Feliz Navidad Video Christmas Card

We wish a very merry Christmas to all of our family, friends and supporters. An interesting link that you may want to see is NORAD Santa. The air forces of the US and Canada are tracking Santa as he delivers toys. Blessings all!!! http://www.noradsanta.org/en/home.htm

Christmas Program

Like most churches at this time of year, we in Mexico City had a church Christmas program. It was as good as any that I have ever seen at churches in the US or Canada. There were Christmas carols sung by the choir and the congregation; tunes traditional to the ear but sung in Spanish. The words might not be translated identically (for example, "Silent Night" in Spanish is "Noche de Paz" or "Night of Peace") but beautifully sung and Christ centered. The children's skits were well done and, as the second picture indicated, contextualized to Mexico. The little shepherds look more like Mexican shepherds from years past than middle eastern shepherds. Jessie, pictured below with a little girl, played the part of Mary. She has tremendous dramatic talent and has great potential with this gift. Some of the Gateway teams that helped with the VBS program "Hecho A Mano" this last summer might remember her as the squeaky bird in the skits where she also did a great performance. After the program, the children received bags of candy (chili pepper/mango lollipops in the shape of a whole BBQ chicken, mini marshmallows, Japanese peanuts, fried onion ring type chips and Lunetas - candy coated chocolate drops similar to Canadian Smarties or American M&M's). We all had a hot drink called Ponche which is a tea vaguely like apple cider with pieces of mango, apple and sugar cane in each cup.

The Emperor Has Given Us Games

Politicians will do anything to maintain or increase their popularity. The head of Distrito Federal is no exception. He put an ice rink right in the middle of the Zocolo to give Mexicans a chance to do some winter sports. I must say, it's quite a engineering feat to place an Olympic size outdoor rink in a open air plaza where the temperature has been 27*C or 80*F every afternoon for the last month. The evenings are also quite warm. Skating is free to everyone but the lineups to get on the ice were ridiculously long. The Ruizes and ourselves, along with Abi, Ivan and Abi's mom Gloria went to the rink to enjoy a little holiday fun. Only Ingrid, the girls, Dylan and Daniel went on the ice.
For many Mexicans this was clearly their first time on skates as they clung to the boards and others to keep from falling. There was a slow motion "congo" line around the boards of the rink. With hundreds of people skating during each assigned hour of time on the ice, some accidents are bound to occur. There were many staff on the ice. When someone fell and was significantly hurt, twelve staff would hold hands and form a ring around the injured person. Three people were taken off the ice in this manner, two in wheelchairs and one on a backboard. An ambulance was on standby near the rink for such injuries.
We were impressed with the other 50% of skaters who could skate fairly well! There are only five indoor ice rinks in this enormous city.
After the skating was done, it was off to the kiosks for some cafe con leche (coffee with milk), biscuits and churros. The evening reminded me of our times in Edmonton when we would go to the Silver Skate Festival http://www.silverskatefestival.org/ for a day of skating, eating Dutch food and drinking hot chocolate in the cold weather, only today had a unique Mexican twist. It is fun to watch the girls skate again. They really miss the speedskating they did back home http://www.edmontonspeedskating.ca/ . I was amazed at how well Emma and Kirklyn did after having been off skates for a year and a half. They never missed a beat. As for Dylan and Daniel, the girls helped them get their skating legs. They have skated a bit in Ontario when they have returned for home assignment but it has never been a big part of their lives. However, they did great and after an hour or so of practising, they looked like pros. They seemed to have enjoyed themselves greatly. It was a really nice evening out. To see a video of the skating, click on the bottom picture.

Another Addition

Our German Shepherd, Scout, is rather bored during the days and we felt it was time for a little friend. We intended for some time to have two dogs and we were waiting to find the right breed. In Mexico City, just about every house has a dog (or two or three as some of our neighbours do) to act as a doorbell and home protection. I must admit, I have been really impressed with how naturally protective skills come to Scout. I, Marcel, wanted a boxer ever since we visited a pastor friend in the Kitchener/Waterloo area of Ontario that had a beautiful boxer. Well, now we have one, too. It's a female that we've named Josefina, or just Joe for short. That's right, our dog's name is Joe Boxer :) Scout has been a little jealous, barking and getting a little aggressive but with time, she'll realize the other dog is here to stay. Today, we're off to the vet, the market, Christmas shopping and the orthodontist.

