Holy Week

As much as possible, I post pictures with the blog. Today during the Easter service at Huejotzingo, I would have liked to have taken more pictures to show the 21 children and adults listening with rapt attention as Abraham told the story of man's fall, God's faithfulness,and Jesus' birth, ministry, arrest, and death. I could not take pictures during this time, however, since the children's attention would have left the life-giving story and focused instead on the camera.


After Abraham finished recounting the centuries-old story that remains fresh every year, we began serving food. The small congregation enjoyed eating and later playing together. At that time, some of the children took pictures and clamored to see the ones I had taken of them.

Much earlier in the day, 4:30 a.m. to be exact, we woke up to prepare for church. It is customary at Dios es Amor to celebrate Easter with a sunrise service and then a potluck breakfast. This time, Pastor Manuel had asked Abraham to preach. He chose 1 Corinthians 15, primarily reading the verses aloud, but also explaining and emphasizing the message that Jesus is risen. He did not stay in the tomb! Death had no hold on him.

By 7:30 a.m., the sun had risen, accompanied by bursts of birdsong. The service ended, and we all gathered in the kitchen to select from a wide variety of breakfast foods. The majority of the congregation remained to socialize, and after eating, a large group left for a nearby housing development for several hours of soccer.

From there, at 11, eight of us went to Huejotzingo where we stayed until mid-afternoon.

Christ is risen! Hallelujah, he is risen indeed!

For many in Mexico, the message of his resurrection is drowned out by the traditions wrapped around truth. On Saturday night, Abraham and I went to stay at Six's house. As we left the bus and began walking to her house, we saw family groups walking home, carrying large lighted candles. When we stopped to buy food outside a Catholic church, we asked the lady what the candles were for. She said people had bought them in order that they would be blessed. Throughout the year, when storms come, the people will light the blessed candles, and supposedly the storms will disappear. They also burn palm branches from Palm Sunday for the same reason.

The lady explained that people would continue taking candles to the church until about midnight. "And tomorrow?" Abraham asked, "Is there something important then?"

"Yes," She said casually,"That's when Jesus rose from the dead. It's a very quiet day." Not many people bother to go to church on Resurrection Sunday. As long as the bloodied statue of Jesus is carried around on Good Friday and the candles and palms are blessed, that's enough.

teaching

This Sunday was my first time teaching any lesson in Spanish to a group of children. I'm used to teaching, and I'm used to speaking Spanish, but combining the two is another matter. On Sunday afternoon I taught the Bible story, taken out of the book of Ezra, in Huejotzingo. Other than the fact that two children fell asleep and one was about to fall asleep, it went okay (the two sleepers are about three years old). The attendance on Sunday afternoons has held at about ten, although which children attend is not consistent. Please continue to pray for these children and their parents.

In PCS, my students recently finished their literature books, so we began reading Number the Stars, a book set in World War II. Other than one student who has an avid interest in the World War II, the children knew nothing about the war, so I am having to try to tread the delicate balance between telling them too little and overwhelming them with the ugliness. So far they are enjoying the book and the discussions. In two weeks we have Easter break, and then shortly after that they will be taking the standardized tests that every child in the United States also has to take. We really have very little time left of the school year.

Abraham continues to have a mountain of homework from the seminary. He has to fit this in to the schedule of teaching PE at PCS four days a week, tutoring Spanish with four students (including my mom via Skype), leading the Huejotzingo mission, and working at the seminary to help pay his tuition. We also lead the pre-teen group at church on Wednesday night where Abraham leads the AWANA games beforehand, and I keep score. With this schedule, there are many times when he stays up very late at night. Please keep him in your prayers.

It's not all work, work, work. We spend time together goofing off, too. For example, my Korean student gave me chopsticks, and when I made stir-fry, I brought them out to use. I had also heated tortillas and told Abraham, "You can use chopsticks or you can eat the semi-Chinese food with chopsticks, but I don't think you can do both." He figured out a way to do both, so I had to try eating totopos with chopsticks.

Abraham will have two weeks off for Easter, starting next week. I have the week after Easter off, so we'll have that week to relax together. Wonderful blessing!

Market Day

Fresh-cut flowers in one market shop






Get your fresh fish!














Sausage, cheese, other processed products












A man transporting a slab of meat from one stall to another




















A very efficient tortilla-making machine

















Abraham and I do as much of our food shopping as possible in the market near his mother's house. We can buy fresh, well priced fruits, meats, and vegetables for ourselves and for Six and Ken as well. Today we went, and I remembered to take my camera to record some of the sights of the place. It's always colorful and generally well filled with people.

It never ceases to amaze me when we go how much color and variation there is, especially in the fruits and vegetables. One time it struck me: God could have created monochrome fruits and vegetables, but in his wonderful creativity, he lavished color, texture, and shape to make each unique and beautiful. There's nothing quite like the tempting market displays to make me pause and admire the creativity of our God.

Rain

Normally this is the dry season in Puebla, a time when plants shrivel and dusty debris blows through the streets. This winter is unusual, however. On and off we have had rain, and two weeks ago the rain fell steadily for 24 hours. While our area has suffered no damage, many people in Mexico City and Michoacan have lost homes and livelihoods. There have also been several deaths.

There is more rain predicted for this week, but today is bright and sunny. When the clouds clear, we have a beautiful view of our surrounding, snow-covered volcanoes.





In class, although it is nowhere near Thanksgiving, the history book has begun teaching about the Pilgrims and Puritans. Last Friday the students made butter and and johnny cakes. They really enjoyed the experience and wanted to make more to eat.

