February Update

Dear Friends,

   We pray you are well and walking with Jesus this Year of the Lord’s Favor. The Lord has Big Kingdom Building Plans for Padre’s School this coming year, but first, praises for some of His many blessings.

• Jesus transforming the hearts of these kids in the Sierra Madres. His Word and His example are life changing, we see Him in the work, study, smiles, and laughter of our students and we praise the Lord! Two student leaders, Inocencio and Lucio, are leading devotions and eager to learn more about Jesus and the Word. We are beginning to see fruit.  John 15

• For the warm clothing and personal hygiene items sent by loving hearts and hands here in Mexico and from friends in the US.  Our everyday “take it for granted” stuff is a big deal in these parts – thanks!

• For OCS Army buddies from 50 years ago, battle tested men of strong faith, who tracked us down and started sending support for the school. They are brothers in arms, more importantly brothers in Christ - an encouraging, humbling reminder that God has our back on this eternal journey. Gracias Hermanos.

• For Jay Tenbrink coming alongside the school in so many ways, recently organizing two Samaritans’ Purse outreaches – for the school, and another for friends across the canyon in Cangrejo.

• For Felix and Yolanda Cedillo, son Jose, friend Isaias, and longtime friend Carl Borne for driving a van full of wonderful supplies down from the border only to blow their transmission, spending the night on a mountain top before we could we come to the rescue.  Thanks to Fanny and Buddy and all of our dear friends in south Texas. May the adventures and the blessings continue forever.

• For your faithful prayer and material support, for being “the Church” as often taught by Jesus and his radical friends.  What a blast. Thank you for sharing your blessings. Praise the Lord!

• Thank you and the good Lord, we continue to meet our fishes and loaves budget. We are at $20 per student per month, watching the kids grow like weeds with good nutrition, and paying the teachers to boot! Up at 5:00 AM in bed at 9:00 PM lots of Jesus and character building in between. The real deal.

Please pray the Lord’s Favor upon Big Kingdom Plans that only He can accomplish.


   Santos and all of the School team are planning a Holy Week Retreat before Easter for the students. It will combine adventure and focus on Christ.  Please pray with us that the Holy Spirit will open the hearts of all of the students to accept Jesus as Savior and Lord. Matthew 19

  
   Join us in prayer for the Lord’s hand upon the formation of a body of believers here in Mesa del Nayar and in Cangrejo.  We know there is great need. Please pray for a miraculous moving of the Holy Spirit that will set many captives free.  Isaiah 61

   Please pray for equipping and provision for the Jay and Faith Tenbrink family move to Mesa del Nayar.

   Pray His provision - we need to improve classroom space with a new building. Santos has arranged donations for design, most materials, and engineering/ technical support. Over the next year we are praying to raise $25,000+ to cover the labor and incidentals. Thank you for your presence in ministry with our Lord, may He richly bless you.



Christmas Newsletter

Dear Friends,

We pray a joyful Christmas and a blessed New Year for you and yours. We pray in gratitude for the prayers and blessings with which you have graced us, and our shared work in the Lord here in Mexico. 

Teresa Ramirez was 15 years old and attending Padre’s mission school when her Father was ambushed and murdered by drunken neighbors jealous of his ranching success. There wasn’t much law in the Sierras at that time, but eventually justice was done. Not however, until after her Mother was forced off the home place, the cattle stolen, and the family left destitute. Life is difficult everywhere, it is often brutal in remote areas of the Sierras. But Teresa was tough, a survivor, and with Padre Pascual’s example became a follower of Jesus.

Now, twenty years later, Teresa is teaching at the Albergue Fray Pascual, raising an adopted son as a single parent, and is an active member of the Albergue Association Board. She is also closing in on finishing her PhD. in Human Development. She is loving, focused, committed, and competent - a great example for students and staff at the school, as she teaches her primary class of 12 to 15, 6 to 9 year old students.  The other day she asked the students in her class what they would like to be when they grew up.  Every single one of the boys enthusiastically said they wanted to be narco-traffickers because they drive new trucks and have lots of money. Now there is a Merry Christmas reality check.  

Sure they’re just kids. When I was their age I wanted to be like Gene Autry, and Collette wanted to be a ballet dancer - didn’t happen.  But at least we had positive dreams.  What do these little guys and gals have to look forward to without the help of people like Teresa?  Not much.  Here’s another problem. Teresa can’t afford to stay and teach because she has a family to raise and a degree to finish.  Two years of working for nothing, because she cares, hasn’t helped her financial situation. The Albergue needs more people like Teresa, and they need to be paid a living wage. Not much by our U.S. standards, $200 a month does the job for a licensed teacher up here. 

