Come Visit Mexico City! (video)
I’m not sure if I’ve showed this video before or not. It’s a tourism video that gives you a little glimpse of just how COOL Mexico City is! 😉
Last 90 Days Most Popular Posts – (30 September 2013)
It’s time to catch up on the most popular posts from the past 90 days. The list below is in chronological order, and the three most popular posts of all are in bold. Thanks for visiting!
- Baptisms (and one in particular)
- A Long Weekend (here and there and there)
- A Week of Kids’ Club!
- Outreach Downtown (wow)
- Saying Goodbye to the Holdemans
- An EXTENDED Trip to the Airport
- Quick Update Regarding Donations
- When The Church Is Being Built…
- Robberies, Hurricanes, and a Fresh Start
- We Have Visas. Now What?
Evangelism in Iztapalapa
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Over the last few months, many of the churches in the area have had special evangelism days. People from other churches join them so that they can do a special outreach. You may remember the day of evangelism that we had here in Santa Barbara in March.
Today the outreach was in Iztapalapa, a part of Mexico City about 25 minutes from us. The host church was Iglesia BÃblica Peña de Horeb (Rock of Horeb Bible Church).
I have to say, Iztapalapa is a happening place – and the church made it even more happening! There were activities for the kids, music, crafts – lots going on.
I enjoyed talking to a few people, kids, youth and adults, including two people named Carlos. I seem to talk to a lot of people named Carlos.
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I would appreciate it if you pray especially for one Carlos that I met. We had a good talk about the Gospel. It seems that the Lord has really been working in his heart, shaking him up through some time he spent in jail.
Please pray that he will continue to think about and read God’s Word, and that God will clear things up in his mind. He has a wife and three children.
Someone had carved this elaborate image of “Saint Death” into a living tree in the park. It looks like someone left an apple as an offering. If we “appease” the spirit of death, can we escape the power of death? Of course not.
So please pray for the ministry of the believers in Iztapalapa. Thanks to their efforts, there are many people who now know the One who really conquered death – completely.
Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.
(Hebrews 2:14-15)
Tweets 14 Sep 2013 – 27 Sep 2013 … Independence, Hurricanes, and Wolverine
- ¡VIVAAAA MÉXICOOOOOOOOO! (Happy Independence Day!) (16 September 2013)
- Manuel and Ingrid are not welcome at our Independence Fiestas. ow.ly/oUcH4 (16 September 2013)
- Charadas de la Independencia ow.ly/i/3a8hS (16 September 2013)
- Google’s Independence Day Doodle… ow.ly/i/3ahfE (click “original size” to see animation) (16 September 2013)
- Coastal areas of Mexico being hit hard by storms and hurricanes… ow.ly/oVyGp (16 September 2013)
- Rain. Rain. Rain. I feel like I’m back in Ontario. (16 September 2013)
- Reading: Is Blogging Still Relevant in a World of Social Media? [6 Reasons Why I Think It Is] ow.ly/opTla (18 September 2013)
- Esta tarde – ¡drama/teatro/cine a las 6pm! This evening – drama/theatre/cinema at 6pm! (18 September 2013)
- Reading: Mexico in grip of hurricane disaster ow.ly/p11hf (19 September 2013)
- We have visas. News at 11. (20 September 2013)
- Preaching today at Sendero de Vida Santa Barbara: Luke 3 – “Prepare the way of the Lord!” (22 September 2013)
- It’s definitely time to make sponge toffee. (22 September 2013)
- Reading: Mexico storm death toll rises to 110 ow.ly/p8RwC (23 September 2013)
- The 10 most “livable” cities in the world (and three of them are in Canada) ow.ly/otH5X (25 September 2013)
- Esta noche 6pm en Drama/Teatro/Cine – la psicologÃa y Wolverine… — Tonight at 6pm in Drama/Theatre/Cinema – psychology and Wolverine… (25 September 2013)
- I’m going to substitute-teach an English class. I’m not sure I’ve ever taught and English class before. (26 September 2013)
- Here’s the English class I taught today. Not sure where the teacher was. ow.ly/i/3gfAL (26 September 2013)
- Reading: Mexico’s Acapulco hit by heavy rain and fresh floods ow.ly/pgTo6 (27 September 2013)
- Playing hookey today. School schmool. (27 September 2013)
We Have Visas. Now What?
Today, after working at it for 676 days, we have visas!
Now is not the time to talk about all of our adventures over that 1 year, 10 months, and 6 days. If you want to hear some of the gory details, you can always check out some of these gems:
- Fun with visa documents… (1 June 2012)
- Visa adventures (and other adventures) continue! (23 November 2012) When everything took a turn for the worse!
- The Joy of Visas (podcast) (5 January 2013) This is the best summary of our visa misadventures, even though a lot has happened since.
- Visas: Another Update (25 February 2013)
- Visa Update: After 568 days, “One Down”! (4 June 2013)
Ah, the memories.
 This sign is in the immigration office – ‘To give a “thank you” is enough.’ In other words, don’t try to bribe anyone. I’m not sure I was in a gift-giving mood after 676 days! 🙂 |
Today, things went a lot better than I expected (thanks for your prayers!). In spite of the traffic, we made it (barely!) in time to get the pictures taken (although the picture-taking-place was closed, but we went to another place (the more expensive one!)), pay the fees, and get to our appointment in time. We did have a lot of help from our lawyer.
Of course the printer wasn’t working at the immigration office. So the repair crew worked on it while we waited.
And can you believe it? They fixed it and managed to get our cards to us after only about a couple of hours (we were expecting a few more). (Thanks for your prayers!)
We still have one issue that we’re trying to get resolved (we wouldn’t want life to be dull), but our visas at least are in our hands.
The next step? We had hoped to get them for four years, but were only able to get one. So the next step will be to start getting things renewed, starting early next year. But thankfully, due to the dates we got on these visas, that will be somewhat less complicated than I thought it would be. (Or will it?)
This adventure has, unfortunately, cost us thousands of dollars – literally (ouch). But hopefully it taught us a little patience – a little trust – maybe – … (the kids were asking today – “What are we doing now?” The answer was always the same – “Waiting, of course!” 😉 )
We’re thankful that God has allowed us to be here in Mexico. We’re thankful for the person that Shari was able to share the Gospel with this week at her baking class. We’re thankful for the laughs I could have with a family that just came to a service for the first time. We’re thankful for the chance I’ll have to preach the Gospel this Sunday. And sometimes God reminds us that all these things are really in His hands. Always.
Drama/Theatre/Cinema 101
 The waiter – just taking an order? Or is the lady about to be robbed? |
Tonight was the first class of drama/theatre/cinema at the community centre. As I suspected, the class was basically made up of people waiting for the other class to finish – the popular kids’ crafts class. 😉
So, I had three parents and our friend Fabian, and a little girl of three who was there with Mom. Oh, and a dog named Lili. Who, actually, participated as well and was quite hilarious.
But actually, it ended up being a pretty good group, an we had a good time. We went over some of the “house rules” – just some of the basics to get everyone started with acting. Then we did some exercises and games and had a lot of fun.
Everyone did a great job for the first week – I was pretty impressed, actually. So we’ll see what happens in week 2!