Holy Week preaching engagement at Maranatha Church Tixpeual, Yucatán.
Pastor: Natanael Ku Cetina
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Holy Week preaching engagement at Golgotha Christian Center Church Mérida, Yucatán.
Pastor: Orlando Vázquez
We’ve made it back from our second annual Chi Alpha Spring Break Missions Trip in Yucatán. (You can read about the first one here) We are still in recovery mode following 8 days of hard labor and evangelistic services, but we didn’t want to let time slip away without filling you in on some of the details. This post and its companion video speak of the impact that missions trips can have on its participants.
Cenotes are a common feature of the landscape of the Yucatán. Cenotes are created when the acidic rain region eats away at the limestone bedrock. Eventually, water filled caves are created by this continual erosion. When finally the roof falls in, the cenote is revealed.
Cenotes today are a welcome relief to the Yucatán heat. Their cool water and regulated temperatures serve as a refuge and source of recreation for many, but, years ago, cenotes were a primary water source and a site of religious ritual.
Because of the lack of rivers, streams, and lakes, cenotes were the main source of water for the indigenous Maya that populated the region before the Spanish conquest. Furthermore, cenotes were thought to be the entrance to the Maya watery underworld known as Xibalba (prounounced she-bal-ba. For this reason, in many cenotes can be found pottery, jewelry, and other offerings as well as human remains in such cenotes as the Sacred Well at Chichén Itzá.
Why all this talk about cenotes? Well it just so happens that this natural limestone formation, so important in ancient and modern times has just taken on a new significance in the life of one of our team members, Ashley Wall. A return member of our team, she decided to be baptized in a cenote near the city of Muna, where we did the majority of our work.
This cenote is a rather young one; it was uncovered by a family drilling for a well some years ago. So there was little fear of encountering ritual remains as we entered, but still, the connotation cannot be dismissed. This ancient source of life-giving water gave witness to a declaration of dependence on the Water of Life, Jesus Christ. This shadowy entrance into the underworld was converted into a place of rebirth, and this refuge from the heat became a symbolic bath where sins were washed away.
We hope that you enjoy this installment from our Chi Alpha Missions Trip ’08 and rejoice with us as we congratulate Ashley for taking this step of faith.
We are preparing for a busy week of ministry as we receive my brother, Mike, and his team of 9 students from the Chi Alpha Campus Ministry at American University. Instead of choosing a party spot, this group has decided to invest their Spring Break in ministry, trading a beach towel for a shovel and all night partying for evangelistic rallies.
The group arrives at the Mérida airport tomorrow at 9:00 PM, but that’s not where the story begins. This event has been in the planning stages since November of last year, and it’s scope is larger than anything we’ve attempted before.
Preparations began with two intensive evangelism training courses held in Muna and in Mérida. In these sessions, 4 churches had the opportunity to learn about personally communicating the gospel. We encouraged each student to focus on a list of five individuals that they could evangelize, praying, serving and sharing with each person in the months that preceded the arrival of the Chi Alpha team. The team in turn was preparing to share a gospel message, with the hope to be able to share this message with people who are ready to receive.
At this point, the excitement is brewing with several churches looking to capitalize on the special event that is the ministry of these college students. In Abalá, a village 1/2 hour away from Muna, there are plans to plant a church, in Opichén a town on the route to the Maya ruins of Uxmal, the town square is being reserved for the event. In Muna, the evangelism committee has painted 20 walls with the phrase: “Do you feel dry?” (Te sientes Seco?)The answer will be brought as the team distributes water and an invitation to the night’s service that says “Jesus is the water of life!” In Sacalúm the church has planned a 3 night campaign that the team will open on Wednesday.
Thinking about all of this, I can’t help but smile. Our desire when we arrived in Mexico was to serve as a catalyst within the state of Yucatán–an element that would enable the local church launch out in ministry. As this event begins to take shape, I have the feeling that we are accomplishing that goal though these efforts, providing opportunities for congregations to take their place as Christ’s ambassadors as they announce the kingdom of God in their communities.
Keep us in prayer this week, and keep posted for the good reports as Americans and Mexicans work side by side in ministry.
By the way, for those of you that voted on last week’s post we’ve declared Mike the winner! His prize? Well a trip to Mexico. of course!
Tags: Chi Alpha, Evangelism, Ministry, Spring Break
My brother Mike and 9 members of his Chi Alpha group from American University in Washington, DC will be working in the state of Yucatan in the cities of Muna with Pastor Julian Puc, Opichén with Pastor Leodegario Yah, and Sacalum with Pastor Hasabias Puc to lend a hand in construction as well as to hold evangelistic services.
