Remember Mexico – June 2009

You may or may not have noticed.  Maybe I’m stating the obvious.  But I just want to draw a little extra attention to it, just to remind you to pray.

Mexico has been having a hard time.

The people here, that is.

Of course you’ve heard about the violence, drug wars, corruption.  People are concerned, and sometimes it hits very close to home (it’s just recently hit very close to home here.  I won’t go into details, but there are some friends of ours who could really use your prayers).

The economic crisis has hit Mexico hard.  According to a recent survey, the number of unemployed people hit a record high in the first quarter of this year.  The peso has dropped in value.  It takes 13.4 pesos to buy a US dollar (and that’s actually an improvement), as opposed to 10.9 pesos when we first moved here in 2006.  This too has hit people we know.

Just when people wondered how things could get worse, the A(H1N1) flu hit.  Though now much worse in the US than it is in Mexico, the paranoia turned tourists away from the country and even exposed prejudice toward Mexicans themselves.  More business left the country.

Though recent earthquakes felt in Mexico City may not have made your local news, in an area that still remembers the disastrous quake of 1985, they were enough to scare a lot of people.  What next?

Mexico City has been having ongoing issues with water.  It’s nothing new, but this rainy season the rain has been very sparse.  Many families have gone without water in their houses for weeks on end.

And then a tragedy in Hermosillo has shaken the country still further.  A fire in a day care has claimed the lives of 44 toddlers and infants.  Many others are severely burned.

Can you imagine the impact on a community to lose that many children, and the ongoing impact of many more with serious injuries?

We have friends in Hermosillo and I’ve shared some of their posts in my shared items.  If you missed the posts, read Day Care Fire, Update on Day Care Fire and then God works in such wonderful ways!

Next month a legislative mid-term election is coming up.  As with most countries, you’ll hear outrage toward one party or another, and those who wonder whether to vote or not.  In a country undergoing so much crisis, scepticism and anger seems to run especially high.

Add to this mix human rights issues, current heated debates over abortion … the list goes on and on.  Many people are feeling the earth shake under them, and it’s not just earthquakes.  Many don’t know where to turn.

Please.  Remember Mexico.  Pray for her people.