpful and will be easily adapted to our ministry. We will need to invest in a full size table saw and a planer, but they will form the backbone of the shop as far as power tools, and will help the shop to one day become self sufficient. God is good, isn�t he? We don�t know where this will lead, but it is exciting to see how God is putting it all together.
Our �Helping Hands� hand-craft ministry is also developing. Several of our Indian families are getting involved in various ways. The other day, we helped one family by taking a load of sawmill cut-offs to their remote home for fire wood. When we arrived, a couple of the young people were stringing beads for bracelets and the mother was busy weaving. We shared an idea that we thought might help them, and they were excited to see what they could do. They will be in our service Sunday, Lord willing. It is a real blessing to be able to reach into this family in this way. We really want to encourage the father. He has been in our services a few times and needs to be saved. It would be great to see God use the Helping Hands ministry to help him focus on Christ.
The mission building project is also coming together and it won�t be long until we can begin to use it on a regular basis. Our family needs to move to the property as soon as possible and we are working on the building everyday to make it livable. The meeting room where we will hold services is ready. The floor in the entire building is done and we have a toilet installed in the bathroom. Praise the Lord! These things might seem small, but it is very exciting to us to be so close to occupying the property. We have a bathroom cabinet as well, but still need the sink. We also need a kitchen counter and sink and doors throughout. We plan to use the building for a special Christmas service, and as soon as we have a functional kitchen and bathroom, our family will move into the building to live and begin using the building regularly as we finish the myriad of small details. We are still waiting and praying concerning the deed to the property. The lawyers reviewed the contract and there are no problems, except for one they created. They decided that because of the number of square meters, the fee we would have to pay needed to be increased to the same amount that commercial properties are being charged. We had finally gathered enough to meet the original amount when we learned that we would have to have an additional seven hundred dollars in order to complete the transaction. They are waiting for our signatures and payment, then the application for the deed will be sent to the lawyers and the deed issued. Please continue to pray about this with us. It has been a long struggle to get to this point and when it finally comes to fruition, it will represent almost four years of perseverance.
Thank you, for continuing to pray with us and to help us as we follow the Lord in this pioneer ministry. It is exciting to see God at work in people�s lives. You are a valuable part of our team and we appreciate you! We know that we would not have been able to see all that God has done without you. It is because of your prayers that God is allowing us to enjoy such a wonderful ministry. As we point our people to Christ this Christmas, we are mindful that God has used you to make the vision of a mission station to reach the mountain people a reality. God bless you, for your faithfulness. From our family to yours, we wish you a very merry Christmas.
Sincerely, For Souls Who Have Not Heard,
The Chambers Family
