This Thanksgiving we certainly had a lot to be thankful for, as always. Let me catch you up on some of the church related things from October that we’re thankful for.
The Joint Service
Here’s a picture from our annual joint service of Bible churches in our area, which was on the 6th of October. Our churches in Ixtapaluca had a high level of participation this year. Pastor MartÃn preached (about angels). Musicians from all three Ixtapaluca churches led the worship music (I played the keyboard). About 330 people attended (for various reasons not all churches could make it this year, so numbers were a little down).
The service was held a 45 minute drive up to a higher altitude toward the volcanoes, out in the forest, as you can see. A generator kept the sound system going.
As always, the service was a great time to worship together, learn together, take communion together, and have a time of fellowship. You can read more about the service on Rod’s blog here: United Service (Culto Unido) 2019
Hermeneutics Class #1
This past Saturday the church in Santa Bárbara hosted our first hermeneutics class of the fall. Men and women from four local churches attended. There will be 40 hours of training over the fall, no small thing. And yet you can see the large numbers of people who came to learn about how to understand the Bible for themselves.
We are tremendously encouraged to see the interest in this course – many people needing to try to find time off work in order to take it. And hearing the interaction and discussion during the class was also encouraging, as local believers really try to apply God’s Word to real life and urgent problems in our own communities.
As with the joint service, many people helped to make this possible, including the teachers John and Frank from Texas (our teachers), the Frys, the church in Santa Barbara, and the people who cooked and cleaned up. The next class is on the 26th, Lord willing!
And then there was Sunday…
Many thanks to those of you who prayed for me especially on Sunday. When I started talking for our Sunday school class, my throat did indeed hurt – but thankfully did not get much worse throughout the day.
So, in Sunday school we finally finished our 10 Commandments study, with an overview and a look at how to use God’s Law today. I had a good talk with one brother who is trying to share God’s Word with a friend, who does indeed seem to be confused about Christianity and Judaism and the Law and so on – so it was good to know that these are very relevant topics. At the end of the class we meditated on how our Lord Jesus is the perfect example of loving God and neighbour through the Law.
Rod also recently finished the Defending the Faith Sunday school series (we were switching off, doing both themes over the past few months), which was also a practical help to many, if the discussion was any measure. So, having finished those two themes, we also started a new series with Sunday’s sermon – Spiritual Discernment.
Overall, throughout the month so far, it’s been so encouraging to see people participating, interested. To see people applying God’s Word to their lives. God’s Spirit is working, in spite of many challenges and difficulties. In fact, it is often through those things that we really see God’s supernatural power, right?
For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,†has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. 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.
2 Corinthians 4:6-10
