Teacher Training for Sunday School

As the “Greatest Adventure” children’s discipleship program comes to an end, our Sunday school teachers prepare for the following children's series. 

For the next studies, the Lord provided complete class

material for all age groups online free!  Yeah!  The Sunday school teachers gathered to study the new material, and discuss how to make it exciting, understandable, and impacting for the different children in the congregation. 

We are so blessed as a church,

not only with class material online, but also with an abundance of enthusiastic, dedicated children’s teachers.  Nine teachers attend about 25 children!  Though not all have teaching experience, all share a heart to share the Gospel with children.  I thank God how He blesses our Sunday school program!

Sunday School Blessings

Since starting our new Sunday School program in January, we have experienced ups and downs- when some 50 children arrived the first Sunday, but only 17 by the third class. 

However, all our dedicated teachers have prayed for the

Lord’s blessing and worked to make their classes meaningful.  And we have witnessed the Lord’s response!  More children have returned, with attendance sometimes at 30 children. 

My heart is warmed each week to see timid Ashley participate

in the games, and Lesli faithfully attend every class (begging her mom to not make her miss a week), and Angel and Hugo remember their memory verse each week.  May the Holy Spirit continue to touch their young hearts and draw them to Him!

 

 

 

Church Bazaar

Our church has started a bazaar!  Paco and I are now “business men” J.

With the new ministries forming in the church (more youth outings, new Sunday School program, new-believers’ study, weekly mission in the

mountains, etc.) funds have been scarce.  However, used-clothing and -goods abound!  The congregation gathered used goods from their homes and a brother offered his garage, facing a busy street, for the bazaar.  We are in business!

Paco and I are in charge of the sale.  Paco is truly in his element organizing and repairing used things, and bargaining prices.  Though it is not a huge source of income for the church, it has been an opportunity to give out Gospel tracts and form relationships with people in the community, sharing our faith in Christ.   

We pray that God will use us in the bazaar to bless the church ministries as

well as the surrounding community. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bible Trivia Match with youth

With the youth group, we have been discussing the truth and value of the Bible as the Word of God and way to life. 

 As a fun activity to compliment our studies, we held a “Bible Trivia” match among the youth: dividing them into three teams

and asking them questions about people/places/events/teaching from both Old and New Testaments.

 The trivia match was a blast!  Now, as a group, we are challenged to each read the Gospel of John in the month of

March- to encourage the youth to be reading the Bible and knowing the Truth for themselves!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Carnaval" in Tlaxcala

Tlaxcala celebrates its own “Carnaval”, the Mexican version of “Mardi Gras”.  Each area of Mexico has its own traditions for this festival, and Tlaxcala has a unique set of costumes, dances, and traditions.

The Tlaxcala “Charros” dance on

the street- wearing very expensive costumes of ostrich-feather hats, hand-sewn sequin capes, identical carved masks, and colorful whips.  Their traditional dance actually involves whipping each other on the legs!  The whips make a tremendous sound, are definitely painful, and are even

dangerous for the surrounding crowd who might get too close!  The idea seems very strange to me as a foreigner, but is a beloved tradition here.  Even children dress as “charros”!  Besides the charros, others dress as animals, cowboys, or sequined-dancers for a large parade in the

streets, while local musicians provide music on the side. 

 The event last 4 days! All the streets fill with dancers, venders, and on-lookers.  Unfortunately, all the streets and highways also close, making travel around the town almost impossible these dates. 

 Though I enjoyed witnessing Tlaxcala culture, the event is saddening to see

crowds of people living for the flesh- spending days drinking/drunk in the streets, fights, expensive purchasing, etc. all under the farce of a “religious” holiday before starting Lent. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kids' Outing!

Paco and I took my Sunday School class out on a special outing- as an opportunity to further shine the love of Christ into their lives.  The event was a huge blessing for the kids, and for us!

 

We drove into Tlaxcala City an hour away (10 kids packed into the car with us) for a Christian children’s show.  Unfortunately, the planned event was a bore, and had the kids squirming in their seats.  To save the trip, Paco and I left the show and took the kids to a nearby park, where we played games and took silly pictures. 

Quite a few of the children in our group come from poverty and unhealthy family situations.  During the outing, one of the boys even tried to steal Paco’s cell phone (probably something he has seen his parents do).  However, they all responded to our love

for them, each vying to take our hands or sit beside us. 

The Lord gave Paco and I strength with so many kids (even after losing one for a few minutes, being covered in vomit, urine, and drool by the end of the evening, and set-backs like the boring show and

closed highways coming home).  May the Lord continue to reveal Himself to these children!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Conference: Technology and Children

A group from our church attended a conference (for parents and Sunday School teachers) on children and technology, hosted by a large children’s ministry in Argentina. 

Today, children switch “screens” all day long: from the TV screen, to computer screen, to video game screen, to cell phone screen… our children are a technology-generation.  The conference opened Mexican parents’ and teachers’ eyes to the abundant access to and

effects of technology on children. 

The speaker provided tips on how to monitor children’s access to technology, so that it would benefit, and not harm children by distracting them from the truth of God and His

path of life.

I was surprised to see how many Mexican adults at the conference are not technologically-savvy.  The other ladies from our church who attended do not know how to even turn on a computer, much less know of “Facebook”.  I hope that this conference prompts Christian parents/teachers to invest more time in learning the benefits of technology and monitoring their children in its use.