Ten years ago today, I made empanadas from scratch for the regular customers and also a special guest – Shari’s sister Amy (visit Amy and her husband Nate here)! So here they are enjoying (I hope!) the empanadas in our apartment in Calgary.
And please notice the Herdez brand salsa, a Mexican brand we still have on hand here.
Well, this clumsy. If you have a Twitter account, why not just join me there? 🙂
I actually haven’t posted any substantial news since last month! So let me give you a quick update on what’s been going on.
First of all, the weather has been a topic of conversation this month. Before the end of February, the weather changed – it wasn’t getting so cool at night, and felt warmer. This brief reprieve was replaced by rain, and howling winds, and snow at higher elevations. One day the entire state closed the schools because of the cold.
I’ve concluded it’s virtually impossible to explain the impact of this kind of cold to a Canadian, who has survived -20C but can always go inside to warm up. No sun, and no heat in the cement block houses simply means some very miserable days. And whatever explanation you care to give (I have a few), it’s very hard to stay healthy in that kind of weather.
Since the season had already changed, when the cold front disappeared it was instantly replaced by summer. Our thermometer was up to 30C yesterday, and the memories of wearing four layers, and gloves, in the house, are quickly replaced by concerns about drinking enough water and using sunscreen. At the same time, pollution levels rose to their highest in 11 years, which means unusual restrictions on vehicle circulation this week.
My bones haven’t quite thawed out from last week. Once they do, maybe I’ll start to complain about the heat. Maybe. Until then, I’m thankful!
Between the weather and the school cycle here and other factors, attendance at the community centre has been down, but not quite non-existent. Shari is looking forward to her last baking class of the semester on Thursday – fruit pizza – who would want to miss that?! Plus, the closing program is on Thursday – fun times! Oh – AND we have a soccer tournament coming up on Monday. 🙂
On the 5th we connected with David Radlowsky, who is here from Canada for a couple of weeks. We went site seeing at the beginning of last week, doing some orientation along the way. And eating, of course. (By the way, I have a good restaurant in Mexico City to recommend when you come visit…)
On Sunday we had our 6th anniversary service at the Path of Life Bible Church of Jesús MarÃa (Iglesia BÃblica Sendero de Vida Jesús MarÃa), which was a real blessing. Lots of people were involved in the service, the temporary sanctuary was full with lots of poor people stuck outside, but we enjoyed good times of fellowship afterwards. Nathanael and Shari were both in two different choirs.
Our family has been struggling with some health issues – all four of us – which has made things a little interesting. As always we appreciate your prayers in that department.
In other news, I’ve been working with our Coordinating Team to update and clarify some of our orientation requirements and tips for new missionaries. How in the world do you introduce new missionaries to Mexico and ministry here? Big topic! But I think we’re making progress.
The kids are busy with projects and things as they finish up another section of school. And we’re getting ready for their big birthday parties coming up in April and May. I’m organizing some of the delegation of funds to the ongoing construction on the church property (almost done that project – help us finish!).
Well, I could go on and on. Busy days!
But if you want to pray over the next few days, we would appreciate your prayer for health issues, for wisdom as we share with many people in various ways, and strength as we try to get so many very different things accomplished.
Some of you have also been praying for Alan, a fellow Camino Global missionary (working north of Mexico City) who had a heart attack. God graciously spared him, and he is home. However, his recovery is being hampered by a lack of sleep right now – I know he would appreciate your prayers. He has a long road to travel still.
You made it to the end of this post! 10 points for you! Have a great day. I’m off to Puebla…
Take four minutes of your Sunday to think about this. No matter where we are in the world, we have a wonderful task to complete.
Back in December, Alexandra Kimball wrote an article for the Globe and Mail entitled “Unpregnant: The silent, secret grief of miscarriage“. The article is a very personal one, beginning with the heartbreaking story of how her husband and herself faced the news that she had had a miscarriage.
Alexandra was a feminist – not just a woman who fought for equal rights, but, as she states,“Feminism was my religion”. And the right to abortion was a part of that religion. In fact, she had already had an abortion – which she still claims was “the right decision”.
But there was a problem here in the community of like-minded women, as the author eloquently states like this:
The more I considered it, the more I became convinced that the silence around miscarriage was connected to feminism’s work around abortion. How could I grieve a thing that didn’t exist? If a fetus is not meaningfully alive, if it is just a collection of cells – the cornerstone claim of the pro-choice movement – what does it mean to miscarry one? Admitting my grief meant seeing myself as a bereft mother, and my fetus as a dead child – which meant adopting exactly the language that the anti-choice movement uses to claim abortion is murder.
So, says Kimball, it’s hard to grieve over a lost baby when you’re preaching from the rooftops that it’s not a baby at all.
But Kimball comes up with an honest way around this quandry.
There was no question in my mind that the fetus I aborted was a fetus, and the child I lost was a child. It struck me that, in its work toward abortion rights, feminism had denied women’s right to define pregnancy however we want.
Women make and unmake our children, not just in the biological sense, but in the ontological sense, too. The fetus is a fetus, and the child a child – only the woman knows. If we deny her the power to define her own pregnancy, we deny the power inherent in womanhood.
Ontological: Relating to the branch of metaphysics dealing with the nature of being (Oxford). In other words, a woman chooses if the baby is a baby or not. If she says the baby is not human – it isn’t.
It should be immediately chilling – the thought that anyone has the right to decide who is human and who isn’t – and of course to choose whether they live or die.
But in her search for meaning and comfort, Kimball has left herself in a lonely corner.
The truth is that no one should have the rights and privileges of humanity because another human decides they should. Because no one has value based on the decision of another person. We have value because we are created, and given value by the Ultimate Being – the Creator.
The moment we give that up and decide that we’re the ultimate authority, we leave ourselves stranded in a lonely universe where nothing has true meaning. Because deep down we know that we can’t bring ultimate value to another life. And those lonely decisions we try to make are empty.
Finally Kimball went to a Roman Catholic priest, who helped her deal with her grief. She did not look to God, but did find comfort in “communion” – being open about her experience, and remembering the lost baby as her daughter Molly.
In the end of the article, that desire for communion ends with a feeling of affinity with a chimp who had lost a baby, as viewed in a video online.
Legally, Canada has become perhaps the most dangerous place on earth for unborn babies. In spite of modern science, thanks to which we can see the baby in the womb and test her or her DNA, Canada’s laws are medieval. “If you can’t see it with your eyes, surely it isn’t human”.
I fear for the judgement that will come because of our treatment of the weak and helpless.
At the same time, I weep for them. And not only them, but the mothers who are left without seeing purpose and hope and meaning that can only come from Someone who is beyond the universe, and yet fully involved within it. He offers Kimball – and all of us – something so much better.