There is good news. For every one of the younger students figuring out their dream, there are older students who are well on their way to understanding that Jesus is the Way the Truth and the Life. Make no mistake, they are still vulnerable teens with all that that implies. Yet we are excited for their futures because they are receiving and responding to the Word.  God promises His Word never returns empty. God is developing His eternal Kingdom right here, right now.  Joy to the world, the King has come!

Thanks for all of your help, we deeply appreciate you.  Feliz Navidad y Prospero Ano Nuevo!

Tom and Collette

 

 Teresa with a few of her students.

November Newsletter

Dear Family,


We pray this note finds you all in good health and in the joy of the Lord. Another month has passed and we see Jesus working daily in our midst. The students are hearing and responding to the word of God in the morning and evening Bible devotions, and are memorizing scripture in English and Bible study classes. We have noticed physical growth in many of the children, because they have more fruits, vegetables, and protein in their diet. Many thanks for the finances allowing the purchase of more than rice and beans!


We lost a young teacher named Wendy who was responsible for the first level secondary class. She was a former student of the school, is a new mom living away from her husband who lives in a pueblo hours away. She understandably chose to return to him, so Collette is now teaching Math, Geography and Reading along with English and Art. Alicia, the woman full time cooking for the school, is a gem and has offered to teach Spanish and History. There are about 28 kids in this class at four levels of ability. Please join us in prayer for financial provision for teacher compensation.
One family has four children attending the school, three of the four were born in the US. They lived in Colorado for 5 or 6 years, imagine the changes they have endured. The eldest, Ricardo, will be eligible for high school after another year here. He would like to return to the US for that education. We would like to help him by finding a host family. He is a hard worker, a student leader, and an excellent student as well. We have over a year to prepare, please pray that doors will open for his dream.


Now for an answer to prayer. Mexico Public Television sent a crew to the school to shoot a documentary focused on the power plays by the local Catholic Bishop. It will be a two part series that we will post on our website with English subtitles - God does work in mysterious ways! Our good friend Jay Tenbrink rebuilt our website www.intothemountains.org , he is also building a web site for the school. In addition, the municipal president of Tepic made a visit this past week and expressed interest in helping the school. There are growing possibilities for financial support from Mexican resources for the school.


As we look to the year end, we would ask you to prayerfully consider an additional gift for our ministry here in Mexico. We so appreciate the one time gifts, and all of you who continue with monthly giving and much needed prayers for health, safety, emotional strength, and courage to continue serving in these areas of spiritual darkness. We are very grateful and blessed by each of you. Our best wishes to you and your family during Thanksgiving and Christmas. God is so very good to us in America, we are blessed beyond our knowing. May the peace and grace of Jesus flow through you.


Our love and deep affection,


Tom and Collette Beytien

July Newsletter

Dear Friends,

We pray this note finds you well and blessed in our Lord Jesus Christ. Time is flying, and we are eager to get feet on the ground with our friends in Nayarit, where we will live and serve at the school in La Mesa for the school year. Collette will be returning with intermediate Spanish and will prosper as she teaches English and Bible studies. I, on the other hand, will form a class of one at the lowest remedial Spanish level possible - undoubtedly the least equipped and most poorly prepared for this work God has placed before us. We do trust completely in the Lord, and he is so faithful!

Good news from Albergue Fray Pascual, Santos has shared with us that there are twelve young men and women testing for scholarships to continue in advanced education. The school has performed admirably with an average attendance approaching 120 students daily. Our primary goal is to help the Albergue continue to strengthen as a beacon of light. We know the life changing benefit these children and their families receive through the school and we praise God.

Thank you for your prayer, prayer changes things. Please continue to pray that the $500 a month we send to feed the children may be at least tripled in the coming year. Our goal is to raise $15 per month to feed, house, and care for each residential student. In a perfect world a total of$30,000 a year would cover operating expenses, maintenance, and staff salaries. We believe these are eternal investments with eternal rewards, for both the children, and for those of us who convert their earthly treasure to the realm of heaven. We trust in the Lord.

Jay and Faith Tenbrink are heading back to Mexico as this letter is being written. They will begin a full time focus on Christian outreach in the mountains. Joining them in their work will be friends from Centro Cristiano in Cofradia. We are very privileged to join the work God directs with the people of the Sierra in Nayarit. Please pray that many are led to the redeeming love and grace of Jesus.

Thank you again for your prayers and provisional support. We need all the help we possibly can get for this work. The school provides a powerful witness of the life transforming power of Jesus Christ to the mountain people. We would treasure the opportunity to meet with you and personally share our gratitude for you friendship, please call or email us as you are able.

