Yesterday we celebrated the baptisms of 9 people – five from the Path of Life Bible Church Jesús María, and four from the Path of Life Bible Church Las Palmas. You’ll see them in that order in the video below. Praise the Lord! And thanks to all of you who were praying for this service.
So, this Sunday, after 1 year, 2 months, and 16 days, we’ll be finishing our study of the Gospel of John!
Of course, there wasn’t a sermon on John every Sunday. I wonder how many Sundays we actually preached on John? Why wonder? I’ll check. Ok, 46 sermons! Only a few of them mine.
Oscar started the series, and he’ll be finishing it.
I always like to reuse materials when I can on my Spanish blog, En la Biblia (In the Bible). So in 2024 I’ve been doing a series on every chapter in John, and dispersing throughout some sermons. I’ve been able to be more consistent with using Bible cards (and I have my Dad’s cards as well), which means that I have a lot of material to draw from.
The other nice thing is, the website has now been around for almost eleven and a half years (yikes!), so I can link together past information about themes, places, people, and so on. You can see an example here – John chapter 3.
This year I’ve been going through Zechariah, the next book we’ll be going through on Sunday mornings. And to get me even more into the theme, this Sunday (Lord willing) I’ll be teaching on the return of Christ during Sunday school, as we continue our series on doctrine.
Anyway, if you have a Spanish-speaking friend, maybe they’ll find En la Biblia useful!
We’re very happy to have our co-workers, Rod and Mayra Fry, back in Mexico! That being said, Rod in particular is planning a lot of travel this month, so how much we’ll actually see them I’m not sure.
But while they’re around we’re doing what we can to plan and organize for the weeks ahead. We recently had one of our famous meetings, in which we can’t possibly cover everything we need to…
We’re also noticing one of the blessings/challenges of a growing church. There are a lot of different people planning things! There are Sunday services to plan, adult and children’s Sunday school, institute classes, music practices, and Bible studies. Those alone involve several planners (half of whom are not pictured!). Plus there are upcoming visits from short-term teams, summer activities, a mission trip to southern Mexico, and circuit events (events with other churches in the Mexico City area). So the circle of planners gets even larger.
Let’s just say that the word communication is coming up a lot these days!
But anyway, there are meetings, and then a flurry of messages sent back and forth, and then we forget about something important. I’m sure ministry in your area runs much smoother! Or maybe we’re not alone. 🙂
We are enjoying a whole month focusing on the resurrection, due to the fact that we’re finishing up the last two chapters of John on Sunday mornings. Today I was reminded of one of Paul’s applications of the great truth of the resurrection, from 1 Corinthians 15:
Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.
1 Corinthians 15:58
Praise the Lord!
So a storm passed through on Saturday. It was one of those times when the weather prediction a week and a half earlier had been right on! The temperature dropped and the rain started.
It’s still dry season, so we’re not used to rain. And while it didn’t look like much, and walked out into it and quickly got soaked.
Anyway, it was one of the mornings of our hospital evangelism, and we’re normally outside under the sky (and a few sparse trees) serving tortas and sweet bread. That wasn’t going to happen.
There is an indoor courtyard, with a porch all around with a roof. This is essentially the “waiting room”. So this time we were allowed to go right inside there where everyone was waiting, serve hot coffee, tea, and the above-mentioned snacks, and share the gospel.
Above you can see some of the people who braved the weather on Saturday. I’m especially impressed at those who could carry a box with both hands and still hold an umbrella!
I have been reminded again what a variety of people you are apt to meet. You would think there would be a certain demographic at the hospital, and Mexico is indeed more homogenous a culture than we’re used to in Canada (though there is a lot of variety here too – dozens of major languages and cultures that are indigenous – up to hundreds!). But everywhere you go, the world is full of individuals!
And, of course, we’re not only talking with patients, but also with their caregivers, family members, even neighbours.
One neighbour of a patient had serious spiritual trouble of his own – possibly some demonic activity in his life. Another was buying into myths about the origins of the Bible. Yet another brought his own anointing oil on a keychain! There are people with all sorts of beliefs and ideas. Some suffer a lot of physical pain. So we share the gospel, pray with them, and share their prayer requests with the church so others can pray too.
We’re thankful for this opportunity to serve others in a place with so much need.
One of the ministries that Shari led when we were in Canada last year was having women pray for specific women in Mexico. She asked women from our church to share their requests for that purpose, and she had pictures of the women themselves. It was really neat for people to learn more about the personal challenges and struggles in another culture – in most ways, not all that different from the challenges that Christians have in Canadian culture.
Last Saturday was the other half of the story, as women from our church prayed for the women in Canada. 20 women including Shari gathered in our home. Shari shared the prayer requests from our Canadian friends, pictures included, and they were prayed for!
Being close to Valentine’s Day, it was a good chance to bake up some special snacks and spend time together as well – chatting and praying for some requests here in Mexico as well.
Our friend Amanda, who is here from the United States for a few months as an intern, also came and led a craft time at the very end. Card making!
It was an encouragement all around to have time to fellowship and pray together! And what an encouragement to see both sides – women praying for women across borders and cultures. And the Lord heard the prayer of hearts in both languages!
You can join in, and pray for these women too! They’re looking forward to a women’s Bible study which will start up in March. Pray that many will be able to attend regularly, to learn from God’s Word together.
We’re diving into some new teaching adventures – well, sort of new.
The institute classes are continuing, although I haven’t been involved as much as I had hoped. However, I’ve been able to attend a couple of classes since being back, and they’ve been good. We’re learning about preaching and pastoral ministry – mostly the second one right now.
We’re nearing the end of our study of the Gospel of John, which has been amazing. We’re hoping to be done by Resurrection Sunday. So we’ll have a whole month to especially focus on the resurrection, which is pretty cool.
We’ve also decided to go through our doctrinal series again on Sundays, because there are so many new people at the church. There are 26 lessons, covering our doctrinal statement, our doctrinal distinctives and our values.
So I’m looking forward to kicking that off on the 11th!
One thing that is always a challenge to explain is this. Everyone wants to know what the “key” doctrines are, or what you need to “believe” in order to be “saved”. I’m not putting quotes in because I don’t believe in those words, but because these are things which themselves require explaination and definition.
Everybody likes a list, right? We talked about this in our last institute class – a “list” of priorities for the pastor. Except, the Bible doesn’t give us a list, and it’s not always that simple. Yes, we’ve all seen abuses – a pastor who ignores his family and spends all his time at church events – that can’t be right. But does that mean that the family comes “before” church events in every sense? In other words, you never sacrifice family for ministry – the family must always have the “best”?
Ministry simply isn’t that simple.
And neither is doctrine. Obviously churches list “priorities” in doctrinal statements. But does that mean you don’t need to believe the rest of God’s Word? Are parts of it not authoritative in our lives? Surely every word from God’s mouth should be believed. And of course, any church summary can never replace the Bible, which is the ultimate authority. What then is “more important”, and why? Some things are more important because they allow our church to function smoothly. Even some “opinions” or “traditions”. Other times, beliefs are virtually unseen, but they can rot your soul away little by little if they stray from God’s Word.
So we need to be careful with lists.
Another new adventure is coming after the book of John – we’re going to go through Zechariah next. Visions of people flying around in baskets and people in stinky clothes, and all that apocaliptic stuff. A different culture, a different language, a different time in history. I’ve been enjoying studying it already – but it will be a new challenge for us all!
God really does use all these teaching times and more to change our lives and give us direction and encouragement. His Word is power!