Happy Birthday Emma!

Emma turned 10 years old today! It was a beautiful day today; sunny and 25*c. That's a lot different than the day she was born in Edmonton when it was well below freezing and snowing heavily. After church today we went to Chili's for lunch. Our family tradition is anyone that is having a birthday says where we go for supper. Emma got a radio/CD player and a musical toy and a CD. After, it was an Oreo cake to celebrate our daughter's blessed day.

The Most Important Meeting of the Year

The sun is setting on continued full-time missionary involvement at Christ Lives Bible Church. Last night we informed them that the church has to install a pastor sooner rather than later. We suggested Fransisco be the new shepherd for this flock. With the Barons moving to Texas in the next couple of months and the need for the Ruizes and Mitchells to begin aggressively pursuing church planting opportunities in the Atizapan area of Metro Mexico City the time is now for the church to be on its own. That's not to suggest that we missionaries will not be there for them. We will consult them over issues of constitution development and other help topics but we need to move on. Over the last week the Ruizes and ourselves have been meeting to discuss the last year and plan the future. We have been hashing out a plan for simultaneous cell-church plants using trained Mexican workers. The role of the missionary will be to oversee/mentor and provide the strategy. We will still start bible studies and cell groups but the pastor will be Mexican. By having trained Mexican workers the church starts off running with a pastor instead of waiting till the pastor is chosen many years into the ministry as in the case of Christ Lives Bible Church. What we are doing is similar to what is displayed in the book Church Planting Movements http://www.churchplantingmovements.com but contextualized to the realities of Mexico City. We are very excited by what is being proposed and we hope soon we will see this new kind of church planting model thrive here.

Bird Watchers' Paradise

I would not say that I am a bird fancier or watcher/ theologian like John Stott but I have over the years had several pet birds (Parakeets, Love Birds and even a couple Mallard Ducks when growing up in Vancouver) and do find them to be rather amazing creatures. In Mexico there is an abundance of Humming Birds. The Ruizes gave us a humming bird feeder to enjoy these little critters of God's great creation. Every morning when we sit down for breakfast several will drink the sweet water provided them giving us a little joy in the urban wildlife found in Mexico City.

What Do Mexicans Have Against Sleeping?

December 12 is an important religious holiday in Mexico. It is thought on this day in 1531, that a young man named Juan Diego, who went to worship a native goddess actually had a visitation from the Virgin Mary. Mexico's use of the name Virgin Guadalupe comes from Catholic worship in Extrmadura, Spain. This last week saw traffic come to a stand still as peregrinos (pilgrims...see the last picture) made their way through the city to the Basilica of the virgin (middle picture), carrying statues of her and wearing shirts with her image. They go there to venerate her and the robe of Juan Diego (pictured above). We saw people running with torches and we understand that one man ran from here to New York City with a torch to celebrate the virgin with Mexican Catholics there. All night last night there were fireworks...and I mean all night! The night was filled with the sound of loud explosions and Ingrid and I got no sleep. Today's team meetings will be a real drag...we're exhausted!
Basilica of the Virgin Guadalupe.
Peregrinos.

Mexican National Leadership Appreciation Supper

Last night, Marcel and I were privileged to attend an appreciation supper at Tlalpan, an area in the south part of Mexico City. The purpose of the supper was to honor Mexican leaders in CAM International and North American Baptist churches throughout Mexico. The hosting church was Iglesia Biblica de Tlalpan where Toñio and Becky Muñoz serve. Becky is the daughter of NAB missionaries Royce and Sue Baron. Becky and Toñio were part of the worship team and Toñio preached a strong message on unity among church leaders and churches. Seven Mexican leaders from the Christ Lives Bible Church were among those honored. Royce and Sue Baron received a standing ovation in recognition of their 43 years of missionary service in Mexico! Marcel and I were able to met several leaders and missionaries from churches primarily in Mexico City.

