Fall Starts in August (what’s happenin’ in Ixtapaluca?)

I know, you thought that fall started in late September.  Well, here in Ixtapaluca, where a lot of the kids are going back to school in mid-August, it feels like it starts a lot earlier.  In fact, I believe I saw my first Christmas display in Walmart in August one year. 🙂

On Tuesday nights, a new series of studies is beginning.  Discovering Life part 1 will be restarting, covering topics such as What is God like? and What was Jesus’ Mission?.  Pastor Ismael will be teaching that course.

I’ll be teaching a different group – Discovering Life part 2.  Topics in this class include How does God work in my life? and What is the Church? and How can I study the Bible?

On Saturday mornings, the Chronological Bible Study will be starting again for the third run.  This will especially involve people who can’t make it Tuesday nights.

At the same time, a weekly kids’ club will be starting up, with the theme Learning from Rondi the Bear.  No, I can’t shed much light on that – our very capable Marta will be running the club.  The beauty of this is that we’ll be able to invite parents of the kids to the Chronological Bible Study while their kids are at the club.  It would be great if we could see more people from the community taking the study, which is very non-threatening and evangelistic.

It remains to be seen if we’ll continue with this track of studies, but for now things seem to be going all right.  The current set will continue until around the end of October.

Our community centre maestra Tina is hard at work planning the new series of activities at Centro Cultural Tiempo de Vivir.  The regularly scheduled program will be starting up mid-September, allowing us to finish a 12-week set before Christmas.

Shari and Tiffany will be teaching baking classes.  English classes are coming back with a whole new look.  And there will probably be other standards such as basketball and music and tutoring and knitting.  And an exciting new offering – family photos!  Come and get your picture taken by our resident photographer – Tina! 🙂

We would certainly appreciate your prayers – not so much for the activities, but for the people we’ll be interacting with.  And we also are looking at some of the big issues of the rest of 2012 and into 2013 – first, a building where the congregation in Jesús María can meet.  And – well, there are still so many communities without a Gospel witness here in Ixtapaluca – what might God have in store for us next?  How can we reach out to new areas?

That’s only the first stirrings of what’s coming up this fall.  Thanks for your prayers!