"Chips Off The Old Block"

News From Marilyn Wood

[7EBCC
El Paso, TX 79935
Volume IX Number 1
Summer 1990
Dear Christian Friends,
"For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover
the sea" (Habakkuk 2:14, also found in Isaiah 11:9b). We at Spanish American Evangelism
are trying to do our part in helping to spread throughout the worldthe knowledge of the Lord.
It is a never ending task and seems to grow rather than diminish. Later in the letter I'll be
bringing you up-to-date on what has been going on at S.A E. the past few months.
As most of you know, I went "home" for Christmas. We had a great time, and the weather
cooperated beautifully. The really cold spell had come and gone before Christmas. I left New
Year's Day to return to El Paso. On the way back I had some trouble with the front end of
my car, so in Vaughn, NM, I stopped to see if I could get it fixed. (Vaughn is out in the middle
of nowhere, and essentials such as gas are expensive.) I was able to find a mechanic who
took the front tire off, but he couldn't find anything wrong. He talked with Bill Baker, and they
decided it must be a UVjoint going out. I didn't want to drive the car any further, (The vibration
had already caused one lug nut to fall off and a second one was so loose that the mechanic
was able to take it off without using any kind of a wrenchI), so Bill found a trailer and came
up to bring me back to El Paso. (Vaughn is over 200 miles from El Paso.) I checked withsome
mechanics and got estimates ranging from$60.00 to $300.00 depending on what exactly was
wrong. I didn't have that kind of money, so my car set for a couple of days. I finallydecided
to take it to a mechanic to get an estimate and then proceed from there. Imagine my relief
when it turned out to be a brake caliper rubbing against the inside of the wheel. Cost of the
repair$5.00, plus I need to replace the wheel eventually. All I could say was "Thank you.
Lord!"
Just this last month I started having the same trouble with the left front tire. I took it in and
got it fixed. The mechanic also used some kind of sealer which should keep this problem
from happening again.
In February Ruth Knavel of Fairfield, IL, decided she was ready to make the move to El
Paso to work with us here, so Kathy Morse, Kitty Weckerly (winter visitor) and I headed to
Illinois in the S.A.E. van to help her move. It was a fast trip, but we enjoyed it. Kathy, Kitty,
and I left early Tuesday morning and arrived in Fairfield late Wednesday night. We spent
Thursday packing the van and Ruth's car, and we left on Friday morning and arrived in El
Paso late Saturday night. Ruth came out in February 1989 to see if she'd like to work with
us. She did and was extended an invitation to come and workfulFtime. Due to various problems
she wasn't able to make the move until February 1990. Ruth is a 65 year old widowwho doesn't
want to "growold sitting in a rocking chair." She helps out wherever she is needed. We really
appreciate having her here as a part of the ministry.
March always means the Mexican missionary reunion. It was held in Quer^taro again. This
year Irode down with Gordon Clifford of Campo, California. Gordon has a printing ministry
specializing in thetranslating and printing of VBS and Sunday School material. One of his
translators isJane Ramirez, who works in Yauco. Puerto Rico, with her husband. She came
for this reunion, and we had a good visit, as she also rode with Gordon tothe reunion and
we shared a room.
Jim Pierson, of the Christian Church Foundation for the Handicapped, was our guest
speaker. As always, we were not disappointed. The reunion provided agreat time of fellowship
and spiritual renewal for all who attended. Iwas in charge of the music for all thesessions
I had planned thesong services out ahead of time andfeel that the Lord used those times
to help draw us all closer to Him.
March also meant the arrival of the Marsh and Rojas families. Bob and Mary Marsh and
their daughter, Diana, went toPeru as missionaries twenty years ago. Their ministry consisted
mainly of a printing ministry with anemphasis on tracts. Diana met and married Tito Rojas,
while they were there. In 1989 they returned to theStates and worked in Indiana until moving
here. We are delighted to have them. Bob and Tito work well together, and between them
they keep the presses rolling.
In June Iworked with thejunior high week ofcamp at Guadalupe Christian Camp 50miles
southwest of Carlsbad, New Mexico. Itaught a class of 36eighth graders, played the piano
for the services, served as dorm mom (along with the other two women there) for the girls,
and did any other jobs that needed doing. We had a terrific week. Two of the kids made
decisions for full-time Christian service, nine made decisions to be baptized, and 28
rededicated their lives. All of us who worked at the camp felt it was a great week.
