In case you missed something, here are the ten most popular posts from Finding direction for the last 90 days. I’m cheating a little bit this time – the “history week” posts were among the most popular, so I’ll simply include the index of those posts on the list, rather than including the most popular on that list. So I guess technically we have 17 popular posts this time. 🙂
The posts are in chronological order, the three most popular in bold.
Just stopping by for a quick report on the weekend.
On Saturday night the church in Jesús MarÃa hosted a dinner for couples. Our temporary sanctuary was all decked out with hearts – balloons and those little corrugated decorations. We all brought food to share – chicken cordon bleu and spaghetti, for the most part.
But before eating we had some prize give-aways and chances for certain couples to publicly express their undying love (to each other, of course – but in public).
Erik Morga shares at the Couple’s DinnerThen Pastor Erik, who comes from another church in Mexico City, shared for just over an hour on the topic of biblical marriage. He was clear, frank, and practical. He boldly hit upon some issues that were difficult and hit very close to home, and he didn’t shy away from the tough stuff.
I had the video camera on for the presentation, so I’m trying to get it copied right now for some people who missed it or want to hear it again.
Finally, I think it was around 10pm, we dug into the food.
On Sunday morning I taught my Sunday school class on the sixth commandment – You shall not murder.
I knew this would be one of the most challenging of the Ten Commandments to teach – challenging because, as I said at the beginning of the class, most people still feel that murder is wrong. And so when you really start to delve into what it means, it shows the darkness of our own hearts in a way that we’d probably rather not see.
Just think about all the things that are wrapped up in this commandment. What about these issues:
Death through negligence
Abortion
Suicide
Euthanasia
The death penalty
Hate and resentfulness
Good Samaritans
Revenge
Looking out for the poor
Vigilantes
That’s only a start – and we had less than an hour to talk!
I knew I had to end with a discussion of forgiveness and how we receive it, especially after the Bible declared pretty much everyone (if not 100% of everyone) in the room guilty. And I knew it would be an issue – but it was even more of an issue than I thought it would be – the question Can suicide be forgiven?
This question is actually a lot more important than it may first appear. It touches on questions like – Can you be forgiven after death? What is the nature and purpose of confession? What is salvation? How and when are we forgiven?
The heated discussion continued after the class, and it will continue some more – at the very least, I’ll clarify a few things in the next class (lot of time – next week is the easy topic of “adultery” – hah!).
In the service, Rod brought John 19 alive for us in his sermon. And – it was Fabian’s last Sunday with us! Fabian has been leading the music lately, but he’s going to go and get himself married on Saturday, and move away, and leave us. 🙁
Anyway – a full weekend. With another full weekend to come!
One thing we’ve learned during this semester of classes – people don’t seem to like classes at 6pm. And what time is my English class and Bible study – yep, 6pm.
Well, that’s how we learn – by trying!
Making sweets at English classBut I have had people at the English class and the Bible study, though not every week. And we’re looking at making some changes for the next semester (which starts in January). We have three weeks of classes left before the Christmas season begins. So what’s the “switch” I was talking about in the title? Well, we’ve had quite a few people who aren’t from Las Palmas in our classes. Out of the 8 people I’ve had in my English class, I don’t think any were from Las Palmas.
The other classes have had a mix.
Because Las Palmas is actually connected (you can walk from one to the other) to Santa Barbara, we do get a few from there.
And lately we’ve actually had some neighbours from our street come to classes, which has been fun! Four of the people in my English class are friends from our street. And two women from our street came to Shari’s baking class this week.
That is a switch – but it’s a fun switch! It’s been great to get to know some neighbours in a different context. And we’ve had some interesting conversations!
We’re planning some fun things for the semester ahead – we’ll see how it goes! Meanwhile, three more weeks and then our closing program on the 10th of December.
Only a few days old, Ashlyn is being held by her Grandma Ardys in this picture from 10 years ago today. Big brother Jevon on the left, and Hannah on the right.
Here’s a summary of the posts from last week, which add some context and personal connections to this year’s special anniversaries of Camino Global, Camino Global Canada, and Camino’s ministry in Mexico.
Here’s a summary of the posts from last week, which add some context and personal connections to this year’s special anniversaries of Camino Global, Camino Global Canada, and Camino’s ministry in Mexico.