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.
Tomorrow we’re having a special service in Chalco to thank God for His mercy during the Chalco Flood. We’ll be providing some more clothing to those who lost so much in the flood, and also have Bibles to give them.
There will be some singing and a devotional during the service, but it’s especially a time for the people of Chalco to give testimonies and talk about everything that has happened.
Below is a (mostly) English version of the presentation we hope to show during the service (there’s still time to change a few things in it, but I think this is more or less how it will be – except in Spanish, of course!). It gives a bit of an overview the flood and some of the clean-up and relief efforts.
There’s still LOTS to be done, of course. The photos at the end were actually taken before the flood, so don’t be deceived by how nice it may look.
We would appreciate your prayers that the service on Sunday would be glorifying to God.
Today we brought provisions to a few dozen of the families affected by the flooding in Chalco. We also invited them and others to the special service on the 14th.
I didn’t take a lot of video of actually handing out despensas (provisions), because I don’t want to embarrass anyone. However, we had some good talks with some people – many people remembered us from when we served the breakfasts (and we remembered some of them). Eventually word got around and we attracted a crowd of neighbours – there were about 20 people around us for a while.
With four vehicles and lots of helpers, we were done in about an hour. Now, we’ll see what happens on the 14th!
On Sunday we had a potluck with everyone in our church (Iglesia Bíblical Sendero de Vida). It was a time to say goodbye to those who will be leaving to work in the church plant in Jesús MarÃa.
Here’s a quick video of the party. Also, check out our Photo Gallery for pictures of the event and other new photos.
Tonight we had week 4 and week 5 of our keyboard classes.
Last week I was sick, so we crammed two weeks into one today. Which was a bit of a challenge, because it cut down on the much-needed practice time. But I think it went well.
The student count has been somewhat erratic, but we had 6 students tonight and a host of people "auditing".
This week we talked about pedals and chord inversions, and then tried putting everything into practice. One of the songs we’ve been talking about from the beginning is México Lindo y Querido, a national classic (sometimes called the country’s second national anthem).
Here’s the classic rendition of the classic song. It’s brilliant in more ways than one. The singer is one of Mexico’s most famous singers/actors, Jorge Alberto Negrete Moreno (1911-1953). Obviously you’ll only get so much out of it if you don’t know Spanish, but here’s a rough translation of the chorus:
Beautiful and beloved Mexico Should I die far from you Let them say that I’m asleep And bring me back here
Yes, after quite a few days with no rain, the rain has returned.
We went back to Chalco today, this time to a new location, to serve breakfast. Mostly we saw dry streets (all right, they were dry until it started raining!), though there are still pools of water here and there (such as in lots and buildings).
So the clean up is really getting rolling, which means mass chaos (as you’ll see). Most businesses in this area are still closed (well, the door may be open, but there’s nothing inside worth selling!), but people are shovelling things out of houses and out of sewers and so on.
Though some help is coming now, it’s little and it’s late. There were some recent protests by people from one community in Chalco a day or two ago. They had a "discussion" with police, as they asked why more help has not come.
A few of you have helped, and it’s appreciated. A couple people have mentioned that there’s been little (no?) coverage of this in Canada. Considering the thousands impacted, that’s pretty amazing. But we appreciate those of you who have been watching and listening here, and praying and giving.
Here’s a brief video to give you an idea what the street looked like today. With the rain, it was pretty miserable, and let’s just say the air wasn’t pleasant (which is why you’ll see many wearing facial masks)…
