Dear Family and Friends, November 2008
Thank you for praying. I have to say that this village trip has been one of the most encouraging, productive, and enjoyable of them all. That's saying a lot because God has done awesome and marvelous things on each and every trip we've ever made.
The main purpose of this trip was to attend the Biannual Christian Cora Gathering in Santa Teresa. The Byers family, missionaries who have ministered to the Coras for over 40 years, are the driving force behind this reunion. They invited me to teach a class on Cora literacy. With the Gospel of St. Mark in Santa Teresa Cora in my hand, I began by recognizing Ponciano, who made a major contribution in helping translate the Gospel of Mark, enabling it to be published. I asked him to read the parable of the sower in chapter 4. He read the Cora text in front of the whole group and then commented on the importance of being able to read the Cora scriptures. Cora Pastor Aniceto spoke about the challenge of learning to read. I told the group the entire New Testament would soon be available in their mother tongue and stressed the importance of reading and using it in their church services. I was sowing seeds and trusting God to sprout and cause them to grow. The next day at the Sunday church service, Rick Byers asked Ponciano to read again in Cora from the Gospel of St. Mark. More seeds were planted.
Rick was piloting his uncle's Cessna 182 and flying people from Gavilanes and Jesus Maria to the reunion and then back to their homes afterwards. He invited me to go along on the last flight to Gavilanes as there was an empty seat. It was great to be in the air again over Cora country. He let me pilot the plane for about 10 minutes on the trip back from Gavilanes. Wow, it was exciting! He's keeping the plane in La Paz, Baja California, for 6 months and plans to fly to Santa Teresa about once a month. And he has offered to fly to Tepic to pick me up when he makes a village trip. I see this as a great opportunity to get to the village much more often than I've been able to in past years and encourage the believers.
After the conference, I spent a couple of days with Pastor Aniceto and his family, and worked with his son Mario. Mario told me that during the literacy course that Bev and Joshua and Gene and Betty Casad held a year ago, he read through the entire Gospel of Santa Teresa Cora Mark. He learned to read quite well and indeed is a very impressive young man with musical talent and self-initiative. In less than 2 days Mario and I proof-read all the new stories I had with me, 12 in all. I asked Pastor Aniceto if he would have Ponciano and Mario read every Sunday from the Gospel of St. Mark for 10 minutes while the rest follow along in their books. He said he would and after the reader finishes, he will comment and expound on the text. Then Mario said to me: "When we read the Scriptures in Spanish, the women do not understand, so then we explain in Cora what was read. But when we read the Scriptures in Cora, everyone understands immediately." My heart leaped with joy to hear this simple yet profound declaration of truth coming from the heart of the pastor's son. This is a huge milestone. We are seeing the Lord sprout seeds and start to grow what has been planted over many years.
I was able to get 3 of the 4 needed signatures of Cora authors who have written stories I have been working on in past months. I will be able to go ahead with publishing 11 Cora literacy books. An example can be viewed at: http://www.sil.org/mexico/corachol/corasantateresa/L118-Alfabeto-cok.htm. If you scroll down and click on "para ver en la computadora" the Cora alphabet booklet should load on your computer.
Our house in the village was in good shape, but I was shocked to discover that one of the solar panel's glass front was broken. I was told a strong wind blew the panels over and one hit a big rock. Thankfully it is functioning about as well as the others and there was no water or condensation under the glass. The batteries were still working, but for only about 45 minutes of lights at night. After I cleaned and replaced some cables and terminals, the time increased to 3-4 hours.
I was very happy to see that Catarino has completed his brick house. Bev, Josh and I hosted a YWAM team in 2006 and we helped build the foundation. The house will serve him and his wife Chona for many years to come. Are you wondering about Red Ox? Our faithful truck easily made the 900 mile round-trip journey and survived one of the most vicious hail storms of my life. It dumped large marble-sized hailstones and rained for hours. I noticed that Red Ox took on a few small dents from the hail. Four wheel drive was a blessing for a few days after the storm.
Prayer:
We are thankful to God for all He has enabled us to do. We need prayer for God's divine protection on our family. Diana has been with us here in Manzanillo since June and is planning to go back to Cottey College in January 2009. Please pray that she will regain all she needs for excellent health, confidence, and motivation. Bev and I want to have peace and confidence that she is ready to resume the challenge of college life and developing a career for herself. Pray that we will continue to have the needed monthly income to meet all our expenses of family and ministry. Pray that the believers in Santa Teresa will be faithful to read the Cora scriptures every Sunday service.
Praise
We have made excellent progress this year on the translation and literacy. We have very good relationships with the people in the village. Praise God for Servando's hard work and steadfastness in reading through the New Testament. He is over 60% towards finishing. It was such an encouragement to see how God has moved in the hearts of the Cora believers in Santa Teresa. We are so thankful for you, our wonderful partners who respond to God's leading to pray and give.
Our love in Christ as we serve together,
Don and Bev Roth and family
Financial gifts may be sent to:
Wycliffe Bible Translators
PO Box 628200
Orlando Florida 32862
website: http://rothtranslation.org
email: don_roth@sil.org