Ten years ago today! A group from First Evangelical Free Church in Calgary was serving with us in Ixtapaluca. Good times! And here they are at the community centre in the community of Jesús María, teaching English – head and shoulders, knees and toes, as I recall – well, here in the picture it’s eyes.
For more about what the time was doing (and a toes picture!), just go to English/Canada Class.
Here is a five minute video from the baking classes – well, with a little extra from yesterday’s craft class. This was a community event from Word of Life Chapel along with the Tiempo de Vivir community centre and the Path of Life Bible Church in the community of Jesús MarÃa.
So see if you can figure out what they’re making. Ok, I’ll tell you one, because it makes one scene near the end make more sense – they made whoopie pies.
I’m not sure what the final numbers were, but you can get an idea from the videos. There were two “classes” of three days each, so basically double what you see in one scene above. Some people snuck in their friends and neighbours to join them, and some brought kids – so the “official” numbers probably aren’t right anyway!
Amazing the amount of work that went into this – especially by the women on the team and Mayra and Shari, and also women from the church!
During or after the actual baking was a devotional/testimony time, where the gospel was shared. There were also some great one-on-one spiritual conversations happening.
So – friends from outside of Mexico – does this look like a ministry you could be involved in? 😋
Oh, one comment on the photo above. The person on the left sitting on the table reading the Bible is Marla. This is the end of yesterday’s craft class. Marla does some flower arranging in the USA, and is properly amazed at the price of flowers here. So – she did some flower arranging for the women at the class – everyone got to take home a bouquet of roses! 🌹
The team from Camp Bighorn’s Journey program is here for one more night, before leaving for other parts of central Mexico. We’ve had some good times with them – hopefully it was useful for them too!
Some of the highlights of their visit included going up to the pass between the volcanoes, some “cultural challenges” such as eating some very strange tacos (you probably don’t want to know), and learning to get around on public transportation, a trip downtown, serving here in Ixtapaluca (getting to know some of the people here, helping with some construction-related stuff), and a visit to a public high school in a nearby town.
The school put on a “Mexican Traditional Fair”, a carnival with various stations where the team members played different games along with the students. In this case, it was an excuse for the students to practise their English.
Here’s one of the girls trying out a trompo, a traditional spinning top. Mexicans grow up with these, as did our kids here in Mexico. For the newbie, though, it’s not so easy! But these guys learn fast.
A visit from a team like this brings new opportunities to share God’s Word, and to demonstrate a Christian character to the community. And its a chance for us to see things through new eyes! Especially in the case of the teams from Camp Bighorn, it’s a chance to continue discipleship in a (very) different context, and learn about the joys and challenges of serving in that culture.
Thanks, team, for visiting! Many more pics and videos from Rod here – Camp Bighorn 2019.
Just because we won’t be in Mexico this summer, doesn’t mean we can’t be involved in what’s going on. And so can you – through prayer!
Well, it’s going to be a fun summer. The first team arrives on the 8th of June, and the last team leaves at the end of July. Our friend Samuel (and elder at the church in Jesús MarÃa) came up with a logo for the summer teams:
The church in Las Palmas will be working together with a team from Pennsylvania (Hope Community Church) to put on a VBS during the fourth week of July. Please pray that this international cooperation will reach a lot of the kids in the community!
The youth of our church are also raising money to go to a summer camp put on by Word of Life Mexico. The theme will be … er … how would you translate that? I guess you could say, Get Passionate! Although in English that sounds a little too passionate for a summer camp! 🙂 Looks like it’s a soccer theme – can’t imagine why.
Oh! And how about this tempting looking baking class, which will take place in the community centre in Jesús MarÃa with the help of one of the teams.
Of course, this is all on top of the regular activities and ministry going on. That includes a series on the book of Philippians on Sunday mornings – sorry to miss that! And a continuing series in Sunday school on the heroes of the faith in the Bible.
It all sounds like fun, but remember – it’s all with a purpose! To serve the community, and most of all to share God’s Word! So pray for the events of the summer, and all the many many who will be involved!
Rod Fry recently posted a video at Mexico Matters I thought you would enjoy. As you know, we had a visit this month from the Journey team from Camp Bighorn. This is a recent video but it features pictures from last year’s team.
So now that you’ve got all that straight, here it is!
Last night Rod, David and I went to pick up the team from Camp Bighorn, which will be in Mexico for a month but in Ixtapaluca area for about a week.
It’s been good to start to learn a little more about Camp Bighorn. Their Journey program actually reminds me quite a bit of what we did with Friends & Followers at VTI. Of course at VTI the focus was the arts, and at Camp Bighorn the focus is more outdoor adventure.
That being said, at least two people on the team have some interest in drama, and so we enjoyed talking about Shakespearean English and improv over tacos. 🙂
The team is from the US, but there are a couple of Canadians on the team. However, they kept us well separated, lest we talk about how many medals Canada got in the Olympics as compared to the US. Then again, the embarrassing topic of Olympic hockey could come up.
Anyway, we gave them a good introduction to Mexico City traffic last night, and they’re back downtown today checking out the sites. I’ll meet up with them again tomorrow.
For the rest of their visit Rod has organized lots for them to do. They will be helping with community centre classes, youth ministry, English classes at a local high school, a special event or two… and of course they will experience the adventurous side of Mexican cuisine.