The Day of Love and Friendship

Our Valentine's dinner pictures have finally been recovered from the depths of our computer. (Thanks Brittany!) In Mexico, Valentine's Day is known as the "Day of Love and Friendship." By far, the most commonly sold Valentine's items were: yes, balloons. We sure couldn't afford them though! $8 for an 8 inch balloon and $14 or more for a larger one. Multiply that by five girls and we decided to pass on that idea. There were balloon vendors on every corner rather than just the usual spots on weekends in the parks and outside popular family restaurants.
We had oh so much fun with our neighbors during our "formal" dinner at our home! Our fancy dinner menu plans got scaled back considering the economy and though some unchurched people were surprised that we didn't serve alcohol, everyone was content with the homemade lemonade that Carolyn Ruiz made. The evening was a success. We haven't laughed that hard for a long time. We knew that some of our friends were teasers but wow. For example, while we were playing the "Newlywed Game", Marcel asked the question "What color are the sheets on your bed right now in your house today?" The wife would describe in detail the three color plaid while the husband would falter with "kinda bluish" sort of answers. Other husbands were yelling out possible answers to "help", things like "Just say that they're black because she never wants to do the laundry!" My, my!
The most difficult question to get a matching husband/wife answer for was "Where did you share your first kiss?" Surprisingly, only one couple had a matching answer! We were having so much fun that the atmosphere in the room was really happy. A few people were annoyed/embarrassed that their spouse didn't answer the same way but everyone turned it around into some sort of joke and we kept having fun. "Wrong" answers are completely what makes the game so entertaining! When people couldn't remember, we'd say, "Just make something up." They hadn't played this game before so they thought that suggestion was just ridiculous and it is but it's just a game.
We were grateful to have Angel come and speak. He and his wife began the Christ Lives Bible Church in Ecatepec along with the Barons and the Ruizes. They are now helping with another church plant in a different part of Mexico City but graciously helped us for the evening. Angel made a fill-in-the-blanks worksheet to go with his devotional. His topic was "A Love that Blossoms" and we learned how the Bible's teachings on forgiveness apply to a marriage. Angel is a very good speaker. He's animated and able to use Mexican examples and expressions to illustrate his points. People were interested and filled all their blanks in. One man folded his paper and tucked it into his shirt pocket to take home. Such are the small evidences that we are slowly getting through with our message.
Our next event: a marriage retreat at the end of March. We hear that the location is special in that it is a place in Mexico where there is a giant rock. Our neighbor was amused to have climbed all the way to the top to find: a pop/soda machine! The new mystery is not about the huge rock but how the machine was placed on top... Sounds like something interesting to check out.

Some Visitors

We had a few visitors here in Mexico City. Chemo (pronounced Chay-mo) and Amanda along with their two children Estrella and Emmanuel. They are living at the retreat center helping with a little maintenance. Chemo is originally from the state of Vera Cruz on the east coast of Mexico and Amanda is from Wisconsin. They had to move to Mexico for a little while to help expedite his application for immigration. Our daughter Ahava and Estrella have become real buddies and play for hours on end. They are so cute to watch together.

Que Preciosa - How Precious

We're having a great time waiting during our Bible studies here in Mexico City! The Mexicans who are studying aren't seasoned Christians who know their way around a Bible. They begin looking for Revelation at the front of the Bible and often locate the "wrong" book of John (there are four to choose from). We really don't mind waiting a bit while they search and with a little direction, eventually find the passage we're reading.

Yesterday, a new lady came to the ladies' Bible study. At the end of our study, she kindly offered to read aloud the closing passage of our study for the day, Psalm 139. "Psalm 139. One. O Lord, You have searched me and known me. Two. You know when I sit down and when I rise up; You understand my thoughts from afar. Three. You scrutinize my path and my lying down, And are intimately acquainted with all my ways." I smiled as she carefully read each verse number as she went along. Verses 21 and 22 brought nervous giggles from several ladies. "Do I not hate those who hate You, O Lord? And do I not loathe those who rise up against You? I hate them with perfect hatred; I count them my enemies."

