I found this gem of an old photo at a restaurant that we visited last the weekend.
Here’s a closer view of one portion:
Ok, I may have edited it a bit. Here’s another close-up, unedited.
The picture shows representatives from towns all around the area. Of course, this was long before Ixtapaluca became a part of Mexico City.
Recently I came across the story of missionary to Mexico John L. Stephens.
In the mid-1800s, at a time when Mexico was being largely ignored as a mission field, John was a boy in a church choir in the USA. Moved during a mid-week church meeting, he gave his life to Christ, saying that it was good to have “something worth living for”.
John and David were still struggling to learn Spanish, but people were already coming to know the Lord through literature that they published with the help of a translator. Worship services began in Guadalajara in 1873.
As the work grew, David and John began to travel to other towns where they were invited. John eventually came to the town of Ahualulco de Mercado, teaching children and then adults.
The remarkable progress did not go unnoticed. It was around 2am on the 2nd of March 1874 when a mob assembled outside John’s house, shouting,”Long live the priest! Death to the Protestants!”
John escaped temporarily, but was quickly captured. David and a Mexican believer, J. Jesús Islas, were also attacked.
Both Jesús and John were killed. The mob mutilated John’s body.
David escaped, reporting later that local officials and religious leaders had aided the mob.
John Stephens believed that Christ was worth living for, and also dying for.
These events took place 142 years ago. Those responsible are long gone, and Mexico is a different place. The churches founded by these early missionaries are still there.
Are there missionaries today who are willing to give their lives for those who haven’t heard in Mexico? The work isn’t done yet.
A plaque in Ahualulco commemorates the two martyrs, quoting from Revelation 2:10, which reads: Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and for ten days you will have tribulation. Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life.
References:
It’s about time I gave you an update on the “memorize the Gospel of John” project!
The bad news is that I have fallen behind – only having memorized about half of what my goal was.
The irony is that I’ve actually found John easier so far than Philippians – I’m thinking it’s because so far the verse length is shorter.
Anyway, I’m carrying on and would like to catch up, but for the time being I’m just trying to keep up with a normal schedule.
The Prologue of John is a masterpiece of literature, describing eternal truths and God’s invasion of light into a dark world with expert skill.
Unfortunately, a lot of the discussion of John 1 has been highjacked by the decision of the Watchtower Society (Jehovah’s Witnesses) to render John 1:1 as “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was a god.”
If you bring up the topic with a Jehovah’s Witness, you’re likely to hear a long speech about why the Greek supports adding “a” before the word “god”.
But you don’t need to go to the Greek to be suspicious (to say the least) of such claims, never mind that Greek scholars from around the world would disagree with this highly unusual version of the verse.
Earlier this month this chapter was mentioned in passing in a Sunday service as we learned about the Biblical teaching on the Father, Son and Spirit. Standing on the foundation of the monotheism of the Old Testament, it’s reasonable to ask – is the Word (Jesus – see John 1:14) a false god or a true God (1Thess 1:9; Jer 10:10)?
It’s clear that John doesn’t think Jesus is a false god. And as every good Jew, he would know how many true gods there are (count them on 1 finger).
The Father, Son and Spirit cannot be three gods – they are one God. One Being, three Persons.
The context of the passage and the Bible as a whole overwhelmingly support this conclusion as well – and the correct translation of John 1:1: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
Recently I read an article pointing to verse three: All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.
This of course points to Jesus as Creator with the Father (remembering that God created the world by Himself – see Isaiah 44:24). But someone might say,”Oh, that just means the Word was created first, and then everything else was made.”
But this is not a possible explanation, if you take a moment (or a few minutes, in my case!) to wrap your mind around the language. I’ll let you read the article yourself rather than explaining further.
The Greek is important, but it’s not necessary to know Greek to realize that John was claiming that the Word-made-flesh was God Himself.
But for an introduction to the Greek, check out John 1:1, “The word was a god” (and in Spanish here). More excellent resources can be found here.
Jehovah’s Witnesses are ubiquitous here. As light shone into the world when Jesus came, may light shine into their hearts, and the hearts of many who do not yet worship the One True God.
This morning Rod and I get together with various Christian leaders from the area to hear some presentations about “mobilizing” Mexican missionaries. It was a good chance to meet some people and chat with some people. We talked about bringing some missions training to churches, about Bible translation, leadership training, Islam in Latin America, and so on.
Yesterday at our morning service I shared a little about nineteen unreached people groups here in Mexico, many thousands of whom live quite close to where we are. It was interesting because we learned about some of the same groups today, such as one people group of more than sixty thousand people, no believers among them that I know of, who have only the New Testament in their language. Many other groups in Mexico only have a few portions of the Bible.
This afternoon our new semester of community centre classes started, including the very first class in the new building in Las Palmas! English class and painting class (they’re painting cacti) were the order of the day. I believe there was some soccer going on too. Quite a few students. Exciting!
Lots more coming up this week, including for us a baking class on Thursday and a keyboard class tomorrow.