May the Lord richly bless you, our love in Christ,

Tom and Collette

February Newsletter

Reflections on La Mesa trip February 1, 2015

This trip to la Mesa was a burden of trepidation to some degree on my part. I was really concerned that we would find that the school was under great duress and struggling to continue, which we found to be true.  Yet the reality we discovered was a blessed deep breath of fresh air.  There were plenty of difficulties apparent, but that they were being faithfully dealt with on a daily basis with wonderful result.  We were grateful to see nearly 100 students being cared for by Santos de la Cruz and his staff of graduates, certainly operating with great faith as they continued the work of Padre Pascual with very little in the way of financial or material support.  The days we spent with Santos and the students were productive and enlightening, full of insight as to the direction of the school as well as in defining many ways we can help both spiritually and physically.

God continues the work in beautiful ways and is clearly defining a new independence from the constrictions and power struggles imposed by the Catholic Church. Months our friend school and current school director Santos had warned us that the Bishop intended to close the school and use the facility for other purposes.  Upon Padre’s death, an Alumni Association was formed explicitly for the purpose of continuing Padre’s work- spiritual and functional education for the Cora, Huichol, Mexicanaro, and Tepehuan students.  This turned out to be a stroke of genius as the intentions of the Catholic Diocese became known, had there not been a legal entity prepared to assume responsibility for the operation of the school it would by now be closed.  The combined abilities of the alumni prevented closure, and they currently continue to strengthen the legal status as they work to form an educational non-profit corporation.   In addition, the entire battle was waged with the allied support of Cora Tribal leadership, who own the ground upon which the school is built, and demanded that the school must continue without the Catholic Church.

These developments are astounding in that the Catholic Church with its’ considerable resource base is usually all powerful and adept at getting what it wants.  There is palpable discontent with Catholicism as a result of these battles, since funding for the school was never provided by the Church itself, rather through generous gifts from Catholic patrons.  These families and individuals were pressured by the Bishop to cease support, and have obeyed completely, thus attempting to terminate 45 years of freedom through education begun by  the Padre.  This has resulted in school alumni disillusionment with the Church, but no diminishment of faith in the leading of Christ.  They clearly sense the hand of God directing them to continue the work begun by Padre Pascual.  

 With independence from the Church and the absence of Padre comes an unsurprising void in spiritual direction and leadership.  As director, Santos has a strong desire to continue in the tradition of Christ leading the way.  He has extended an invitation to assist the school in development of Bible study.  We are ecstatic for this opportunity, it represents an amazing continuation of Padres’ evangelism.  The openness to further study also opens the possibility of a new venue of shared discipleship with the fellowship of Centro Cristiano Church in Cofradia at the base of the mountains.  This is a great new focus of ministry for those equipped to share the love of Christ in discipleship.  We believe a great work of the Lord is upon the school and the peoples of the Sierra Madres’.

October Newsletter

Dearest Friends and Family,

We pray you are blessed in the fullness of Jesus Christ, that in Him your joy knows no bounds; that His peace is with you in every circumstance.  We write today to share news of our continuing work in Mesa del Nayar, Nayarit, Mexico, where God led us quite a few years ago.  You have heard us share our love of the Cora and Huichol people of the mountains, and admiration for the life changing work accomplished by Padre Pascual during his many years leading the school at La Mesa.  By our estimate he shared Jesus with well over 6,000 students and their families, and in the process became a highly respected leader in the Sierra Madres.  Most importantly those families were provided opportunities to be set free from the bonds of poverty and oppression that darken the souls of many living this drug production region.

The “Good News” we have to share is that the school continues to serve nearly 150 students daily, is led by capable graduates, and provides Christian discipleship and opportunity for free education that continues through university study. There are many trials the school faces absent the charismatic leadership of Padre, at this moment the primary obstacle is financial.  The school must raise $15 for each student to meet room and board expenses per month, please join us in prayer, and financial support so that the needs of the school may be met to over flowing.  Jesus taught “bring the children unto me.” 

More “Good News”, glory to God, is the planned move of Jay and Faith Tenbrink to the La Mesa area.  We have worked with Jay, Faith, their family and church fellowship as long as we have traveled to Nayarit.  They have lived in Mexico for over 20 years, were instrumental in faithfully establishing a new church that has grown to hundreds.  They understand the cultures they serve, and are enthused to further the work of Christ in the Sierra’s where they are well known, accepted, and respected.   We will continue God’s work with Jay and Faith as we visit mountain communities January and February of 2015.

We would treasure a visit with each of you to share the hope, experience, and preparation God has woven during our years in His service.   Jay and Faith will be visiting and traveling with us in early December to share the vision God has given us to serve in the Sierra Madres of Mexico.   May we set a time to meet with you and share in depth the plans God has made for us?   We thank you beyond words for your faithful prayers and support.  It is our prayer that we may continue to partner with you and share the love of Jesus with those who do not know Him.  As important is the witness of faith that comes when those who live relatively safe and comfortable lives are willing to travel to remote, forsaken, and sometimes dangerous places to share Jesus.  This is work none of us can do alone.  The Lord has led us to this place.  Will you please join us once again as we heed His call and step forward in faith to serve.  Mucho gracias y Dios te bendiga hermanas y hermanos en Jesu Cristo!