At the end of the chapter, various ladies all chattered, "Oooh, que preciosa! Que linda!" - "Oooh, how precious! How beautiful!" They loved this chapter! I was further amazed to see three ladies all start searching back in the passage and then one read, "This is my favorite: verse 14. 'I will praise You for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are Your works, and that my soul knows very well.' Did you hear that? 'And that my SOUL knows very well.'" They were immediately drawn to the most famous verse of the chapter without the leaders pointing this out to them. It spoke to their souls.

Super Bowl XLIII Fun and Baby Jesus Dolls

We hosted a small group of people in our home for a SuperBowl XLIII party yesterday. What an exciting game, right until the end! We had fewer men show up than we had hoped but the two who did come, we had really hoped would. Our large windows were a problem for the first hour so we borrowed extra blankets from the Ruizes and duct taped the blankets up to block the sunlight. The projector worked well and once the sun set behind the mountains, we could see even better. We had hamburgers, chips, olives, salsa, potato salad, and brisket. Marcel was the BBQ chef and the 8 pounds of brisket were quickly devoured. Yum!
We watched the first half of the game in English and the second half, in Spanish. I'm surprised at how many Mexicans like American football although soccer is definately their favorite sport.
On the streets today, we saw many people carrying their porcelin baby Jesus dolls. February 2 marks the mid point between winter solstice and spring equinox, Groundhog Day, when we "find out" how the weather will be for the rest of the winter. In Mexico, a clear day means cold is coming and clouds means it will get warmer. It's a tough call in Mexico City with the usual smog. This day is also 40 days after Jesus' birth when Mary and Joseph presented Jesus at the temple and Mary was purified according to Mosaic law.
In Mexico, if you found the tiny plastic baby Jesus doll inside your slice of Ring of the Kings Bread back on January 6th, it's your turn to host a party today. Our neighborhood had a block party like this for our local policemen. You are to serve atole (a thick cornmeal warm drink - vanilla, strawberry or chocolate flavor) and tamales (cornmeal, meat, raisins, and a bit of sauce wrapped in cornhusks). This is work and expensive so apparently, people used to hide the baby Jesus doll in their mouth or even swallow it to avoid this party hosting responsibility!
Often life-sized ceramic doll representations of Jesus are taken out of the nativity manger, dressed in special outfits and taken to the local Catholic church to receive a blessing. The dolls even have godparents. A special blessing is believed to be received by the entire household. The baby Jesus is often set on a chair to symbolize that he is no longer a newborn. My neighbor has a very humble home but during my first visit to her house, she proudly showed me her Nino Dios - God Boy. Shops have been advertising repairs of your Jesus dolls and the street market was selling new satin christening outfits for the dolls. Many children are also christened today in Mexico. Candles honoring the Virgin Guadalupe (Mexico's Mary figure) are blessed during mass and so the name Candlemas came to be given to February 2 or in Spanish, Dia de la Candelaria. Our camera battery needs charging so I don't have photos but this link has 18 very nice photos. http://gomexico.about.com/od/festivalsholidays/ig/Dia-de-la-Candelaria-Photos/Ni-os-Dioses.html
There is a lot of familiarity with scripture here in Mexico, in this case, with Jesus' life as a child. So much time and money is spent doing things to please God and receive his blessing. The right goal but the wrong method. Salvation is simple and free! I hope that during tomorrow's bible study, opportunity will arise to discuss this with the ladies in my neighborhood.

Volcano Popocatépetl is Active (Click Here to see live Volcano Cam)

We have noticed over the past few days that the volcano on the other side of the Mexico City mountain basin, Popocatépetl, has been smoking very actively this past week. Perhaps this is the sign of a major eruption ready to happen; who knows? It is one of the most active volcanoes in the world. So for your interest, I have linked this post with a live cam of the volcano. The above picture is a still of the live cam. Click on the title of this post to see the live cam.
I, Marcel, saw an eruption three years ago and it was one of the most awesome sights that I have ever seen with ash being shot miles into the atmosphere.

