A Month of Short Term Teams Ends!
We have reached the end of a month filled with short term teams! How can I sum it all up? Impossible.
I did show you a few photos from the Mt. Calvary Team’s first few days. I also wrote a bit more about their trip and the upcoming team here. You actually saw a video of an event that the Connect Team (team #2) was involved in here. Rod also posted some video/pictures of this team: Connect Group in Ixtapaluca and Veracruz (Video).
I didn’t have a chance to write after that. Nathanael and I were with the Connect Team in Villa Hermosa, a small village in the State of Veracruz (there’s more than one Villa Hermosa, so here it is on the map. Just zoom out to get an idea where it is. You can even see the main road on Google Street View.)
The people in Villa Hermosa were very gracious and we enjoyed our time of ministry in a couple of churches there, although perhaps our greatest ministry was just spending time with people.
The last team to come was from Leroy Community Chapel in Ohio. They did a lot of work with the construction of the main sanctuary for the church in the community of Jesús MarÃa. They finished the stage and also put up lighting. They also were involved in hearing aid/reading glasses evangelistic events, visitation, a craft class, and service at a rehab centre.
By the way, there are dozens of new pictures in our photo gallery, if you’d like to see what all this looked like!
I was especially excited about the event we had in Las Palmas. We’ve never done anything like this in Las Palmas, but the party hall was full of people getting their hearing checked, and getting reading glasses. We partnered with the municipality, who also brought in a chiropractor!
Apart from seeing people’s eyes light up when they could actually hear with a new hearing aid, it was exciting to see people hearing the gospel, and to see conversations going on around the room, often with Bibles open. A new family came to our Sunday service who had gotten to know us through this event.
More video and pictures from this team from Rod: Leroy Chapel Construction and Outreach (video)
When short term teams come to Ixtapaluca, one of the things they almost always mention in the feeling of community. That’s because of the Mexican culture, but also the service of fellow believers that they meet here. The team members usually stay in Mexican homes, and get to know people in real life.
So I’d like to close with a few photos from the goodbye party that we had for team #3 in the church in Jesús MarÃa. This team, and all the teams, made an impact on people’s lives. And the people here in Mexico made an impact on their lives. And God continues to work!
Also, we continued with evangelistic events, where we providing hearing aids and reading glasses to people who needed them, along with sharing the gospel. Here’s the team singing in front of a large crowd in the town of RÃo FrÃo (also in the municipality of Ixtapaluca).
The next team arrives tomorrow, so I’ll be heading downtown with them, Lord willing. Shari and Hannah will be teaching the adults and kids back here in Ixtapaluca at our regular Friday evening study.
We’ll be gone until Thursday, the team flies Friday, and the next team comes Saturday. And so it continues!
So what does that mean? That means that after three and a half months of no van, we now have a vehicle that we can drive every day (unless there’s an unusual level of pollution – sometimes the government adds special restrictions).