Celebration of the rebellion of Miguel Hidalgo on September 16, 1810 that eventually resulted in Mexican Independence from Spain in 1821.
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Opening service for Bethel Bible Instititute’s new school year at Sinai Faith Center, Mérida, Yucatán.
Pastor: José Ventura
Dave will be preaching during the Evangelistic Service Golgotha Christian Center, Mérida, Yucatán.
Pastor: Orlando Vázquez Interián
Need. It confronts. It demands to be met. Take for example a stone in our shoe. Even the tiniest pebble can cause reduce our gait to a hobble. What’s the response? Well, it’s impossible to negate, and limping to avoid the stone usually only lasts a few steps. Basically our feet demand that we sit, take off our shoe and get rid of the stone.
Here in Mérida, poverty is a need that demands to be met. The poor stand in doorways and wander the streets looking for those who will help them out of their situation. Even those that do work are trying to make ends meet on $5 US each day, and unlike the tourists in the picture above, we can’t leave their need behind when we return to our hotel or board our plane.
After my run in with the Ronald, the con-artist that took us for $8 in Costa Rica, I searched for a way to avoid the needs. I believed that a policy would help protect me, or maybe I would be able to direct people to ministries that could lend them a hand in their situation. Still, the need kept nagging.
Reading the Bible didn’t help either. Jesus, when confronted by the clamoring masses, would usually reply, “What is it that you want me to do for you?” He had no policies, no list of places to which he could direct them and wash his hands of their problems. He was personally involved–feeding, healing, touching.
Today, I was on a search for some items to get our house finally set up. Taking the wrong way to get to Home Depot, I stopped at a local hardware store. In the parking lot, there stood Raul, a disabled, middle-aged man, who, along with his wife, had been looking for garden work so that he could pay for his kids’ school supplies and uniforms. He asked me if I could help him. My schedule was free, but my impulse was to say that I couldn’t. After all, I had just cut my lawn the day before, and my ministry is equipping not compassion. Still, his need was clamoring for attention, and the example of Jesus from my devotionals was fresh in my mind. “What do you want me to do for you?” I asked.
I decided to get personally involved. I talked to him and called one of the references that he had given me. Then I spent the next 30 minutes praying and driving them to the places that they needed to go. As we said good-bye I gave him about $20 towards the uniforms and some dry goods that we had been carrying in the car so that his family would have food to eat. He gave me his address and an invitation to visit him.
Did I do the best thing? It’s hard to tell. I would rather have taken him to buy the shoes and uniforms that he needed, but at that moment I couldn’t. So perhaps I settled, or perhaps I was used as one response to the prayers of a desperate couple with a need that wasn’t going away.
Photo Credits: “Left Behind” a photo taken by gerriet available at: https://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=43491111&size=l and used under a Creative Commons License
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What can we say except, “Thank God for his protection!” as we assess the situation here in the Yucatán.
The facts are plain:
- Dean was a category 5 hurricane, the highest on the scale of hurricane strength.
- It made landfall with a sustained wind speed of 165 mph the first since Andrew to do so.
- Dean is now among the top 10 strongest hurricanes on record at landfall.
- Storms of the magnitude of Dean have the potential to be catastrophic. Andrew, for example, caused 65 fatalities and 38.1 billion dollars worth of damage in today’s economy.
Still the final results are nothing less than miraculous:
- To date no fatalities have been directly blamed on Dean here in the Yucatán
- Upon landfall, the storm rapidly lost strength and caused what President Calderon has said was “minor damage.”
- The Diario de Yucatan (Spanish) called Dean a “dry hurricane.” Most populated areas received high winds but little to none of the rains that were expected to cause flooding across the peninsula. Our contact in Muna, Pastor Julian Puc, held service that same night, while Pastor Santos Reyes, who is in Ciudad del Carmen where the hurricane left the peninsula, has told me that everything is functioning “as normal” after only 24 hours without electricity.
Everything from the landfall over a less populated area, to the speed in which it passed over was beneficial for the inhabitants of the Yucatán.
Again, thank you for your prayers on our behalf and that of the people of Yucatán. Also, thank you to those who wished us well through e-mail, phone calls, comments on our site, and links highlighting the situation. We appreciate each one of you.
Faculty meeting at Bethel Bible Institute
Director: Silverio Blanco
Although we are still under a red alert here in Mérida, Dean is now a category 1 hurricane and is passing into the Gulf of Mexico. From our vantage point, the hurricane has proved to be little more than a big blow. We’ve been experiencing high winds since 5 o’clock this morning, but little to nothing in the way of rain. Damage has been relatively non-existent here in the city. In actuality, the Kazim’s who were out a bit this morning reported people on the streets as early as 10 o’clock.
The story is still far from conclusion in the southern part of the state and in Quintana Roo, where Dean made landfall at 3:00 this morning. Nevertheless, there have been no reported deaths and slight to moderate damage, a far cry from the potential catastrophe that we had on our hands yesterday.
We’ll keep you informed as more information comes to light. In the meantime, we’d encourage you to think about getting involved with Convoy of Hope to help those who have been affected by Dean and other catastrophes. Gary and Peggy Pyatt in Jamaica have reported significant damage to ministries and schools in that country, while COH has dispatched a team to begin relief work among the earthquake victims in Peru. Also, if damage proves to be more severe here in the Yucatan, their ministry is ready to respond.
Storm models continue to push the landfall of Dean further south on the peninsula. This means Mérida remains at a state of alert, but hasn’t declared an emergency situation. However, in the south of the state of Yucatan and in Quintana Roo, where Dean is expected to be more of a problem, many are facing the reality of this man in the picture to the left. Several have houses made of little more than sticks or corrugated roofing. While the majority of those in this situation have been relocated into shelters, the chances are that many will have nothing to return to. Please keep these in mind as you remember the people of the Yucatán in your prayers.
We have received various e-mails about the situation that we are facing in regards to Hurricane Dean. To update those of you following the situation, the meteorologists are forecasting that the storm will take a southerly route across the Yucatan. That puts Mérida out of the range of the 150+ mph winds that will likely accompany its arrival. Still the entire state is under an orange alert which signifies the likely arrival of hurricane activity within the next 18 to 24 hours.
The city is relatively calm, but signs of preparation are everywhere. Shops with boarded or taped windows to prevent breakage. Stores are depleted of survival essentials such as batteries and are short on food, especially bread. The government has sprung into action and has plans to move about 16,000 people in the areas under the highest risk to shelters here in the city or in the surrounding municipalities.
We’ve taken necessary steps such as taking in all of the items that might possibly blow away as well as taping off windows and creating a safe area within our home where we plan to “ride out” the storm. We have food supplies for at least a week and water to drink as well as separate water for cooking and cleaning. We are preparing ourselves to be without power, water, telephone, and internet for at least a week so we ask for your patience as you look for updates or try to contact us.
Please do continue to pray. We are certainly concerned for our safety, but we now focused much more on the well-being of those who are to our south. In our minds are our friends from Muna with whom we ministered in March, and pastors in Ciudad del Carmen in Campeche with whom I studied in ISUM. Pray for their safety as well.
