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A little about the Chronological Bible Study

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Tonight we’re into the fourth week of our fifteen week Chronological Bible Study.  Our friend Allan will be leading tonight, and I’m sure he would appreciate your prayers.

I haven’t given you a lot of details about the study (which is in the neighbourhood of Jesús María), so let me tell you just a bit about it quickly.

I did give you a brief explanation of it’s purpose – see here.  As I mentioned before, the study is designed – or, I should say, is being designed, specifically for the urban Mexico context.  That’s part of the reason for it’s length (fairly short – only 15 weeks).  And yet, our hope is that it will give people a broad view of the Bible and its themes – most importantly it’s theme – the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

As a result, it’s not so much set up like a long line – one book after the other, one year of history after another.  It’s more like a pyramid – a strong foundation building up to the peak, which is the coming of the Lord Jesus and His work.

The Gospel story needs to be understood in the light of what has come before.

So we’re actually spending almost a full third of the study laying our foundations in Genesis.

We started with an overview of what the Bible is (focusing on 2 Timothy 3:14-4:5).  Then the Creation, the Fall, this week the Flood, and next week the Call of Abram.

As you might imagine, choosing the topics and the passages was perhaps the hardest part, involving many hours of work.

Each week we focus on a main passage, with a few supporting passages.  It’s not a verse or two – they’re longer passages.  That way people can see the context and dig for the meaning.

A series of questions starts the conversation.  This is designed to be less of a teaching situation and more of a conversation based study.  Why?  Because part of our purpose is to teach people to dig into the Bible themselves – find out what the passage says, and not just repeat what they’ve heard.

Noah's Sacrifice by Daniel Maclise

The questions and passages are also designed to help us think about things particularly relevant to our Mexican urban context, though I suspect they would work fine in most contexts.

Tonight we’re covering the whole story of the Flood.  Then we’ll be talking about things like:  What does the story of the Flood tell us about sin?  And What were God’s promises and commandments?  And, regarding Hebrews 11:7, what does it mean when it says that Noah "condemned the world"?

The story of the Flood is full of the themes of sin, grace, judgment, and faith.  Read it for yourself in Genesis 6:5-9:17.

Hopefully at the end, we will be able to better see the world in the light of the Scriptures (as our poster says).  But we also want to be better equipped to study the Bible in the future, seeing how it fits together and understanding how to read it in context.

I haven’t been counting, but we’ve had an excellent turnout each week, packing the little room where we meet (the same room we meet in on Sunday morning).

I hope that gives you a little more of a picture of what’s happening in this part of the ministry!

Women’s Conference Video from the 19th

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A little late, I know, but this is a brief video of the Women’s Conference in Jesús María from the 19th.  The theme was Being a Mother: A Rewarding Challenge, and the speaker/singer was Becky Baron de Muñoz.

The turnout might not have been quite as good as expected, but there was still a good group that seemed to really enjoy the conference.  It’s encouraging to see some new faces and some repeat visitors (this being the second conference like this), as well as some familiar faces.

Thanks for your prayers for the conference!  It went well overall, it was lots of fun and Becky shared a lot of practical advice.

Children’s Day Event 2010 (video)

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On the 1st of May, our new community centre in Jesùs María, Ixtapaluca (the community centre is now called "Tiempo de Vivir") hosted a Children’s Day event.

Children’s Day in Mexico is on the 30th of April, but of course there are events all around that time.  The day landed on a school day, so there were big parties in both our children’s schools.

But let’s get back to the event in Jesùs María, which was the next day (Saturday).  The event was a big success.  We had lots of amazing help from all sides – people really gave to make this event happen!  Shari was heavily involved, being in charge of children’s ministry in the church.

About 150-180 children were there, plus all the adults, so it was a big crowd.  It was also a very windy day, as you’ll see.  So that made things interesting!

Anyway, thanks to those of you who prayed!  Here’s a few minutes from the day so you can see what it was like:

Good, Bad, and Coming Up…

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It’s been a while since I’ve blogged.  Actually, I’ve hardly posted anything since the beginning from the month except for the story of our time at the border and the automatic "tweet" posts (that show what I tweeted over the past week).

But it’s been busy, and it’s only going to get busier over the next few weeks.

Actually, I recorded a podcast, and then the computer crashed so I couldn’t upload it.  So you never heard it.

A lot has happened even since then!

Let me give you a quick summary of the last few days.  Shari has been sick (like, sick in bed) this week.  She’s starting to feel better, but is trying to be careful so she can fully recover (a challenge, as you can imagine!).