CAM International has a beautiful website that you would enjoy checking out. http://www.caminternational.org/index.cfm

Tacos al Pastor

Yesterday, it was yet another meeting of leaders at Iglesia Biblica Cristo Vive. Moises and I left home around 3 pm to fight the traffic and do some errands, the bulk of which included ordering a new sign for IBCV. Tomas, pictured below, has a computer program with which he can design proportional images. From there it was off to the printer who said the banner will be ready Monday afternoon. The meeting at the church finished on time. I think people were quite worn out from the last meeting being so long so this time, they were down to business and finished by 10 pm. When meetings finish in good time, Moises and I like to go to a taco stand near the church to have Tacos al Pastor (no pun intended...that's what they're called). Since neither of us had eaten since noon, I think we both ate a record number of tacos at one sitting: eight each! They are very delicious. I would like to take Ingrid and the girls to this stand but they are only open at night and Ingrid and the girls are not usually at the church in the evenings for meetings.

Precious Moments

Sometimes there are little moments in the day that provide those Kodak Moments we all enjoy. While taking photos around the church of people helping put up Christmas displays, we saw little Ahava playing so nicely with Jayce. They are little buddies at church and they are fun to watch. The last couple of days have been consumed by the dentist office. Kirklyn, our 7 year old, was complaining about a toothache. Ingrid asked one of our neighbours, Maria, if she knew of a good dentist nearby. She recommended hers and even got us a quick appointment. To our pleasant surprise, the dentist was a Christian lady that attends a Baptist cell group near her home. She was so pleased to have missionaries at her office. According to my inexperienced eye, she also did some great dental work, too and gave us a missionary discount! Dental work is about half the cost of what it is back home. I (Marcel) also went into the dentist chair and had two fillings done. Unfortunately, I found out that age is catching up to me. I need two crowns :( We were so glad to have been put in contact with this fine lady and to see how God does provide for us and take care of little needs in unexpected ways.

Not Just Another Sunday...Mondays Are Not as Nice

We had a nice surprise yesterday. We had a visitor to Christ Lives Bible Church, a missionary from Norway to Argentina. Tonje was invited to attend our church by a friend. She is here because she is going to be getting married to a ministry colleague that hails from Mexico City. She spoke good English and is involved in sports ministry in Argentina. You can see her ministry at these two websites: http://www.sportslink.com.ar/ (video about their sports ministry with cute photos of the children of Argentina learning about the Savior) and http://www.vayacondios.no/ (a nice photo of Tonje and her fiance from Mexico) The sites are in Spanish and Norwegian so instead of Span-glish, you may start to learn Span-wegian! Yesterday was also the day we decorated the church for Christmas. The kids loved participating in this venture and it reminded us of good times doing the same at First Baptist Church in Leduc. Later that afternoon, the choir practised traditional Christmas songs while Ingrid taught piano lessons to Abigail.

Monday has not been as kind to us. For the second time in the last month I tried to withdraw money from an ATM with my Canadian bank account, only to not receive money yet my account was debited. Now we are out almost $1000 while CIBC "investigates." Bad timing just before Christmas. Like some missionary friends of ours in Chile said recently on their blog, banking and paying bills has got to be the worst aspect of missions. Besides having to make multiple visits to an ATM over a few days to get enough cash to pay the bills, there are often long and slow lineups.

Mariachi Music

Hit the play button to enjoy a little mariachi music.

Wedding Day

The family and I were invited to a wedding today. A nice young couple from Christ Lives Bible Church tied the knot, as they say. Cristian and Sylvia pictured at top had a very nice wedding service and fiesta. The service started an hour late and lasted two hours. That's a lot different than back home where wedding services are about an hour long unless you're a Catholic. The fiesta had a very nice meal that included roast pork, pasta, apple salad and cream of walnut soup. The high light of the evening for me was the mariachi band. They played for about an hour in that unique style of song. Brittany, fresh from a shopping trip to Texas, displayed her lofty expectations for marriage as displayed on her new t-shirt. I have video of the mariachi band and as soon as I figure out how to upload the video to this blog I will put it up for you.

