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The recent tropical storm Ramon caused a lot of damage to hundreds of towns in Mexico, and upset thousands of lives. One of the worst hit regions of Oaxaca, Mexico was San Juan Tepanzacoalco of San Pedro Yarani. The children’s home where my wife and I help care for dozens of kids, also has outreach programs and missionaries in different parts of Oaxaca. Tepanzacoalco is one of those areas.
The heavy rains and high winds caused a lot of mudslides in this mountainous region, which destroyed many homes and cause two deaths. People living in the hills had to move into downtown and live for awhile on the municipal basketball court, fearing that their house could be the next one washed down the mountain. These people needed food and blankets and our ministry, FFHM, was there to help. Our administrator, Johnny, and outreach directors, Yadira and Esteban, along with volunteers from the children’s home, drove six hours to deliver warm blankets and lots of food to all the people that were suffering in this community. They did good!
The apostle Peter writes about doing good:
“Repay evil with good, because to this you were called.” (3:9)
“Turn from evil and do good.” (3:11)
“Who is going to harm you if you are eager to do good?” (3:13)
“It is better, if it is God’s will, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil.” (3:17)
“So then, those who suffer according to God’s will should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good.” (4:19)
It’s obviously important to Peter’s way of thinking to do good. But what does he have in mind when he writes of “doing good”?
We get a good idea by reading the rest of his letter. He mentions doing the will of God in 4:2. He says, “love each other deeply” in 4:8. He tells his readers to “use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace” in 4:10, and “serve others with the with the strength God provides” in verse 11.
Doing good seems to be about loving and serving others. Helping those in need. Looking for those in need and asking ourselves how we can be the answer, or at least part of the answer to whatever problems they may be facing. Some need a hand out; others need a hand up. Some are close and others might be half a world a way. Some people may be suffering from a one time catastrophe, like 9/11 or hurricane Ida, and others from a life long addiction or malady. There are 101 ways we can do good today and this week. Sometimes it isn’t pleasant to good. We are not always “eager to do good”. Many times we need to go out of our way to help. It can cost us financially, emotionally or drain our time, but as another great apostle said once, “let us not grow weary in doing good.” (Galatians 6:9)
I think about that quote by John Maxwell almost everyday. I first heard him say it a few years back when the staff at the home for needy children here in Oaxaca, Mexico, would meet once a month to watch leadership videos. Usually I didn’t take notes at these video presentations, but John Maxwell was a quote machine, and I couldn’t stop my note taking. Now, I don’t remember most of his quotes, but this one has stayed with me-
“Anything worthwhile is uphill.”
I think of it almost everyday, because I experience it almost everyday. I am the gardener here at the mission, and it’s not an easy job, especially with all the rain that we have received lately. We have about 8 acres of land, that for the last 16 years I have been trying to convert to a garden. Mostly by myself, although I am extremely grateful for the help that visiting groups from the U.S. and Canada have given me over the years, as well as the help I occasionally receive from the teen boys who live here.
I believe that God loves us and enables us to thrive and relish life most by investing our lives in Making Beauty, Doing Good and Living Truth. For me, Making Beauty consists of digging out thorn bushes with five foot roots; cutting down weeds that are taller than I am; fighting ants that can eat every leaf off a bush or tree overnight; mowing and weed-whacking grass that seems to grow twice as fast as I can cut it; and dealing with children who think it great fun to beat rose bushes and geraniums to smithereens. I have to constantly remind myself that “anything worthwhile is uphill!”
For me, Doing Good means helping the children here at the mission in a dozen different ways, from driving them to school, to assisting my wife in the nursery with the toddlers, to going into town and buying food and supplies.
For me, Living Truth means primarily reading, studying and meditating on the Bible, then sharing the Truth with my family, the Mission and the men at the rehabilitation center.
As I have been pondering the notion that “anything worthwhile is uphill“, I have also come to the realization that the reverse (or other side of the tortilla, as my Mexican wife would say) is also true. In other words, “anything not worthwhile is downhill.”
It is possible for us to waste a lot of time and forfeit the flourishing that God intends for us by doing things that are easy, entertaining, and fun, but that make no positive lasting impact on our lives or our world. Things that do not make the world a more beautiful place, or do good to anyone, or share gospel truth. I think of things like streaming Netflix series, watching sports, obsessing about politics and news, or twitter feeds, Instagram pics and Facebook, just to name a few.
When I look back on my life when I lived in the United States, I realize that I wasted a lot of time on worthless things; some of the things I mentioned above. I could have been Making Beauty and Doing Good and sharing Truth, but instead I delighted on the “downhill” things of life that brought me pleasure, but didn’t result in the betterment of my life or anyone elses life.
So, now I spend my days trudging uphill, Making Beauty, Doing Good, Living Truth-shunning most of the “downhill” distractions like social media, sports broadcasts, tv series, movies and the news, and I couldn’t be happier. Can you believe it? You could if you tried it.
“Let us not grow weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.” Galatians 6:9
When we pray the Lord’s Prayer, we pray for heaven on earth. We ask God that his holiness be revealed, his kingdom come and his will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Foundation For His Ministry is God’s hands and feet in Oaxaca, bringing a little bit of heaven down to earth in this southern Mexican state. God’s will is to make beauty, do good and to share truth. Those of us working here at the Home For Needy Children strive everyday, with God’s help, to do just that.
