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Chalco Flood

Retro: Chalco Flood

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Ten years ago today, Shari was serving breakfast to the community affected by the Chalco flood.

It was February 2010 when the sewage canal burst open, pouring water into the valley of Chalco. The water kept pouring out day after day, filling the lower floor of people’s homes, destroying appliances, books, and clothes.

With our brothers and sisters from the church in Santa Bárbara, we began serving breakfast each morning at the edge of the flood, which was only 5 minutes from our home. We also provided water and some other essentials for the community at this time.

So – today’s photo – serving breakfast! Shari is on the right.

Serving breakfast during the Chalco flood.
Serving breakfast

This was a few metres from the edge of the flood. Here’s an idea of what it looked like:

Chalco Flood – February 2010

I took a lot of video/photos during this time. Some of that footage ended up in in the documentary series “Trashopolis”, which at the moment can be watched on Youtube – here it is: Trashopolis S02 E01: Mexico

Trashopolis: Mexico City

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A few months ago we got together with some of the folks who were working on the second season of the documentary series Trashopolis, which had been airing on History Television in Canada.  The series was all about, as you might guess, the garbage in famous cities around the world, such as Rome, London, and New York.

In season two, guess which very important city is featured?  You guessed it!  Our home sweet home, Mexico City.

Now apparently you can watch the episode online in Canada – Trashopolis: Mexico City, but we’re not in Canada, of course, so we haven’t seen it yet.  According to this Trashopolis II page, it will be airing on April 17 and 18.  Maybe some nice person would like to record it and send us a copy!

Meanwhile, you can see the first three minutes or so of the episode below.  And guess what?  You can even see a bit of the footage we took during the Chalco Flood if you watch closely.

Trashopolis has also been aired on the Smithsonian Channel and the National Geographic Channel, though I think they’re still on season 1.

Anyway, here you are – lots of places we’re very familiar with – and, of course, lots of trash…

Chalco Service (a little more information!)

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Let me give you a few more details about the service in Chalco on Sunday.  I haven’t had much time to sit down to tell you about it until now.  🙂

So, as I said, there were about 160 people there.  That includes people from our church (Iglesia Bíblica Sendero de Vida here in Santa Barbara).  Our church may have accounted for 60 people, but that’s just a wild guess.

The music team from Sendero did some music, including a song based on Habakkuk 3:17-18, another based on Philippians 2:5-11, and a song you may be familiar with – Henry Smith’s "Give Thanks".

Service in Chalco, Mexico
Service in Chalco.  I’m waaaay at the front, waaaay up high on the stage
playing keyboard with our music team.

There was the presentation of the video, and some good fillers from our MC David and also Arnulfo.

There was a time for testimonies from the people of Chalco – I think 4 or 5 people shared with us and their neighbours, both about the hardships and the blessings in the midst of the flood.

There were also two dramas from the youth … I ended up adding some sound effects which was fun.

Samuel gave a short evangelistic message toward the end which was well done.  He asked people to open their Bibles, and of course most people didn’t have any.  So our pastor Martín jumped up and said that we had Bibles that they could have as gifts.

Now, even though I realize a lot of people just want something free — it was amazing to see people jump up and take a Bible.  Then, not just glance at it and set it aside, but open it, read it.  I noticed one person who wasn’t listening to the message because she was too busy reading the Bible!  People from our church were all over the hall helping people find the passage that we were going to be talking about in Matthew 28.

Seeing all those people learning for the first time where Matthew was, what the Old and New Testaments are, and actually reading what God has said in His Word…. WOW.  Thanks to many of you who helped provide not only provisions (we also had a table of clothes at the back to help people out), but Bibles.

People listened to what Samuel said (except a few who were distracted by young children… or their Bibles).  Many expressed interest, and about 9 or 10 people came forward afterwards wanting to learn more – willing to give us their names and addresses.  That’s no minor thing.

Those are the bare facts, but I should add that most people from our church that I talked to really felt that God was doing something special here.  Everything fit together so well, people were so receptive, everything seemed so appropriate.  It really seems that the Spirit did something special.

Thanks so much to those of you who have given toward and prayed for this ministry in Chalco.

Video presentation for Chalco service

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Tomorrow we’re having a special service in Chalco to thank God for His mercy during the Chalco Flood.  We’ll be providing some more clothing to those who lost so much in the flood, and also have Bibles to give them.

There will be some singing and a devotional during the service, but it’s especially a time for the people of Chalco to give testimonies and talk about everything that has happened.

Below is a (mostly) English version of the presentation we hope to show during the service (there’s still time to change a few things in it, but I think this is more or less how it will be – except in Spanish, of course!).  It gives a bit of an overview the flood and some of the clean-up and relief efforts.

There’s still LOTS to be done, of course.  The photos at the end were actually taken before the flood, so don’t be deceived by how nice it may look.

We would appreciate your prayers that the service on Sunday would be glorifying to God.

Here’s the video:

Bringing Provisions to Chalco (video)

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Today we brought provisions to a few dozen of the families affected by the flooding in Chalco.  We also invited them and others to the special service on the 14th.

I didn’t take a lot of video of actually handing out despensas (provisions), because I don’t want to embarrass anyone.  However, we had some good talks with some people – many people remembered us from when we served the breakfasts (and we remembered some of them).  Eventually word got around and we attracted a crowd of neighbours – there were about 20 people around us for a while.

With four vehicles and lots of helpers, we were done in about an hour.  Now, we’ll see what happens on the 14th!

Here’s the video:

A Big Pile o’ Despensas!

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A pile of despensas
A big pile of despensas, ready to go!

Last night the youth of Sendero de Vida (our church) got together and created some "despensas".  That is, packages of provisions.  These are going to go out to the people in Chalco over the next couple of weeks.

We wanted to try to stretch the money farther, so after getting a few pre-packaged despensas, we went out and got some things in bulk – beans, rice, tuna, toothpaste, New Testaments, milk, and so on.

With a huge assembly line, the youth put together the packages, and I think we must have ended up with about 140 despensas.

As we give these out, we’ll be inviting people to a special event on the 14th of March – a service of thanksgiving right in Chalco.

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