Warmest greetings to each of you in Christ!

We pray that you are well and growing strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus (2 Tim. 2:1).

In the parable of the sower (Matt. 13:3-8), Jesus speaks of four types of soil that the sower's seeds fall into. Some seed falls on the hard path and the birds eat it up before it can produce anything. Other seed falls on the rocky, shallow ground and springs up quick, but withers in the sun for lack of roots. Still other seed falls among thorns, and while there's depth of soil for it to grow, once it does it's choked out above ground by the thorns which steal the sun and water from the emerging plant so it likewise perishes. Of course the last type of soil is the good soil, where the seed grows roots and fruits many hundred fold.

My Mom sent me some wildflower seeds from back home to plant in our back yard. I sowed them in a little 5' x 5' patch of prepared dirt near the back door, anxious to experience the wonderful colors they would bring to our desert back yard. The last time I planted them, a couple of years ago, it went well after I realized I needed to water them every day or else the sun just baked the ground and the birds would come and eat them up, sitting on top of the rock hard, dry ground. So this time I watered every day. But a new problem emerged: weeds. They grew faster than the little flowers could and quickly choked them out. As of this writing I'm trying again, watering and in my very limited spare time, trying to keep up with the weeds, pulling them as they grow in a race to keep the flowers from getting choked out yet again.

I was frustrated when my flowers got choked out. Last time it seemed easy. Sow and water and boom: bright colored flowers all over the back yard. Very encouraging to come home to sometimes when most of your time is spent in the asphalt jungle. Not this year. This year I come home to weeds. I don't like weeds. Hard, dry ground is bad enough. But hard dry ground with weeds too. Worse.

On March 21 of this year we entered our 8th year here in Lima. On June 3 our church plant in Salamanca will complete its second year. Lori and I have come to the conclusion that God has called us to a country whose spiritual soil is very hard, lots of birds, abundance of weeds and thorns, and the sun scorches it constantly.

We've also discovered something else. The seed is the word, but the sower can't be separated from the seed. The sower feels the scorching heat, but keeps sowing. The sower's legs get cut by the thorns, but keeps sowing. The sower's toe gets stubbed on the rocky ground, but keeps sowing. The sower's feet ache at the end of the day from walking the hard ground, but he gets up the next day to meet the scorching sun, and keep sowing.

How does he not fall into kicking the dirt in frustration, or cursing the sun for its heat, shaking his fist heavenward? How does he not quit? The will to live drives him on. He must plant because he must eat and feed his family, so he must keep working the ground, no matter how hard it is.

After 7 years of working the hard ground, we've grown accustomed to the temptation to want to quit. But we want to live too much to give that temptation much thought. And what is living? Paul put it best in Philippians 1:21: "to live is Christ". We know our life is found in Christ. More Christ means more life. And Christ has called us to live in Him, in Peru.

We want to live. Really live. And Lima is where Christ has appointed for us to really live. So how do you deal with the sense of futility that comes from sowing in such hard ground? I think we are learning a secret, and I wanted to share it with you. It is at the same time simple and immensely difficult: let the hard, thorny ground serve you, by letting it humble your hard, thorny heart. In this way your enemy (the hard ground) becomes your friend, helping you see your need for Jesus and unwittingly enabling you, by grace, to have more of him, and thus, live.

The will to live. Do you have it? Does it drive you on? We only really live when our roots are going deeper in the soil of the love of Christ, and the Father's method for training sowers is to break them on the unyielding hard ground, so he can then use them. He wants an army of sowers, for hard labor in the harvest fields, but he doesn't want the strong, strapping types. He wants the gentle, tender, humble types.

Will you pray for Lori and me, that our trials would tender us and make us more aware of our own hardness, our own pride, our own need for grace, and would be used by the Father to make us humble like the Son of Man? Please pray for us. We want to really live.

Please thank the Lord with us for these things:

1. That nothing was stolen from our house when it was broken into a couple of weeks ago while we were at church. This is the third attempt and second time the thieves entered the house. Both times the only explanation for them not taking anything is the glory of God. Please praise him for this.
2. For Ivana and Joanna, single moms in our church who are showing remarkable spiritual growth, coming out of backgrounds of tremendous generational sin and disorder. Their sincere faith and service in the church has touched Lori and me greatly.
3. For the team of leaders Mark is meeting with on Fridays to train and disciple for leadership in the church. It has been a great blessing for him to begin to be able to share some of the load of planning, evaluating and shepherding in the church plant.
4. For our trials, which are keeping us humble and dependent on Christ, as we ought always to be.

Please pray for us too for these things:

1. Mark is preaching through the principles taught in the book "The Peacemaker" by Ken Sande, as well as teaching more systematically through the book in adult Sunday school. Pray that God would make peace breaking sinners like the teacher and his students into gospel breathing peacemakers who sow in peace and reap a harvest of righteousness (James 3:18) in the hard ground of Lima. Interpersonal relationships here are constantly crippled by lack of trust, gossip and seething jealousy, greed and hatred. Lori and I have witnessed deep evil among Christians, and have a heart to be part of the solution. We want our church be become a peacemaking church. Only God can do this, through your prayers.
2. For Tami, whose son John, 39, who for many years was handicapped with muscular dystrophy, went to be with the Lord early this morning.
3. Please pray for Mark as he walks with the family through the wake and funeral over the next 24-48 hours.
4. Tami's home has "thorns" in it on steroids, but she and her son John and two other older children, also with muscular dystrophy, have all come to know Christ. They are the only ones in a house of deep generational darkness. The assortment of characters living under her roof is out of a soap opera, but we believe God is redeeming. Pray for the cell group we hope to start in her home in the next few weeks, and for the salvation particularly of her son James, who is the hardest nut in the bunch, humanly speaking, to be cracked by our Lord JesusJ.
5. For Mark's discipleship of a group of men in the church beginning to function as a leadership team, and Lord willing an eventual session. Pray for their growth in grace and spiritual leadership.
6. For Lori's role with the women in the church, that God would give us wisdom in what that is to look like at this time in our family's and church's life.
7. For the Wards to be able to raise their remaining monthly support.
8. For the Salvatierra's, who need additional support to be able to complete their time on the field through June.
9. For a number of very "thorny" problems Mark is dealing with in the church and mission right now. Pray that he would address each one in the power and humble, gentle, peace loving wisdom that the Spirit provides. Pray also for strength for him as the load is heavy and often very painful.
10. As always, please pray for our marriage and family. Pray for our shepherding of our children's hearts: Emmett, Anna, Taylor, Abigail and Hadassah.

Updates on prayer requests:
You prayed last month for Maximina who was going to have a hysterectomy. She went to the doctor and they determined that her problem did not necessitate surgery after all, and prescribed a course of treatment that has led to her being almost pain free as of this writing, and super thankful to the Lord for his mercy. He answers prayer!

Once again, thank you for standing with us in prayer.

With much love in Christ,

Mark and Lori, Emmett, Anna, Taylor, Abigail and Hadassah

P.S. I've changed the names of the folks I'm telling you a little about, to better guard their privacy. FYI.
P.P.S. If you're interested in helping the Wards or Salvatierras with support, send me an email and I'll be glad to tell you how you can.

- April 20, 2009