Yes, crabs are just another of those little creatures that declare God’s glory. So, though you may think it strange, I spent some time during our holidays watching this crab on the beach, as it dug it’s little hole.
The diligent little creature would go down into its hole for about 30 seconds, then come up with another bundle of dirt, which it would neatly put on the beach. I play a little video high speed (400%, to give you an idea how long it would sit in one place), and slow speed (about 15% I believe). And normal speed. But in the normal speed shots, I cut out long pauses while it sat and stared at the camera, and the times it was down in its hole.
So, if you want to see a crab digging a hole, check it out…
The team was involved (actually, as I write, they’re still involved – they leave tomorrow) in an outreach in the north of the city. It’s a poorer area where some people from a local Baptist church have been serving for quite some time in hopes that a church can be planted there.
So it was a great opportunity, and the team was doing a great job. They presented the Gospel clearly, they had lots of fun with the kids, they worked hard, and they were very organized (even when unexpected things happened, which they always do!). I’m guessing on the first couple of days there were 80-90 children.
On the first day, the police stopped by in the middle of the club. Were they going to shut us down? Were we missing some permit or doing something they didn’t like?
No, actually they came to congratulate us for what we were doing to help the kids in this neighbourhood!
It’s exciting to think that this team is a part of a work that may lead to a new church plant – which will be a witness in that community for many years to come – maybe until the Lord returns!
I made up the video below to give you a bit of a picture of what they were doing. It also shows the faithful Mexicans who are working here each week. Here it is…
This weekend marked the end of the CAM International internship program here in Mexico. On Sunday they flew to Dallas, to spend a last brief time together before going their separate ways. (All except for Tiffany, who is actually a part of our team here and will be here for a year – hurray!)
The interns had a very eclectic few weeks here, there’s no doubt about it. They did ministry all over the place – here in Ixtapaluca, of course, but also in the State of Veracruz and up north of Mexico City at Camp Koinonia near San Juan del Río.
They taught English, Basketball, and of course the Word of God. They also spent a lot of time just sharing their lives.
I made the video below for their time in Dallas. Of course it leaves out a lot of things they did – I had to work with the video and photos and time that I had. (By the way, this isn’t all from me – it’s a pool of video and pictures from Rod and the interns and myself)
But one thing struck me as I watched the footage you’ll see here. There are so many people that I see that I didn’t know at all or knew very little about when the video was being taken. Now they are people that I do know… people that are involved in Bible studies, and in other events.
In other words, God used these men and women who came for the internship to bring the Word of God to more people, and to connect more people with the believers here. And I’m only going by what I see – who knows what else God did in and through them.
If you want to see some of what they did while they were here (maybe you want to come next summer!), check out the video below. It’s about 10 minutes long.
This past Saturday we hosted a Canada Day party for the community of people we know in Jesús María. The party itself was in our neighbourhood. We had a fun time – a little street hockey, a quiz, a game, lots of great food, Canadian music, friends . . . all around good.
This year was a bit unusual because the kids’ birthday parties had "Canadianish" themes too. So it’s been kind of a Canadian season.
It’s actually been three years since we last did this. The first year we were moving, and the next we were in Canada. So here’s the last Canada Day Fiesta we had.
So anyway, here’s a brief view of the party – just under 2 minutes.
On Friday Nathanael officially graduated from Kinder 3 (there are 3 years of Kinder in Mexico). His school was Jardín de Niños Elizabeth Catlett.
He actually had his last day of school yesterday, and there’s one more celebratory event at his school Friday morning.
So, in honour of Nathanael’s grad, here are some clips from the whole program. In a lot of the video Nathanael is in the far corner compared to the camera. If you want to watch in HD for a little more detail in full screen, go check out the video at YouTube. Otherwise, in most cases you should be able to find a blond kid in a white suit if you look close enough (although there are a few clips of other classes).
Yesterday was a fantastic day! Two churches got together for a baptismal service, and ten people were baptized! Four of them are a part of our brand new church in Jesús María.
The other church was, of course, Sendero de Vida Santa Barbara.
We enjoyed a great outdoor service, and all ten people gave testimonies. There was Bible reading, music, a devotional on Mat 16:21-26 – but I’ll just let you check out the video.
The service was the same place as last year, a waterpark in Texcoco. And I think the water was colder than last year – but that’s just a guess. 😉