The Shock of the Second Commandment

Our ladies' Bible study group is going through a panorama of the Bible. This week, we got to the chapter that tells of the Ten Commandments. We have a beautiful study book with an accompanying workbook. There are also CDs with recordings of a man's dramatic readings of each chapter and some occasional sound effects. I'm particularly grateful for these CDs as they save me taking my turn and poorly reading out loud in Spanish. The ladies are all very kind and only laugh that I always get the long passages to read - "More opportunity to practise for me!"

We have happened upon a new witnessing technique. One day, we accidentally dropped the CDs off at the wrong house (correct house number but wrong street). It was several days before we realized the error. Then we were a little worried but burst out laughing at our mistake. Those people must have wondered where these CDs came from and they MUST have been curious and listened a bit, don't you think? This situation also provided opportunity to invite this family to our study.

So now that we are again listening to our lovely CDs, we paused at the end of a section to see if there were questions or comments. "Are the Ten Commandments the same in every Bible?" "Well, you have a Catholic Bible there. What does Exodus 20 say in your Bible?" We discovered that yes, each Bible said the same thing. Then the ladies looked at each other in silence for several seconds. "Why does the second commandment say not to bow before a false idol and yet our Catholic churches are full of statues and pictures? Come to think of it, our whole country is full of statues that we pray to. It says very clearly here that we are breaking God's law to do this! Haven't the priests read this?"

Three weeks ago, we were surprised to see the Martin Luther biography movie was being shown on Mexican television. Just as it came to the part where Martin Luther sent his letter to his bishop explaining his deep concerns with current Catholic practise, the movie abruptly stopped! There was a test pattern for 20 minutes and we decided that we'd have to find a DVD of this new movie of Luther's life and watch the rest another time. We flicked back to check if the test pattern remained. It did but then, we saw Luther once again. We watched and realized that they were playing the previous 5 minutes before the interuption of tranmission. We were delighted and watched the movie through to the end.

Like the ladies in our study group, Luther wondered if the other priests had read the Bible as well.

"Word of God speak. Fall down like rain. Causing my eyes to see Your majesty."

Mexico Team Meetings

We've had a 14 hour trip, with stops, from our home in Mexico City to Puerto Vallarta where we had Mexico Team Meetings with fellow NAB Mexico missionaries, the Ruiz family. It was a bit of torture to have meetings indoors at a hotel beside the beach but we did it. We spent hours over several days writing and editting as a team and ended our meetings with a renewed vision regarding how we would serve in Mexico City.
As we arrived in Puerto Vallarta, we went to the store to buy bread and milk for breakfast. Our truck broke down but a kind Mexican mechanic helped us. He changed our fuel pump right in the parking lot! In the process, the gas tank slipped and fell on the pavement, splashing gasoline into the mechanic's eyes. The next day, we had further mechanical problems. Another mechanic discovered that a small seal was missing near our fuel filter. As I helped Marcel back the truck out of the narrow parking lot, the German Shepherd guard dog chained to the wall nudged the back of my leg with his nose. That was because he had lundged with his mouth open to bite me! God blessed me with a chain an inch shorter than what he needed to bite me.
Our two families spent a few hours at Punta de Mita, north of Puerto Vallarta. The pelicans were huge!
We listened to a sales pitch for whale watching or fishing trips. We had supper at a restaurant on the beach and ate a local fish specialty that is baked whole. After Marcel's offer of 10 pesos (1 dollar), Daniel offered to, for free, eat the fish eye. Not to be outdone by his little brother, David ate one, too. The things competition can drive you to do!

We especially enjoyed the last three hours of sunlight at the beach on the night before we drove back to the city. Dylan, Kirklyn, and Emma went bodysurfing. The older Ruiz boys played soccer on the sand, and everyone swam in the ocean. It was nice to spend a few smog free days at the warm coast.