So I’ve been helping out more at home, and actually I’ve had more than the normal health struggles myself.

The computer situation?  Well, that was a challenge too.  We were able to get a replacement for the time being, and we’re still trying to fix the old machine.

So this week has been a challenge.  We thank you for your prayers and encouragement.  Some friends also came over today and were a tremendous encouragement, so we’re thankful for them too – both friends near and far!

Good, bad, and coming up….

Now, let me share a bit of what I intended to share in the podcast.  First, some good news.

We were able to get a keyboard (electronic piano) while we were in the USA for the new church.  It’s a gift from those of you that support us – thank you!  It’s basically the same as the one the other church had.

I’m struck as I read through the Psalms about how often the writer just seems to be trying to think of every instrument he can – I’m going to praise the Lord with this one… and THAT one… and another — all of them!  Let’s just PRAISE THE LORD!!

It’s wonderful to praise God with music, and with a variety of instruments.  So the keyboard brings that added dimension to our worship in song, and will provide other opportunities as well.

So that machine is safely in the building where we meet, and I’ve even been able to play it in a service!

Now, some bad news.  Well, humanly speaking, anyway.

There was a house, that we thought was in an ideal location, that we had thought of buying as a church, as a place to meet.  It was for sale … but it’s been sold.  And not to us.

Meeting is a challenge here because the houses are so small.  Mexicans love to bring friends and family to events – but houses quickly fill up.  For special events, a lot of people rent tents and spill out into the street, but that doesn’t work so well if you have to do it every week.

The place we’re meeting in now is rented, and it gets pretty packed (praise the Lord!).  But being rented, we can’t knock out walls or add on.

So we would appreciate your prayers about what to do.  There are places for sale, and there’s land for sale – but these things take money.  We also have a short term issue – the building is already pretty full, and we’ll be welcoming some teams and interns from outside the country in the summer.  Could be fun!  😉

God knows!  That’s why I say it’s bad news humanly speaking.  I have a sneaking suspicion that God has a plan.

Upcoming?  Well, tomorrow is Children’s Day here in Mexico.  There are special events at both Hannah and Nathanael’s schools.  (And, I bet, enough sugar candy to last a few months…)

On Saturday, our community centre in Jesús María will be hosting a Children’s Day event, with piñatas, puppets, games, cake… it could be a pretty big event!

It’s going to be a lot of work, before (setting up a stage, sound system, games, etc) during (running games, etc), and after (taking everything down, moving it, cleaning up).

The event itself starts around 11am our time.

There’s lots more coming up – we have a (CAM) team meeting on Monday in Mexico City, Hannah and Nathanael have the first three days of the week off, then it’s Mother’s Day events at the schools (and they’re a BIG DEAL, let me tell you).

And then… well, listen.  I’ve kept you long enough.  I’ll try to keep you up to date as the time goes by.  But May is PACKED (as May always is for us) – may God be glorified (and may we not get too grumpy)!

The First Worship Service in Jesús Marí­a

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Shari told me later it was a pressure washer.  Someone was washing every square inch of their house.

But I know better.  It was a drill, and it was drilling into my skull.  Unrelenting, unstoppable.

No, it felt more like a vice on my brain.  Well, whatever it was, I was SICK on Sunday.

Somehow – I don’t know how – I managed to have a shower, iron my clothes, and put them on.  Shirt, pants… but when it came to the belt, I just couldn’t do it.  I collapsed, and spent most of the rest of the day (until late afternoon) in bed – most of the time unable to even get up to get a drink.

Which left me in a pretty bad state by late afternoon.

All this to say – I wasn’t at the first service of the new local church in Jesús María (actually, as far as we know, the only church in Jesús María!).  Which of course was quite a disappointment for me.

But Shari, Hannah and Nathanael went.  The place was packed – looks like we’re going to need a new building.  Maybe if I’d gone, the building would have completely exploded!

So I hear that there were about 45 people there, making it already one of the larger churches in the area.  🙂

David played the guitar.  Rod spoke on John 1:1-18.  They enjoyed some pozole after the service (I love pozole).  All in all, sounds like it was a great success.

Getting ready for Pozole
Getting ready to eat pozole

And after all, Jesus will build His church, whether I’m there or not.  In the end, it’s not about me.  He’s changing lives here in Ixtapaluca.  And In spite of the drill, or vice, or pressure washer – whatever it was – I’m content.

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