Today was a day of commemoration here in Mexico for Los Niños Héroes – the Boy or Child Heroes. They’re especially popular in schools, of course, because they were young heroes and because it’s almost Independence Day.
Hannah and Nathanael both talked about Los Niños Héroes in their classes today – Nathanael had to bring a picture, and Hannah coloured this picture.
So who were they? On September 13, 1857, the invading US army was just about to enter Mexico City. The last line of defense was Chapultepec Castle, which was then a military academy. The child heroes, teenaged cadets (US reports said many were 10 – 16 years old), refused to surrender, but fought bravely until the end (depending on who’s telling the story, they were either killed or committed suicide). The six heroes were Juan, Francisco, Vincente, Fernando, Juan and AgustÃn.
Today there is a monument to the heroes (they are now buried there), which incidentally has been honoured by US presidents Truman and Clinton. (See the monument to Los Niños Héroes here)
Over the next few months, the world will reach a state that it likely hasn’t been in since the Tower of Babel. According to a recent UN report, in 2008 (actually, starting this year) more than half of the world’s population will live in cities. That’s about 3.3 billion people!
It’s safe to say that never before in history have so many people lived in cities. From a Christian perspective, this highlights a challenge that we often forget about. But we need to think about it.
In 1900, only 13% of the world lived in cities, which means there has been a huge leap in 107 years. The UN estimates that the urban population will be 5 billion in 2030 (meaning that 3/5 people will live in cities). In only 10 years the world may have nearly 500 cities of over a million, and in 2020 nine cities (including Mexico City) will have more than 20 million inhabitants.
That means a lot of contrast – take for example Mexico City, where the rich commute in helicopters (the rich here, by the way, are one of the groups least reached by the Gospel), and yet 40% of the population lives below the poverty line. About a million people in the world live in slums – scheduled to double to 2 million by 2030.
People in cities include so-called unreached people groups, but these groups are sometimes more hidden than they would be deep in the jungle. Cultural diversity is one challenge – these people may live close to a church, but that church may not speak their language, or may be so culturally different that it’s not relevant or understandable.
Often Christian groups want to focus on "community outreach", but this doesn’t always work in today’s cities. People are often more connected to cultural, family, or employment related groups and less to a local neighbourhood. These networks may be more important than geography in the growing cities. People in a church group may not be from the immediate area at all.
And we all know that there’s a different mentality in the cities. People have come for different reasons, and they live at a different pace and do different things. It’s easy for people to "disappear" in the cities, or simply keep to their own (narrow minded?) group (narrow minded at times, because you can cluster around your own "kind" very easily and avoid meaningful contact with others).
Cities are facing unique problems, and problems as big as the population. Though Mexico City is still growing rapidly, it’s also facing big problems – homelessness, pollution, and crime are common issues. About 1/3 of the people don’t even have basic sanitation service. But the city is also running low on water, and every time water is used, the city sinks (it was built on a lake). A report by Forbes suggested that Mexico City may be a ghost city by 2100. Part of the challenge is that the city is in two states – an administration nightmare (and another reason why you see drastically different population estimates).
In Mexico’s cities (as in many countries, I’m sure), people are often moving around, disconnected from their roots, and looking for answers – a good and bad situation, as you may imagine. There’s a window of opportunity in Mexico’s cities, and the Lord is working there. But we need what we’ve always needed, only more so – prayer, love, partnerships, creativity, willingness, openness and courage – to reach people in the cities.
It’s a fast changing (and yet really not all that different), technological (though often not), diverse (and yet strangely conforming!) society. And if we want to reach the unreached of the world, the cities can’t be ignored.
What’s an invisible illness, you ask? Well, if you have a chronic illness, and someone has said to you,"But, you don’t look sick", then you may have an invisible illness! You don’t carry crutches or wear a brace, but you still have to live with it every day. This might include diabetes, migraine, chronic back pain, endometriosis, depression, or multiple sclerosis.
Why do I bring this up? Not just because I have migraine, but because I know many of you are also living with an invisible illness. This is a week to get together and talk about it – it’s Invisible Chronic Illness Awareness Week…
This week (actually starting Monday) is hosted by Rest Ministries, an excellent Christian ministry run by volunteers that reaches out to the many people whose lives are impacted by chronic illness. The week features online chats with speakers, doctors, and authors, covering topics like:
Parenting When You Have a Chronic illness
Invisible Disabilities: But You LOOK Good! / Statistics / What to Say / What Not to Say / How to Help?
