Dear friends,
It is good to write to Outreach Foundation supporters. Martha and I have been blessed by your ministry for over 30 years!
Hopefully, we are near the end of the COVID pandemic. The whole country of Mexico is most anxious that it be so. The burden it has placed on the church and society has been enormous.
Read MoreDear friends,
Martha and I are now fully vaccinated and starting to move around more. Martha has been in Wichita Falls and Dallas to help with the grandchildren and will be bringing Guillen and Sahia down here with Valerie. The other two will follow when their school year gets out.
The little church I am pastoring in Sitpatch is doing well. We have both in-person and online services although there is the possibility that in-person church will be closed again as the number of COVID cases is going up in Merid
Read MoreDear friends,
No, it is not a Martian invader, this is me! The churches are technically closed, but by celebrating the Lord’s supper outdoors on Pentecost Sunday, we were not actually in the building. The members watched the sermon on the internet and then drove over to take the elements. No police arrived to put me in handcuffs, so I figure we can do this again if necessary! God is merciful.
Between COVID-19 and tropical storm Columbus, we are not in ordinary times. The seminary stopped classes at the end of March. Graduation has been postponed. The country has been on lockdown since the end of March. This has meant significant disruptions for workers. Many people get paid by the day, so for them to stay home week after week is a real hardship. The church and government have been making care packages, but it is never enough. Our little church of 20 families is helping 30 families. This means that the church savings are getting depleted pretty fast, but the session decided that this was the best thing to do, and I am proud of them. Several church families have stepped up to help, so I get to see first-hand how the Spirit of the Lord is working powerfully here.
Read MoreDear brothers and sisters,
Here is a picture of the Followers of Christ, the congregation in Sitpatch where Martha and I are serving. The people here have a wonderful commitment to serving in the community. Every Saturday they serve a hot meal to neighborhood children along with teaching Bible classes. We have excellent music on Sundays, the folks meet twice a week for teaching or activities and they are opening a new mission in a nearby town.
In mid-October, we went for ten days to Valdivia, Chile. Our intention was to spend time with Ricardo Silva and his wife Magaly. They are a lovely couple who are moving from the big city of Santiago to a quieter life near Valdivia. They bought a lot on a very tiny island called Mancera and want to build their house there. In the picture we are on a cliff of the island looking out into the Pacific Ocean. For us the temperature was cold, about 50 degrees. Ricardo is a welder by trade and Magaly has long been a caregiver for children who cannot leave their homes because of serious developmental problems. While in Valdivia we began friendships with the brothers and sisters of a new church startup, Christ the Rock Presbyterian. This house church surprised us. We went to their Wednesday night gathering, dinner, and teaching and found twenty people, four women and sixteen men.
Read MoreDear friends,
This beautiful little girl with her pet was sitting on a doorstep in Lijiang, China. Martha and I traveled there for a two-week sixty-fifth birthday present. The trip was wonderful and in Shangri-La, Tibet we had a day of snow! Many of you see snow every year but for us, it was a cool novelty. This trip was mostly sightseeing. We did meet a few brothers and sisters but they had very limited English so we were not able to learn a great deal except that they had about twenty people in their home Bible study (without a pastor) on Mondays because Sunday is a workday. We are praying for a pastor to Lijiang as the population is Buddhist and atheist.
Our daughter Kristen is stronger now after the horrible accident in December. Thank you for your many notes of condolence. She is planning on going to Curitiba, Brazil to volunteer six weeks in a home the Independent Presbyterian Church has established for children of domestic abuse. She will be there from May 16 to June 26 so we ask for your prayers for her travel and being able to get along in Portuguese.
Read MoreDear friends,
Greetings from Yucatán. Martha and I were traveling during much of May. We had a wonderful first-time trip to Israel. Our tour took us to see many sites that are mentioned in the Scriptures, and we learned a great deal. We really liked the Jordan River, Sea of Galilee, Dead Sea, and of course Jerusalem. What surprised us most was just how small the country really is. We had heard that before we left, but now we know for ourselves that it is really small. Would we go back? In a heartbeat. We were blessed to have been able to go and will savor many memories.
After Israel we went to our retreat with The Antioch Partners, which is held every three years. Mission folks from around the world gathered about an hour north of Budapest. It was great to see friends and hear the great things God is doing in so many places around the world. This time, however, it seems odd to be two of the “seniors” in the crowd. I remember not so long ago looking at the white-haired missionaries and admiring that they were still serving in their older years. Well now we have the white hair and we still enjoying serving in God’s great task of shepherding in the Kingdom of God.
