Lessons from the Mirror - May 2020

“But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.” ~ James 1:22-25

The phonetics classroom at RGBI contains mirrors on every wall. While consonants hold greater weight in the English language, vowels are the foundation of Spanish. If you shape your mouth the wrong way, your pronunciation will be wrong (or you will have a strong American accent!). The mirrors serve as a means to study our mouths to ensure that we are forming the correct shape for each vowel. We were encouraged to be good students of our mirrors. If we neglect the mirror, it will hinder our ability to speak properly.

Just as we looked in the mirror for our language study, the quarantine has been a mirror for our personal lives. James 1:22-24 emphasizes the importance of studying our mirrors and change the errors we see. If we were to come out of this quarantine without a greater reflection of God’s Son, we would be regarded as the man who forgets his natural face. God through His Word has been showing us a lot of our selfishness and pride. As we leave this time of quarantine, we need to come out changed. Our prayer is that God would help us to be good students of our mirror and change accordingly.

We ended the semester and, praise the Lord, Lisa and I both passed our classes with flying colors. We are so thankful for how the Lord gave us the strength to be able to finish. We are also incredibly grateful for your prayers as we struggled through the online learning. Spanish does not stop even though classes have ended. Lisa continues to meet with Zabdi twice a week. Lisa and I attempt to speak in Spanish even in the home. Our rule is that we can only speak Spanish from 8-5. This has been a good practice for our family.

We were able to participate in a fun project for RGBI. The school created a video series “A 6 Pies” (At 6 Feet) about the effects of COVID-19 and the quarantine, and we were interviewed for the ICS episode. If you would like to see our language progress, you can view the video HERE.

We were invited to a “Despedida de Soltero” (Goodbye to Singleness) for a couple that got married this month. This event was a fabulous cultural experience for us, and it was a good opportunity to practice our Spanish. We were also able to “attend” the wedding (“boda”) online. Observing a Latin American wedding provided another cultural experience for us!

We entered this month with many questions regarding our summer plans. Many of you have been praying for our summer plans, specifically about our trip to Mexico. The country will not be opening everything up or going to the yellow phase until the middle of June or the end of July. Because of this, we’ve decided to cancel the trip and take advantage of the time to visit with some of our supporting churches. We are focusing on visiting our sending church as well as several churches that have asked us to revisit since their partnership with us.

We eagerly anticipate these opportunities to provide personal updates and continue building relationships with these brothers and sisters. This does mean that we will be doing a lot of travel this summer. Please pray for safety on the roads once again. In the past, Simon has struggled with long days in the car, so we do ask your prayers for strength for all of us. In regards to our travels, if you would like to give specifically to our ministry travels, you can send a tax-deductible donation to Biblical Ministries Worldwide, and on a separate note specify that the funds are for “Jeffrey and Lisa Mayfield Ministry Travel.” For our current itinerary, please click HERE.

Thank you for your faithful prayers and support. We could not do what we are doing without you!

In His service and yours,

Jeff, Lisa & Simon

Mayfield

Simon Says:

Now that classes are over, I’ve been enjoying more time with Mommy. I still love to read books. My current favorite book is “It’s All About Jesus Storybook Bible.” Mommy is teaching me songs that go along with the Bible accounts. Daddy made me a toy that I can play with outside and keep cool. It is so much fun!