I just got back from a small town in the State of Mexico. Quite a few of us went from the churches here with supplies, including medications, clothes, water, food, diapers, toilet paper, and so on. I took some video for you.
It was hard to get many pictures to really show you the damage. You could see some walls that had crumbled a bit, but the real damage was inside the houses. Quite a few people in this town had homes that were more or less destroyed on the inside.
The first family I spoke to were sleeping in their car. Their home, which was also their business, was more or less unlivable. You’ll see the outside of one wall at the beginning of the video below, but I didn’t take any pictures of the inside to respect their privacy.
Even parts of the road as we drove in were collapsed, or badly cracked.
We were able to give out the supplies in a fairly organized way. The nice thing was that the people of the town were already gathered, and we actually had time to talk to many of them.
So we tried to give some encouragement, pray with people, share the gospel, give out some tracts and Bibles, along with the other items. People were very open to talking – which is a bit unusual when a bunch of strangers show up in a small town around here.
Pray for these people, and so many like them, who have lost so much. Towns like this are far from the resources that we have closer to us. It will take them a long time to rebuild.
If you would like to help, you can give through this link to help us directly. You can also keep praying. Thanks so much to those of have contacted us with your encouragement.
Last week 9 of us from our church in Las Palmas went up to the northern part of our state for a men’s retreat. This tends to be an annual event, put on by the churches in our “circuit” in the Mexico City area.
In the end, 77 men were at the retreat. Two – or was it three? made first time confessions of faith! And we were all challenged in a number of areas.
In the pictures you can see the chilly pool, and three of the guys working on lunch – slicing cactus and onions to grill along with the meat for lunch. Each church brought their own food for lunch.
Anyway, it was great to hang out and have some conversations and also to hear some of the men share on Sunday about their time.
Now it’s back to other work. I think we’re mostly done with visa paperwork for the time being, as of today. So it’s a matter of waiting for a while.
And we’re getting ready for the school year to start, and for upcoming Bible studies and the Sunday service. I’ll be preaching on Sunday, finishing our “summer section” of the book of Mark (Jesus’ last day of travel before arriving in the area of Jerusalem for his final days before the cross).
Yesterday Shari and Hannah were in the community of Jesús MarÃa, lending a hand at the kids’ club that the church is putting on this week. Quite a crowd, as you can see!
The theme of the year is “Under Construction”, and so there are lots of hard hats and safety vests to be seen. Yesterday, a large group from the power company happened to be meeting right by the club, getting ready to do some repairs. So some people from the church invited a few of them over to stand at the front while the kids sang one of their songs – adding an extra “construction ambience”, and hopefully being a bit of a witness to the workers too! 🙂
As is often the case, there was a little class for the Moms who were hanging around. Shari joined them toward the end, and had a good chance to talk with them. There are so many challenges that people (including Moms!) go through, and it’s hard to see them struggling to find answers without really knowing Christ. Please pray that God would work in their lives, so that they would accept God’s gift!
And please pray for the church and for the kids as they continue to learn about the Lord today and tomorrow!
Last night we finished up a series of 45 Bible studies. We did the Chronological Bible Study (15 lessons) and then Discovering Life (15 lessons) and Discovering Life 2 (15 lessons). No one has been there for all of them – but I think everyone has learned a little something. 🙂
We actually spent two weeks on the last lesson, which was both on spiritual gifts, and then the conclusion.
Here are some of us – well, one person had to leave early, and not all the kids are in the picture, but this is most of us adults from tonight… although not everyone came tonight… ok, enough disclaimers…
We tried to end the study focusing on the gospel itself. So this was my attempt at covering some of the key teachings in Scripture…
It was fitting, I think, to end with that great text from Titus. I pray that the last line would be a description of our church — a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works!
For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works. Titus 2:11-14
I didn’t have a chance to write after that. Nathanael and I were with the Connect Team in Villa Hermosa, a small village in the State of Veracruz (there’s more than one Villa Hermosa, so here it is on the map. Just zoom out to get an idea where it is. You can even see the main road on Google Street View.)
The people in Villa Hermosa were very gracious and we enjoyed our time of ministry in a couple of churches there, although perhaps our greatest ministry was just spending time with people.
The last team to come was from Leroy Community Chapel in Ohio. They did a lot of work with the construction of the main sanctuary for the church in the community of Jesús MarÃa. They finished the stage and also put up lighting. They also were involved in hearing aid/reading glasses evangelistic events, visitation, a craft class, and service at a rehab centre.
By the way, there are dozens of new pictures in our photo gallery, if you’d like to see what all this looked like!
I was especially excited about the event we had in Las Palmas. We’ve never done anything like this in Las Palmas, but the party hall was full of people getting their hearing checked, and getting reading glasses. We partnered with the municipality, who also brought in a chiropractor!
Apart from seeing people’s eyes light up when they could actually hear with a new hearing aid, it was exciting to see people hearing the gospel, and to see conversations going on around the room, often with Bibles open. A new family came to our Sunday service who had gotten to know us through this event.
When short term teams come to Ixtapaluca, one of the things they almost always mention in the feeling of community. That’s because of the Mexican culture, but also the service of fellow believers that they meet here. The team members usually stay in Mexican homes, and get to know people in real life.
So I’d like to close with a few photos from the goodbye party that we had for team #3 in the church in Jesús MarÃa. This team, and all the teams, made an impact on people’s lives. And the people here in Mexico made an impact on their lives. And God continues to work!
Team members have new Mexican familiesA birthday surprise for Michelle!Thankful for Google TranslateCross-cultural SelfieTwo churches from two countries pray together, under the newly installed lights!
Some of you have heard about our recent events in Ixtapaluca, where we have been providing hearing aids and reading glasses for people in need, along with a presentation of the gospel. Well, today you can get a glimpse of what one of these events looks like.
I was able to help one lady with her new hearing aid. Her hearing was pretty bad, so I was either shouting instructions or making sure she was looking at me so that she could understand what I was trying to tell her.
This particular person was also waiting to receive a pair of glasses. Her name was called from the front, and up she went. When she sat down, her friend said,“You actually heard them call your name?!” Well, she was pretty proud of her new ability to hear what was going on. 🙂
Anyway, here you can see a little of what happened this time around.