As has been true for the last two years, my nieces and nephews have comethis time
just for a visitrThe two older ones, Phillip andAllie; arrived orTJulyl^TThey stayed for two
weeks, until their father brought Paul and Sarahout for a visit andtook Phillip andAllie on
up to Kansas for a couple of weeks. Paul and Sarah will be here for almost a month. It has
worked out a lot better to have them two at time; somedayI hope totake them one at time,
but that involves a lot of travel.
Another exciting event in my family hasbeenthearrival ofAlexander, my brother Richard's
first child. He was born April 11, 1990. Since Rick and Cindy live in California, I don't know
when I'll get to see Alexander, so for now I'll have to rely on pictures. Phillip, Allie, Sarah,
and Paul are all excited about having a new cousin, too.
Thework here is going well. The coming ofadditional workers means more work, but we
rejoice in the fact that more is being done in the area of printing and distributing literature.
Over 900,000 piecesofliterature have already beendistributed thisyear. This includes tracts.
NewTestaments, and Bibles, aswell as afew other Items. Tito and Bob have been busy printing
more tracts so that our supply will never get down to zero. We've done more in the area of
distributing Bibles than ever. The only thing holding us back isthe lack of funds to buy the
Bibles. The Biblesociety just raised their prices on the Bibles and NewTestaments. Bibles
are now $1.75 (up from $1.50), and the New Testaments are now 50<i; (up from 40$).
RaOl has two more books readyfor galleying and is working on others. "13 Lecciones de
Doctrine Bi'blica" ("13 LessonsinChristian Doctrine) is nowout ofprint. Thisisthe first book we
didincooperation with CollegePress. I'm hoping to retypesetthat booksometimethis month.
Most ofyou areaware ofthe "Double Your Dollars" matching gift campaign. Over $30,000.00
ofthe $60,000.00 has been raised, and we praise the Lord forthis. Because ofthis extra income
we've beenabletopurchase a two-color press, along with someother equipment for theprint
shop, expanded the darkroom, and paidthe moving expenses for Ruthand the Marshes and
Rojases. The next major purchase on the agenda is a computer system with which wewill
The addressograph equipment may beiong in a museum, but we're still using it for all our mailings.
That new computer will really be nice and quite useful!
beable to handle our bookkeeping and alt of our mailing lists. We're really looking forward
to thatespecially Mary and Ruth, who just spent almost a month taking care of address
corrections after our last S.A.E. newsletter was mailed out. (We currently are using the
graphotype/addressograph system for our mailing lists.)
It has been more than four years since Imade a speaking trip tomy supporting churches,
so this fall I will be making such a trip. My schedule is as follows:
Sept. 9 Woodland Park Christian Church Oct. 1-5 Lincoln, Illinois, area
Colorado Springs, Colorado ^ , v ^ /-vu * //-.u .
^ Oct. 7 (a.m.) Church of Christ (Christian)
Sept. 16 First Christian Church Rushville, Illinois
Texhoma, Oklahoma t / \ i- * /-.u
Oct. 7 (p.m.) First Christian Church
Sept. 18 Swing Shift Division Wayne City, Illinois
First Christian Church
r- * Oct. 10 First Christian Church
Dodge C ty, Kansas ... ,. .
^ ' Fairfield, Illinois
Sept.23 First Christian Church .... , ^
^ Oct. 14-17 National Missionary Convention
Dodge City, Kansas - , .
^ ' Tulsa, Oklahoma
Sept. 24-28 Joplin, Missouri area . o..
^ *Oct. 21 First Christian Church
Sept. 30 Irwin Community Church ^ . Johnson City, Texas
Irwin, Missouri
Note: * indicates not confirmed as of this writing
I'm looking forward tothis time of seeing family and friends and visiting not only with my
supporters but supporters of the S.A.E. general fund as well. If you'll be in the area, please
look me up. Or if you would like for me to come to your congregation, please let me know,
and I'll try to fit a visit into my schedule.
