The first in a series of evangelism training classes to be held at Golgotha Christian Center in Mérida, Yucatan
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With my running commentary on the state of my health here and here, one can get the impression that we have been shut down for a while on the ministry front. However, although I’d lost a few days in my recovery, we’ve also been active, planning for an upcoming missions team to work in Muna, starting a new semester here at the Bible Institute, and serving in our local church.
One especially noteworthy event was our Carnaval service. Every Tuesday before Ash Wednesday, the date that marks the beginning of the Catholic season of Lent (Cuaresma in Spanish), the city of Mérida hosts Carnaval. This event, which is very similar to Mardi Gras in New Orleans is one big day of “sinning” before the purification of the Lenten Season begins. Of course, as Christians, we don’t believe in this binging and purging habit when it comes to living a Christian life, so our church offered an alternative Carnaval service.
During the service, there was an atmosphere of celebration for what God had done in the lives of the believers, participation in games and singing, and a wrap-up teaching before we sat down to experience the culmination of the event, sharing some great yucatecan food!
I was in charge of the afternoon’s message. It was an opportunity to share with the people my message on the tongue. (You can read the message in Spanish here.) I was able to share that it is not only sufficient to avoid the apparent sins of the world (e.g Carnaval), but that it is necessary to subject our entire self, all the way to the unruly tongue, to the power of the Holy Spirit.
During the course of the message, I was able to utilize Kelly’s pink dish washing glove as an example of being filled with the Spirit, as well as invite others to try and refill toothpaste tubes as an example of the difficulty that we have in taking back the words that we say. The picture above is of one of the church members, Joel, as he attempts this impossible task. The wonderful payoff, though, was seeing several of the church members come forward to pray for a new experience with the Holy Spirit.
So, yes, we’ve taken a few steps backward due to illness, but we’ve also seen God taking a few steps forward utilizing His power through us. Thank you for your continued prayers on our behalf!
Our latest print newsletter is now in the mail, but you can get the electronic copy here at disciplemexico.org before the rest. Just click here or on the photo to get up to date.
Remember, in order to read the newsletter, you’ll need Adobe Acrobat reader, which is available for free here.
This little weather badge may not mean much to those in the states dealing with snow and temps in the teens, but for those of us who have acclimatized to the tropics, we’re suffering through a real cold snap! For the past three days we’ve experienced temperatures that have struggled to get into the 70’s during the day, only to plummet into the low 50’s a night. (The low this morning was 49!) On top of that rain, clouds, and high humidity have made everything feel that much colder.
For those of you who are ready to pack the trunks and come down for a swim let me give you some perspective. Mérida has yearly average high temperature of 90 degrees and an average low of 70. For further clarification, we go through 339 days of the year with a high temperature above 80 degrees, 238 of those above 90. (You can check out these and other weather statistics at the Mérida Weather Review.) That means that for the past three days we’ve been 20 degrees outside the norm for both the high and low. So you can imagine the complaints that we’ve been hearing. Last night, our pastor’s wife let us know that it is never this cold, and she’s not off by much. The record low, according to my research is 41!
So while you’re scraping the ice of your windshield to go to work, remember those of us in the Yucatán who are suffering with you. Boy am I glad we got our hot water fixed this weekend!
Update 2/26/07: Proving Mexico can indeed get chilly is this article from Jim over at his blog: Finding Direction. It was submitted without coercion.
I’d received some feedback from my post inspired by my on-going sickness, and I thought that there may be those who would like to hear an update.
After two different antibiotics and an attempt to treat my symptoms as an allergy, I was finally sent to get a nose culture and an x-ray. The nose culture, a very uncomfortable procedure by the way, revealed that I have a pretty nasty infection, which is bringing on the very real possibility of having to go through 5 days of injections followed by oral medication in order to clear it up. It seems as though my sinus infection that I thought I had dealt with in November/December never really went away. So now I’m faced with a whopper.
I would really appreciate your prayers as the treatment comes with certain side effects for the kidneys as they have to process this powerful antibiotic. This continuing saga also comes at the end of the bi-semester at the Bible Institute and the start of another hot on it’s heels. I’m caught in the middle of developing a class on Christian Evidences in Spanish with my energies at low levels.