The New Psycho In Our Yard

Our new black labrador puppy is dealing with culture shock. His name is Psycho. Or rather, Saicou. He spent his first night at our house last night and it went quite well with just 10 minutes of crying and howling! Psycho came from a litter of 11 puppies from a white Canadian lab father and a black German lab mother. Where did the unusual name come from? It's Japanese! The Mexican family who have cared for 11tumbly labrador pups for two long months had lived in Japan for 6 years. Each puppy received a Japanese name. Our little Psycho's name means "awesome" in Japanese. We cracked up laughing at this falsely intimidating name! Then we had to explain that it is a slang word in English that means a psychotic person. Then the Mexican family joined in on the laughter:)
We were blessed to have spent New Year's Eve with this family and the Ruizes. Their daughter is Kirklyn's age and their son plays soccer with Dylan Ruiz. We had fun learning how to play a wooden table game that I can pronounce but don't know how to spell (crow-ken-al). We also enjoyed the end of the live broadcast from downtown Mexico City. We saw the fireworks out our window and then would watch them "up close" on the television broadcast. We learned about the Mexican tradition of "12 wishes, 12 grapes". As the countdown approached midnight, we realized that everyone else was frantically stuffing each person's 12 grapes into their mouths. Guess you're supposed to eat one grape for each of the last 12 seconds of the year as well as making 12 wishes. It was a "you had to be there" moment but us Canadians once again provided some laughs as we totally messed this up.
A couple months ago, Marcel and I had some fun visiting record counters where Marcel would sing part of a familiar romantic song that we hear all the time on the radio. We knew that the soloist was an older singer with a strong, rich voice and that it was a mariachi style song. We ended up buying a couple CDs that weren't the right ones but at the last store, all the youth who had gathered to listen to Marcel's mini-serenade unanimously agreed that the song was from Vincente Fernandez. The original writer of the song sang at the New Year's Eve celebration in downtown Mexico City but everyone in our livingroom agreed that Vincente Fernandez' version of the song was far better. Be prepared: Vincente Fernandez's mariachi suit on his album cover has inspired Marcel regarding the Mexican clothes Marcel will wear when we are on home assignment in 2011. Oooh la la!
Besides the 12 grapes, we had some other special food on New Year's Eve. The Mexican family who had lived in Japan brought "Japanese tacos" for us to enjoy. Seaweed wrap + sticky rice + slivered cucumbers + salmon (no tuna was available) + wasabi horseradish sauce (to disinfect the salmon and add flavor) + mashed plums = delicious! This is apparently a regular everyday lunch in Japan. It was interesting for us to hear how their children came back to Mexico with their parents and didn't like Mexican food. The parents make a special trip to a Japanese market downtown and load up on the special Japanese rice and other groceries that they need in order to have their children eat SOMETHING and stay alive here in Mexico:) I'm trying to think up a little gift for this boy and girl who have so generously given all those adorable puppies away to other families and are now feeling sad over the loss.

Our Second December in Mexico

Feliz Navidad and Happy Boxing Day today! We have had a full month. The Camrose Alberta Team finished their time with us with a prayer walk around the Lago de Guadalupe (Lake Guadalupe), a subdivision where we hope to have our new church plant. The girls finished their semester of school and we were off to Texas to have some Mexico field meetings and do some Christmas shopping where the prices are much better.
After various trips to the border, I have finally captured some photos of an interesting sight that you see between Mexico City and the border: semi-trailer trucks without cabs being driven by Mexican men, often sitting on a wooden box! The cabs are available here in Mexico but the chassis are far more expensive. For this reason, it is economically worthwhile to drive these "vehicles" across the desert. The first truck we ever saw like this passed us near the Retreat Center in Acolman. The driver was wearing eye goggles and had a long scarf around his neck. As we gawked at him passing, he yelled, in English with his Mexican Spanish accent, "Look at me in my flying machine!" The guys we got pictures of this time had to pass through a half an hour of rain. We saw about 15 of these contraptions during our drive north to Texas.

