Mexico

2 June 2006

One week until the BIG event

Jim Mexico, Ministry glimpses, News and current issues 8

Only one more week to wait. The 2006 FIFA World Cup is scheduled to begin in Germany on June 9th. 32 football (soccer) teams will face off in the most popular sporting event in the world. An estimated 5 million fans from all over the world will be visiting Germany for the 4 week long competition. In addition, there will probably be over a billion viewers watching around the world!Ok, so Canada didn’t make it this time. It’s “a team in development”. So we’ll be cheering on Mexico, with some secondary cheering for a few other countries as well. Canada is actually represented on England’s team by someone from Calgary no less – Owen Lee Hargreaves.

Owen is a midfielder.

In Spanish speaking countries, this has been an opportunity for some of our friends to make use of special World Cup tracts. If you’re from Canada, you may be rolling your eyes – tracts?! Yes, believe it or not, in places like Mexico tracts can be very effective. People really read them, and actually talk to you about them. And remember, many of these people have never actually heard the Gospel before.

To the right you can see part of the tract – I think it translates into something like the plan of the World-Wide One, but ask me again after I finish my Spanish classes.

Remember Bryan Smith, the CAM missionary we worked with in QuerÃ©taro? He recently wrote a blog about the excitment of a local game, and the opportunity to hand out tracts – read Soccer Excitement!

A fellow missionary pointed out some spreadsheets you can use if you want to keep track of your favourite teams in the World Cup. Check out his list of spreadsheets here. They’re pretty neat.

Interesting facts about this year’s FIFA World Cup:

The top ranked team is Brasil

12 cities in Germany will be hosting the games

7 teams have never played in the World Cup before

You can get a nifty Yahoo! Widget for the World Cup here (you need to download the free widget engine)

Freddie Ljungberg from the Swedish team is concerned that migraine attacks could knock him out of the World Cup

Visit the Official FIFA World Cup Site

Brasil won the last World Cup in 2002, beating Germany

25 May 2006

Short term in Mexico

Jim Mexico, Ministry glimpses 0

The excitement is building. CAM Mexico’s InVision program is starting up for another summer. The team will be going to work with Rod and Mayra Fry in Ixtapaluca, near Mexico City. They’ll be with both children and adults.

The team will be in Mexico between May 31 and July 12, so please remember them in your prayers. Pray that God would build character in their lives, that He would use them to show His love, that He would give them grace and patience to work well together and demonstrate the community of the Church. Pray for the Fry family as they host 20-25 people during this time.

One Canadian, Troy, will be on the team. I mentioned Ariel in our latest newsletter – she will be coming down later. Most of these people are college age, but Ariel is just finishing High School and so school’s not out for her yet. Ariel was a part of the team I was with last July.

The team does have a blog you can check out. I don’t know if it will be updated while they’re in Mexico, but here it is – Engage 2006. Of course the Frys also have a blog – In the Shadow of Volcanos.

Please pray that God will use each person, thanks to the incredible power of His Spirit in each one!

16 May 2006

Read about Mexico

Jim Mexico, Missions 0

I’ve been reading this collection of essays by Octavio Paz Lozano, who was a Mexican poet, writer, and diplomat. In 1990 Octavio Paz won the Nobel Prize in Literature. El Laberinto de la Soledad, or The Labyrinth of Solitude is what I’m reading now (yes, I’m reading it in English this time!), and so far it’s very interesting. It was written in 1950, so obviously times have changed, but he still gives a lot of insight into what Mexico was and is. He also compares Mexico with the United States, which gives interesting insight into the USA as it was and is. Octavio Paz died in 1998.

If you’re looking for insight into Mexico, I have another place you can look. Our coworker in Mexico, Rod Fry, has started another blog. It’s called In the Shadow of Volcanos. I especially enjoyed the entry from April 29th, Guilt, Freedom and the Power of the Gospel. It’s long (as blog posts go), but it’s worth it.

28 March 2006

Empanadas

Jim Food, Just for fun, Mexico, Misc 1

Three times in March I made empanadas. Yup, I’m a fan now.

