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Prayer and Praise

The First Worship Service in Jesús Marí­a

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Shari told me later it was a pressure washer.  Someone was washing every square inch of their house.

But I know better.  It was a drill, and it was drilling into my skull.  Unrelenting, unstoppable.

No, it felt more like a vice on my brain.  Well, whatever it was, I was SICK on Sunday.

Somehow – I don’t know how – I managed to have a shower, iron my clothes, and put them on.  Shirt, pants… but when it came to the belt, I just couldn’t do it.  I collapsed, and spent most of the rest of the day (until late afternoon) in bed – most of the time unable to even get up to get a drink.

Which left me in a pretty bad state by late afternoon.

All this to say – I wasn’t at the first service of the new local church in Jesús María (actually, as far as we know, the only church in Jesús María!).  Which of course was quite a disappointment for me.

But Shari, Hannah and Nathanael went.  The place was packed – looks like we’re going to need a new building.  Maybe if I’d gone, the building would have completely exploded!

So I hear that there were about 45 people there, making it already one of the larger churches in the area.  🙂

David played the guitar.  Rod spoke on John 1:1-18.  They enjoyed some pozole after the service (I love pozole).  All in all, sounds like it was a great success.

Getting ready for Pozole
Getting ready to eat pozole

And after all, Jesus will build His church, whether I’m there or not.  In the end, it’s not about me.  He’s changing lives here in Ixtapaluca.  And In spite of the drill, or vice, or pressure washer – whatever it was – I’m content.

Closing of Classes Program (video)

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Note:  I intended to post this yesterday, but had some trouble uploading the video.  So here it is, a bit late.  I’ll write more about today and the first service of the new church tomorrow, Lord willing.

I did take some video of the special program we had Friday night in Jesús María.  It was quite an evening – and didn’t start at all the way we expected.  For one, our clown didn’t show up….

Also missing from the video is the song that two students from my keyboard class and I played.  Since I was playing, I wasn’t video-ing, of course!

But Carlos and Jacqueline (the two students who were playing) did a great job, especially considering the time they had to prepare.  Because of the time of year, we chose a song related to Jesus work on the cross.  In English, Before the Throne of God Above (different tune, though).  You can actually buy the Spanish version we used here – Ante el Trono Celestial.

And, of course, we showed the video you already saw about Amigas del Alma baking class.

You’ll see clips of the rest – some of the women in Amigas del Alma, David Gomez and his guitar class performing, a presentation from the English classes, and a game.

You might even learn some Spanish if you listen closely!

After the program we said goodbye to various people, and many said that Lord willing they would be at the worship service Sunday morning – our first time meeting together for worship as a brand new local church!

And now, the video.

Another Event Starting Now! (video)

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An event is starting around now in Jesús María to celebrate the closing of classes.  It’s a bit of a Holy Week (Semana Santa) theme as well.  There will be participation from my keyboard class, from the guitar class, and the English classes.  There will be a big game with English and music questions.  And who knows what else!

The Amigas del Alma baking class will also be celebrating the close of another series of classes.  I made up the video below for their part of the event.

Should be fun!  I’ll let you know how it went!

Rough Days of Blessing

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Yesterday was a rough day.  Both Shari and I were not feeling at all well.  And we were concerned about sick friends, such as our friend Miguel whom I mentioned on Twitter.  Challenges with the niños.  And yet, God still has ways of blessing us.

I woke up feeling worse than usual, but managed to get ready for an event at Hannah’s school.  Yesterday I was to accompany some of the classes on keyboard, while they sang the state and national anthems.

As I was leaving the house, I somehow (!) slammed my finger in our front door – right hand, middle finger.

Right away, I rushed in and got an icepack, holding my now swelling, throbbing finger in the ice all the way to the school.  Which was a longer trip than usual – I took a wrong turn and got lost in a residential maze.

But – praise the Lord – the finger was all right when it came time to play, and everything seemed to go all right.  The children did great!

Afterwards, in fact, a couple of teens came up to me, asking if I taught keyboard.  Turns out one of them lives in Jesús María, and he and his sister are both interested in learning keyboard.  Could be, if I do the class again, that I’ll have some new students.

Overall, I’ve had some good times at Hannah’s school, and I’m now recognized by name by quite a few of the students and faculty.

I managed to revive enough to do a keyboard class in the evening, which was fun as usual.  It was the last class, although we have a practice on Thursday for our big event on Friday.

It’s been quite a run, those classes – and now I have a good set of material to work from if I teach the class again.

Shari was, of course, on the run all day, but I finally saw her briefly in the evening.  We traded off and she left for a surprise birthday party for our friend Aurora.  I helped some more with the kids’ homework, cleaned up a few things, did some other work I needed to get done, and crashed.

Challenging days – but in the middle of it all, good times with lots of people, and God’s grace most of all.

Chalco Service (a little more information!)

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Let me give you a few more details about the service in Chalco on Sunday.  I haven’t had much time to sit down to tell you about it until now.  🙂

So, as I said, there were about 160 people there.  That includes people from our church (Iglesia Bíblica Sendero de Vida here in Santa Barbara).  Our church may have accounted for 60 people, but that’s just a wild guess.

The music team from Sendero did some music, including a song based on Habakkuk 3:17-18, another based on Philippians 2:5-11, and a song you may be familiar with – Henry Smith’s "Give Thanks".

Service in Chalco, Mexico
Service in Chalco.  I’m waaaay at the front, waaaay up high on the stage
playing keyboard with our music team.

There was the presentation of the video, and some good fillers from our MC David and also Arnulfo.

There was a time for testimonies from the people of Chalco – I think 4 or 5 people shared with us and their neighbours, both about the hardships and the blessings in the midst of the flood.

There were also two dramas from the youth … I ended up adding some sound effects which was fun.

Samuel gave a short evangelistic message toward the end which was well done.  He asked people to open their Bibles, and of course most people didn’t have any.  So our pastor Martín jumped up and said that we had Bibles that they could have as gifts.

Now, even though I realize a lot of people just want something free — it was amazing to see people jump up and take a Bible.  Then, not just glance at it and set it aside, but open it, read it.  I noticed one person who wasn’t listening to the message because she was too busy reading the Bible!  People from our church were all over the hall helping people find the passage that we were going to be talking about in Matthew 28.

Seeing all those people learning for the first time where Matthew was, what the Old and New Testaments are, and actually reading what God has said in His Word…. WOW.  Thanks to many of you who helped provide not only provisions (we also had a table of clothes at the back to help people out), but Bibles.

People listened to what Samuel said (except a few who were distracted by young children… or their Bibles).  Many expressed interest, and about 9 or 10 people came forward afterwards wanting to learn more – willing to give us their names and addresses.  That’s no minor thing.

Those are the bare facts, but I should add that most people from our church that I talked to really felt that God was doing something special here.  Everything fit together so well, people were so receptive, everything seemed so appropriate.  It really seems that the Spirit did something special.

Thanks so much to those of you who have given toward and prayed for this ministry in Chalco.

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