Help! We’re Stuck in a Video!
In fact, our whole team is in it! Jessica Nixon, who is here helping us for a year, put her considerable talents to work to make this video of our Camino team’s ministry! So here it is . . .
Ministry glimpses
New Community Centre
Things are moving ahead with a community centre in a new area of Mexico City.
Since September there have been having activities in a new community here in Ixtapaluca, but they have been in peoples’ homes. Now it’s time for a place that can be known as the community centre.
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Our coworker Tina will be moving into a house in the area in January. This is a very special house, because it has a store front attached to it – a significant space that can be used for English classes, baking classes, and so on and so on.
I was actually waiting to get a look at the house to write this post, but things were pretty topsy-turvy this week so I haven’t seen it on the inside yet. But from the sounds of it and from the pictures I’ve seen, this will be a great space!
Over the next few days we’ll be “finalizing” plans for the classes for the new year. It’s a challenge to be in a new place – a very different place. Even though we have spent time there this fall, it will be a learning curve as we get to know people and learn how we can best help the community.
But this is one VERY EXCITING step!
PS No, it doesn’t already have the community centre logo painted on the front. Just playing with the picture!
MEGA CULTO
You may be wondering – what on earth is a MEGA CULTO?! Some evil villain that fights Spiderman?
No, actually. It’s kinda like a SUPER Sunday Service. With a whole bunch of churches together.
And why do I mention a mega culto? Because tomorrow we’re going to be having one – a whole bunch of churches from the Mexico City area will be getting together for worship and fellowship at a campground out near our favourite volcanoes.
This is not a normal thing – quite unusual, in fact. Have we done it in the last decade?
Anyway, these are small churches that can feel pretty alone in an area like this where there simply aren’t many churches at all.
So do pray that this will be a time of great encouragement and unity for these churches. It’s a wonderful thing to be together in the unity of the Spirit, to work together, to worship together.
We’ll be having a service, a communion service, and special classes for all age groups afterwards. Then some food, some games – it will be an all day affair.
So – sometime next week I’ll try to fill you in on how it went! For now, I’d better make sure I’m ready.
Community Centre Activities Tonight (video/pictures)
I went and took a few pictures, and some video, of some of the community centre activities of the evening. So I had my video software quickly throw together a video for you. So here’s a little glimpse of the evening…
Our Team Today (and one reason why it’s so cool)
Today we’re heading to the city of Pachuca, north east of Mexico City, for a meeting with our team of Camino Global missionaries.
I’ll be sharing a bit about some of the things we talked about at our meetings in Honduras.
When I was in Honduras, I actually made a bit of a presentation about our team as a part of a Mexico presentation. As I thought about it again on the weekend, I realized again what an interesting team we have.
We are involved in a huge number of very different ministries. And we’re serving in three different cities, and four different locations.
And if I estimate correctly, here’s where our team members are from…
We’re also married and single, no children, with children, and empty-nesters. Our meetings are bilingual. We’re also multi-generational.
So for all our faults, it is pretty cool what a variety of people we have on our team.
And then if you add the people we’re actually working with on a local level, it gets even more interesting. That would bring us to a wide group of people, majority Mexican, from a variety of churches and mission agencies.
And in this global world in which we live, that’s what teams are going to look like more and more. And it’s a very challenging thing, but a great thing, because that’s what the Church is.
A Crowd Draws a Crowd
We stopped by the community centre in Jesús MarÃa to prepare for the baking class tomorrow. Cleaning the room, making sure we have supplies, going downtown to get gas for the stove.
At six o’clock some activities started, all pictured in the tiny photo above. Guitar class with Rod, kids’ craft class with Emily (Hannah helped with that one), country dance with Tina, soccer/football with Jonathan, and some serious swinging just for fun.
It was great to see new people coming, and Shari had a chance to talk to some of the women about tomorrow’s baking class.
English classes continued this evening in Las Palmas as well.
So much going on, it’s hard to keep track of it all! But I wish there was more going on, in more communities. It’s hard to imagine the number of communities and the number of people right around here – tens of thousands – who will not be touched by any of the activities at all.
Anyone want to come and help?