What are they? The term comes from the word empanar, meaning to wrap or coat in bread. You’ll find them in a number of Spanish and Portuguese countries. In Mexico, they can be a variety of things. I made one kind for dessert which was more or less fruit inside a pastry. It was similar to pumpkin pie, baked, but each serving is wrapped separately. These fruit-filled empanadas had plantain, raisins, oranges, and some spices.

I also make some empanadas de viejas ropas. I took a few pictures which you can see below. These are more or less meat mixtures (in this case pork with chillies, onions, etc) wrapped in a corn tortilla. Let me tell you, it smelled like a Mexican restaurant in here. Squeeze on a little lime, dip it in some salsa and I bet you can’t eat just one. Here’s my most recent attempt, from Sunday. Not a professional job, but they still tasted good!

Making tortillas with the tortilla press

Empanadas with filling inside

Frying the empanadas

The finished, hot empanadas
(although you can eat them cold too)

Enjoying empanadas with Aunt Amy

27 March 2006

Back in the SCCEFC

Jim Mexico, Ministry glimpses 0

We had a great time yesterday at the South Calgary Chinese Evangelical Free Church. I was happy to have the chance to give the message, and join in the worship. We’ve been there a few times now – it’s just down the road from our church, and we’ve enjoyed it each time. Everyone was very friendly, and it’s always obvious that a lot of prayer and seeking God’s direction has gone into the service.

I even had the chance afterwards to talk to a couple of people about the internship program, called InVision, coming up this summer in Mexico. I think this is one of the most exciting opportunities in Latin America right now, so it was great to have the chance to talk to someone about it.

By the way, there’s also a girl from the team I was with last summer (remember Meximize?) that is planning to go on InVision. Please keep her in your prayers as well, as she prepares to share with her church family on April 9th about how God is leading her.

Anyway, we left the SCCEFC with hopes to come back soon and maybe spend a little more time. I almost didn’t get the chance to speak – I was filling in for the pastor who ended up being there anyway. But it’s always good to see him, so if he didn’t mind the break we’re all happy! 🙂

13 March 2006

Mexico DF and Calgary AB – worlds apart

Jim Mexico, News and current issues 0

Here’s a tale of two cities. Mexico City and Calgary have many things in common, and many differences (perhaps the most obvious being that Mexico City is like 30 times bigger!). But there’s one difference that has been fascinating me over the past few weeks – employment.

Calgary is entering a crisis – simply too many jobs and not enough employees. The other day we got a full colour flyer in the mail, inviting us to come over for some free food to discuss employment opportunities.

No people

People

The workplace? Burger King!

Another restaurant is attracting employees by offering a $500 bonus after 3 months and an all-inclusive trip to Mexico after 1 year! (This is a new Mexican restaurant, by the way – we’re looking forward to it. There are more and more opening up in the city).

It’s been this way in Calgary for years to some extent. I boasted to someone that they could come to Calgary one day and be working the next morning, and sure enough they were (with decent pay too). But things are getting worse as the boom continues, and the "now hiring" signs go up on every corner, and even at retail outlets wages are rising. Businesses that are on a time line with borrowed money are worried they won’t be able to survive (or at least make the money they wanted to!).

Of course, a worse crisis is going on in Mexico City. It’s the opposite problem – lots of workers, and not enough work. While in Calgary we are finding ways to keep seniors in the workplace, in Mexico people our age would likely be out of luck finding work. Yes, if you’re over 30 you’re over-the-hill in the young, energetic work force of Mexico DF. At a time when you’re trying to pay for your family’s needs, you may find yourself with no income at all.

That means that businesses in Mexico are happy because they have their pick of the cream of the crop. More unscrupulous employers lure workers with false promises of benefits, knowing that if they lose one person they can easily find 100 more.

Mexicans use amazing ingenuity to find work. If you’ve been to Mexico and see the people selling things in traffic, you know what I mean. For the tourist, it makes Mexico the greatest shopping place on earth. But many of these people with no benefits, and really not enough to survive on, are a day from disaster. I’ve seen statistics saying that 1/2 to 2/3 of the population is unemployed or under-employed.

Mexico DF and Calgary AB. Worlds apart.

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