Retro: Cake Decorating Class
Ten years ago today was the epic cake decorating class – one of many baking classes that Shari taught at the community centre in the community of Jesús María.
Just click the picture below for a larger version:
community centre
Retro: Wheelchairs (old style)
Ten years ago today (2012) we were having a closing program for the community centre. Part of the program was to give out some wheelchairs to people who had been identified as having a special need.
These are the “old style” wheelchairs provided by another mission. The new ones are a lot better and more sophisticated. But for someone who had no access to any chair, these were a good start!
Stagnation: Not An Option
Construction continues on the church building in the community of Jesús MarÃa. Tiling for the floor of the sanctuary, paint for the walls, and continued brainstorming about how to split up and use the space.
Along with worship and discipleship, the church is pushing ahead with ways to reach out to the community. And that means more community centre classes starting up this year. Here’s the latest poster – advertising a variety of free courses. Baby ballet (!), ballet, folk dance, visual arts, girl’s volleyball, basketball, and in the future guitar, ESL, baking, and more!
Well, there’s certainly something for everybody in that list! Oh, also you can get help with your studying for COMIPEMS, which are tests that qualify you for placement in higher education.
This is just one project of one church here in Ixtapaluca. But for all three churches, I’m encouraged to say – stagnation is not an option! Please pray for all of the believers here, as we try to help the community at large and reach and disciple people in the Lord’s Name.
Mexico Earthquake: How You Can Help
Quick Update on what we’re doing today and how you can help…
Hi everyone. *Phew* — after the relative quiet of yesterday (except for the radio), the beeps and buzzes of notifications are almost constant as we communicate with people about the earthquake and various relief efforts.
Later hopefully I’ll have some time to tell some of the stories of the past few hours. But for now, I will say that the churches here are trying to help wherever possible, and as wisely as possible. We’re trying to find places close to help. Many were already serving last night, and many more are heading out today.
This afternoon/evening, Lord willing, I’ll be going with people from the three churches here in Ixtapaluca to a town about an hour away. We’ll be bringing medicine, food, and other supplies, and bringing encouragement where we can.
People from our church are gathering supplies right now to donate.
There are many small towns around that have been hard hit that we’re not even aware of yet. Obviously there is a lot of news coverage – and rightly so – on Mexico City. But we need to get help to everyone.
Meanwhile, Shari will be getting together with people from our church for a prayer meeting. Not only do we need to pray for those in need, and for their salvation, we also need to gather to encourage one another and remind ourselves of the wonderful truths that we know from God’s Word.
Thanks to all of you who have been praying, and asking after us. We really appreciate it.
If you would like to help directly in another way, probably the quickest thing you could do would be to give to our community centre fund. You can give here: Ixtapaluca Community Centre.
Once you click “give now”, read the first part of the page and click again if you need to go to the Canada or US page.
A New Semester Begins!
A new semester of community centre classes started up in Las Palmas this week! It’s turning out to be a slow start, but it should pick up in the weeks ahead.
The classes at the beginning of the fall semester are especially dependent on the weather. A good thunderstorm, or the threat of one, can keep students away, since they usually come on foot.
September is our rainiest month of the year. The good news is that the rain drops to about half of September’s levels in October, and about half again by November, when we only get rain on a very rare day.
But the biggest deal in the middle of this week is Independence Day. Tonight, the parties begin, and tomorrow is the day itself. So I don’t have high expectations for huge numbers of students, but I’m going to be ready anyway. Shari was wise and decided to start baking classes next week instead of this week.
Anyway, tonight is the first edition of English: Inmersión Radical. This will be an experiment in an interactive, total-immersion English class to compliment the other English classes that we run. Tonight will be a bit of a “light” version anyway, so we’ll see how things go.
Tomorrow night is the start of a Bible study at the community centre. There are no classes on Wednesday night, just the study, which will be open to anyone who wants to come. The first couple of weeks we’ll just be present and see how things go, before starting into more of a series of studies in October.
I’m playing catch-up, having just returned from meetings in Guatemala yesterday. So I need to finish unpacking, and get things ready for tonight. Excuse me – time to get back to work! 🙂
New Community Centre
Things are moving ahead with a community centre in a new area of Mexico City.
Since September there have been having activities in a new community here in Ixtapaluca, but they have been in peoples’ homes. Now it’s time for a place that can be known as the community centre.
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Our coworker Tina will be moving into a house in the area in January. This is a very special house, because it has a store front attached to it – a significant space that can be used for English classes, baking classes, and so on and so on.
I was actually waiting to get a look at the house to write this post, but things were pretty topsy-turvy this week so I haven’t seen it on the inside yet. But from the sounds of it and from the pictures I’ve seen, this will be a great space!
Over the next few days we’ll be “finalizing” plans for the classes for the new year. It’s a challenge to be in a new place – a very different place. Even though we have spent time there this fall, it will be a learning curve as we get to know people and learn how we can best help the community.
But this is one VERY EXCITING step!
PS No, it doesn’t already have the community centre logo painted on the front. Just playing with the picture!