Taking a Stand: How to Avoid Medical Mistakes
Touching Lives for God… in Sickness and in Health
You can read more about the online conferences here. If you have or know anyone with a chronic illness, you may at least want to check out the transcripts of these chats after the fact if you can be there at the time.
Meanwhile, spread the word (scroll down the page)! And if you can’t wait, you can check out other articles, like…
I decided to replace the shoes I bought back in March 2006. You might remember, I blogged about them, wondering if I would wear the new shoes to Mexico.
Well, of course, I did. Thanks to the Lord’s answer to our prayers and yours. Looking back, I think that if it were not for some strange "coincidences", we would not be here now. But we don’t believe in coincidence – I think it more likely that God had a plan, and that He wanted to show us that it was His plan and not our own cleverness that brought us here!
Ironically enough, those were probably one of the worst pairs of shoes I ever owned. They felt very uncomfortable in one foot, and I couldn’t return them or afford a new pair. Today, the soles aren’t in too bad condition (compared to my last pair), but it’s the top part that’s falling apart. So I saved up for a few months and got a new pair. Here’s hoping these won’t be as bad as the last shoes!
And where will these new shoes take me? Lord willing (and if they don’t fall apart first) into a new part of Mexico next year, where our service will continue. Thanks for your prayers – God hears them!
Good news – this week we got some school books from Canada!
As some of you know, on top of her classes in Spanish at school, Hannah will be working through a Canadian curriculum this year. Over the last few months we’ve been working with an office in Calgary to make arrangements. Everything was set to ship the books when they arrived at the Canadian office.
Then I got a phone call. "Hi, James? Your books are here. You can stop by and pick them up any time."
Sorry, but I’m not going to be dropping by your office in Calgary any time soon!
Apparently the person that we had been working with was on holidays, and we had been lost in the shuffle. Then began a series of phone calls and arrangements as we tried to get the books for the start of the school year. By the time the office shipped them (our bill, of course) we were in a hurry (always more expensive).
The books arrived in Dallas, and we made arrangements to have them picked up. First, the people who were going to pick them up forgot. Then we talked to someone else, and they said they might not have room, but suggested a couple other people. I emailed them, but didn’t get a response. Then someone discovered that the books weren’t even there – someone already had them, and they were in Mexico!
So, we contacted this person, and found they were in Puebla. Some friends of ours in Cuernavaca were travelling there, so they offered to pick them up (they’re in the process of moving to Puebla *sniff*).
So we wrote several emails and made several phone calls to try to get the boxes somewhere where someone else could pick them up and then get together with our friends who would take them back to Cuernavaca.
Finally, we got the books – over 30 of them (some bought, some borrowed) (Hannah has to learn all this stuff?!), including classics like Voices from Lac La Biche, numerous math, reading, and craft books, and of course the science…. wait a sec. Where’s science?
Oops, I don’t think they’re all here. Ah well, another email – no answer – we’ll have to try to call the office in Calgary and get the books we’re missing…
We’re also still getting books from the Come Sit By Me curriculum that Hannah and Nathanael have been doing (it will be part of Hannah’s program this year too).
By the way, I really like Come Sit By Me, by Cyndy Regeling. It’s for children ages 4-7, Christian, and packed with Canadian content. It’s flexible, fun, focuses on studying and memorizing Scripture, and uses some great Canadian story books (many of the optional books are a part of Hannah and Nathanael’s wish list. Although I think we have most of the compulsory ones, we’d love to get some of the other books).
We got one of the last story books for school in our regular mail package – and got a surprise. The book is The Dust Bowl, written by David Booth and illustrated by Karen Reczuch (a good book about the Great Depression – the Big Dry). We had ordered a used copy (we were able to order a lot of the books used), and we opened it up, and lo – it was signed by the author!
We actually got a couple of books that happened to be signed by the author – but not like this:
Well – I don’t know who the other Hannah is, but it’s pretty cool that we have her book!
Anyway, now it’s time to sort all this stuff out and see if we can get a little serious eddy-kating underway.
* The 7 New Wonders – also a winner 2 months in a row, this is about Mexico’s fascinating entry (now winner) in the 7 New Wonders of the World contest.
* Blog tweaks and audio test – another winner 2 months in a row. An audio post explaining some changes here at the blog, and a general life update.
