Saturday, 09 June 2007
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Trip to Coicoyán country, June 2007
Last week I joined the crew from To Every Tribe in Oaxaca, in the Coicoyán region of the mountains. It was an interesting trip getting there. The first day was spent traveling to and through the mountains to Oaxaca City, The second day I drove in the mountains to the town of Juxtlahuaca,. Upon arrival I went to the house of missionaries Martín and Karen Arroyo, and enjoyed playing a bit of music with their girls, who are learning guitar, and then went with Martín to the local jail for a bit of ministry before joining the To Every Tribe team. It was fun to tell them, “I would have been here sooner, but I had to wait for Martín to get me out of jail.”
The next day we drove over the mountains to the village of Jicaral, where we’ve done medical and dental clinics before. This time there was no hesitation on the part of the local folks to get in on the dental services we were bringing; they were waiting before the clinic could even get set up. We were grateful for the local translation help, because in this region we need double translation: from the local Mixteco dialect to Spanish, and from Spanish to English. We had enough Spanish speakers that we translators could spell each other off, and on the second day I had a good spiritual conversation with a man named Victor. I’ve never seen such spiritual receptivity there.
The third day the team split up, and Kirby Myer, Kevin and Jennifer Davis and family, and I went to the village of San Martín Pérez, where Raúl and Emily Castro are working. The next day Kirby, Raúl, Emily and I went on to the next village, San Juan del Rio, where Emily did a medical clinic, Kirby put in a long day fixing teeth, and I served as chauffer, translator, and dental assistant. We finished about 10 o’clock by candlelight, and then had a 40 minute drive up the mountain.
The last day we ran the clinic in San Martín Pérez, and while dental assisting and translating I had a great conversation with the mother of a 6-year-old; she said that her life had begun changing about 8 months back, and now she wanted to read and know more about the Bible. That evening we and some Bible school students from Ensenada were invited to a local home where Raúl is beginning to have Bible studies. The music once again was a universal language. The evening at the home ended with some really tough beef which had been soaked in a blazing hot chili gravy, as the Bible school students were telling riddles whose answers hung on puns in Spanish. I understood all but one, so there may be hope. (Why is Oseas [Hosea] the most “freso” book in the Bible? If you know, help!)
The Isuzu Trooper had its mountain trial, and was a real blessing to the team and to me. While we were doing the first ministry trip ever in San Juan del Rio, the rest of the team was opening up a new village, La Trinidad, several hours beyond Jicaral. The district medical official in San Martín Pérez gave us a formal letter of invitation to come back with whatever medical and dental help we might bring.
Above all, I’m thankful to God for the new openness and willingness to talk about spiritual things in those mountains. It is no doubt the work of God. He has laid it on the hearts of some few to live among the Coicoyán, others of us get to visit and minister, but I know that there are hundreds, if not thousands, of His people praying that God will open the hearts of these people to the grace of salvation that He has for us through Jesus Christ. All this medical effort is just a means of “making friends through mammon” (Luke 16:9), using the temporary skills and blessings that God has given us with eternal ends in view. We pray that, in That Day, many of the Coicoyán will be there with us in the eternal dwellings. Thanks for your prayers.
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