First, we love the children. I came to the children’s home in March of 2005, before there were any children here. They began arriving in July of that year and have been coming ever since. For 14 years I have seen them coming through our doors scared, confused, not knowing what to expect. Most of them have known little of beauty, goodness and truth. They are welcomed with open arms and bright smiles. They soon come to appreciate the beauty of the gardens, the art work all around and the architecture. From day one they experience the goodness of healthy food, clean clothes and a comfortable bed. (A ten year old girl recently came to live here and she was given some new clothes to replace her dirty, worn out clothes. She exclaimed that she had no money to pay for the clothes and couldn’t believe they were free, just a part of living at the Childrens Home.) Most importantly they hear the Gospel Truth about a God who loves them and gave himself for them. Their lives will never be the same, and I am filled with joy and gratitude to God that I get to be a part of that transformation. A day never goes by when I don’t look at one or more of the children and think of what misery their lives would have been without this place.
It also makes me happy to think about all the outreach that FFHM is doing in this poverty filled state (Oaxaca is the fourth poorest state in Mexico). We don’t want to be like the Dead Sea that only takes in and never gives out. It is our intention to be more like the Sea of Galilee that not only takes in the blessings of God, but is also giving out. We have missionaries living in remote mountain regions of Oaxaca, most experiencing persecution, like Modesto in Amoltepec, Maria Villa Pablo and Tere in Juxtlahuaca, Glenda and Manuel in Huajuapan. They are sharing the Gospel, and their lives with people who would otherwise not hear the Truth and be saved.
We also go to local prisons. David and Louis go to preach and teach the Good News to the least and the lost. I give English classes to those behind bars who want to prepare for a better life when they get out. Edgar and the kids distribute hygienic materials to those in the psychiatric ward who never receive visitors, to those who no one seems to care about. We care.
Pablo cares a lot about people going through drug and alcohol rehabilitation and ministers frequently in centers for rehabilitation.
The teenage boys and Ceferino, from the mission, go to the local hospital Tuesday evenings with fresh pastries, hot coffee, a warm smile, and an encouraging word- doing good to those who wait anxiously while family members are being given medical care. The youth group partners with other local youth groups to celebrate Christ in word and song, bringing the message of hope to disillusioned and troubled teens.
Christian and his wife Yazmin, the maintenance man and a cook at the mission, started a church in a community that had no evangelical presence. He tends to his little flock on his days off.
God is using FFHM to bring light and life to a dark Oaxaca that is dead in trespasses and sin. It is doing good to the downcast, oppressed and fatherless. It is sharing truth with those deceived by the world, the flesh and the devil. It is a beautiful thing.
We rejoice and are glad that God is using us to bring a little bit of heaven to earth, in Oaxaca, Mexico. I am thankful that I get to be a part of that.
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Next week, Foundation For His Ministry’s Home For Needy Children in Oaxaca, Mexico, will celebrate twenty years of existence. Twenty years of helping the poorest of the poor. Two decades of making disciples, of meeting the physical, emotional and educational needs of children who have been abandoned, abused and neglected. Casa Hogar (as it is called in Spanish) has been following God’s call and God’s example of making beauty, sharing truth and doing good.
Twenty years ago this 14 acre plot of land in the Tlacolula Valley was nothing but a half finished building and a lot of big thorn bushes. Now it is a place of beauty, with many gardens and wonderful architecture.
Twenty years ago leaders of Foundation For His Ministry began sharing truth with people of the region. The indigenous people like the Zapotecs, Mixes, Mixtecs, as well as native Mexicans heard the Good News that God loves them and wants them to be happy; that Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life; that through Jesus they can have peace with God and live an abundant, eternal life. Oaxacans from pre-school age to old age heard the truth about life and death; good and bad; heaven and hell. Pastors and missionaries went into area prisons and remote mountain villages preaching hope, restoration and renewal to those who felt hopeless, helpless and lost. Children from the Home learned and continue to be taught the truth of God and his Word in morning devotions, Sunday School, church services and youth conferences. They learn the truth of God’s World in our primary school called Oasis. They also hear and apply truths at special events like swim camps and at mountain retreats.
Twenty years ago, missionaries from FFHM came to Oaxaca with a vision of doing good. A vision of feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, healing the sick and taking in the stranger. For two decades servants of Christ have been cooperating with God, FFHM, local and regional authorities to make a difference in the Kingdom of God and Oaxaca’s seven regions. Doing good by meeting felt needs, and more importantly, meeting the deep spiritual needs of people in southern Mexico who are walking in darkness. FFHM has been bringing the Light of Life to thousands of lost souls for these last twenty years, and, God willing, for the next 20 years and more.
Sometimes I wonder if people read accounts like this and think that we must be some sort of Super Hero Christian Saints. We are not super hero Christian saints. We are just ordinary people doing ordinary things following an extraordinary God as best we can. God has opened our eyes to certain needs and we clumsily walk along the path that God has put before us to travel. We are sinners who have been forgiven. We are beggars who have found some bread and share with other beggars. We do the best we can to love God with all our being and love our neighbors as ourselves, and we fail mightily everyday. We hope to find God’s strength in our weakness. We pray for grace in our times of need, which are often. We could all easily pray the prayer of Saint Thomas A Kempis in his classic book The Imitation of Christ –
O God,
Deal with us according to your loving-kindness,
not according to our wickedness and iniquity.
We offer unto you all our goodness,
though it is exceedingly little and imperfect,
that you may mend and sanctify it,
that you may make it well pleasing and acceptable in your sight,
and ever draw it on towards perfection;
and furthermore bring us safely,
slothful and useless poor creatures that we are,
to a happy and blessed end.
May we feel ourselves assisted by your grace, enriched by consolation,
protected from dangers, freed from pains;
and that being delivered from all evils
we may joyfully give you exceeding thanks.
Pardon our sins and mutual offenses.
Take away, O Lord, from our hearts all suspicion,
indignation, anger, and contention,
and whatsoever is able to injure charity and diminish brotherly love.
Give grace to the needy,
and make us such that we may be worthy to enjoy your grace,
and go forward to the life eternal.
Amen.
To Enjoy God 