I just got back from a small town in the State of Mexico. Quite a few of us went from the churches here with supplies, including medications, clothes, water, food, diapers, toilet paper, and so on. I took some video for you.
It was hard to get many pictures to really show you the damage. You could see some walls that had crumbled a bit, but the real damage was inside the houses. Quite a few people in this town had homes that were more or less destroyed on the inside.
The first family I spoke to were sleeping in their car. Their home, which was also their business, was more or less unlivable. You’ll see the outside of one wall at the beginning of the video below, but I didn’t take any pictures of the inside to respect their privacy.
Even parts of the road as we drove in were collapsed, or badly cracked.
We were able to give out the supplies in a fairly organized way. The nice thing was that the people of the town were already gathered, and we actually had time to talk to many of them.
So we tried to give some encouragement, pray with people, share the gospel, give out some tracts and Bibles, along with the other items. People were very open to talking – which is a bit unusual when a bunch of strangers show up in a small town around here.
Pray for these people, and so many like them, who have lost so much. Towns like this are far from the resources that we have closer to us. It will take them a long time to rebuild.
If you would like to help, you can give through this link to help us directly. You can also keep praying. Thanks so much to those of have contacted us with your encouragement.
Some of you have heard about our recent events in Ixtapaluca, where we have been providing hearing aids and reading glasses for people in need, along with a presentation of the gospel. Well, today you can get a glimpse of what one of these events looks like.
I was able to help one lady with her new hearing aid. Her hearing was pretty bad, so I was either shouting instructions or making sure she was looking at me so that she could understand what I was trying to tell her.
This particular person was also waiting to receive a pair of glasses. Her name was called from the front, and up she went. When she sat down, her friend said,“You actually heard them call your name?!” Well, she was pretty proud of her new ability to hear what was going on. 🙂
Anyway, here you can see a little of what happened this time around.
We have a big weekend coming up! If you’d like to pray, here are a few highlights:Children’s Day Event 2016 – in Ixtapaluca with Word of Life
Tonight – I will be continuing the Discovering Life 2 Bible study. This week and next week we have especially fun topics – this week, How to Understand the Bible, and next week How to Study the Bible.
Tomorrow morning (11:30am) instead of the normal kids’ club, there will be an outreach in the community of Alfredo del Mazo. A group is coming from Word of Life Mexico (besides the interns who come every weekend) to do some special presentations in honour of Children’s Day (which is actually the 30th). We will also be providing reading glasses and hearing aids to people in need.
Saturday evening – another presentation from the group from Word of Life (the group is called Renacidos – Reborn). This time in the Path of Life Bible Church in Santa Barbara.
Sunday morning – we’ll be having an early service, so that we can worship and pray for the days’ events. This is actually Children’s Day, so after the service we’ll head back over to the community of Santa Barbara, where Renacidos will have evangelistic activities for the kids and their families.
After the activities, we’ll have the interns (I think around 25 people this time around) at our house for lunch. If we can find something to feed them. 🙂
So lots of teaching, outreach and evangelism this weekend! We would appreciate your prayers as we meet new people. We would also appreciate your prayers for the new church in Las Palmas, who will be very involved, and for new people – believers and unbelievers – who have recently connected with the church community.
The weekends tend to be busy times around here, and this past weekend was no exception! So here’s a bit of what happened…
On Friday, we had a Bible study learning about the Holy Spirit – His nature, what it means to be “filled with the Spirit”, and so on. Hannah taught the kids’ study, focusing on the books of the Bible.
On Saturday, activities like the kids’ club, soccer and youth club continued as normal. Hannah went to the youth club, but otherwise we weren’t much involved because I had a meeting in Mexico City and all three of us went (Shari being in Canada for a few days).
The meeting in Mexico City was with leaders of various churches in the area. Good meeting. And a short meeting. A short meeting is a good meeting. But seriously, it was good to study God’s Word together, pray together, plan together, and struggle with various issues together.
