This is going to be a month of travel for me (Jim), starting today. Lord willing I’ll be heading to Texas for an evangelism summit in Frisco, and then a series of Camino Global leadership meetings in Van (both near Dallas). Then I’ll pop back to Ixtapaluca for a day to lead worship music at our church, before heading to Tecolutla Veracruz for a retreat with our Camino Global team here in Mexico. This will be a time to update everyone on what I learn at the other meetings, as well as – I hope – a much needed time of refreshment for all!
I would appreciate your prayers for all of us for wisdom as we spend time in prayer, deal with various issues and look to the future of our ministry here in Mexico. Also for my health, which naturally tends to suffer with all the changes in altitude, diet, and schedule.
Pray also for Shari, Hannah and Nathanael as they carry on with ministry here, as well as an especially busy time for home school.
This week, for the first time after the recent quakes, many students finally returned to school. It took a long time before many schools were either repaired or declared safe. (Our church was finally able to meet at our normal location on the 8th, after scrambling for two Sundays to find other options.)
As you might guess, the kids are being slammed with make-up homework now, so everyone will be very busy for a while!
Meanwhile, many people are having their homes demolished, because the buildings are structurally unsafe. Aftershocks continue in Oaxaca. And some buildings still haven’t been inspected.
As a part of the ministry of our community centre and church, Rod will be going to Oaxaca today (along with another man from our Camino Global team – Chalo Sandoval). They will be making the 11 hour each-way trip to deliver tarps, hearing aids, tracts, and other items. They will be returning tomorrow, Lord willing. I know they would appreciate your prayers.
I heard that some from the church in Jesús MarÃa may also be planning a trip to Oaxaca, but I’m waiting for details.
Another friend is going with a group from his church on the 21st, Lord willing, to Ecatzingo, where I’ve been a couple of times. I would like to get back there maybe later in the month, but we’ll see how things progress.
On Sunday, we challenged our church to continue to reach out using the new tracts that have been printed. Please pray that God would use us as a church to bring hope to people around us in this difficult time.
Mexico continues with recovery efforts after the three earthquakes in September (or two and a major aftershock, depending on how you count them. But of course there have been many aftershocks – which continue even today). It’s about time for another quick update.
What’s Been Happening?
We personally have not been able to go out to do specific earthquake relief again. We hope to go again, but for the time being will be focusing more on support and administration for those who are going.
Since I last wrote, we’ve been able to get earthquake related tracts out to several churches, to help with their local ministry and relief efforts further afield. I was also able to meet with Camino Global missionaries last week to discuss next steps, and longer term help.
Many of the immediate needs have been met, at least in Mexico City and other parts of central Mexico. I’m not sure what people are going to do with the mountains of clothes they’ve received! But in harder to reach areas, and in southern Mexico, there seem to be many urgent needs.
Some of “Rod’s Group” out serving last weekRod had been hoping to get to Oaxaca last week, but reports of significant violence on the way down led to a change of plans. They went closer to home again, delivering blankets and tarps to those who are struggling with a lack of proper shelter. (See more here)
One of our coworkers was able to get to Oaxaca to help there. A typical story he told was of a woman and her four children. She lost her husband to cancer a few years ago, and makes memelas (a kind of baked tortilla) for a living. The family house was seriously damaged, and the oven destroyed.
As you might imagine, it is very difficult for a family like that to recover.
What Next?
Another trip is being planned from the 9th-15th of this month.
Many churches in Mexico City are hoping to go out again in the weeks ahead.
So, Lord willing, various types of ministry will be going on over the next couple of months:
Ministry at home: Not only does normal ministry need to continue, there are many who are struggling with fear after the quakes. Also, many are growing in their faith as they reach out in new ways.
Continuing to meet immediate needs: Making sure that there is proper shelter, medical supplies, and food in affected areas. Sharing the gospel of hope with those who are angry, confused, and discouraged.
Longer-term needs: Supporting churches, rebuilding homes and businesses.
Tomatillo plantWe continue to be thankful for those of you who have prayed and donated to the effort. At Camino Global Canada, the director’s wife Ruth Ann was inspired to make salsa verde – 40 pint-sized jars, made from her fresh garden harvest of tomatillos! She was able to share about the need in Mexico and sell the salsa, resulting in a generous donation for the work. Thanks, Ruth Ann!
Please continue to pray that people would find their hope in the Lord, and that needs would be met in His Name. Many, many people have a long road to travel before they can have a normal home and normal work day again.
We’re meeting with the Camino Global missionaries this week, and so I have some related prayer requests to share.
We have a new missionary family who had a rough night last night. They have three young kids who were quite sick last night, and so they had to go home to Puebla today. So we would appreciate your prayers for them.
