Guadalajara and Church

These past two weeks have been busy, what with language school, trying to figure out how to buy a car in Mexico (an epic story in itself), and trying to keep our house high and dry during the highly unusual and unseasonal February rains here.  Anne-Marie: Yes, Matt has had lots of opportunities to use his fix-it skills.  And I’m not complaining.  It’s a whole lot more pleasant to do laundry when you don’t have to mop up all kinds of water off your kitchen floor by the end!  Lots could be said about each of these, but we thought that it was high time that we give you a little update about our church situation here in Guadalajara. 

We have been attending a Presbyterian Church here (Presbyterian Church of Mexico) in Bugambilias, and have been greatly blessed every Sunday.  This church has two services, one in English and one in Spanish.  Usually the same sermon is preached in both services, though in different languages of course.  This is a huge help in understanding the Spanish service, as you can well understand.  We also attend a Spanish Sunday school at Bugambilias, which means that we are in church usually from 9:30am until 2:30pm.  Then we go home... and eat lunch!  By then the two of us are very ready for a meal.  Matt’s usually pretty hungry too.  :-)  ...and usually go to another church service, whether a church plant or to the other established Presbyterian Church in town (Rey de Reyes).  This makes for quite the busy day!  But it is always a blessed time.  Our church in Bugambilias is very welcoming and we have gotten to know some of the brothers and sisters there well.  A missionary family here, the Meyer family, has taken us under their wing a little bit and are always inviting us out to different activities – Bible studies, different church plant services, shopping at Costco (great for Anne-Marie) where we can buy cheddar cheese!, seminary classes, and more.  They have been so helpful to us and a blessing from God.  Just last week we bought from them a beautiful Pack-and-Play, stroller, baby carrier, and more!, for an amazing price.  This was quite the provision, as things like these can be very expensive new – even more expensive than at home – and finding good things second-hand is not always easy.  We are very thankful and are definitely looking forward to trying them out soon, not too long from now!  :-)  9 more weeks.  We’re into single digits now! 

The Presbyterian Church here, as are more Presbyterian churches (to my knowledge), are believers in weekly communion.  Though weekly communion is not something that we grew up with, yet since seminary in particular, I have been wishing that we could have communion a little more regularly.  (That’s a separate discussion, one that I think is much better on the phone or face-to-face.)  But now we actually are partaking of Lord’s Supper every week.  This has taken a little bit of getting used to, and sometimes can create little conundrums for us.  For example, Lord’s Supper is served to communicant members at both the English service and the Spanish service, as many people only go to one of the services.  But then the question becomes: in which service do we take communion?  And Anne-Marie is expecting too (so too much wine is not good)!  But as we realized, to not have communion with one of the groups would implicitly say that we were not in communion with them.  As a result, we now have communion twice a Sunday (as do others in the church).  Anne-Marie will usually pour the second little cup of wine into my cup, which takes care of the other question.  :-)  But that is not the whole of the conundrum.  At a church plant we visited one Sunday evening, we were greatly encouraged by the fellowship and the message.  As this was their only service, they served communion, and so we were more than willing to partake with them.  But when we saw the size of the wine cups, we were quite worried!  These weren’t the little cups of Bugambilias, but just about half of a normal cup.  Oh no!  Both Anne-Marie and I were quite worried, as you can imagine.  But we were thankful to find out that this church plant uses grape juice, not wine.  :-)

Seriously though, weekly communion has been something that we have grown to appreciate.  The biggest thing for me was to see the close connection between Word and Sacrament.  This should always be there, of course, and is properly already there in our Reformed churches.  However, what I appreciate about weekly communion is to see how from that particular Bible passage, a certain aspect of the Supper comes out.  Our form, for example, describes all of the aspects of the Supper (e.g., the one-time sacrifice of Christ, communion together, eating and drinking by faith of Christ).  But with weekly communion, just one particular aspect can be highlighted.  I would compare the difference between the two to the difference between a Thanksgiving Day feast and a normal supper meal.  Obviously, a feast is more special.  But on the other hand, that doesn’t mean we should stop eating supper every day!  :-)  To conclude this topic, (here I’m doing what I said I wouldn’t do), I should say that I don’t think moving to weekly communion in our Reformed churches would be healthy.  But having monthly communion would be healthy, in my opinion, and could easily be done if we keep our long form but have a short form as well (which could include a place for the minister to tie in the sermon to the sacrament).  And now, I desist.  :-) 

All in all, we have been very encouraged to see the “inside” of the Presbyterian Church here.  Though there continue to be some smaller differences (a praise band, for example), yet we continue to be impressed by what we have seen and heard of their committment to the full-orbed Gospel of Jesus Christ, both in the preaching, the outreach, and the discipling.  The following story will help you see what I mean, I think.  Listen carefully, as it gets complicated. 

Last night, we had a Christian couple over for dinner and we had a very special night together.  They are engaged and are in the midst of planning their wedding, so we had more than enough to talk about.  :-)  But during the night, I was telling Ezra about our visit to the Florestra church plant.  It is a tiny little church plant in a poorer section of Guadalajara, with quite a minimal building but yet full of people.  I mentioned this church plant to Ezra, and said how impressed I was with the PCM’s committment to church planting.  You see, this church plant is not a church plant of the mother Bugambilias church, but rather is a church plant of the Santa Ana church plant, itself a church plant of Bugambilias.  I was remarking on the fact that I had never seen such a thing before.  Back home, we get excited (and rightly so) about a church plant.  But here was a church plant of another church plant!  Wow!

