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Upcoming Activities in December (and things to pray for!)

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The season of – extra activities – has certainly arrived! We would certainly appreciate your prayers for a very busy day tomorrow, and a busy week to follow.

Tomorrow morning I’ll be teaching adult Sunday school again – we’re at the 8th Commandment, “You shall not steal.” As usual we’ll have far more to talk about that we’ll have time for, but that’s what makes it interesting. 🙂

Then we have our last “Adoration Service” of the year. We’ll be talking about the first and second coming of Christ. I’m going to try to do something a little extra. It’s – well, I won’t say. But let’s just say I’ve been learning quite a bit about sheep this week.

reindeer with guitarNow Shari and I agreed to sing in a choir for an evangelistic concert (two performances, actually) in a park in Mexico City next Sunday afternoon. This morning I discovered – suprise! – we’re going to have another concert tomorrow too!

So we’ve been frantically trying to get the songs figured out. Tomorrow afternoon is a special dinner for leaders of various churches in Mexico City. We were planning to go anyway, but not we’ll be running out right after our morning service for a practice.

So tomorrow in particular is going to be pretty busy!

This coming week we also have our final community centre classes. On Thursday after the baking class we’ll have a special closing program for all our students, with some fun and some ponche.

Nathanael also has some practices for a Christmas program, but his program isn’t until the 20th. Needless to say, there’s lots more coming up this month!

Thanks for your prayers!

This weekend: A Few Tricky Topics

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Just stopping by for a quick report on the weekend.

On Saturday night the church in Jesús María hosted a dinner for couples. Our temporary sanctuary was all decked out with hearts – balloons and those little corrugated decorations. We all brought food to share – chicken cordon bleu and spaghetti, for the most part.

But before eating we had some prize give-aways and chances for certain couples to publicly express their undying love (to each other, of course – but in public).

Erik Morga shares at the Couple's Dinner
Erik Morga shares at the Couple’s Dinner
Then Pastor Erik, who comes from another church in Mexico City, shared for just over an hour on the topic of biblical marriage. He was clear, frank, and practical. He boldly hit upon some issues that were difficult and hit very close to home, and he didn’t shy away from the tough stuff.

I had the video camera on for the presentation, so I’m trying to get it copied right now for some people who missed it or want to hear it again.

Finally, I think it was around 10pm, we dug into the food.

On Sunday morning I taught my Sunday school class on the sixth commandment – You shall not murder.

I knew this would be one of the most challenging of the Ten Commandments to teach – challenging because, as I said at the beginning of the class, most people still feel that murder is wrong. And so when you really start to delve into what it means, it shows the darkness of our own hearts in a way that we’d probably rather not see.

Just think about all the things that are wrapped up in this commandment. What about these issues:
  • Death through negligence
  • Abortion
  • Suicide
  • Euthanasia
  • The death penalty
  • Hate and resentfulness
  • Good Samaritans
  • Revenge
  • Looking out for the poor
  • Vigilantes
That’s only a start – and we had less than an hour to talk!

I knew I had to end with a discussion of forgiveness and how we receive it, especially after the Bible declared pretty much everyone (if not 100% of everyone) in the room guilty. And I knew it would be an issue – but it was even more of an issue than I thought it would be – the question Can suicide be forgiven?

This question is actually a lot more important than it may first appear. It touches on questions like – Can you be forgiven after death? What is the nature and purpose of confession? What is salvation? How and when are we forgiven?

The heated discussion continued after the class, and it will continue some more – at the very least, I’ll clarify a few things in the next class (lot of time – next week is the easy topic of “adultery” – hah!).

In the service, Rod brought John 19 alive for us in his sermon. And – it was Fabian’s last Sunday with us! Fabian has been leading the music lately, but he’s going to go and get himself married on Saturday, and move away, and leave us. 🙁

Anyway – a full weekend. With another full weekend to come!

Praying for Fabian
Praying for Fabian

That’s a Switch

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One thing we’ve learned during this semester of classes – people don’t seem to like classes at 6pm. And what time is my English class and Bible study – yep, 6pm.

Well, that’s how we learn – by trying!

Sweets-making at English Class
Making sweets at English class
But I have had people at the English class and the Bible study, though not every week. And we’re looking at making some changes for the next semester (which starts in January). We have three weeks of classes left before the Christmas season begins.
So what’s the “switch” I was talking about in the title? Well, we’ve had quite a few people who aren’t from Las Palmas in our classes. Out of the 8 people I’ve had in my English class, I don’t think any were from Las Palmas.

The other classes have had a mix.

Because Las Palmas is actually connected (you can walk from one to the other) to Santa Barbara, we do get a few from there.

And lately we’ve actually had some neighbours from our street come to classes, which has been fun! Four of the people in my English class are friends from our street. And two women from our street came to Shari’s baking class this week.

That is a switch – but it’s a fun switch! It’s been great to get to know some neighbours in a different context. And we’ve had some interesting conversations!

We’re planning some fun things for the semester ahead – we’ll see how it goes! Meanwhile, three more weeks and then our closing program on the 10th of December.