More than once lately I’ve promised someone I would share with them some resources for learning Spanish. So while I’m sharing with them, I might as well share with you as well!
Learning Spanish is an ongoing process. Just as you continue learning in your native language (I hope!), no matter how much you learn you will still have more to learn. Which makes things interesting.
Here are some of the resources that will actually be helpful for you, with a link and a brief description.
Synergy Spanish
If you want to actually converse in Spanish, and want to get beyond the phrase book, this is the #1 resource I would recommend. In fact, even if you’ve taken Spanish in school, but you’re struggling to actually put the words together in a conversation, I would start here. Seriously, if you want to actually speak Spanish with real people, invest in Synergy Spanish.
This is especially great for people who have opportunities to listen to audio. It’s a simple repeat-after-me format, but the way it’s taught is genius. For my previous review, see You could be speaking Spanish (on that trip to Mexico).
Format: Audio/ebook (can be downloaded or delivered)
Cost: About $70 (for downloadable 68 lessons)
Vis-Ed Think Spanish
Cards – made of paper – you’d be surprised how effective they can be. Vis-Ed has two sets of “Think Spanish” cards (the link takes you to the first one), and various other sets of Spanish cards. In the case of Think Spanish, there is no English on the cards (hence teaching you to think in Spanish), only pictures with questions and answers. A CD is also included. These are really excellent. Other card sets available here: Vis-Ed Language Study Cards
Format: cards and CD
Cost: About $20 per set, varies
DuoLingo
I know it’s taken a while to get to the apps and websites, but that’s because I think the top two options are fantastic. But DuoLingo, although it doesn’t have the advantages of the above (quick ability to actually converse, learning to think in Spanish), it’s still useful for expanding your knowledge.
DuoLingo is a website or app that you can use anytime, anywhere, to learn Spanish. You go through a series of tests on a topic, and advance at your own pace, with opportunities to review or learn special topics. You can even compete with your friends. It’s easy, and you can pick it up anytime and strengthen your skills.
Format: Online, or app
Cost: Free
Breaking Out of Beginner’s Spanish
This book is for those who have learned some Spanish, but want to learn some of the subtleties. Not in the sense of learning obscure words, but instead learning common words that real people use but which aren’t necessarily taught in school. How do you avoid common English-speaker mistakes? What are some common idioms you need to know? What about swear words? Well, maybe skip that chapter. Do you want to know what that man you just cut off in traffic is actually saying? Maybe not!
Format: ebook or book
Cost: around $13
Spanish Verb Manual
This book is no longer in print, which means you might find it pretty cheap. Although you can look up any verb with an app or on the net, sometimes it’s helpful to see them laid out in black and white. This is a fantastic reference, if that’s what you want. It even covers pretty obscure verbs, like chiclear (to chew gum).
Format: book
Cost: ?
Ultralingua
The best dictionary app I’ve found. Works offline, shows 17,500 verb conjugations, some 40,000 phrases, slang and technical terms, and you can save favourites. Awesome.
Note: I mention another dictionary app below which does appear to have more words. I don’t own the full version of the Word Magic dictionary, just one or two of the terminology dictionaries. Ultralingua is a little cheaper than the other unabridged app.
The link above should take you to the Canadian iTunes store. Here’s the US store link. It’s also available for Android, Mac and Windows.
Format: app
Cost: about $20
WordRefence.com
I realize I’m getting a little more into reference material here, but this website really is one of the best places to check words and conjugations online. If you’re trying to figure something out, the forums are invaluable as real people discuss words and phrases. If you really want to investigate how to say something, go here instead of to Google Translate (which is useful, don’t get me wrong).
Format: website and app
Cost: free
Other Stuff
These are a little more advanced, or for a specific purpose:
Yesterday we drove all the way to the other side of the city (only about 2 hours, thanks to a newer highway that takes us around the southern part) to do some more visa paperwork.
As we waited in our third line-up, a woman behind us asked how long it was taking us to get our visas. “Well, we’re just renewing,” we answered. She was getting her visa for the first time, and it was taking weeks and weeks.
But then we told her the bad news that we had started working on these renewals at the beginning of August. And then I tried to soften the blow by telling her that she is “not alone”!
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Thousands and thousands of more pesos later, our paperwork is – as far as I can tell – done! Except that three of us still don’t have visas. Lord willing they will be in our hands next week.
Talking with our lawyer afterwards, we got some good news – and bad news. The good news is that, for once, we timed things right. We should all have three year visas, good until 2017. But the bad news is that we almost didn’t.
It sounds like the government is going to continue making things very difficult for those who are serving the Lord in Mexico. As many of you know, the cost has skyrocketed, and shows no signs of dropping. But from the sounds of it, it’s going to be even more difficult in the future.
In the last 20 years there has been an unprecedented openness in Mexico. But please pray for, and encourage, missionaries that you know who are here. Pray that we would make the most of the time we have. And pray that more workers would come to this strategic area where so many unreached and little-reached peoples live.