November Newsletter

In the course of a life time come those exceptional seasons of awakening brought about by people and places found far from the daily routines of normal.  Our children were gathered in for an adventure, now young adults with college study and their dreams and aspirations taking form, as we arrived in Guadalajara in December of 2000.  There was a sense as we traveled along the volcanic disarray of the Pacific coast, that this might well be one of those exceptional seasons, this was an adventure of faith in Christ into the unknown.  We were traveling with plans both to serve Jesus and experience a part of creation unknown to us,  where we were told there was a remarkable Catholic priest and a his school in the distant Sierra Madre Mountains of west Mexico.  His name was Padre Pascual Rosales and he had extended an invitation to us to visit, share time together, and to learn about the Cora people and their community surrounding Mesa del Nayar in Nayarit.

What we could not sense during our preparation and travel to La Mesa was the quite certainty of this beautiful Christian servant leader.  We had no sense that we were about to meet a man of scholastic brilliance who spoke fluently in eight languages.  We couldn’t know that we were about to meet a man who daily poured out his life to serve, educate,  and share the love of Jesus.  We certainly couldn’t know that we were about to fall deeply in love with a person of tremendous grace, a beautiful people of quiet perseverance, and a place of remote beauty.  Jesus knew, that is why he sent us.  Padre knew, that is why he invited us.  We received their magnificent blessing and our lives have forever changed.

Padre Pascual was wonderfully made.  Above all was his deep love and adoration of Jesus Christ, a love that expressed selflessly his second love for all mankind, especially those with a life in any kind of pain.  His love was practical and met each person, whether child without clothing or adult without compassion, at the level of immediate need.  Always with his eyes smiling, unless he sensed hidden motive and even then with patient humor, his heart open to faithfully share the love he so abundantly received in Jesus.  Padre was to all of us who knew him the transparently kind and loving servant of a wonderful God.  To be in his presence was to sense the warmth of Jesus close and personal.  Pascual was gifted of our Lord to change lives in profound ways, whether young or old, rich or poor, of great status or low regard, pure of heart or conflicted, to know the man was to know there is a greater truth beyond any shadow of doubt.  After meeting Padre you knew with certainty that there is a God of all creation and He is a God of great love.

So many memories flood upon the heart sweeping me back to the first days of our journey with Pascual and the Cora people.  As we flew toward Christmas day over the dry Sierra’s, in awe of the majestic mountain splendor laying out below our wings, I realized that only a very strong enduring people could carve out a life in this rugged remote wilderness.  Tough, steep, convoluted spines of a massive dragon back rose as volcanic remnants of eons past; this was a dangerous place to live.  Yet it took simply one conversation with Padre Pascual followed by a simple meal with the students and a Sierra sunset chased by the brilliant night light of stars just beyond the fingertips, for us to realize this was a foretaste of heaven, a glimpse into an eternity of awesome grandeur and immense proportion.  How the stories come as waves upon the ocean of experience with this wonderful man of God speaking of the school “We pray, study, and work – the play, it comes naturally…” then a wayward student or challenging adult “we never know when they will come to understanding….” when we as visitors were plagued by the resident fleas “when visitors come, the fleas prosper!”  A long day came to a close “to rest Don Tomas, Dona  Colletta, to rest”  or in times of difficulty or reflection “ Christ alone is sufficient for me.”  About the purpose of the school and education “to prosper the students that they may profit their parents” his style of leadership “speak softly and you will be better understood” “we live poor but happy” “all people seek God, we never know who will come to understand”  “the students did all this work (or food, or dance etc.) “Joy comes in serving” an inclusive statement of encouragement and a singular testimony to the fullness of a life so beautifully lived in service to a forgotten people. 

The Christmas pageant, formed of ancient roots supporting crossed cultures formed a vibrant fabric of human experience as the candles smoked, the incense billowed, violins sawed background melody to   Gregorian chants sung in rhythm to tinkling chimes.  From all corners of the mountains came the people to celebrate the feast of communion in Christ and their history as the created.  The very old and wise with eyes for God, the young with eyes for each other, the children with all eyes to them, the Padre eyes lifted to the Eucharist held high above to honor the Lord of all.  So the universe seemed to gather there and then for that incredible moment of eternity, we were one drawn close together celebrating new life, new hope, the new promise again of forever through the birth of a baby named Jesus.  And so we remember glimpses of the future past, hearts aching, souls singing songs of memories, such are the exceptional seasons of awakening and the sweet loving eternity of Jesus found in this beautiful man named Padre Pascual.