Now, about the picture: The root of all of my problems seem to be an irregularity with my nose. The x-rays showed that I have a deviated septum. Those with a deviated septum collect fluid (seen as the gray in the right nasal cavity) in their sinuses that should drain through a normal nose. Instead the pooling creates a perfect environment for the breeding of bacteria. This explains why I come down with a new infection with every change of the season.
Usually, a deviated septum comes about in an accident with some kind of shock to the nose. This pattern of infections started during my time in CBC, but I can’t seem to remember any kind of accident that would have caused it. Of course, there was that one night while I was up reading Millard Erickson’s one volume Systematic Theology that the book might have slipped out of my hands onto my nose, but then that was thirteen years ago, so my mind might be a little fuzzy. Update 2/14/2007 It just came to me as I was watching the kids playing tennis in the Salvador Alvarado Sports Complex, that I was struck in the face with a raquetball raquet my second semester at CBC. The sinus infections began soon after.
I said all of that to say that while I won’t be ordering those android lymph node implants anytime soon, I may be looking into a bit of corrective surgery. Of course it will have to wait until the rest of my health situation is dealt with.
My thanks to all who have helped me get to the bottom of my problem and search for solutions: Sandy–our fellow missionary, Berta–a local pastor and doctor, and most of all, Kelly–my very patient and caring wife who has been great through all of this.
picture from https://home.ptd.net/~warnergt/Sinus.html
Kelly and I had a chance to escape the hustle and bustle of the everyday as we were looking for a birthday present for a local pastor’s wife. With the kids being watched by fellow missionaries and the present acquired, a stop at the local Segafredo Café gave us time to talk, plan, and enjoy one another for a while. Kelly ordered an Oreo Frappé, and I ordered my usual Espresso Macchiato. My recent sickness had kept me from heading out, and our stash of coffee at home was depleted, so expectations were high as we awaited our order. I’m happy to say that not only did the coffee meet our expectations, but that mine arrived with a smile.
The smile got me thinking. We have found coffee to be more than just a morning pick me up. Kelly and I have seen our relationship grow stronger and other relationships formed within the conversations we’ve shared around coffee. We’ve now had several Yucatecos over our house to enjoy a cappuccino or a vacuum brew, and, much more than enjoy the coffee itself, they’ve opened up their lives to us, sharing thoughts and feelings that we’d never hear in other settings.
I’ve also found open doors to relationship where I purchase my coffee. There is a small café near the foot of Paseo de Montejo called Café Cafico. There the owner, Federico, roasts and sells coffee from all of the growing regions here in Mexico. He has been my source for the raw coffee that I use to roast at home and good conversation as well. We’ve talked about everything from Mexico City, to the political system, to the Catholic Church in my twice monthly “meetings” with him. Yet we’ve also talked about man’s problem of sin and the need for relationship with Christ.
Who’d thought that when my brother bought me my first Mr Coffee 4 cupper at CBC that I would be lead on a journey to discover, not only how to create a great cup of coffee, but also the revealing and redemptive relationships that form around this beautiful beverage. Espresso anyone?
I don’t dedicate much space to plugs on this site, although I could definitely spend some time talking about the great insight that I get reading the thoughts of others all across the net. However, there is one site that I just can’t afford not to mention. Seeing as how it’s run by the woman with whom I just happen to share my life.
Across the way, literally on the other side of our study table, Kelly has been recording the events and happenings of the Godzwa family with a focus on the kids in her blog, “From the Mouth of Babes.” She has healthy dose of pictures, video and even funny sayings peppered with a bit of her own commentary. All worth your time!
So click on this link and stop on by Kelly’s site, and while you’re there you might as well sign up for her newsfeed or email subscription as well. I’m sure you’ll find lots to keep you coming back.