Last night was . . . well, LOUD. There was a major thunderstorm here. And the house of another missionary family was flooded. It looks like there will be some loss, and a whole lot of mess. So you could pray for them as they assess the damage, try to get the water out of the house, and start cleaning up. Various others are taking turns going out to the house to help them out today.
Keep praying for our team member who is recovering from cancer treatment and surgery (earlier this month). She and her husband are missing the conference as well.
Although conversations have already been going on, we hope to meet more formally tomorrow with quite a few other missionaries to discuss next steps in earthquake/hurricane relief here in Mexico. Between the missionaries and our networks of churches, we have some interesting contacts. So together, we should be able to make better and wiser decisions.
We’re thankful to see how God has already been working through this situation. But do pray that God would give us wisdom as we meet.
A significant aftershock hit on Saturday (Shari felt it, I didn’t), and another today. We say “aftershock”, but there is even disagreement about which earthquake these are aftershocks of. The fact of the matter is, we know a lot less than you might think when it comes to earthquakes and plate tectonics. Largest quakes/aftershocks of the past week As far as I can tell, there have been aftershocks every day since the quake on the 7th. But here is a map showing just the quakes/aftershocks magnitude 5 and up from the past week (the orange one was from today). (Actually, that red one snuck in while I was capturing the map. It was a 4.7 but it just happened.)
Setting aside Mexico City and area for a moment, can you imagine the strain in the state of Oaxaca, where the earth is moving every day? There are towns which after two and a half weeks have no water yet.
But tension is high here too, as rescue efforts continue. Even if there is little damage from the aftershocks, it still adds to the emotional strain.
The Personal Report Part
Yes, that is a Canada cap!I won’t write a novel and tell you all our adventures yesterday – adventures including off and on power and cell service, muddy roads, and lots of driving. Over lunch time we met with people from a few families, some of which had been affected directly by the quake. One man made a confession of faith – so maybe from an eternal perspective that was the purpose of our whole day!
In the afternoon, with a lot going on, I made the split-second-without-thinking-much (maybe I was too tired to think!) decision to suggest we head up to the town we had visited on Thursday.
To be honest, I only had a vague idea where this town was, but I knew that by a big Roman Catholic chapel there was someone I had met. And I knew that there was a lot of damage in the town.
So we found our way to the town, and to the centre of town, but athough I had recognized some streets, I had no idea where to go from there.
There was a lot of immediate help in that area, so we were talking about going nearby to just help whoever we could find. We talked to a police officer, and he said something along the lines of,“You know, we have lots of help here. But if you go about 5 minutes down the road, they need more help there. Actually – I’ll take you.”
And he drove us right to the block where the person was that I had been looking for, and I got out of the van and walked a few metres to his house.
And they say God doesn’t answer prayer.
You can see the family house above – this was their house and business. It’s a complete loss. Three families are now living in a single room next door.
So I asked this man if he would be willing to walk with us for half an hour to help us find those most in need.
And so he took three of us from the group, and we went on a walking tour, giving people some food and praying with them.
For example, we came across this house (it was a business too, actually), which also is a loss (no, that is not a door on the right!). When we said we were from a Christian church, we found out that he was a Christian too, with a bunch of big Christian guys moving rubble behind the house. We prayed with them, and they enthusiastically and LOUDLY thanked God for His blessings and prayed for those who still did not have salvation. It was quite an experience there in the semi-darkness, with clouds of cement dust in the air! (I’m still coughing… dust was everywhere in this town…)
I got home this morning around 12:30am or so.
A couple of the towns we visited, including this last one, did look like war zones. The bad part is that there were destroyed and semi-destroyed buildings everywhere you looked. But the good part was that there were people working all over the place – trucks moving rubble, people organizing supplies. The Mexican people have been amazing in their response.
But this will require more than an immediate response the few days afterwards.
I want to leave you with the story of one man we met. Below you can see a picture of his two story home, which they now can’t enter. It will soon be torn down. As you might be able to see, all his belongings are outside under the clouds (clouds which will likely become rain, if they haven’t been already).
On the right you can see rough shelters that were just being put up last night, so that they would have a sheltered place to sleep.
This man’s wife just passed away a month ago.
We prayed for him, but in this case, as Romans 8:26 says, “…we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.”
Today and Next Steps
We had a service this morning, but we were split in 3. The building where we meet has not yet been inspected, so we met in three homes at three locations (we weren’t able to find a place big enough to meet – unless we were willing to pay a large amount of rent.) From what I heard all three mini-churches had a good service. It was an encouragement to be together, praying and singing and hearing from the Lord’s Word. And, of course, hearing more stories from everyone!
This afternoon I went to the city of Puebla to pick up 28,000 evangelistic tracts that have been printed just for earthquake relief. The front of the tract says,”Fear in the face of tragedy”. It talks about the recent quakes, and then goes on to share about the “God of all comfort” (2 Corinthians 1:3).
