December 2001

Greetings from Yucatán,

Christmas is fast approaching and we have many blessings to thank the Lord for during this wonderful season of the year.

We returned to Yucatan from our year of home assignment in Kentucky in late July. After a year away from Mexico it takes most of another year to get reorganized. This is because scheduling with presbyteries and pastors is a very slow process. When I first began continuing education workshops
I worked with 5 presbyteries in three Mexican states. Today this has grown to 23 presbyteries in six Mexican states. Because it is physically impossible to cover all the possible topics these presbyteries request, I have begun to focus in the area of spiritual life as much as possible. Slowly, I am building an inventory of classes that are designed to inform but, perhaps more importantly, to nurture and encourage church leaders.

Two Christian sisters (Rita and Maria del Carmen) have moved into a small residency at the retreat center. They are the start of what we hope will be the first of many full-time communities of men or women. This form of ministry is very new to the Presbyterian church in Mexico and indeed, even Presbyterians in the United States. Nevertheless, Christians have shared their lives and belongings together since Apostolic times. We are beginning to revive that tradition within the Reformed Church. Pray that the Lord lead more men and women into this vocation to provide full-time spiritual guidance in support
of the local churches. We organized eight one-day retreats (workshops) to help get people used to coming to the Gethsemane retreat center. Attendance varied from 7 to 25 people. This coming year we will continue the one-day programs and add several five-day retreats, primarily for pastors, from as many different Presbyteries as is possible. These longer retreats will provide an introduction to spiritual formation and help them understand the ministry of the retreat center. Please pray for this ministry focused on Christian spirituality.

The children are healthy and trying to keep up with their school work. Martha continues her work at church and helping me with articles in Spanish. She also led a very popular workshop based on the book, Bad Girls of the Bible. By popular demand, this will be repeated next semester. The leadership-development magazine, Superación Ministerial, will begin again in January and so we are pleased about that. We have had a lot of inquires about new subscriptions but we lost our post office box when I was in the States, so there is no place to send mail yet. As always, getting people to write
articles is a real challenge. Almost all the pastors are too busy or too intimidated by the idea of publishing their ideas. I have also asked the seminary teachers to give me the best essays their studnets write, but so far, none have been submitted. So if any readers of this newsletter have any ideas about sources for materials, please let me know. We are open to any good idea.

Prayer requests:

• for the local church pastors who are overwhelmed by the variety of tasks they are asked to fulfill
• for the indigenous communities that are suffering even more poverty as the Mexican economy moves into recession
  
• that we be wise in the use of our time to serve the Mexican Presbyterian Church

Since September 11 we have received correspondence through the regular mails only once. Therefore, if you want to write us, use either e-mail or a special -delivery messenger service such as Federal Express or DHL.

Be obedient and humble before the Lord so nothing will disturb His peace in your heart; but when His presence fades, call upon Him and He will refill you with love again.

In His love,

Don and Martha Wehmeyer

The 2001 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 248