This past Monday, November 2 many Mexicans celebrated Dia de Los Muertos (Day of the Dead).
Because it is a national holiday and the girls were out of school, we decided to drive outside the city. We were impressed that the cemeteries were full of people.
I ran across this short video of a Mexican family explaining some of their beliefs and practices for Dia de Los Muertos.
I got news yesterday that my Dad was put in the Heart Hospital in Lubbock. After having a heart stress test over a week ago, he had a follow-up appointment with a cardiologist yesterday. He was told that he was in immediate danger and they admitted him to work to lower his blood pressure and do further tests.
They are doing more tests today and will determine if he needs an angiogram.
It feels tough not being able to be there.
Please pray with us for he and my mom.
One of the things that regularly brightens Nancy's and my life is the fun of parenthood--getting to live with and raise good girls. Our 16 year-olds have been trying to love God and follow Jesus all their lives. But on November 5, 2006, they along with some others in our community of house churches, decided to jump fully into God's Story--to be baptized into Christ. It was a great day!
My friend Tim Rush made this video of this special day. We've shown it to friends in the past but have only recently put it online.
Today, I'm remembering this day and the joy of sharing life with Morgan and Natali. Thought I'd share the memory...
Its not what I wanted to be thinking about today—but this morning after dropping my girls off at school I stopped at a park for an early run. While I was getting in my run, and for the second time in the last 7 months, thieves broke the locks on several cars in the parking lot—mine included. My smart phone, ipod and wallet with cash, license and credit card were all taken from the console where I had them hidden. Loss of money, loss of time and serious frustration are three things I hadn’t planned on receiving this morning!
A couple of weeks back, we got to spend time with the Krogsgaard family. Bernard and Logan stayed at our house with the girls and me while Nancy and Alicia participated in a retreat for missionary women. It was a good week of reconnecting and remembering together.
We had not seen the Krogsgaard family in almost 18 years. Bernard and Alicia were young missionaries and part of the church planting team we joined in Mexico City back in 1991. However, just as we were getting settled in Mexico City, they transitioned to life and ministry in Canada. During these years since, they have been involved in local ministry with churches in Canada, teaching at Western Christian in Saskatchewan and leading numerous “Let’s Start Talking” campaigns to mission fields all over the world. Last year, they joined a church planting team working in Lazaro Cardenas on the Pacific Coast of Mexico—about 6 hours or so from Guadalajara.
One of the things that impressed me while spending time with Bernard again is the value of investing one’s life in others—of modeling simple discipleship and encouraging others. Bernard did that for me over 18 years ago—and continued doing that as we reconnected. I wonder what God is doing with all the kingdom seeds that have been planted through Bernard’s and Alicia’s life.
We were blessed.
Mexico is a mess these days. I know most places on the planet are. But it seems to me that now, perhaps more than ever during our years living here, Mexico is in crisis: economic, political, moral, social, family, health, security, etc. The newspapers and television programs are full of story after story of crime, sickness and corruption.
This morning, as I read the newspaper, I saw a summary from anthropologist and sociologist Roger Bartra. Bartra is an award winning researcher and author who teaches at the UNAM (National Autonoumous University in Mexico City). He will be speaking here this weekend on how he sees Mexico’s unfolding future. The title of his keynote is: “La Sombra del Futuro” –“The Shadow of the Future.”
But what caught my attention was the way he describes the state of mind of most Mexicans these days:
“…(Bartra) perceives that the Mexican society is depoliticized and apathetic; that common Mexicans are tied up in survival. Their lives are preoccupied with family, security and the problem of finding a job” (my translation).
Bartra puts into words what I sense as I live among and talk with common Mexicans. For the most part, they seem to me apathetic—disinterested in discussions of politics, religion, world issues. They’ve heard and reheard all the proposals. They’ve gotten their hopes up too many times. Just not interested anymore.
Or maybe it is not that they aren’t interested—but that most just don’t have the time and luxury to think of these things right now. They are focused on survival: family, security, trying to make a dignified living.
Often I wonder what God is really doing here… I think I see evidence of hope—yet still so much darkness.
This morning I’m thinking about the incarnation—about God’s presence among Mexicans.
“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us” (John 1:14a).
This last Sunday was my kind of day.