During our meetings in Texas, the highlight was a morning spent with Paul and Roxanne Wilson. They are currently attending the language school we went to in South Texas and will be administering a camp in Cuernavaca, a city just SW of Mexico City. They have years of experience with Christian Camping in Wisconsin and were a wealth of information and an inspiration to us in regards to the Lily of the Valley Retreat Center. Since we've been back to Mexico City, we've been working on planning a campfire area at the Retreat Center that has seating.
Just after we returned from Texas, the Quinceanera of Frida arrived. Frida is the 15year old daughter of Jorge, our driver when missions teams come. Jorge invited us to this event over a year ago. A quinceanera celebrates the 15th birthday of a girl, symbolizing that she has now become a woman. We got a kick out of the invitation, an orange colored puzzle that said to come bathed, perfumed and on time for the party. Frida loves to dance and had been practising three special dances with her dance troupe for about two years. Jorge also practised dancing with Frida for his father/daughter waltz. Our girls told me that when Jorge was dressed up in his tuxedo, he looked like a Mexican James Bond. Jorge's wife, Lilia is wearing the teal gown and their younger daughter, Alexis was also all dressed up. Frida made a dramatic entrance from a stairway that lowered from the second floor. Two young men escorted her to the center of the room to join her parents. Besides Frida's dances, Jorge hired a live band and another female soloist. We recognized and knew one of the soloist's spanish songs "Como La Flor" from the "Selena" movie and of course, the Achy Breaky Heart line dance song. As it sped up at the end of the line dance, the singers had to work very hard to fit all the Spanish lyrics in!

Much Has Been Accomplished

Our party last night went well. There were less people than we had for our Canadian Thanksgiving back in October (For Thanksgiving, Carolyn had counted 65 visitors + the 16 people from three missionary families.) The fellow we specifically asked you to pray for didn't come last night but another night when we would have more time to spend with him would be better anyways. We did have three new people come who we were pleased to met for the first time - contacts through a soccer club and our English classes. The Mexicans were gracious with their potluck dishes and prepared the food without chili spices "for the Canadians who aren't accustomed to that." We also had traditional Mexican homemade candies and a cake made with pinenuts. Interest was expressed to continue the English classes after Christmas. The Camrose Team arrived at our home a bit weary after all the hard work at the Retreat Center and the long van ride across the city. The Mexicans noticed that the Canadian group was tired and they headed home earlier than usual. For this reason, not everyone at the party is in our group photo but it gives you an idea. Jim, Dennis, and everyone: thank you for your prayers!

Now to show you all that has been happening at the Retreat Center. Each photo can be double-clicked to show it as a larger, full screen size. Then click the blue "back" arrow button to return to our blogpage. If you click the red "x" close button, the blog will close and you will have to start again.

The Camrose Team's main goal was to tile our two huge rooms on the second floor. This was finished days ago and since then, a lot of extra projects have been completed as well. WOW! The long room that also continues on around to the right - all tiled, grouted, scrubbed, and beautiful! I had posted a "before" picture a few days ago where you can see the concrete floor before the tiles were laid. I believe that Moises and Marcel said that 4 tons of tiles were installed! That will explain the sore backs :) In the same L-shaped room, another enormous project was finished - the ceiling paint. That is a lot of square footage to paint with an extention handle roller. Next to our chapel/dining hall, I imagine that these large rooms will be the next most used for indoor activities during the afternoon rains that come each summer. Thank you!!

You would think that they had had enough tiling but they just kept going and also tiled our large stairwell steps. These are the main stairs to access the second floor for the entire building. (We will be installing a metal spiral staircase to use for emergencies at the far end of the building.) This photo shows one of the two flights of stairs. Between visiting the pyramids and carrying tiles to the second floor, these Canadians have climbed a lot of stairs during their trip to Mexico!