The Word of Life interns were over here a couple times during the weekend. On Saturday night we made “Canadian style nachos” – nachos with things like cheddar cheese and ground beef. The two girls from Mexico said that they had “never done anything like this before” – which goes to show how little much of the “Mexican food” in Canada resembles the real thing!Fernando’s concert – look at all the open Bibles!
Sunday we had a guest from Uruguay, who took us through the life of Jesus and beyond – all with music! It was just Fernando and his guitar, and all of us with our Bibles open following along (and sometimes singing along) because most of the music was right out of the Scripture. Fun!
I also preached on Sunday, on “The Sower”, and thanks to a lot of work fighting with technology showed this video.
Getting the garage sale started!One member of our congregation has been struggling with some serious health issues. We were thankful to see him looking a lot better at the service on Sunday. Today Mayra and some of the women from the church in Santa Barbara are holding a garage sale to raise some funds for his medical bills.
And yes, Shari made a brief trip to Canada to pick up a few things, most importantly popcorn seasoning some medication that we can’t buy here. And Lord willing she comes home today!
We’re looking forward to having David Radlowsky back this weekend (and into the week), as well as a team from the USA. It should be another full weekend!
It’s been over two years since our team officially began ministry in the community of Las Palmas. We’ve had many opportunities to serve people there. And now it’s time for the next step.
So what has happened over two years? There have been a lot of community centre classes, including keyboard, baking, and English classes. And some fun closing programs at the end of the semesters. We’ve also given wheelchairs to those in need, hosted several soccer tournaments and a sports camp, and had Bible studies. We’ve even helped the local Jr. High with their English classes. We’ve had many short-termers who have invested in Las Palmas, helping us with so many activities and just taking the time to talk – and listen – to people.
Through all this time, there have been many opportunities to share the Gospel.
So what’s the next step?
The next step is – an actual Sunday service! And – a whole lot of weekend activities! And – more community centre classes!
Cheila at a Children’s Day EventFirst, let me get to some other related news. Do you remember the Children’s Day activities we had back in the spring? A group came down from Word of Life, a Bible school north of Mexico City.
Well, they did a great job. And now we have the opportunity to work with some of the students from that school every weekend!
Cheila (from Portugal), Matheus (from Portugal) and Rebecca (from Mexico City) have committed to join us each weekend from now through May as an internship with their school. That means that we can help them, and they can help us, as we serve the Lord together.
So what does all this mean for weekly activies? Here are some of the things our (bigger) team will be doing:
Sunday Service: Starting (Lord willing) November 6th. We’re renting a party hall for a few hours on Sunday, much like we did in Jesús MarÃa.
English classes: Homework help in particular. Twice a day students stream down the streets after school (school is in two shifts). The party hall, also rented for this purpose, is in a perfect location on the neighbourhood’s main street.
Bible study: for adults/kids, continuing as it has been for a while now on Friday evenings.
Kids’ Club: A VBS type activity time on Saturdays
Youth: Saturday night
Other classes, events, outreaches, community service: continuing.
Some of these things have already started, but the first service is yet to come.
We’ve been spending extra-special time praying for the people of Las Palmas. Will you join us? Only God can bring life to people this community. Please pray with us!
We also have a number of expenses – the rental of a house and the party hall, and the expenses related to the interns. If you would like a breakdown, so that you could make this a family or church project, just contact us. You could help us cover one week, or one intern for one weekend, or less or more.
If you’d like to help right now, you can give to our community centre through Camino Global. The project # is 063576. Just click on “Give to this project”. If you’re in the US, the info is right there. If you’re in Canada, follow the next link and be sure to enter the project #.
Thanks to everyone who has been a part of outreach to this area over the past few months, through your service with us, your gifts, and/or your encouragement! Let’s take the next step and see what the Lord will do!
Nick did it again on the fourth day of the visit from the team from Valley Bible Church, and created not one but TWO vlog entries! For more videos, check out the DIF: Family Vlog.
Remember, these videos are good because I had nothing to do with them! 😉