I was encouraged to be with the church this past weekend. We almost always spend time with one of the younger and less mature groups, but this past Sunday we decided to spend time with the house church that lives and gathers in the Jardines del Valle Colonia on the northwest side of Guadalajara. This particular group goes way back relationally, but specifically began forming as a house church about 5 years ago. The core of the group are 3 families that all moved onto the same street—over time God became the center of their relationship and formed them into a family who together are now trying to flesh out the life of Christ to the people around them. As much as any group I know, they really live as a family of God.
About 20 of us gathered at Gerardo’s and Carola’s place and for the next couple of hours centered ourselves on Jesus—praise, prayer, mutual encouragement, reading of scripture, discussion, etc. After remembering Jesus specifically in a simple taking of the Lord’s Supper, everyone chipped in to buy chickens, tacos and trimmings and we spent another couple of hours laughing, playing and eating together. My kind of day!
One of the things I really liked about that day was the way God’s Word came to us. While the group was reading Acts 13, the conversation kept coming back to these verses:
“While they were worshipping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, ‘Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.’ So after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them and sent them off” (Acts 13:2-3).
The group noticed that in a similar way as they gathered as a small church, among them were many “missionaries” who the Holy Spirit is sending out each week. It was cool to hear the group put into words what they think this looks like. Adriana is a single mom who is a “missionary” to children in a park near her home. Arturo is a single man who has been following Jesus for nearly 10 years—he is working for a microfinance business that makes small business loans available to the poor—he sees himself as a “missionary” to the poor—and to those who work among them. The Garcia family talked about the Foundation for Kid’s with Diabetes and their “missionary” work among so many families who are now lost in the same trauma they themselves were in a few years back. Hector talked about his work as a psychiatrist and his desire to be a “missionary” to those who are marginalized and abused. Martín, who began a new church a few years back among friends who worked at a factory with him, described his “missionary” desire to see this happen again soon. It was cool to hear them articulating the way they see themselves as together a family of Jesus—but each one as missionaries sent from the community to incarnate Jesus to others.
I noticed that a lot of the kids were listening to and participating in the conversation—including my three daughters. I wondered what will come of all of this.
Yep, it was my kind of day!
Every other Saturday several of the youth have begun meeting for Bible study, prayer and fellowship. This past Saturday night, they gathered at our house. These kids (mostly high school and college aged young people) live in different parts of the city and each is part of one of the house churches. The Saturday youth gatherings provide a sense of unity among the youth—one of several practices that emphasize that the house churches and their members also belong to a larger fellowship of Jesus’ people in this city—that they are not expected to walk alone as disciples.
One of my good friends Cory is working among these young Christians—he has a heart to help them and other young people grow into leaders who will join God in making a difference in God’s world. Two things specifically encouraged me about their time together last night. One was that Cory is helping them to consider “obedience-based discipleship.” Last night they were working through the story told in the Gospel of Luke (8:19-21) where Jesus says that his family—his true “mother and brothers are those who hear God’s word and put it into practice.” I was encouraged to hear that they were each trying to name something that they wanted to put into practice from God’s word this week.
The other thing that encouraged me was that some of the youth are bringing friends who don’t yet follow Jesus. I wonder what God will do among this group in the days to come. I can imagine!
I want to tell you about Adriana (Diana) and how she is ministering in the park near her house. Many of you know Adriana. She has been a part of us for 12 years. Her ongoing transformation is encouraging. She has been involved in teaching the children in the church for a long time. Although she has shed tears of frustration she has continued to train herself. A couple of years ago the little girls in the neighborhood started knocking on her door asking her if she would read them a story, a Bible story. In between breaks of selling candy and raspados (snowcones) at her puesto outside of her house, she would sit with the neighbor kids and tell and read them stories of the Bible. God has continued to bless the kids through Adriana and her faith. On Saturdays, 8 young girls consistently knock on her door saying that they are waiting for her outside. One of the girls is deaf and her mother sits and translates for her. Last Saturday she told the story of the creation with resources she herself had made. Four mothers sat at the table with her. One older lady passed by and said, “Doña Diana wait right there…I’m bringing you another 10 kids.” Diana told her it would have to be another day because she was limited on resources for that day. I wonder what seeds God is planting in their hearts through Diana’s ministry in the park.