All the "oatmeal" color trim work around the second store windows was painted. This, again, was on the exterior of the newly tiled rooms, two large rooms that form an L shape. It is the bottom left hand area of this map. (It can't be read without double-clicking to enlarge.)



Moises' sister, Olga, cooks for the team during the week and is helped by the Camrose ladies. They have had several Mexican dishes and also some familiar ones like hamburgers and fries.

On the first floor, each of our eight couples/families rooms had the plumbing secured to the wall and painted.

During this past week, a Mexican builder has been constructing some public washrooms. As they are so new, the washrooms aren't on my little map yet but are located between the archway in the wall and the dormitory building on the side of the yard that has the fountain. This will help us when there are Mexican construction workers that we have hired to install windows or build the cistern. Rather than using a washroom inside the house, they can use this separate washroom and we will have less cleaning to do. We will also use these washrooms when people are using the chapel/dining hall or playing games outside. Again, less feet walking in and out of the house. In the photo, I see new tiles on the washroom building roof. This is to prevent leaking through the concrete roof during rainy season.

The exterior of the one room "guest speaker" house was also painted. The cistern got a matching coat of terracota paint as well.


Finally, some special swimming pool paint was purchased, not for our swimming pool - we don't have one! - but to line the inside of our beautiful fountain.

Today the team has gone a few different directions. The Ruizes have taken some people to a local soccer game, I think played by teenaged boys. Sadly, the Ruiz boys did not have any soccer games scheduled this weekend. Unusual. Some other team members are spending the afternoon relaxing at the Ruiz's house and watching some English television with Spanish commercials. My girls and I have been cleaning up from the party and will go grocery shopping. The rest of the team went downtown with Marcel and Alejandro to visit the free zoo and the Anthropology Museum that are both located in a gigantic park. They may also visit a castle if they have time.

Please Pray for Effective Outreach

Tomorrow night (Friday), the Mitchells will be hosting an "End-of-the-English-Class-Semester Party". At our last get-together to celebrate Canadian Thanksgiving, we invited all of our contacts and ended up with a house full of 50 people! We are hoping for an equal number of people, if not more. Please pray especially for one person who is recently thinking about spiritual things and has questions. We are so grateful to have the Camrose Team coming to our home to help provide opportunities to practise English conversation. Many Mexicans in our area have studied English but don't have many chances to speak to English speakers. They want to hang on to everything that they have learned in English and are excited about this coming party and opportunity for conversation.
The photos I've posted are of the following: Photo 1) A beautiful building in a small alley near the Basilica of the Virgin Guadalupe. We are thinking of modeling our exterior paint color scheme at the Retreat Center after this handsome building. Photo 2) Our kitchen. It was renovated a few years ago and is beautiful but small when we are having a full camp during the summer. We have another kitchen in the new dormitory building but it is an empty room with plumbing roughed in. The cooks amaze me with how they prepare meals in our current kitchen with just this one regular sized fridge, a regular sized stove, and a couple extra burners outside the kitchen for the largest pots. The gentleman in the photo is Jim Crozier from Camp Caroline. He was here a couple weeks ago to advise us on how to run a camp/retreat center facility. Photo 3) I understand that tomorrow, the Camrose Team will be painting the exterior of this small building. It is a tiny house, just one bedroom with an attached bathroom. I believe that it was intended to be the maid's quarters when the Retreat Center had previously belonged to another owner. We have been using this room for our guest speakers to enjoy a bit of extra quiet a couple steps away from the main house. Photo 4) English classes on a night with only a few people attending. After the Spanish bible study, we finished the evening with a cake in celebration of one of the ladies' birthdays. These people and their friends and families will come to our Matthew Party tomorrow night. A Matthew Party is when Christian and non-Christians get together and God provides opportunities for the non-Christians to discuss spiritual things with the Christians in an informal way. This is an important part of church planting - building relationships with our neighbors. I'm especially hoping that my one neighbor brings her son again. At Thanksgiving, we were careful that he was included. He had lots of fun with the teens who were hanging out on our patio but was too shy to come into the house to get some food! We'll be watching for him so he won't be leaving hungry again:)

Where Are We?

