This isn’t an epic picture, but how often do you get a candid picture of both Shari and I? I don’t know who took this – I think it was one of our kids.
We were kicking off some of our summer activities by helping out at a soccer tournament (pardon the pun) in Las Palmas, put on by the community centre. Fun times! And here we are in a quiet moment – ten years ago today…
Shari took this wonderful photo of a little visitor we’ve had in our yard lately. I told her that if she was going to talk to him, she would have to give him a name. I suggest Herbert.
That has nothing in particular to do with this post, except that you may be wondering why I haven’t been posting much. In a way, I suppose, it’s the usual excuse – an extra busy time, for a number of reasons!
Sometimes things move along quickly – more often progress seems slow. But God continues to work!
Recently I enjoyed teaching Sunday school. We’ve been doing some random themes in Sunday school – things that we think are needed, or things people ask for. This was one of the latter – a series of two classes on Bible translations.
I’ve taught the “Where did the Bible Come From?” seminar in this church, though it’s already been a few years. So I designed these classes as a bit of an extension on the teaching about Bible versions.
We laid some of the theological foundations in the first class. And then talked about some specifics in the second class. We talked specifically about how manuscripts are used to translate, and then issues of translation itself – translating at different levels, more literal or more of a paraphrase, and so on.
In Spanish, and in English too, actually, there have been more translations in recent years that are put out by certain sects that are less an attempt to be faithful to the original, and more of an attempt to fit a certain theology or certain ideology. Some of these have been around a long time, but there are others that are more recent. I think it’s more of an issue than it used to be when I first started teaching on this topic.
That was last Sunday – and actually, that will be our last adult Sunday school class for a while. We’re anxious to prioritize and put our energy into what’s most needed and most effective. So we’re going to be looking at some special training for certain groups in the church. We’ll see how that goes.
Although adult Sunday school is taking a haitus, children’s Sunday school is continuing! Shari is going to be involved a little more again with teaching the kids, which includes lessons and things like activities and verse memorization. They’re learning about the life of Jesus right now.
We ended our classes on Bible versions with this little text from Colossians, which reminds us of our responsibility when it comes to the Bible:
And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body, and be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with gratefulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.
Colossians 3:15-17
As many of you know, for the last few years we have had institute classes – that is, Bible college level classes open to students from three or four churches in the area.
Starting in August, and running (roughly) every two weeks, we were doing a course on the basic Christian life, including topics such as:
And much more! The challenge for the teachers was that we often had to cover two, three, or even four topics in one week – and not easy topics, as you can see!
For the last class this past Saturday, our original teachers, John and Frank, came down from Texas to teach and hand out the diplomas.
For the last two classes, we focused on the return of Christ – a wonderful theme to end with, after struggling through so many topics related to obedience to the Lord. We are reminded, once again, to “be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labour is not in vain in the Lord” (1 Corinthians 15:58).
John was showing us an object lesson at the end, intended to show how the Holy Spirit works through our imperfect human efforts. The experiment actually didn’t show anything – something went wrong, as sometimes happens! But it reminded me that there is so much that we don’t see in this life. God is going to do amazing things – and is doing amazing things through His Word and His Spirit – someday we will see a much bigger picture of the great things He has done!
Another class is being planned – after we take a break!
This past Sunday it was our privilege and pleasure to join the celebration – the 15 year anniversary of the Path of Life Bible Church of Jesús María!
It’s hard to believe that it’s already been 15 years since we first met in that tiny room, already packed out, in a house on the corner in the community of Jesús María.
The service was a great blessing! There were several special “participations”, including a skit from the youth, a women’s chorus, a song from the children, a mother-son musical number, worship music together, a song from the youth, and possibly other things that I’m forgetting . . .
There were a couple of testimonies as well that were a huge blessing, especially from the person that we personally knew the best. Such an encouragement to hear how God has been working in people’s hearts!
There was a special speaker as well, who gave a clear presentation of the gospel, which was also a great encouragement.
Oh, there was food, of course. A caterer with a wide variety of tacos, and a cake!
Praise God for 15 years of God’s Word being shared in Jesús María and beyond!
For much better pictures and more info, be sure to visit Mexico Matters!
As usual, there has been a lot going on over the last little while! One thing that’s been fun – well, more than one thing – have been related to music.
The piano/keyboard class has (finally) started up again, with at least six students. Most of them are already involved in the worship music ministry at the church.
I’ve had to refresh my own memory as I go – it’s been a while since I’ve taught the course! But the students have survived two classes so far, with seven to go. We’re having a class every couple of weeks or so, so it will take a while to finish. But I’ve got them memorizing their seven notes now. 🙂
I’ve also been enjoying leading the worship music Bible study again. Actually, it’s one of two that I’ve done before – the more general one. (The other one was specifically for keyboardists.) There’s always something new to learn as we go deeper into the Word of God to see how we can better lead people to worship through music.
And then, of course, are the regular music practices that we have, which are also fun. It’s been a bit of a challenge having less time to practice before the service, because we only rent the hall for a certain amount of time. But we usually practise during the week as well.
It’s amazing to see how this group has grown over the past few years, and it’s been great to spend a little more time with them over the past little while!
This month the Path of Life Bible Church Las Palmas made another move, to a place with a little more space.
The new place is a party hall called “Centennial Hall”, not far from where we were meeting before. Some of you may remember that we’ve met in party halls and gardens before, and the decorations that happen to be up always make things interesting!
Things are going pretty well there, although we’re still working out some kinks. The sound was a lot better this past Sunday, as we made a few adjustments. We do have to get used to having more limited time again, as we’re only renting the building for certain hours.
We’ve been enjoying some interesting times of teaching already. Oscar and I have been doing a series on false Christian sects. One of our goals is to be able to better share the gospel with the people we meet, in this part of the world with so much confusion regarding religion.
Ezequiel has been doing some teaching on how to live as a Christian in our modern world. And we’re also continuing in 1 Corinthians, which has been a major challenge because it’s most definitely touching many of us exactly where we are, talking about things that people are actively dealing with. Specifically, we’re about to dive deep into questions of marriage and singleness.
We’re thankful that we have the Word of God to guide us!
We appreciate your continued prayers as we look for a permanent place to meet! Also, please pray as we do deal with many issues individually and as a church. We’re thankful that these things drive us to depend on the Lord.
