Dear Friends of MMAB,

How can we share with you so many things that are happening--growing dreams, disappointing letdowns, encouraging growth and responses, and intense need that almost hurts' 'in such a way that you will be taken up in the struggle, in the yearning, in the joy, and in the pain?

I know you are going to be praying more today for Mision Mazahua. May the Spirit truly intercede with groans that words cannot express as you feel with us and urgency and a burning desire to serve the Mazahua people in such a way that every knee bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

I this letter I feature only two areas which have taken us outside the wall and into the communities the most. The other ministries continue, some growing, others ¨simmering¨. Special Friends, (missing the care and attention of Jovita), Scholarships (reforming and in need of leadership), Excelencia Mazahua (down to a bare minimum), and the Plaza Comunitaria in Las Rosas (satellite connection installed, staff in place, waiting for the computers) and the camp ministry at the hacienda (with an increase in national groups during these winter months and also an anticipated 8 or 10 North American groups for the year.) There are pages to be written about each of these ministries in turn.

The work toward a new board also continues with prayer and caution. We are looking toward forming a small board (5 or 6 members) on a rotating model similar to that used by the Missionary Society of the NACCC. We seek people who fit the profile shared with you in June 2004, people who will be passionately committed.

Pastoral Ministries, placed on the back burner for a time, is pushing forward with new power at the insistence of the pastors and lay leaders, themselves. A new thrust called the ¨Compañerismo Ministerial¨ (Ministerial Fellowship) has met five times since last spring. (The meetings are once every two months.) The fellowship meetings are formative, having conferences and offering scholarships for the ministers to attend conferences elsewhere. They meet for fellowship, for sharing, and for prayer for one another. These times are also recreational and refreshing. The pastors and lay leaders are encouraged to bring their wives. The meetings are inspirational with music and singing in Mazahua and testimony. Each meeting begins at the hacienda. On three occasions the group has left the hacienda--to visit a beautiful property, ¨Rancho La Cienega¨up in the mountain`; another time for fried fish up at the Presa de Tepetitlan; and for the last meeting, and inspiring outing to the hundreds of floriculture greenhouses of the Christian brothers in San Lorenzo Tlacotepec.

Leading this ministry are Pastor Samuel Canales, Jaime Leon, and Norberto. Thirty-five to forty pastors and lay leader and wives have been participating. Each meeting costs the mission an average of $200. The greater expense, though, comes from the scholarships for pastoral studies. Last fall Pastor Samuel was given a scholarship of about $300 in order to travel to a convention in Guatemala.

In addition, every Saturday, Jaime is meeting with four pastoral students at the hacienda for indigenous pastoral studies. The students are following a correspondence course from a seminary, but they are also developing their own curriculum.

The ministries of Community Transformation have been growing and maturing. Over the past 18 months, Mision Mazahua has been working in 8 different communities in courses and community improvement.

Across the valley in the community called Tepetitlan, Mision Mazahua supplied the materials for building a bridge across a ravine which becomes flooded and dangerous especially for school children in the sprin and summer.

In Calvario del Carmen, we were able to supply the elementary school with clean drinking water and a large cistern with help from a U.S. congregation and the Rotary Club. We will be providing the same school with toilets and plumbing when the parents have built the restroom.

In the same community Hna. Yola and Martha are teaching a course in sewing and knitting with a machine.

Groups in El Obraje, Mayorazgo, and la Cabecera have learned to cultivate oyster muchrooms and are excited about the improvement and enlargement of their installations. In one of the groups, Luis, invented an economical means of sterilizing the substrate.

A woman living in Dolores Hidalgo whose husband is in Yonkers, experimented with raising amaranth this past year. She was not very successful but learned enough that she wants to try again this year but with more supervision.

Two women from El Agostadero and San Juan Jalpa have pooled resources and have set up their micro-enterprise in amaranth products.

We are continuing in San Nicolas Guadalupe where the women learned to do smocking. The group has been asking for other courses which began on Thursday, Feb. 1.

In still another far-away community back in the mountains we have encouraged and financed a young man to help in the community programs by raising 3000 cedar trees to be used for reforestation. Across the mountain from his property a group organized to set up a large operation with greenhouses after one of the trips that Mision Mazahua organized in September 2003 to the greenhouses of San Lorenzo.

I can understand how all of this community work might appear to be only social work, especially if you do not know us not the villages and the people with whom we are working. It is not to gain approval not to put a ¨spiritual¨ veneer upon what we are doing, but truly each of these efforts is permeated with the good news of Jesus. For many of the people with whom we are working week after week, these are most probably the only times they ever hear God´s Word and hear it being applied to life´s experiences. With each visit more seeds are sown, cared for, watered, and given nourishment. You can hardly imagine the joy we experience in visiting the Mazahua villages taking hope with us. The Mazahua people have been utilized by the other dominant cultures for hundreds of years. They have never believed in those in power who have promise and deceived them for their own interests. The Mazahuas no longer believe in themselves, and too often have resigned themselves to this subservient role, living on the hand-outs from the powerful who grow rich at their expense. I for one, give thanks to God and get so excited when I see the respect that Norberto has gained and his credibility among the people in the projects. It is a wonderful, wonderful experience to see hope born, to see the enthusiasm with which the people participate, the growth of their own initiative and the willingness to start to dream and to reach out. Mision Mazahua is sowing seeds of hope and bringing the people to the knowledge of the only true Hope in Jesus who is worthy.

Unless the Lord builds the house the builders labor in vain.

We beg you to be in earnest prayer and to as pro-active in fundraising and promotion as your time, talents, and energy permit. We especially make the plea in behalf of David Hawk who as North American Representative has been a remarkable asset in his seemingly tireless work with Mision Mazahua with no economic support whatsoever for his hours and hours of labor which I am sure go beyond what we would call full time. Much of the growth we are experiencing can be traced to Dave´s prayer, his pen (or should I say computer), and his encouragement. Please look for ways to give him support.

Thank-you.
God bless,
Lisa and Norberto