Meeting Night

Friday nights are usually when we have church board and committe meetings. Last night we had all team heads arrive to schedule next years main events and ministry activities. The meeting went for 5 1/2 hours finishing at 1:20 in the morning! I did not arrive home until 2:30 AM. Oh well...at least we got a lot done. It was good for me to attend. My input is rather minimal. I mostly attend to practice my listening skills with the Spanish. I was impressed that last night I understood about fifty percent of what was said and even a few jokes they threw my way. We had a small break where we ate some sweet bread from our favorite bakery; Panaderia Ibañez. It's a small mom and pop operation but it is very tasty there.

Checking on the Camp's Progress

It was a beautiful day in the largest city in the world today. Moises and I took advantage of the nice weather to check on the workers' progress at the camp. I also go to hear their Spanish and thus, practice my listening skills. As you can see, the roses at the camp are still blooming though some of the trees have lost their foliage.

Much has been accomplished in the last few weeks including the entire outside of the building being covered with stucco and the interior of the new second level being finished with stucco. There are now a set of concrete stairs from the boys dorm into what will be the indoor recreation area. Celestino and his workers were working on the wiring of the family dorms and the rec room and began to put in a new door bell that is as loud as a fire alarm, high on the main house so that Carolina can hear it from her home. Moises, Celestino and I also took some time to figure out what to do with that beam that is overhanging in the future dining hall. For now we will leave it. It is very secure and may possible be useful to hang stage lighting and a over head projector in the future.

After all the work was done, it was off to a local taco stand for Carnitas. A carnita is deep fried pork served in a corn tortilla. It's not healthy...it is like a heart attack in a tortilla but with limon, salsa roja, onions and cilantro, it tastes great.

Good to Visit with Friends

On our recent trip to Texas our family was graciously invited to the home of Bob and Barb Kracht for American Thanksgiving dinner. It was excellent. It's not easy for a family to invite a group our size and thus be invaded by a family of seven. Our hosts were most wonderful. We had a great time of fellowship and felt very encouraged and yes, we watched some football on the TV (Cowboys vs. Jets). Pictured is the Kracht's daughter, Julie, with Abi, the nephew of Moises and Caroline. Abi is a ministry student at Rio Grande Bible Institute and is a promising young leader for the church. He is also an excellent worship leader. They are a very nice young couple and we hope to see them again soon. Thanks for your hospitality folks!

Photos from the Drive

Driving north on Highway 57D from Mexico City to Saltillo, one is on a high mountain desert plateau. The drive is beautiful and the weather ominous. The post storm sunset was very beautiful this day. On the side of the road, one can purchase dried rattlesnake skins and some venders will sell live foxes, coyotes, hawks and owls. There are also huge signs that say that it is illegal to purchase these items - a federal offense.

Back from a Nice Trip to Texas

We just arrived back in Mexico City from spending a week in Texas. We needed to renew our tourist visas as we wait for our permanent visas. We took opportunity on this trip to take mom to the airport in Houston where she went on to Calgary to visit my sister. We had a great time with Oma and showed her many neat things about this great city. We also did a lot of shopping in Texas because 1. it's very hard to find our size of clothes here, 2. The quality of affordable clothes is terrible here and 3. The clothes in Texas are much cheaper than Mexico City. We have been really surprised that Mexico City is as expensive as it is. How people with less income than ourselves live here is beyond me. Brittany also took some time to visit with her Texas high school friend and basketball team mate, Veronica (pictured with Brittany). She is a really neat kid and when she is with us, she feels like one of the family. The other thing we enjoyed was getting some great Texas food. We love Texas BBQ, especially brisket from Rudy's BBQ in Pharr, TX. In Houston we visited Cracker Barrel where they specialize in southern cooking. I love the Cat Fish. Yummy! Outside the store, they sell old fashioned rocking chairs and we took a nice picture of the girls trying them out.