Oct. 1-5 Lincoln, Illinois, area
Oct. 14-17
"Oct. 7 (a.m.) Church of Christ (Christian)
Rushville, Illinois
Oct. 7 (p.m.) First Christian Church
Wayne City, Illinois
Oct. 10 First Christian Church
Fairfield, Illinois
Oct. 14-17 National Missionary Convention
Tulsa, Oklahoma
*Oct. 21 First Christian Church
' ' Johnson City, Texas
*Oct. 21
Aunt Marilyn with four of her favorite people: Paul (6), Sarah (9), Allison (12), and Phillip (14)
For the first time in my life, I own a car free and clear. I'm so glad to have it paid off. I'd
like to keepit for at least anothertwo years, but itdoes need some repair work doneespecially
before I leaveonthis trip. Iwas hoping to use the money I had been paying as the car payment
to help take care of this, but unfortunately mysupport has once again dropped, and I've needed
that money to help takecare ofmy day-to-day living expenses. If you could help with my support
or with getting some of the repairs done, I would be very grateful. {Needed repairs are shock
absorbers, maybe struts, and the air conditioner. It went out on me last summer, and I've
done without it since. If there are no funds to get it repaired, I'll continue to do without it,
since the air conditioning system does not affect the car's drivability.)
Thanks again for all the help you've been to me. I'm looking forward to seeing many of
you in September and October. MayGod bless each of you as you continue to serve Him.
In Christ,
S623 ON J!LUJ8d
SBX0X 'OSBd 13
a I vd
aOViSOd STl
6jo l!}0Jd-U0N
Marilyn Wood
Kessarch Department
Mission Services
PO Box 2-127
Knoxvllle, TH 37901
S66L XI 'osEd 13
OUH-| AOUJOJ
lus)|o3uea3 UEOjjoiuv MS|UEd$
poo^ uA|!JE((\( UJOJJ SMd|s|
yao/g Pio dqi JJO sd/yo,,
Volume IX
"Chips Off The Old Block"
News From Marilyn Wood
Serving Christ through:
Spanish American Evangelism
3135 Forney Lane
El Paso, TX 79935
Number 2
(fOnlstnm
^j^yoio'heartardhotnez'
Winter 1990
Dear Christian Friends,
I love to travel, and travel is just what I did for seven weeks in September
and October. But I must say, after being gone that long, it felt good to be
back in my own bed. As most of you know, I made a speaking trip to my
supporting churches and also spoke to some churches that support
Spanish American Evangelism. I put 6400 miles on my car travelling in
eight states. I spoke to nine churches, one ladies' group, and a missions'
committee of another church. I was also on the campus of three Bible
colleges and spoke to at least one class at each of them and also spoke
to the missions group of one of the colleges. In addition to that I participated
in an hour-long radio show called "Family Forum."
This trip also included the National Missionary Convention In Tuisa, OK,
October 14-17. Rosa Baker and I had the privilege of playing the piano
and organ for the afternoon services, the fourth convention we've served
in this way. This particular convention was one of the best in years. We
were privileged to have Don Richardson, author of Peace Child, to lead
us in a Bible study of the Abrahamic Covenant. He had done this at
our Mexican Missionary Reunion in 1986, and it was good to hear the
material again.
Part of the trip was used as vacation time, and i was able to visit with
my sister in Denver, my parents in Dodge City, and my nieces and nephews
and brother-in-law near Houston. I also visited friends in various places
along the way. One person was Marcia Kay Thomson from Zimbabwe,
Africa. I replaced her in 1972 in Rhodesia (as it was called then) so that
she could come to the States on furlough. She was on furlough this year
and staying with her mother (my college dorm mom), who lives in Lamar,
Missouri.
The trip was not without incident. While 1was in Joplin at Ozark Christian
College, I had some free time and decided to go see the "Precious
Moments Chapel" near Carthage. On the way there, my car suddenly lost
power. I managed to make it over to the shoulder of the road and work
my way to an exit ramp about a mile away. (It took an hour to do that.)
To make a long story short, the problem turned out to be the timing belt.
A former Ozark student now owns a mechanic shop in Joplin, and he
worked on my car. He had it ready for me on Friday, so I was able to make
all my engagements on time. Fortunately no further damage was done
but the battery quit at the same time, and somehow a wire about 1/8" thick
punctured the side of one of my tires. So I had a iittle extra expense I had
not counted on. But all was taken care of in short order.
I must tell you that before I left on the trip I did get good news. I did
not need new shocks and struts as I thought I might. I did have to have
a little work done on the brakes, though. All in all, it was not as expensive
to get the car ready for the trip it could have been.
In my last newsletter it was mentioned that I wanted to get the car's air
conditioner fixed, but since no money came in for that before I left, nothing
was done. A few weeks later a couple sent $50.00 for that particular ex
pense. And then after arriving back in Ei Paso, one of my supporting
churches in Missouri sent me a check for $150.00 to get the air conditioner
fixed! It is a very small congregation (Only 13 were present the day I was
with them.), but they had a fund raiser in their community to raise the funds.
