Guide to December Activities
It’s high time we gave you an overview of December’s activities! If you’ve received our November newsletter, you will have read an overview, but I’ll try to give you some more in-depth information here. (By the way, if you don’t get our quarterly newsletter, you can sign up here)
The early days
On the 1st of December we’ll be finishing our CAM Mexico conference in FortÃn de las Flores (it’s at the same place it was last year). When we get back, we’ll be swept up in getting ready for Christmas activities – drama practices, getting costumes for the kids, all that. But more about that later (actually, we’re not sure what’s happening at Hannah’s school yet… no doubt something’s happening around the 19th).
Cena de Aprecio
The cena de aprecio is an appreciation dinner given by the CAM Mexico missionaries for Christian leaders in the related churches in Mexico. It’s on the 7th of December at a church facility north of Mexico City. Shari and I will be attending and helping out here and there.
Concerts and such
On the 13th of December, a team of 19 is planning to arrive in Ixtapaluca. They are from Woodside Bible Church in Troy, Michigan USA. The team includes a worship band from Lighthouse Collective, a ministry of the church. We’re going to let them have a night of rest before their BIG concert the next day!
Our church community, along with other believers in the area and the team from Troy will be involved in a whole bunch of activities in the following 8 days. Here’s the promo for the first concert:
Luis Penieres will be doing the comedy act for the evening, and Laura Guazà is a recording artist originally from Columbia, who now lives here. So with the both of them and Lighthouse Collective, it will be quite an evening!
Many of these activities will be at Plaza Cortijo (the "WalMart plaza") here in Ixtapaluca. They’re celebrating both Christmas and their 2nd anniversary, so we’ll be providing a great deal of the entertainment. 🙂
Through the following week, the team will be helping with music classes and English classes along with businesses at the plaza. On the 17th-19th, the team will be providing instrumental music at the plaza.
On Friday the 19th [this is an edit – originally it was the 20th], there will be a massive concert in front of the building where our church meets. We have permission to block off the street from 6pm until midnight. It’s going to be crazy. Brace yourself.
Throughout this time I’ll be chauffeuring the people involved all over Ixtapaluca, and trying to make sure the musicians have what they need.
Year-end for the kids
This will be the last week of school for Hannah and Nathanael. We don’t yet know what fiestas will be going on, but Nathanael does have a Christmas program at 5pm on the 19th. He’s got a Santa Claus suit just for the occasion, and apparently the school will be providing a hat with lights. No doubt it will be a busy but fun week for Hannah and Nathanael.
Pastorela
A pastorela is a traditional Christmas play. This year at the plaza, the pastorela will be presented by – the people of our church! Hence all the drama practices – at the moment, we’re doing a few each week. Time is short. The drama is being presented Sunday the 21st.
In the drama, a normal Joe … er … José. Actually, Pedro. A normal Pedro from Ixtapaluca discovers the real story of the birth of Jesus along with his family. So we see both the modern family and the actual biblical story. (If you want to read one of the monologues in Spanish, click here.)
I’m going to the practices and giving recommendations on the acting and staging and so forth.
Holidays
This year Shari’s parents will be coming from Canada to celebrate the holiday season. The team from Troy leaves on the 22nd, and Shari’s parents arrive the next day. They’re here until the middle of January. So we’ll be celebrating Christmas and Boxing Day and New Years and Three Kings Day with them. Et cetera. The Frys will also be here, so we’re talking about doing something with them too (do you think we’ll have 5 minutes between now and then to talk about it? Probably not.).
So now you know almost as much as we do about our December activities. Reading between the lines, you can see there are some incredible opportunities here. Connecting with people at the schools, and with people in the community. I’m guessing there will be other events that we don’t know about yet. There will be presentations at the plaza introducing people to the story of Jesus – His coming, and why He came. So we would all appreciate your prayers and encouragement as we continue to serve in this corner of Mexico City.