Ever wonder where the term “Holy Smoke” comes from?

Some say it’s from the movie “Holy Smoke”. Some cigar fans like the term. Others say, It’s a religious term describing burnt sacrifices in the Old Testament. Still others say that it is sacrilegious and is mocking God. It’s closely related to “Holy Cow”, an expression of surprise or a slang term.
Being here in Chiapas and working with the Indians (mostly Christian) the term “Holy Smoke” forms a new meaning… at least for us.

Anyone that has been anywhere near one of the Indians knows something… They smell like smoke.
The Indians live in the mountains and cook with wood. However there are no chimneys.
The Indians usually have a fire right in the middle of their home to cook with. This also heats up their house when it’s cold. Even the Indians who are fortunate enough to have a kitchen don’t have gas stoves. They simply have another hut with a fire in the middle of it and call it a kitchen. Even if you were to give them an eclectic stove they wouldn’t use it. They prefer cooking with wood and they’re use to all the smoke.

The information contained in this article is available in pdf format from our July, 2009 Newsletter. You may download it here:

July 2009 Newsletter (106)

Speaking of Smoking…

Jude 1: 22-23 says, “And of some have compassion, making a difference: And others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh.” That’s exactly what we’re doing.

During the month  of July, 2009 we were privileged to start 3 new churches:

• El Triunfo, Juarez Chiapas -Our new Pastor in Juarez caught the vision and just opened another mission in this town. Smoking!
• Buena Vista, La Rainza- Located in Zapatista Territory- A beautiful view and a great new Church- That Smokes!
• Motozintla, Chiapas- After very little persuading, Our Pastor located near the Guatemala border in Huitzla just started a new mission and already has 50 people attending- Holy Smokes!

Again they said, “Alleluia! Her smoke rises up forever and ever!” Rev 19:3

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Smoke rose from his nostrils; consuming fire came from his mouth, burning coals blazed out of it. Ps 18:7-9
But the wicked will perish: The LORD’s enemies will be like the beauty of the fields, they will vanish – vanish like smoke. Ps 37:20

Thank you for helping our ministry to “Smoke”!

Today , March 2oth, marks the fist day of spring.

Spring is a great season… It’s always been one of my favorite times of the year.

Some of the words that I think of when I think of Springtime is:

• Fresh
• Vibrant
• New Beginnings
• Sunshine
• Joyful
• planting (crops, flowers, churches, etc)
• I especially like the word “New”

For the next 4 days we  will be celebrating Spring with an intensive ministry schedule.

Many of you have asked for me to give you a heads up when we are in heavy ministry times so that you can pray for us.

Here’s our schedule for the first 4 days of Spring:

Friday, March 20-

Today I’m ministering in an all day Bible College with the Tzeltal Indians. This is our second sessions for 2009. The Tzeltal Indians are located in Cancuc, Chiapas.
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Saturday, March 21

Tomorrow I’ll be giving out close to 500 Children’s Bibles in Tzotzil. I’ve  asked the American Bible Society to help us with Bibles in the Indians native languages.  These children’s Bible include the Gospel of Mark. Coloring pages, stickers and a dvd with  with both Spanish and Tzotzil languages. The dvd is great since illeteracy is amajor probelm with the Indians.
We’ll be ministering in Tzeneembolon.
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Sunday March 22

Sunday afternoon I am doing a campaign in las Magaritas with the Tojolabal Indians
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Monday, March 23

, Bible School with the same group of Tojalabal Indians from Las Margaritas

Thanks for your prayers. I hope your spring plans are s as joyful as ours.

The Tzeltal Indians live about an hour and a half from us in Cancuc Pozo Chiapas. For a long time I have admired the bright colors of their clothing as we have ministered to them providing relevant teachings, evangelistic campaigns and now even a Bible School which started in February.

On February 20^th, we finished a full day of teaching and prepared for a nightly service in the village. The Pastor quietly pulled me aside and told me to go to a small wooden hut located outside of the church building. “A Family has something that they would like to give you” he said.

This was not the first time I had received gifts from the Tzeltal Indians. They’ve given me coffee, handmade bags and even livestock. I was honestly expecting another rooster to add to my ever growing population of chickens at my home in San Cristobal.

Was I ever surprised as the women pulled a beautiful Tzeltal Wardrobe out of a small plastic bag; it was just the right size.

“We want to give you this as a token of our appreciation for faithfully bringing us the Word of God each month” the family explained.

“I thought to myself, “I couldn’t possibly accept such a large gift. I know very well that the Tzeltal Indian wardrobes are very expensive.” In fact, they are worth more than $200. That’s well over a month’s wages when you consider that the average Tzeltal makes less than $30 a week when work is available. Most of the time, the Indians barter crops, animals, coffee and clothing because currency is scarce.

I considered the time involved in making such a beautiful piece of clothing- even longer than a month. I was reluctant to take the gift but I knew that I would offend the family if I didn’t. What’s more, I didn’t want to rob them of a blessing by not allowing them to give.

