Road to Culiacan...

I leave tomorrow for Culiacan, Mexico to work with Gospel Recordings! As I have shared in previous blogs, I am still a missionary with Compassion Connection of Ecuador, but I will be training with Gospel Recordings for the next year or so to become better equipped to reach oral cultures in Ecuador and beyond. I am very excited to start my time with Gospel Recordings with an outreach in Culiacan, Mexico. Every year thousands of Indigenous and Spanish speakers come from all over for the harvest in Culiacan.

"We anticipate another great year ministering to thousands of migrant workers drawn to the fertile fields of Culiacan. Each year we give out over 6000 cassettes in 130 languages, and see God touch thousands of people. Over the years dozens of churches have been planted among the villages represented in Culiacan." (From GRN webpage)

Gospel Recordings Network mission statement is: In partnership with the Church, to effectively communicate the Good News of the Lord Jesus Christ by means of culturally appropriate audio and audio-visual materials in every language.

Back when I was living in Belize one of the boys in the village of Blue Creek asked me to tell him a story. I started grasping at air. I certainly was not a storyteller and I began racking my brain for a story to tell that I remembered reading as a child. I finally settled on the story of Pinocchio. I remembered the general gist but I could not remember all of the details. I stumbled through the story feeling truly inadequate to get the whole story across. I believe that this boy was pleased enough but in my heart I wished that I had been better able to tell the story. I knew it would have brought him great joy.

Years later my dad bought the movie of Pinocchio and with the DVD came a small book of the story. I now carry it around with me to remind me. It reminds me that I want to be better at telling a story.

There are peoples all around this world that learn a truth through a story that gives a truth. I could tell a person from such a culture that God is kind, loving, strong….and give a list, but they won’t fully understand with their heart. Rather if I told them a story portraying these characteristics they will more likely understand it. 75% of the Bible is narrative. This means that the majority of the Bible is dedicated to stories!

Statistics show that about one third of the world’s population is non-literate or functionally illiterate. It is a false assumption to presume that these cultures do not value knowledge. Rather these cultures transmit knowledge in a different way. They learn through storytelling and other oral traditions. These are valued because they teach by example and they are familiar forms of communication. The Bible is a complete story book. It is the good news, the Gospel! Jesus delivered the gospel to the masses in parables. “A parable is an earthly story with a heavenly meaning.” The stories that the parables tell speak directly into the hearts of oral cultures.

I am excited and amazed at the grace and power of God to put me in a position many years ago to awkwardly tell a story to a ten year old boy and now be in the process of learning to tell a story. I am looking forward to training and reaching out to tell the greatest story ever – The love of God towards His creation in Christ Jesus! Among several things I will learn to use the recording devices, to edit recordings, and to distribution the audios.

Please Pray!
1. For an effective and fruitful outreach to the migrant workers in Culiacan.
2. For special encounters with people, that God would use the missionaries and open the hearts of those who will hear.
3. This is very new for me and I won’t know many people right away. I pray for peace and boldness.
4. Continue to pray for the missionaries in Ecuador, Steve and Sandi Youngren and the rest of the gang. The work with the Bible Institute continues and is poised to grow.
5. For continued finances
6. For strength and endurance during the month of February in particular (the initial outreach lasts all month so it could get intense)…March I will be involved in the follow up…

Thank you all for your prayers and generous giving. Your help makes it possible for me to be abroad so that others may hear and know the Lord Jesus. I will write at the end of February to tell you how the outreach is going. Tiffany

- Some statistics and quotes taken from "Scriptures in Use" Grass Roots Training Ministry

Back in the Northwest

I hope you all had a great Christmas and New Year's! It has been nice being in the northwest visiting with family and friends. I have spent most of my time with my family resting from the work behind and for the work ahead. As I get ready to go I have been reflecting a lot on 1 Corinthians 13. If we are not reaching out to people with the love of God all of our actions and works mean nothing. I could "give my body" as a martyr for Jesus Christ but even that, which would seem like the pinnacle of self-sacrificing love, if it is not from the desire for the glory of God and the good of others it means nothing. I want more of that love. I know God is in control and working in our lives...I am learning to stop trying to control everything myself and rest in that fact more and more.

Excitement is building for when I leave for Culiacan, Mexico at the end of this month. Focused training in recordings for oral cultures will start in May but my next few months will be working with Gospel Recording Network in Culiacan for an outreach to the migrant workers that come to Culiacan every year for the harvest. This will be the practical outworking before learning how to do the recordings myself. For the month of March I will be a part of the follow-up team after different teams leave at the end of February.

It looks like this next year I will be able to come back to the Northwest every few months for about a month. This will be a great help to my family here as we are still trying to figure out what is going on with my dad and why he can't walk. My mom has had some respite from caring for him while I have been here.

Thank you for your continued prayer and support. I am sure for all of us we have our own interesting adventures and challenges ahead of us this year. I would love to know how I can be praying for all of you...please write me and let me know! : )