The newest member of the family

By popular demand, here are some pictures of our new puppy. She is a four month old German Shepherd born in San Juan, Texas. She answers to the name "Scout" (a name which is difficult for Mexicans to say) and she has already shown that she will be a good guard dog for the girls.

What kind of snake is this?

What kind of snake is this? Our camp caretakers, Juan and Carolina found this snake about two weeks ago. They described it as a "field snake" but that could be anything. They could not tell me a specific breed. They said it is venomous but not deadly and that adult snakes, which get up to one meter long, are often found under the Nopale Cacti. This one was only five or six inches long. If anybody knows specifically what kind of snake this is, let me know.

Popocatépetl

Today, for the first time since we moved to our new house, we were able to see the top of Mexico City's volcanos. That is rather amazing because of all the smog here. (Yesterday the smog was so bad that all foreign vehicles were not allowed to drive.) Popocatépetl is the largest of the two volcanos at over 17,800 feet and is the volcano in the picture. Yes, that is snow at the top of the mountain. Last July, when Marcel was here, the volcano had about a 30 minute eruption that went for miles. The cross section chart of the Mexico City's topography is from north towards south. We live on a mountain to the right of downtown and the volcanoes are on the opposite side of the valley, to the left.

Hecho a Mano video

Linked to our blog site is a short (1 min. 5 sec.) video of the theme song for the recent VBS at Christ Lives Bible Church. The song is called "Hecho a Mano," meaning Made by Hand. The lead singer, Nayeli, has an increadibly good voice. Enjoy!
http://video.google.com/videouploadfinished?docid=5058779841072329446&cid=2bc67b05d672fe97

Teotihuacanos for a day

One of the really cool things about living in Mexico are the pyramids. About 15 KM from the camp in Acolman is the ancient city of Teotihuacan which means "where men become gods" in the Nahuatl language. The city was started approximately in the year 100 B.C. but scholars hotly dispute who started the community since there is no written record. Various native groups settled there over the next thousand years but for reasons unknown, they more or less abandoned the facility before the Spanish conquest. At its peak, over a quarter of a million people lived in this city. It is thought that only 10% of the city's archaeological ruins are uncovered today.

When missions teams come here to help at the camp or at a VBS, we often take them to the pyramids to get a sense of the history and culture of Mexico. The picture you see here is of our seven year old Kirklyn standing on top of the Pyramid of the Sun (the largest of the three pyramids) with the pyramid of the Moon in the background. Almost 400 feet up from the valley floor, one must ascend 248 very small steps to get to the top. Unfortunately, many people continue to come here to practice native worship of the sun syncretized with the Catholicism.

Vacation Bible School 2007

Hecho a Mano - Made by Hand was the VBS theme. 270 little voices sang that we are not the result of an explosion but that we have been specially created by the Designer of the Universe. The leaders went all out and had the church incredibly decorated. The children learned about how Peter grew to completely trust Christ. We enjoyed black light puppet plays, tacos for snack time, an outdoor obstacle course, skits with huge paper mache costumes. One girl who was dressed up as a mother canary and had live baby chicks in her basket that she wanted to protect from "Avian Flu". A big hit were the live minnows that each child could take home in a styrofoam coffee cup.

I (Ingrid) helped with the 3 and 4 year olds - all 38 of them! This is a picture of them fishing for magnetic fish with the help of Pierre. We caught Pierre unaware as he glanced up to see who was calling him. A couple weeks ago, Pierre preached for 20 minutes or so and then another young man from church took over for the next 20 minutes. Not only does Pierre have a nice wardrobe of various soccer jerseys (including Petra's favorite Dutch player Ruud Van Nistlrooy), but Marcel liked his example of "Tag Team Preaching". Wonder if that could catch on back home in Canada...

To promote the VBS, the youth from the church and a group from Manitoba walked around the neighbourhood for four hours handing out invitations. A mom who received an invitation brought her little ones and joined the small adult class of 10 people. She accepted Christ and just a few days later, told us that her life has all ready changed noticably for the better!

Albondigas! Meatballs!

This is a photo taken at our retreat center in Acolman during Youth Camp (ages 16 to 25). A group from Bridgeman, Michigan have been with us for the past two weeks and the camps went very well! Our first week of the summer was VBS, then last week was Adolescents Camp (ages 13 - 15), and we have just finished our third week at Youth Camp. We're a little tired but having fun.

Our camp food has been traditional Mexican dishes - all delicious yet inexpensive. We especially enjoyed Mexican meatballs with a small piece of hardboiled egg in the center of each meatball, served with a tomatoe sauce and white rice with vegetables. The Spanish Word of the Day quickly became "Meatball". The campers laughed when we guessed that the name was "Ball of Meat" (pelota de carne). "No, no, no :) Al-bon-di-ga!!" Someone would walk by and Marcel would say, "Hey - meatball." The reply would be a giggle and "Albongida!" After much repetition and laughs, this new word is now in our nogins!

The campers have also had some traditional camp fun. They moved their counsellor's matress, sleeping bag, suitcase, and lamp our of their room and into the hallway. A couple days later, the same man was tied up, stuffed into an inner tube, decorated with a Welcome sign across his forehead, and then given an application of foot powder to his head. Funny how youth always know when you really love them and that you will put up with their affectionate pranks.

The Camp at Acolman

We are off to the retreat center in Acolman this weekend to be with a missions team from Manitoba. They will be conducting a VBS at our church in the nearby Mexico City suburb of Ecatepec. For those of you who have visited the camp, you may notice that the second floor has been added to the family dorms. Moises and his crew have been working very hard to finish this camp. We need many more work teams from the US and Canada to have this camp fully operational...hint ...hint.

Room with a view

We have our new home in the Mexico City suburb of Atizapan! It is a house built onto the side of a small mountain. This is the view from our balcony looking to the south towards downtown Mexico City. You might note that the smog and approaching rain come up the valley from the downtown area. It is rainy season now so we will add a "clear day" photo after a cleansing rainfall.