I accepted the gift.

“We are so thankful that you visit us each month, your ministry has changed our lives” they explained.

What a reward. Their words to me meant so much. I felt honored as I walked away with the wardrobe in hand, thanking God for the privilege to be a missionary to the Tzeltal Indians in Chiapas.

Luke 6:38 states that it is more blessed to give than to receive. I may have received some nice clothing and a pat on back but I feel even more satisfied to be able to share Gods Word with people in need.

You may download this month’s newsletter in pdf format:March Newsletter (100)

I want to thank you. Because of your prayers and financial support we are able to take the word of God to tribes like this Tzeltal family I just described. Thanks for helping us to help others!

Serving Christ Together,

Greg

This past week or so we have been very busy and I just wanted to post a quick update.:

Greg Speaking

Here’s what we’ve been doing:

• Last Friday, Feb 20th- First day of Bible School with The Tzeltal Indians in Cancuc Pozo
• Saturday- Ministry in Pantehlo Chiaps with the Tzotzil Indians
• Sunday- Took  a Tzeltal Pastor To Tuxta Gutierrez to preach for his first time in Spanish
• Monday & Tuesday, Feb, 23 & 24 – Bible School with the Tojalabal Indians, I ministered in churches in the evenings.
• Wednesday- Time with the family, We built a chicken pen to house all the chickens I receive as offerings
• Thursday- Caught up on office work
• Friday- Bible School with the Tzotzil Indians
• Saturday Feb 28, A public event with the Mayor of Comitan Chiapas on Values.
• Today, March 1st I will be ministering in a Church here in San Crsitobal and then we are hosting a fellowship dinner at our house for 4 churches

The Tzeltal Indians gave me a wardrobe that is worht over $200 dollars. It was a major sacrifice on their part and was very touching to me:

Greg with Tzeltal Wardrobe (click to enlarge)

Here are some of the ministry photos from the event with the Tzeltal Indians:

One of the biggest challenges to starting new churches is to have leaders to Pastor them.

For that reason we are concentrating on Training Leaders.

This is the the 2nd purpose of our PEACE plan:

• Planting Churches (to attack spiritual lostness)
• Equipping Servant leaders (to attack ego-centric leadership)
• Assisting the Poor (to attack poverty)
• Care for the sick (to attack disease)
• Educating the next Generation (to attack illiteracy and minister to children)

Last Year Unanimous Ministries started one leadership training school with the Tojolabal Indians. More information on them can be found at http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/598176/Tojolabal

This year we started our first monthly training with the Tzeltal Indians in Chenalho on January 30. We also will launch our first training  event with the Tzeltal Indians on February 27 in Cancuc Pozo.

Hope you enjoy the photos:

We just finished a Christmas Video of the activities as we handed out 2100 toys and goodies to tthe Tzotzil and Tzeltal Indians over the Christmas holidays.

Besides the toys, we also had clowns, pinatas, candy, toothbrushes for everyone and a few extra goodies.

We traveled for 5 days in a row and visited 2 & 3 places a day. We took Christmas day off and then traveled for 2 more days in a row.

We were also fortunate to have some gringo friends visit from San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato, Mexico

In all we visited 15 Indian tribes and communities.

There are now 25 Indian Churches and missions that we work with. some of the churches met together so it made it a little easier to give out the gifts.

Hope you enjoy the video:

I’m about to post photos of our Christmas project in which we gave out 2100 toys and goodies to the Tzotzil and Tzeltal Indians.

The great thing about our experience was that while we were giving out we also received.

Chicken soup
Everywhere we went the Indian tribes gave us their chickens.

We had chickens for breakfast, we had chickens for lunch, and we had chickens for dinner.
You get the picture.

You need to understand that this is a major sacrifice on the part of the Indians. A chicken is worth at least 20 dollars and these farm raised chickens are reserved for special occasions.

We were given chicken soup to eat. Although we ate chicken for 5 days in a row, we didn’t dare complain. We were given the very best. What a privilege.

Giving more than just chicken soup

When we wnt to Cancuc Pozo with the Tzetal Indians they treated us as their gusest of honor. In addition to chicken soup we were also given coffee, hand made bags,  a special gourd to drink pozol  which is a Mexican drink made out of corn meal,  fruits, and other gifts.

But that’s not all…

As you can see in the pictures above, The Tzeltal Pastor gave us a Rooster. A live one.Our daughter Cristi was SO Happy! Her very own pet chicken.. That crows at Four in the morning!

The Tzetals are not the only ones who have given us chickens.  As you can see in the picture below The Tzotzil Pastors are also giving us chickens.

Now Cristi is really happy with her collection of missionary chickens!

galo de Pastor Diego

It is more blessed to give than to receive.

I just preached a message on this subject and I have included the message in Spanish here.