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I’m sitting here preparing for an evangelism study, which will begin next week on Tuesday night in Jesús MarÃa.
It’s like this. I was starting to work through an evangelism course on my own – in Spanish. When I saw the material, I decided to show it to our pastor Ismael. And – one thing led to another – ! 🙂
Why an evangelism study? Well, I think every believer can improve in this area. I also think that there are a lot of “myths” here in Mexico when it comes to evangelism, and the Gospel itself. I’m sure there are myths in Canada too – we just have different ones here.
Another thing is, when you’re in a church with so many new believers, learning to share your faith is super-important because it helps you understand the Gospel yourself.
Also, the elders of the church are talking about doing a real focus on evangelism at the end of the year. This study is 8 week – theoretically we could go through it twice before then.
So – I have no idea how this will go or what will happen, but I’m stopping by to ask for your prayers right off the bat!
These studies are not just sit-and-listen, they’re interactive, and they will result in – homework – that is, people will be doing evangelism. We want to equip people in practical ways.
So, yes, prayer is needed.
And hey, if you’d like to help offset the cost of the materials we’ll be using, let me know! If you have 10 cents to spare, that will help us get one tract (by the way, these tracts will be used strategically (for example, as a conversation-starter), not dropped by hundreds from an airplane).
I’ll try to let you know how it’s going once we get started.
This is part two of our series – giving you a chance to look out our windows (here’s part one). Exciting? You decide. 😉
Actually, it looks a little gloomy, which is funny, because it actually was a nice evening when I took these pictures. Oh well.
Above is the master bedroom. The flowers vary. The hummingbirds are liking the one on the left right now.
Nathanael’s room, facing the opposite direction into another neighbourhood. The view may not be exciting, but he has ways of making it exciting! 🙂
Both of the above windows are in Hannah’s room. I had to take one picture on an angle. One window looks out into our neighbourhood (right), the other looks into the other neighbourhood (left).
June is Migraine & Headache Awareness Month, so I thought I’d write briefly about something I rarely write about – migraine!
I’ve had migraine disease for more than half of my life – maybe all of it. Migraine has been called a genetically based neurological disease. We know it is connected to genetic defects, and we also know it’s connected to neurology – that is, the messages that are sent throughout your body using things like electric impulses and chemicals.
It used to be thought that migraine was caused by changes in changes in blood vessels (constriction and dilation), but now we know that this isn’t the case.
One possible symptoms of migraine is headache (from mild to severe). However, not all migraine attacks include headache, and if they do they may not include it all the time. Migraine without headache can be very disabling, as can migraine with headache.
Common symptoms include nausea, sensitivity to light and noise, vertigo, pain in various parts of the body, trouble speaking, confusion, numbness, hallucinations, congestion, and many more strange things.
For your interest I’m posting a chart of the intensity of my symptoms over the past 12 days (not including yesterday). Let me note just a few things.
First, this records the level of symptoms, not necessarily headache. The higher the red part goes, the more intense/disabling the symptoms.
A very good day would be 2 or lower. None of those over the past 12 days.
3 is pretty normal. Get to 4, and it’s really on your mind.
At 5 it gets hard to do normal things. At level 6, I may be cancelling appointments, and could be in bed.
At 7 I may or may not be able to get anything done at home – probably in bed. Hopefully not out and about.
At 8, I probably can’t even sit up and read. At 9 – well, it’s not something we’ll talk about.
10 is a theoretical number – I would hopefully pass out from pain that intense. I’ve recorded 9.5, maybe 9.75 – but never 10.
The last 12 days have had low numbers that are unusually high – that is, very little below 4. But the high numbers have maybe been unusually low – I didn’t record anything beyond a 7. So this may not be typical – just what the last 12 days have been like.
Yesterday Shari had another baking class, and it was a great success! So – how did all this get started?
Back in 2009, Shari, Mayra and Aurora started doing baking classes in Jesús MarÃa. I should mention Tiffany too, who was there for the first class even though she wasn’t living here at the time.
Around the same time they also did a baking class in Santa Barbara.
This was the beginning of many more baking classes in both communities. So – what are they all about?
