NTM

Well, Ron, Dan, and Irv made it off today.

They made it safely the first third of the way. The purpose of this trip is to pay for adobe bricks to build our houses and to meet with the head village to seek official permission to build and live in the village.

1.Please pray for our men. These trips are not easy on the body, there is much shaking and bumping as you crawl along the river-bed like road. Part of the trip is taken along the “Devil’s Spine”. As its name indicates, it is a relentless, tricky road with about 1200 switch-back curves in it.

2.Pray that the Lord would allow there to be NO opposition from the head village when they meet on Sunday May 26. The enemy does not want to allow these precious souls to come to the knowledge of the Savior. Pray that God’s will be done.

3.Pray for Sarah and me as we are continuing on with daily routines while the daddies are gone. Pray for the kids too. It is hard on them, but pray that we can be faithful to teach them about God and His purposes.

This is just a quick note on several important things.
  First, you may remember that last September a missionary pilot and airplane had been taken by the Mexican authorities. The pilot was shortly released and all charges dropped, but the plane was held… until yesterday!!! The process has finally run its course and the Lord saw fit that the plane be returned! Praise Him with us!
  Second, we are still waiting for the airstrip in our village to be opened up and things may be moving in that direction. Please keep praying that we can use it again soon, specifically for the end of this month. The reason for that is that the truck we normally use to drive in was involved in an accident and is not drivable. While Dan and I were staying with the Elkins in Durango we were hit by another car in an intersection and the rear end was knocked way out of line. So, thirdly, praise the Lord that none of us were seriously hurt. It could have been pretty bad.
  And finally, praise the Lord that Dan and I made it back from a successful trip into the village. We saw that 450 adobe bricks had been made for us and gladly paid for them (35 cents each)! That is only about 10 percent of what we need, but a start! We plan to go back at the end of this month, pay for more bricks and also visit the head village. Pray that the workers will have lots of bricks done and that we are received well in the head village.
Thanks again so much for your faithful prayers on our behalf!

Ron for the whole Nahuatl (Mexicanero) team!
(Ron, Tasha, Dan, Sarah, Tom, Teresa, Katie, Rachel, Benjamin, Emma, Joshua, Nathaniel and Josiah!)

Here is the latest e-mail update we received from the Elkins.  Thank you for keeping our team in prayer while they were on this trip!

Dear Prayer Team,

We returned safely on Tuesday February 24th. The overland trip went well accept for one small mishap on the way out. We met a state police truck on a narrow 4WD road in the mountains. There was no room for them to pass so I began to back up the hill. The passenger side tires dropped a bit over the edge on that side and of course the truck was heavily loaded. It could have slipped over further and then we would have been in real trouble. They helped us get it back on the road following about 30 minutes of work. We had no mechanical problems.

The dental equipment and generator functioned well. We served 72 people during the week and did 225 procedures including 99 fillings, 69 extractions, and 28 root canals.

Late one night, a family brought us their pregnant 15 year-old on a stretcher. She was 6 months along and had begun to bleed. We of course knew very little about what to do except to pray and make sure she rested and kept off her feet. Following prayer, the family took her home. That night she lost the baby but seemed okay. Teresa and Sarah went over to visit her in the morning and were a great encouragement to the family.

Our meeting on the 22nd with “La Providencia” was canceled as they met both days before dealing with other issues. We will most likely meet with them the end of April. God is sovereign and His timing is perfect.

Thanks for standing with us so faithfully. Your prayers are making a difference. We will continue to keep you informed.

God bless,

Tom & Teresa

We have been getting word periodically from the team this week and most of the news is good, but there are a couple of things to pray about:

Sarah had some of her own teeth worked on and has been experiencing quite a bit of pain.  Pray that it gets better quickly and not take the fun out of her first visit to the village.

Paul, the dentist, has been working long hours.  Pray that he can keep up the pace and still enjoy the trip

A pregnant lady in the village just lost her baby.  Pray that the team could be a comfort to her.

Keep in mind the meeting on Sunday the 22nd when we will confirm the permission to build in the village.  Pray that the team can get safely down to the meeting and pray that the meeting goes well.

Thank you!

Dear Friends and Partners,

Greetings from sunny Chihuahua! Wow! So much has happened since our last update, I hardly know where to begin! For starters, we are still living here in Chihuahua, Mexico, and still looking towards a move into a tribe. That day is now closer than ever, in spite of the barriers between us and a ministry with the people of “Las Moras.” The Lord has been tumbling those barriers down, one after another, as we placed them into His sovereign hands.

