Katie felt an urgency to write an update that very night. The internet service had been down entirely for some time and she had a small window of opportunity to share news during a journey out of the village. If the internet connection could not be repaired, Katie and her co-workers would not be able to communicate with the world outside their little village until the roads cleared after the rainy season in October.
“That’s a long time to go without hearing from friends and family, but I am reminded that missionaries in the ‘good old days’ went even longer than that without word from home,” Katie shares.
The prospect of being cut off from communication for that long wasn’t exactly desirable, but Katie felt at rest trusting God’s wisdom in this. “We hope it doesn’t happen, but we will trust God’s good heart if it does.”
Katie says that from June to October, it rains steadily in the little Nahuatl village where she lives and the roads become impassable. During this time, the villagers plant and care for the corn that feeds their families all through the year.
“Mushrooms will spring up, our water buckets will fill by themselves and the scenery will go from brown to beautiful greens. … Rainy season is a time of abundance. It is also our team’s favorite time for studying language and building relationships,” Katie shares.
She explains that since there is no way into or out of the village during those months, there is much time for learning culture and building relationships. These months are ripe with opportunities for more language study, as well.
There is one primary goal on the hearts of the Nahuatl missionaries as they invest their lives in studying culture and language while they build relationships. It is about much more than learning a language and studying a culture.
“Pray that we will redeem the time and move closer to the day when the Nahuatl people will hear the gospel,” Katie writes.