I am truly thankful to them for their help in this way. This week the air
conditioner was fixedjust in time for the cold weather.
The work at S.A.E. continues to go forward. Distribution of tracts and
New Testaments is now over 1,300,000 pieces, and that number will be
higher before the year is over.
Raul Martinez was up in November and did some more work on 13
Lessons in Christian Doctrine, the book that needs to be reprinted. I'll be
doing some more work on it, too, as soon as I get caught up with everything
else. We want to have it ready to send to College Press by the end
of the year.
The "Double Your Dollars" Matching Gift Campaign is going well. Over
$43,000.00 has been given so far. Our goal is to raise $60,000.00 by
December 31, 1990. This has been the most successful fund-raising
campaign S.A.E. has ever conducted.
We've also added another worker to our staff. Karen Wilken, from
Wheatland, Wyoming, moved here two weeks ago. She'll be working part-
time in the area of public relations with one of the churches in the area.
We're glad to have her as a part of the team.
On November 13th Bill Baker, Bob Marsh, Herb Watkins, Terry Allen,
and Dale John left for Central America. Herb is one of the directors of
I.D.E.S. and wanted to go to Panama to check on some work i.D.E.S. has
helped with in the region of David Chiriqui, so they had their visas before
they left. They left in the S.A.E. van pulling a trailer loaded with over 11,000
New Testaments and several thousand tracts which they have distributed
in several areas along the way. Bill has called Rosa several times, so we
know they were unable to go to El Salvador because of the fighting going
on there at the present time. They did make it to Panama, though. The
group plans to be back in El Paso by December 2nd. I'm sure they'll have
a lot of interesting things to tell us about how the Lord is working in that
part of the world.
December 6-8 will find the staff, most of the trustees, and their families
in the mountains near Ruidoso, New Mexico, for our first ever retreat. We
pray that this will be a time for us to get closer to each other and have
time to focus on the Lord's work.
I also continue to be actively involved with Eastside Christian Church.
Fortunately, I have excellent help for the choirs, so while I was gone, the
choirs kept going. The children and adults are going to combine their
Christmas programs this year so we wiil have one great evening of
Christmas music. The chiidren's choir is working on the musical "Christmas
from Scratch." The adults are doing music from different cantatas, as well
as some carols, and Katrina Lotspeich, music education student at New
Mexico State University, is writing the narration so that everything wiil fit
together. We think it will be an enjoyable, yet meaningful, evening.
Christmas is such a special time of year, and we try to make the music
programs at the church realiy point the worshipper to God and the reason
for sending Jesus.
For tne first time ever, I'm hosting ourfamily Christmas celebration. Yes,
we're getting together at my place! All my family will be here except my
brother and his family. Obviously, my two-bedroom apartment will not sleep
all nine of us. But the Lord has supplied for this need as well. One of the
families in thechurch is going to SanFrancisco for the holidays, andthey
wantsomeone intheir house while they'regone. So theygraciously offered
me the use of their house for the week. This is a big help to all of us.
As we look ahead to 1991, we pray that we will continue to allow God
to lead us in the way He would have us go. S.A.E. has need of larger
facilities, but finding something big enough at a fairly low price is difficult.
Also, we need to to sell our present facility. Please pray with us and for
us that this need will be met. We also hope to produce even more tracts
and send out much more literature. We also would like to distribute more
New Testaments and Bibles than we have In the past. We do thank Ray
Ewing ofChristian Gospel Distributors for providing us the NewTestaments.
(Money wereceive for New Testaments is forwarded onto him.) TheLord
is blessing his ministry, and we are grateful.
As 1990 draws to a close, I want to thank each of you for your prayers
and support of the ministry here. May God bless each one of you, and
may you have a great 1991 serving the Lord.
In Christ,
Mariiyrfwood
S633 ON l!UJJ8d
sexaj, 'osed
a ivd
30visod s n
6jo i!i0Jd-U0N
IZbZ Qd
eeoTAjes uo-ies-jfi
S66L XI 'osBd 13
9un Aaujoj s L
lusjidSuEAg uBoudLuv gsjucds
poo^ uA|jjc(^ UI0J3 SMdfg
pfo dg jijo sdn^D,,