I’ll be shipping those to various churches in our network tomorrow as they continue to bring news of comfort as well as physical aid.
We have a conference this week for missionaries from around the country. We have decided to go ahead with the conference, but to use it not only as a time to “go up for air”, but also to have some times of prayer and meetings to strategize some longer term plans. But it’s going to be difficult for everyone to be here, but not be here. That will be Tuesday to Friday.
And then – well – we’ll take it from there! As I’ve alluded to before, things are changing day by day, and even hour by hour. So it’s more than a full time job to stay up to date with the current needs and what everyone is doing.
Rod will be going to Oaxaca this week, where he has friends, to help there. Depending on what funds are available (you can help here by giving to our community centre fund), and how the situation develops, we will see what direction we go next.
Thank you again for your prayers. God is answering them! People are being helped and encouraged in the face of this tragedy. Let’s keep looking to the Lord.
Pastor MartÃn and the group I went with yesterday.
We’re very thankful for those of you who have been praying for us, and for so many believers who are trying to reach out during this time. We are thankful that things aren’t a lot worse for us.
Of course, we are directly affected in some ways. We won’t be getting our visas this week, probably not for a couple of weeks. We’re not sure where we’ll be meeting on Sunday – we’re waiting for the building to be inspected for possible structural damage. I was happy to be able to buy clean drinking water – it was a little hard to come by for a while there.
You may have been seeing on the news some of what I’ve been hearing – I’m not sure. From what I’ve heard yesterday and today, there are some towns that have been destroyed for the most part, with very little help up until now. So we continue to try to focus our efforts on areas with the most need. Landslide pulls down power lines. Through a contact with Operation Blessing, Rod and some people from our church went this morning to a municipality in the state of Puebla (just outside of our state). I haven’t heard a report from them yet, but from what our contact said the situation is pretty bad there.
Tomorrow I will likely be going with a group to the state of Morelos, where we will be giving out supplies and fresh food, as well as sharing the hope of Christ.
We’re taking it day by day here – or maybe hour by hour. We’ll have a better idea by the end of the day tomorrow what needs there are in these areas. We’re also trying to look ahead at the long term needs.
I’ve been in communication with other groups from the city. Some are trying to organize to go out next week. Some have been active in clearing rubble and getting supplies out on a daily basis.
It is difficult to enter some of these areas, so you can pray that we will be able to get in and will know how to do it. That’s one reason why there hasn’t been more aid to these areas.
One pastor from the city who went to Morelos reported today (translated and edited for brevity):
We are in a place 70km from the epicentre. We arrived yesterday with the idea of providing some food provisions and a nursing station, and in our inexperience to help remove debris. We are in a small town where food has come but not the manpower.
There are many damaged homes, people homeless and in poverty. The communication towers are down. We are overwhelmed, but God is with us.
Many families slept on the street last night outside their adobe houses because they are damaged – and then there was a rain storm. We were going last night to help a man who had broken his arm, and whose home had collapsed – but it was impossible. The roads were rivers…
He went on to say that they have seen almost no other help coming to this area.
We’re trying to get supplies – food, medicine, etc. to these areas. We’re also thinking about tents or something similar to help provide shelter. Any help you can provide is appreciated.
Again, pray for peace and strength and health for those who are helping with the relief effort. Check back here at the blog – I will try to post when I can but as you may imagine we have a lot to do and think about at the moment.
This is going to be a month of travel for me (Jim), starting today. Lord willing I’ll be heading to Texas for an evangelism summit in Frisco, and then a series of Camino Global leadership meetings in Van (both near Dallas). Then I’ll pop back to Ixtapaluca for a day to lead worship music at our church, before heading to Tecolutla Veracruz for a retreat with our Camino Global team here in Mexico. This will be a time to update everyone on what I learn at the other meetings, as well as – I hope – a much needed time of refreshment for all!
We’re meeting with the Camino Global missionaries this week, and so I have some related prayer requests to share.
You can see the family house above – this was their house and business. It’s a complete loss. Three families are now living in a single room next door.
For example, we came across this house (it was a business too, actually), which also is a loss (no, that is not a door on the right!). When we said we were from a Christian church, we found out that he was a Christian too, with a bunch of big Christian guys moving rubble behind the house. We prayed with them, and they enthusiastically and LOUDLY thanked God for His blessings and prayed for those who still did not have salvation. It was quite an experience there in the semi-darkness, with clouds of cement dust in the air! (I’m still coughing… dust was everywhere in this town…)
On the right you can see rough shelters that were just being put up last night, so that they would have a sheltered place to sleep.
This afternoon I went to the city of Puebla to pick up 28,000 evangelistic tracts that have been printed just for earthquake relief. The front of the tract says,”Fear in the face of tragedy”. It talks about the recent quakes, and then goes on to share about the “God of all comfort” (2 Corinthians 1:3).