Much Needed Repairs

We have a nice large house with a great view of the city and the volcanoes and we have it for a fairly good rent price. The problem is, not much works well in the house and we have had an endless series of workers in the home trying to fix what is wrong and usually doing a poor job. Construction standards are not the same as in the United States of America or Canada. Finally, enough has been enough and we called upon two trustworthy men from our church to fix much needed repairs instead of letting the property manager choose the workers. What a difference! Celestino repaired our electrical box so now the power is not shutting off and turning on all day and night and Ricardo has built a new portion onto the cabinets so we can put in a new oven and stove. The previous oven and stove were awful. Everything here is powered by gas and the stove had only two settings: off and full blast! The oven door kept opening on it own and when it did that, the flame would quit, thus giving us a dangerous gas leak. Well, all that will soon be behind us.

Mom is still here and she seems to be liking the city. She really enjoyed the silver store, where we take our Gateway Teams, buying several very nice necklaces and earrings. She also loves the rich culture and the strong coffee. However, she has not really enjoyed Mexican food. Hence, we let her cook last night and it was great. I do miss mom's cooking. Mom's big heart has also meant that many people that beg in the subway tunnels and street corners are getting a little more these days. The kids have really been enjoying having her around and are already sad she will be leaving in a few days. We have to drive to the US border this week to renew our Mexican tourist visas until our permanent visas arrive. Mom is going to drive with us to Texas and we will take her to Houston to catch a flight to Calgary where she will visit my sister for a week.

Mom is Here

Mom arrived here late on Friday night to a rather chaotic scene at the airport. The day before I had gone to the mechanic to have my rear brakes serviced and cleaned. However, the mechanic overserviced the brakes and by the time we arrived at the airport to pick up mom, the brakes were seized and smoking like a chimney. We had to call Moises for help since we only have the one vehicle. He brought the mechanic to the airport and fixed the problem just as Mom entered the parkade. Whew...that was a close one!

Since then we have done a lot of touristy things. Saturday we went to a mall nearby for lunch and to get groceries. Sunday we took Mom to church. Pepe preached a strong message on 2 Peter 2 and we had the Lord's Supper. Mom was introduced to several people. The one picture above is Mom speaking with Moises' niece, Jabeth. We then took Mom to visit the Retreat Centre where she met Juan and Carolina. She was quite amazed at how big the centre is and how well kept it is. Ingrid had to return to the church teach a piano lesson to Abigail.

Monday was a unique day. We have had lots of little problems in our home but the worst of our problems is that our stove and oven do not work very well. The gas stove does not have any way to regulate the flame; thus, it's burning our food and wreaking our pans. The flame on the oven keeps turning off and the door does not stay closed. So once again, it was Moises to the rescue. He negotiated with the property manager and we will be getting new appliances soon. Tuesday, Emma came down with the chicken pox and she is staying home from school but we still took the subway downtown to show Mom the historical part of the city since Emma has past the contagious stage. As we came out of the subway tunnel, there were three Mexican Mounted Police that were gracious enough to let us take a picture with them. Then we went into the Palacio Bellas Artes and mom fell in love with the beautiful Italian designed building (with her favorite style of interiors - art deco) and the paintings of Diego Riviera, Frida Kahlo and José Clemente Orozco. We are hoping to return next week to watch a performance of the Ballet Méxicano Folklorico (traditional Mexican folk dancing).

From there we walked a short distance to have lunch at the Casa de Azulejos (House of Tiles) but that was not without some humour. I told Mom to follow close behind me to cross the busy intersection but instead, she followed a group of people carrying red flags that were crossing the same intersection. Somehow, Mom accidental joined a communist protest that was crossing the same intersection! The police were no help as they laughed at our little dilemma. After lunch we walked to the Zocolo visited the cathedral and the government house where there were large paper mache statues of Diego Riviera and Frida Kahlo (see picture above). Then it was back to home. Today, for mom's sake we are taking it more easy. Emma is at home resting as is Mom. We need to clean the house and I am continuing with my desire write a commentary on the Book of Matthew. Practice time on the computer with my Rosetta Stone Spanish program is in store as well.