Read MoreDear friends,
Martha and I would like to wish you all a Merry Christmas and Happy, Happy New Year. We have been blessed this year, your prayers and support have kept us preaching and teaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ in Southern Mexico, Colombia and Chile. We are so honored to have you as a part of the ministry our Lord has laid upon our hearts. Only one thing we ask, please write us ‘de vez en cuando’ – once in a while. Of course, we get emails and Martha is big on Facebook but we really want you to know it is not a problem to answer your emails or phone calls. We want you to feel a part of what we are doing because you are! In fact, come and visit. We have extra bedrooms and plenty of coffee to share.
Let me mention three prayer requests for 2018:
First is our ministry with theological education, especially San Pablo Seminary in Mérida, Yucatán and Berea Seminary, Palenque, Chiapas. Both of these schools are teaching solid Reformed theology but have severe financial challenges. The best thing to do is to help with scholarships as this accomplishes two things at once. The students get to study, and the professors get paid. The Outreach Foundation is the best way to send scholarship funds. $160 dollars a month pays for room, board, tuition and books in Chiapas. Mérida is $200 a month. There is no future for the Church without leadership formation. The life of a pastor in Mexico is tough, yet young people who could be entering other professions are stepping forward, so we do want to encourage them.
Greetings in the name of the Lord Jesus, Savior and Redeemer of God’s elect,
We have had some very busy months here. I have been teaching at both San Pablo and the Mints program. Mints is a non-residence program that has become popular in many countries. Here in Mérida, I had nine students (four pastors and five lay folks) for Soteriology (the doctrine of salvation) and now with the same group I have just started Patristics (theologians from the first seven or eight centuries of church history). The picture here is a few of the students at Gethsemane.
I was officially installed in the Seguidores de Cristo (Followers of Christ) mission church as pastor for a period of up to three years. In the Mexican Presbyterian church, pastors are installed for one year (pastor oficiante), for three years (pastor comisionado) and up to five years (pastor instalado).
Read MoreFrom Mérida, Martha and I wish you all a Happy New Year!
We want to thank each of you, our blessed supporters, for your faithfulness during the past year. Additionally we want to thank the staff of The Antioch Partners, our sending agency, who take care of our insurance, tax and budgeting needs so we can focus on our ministry, and the team of The Outreach Foundation which supports theological education and leadership development around the world. May your cup overflow with the grace of the Lord.
This year we are also especially grateful to have Guillen with us. There were some scary weeks while he was in the hospital, six weeks in neo-natal intensive care.
Read MoreDear brothers and sisters,
Greetings from Don and Martha Wehmeyer in Yucatan. I am teaching an intensive course for pastors working on their master’s degree called “Three Medieval Theologians.” I am going to use Benedict, Bernard and Kempis to see how each one treats the topic of humility. This is the greatest tool to fight against hubris, the greatest of the deadly sins. So this is a class that will be hard to grade: should the students be trying to get an A or an F?
Read MoreWho would have guessed that September is now like a brown leaf falling off a tree? We have not written a newsletter in a couple of months, so there is a lot to bring up to date. We have made several trips to Yucatán to help with the retreat center there. They host many groups each weekend, so we are thankful for that. Martha and I want to place our focus there when we return full-time to Mérida in January.
Read MoreDear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Greetings in the name of the Lord. Martha and I trust you are well and practicing the faith of Jesus in each moment of your life. El Señor es nuestra Dios ahora y para siempre! Él vive!
Read MoreDear Brothers and Sisters,
Greetings in the name of the Lord! Martha and I would like to share our gratitude with all our partners in ministry this Thanksgiving holiday. Every church, every brother and sister in Christ who has prayed for and supported us is a blessing from God. As we get older the fact that God has worked in so many hearts amazes us more and more. We have known his promises in the sacred Scriptures are true, but now we know they are really, really true
Read MoreDear Brothers and Sisters,
Greetings in the name of the Lord! Martha and I want to thank you for your continuing support and prayers. We try to answer all emails as quickly as possible; the best address to use is dwehmeyer2@gmail.com.
We continue to divide our time between Del Rio, Texas and Merida, Yucatan.
Read MoreGreetings from Mérida and Del Rio. Martha and I are so excited about the wonderful opportunities the Lord has placed before us.
Read MoreDear Brothers and Sisters,
Martha and I are grateful for your support and honored to be your ambassadors here on the Texas-Mexican border and in the Yucatan. This Easter we were reminded of how short our lives are. Reverend David Legters, one of the key founders of the San Pablo Seminary where I am a professor, died recently and has left a great vacancy in our lives and in the school. Please keep Jean, his widow, in your prayers. We pray too for the Sureste Seminary in Villahermosa, Tabasco that is going through difficult times. Life in Mexico is always a challenge, but the church the Lord has raised up continues to witness to his love and to change the lives of lost sinners into shining lights of clarity and purpose. For this we give thanks to our Lord.
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