It’s very rare that a movie gives me pause for thought, but those that do usually keep me thinking for some time. That is what happened last night as we settled in to watch a library-borrowed copy of The Bicentennial Man. The film, starring Robin Williams, starts off as a whimsical story of the adjustments of one family to their android helper “Andrew.” However, it takes a dramatic turn into realm of the metaphysical when Andrew begins his quest become human. The interesting point of the movie is that the immortal, self-maintaining Andrew does what most would seem to think ridiculous. He decides to make himself mortal in order to truly share in the human existence and embrace those that he has not only served, but come to love.
Of course, the Christian parallels are obvious. Christ himself shed his omnipotence in order to die in the the place of those that he loved, but I was moved to think from the other perspective. My humanness of late has been real drag. Since we’ve made it back from Mexico City, I have been struggling with a sinus infection, my personal nemesis. I have tried to take care of my work responsibilities, my correspondence, and keep up with my kids, only to see my energies wear out long before my list of to-dos. The aching head and stuffy nose seem like anchors against which I have to struggle an inch at a time. There have been many times when I wished that I could trade in my faulty pieces for robotic upgrades.
Still though, it is funny how God chooses to use our imperfection, our humanness, to work our his purposes through us. I was at the Salvador Alvarado stadium, watching our kids in the track program, when I struck up a conversation with an externally happy but definitely hurting parent. Our conversation started with the everyday, but moved quickly to his disintegrating marriage. He told me that he was hanging on only for the sake of his kids. Reflecting back to the pain that I felt in the midst of the divorce of my parents and the way that God has helped me to recover and rebuild my life helped me to offer him help in finding a way forward through his pain. God used my dysfunctional past, my human experience, in order to minister in this man’s present situation.
How often are we touched by the testimony of determination through pain, triumph over adversity, or recovery against all odds? I am personally encouraged as I watch the progress of Joel and Amy Maxwell, friends who through the grace of God has been overcoming what many would say impossible odds. Parents of two, they are renewing their lives after their humanness led them through business failure and personal debt to Officer’s Basic Training, military deployment and renewed purpose.
The power is not in our perfection, nor in the facade that we might choose to display. It is in the intersection of our imperfection, our weak human condition, our story, and God’s amazing grace that power is displayed to those around us. Like Paul says in 2 Cor. 4:7: we have this “treasure in jars of clay.” We show the reality of God’s power through his redemption of our brokenness, and, as we continue to allow him to work in our lives, he takes our brokenness and makes into something beautiful.
I don’t know how this sinus infection is fitting into God’s plan just yet, but I am certainly glad for the chance to reflect with thankfulness on God’s intervention in my humanness. I guess I’ll delay that order for those artificial lymph nodes.
I just wanted to send out a quick update to thank those who had prayed. As you might have read in our last post, the whole Godzwa family traveled to Mexico City in order to present ourselves to the Immigration Officials and receive our work visas. Well, from the photo to the left, you can see that we made it to Mexico City, but that is just the start of the great news that we have to share with you!
Thank you for your prayers!
Tags: Visa
“The City” in the U.S. is of course, New York City. It is one of the most important centers of commerce and culture in the country, and, who can forget, it is also home to the best team in baseball, the New York Yankees. However, when you speak of “The City” in Mexico, you are speaking of Mexico City, the nation’s capital and home to about 32 million people.
This Wednesday we will have the opportunity to travel back to “The City.” We were most recently there this past August, when we received our invitation to work in Mérida. This time we will be traveling in order to receive our official religious visas, which will give us more freedom to work in Mérida and throughout the country. We’re happy to finally be through with this process as it has meant mailing of lots of paperwork and dealing with lots of waiting. Still, God willing and the thumb prints don’t smudge, we’ll have those important documents in hand this Thursday.
Also, we’re looking forward to getting together with other missionaries, including friends from language school, Peter and Delia Breit and Josh and April Amiot. Their children and ours we’re good friends in Costa Rica, and we’re glad to have another chance to allow them make memories as well as catch up with them on their lives and ministries.
So this week please be in prayer as we head out to “The City.” Pray for safe travel, for the complication-free reception of our visas, for patient easygoing kids, and for protection in and around the metropolitan area.
Tags: Visa
