MBMS International. Transforming Lives In Mission

Blaine Warner loves airplanes. He received his pilot’s license before his driver’s license, and he always knew that he wanted to be a commercial airline pilot one day. But combined with his desire to fly were also nudging, recurring thoughts about Africa – thoughts that began when he became a Christian at a young age.

Dear friends,

I just came back from Yuvinani, Guerrero. I haven't been out there very often these last years. It's a long story, but the short of it is that the small church there has done very little to reach out to its townspeople, let alone the dozens of villages all around. Why? In part because it adopted a city model of church, in an incredibly remote and indigenous area.

I remember back when Alfonso, whom I discipled from 1995-1998, wanted something different. At that time I was visiting him every two weeks, teaching him carpentry and mentoring him in church leadership. He was the only leader to stay behind when the rest took off to the US to work. It was in those years that we translated leadership training materials into Mixtec, week by week taking one or two out to put into practice in Yuvinani. Alfonso was eagerly discipling others and exploring ways of keeping church indigenous.

Then in '98 the men of the church returned, bringing with them an insistent need to look like a traditional city church, and they sidelined Alfonso, ignoring his sacrifice in staying behind and barely getting by while they worked for American dollars. Perhaps this doesn't justify Alfonso's spiritual cooling, but it does put it into perspective. He slowly went into a ten year sleep, eventually not bothering to attend services. He suffered some traumatic family setbacks, too, including the disappearance of his eldest, adopted son, Rey.

This April, God woke him up. He started sharing the Good News with new people in the village, and a few of these began meeting with him. Now he wants to start reaching out into the neighbouring villages, too. He dug up the old studies we did years ago and is using them to disciple five young family men. He has started a new baby church!

The problem, as you can imagine, is that the other church leaders accuse Alfonso of splitting their church. Feelings have been bad between the two groups. So while I (there were a few other "outside" leaders, too) was in Yuvinani, we had a time of reconciliation, talking the situation over and praying together. The men forgave each other and agreed to greet one another, once again, as brothers. But Alfonso doesn't want to rejoin the "old" church. I'm not sure of all his motives, but he's adamant that he can't go on under the old leadership. Is there a right time for a Mixtec leader to leave a church, even when it's the only church in town? Alfonso's family has followed him into the new group, but Alfonso has been careful to urge any old members not to join him. He wants to work with new people. I don't know. Maybe this is the only way that new growth is going to happen in Yuvinani. That's certainly what Anne and I have been begging God for during the last sixteen years!

Alfonso and I talked about the opportunities all around him, and how discipling is not only the New Testament model, but the only real way to spread the Gospel from village to village. More than two hundred villages dot the mountains around Yuvinani, and only a handful have any Christian witness. That's a lot of need, and no one man can meet that. Alfonso has to reproduce, through disciples to other disciples, until the whole area has heard of the Good News.

We hold our breath to see what will happen in Yuvinani with Alfonso. It seems too good to be true, that after all this time, new churches might be planted in the Guerrero mountains. I intend to visit him at least every two months over the next year to encourage and provide what I can to the mix. Please pray that, by God's grace, this dream of all of ours would finally come true.

Blessings, Robert.

Hello to everyone,

We are now in our new house, in a new neighbourhood. Although moving is no fun at all, (we have now lived in three houses since we moved to Thailand) we are really excited about being here. The atmosphere of this neighbourhood is so different than the last place we lived. I have already had some great talks with our neighbours across the street. They run a little restaurant out of their front yard and have told me that they are interested in talking about Jesus. But please be praying, because they are very Buddhist. It became very apparent to me the other day that it needs to be the power of God that changes lives. As our neighbour, Sanyaa, started talking, his speech got faster and not as clear, and he started using words that I don't know yet, and was talking about philosophies that I am not familiar with. But God didn't seem worried at all. He just told me to faithfully and lovingly tell what I know about Jesus. He will take care of the rest. Then the Lord showed me something else. Even if I was speaking english and was talking about things I am fully familiar with, it still is all about the power of God. Of course we all know this, but what often happens is that when we get in a situation that we are "comfortable" with, we rely more on our strength than on God. But nothing is accomplished this way. My aim, my goal, is that no matter what situation or language or topic, I would depend on God in the same way that I need to with our neighbours.

We also praise God that the Toews family has safely arrived in Phuket. They will begin teaching our kids next week. Yahoo!!!

With all our love,
The Klassen family