Teammates:
Our first barrier has been the need for partners. And not just anyone willing, but rather, missionaries whose gifts and abilities would fill in our “skill gaps,” complement our fledgling team and help see a strong, vibrant New Testament church planted. The goal has been to add two more couples or families to the team.

Answer!
In October Dan and Sarah Alkire and their son Josiah joined the team! They bring with them diversity, energy and a strong desire to serve the Lord. Over the last few months our families have grown close and we are all looking forward to living and working together in the remote village.

Elementary School:
Another barrier has been the question of how our kids will be schooled. They are all too young to be sent to the boarding school and Tasha and Sarah, though willing to home school them, would like to dedicate as much time as they can to language study.

Answer!
Last month the Lord answered that need in the person of Katie “Tater” Moore. She is a certified teacher, the daughter of missionaries, grew up in Latin America and is extremely excited about the opportunity of teaching missionary’s kids! She will live along with us in the tribe and be our 1st, 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th grade teacher! She is currently living in Missouri and is planning to come down next month to spend some time with the team as we make plans for living in the tribe.

Transportation:
In August a new, unexpected barrier sprang up between us and the tribe. The Mexican government, in an effort to stop drug smuggling, has restricted public use of all the small, remote airstrips throughout the region. As an undesired effect, the easy access that we have enjoyed getting to the tribe has ended. The trip by air is only about 50 minutes, but by road it is around 15 hours. Yes, I said, “hours.” So now we need 4-wheel drive vehicles to take our families in and out and to get supplies; a financial strain we weren’t expecting.

Answers!
Upon hearing of the dilemma, Sarah Alkire’s dad offered them a 4-wheel drive Ford diesel pick-up for a great deal! One of their supporting churches offered to cover the price, so now all they need to do is get up to Missouri, prep it a bit for driving in Mexico and bring it in!

As for our family, God hasn’t overlooked us. A fellow missionary family has a Suburban that is in good shape that they have offered to give to us for our ministry! They are still using it, but by the end of summer they will sign it over to us.

Permission to live in the village:
Historically, the Indian tribes of Mexico have been very resistant to outsiders and permission to live among them difficult, if not impossible, to obtain. One advantage we have is that our partners, Tom and Teresa Elkins, have been working among the tribe for over a decade and have established a good reputation with people.

Answer! (at least, more than halfway)
In January we presented our written proposal to the tribe. It was received very well and given a positive response. This Sunday we will follow up with a visit to the head village (different from the one where we will be living) to finalize the request. We have been assured that there will be no problems with this final step. One fellow in the village has even begun to make the adobe bricks we will need to build our homes!

Present:
This week the Elkins, Alkires and a dentist from Washington State will be in the tribe doing our 4th dental clinic. This is Sarah and Josiah’s first visit to the village; a very exciting time for them. Dan will also be taking in two metal molds for making adobe bricks. He will leave them with whoever he can hire to begin making the roughly 10,000 mud bricks that we will need for our houses. On Sunday the 22nd they will confirm with local leaders their willingness for us to begin building!

What a great testimony it is to watch how God is leading the way! We still have a future of unknowns to prepare for, but we can move forward with confidence that the Creator of the universe is going before us… and with us!

“For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8:38-39

Thank you for the important and encouraging part you play in our lives and ministry.

Love in Christ,

Ron, Tasha, Benjamin, Emma, Joshua and Nathaniel Davis

“Where He leads me I will follow, what He feeds me I will swallow,” was my thought as I laboriously swallowed the first bites.

“Lord, I know this is an honor. Please help me to honor those who have provided it,” I silently prayed, as the next bite convulsed down my throat. I finally finished the meal of tuna, tomatoes and homemade tortillas with relief, grateful that the Lord had helped me overcome my embarrassing squeamishness. The food was actually quite tasty, but for me, eating unfamiliar food in a dark, dirty room while watching cockroaches chase each other across the wall turns my throat into an uncooperative knot.  My partners, Dan and Tom, both missionary kids having grown up in third world countries, wolfed the food down with gusto. (Obviously, life’s challenges come in different forms for different people.)

We were spending the last evening in the home of “Tony”, a respected elder of the community. He had offered to feed us in a clear gesture of hospitality and generosity, which we gladly accepted. Our spirits were riding high as we left his house thinking of the success of this trip into the community.

Two days before we had presented to them a formal request to live and work among them, which they received and accepted. It was an event we had been anticipating since our first visit over a year ago and it was a huge relief to see it pass with such success. Now we only have a meeting with the head village next month before we earnestly begin preparing to move in.

“Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set His seal on Him.” John 6:27