Comida Mexicana (video)
Our friend Mar came over today. Along with Shari and Shari’s Mom, they went to the market here in Ixtapaluca, and then came back to our house and cooked a fabulous meal. See Shari explain the finished product! 🙂
Video Blogs
A Real Kids Christmas Play (video)
Hannah and Nathanael decided on their own to put on a Christmas play for us. The play was performed in our house here in Ixtapaluca. I thought you might enjoy getting in on the premier. 🙂
I understand some of you have had some trouble viewing our videos, so I’m going to try a few videos through YouTube. Hopefully it will mean a little better video quality, and something a little easier to view for some of you. Let me know what you think!
Note: I had some trouble uploading this video, so I’m posting it a little late, but dating it back to when it was made.
Winter Fun in Mexico City
After getting some advice from our friends the Poulettes, we decided to go down to the Mexico City Zocalo for a little winter fun.
The highlight of the day was supposed to be ice skating, but there was an 8 hour wait. So much for that!
However, Nathanael got the chance to go tubing in the snow. And Hannah and Nathanael both built snowmen (little ones – you’ll see). We also got to visit the market and the Sanbourns restaurant at the house of tiles, so we had fun.
Having missed the skating at the zocalo, we decided to try out our skating rink here in Ixtapaluca today. As far as we know, this was Hannah and Nathanael’s first time on skates! It was fun, but I think we all used a lot of muscles that we don’t use all that often. 😉
So here’s some video and pictures – first downtown Mexico City, then here in Ixtapaluca. Grandpa and Grandma Winger were along, but only Grandpa went skating this time…
Nathanael’s Christmas Program (video)
Here’s the Christmas program from Nathanael’s school that I mentioned in the 20 December post. This is about 3 minutes long, so it may be for more diehard Nathanael fans, or those who like programs with little kids (I know – 3 minutes – we have short attention spans these days!).
Let me mention some highlights. When the kids come in at the beginning, Nathanael is in the Santa suit, right behind Mary and her donkey. Then he’s in some other songs with the whole group. He’s also in "Navidad Rock", and at the very end you can see him hitting a piñata.
Hannah’s Christmas Program (video)
What follows is a 2-3 minute video of Hannah’s school Christmas program. It’s going to be a little hard to see what’s going on, since it was a little dark for my little free digital camera. 😉 But let me tell you a little about what you will see.
Hannah is in the first couple of songs, first with her class, and then singing "We Wish You A Merry Christmas" with her whole class. Then she’s done!
Edit: Forgot to tell you – her main song was “El Burrito de Belén” – the donkey of Bethlehem. It’s about someone urging their donkey to hurry because they’re going to Bethlehem to see Jesus.
Interwoven throughout the rest of the program was a pastorela. If you’re not familiar with Mexican Christmas traditions, you may be shocked to discover that the main characters were Lucifer and two of his demons! Devils are a common part of the Christmas story here – the bad guys, who are always lurking in nativity scenes.
You’ll also hear some traditional Mexican Christmas music, just brief clips.
Finally, with a whiplash-inducing change of pace, the program ended with an English praise and worship song – Who is like the Lord? Stand up, and give Him the praise!
Without further ado, here it is…
[Edit: Sorry, had a little trouble with the video, but it should be working now]
Music and ESL Classes (video)
Yesterday I went and shot some quick video of the team teaching English and music (drums and guitar). The music classes were at the plaza, and the ESL classes at the church building.
There weren’t a lot of serious students at the music classes when I went, but there have been some. There were quite a few people standing around, and the team along with some people from the church had lots of opportunity to talk to people.
There are a growing number of people at the English classes, some people completely new contacts from the fliers that have been handed out at the plaza.
It’s great to see both the team and church people making contacts and offering services to the community. We’ve seen long term results from these things in the past, and trust the Lord to continue to use us and the team in the days ahead. Thanks for your prayers!