Next week they will be in Spiritual Emphasis week, a time when the elementary children stay overnight from Saturday until Tuesday at a conference area. They participate in chapels and other activities. Many of the children are excited to see friends from the two other schools that also attend. From Tuesday afternoon to Friday, the junior and high school students attend the camp. Pray for the kids, that they will stay healthy, enjoy the time, and learn more of God.

In Huejotzingo, attendance has been regular. Some of the children and their parents came to Dios es Amor on Valentine's Day for the potluck and games. Abraham recently finished teaching from the book about Israel's captivity, and this coming Sunday he will begin the book that teaches about the post-captivity. Please continue to pray for the children and their parents in Huejotzingo and also pray that we will know whether God would have us move out there and if so, that he would provide the finances.

Pray for Abraham's and my strength and health as we work with very full schedules. We continue to spend lots of time together which is a wonderful blessing, but we both are often tired. Abraham is teetering on the edge of a cold, and he certainly doesn't need to be sick!

Tamales for Haiti

At Puebla Christian School, the third and fourth grade class made and sold desserts in order to donate money to Haiti relief efforts. My students also wanted to help and suggested making desserts too. We decided, however, to take a field trip on Friday to my mother-in-law's house so that she could teach them how to make tamales. I asked the kids if they'd ever made tamales before, and not one of them had.
Our only snag was that the school suburban broke down over the weekend and still wasn't repaired by Friday. One parent volunteered to drive us, and I talked with other parents after school on Thursday to find one other driver. At the last minute, we had our transporation.

We arrived later than we had planned to, so the kids went right to work. There was plenty of veggie chopping, chili cleaning, onion peeling, and corn husk inspecting for all of them to do. They worked steadily until noon when finally the tamales were ready to cook. At that time the kids ate their lunches, and then they had a short language arts lesson.

Fortunately, the tamales cooked faster than we had thought they might, and they were done just when one parent returned to Six's house to take us to school. The kids spent the half-hour before school let out making posters to advertise their wares. Parents began buying immediately, and within 15 minutes, all 60 tamales were sold. The fifth and sixth grade class raised $51.14 to send to Haiti. On Monday they will vote on where to send the donation.

the month of January

Nine days ago, we had hail: unseasonable and unexpected and cold. Now we are back to Puebla's generous sunshine and dry, dry, dry.

In December, Manuel and Ruth asked Abraham and I if we would be willing to take over the intermedios at church on Wednesday night - the group of kids approximately the same age as my students at PCS. We agreed to give it a try and started at the beginning of this month. Our group has six members at this point. We are taking them through the books of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes to study Solomon's choices, our choices, and how to wait for everything in its time. Soon we'll have them over to our house to watch the movie El Estudiante, play games and, of course, eat.

At school, I showed my students two brief news items about the earthquake in Haiti, and asked them, "Where was God? Why did he let this happen?" They concluded, with little prompting from me, that God had not lost control but that there were many reasons why he could have let the quake happen.

On Friday we will be driving to my mother-in-law's house to make tamales. This will be the kids' first time making them, and they are excited. Their excitement is also because they will be selling the tamales after school and sending the money to Haiti.

Please continue to pray for Dios es Amor. The pregnancies of the two young women continue to sadden the people of the congregation, and the young women themselves are struggling. One of the couples married in a civil ceremony on Saturday.

Pray for Abraham and I as we are looking into buying land in Huejotzingo. We would like to live there permanently so that we can work more than just on Sundays. There are so many needs among the people.

2010

Our two and a half weeks of Christmas vacation end Thursday. It will be difficult going back to an early wake-up alarm, especially since the weather is quite cold, and crawling out of a warm bed at 6:15 isn't fun. It's always an adjustment for the teachers and students.

In the weeks before Christmas, Abraham and I went to Huejotzingo on Saturday as well as Sunday to help the kids make piñatas and practice their reader's theater of A Christmas Carol. The actual performance on Dec. 20th was far from professional, but it was the first time any of the kids had done anything like a reader's theater. The man who had agreed to read Scrooge didn't come, so Ken read his part. A few other more minor characters also didn't come, but Abraham and I read their parts.

After their performance, we read the Christmas story from Luke 2, and then it was time for breaking the piñatas. We had four small ones, and every child had the chance to beat on them. Every time one broke, there was a mad scramble for the candy and tangerines, and everyone collected a satisfying stack of sweets.


On the 24th, Abraham and I went to the home of his sister and brother-in-law. It was the first time for either of us to participate in a posada, and actually, we only semi-participated. The custom is to carry a plastic Jesus to different houses and sing at the doors, asking for a place to stay. When the singers reach the final verse, those inside the house open the door, letting everyone enter. Once inside, they sing another song to the plastic Jesus, recite some 'Hail Marys', and then they kiss the plastic doll's feet. Abraham and I stayed outside, along with a few others.

At 11 p.m. we returned to Nora's house to eat the Christmas feast. Very late at night, we drove home. On Christmas day, we woke up late, talked to my family via skype, sang some carols, and drove to my mother-in-law's house for dinner. Again we stayed out late, returning after midnight to our home.

We learned some sad news that night. There are two unmarried young women in the church who are pregnant. Because of who they are, their pregnancies have the potential to cause problems in the entire church. Please join us in prayer that this situation will end up bringing only good to Dios es Amor.

We welcomed New Year's at our home, hosting my mother-in-law, brother-in-law, a friend, and her son. We ate a late dinner and then settled down to watch a video. It was a few minutes after midnight when we finished the video, so we missed the official transition, but we each ate twelve grapes anyway. Our guests stayed the night in our living room and left late afternoon Jan. 1.

May God bless you in this new year!