Bible Book Summaries

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Yesterday we had another adoration service, and the theme was “The Bible”. I know, that’s kind of always the theme, but it was more specific this time. 🙂

I had four short presentations – The Journey of the Bible (some stories about how God preserved His Word and the sacrifices that were made throughout history to bring us the Bible), The Evidence of the Bible (some of the real world results of the Bible being the Word of God), The Authority of the Bible (why it matters to us that the Bible is God’s Word) and The Glory of the Bible (the beauty of God’s Word).

Some of the Bible Book PostersI wanted to have some kind of visual representation of the books of the Bible in the room, so I created 66 mini posters with information about each book, such as length, a keyword, and the first and last words of the book. They were all around the room, in the order that they’re in (in our Spanish Bibles (the same as your English Bible)), but clustered around various sections such as the Pentateuch and Paul’s Epistles.

Anyway, in case you’re interested, I translated a couple of the posters into English and saved them as pdf files, so you can download them and check them out. There’s probably even more information I could have packed into them, so if you ever want to make your own, feel free to modify the idea.

By the way, the length of each book is based on the number of words in the original language. You should be able to figure the rest out:

Jeremiah
John

Thanksgiving for 120 Days

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The end of May and beginning of June was like standing on a precipice, preparing to jump. I was reflecting on the start of a season of insanity when I posted about the anticipated arrival of our first intern of the summer, Abby (see T-minus 13).

From the 11th of June until this past Thursday, the business didn’t let up. 120 days it was, to be exact. Interns, short term teams, special community centre classes, meetings, preaching, community outreach.

August would have been a slow month – which is why why picked it to take a road trip to Canada to complete paperwork that had to be done in person, find a vehicle, and deal with some medical issues. We also had the opportunity to visit family and do some preaching/sharing in the area.

I wondered what would happen – if we would make it through those 120 days! I admit, my body is feeling it, and some rest and recovery is in order.

Thanking God for 120 DaysHowever, more than anything, I look back with thanksgiving to God for all His mercies and blessings during that time. And since today is Thanksgiving, I thought it would be appropriate to pause for a moment (in between checking the turkey and starting on the stuffing) to give thanks.

Here are some of the things that I’m thankful for, either directly related to our family, or related to the wider ministry we’re involved in…

  • We saw cross-cultural relationships built to the glory of God.
  • We saw growth in the believers here in Ixtapaluca, and saw new people coming to the Lord.
  • We served and saw others serving those in serious need.
  • 11 people were baptized in August!
  • Safe travels – for us, the interns and teams, and our coworkers who were travelling.
  • The church property in Jesús María now has WATER!
  • Further progress on the church property – tiling and painting, for example (to help, click here!).
  • New and strengthened contacts in Las Palmas (even last week).
  • For good medical treatment.
  • For time together as a family.
  • New friends!
  • Many opportunities for us and others to share the Good News (even in Canada – here’s a quick sermon for you).
  • God’s provision of a reliable vehicle, which we’ve put to good use already.
  • The completion of needed paperwork in Canada.
  • Relatively good health.
  • Good times of fellowship with other believers in Canada, the USA, and Mexico (and for Jim – Guatemala too!).
  • 120 days – we made it!

Of course those are just a few broad strokes – there are a million details to be thankful for (like when we were five minutes away from buying a lemon of a van), as well as all the ongoing blessings that we have from the Lord.

We pray that God would continue to build His Church – that we would have more to be thankful for, and that more people would be thankful!

But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death is at work in us, but life in you.

Since we have the same spirit of faith according to what has been written, “I believed, and so I spoke,” we also believe, and so we also speak, knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence. For it is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God.

So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.

2Corinthians 4:7-18

The Last Two Days (with the Brubachers)

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Lee Climbing WallsWe were without internet for a couple of days, so I haven’t had a chance to write about the last two days that the Brubachers were here.

On Wednesday, we went to the community centre to do some fixing-up and cleaning-up. To the right you can see Lee playing Spiderman, trying to do the impossible and seal some leaks on from on top of the roof.

Below you can see Lee, Kyle, Carter and Nathanael pulling some weeds to make the front of the community centre look a little more presentable.

Pulling weedsAt the same time, the women were baking up a storm. They also had a devotional time. Boy, those cinnamon rolls smelled gooood! 🙂

Baking Cinnamon RollsThat evening we enjoyed a prayer meeting with some church people in Jesús María.

The next day we went to the senior’s shelter, where the Brubacher family gave a concert and shared the Gospel.

Concert at the Senior's ShelterThen we did a craft (which was a decoration with a combination Mexican/Canadian Flag), and with the help of some women from the church served lunch for everyone. There aren’t enough tables at the shelter, so some benches were used to set the plates on.

Lunch at the Senior's ShelterIt was a long day for the Brubachers – we did another English class after that, went out for wings (LOTS of wings), and then went to the airport, where they hopped on a red-eye flight.

Thanks again, Brubachers, for having a part in the ministry here! We hope we can see you again soon!

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