The ministry, known as Amigas del Alma, was described by Rod this way back when it started:
The phrase “Amigas del Alma” has two meanings in Spanish. The common meeting [sic] is “soul friends” or “best friends.” The second meaning is “friends of the soul.” Obviously the purpose of this dynamic trio is to reach women through different creative events, principally…are you ready for this…baking and cooking. So far, Shari has helped the women make banana muffins, and Tiffany assisted in making Christmas cookies. [original post]
Amigas del Alma has evolved quite a bit in over three and a half years, and the “amigas” have changed over time. But here’s the basic idea…
How it works
It’s nice to have a specialty, and Amigas del Alma has specialized in desserts. Yes, it could have ended up much broader, but sticking (more or less) to desserts has brought a nice focus, specialization and expertise. Shari has also tried to bring recipes that are less known here in Mexico City.
Actually, dessert-making here is not especially common. You can buy cakes at the store, and you might make flan or rice pudding, but there’s not the variety that there is when it comes to other types of food. Not to mention that many Mexican women use their ovens more for storage than for baking!
Shari usually hands out the ingredients and what-to-bring list a week early (not the recipe itself – that would take the fun out of it!). Everyone brings their ingredients and what bowls and utensils they can.
Then at the class, Shari goes through the recipe and everyone bakes more or less together. Some share ingredients, others bake their own thing – and it kind of depends on what’s being baked. But everyone wants something to take home! 🙂
As the goodies are in the oven, someone leads a short, simple devotional.
As time has passed, Shari has learned a lot (as have the rest of us!) about what and how to teach! For example, how to explain things in a culture that often just doesn’t have the specific words that we use in Canada when we bake (how do you “cream”? or “fold”?). Or what things are natural to those of us who have grown up baking, but are foreign to those who haven’t. (For example, a pie is not a stew – you can’t just put everything in at the same time and mix it like crazy and throw it in the oven!)
Some things we’ve more or less invented Spanish names for – fun!
Why it’s so cool
There are a lot of reasons why the baking class has been an awesome ministry! For example:
It’s delicious! What a great thing to share – and to bring home to your family! Good feelings all around!
It’s relational! What a great way to get to know people – believers, unbelievers – what a great way to make friends!
You can invite your friends! It’s a fun, non-threatening atmosphere.
It’s a great skill! As a matter of fact, some women have used what they’ve learned to earn money for their families!
You can bring your kids! And many women have over the years. It’s a great mother/daughter event! (And yes, some guys have come once or twice – but here in Mexico, that’s just pretty weird.)
You can pass it on! You can teach baking – and then someone else can take the same recipe and do the same thing – and some have!
Short termers can be involved! As Tiffany did when she first visited, many others from the USA and Canada have come and have been involved. Can’t speak much Spanish? No problem – just come and share a recipe, help stir, and share a smile. You’d be surprised how powerful it can be!
Oh, and of course when someone shares something from the Bible, something else happens. People start to think about spiritual things – and struggles, and hopes. And conversations get started. And people are introduced to – the Pan de Vida (Bread of Life)!
And His food and drink last forever!
Thanks to those who have prayed for this ministry, and those who have donated supplies. Sometimes at the end of a series of classes, the women are invited to one of our closing programs, and they get a little gift. It’s especially fun to get something that’s expensive or hard to get here, that can help with future baking exploits!
And looking back, it’s so neat to see women in the church who got to know other believers through Amigas del Alma. And of course, they got to know Jesus.
Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. (John 6:35)
Back when we lived in Cuernavaca, we did a series showing the view out of our windows. At that time we showed the view at our language school, where we met as a church, and our house.
Well, it’s about time we did it here too!
For the moment, I’m just going to do our house. But we have three floors, so part 1 is the main floor.
So here’s the view out of our front window – looking at another house just like ours! 🙂
Above you’ll see our bathroom window. Pretty boring, but boring for a reason.
And here you can see the view out of our back window. Actually, we usually have the blinds down, because it’s kind of boring. This is what we can our servicio, where we hang rags and scrub clothes.
Here’s another view into the servicio. This is actually out the back door. You can also see our hot water tank and gas tanks.
Finally, below is our kitchen window (actually, the door above is in the kitchen too). Not very exciting, but it’s one we usually leave covered too.
That’s it for the bottom floor! Come back later for more windows. 🙂
(At the time of posting, you can find higher resolution pictures of our windows from the blog here. I’ll post more when I put more on the blog.)