Ever been on a tour and wondered, "Where are we? I'd love to see where all these places we are visiting are located on a map!" Well, here you go! 1) In the northeast of Mexico City is where you will find "The Lily of the Valley Retreat Center" in the town of Acolman, Mexico State. Acolman is on the outskirts of Mexico City and about 15 minutes away from the pyramids. 2) The Pyramids of Teotihuacan (teh-oh-tee-whah-CAN) are also in the State of Mexico near the town of San Juan Teotihuacan. 3) Iglesia Biblica Cristo Vive (Christ Lives Bible Church) is in the northeast Mexico City suburb of Ecatepec. Population of this city suburb: 3 million. Christ Lives Bible Church just recently celebrated their 12th anniversary! 4) For our current church plant, we are targeting an area on the edge of the suburb city of Atizapan de Zaragoza located in the northwest of Mexico City. There are another 2 million people in this suburb. We are making contacts with families near the southwest side of the lake you can see on the map, the Lago de Guadalupe (Guadalupe Lake). This is the area where both the Ruizes and the Mitchells live.

This coming weekend, the Camrose Team will come across the north side of Mexico City to Atizapan de Zaragoza. The Retreat Center and our Church Plant appear close on the map but those 45 miles will take at least an hour and a half to drive:) Our plans for the coming weekend: 1) a Friday evening party with our English class students where they can practise their conversation skills with some Canadians 3) on Saturday, a prayer walk and either a day trip in this area or time to just relax 4) on Sunday, participation in our small church service in our home.

Monday morning, the group returns to Acolman to do some more construction projects at the Retreat Center.

Hosting the Camrose Alberta Canada Team

The Century Meadows Baptist Church team from Camrose, Alberta, Canada have arrived safely and got right to work! After working extremely hard for three days, they set off on their two tourist days. Saturday was spent in El Centro: downtown Mexico City. They saw many things: the Bascilica of the Virgin Guadalupe (the large Catholic Church honoring Mexico's Virgin Mary figure), the Ciudadela de Artesanias (Artisans Craft Market), the Casa de Azulejos (House of Tiles), the Zocalo (the main square in downtown Mexico City), and the Metropolitan Cathedral. Rest was provided while waiting in traffic during the short-distance-but-long-time-spent trip back to the Retreat Center. Sunday brought shorter distances to travel. Igelsia Biblica Cristo Vive (Christ Lives Bible Church) was where the group worshipped with fellow Mexican Christians. Two members of the team shared their testimonies with the congregation. The preacher was animated and gave an empassioned hour and 10 minute long sermon, all in Spanish! Then we had tortas for lunch (similar to submarine sandwiches) and were off to spend the afternoon at the nearby Pyramids of Teotihuacan. The Pyramid of the Sun provides 248 steps of varying sizes to climb. The Pyramid of the Moon is built on a higher elevation and though it is smaller than the Pyramid of the Sun, the tops of both pyramids are the same altitude. What engineering! Today the group set back to work. The photos displayed above: 1) triumph on the Pyramid of the Moon with the Pyramid of the Sun in the background 2) group photo [one gentleman not in the photo] 3) admiring the Metropolitan Cathedral 4) the "before" photo of the enormous room that this team has applied 4 tons of tiles to. Today, they will apply the grout between the tiles. 5) the building where this large room is located in on the second floor. It will be our indoor games room which will be well used during the summer rainy season months! We are also delighted to have all of the toilet plumbing replaced. This coming summer, one faulty continuously filling toilet tank is NOT going to rob us of all our water in the cistern and leave us with 75 people and no water! We are so grateful and pleased by the quality and quantity of work that has all ready been accomplished. We are so blessed to have brothers and sisters in Christ from another country (in this case, Canada) who are so generous with their time, money, and hard work. The dream of a fruitful ministry at the Retreat Center grows as each construction project is completed!