Traditional Holy Week celebrated by protestants and catholics in Mexico, and the final week of the Catholic Cuaresma (Lent). This week begins on Domingo de Ramos (Palm Sunday) and culminates on la Pascua (Resurrection Sunday).
We missionaries have a serious job, but it’s important as well that we don’t take ourselves too seriously. Kelly snapped this picture during the prayer time at Monte de Sion Church in Sacalum, Yucatán. As she showed it to me this morning, she asked, “What were you doing?” Well, I thought I would open this up to the opinions of our readers. What do you think it looks like I’m doing? Write a comment and we’ll highlight the most creative interpretation.
Tags: Photo Interpretation
Even after a year and a half here in Mérida, God still finds ways of stretching us. In January, while chatting with pastors before a sectional meeting, our president asked if I played an instrument. I responded that every now and again I played the guitar, while I had considerable experience on the drums. He followed up that question with a request that I lead worship that meeting. Now, I had lead worship in the past, but always in English. (I think the number of choruses that I know on the guitar in Spanish could be counted on one hand.) Therefore, I did what any self-respecting perfectionist would–I put him off, until the next month.
I used that time to gather the some more choruses, practice, and pray. (It’s amazing how the weeks fly when you’re anticipating something like this.) Of course, I second guessed my decision. I almost breathed a sigh of relief when I thought that perhaps the meeting had been canceled for the month, but, regardless of my doubts, the event came. The end result this last Monday certainly wasn’t perfect, but it was a beginning. I was able to sing (staying on key for the majority of the service), play the guitar, and I actually felt that I had led others in worship.
When I began my Spanish classes, I looked forward to the day when I would be able to do this very thing, but for one reason or another, I had put it off. Not enough time, other responsibilities more pressing, the list could go on. Isn’t it great that God doesn’t forget those dreams? In fact, I’ve found He sometimes uses others to push us into realizing them.
“Mérida is a tranquil place.” It’s a place where “no pasa nada (nothing happens),” the residents enjoy saying, but this headline from today’s edition of the Diario de Yucatán, one of the major newspapers of the city, seems to suggest that things may be changing.
No, we are not under military alert, nor have we hired armed guards to follow us around the city. And yes, children still do play in the park down the street, and many enjoy evening strolls along the avenues. But what many once thought was impossible here is now becoming somewhat routine.
Let me give you a run-down of the events.
- January 13th: Police officers and suspects trade fire in the Gran Plaza, a popular shopping center. Officers would later confiscate an AK-47 rifle from those charged in the shootout.
- January 14th: A homicide, thought at first to be an assassination attempt, puts the city on edge. Later investigation makes the husband the principal suspect.
- February 1st: A bomb explodes near the home of the the Secretary’s of Police home in Monte Albán (one neighborhood north of the site of our previous house).
- February 2nd: Citizens of Mérida take to the streets to denounce the escalating crime in a “March for Peace.”
- February 3rd: Meridians receive a report of the assassination of one officer and the wounding of three others in the west of Mérida.
- February 3rd: Ivonne Ortega, governor of the state of Yucatán declares that the the assassination was the result of new measures to “step on the toes” of criminals in Mérida and was an unrelated incident in the new wave of violence.
- February 4th: In what some are saying was a violent reaction to the words of the governor, a resident of Progresso, apparently involved in the drug trade, is found decapitated in a house in Garcia Ginerés (our dentist has his office in this neighborhood.)
Again, I’m not writing this post to alarm you, only to show you the current state of events here in Mérida and ask you to pray. Sure, we’d like to see Mérida return to the sleepy city that it once was, but we would also like to see this wake up call to the police become a wake up call to non-believers and Christians alike.
This world that we live in is broken, and increased security can’t fix it. Only the message of forgiveness of Jesus and a restored relationship with God can, and only a unified, mobilized church, reaching out to it’s community can bring this message.
Pray for peace, but pray for the lasting peace that only salvation can bring.
Photos are from www.yucatan.com.mx. You may also read the special section detailing these events in Spanish.
Tags: Mérida, Organized crime, Peace
I was reading the blogs of some other missionaries, specifically an interesting series of posts on “God’s call to the fools,” when I came across a little tool that measures the level of education that it takes to read and understand a certain website. Some that I tried required an elementary level education, others a high school education and so on. Imagine my surprise however, when I found what it took to read and understand disciplemexico.org. That’s right, the blog readability test said that it takes a genius to understand the things that I say.
This leads me to two conclusions:
- I have a very intelligent reader base. Congratulations then to those who have subscribed and regularly struggled to understand what this rambling missionary writes.
- Perhaps I need to be a bit more accessible in the future. What do you think? Do you read disciplemexico.org with a dictionary.com window open? Let me know.
Oh, and if you want to check out how your blog rates, head over to the blog readability test and find out for yourself.
Tags: Readability