But that is not the end of the story.  As Ezra and I were talking, we realized that we were talking about two different church plants.  He thought that I was talking about a different one.  You see, there is actually another church plant from the church plant (La Florestra) that we visited.  This means – note well – that there is a church plant of a church plant (la Florestra) of a church plant (Santa Ana) of a church (Bugambilias).  And the original Santa Ana church plant is less than 8 years old!  All I can say is: praise the Lord!

FYI: There will be an ELM update coming out soon, so you will be able to read that too, if you wish.

Some pictures: the outside of the Bugambilias church (Cristo Redentor) and Christian School.

A number of baptisms in the Bugambilias church, both of parents and children.  Quite something to see.

Enjoying pancakes and fresh strawberries. 

Anne-Marie says: They have nice flowers in Mexico too.

Coming soon (next update?): Only in Flexico...!

Language Flops, Guachimontones

These past two weeks have slipped by. We have some updating to do!

First of all, we have a vehicle! Alfredo and Maria (from the church in Tepic) have sold us their 97 Ford Explorer. This is the vehicle we have been borrowing since we’ve been here. We had hoped to buy something different, but with all the paperwork and many other complications, we came to realize that this was the Lord’s provision for the time being. Once we have our Visa (sometime in the next number of months we hope), we will be able to sell this vehicle and buy something else. For now, we are thankful!

What else… We have a doctor here in Guadalajara (GDL)! So yes, we have decided to have the baby here. And feel very good about that. So we will have a little Mexican baby (and Canadian too). Matt jokes that this means we will have to work really hard at our Spanish so that we will be able to understand our baby. And Dad vP is looking forward to meeting his black-haired, darker skinned grandchild. The doctor is very warm (I got a big hug the first time I walked into his office), speaks quite a lot of English, and tells us that he is really a midwife at heart. So we will be very well cared for. It sounds that his practice is very different from a lot of other doctor’s practices here, where being medicated is assumed, care can be quite impersonal, and at times husbands aren’t even allowed to be present at the birth. This is what we were told at the information meeting we went to, so maybe they are a little biased. But anyway, we are so thankful for the Lord’s provision in this way also.

We are carrying on in our language studies. I completed Level 1 yesterday (there are 4 levels), and Matt is three-quarters the way through Level 3. We continue to be very impressed with the program and are learning a lot. From virtually not being able to speak four weeks ago, the fact that I can carry on a basic conversation now is very encouraging.  Of course, we will notice the most improvement at the beginning. And I am usually struggling to find the right verb tense and ending, and am just happy when they understand what I’m trying to say. There are also many opportunities for me to develop my ability to laugh at myself. A very important skill when you are learning a new language, I’ve learned! There was the time that I asked an eight year old girl if the nine year old boy standing beside her was her son. (Strange look. And then: oops, I mean brother). Then there was the time when we were handing out soup and buns downtown GDL with one of the missionary families and I thought that the one lady said that the other was pregnant. Well, I knew the word for “congratulations”, so I was happy to use it. Until I realized a moment later that I had definitely misunderstood the lady, and no congratulations were in order. They were very understanding and we all had a good laugh about that. And then, finally, there was the time when a man came to the door trying to sell me cheese. I thought he was the neighbour, and was asking to borrow some cheese. I was very apologetic that the cheese I had was cheddar, not Mexican cheese.  He looked confused so I went to the fridge and brought it out to show him. And, was this ok, and how much did he want?... Eventually I clued in, and I urgently called Matt down to try to explain to the man… We laughed and laughed.

There are many more things we could tell you about. We spent this past weekend in Tepic. Hi-lights were: many great conversations with Richard & Angela & Rev. & Mrs.  Bout, worshipping and celebrating communion with the church, (for me) the women’s bible study and baby shower for a lady in the church, fun times with the kids, and all the delicious food! (Thank-you Angela & Mrs. Bout!)

We also have included some pictures from a little trip we took on Monday. It was a public holiday, so we went with the other two ladies from the language school to Guachimontones, a historic site about one hour away. Matt can tell you a bit about this.  The Lord has been very good to us. When we have been discouraged, He has lifted us up. And His provision has been so abundant. We’ve been very blessed by the preaching of the Word here, and fellowship of believers. And while there are lots of things to do always, and paper work to get through (Matt’s favourite!), each day we continue on, not just merely surviving, but really enjoying our days and rejoicing in His goodness and faithfulness. We do thank you for your continued prayers and support. This means so much to us.

Matters for prayer:

• Rejoice with us in God’s provision of a car, a doctor, and that we can feel a lot more settled here.
• Pray for the application process for our Visa.
• Pray that we may continue to be motivated in our language studies and be able (and willing) to develop relationships with those in our neighbourhood.
• Give thanks for 29 weeks of pregnancy and that I am feeling so well.
• Pray for the gospel to continue to go forth in this dark land where there is so much need for the Truth.

Pictures from Guachimontones:

 The four of us (or should I say five? ) on top of a big massive altar looking down on the main altar.  The Guachimontones was built around 200 B.C. to 300 A.D. by an Indian group.  Guachimontones was apparently the cultural center of a vast empire / network stretching from Mexico down past Guatemala. 

 Here you can see the central altar in greater detail.  Note the steps going up to the very top! 
The group actually knew that the planets revolved around the sun.  It's an impressive place now, but actually was quite the brutal place in the past. Thankfully, that is no more.

 

A palota court, where they had to get to the ball into the hoop with their hips.