So this year Hannah designed her own birthday party. And we didn’t get to be there (although we at least spent some time together virtually!). 🙁
However, it sounds like she had a good time! Check out her awesome work on Instagram. 🙂
But we were able to celebrate with Nathanael! Although it was a fairly simple party, we did still have a theme – The Lord of the Rings (and The Hobbit)!
Feeling particularly ambitious, Shari created two cakes – a chocolate cake (left) and an orange creamsicle cheesecake (right). Click on the image to see a larger version.
Some friends from church and from the neighbourhood came over for hot dogs and hamburgers (very traditional party food around here!), and cake. And they played some games, such as Flick ’em Up, chess, and crokinole.
Ten years ago today, first thing on a Monday morning, Shari went with Hannah to her school, where they both did a special presentation to the class about – chocolate!
If you’ve ever been involved in planning a Sunday service, you may have noticed that, once in a while, a theme emerges in the service that you weren’t really planning on. Or, maybe the songs fit with the sermon in a very unexpected way.
“The Best Bible Study Tool” translated version of my Dad’s booklet
Or, sometimes in the Bible studies and conversations that are going on in a local church, it starts to look like God really wants to emphasize certain things, even though you weren’t planning to focus on them.
One of the themes that has been emerging over the last little while in our church here in Ixtapaluca Mexico is our personal study of the Bible.
Our hermeneutics course is ending this week, but one of the last lessons had some practical tips for personal devotions. It turned out that personal devotions was also the theme of the Bible study that week, followed by how to understand the Bible (this past Saturday) and how to study the Bible (this coming Saturday).
My Dad used and developed a tool for his personal devotions called the Bible Card System, which I thought would be useful for the hermeneutics class. So they’ve been trying it out, and I will likely introduce it to our Bible study group and the rest of the church as well. (If you’re interested, you can read about it in English or in Spanish now.)
Of course we continue to dive into Bible study in general at church. On Sunday we continued our biblical anthropology with the theme of Family – an interesting one as we enter into a season with Children’s Day, Mother’s Day and Father’s Day (we celebrated the first one at the service yesterday). This study was all about marriage and gender among other things (and I think the adults especially wanted a few more hours to talk about it! – issues of gender, marriage, family and sexuality are of course pretty practical, especially here in 2021!).
By the way, it was a fun service (although rather eclectic!). Oscar led the service and had some special things for the kids. After the service, we had some photos of children or adults when they were younger, and had to guess who they were (not hard with Hannah and Nathanael – especially that picture of Hannah with a snowman!). Shari made up some gift bags for the kids, and a GIANT COOKIE!
Decorations up for Children’s Day on Sunday morning
But back to the sermon topic. We’re planning to do one anthropology study a month, and so far it feels like a year-long look at Genesis 1-3. You can just go deeper and deeper into those chapters, and you keep discovering more! But this week, unexpectedly, I think that a big theme that struck me was the theme of identity, and where our identity comes from.
Just to keep things interesting, this Sunday in our study of Romans we arrive at Romans 13. Ah yes, this chapter has been the source of a lot of discussion, studies and sermons in the past few months! So although we didn’t pick it because of recent world events, you can bet we’ll be talking about some of them. (In case you’re wondering where I’m coming down on some of these issues – well, I’m still studying! Maybe I’ll write some posts about it.)
I think we’ve been learning some practical things from one another as we study God’s Word. May we put it into practise in the challenging days ahead!
10 years ago today (and tomorrow, to be precise) we were having a lot of fun taking a holiday in Mexico City! So here are 4 photos for the price of one.
Top left – Hannah and Albert Einstein (well, a wax figure of Einstein) Top right – Jim and Cantinflas (Mario Moreno) (again, in wax. Moreno was famous comedian from Mexico City) Bottom left – Shari and Hannah in the pool Bottom right – Nathanael outside Chapultepec Castle
We appreciate all you people out there who are praying for the ministry here in Mexico! I probably don’t give updates as much as I should, but here are a few things that are going on.
“Discovering Life” – Current Bible Study Series
We had a fun youth event the other day, sacrificing two frisbees and two pizzas to the cause. We had a devotional and talked about the concept of “seeking the Lord” from the story of Asa in 2 Chronicles 14-16 (a fascinating story, by the way).
Bible studies have started up again for the new year, with “Discovering Life 2”, a 15 week study (although we’re not meeting every week). Tomorrow night we continue, studying about how God works in our lives.
Shari is working on a women’s event, which will take place in February. Please pray that this will be a good time of fellowship and encouragement for the women of the church!
The Institute classes continue. We’re doing a survey of the New Testament. Numbers have gone down somewhat, but there are still two churches heavily involved. We should be finishing this course in the spring.
I’ve started doing classes for musicians who want to be involved in worship music, and I’m doing some training for those interested in helping with the sound system. Nathanael has been helping with the sound, and also played his ukulele last Sunday.
There are three men preaching on Sunday mornings right now – well, not at the same time. We’re taking turns, like we learned to do in kindergarten. Anyway, that’s two men plus me. We’re pushing through Romans 9-11, and so we’ve been spending a little extra time discussing the text together, which has been a help to me, anyway!
It looks like we’ll be starting an “anthropology” study as well, one Sunday a month this year. This will be a look at the biblical teaching about men and women, probably covering topics such as artificial intelligence, transhumanism, race, reproductive technology, art, justice, sexuality – you know, some of the topics which occasionally come up these days! I’m working on the first part of the series now, which will start, Lord willing, in February.
A couple other things you could pray about. Please pray for the family of a woman who passed away recently. This woman was highly involved at the church in Jesús María. She was in her 40s. Please pray that the family and her friends would be drawn to the Lord – especially pray for those who are not saved.
Also, a much lesser situation in comparison, but we’re struggling through some small issues with our van insurance. Please pray that these issues would be resolved completely soon. And then we have some maintenance and repairs to take care of. It’s all taking too long (in our impatient opinion)! 🙂
There, now you know some of the things that are happening here! Thanks again to all those who are praying!
