One of the big issues in Mexican education is reading, or lack thereof. Mexicans just don’t read. A common figure thrown around is that the average Mexican reads 2 books a year vs. 6 for the average American. No idea if that’s true or where is comes from, but it passes the sniff test–although our friend Miguel and his family read tons. Working with kids and being in the schools, that seems true. Reading just isn’t part of the culture. There are steps being taken to change that. You see billboards around Puebla encouraging parents to read to their kids. Here in Pueblo Nuevo there are a couple of groups working on putting together libraries–one in the elementary school (actually, there are two in the school, one for the afternoon and one for the morning, but that’s another story) and one in the president’s offices. One group held an event to donate a kilometer of books in May–and succeeded. We’re big readers in our family. Drew is voracious, and Gavin and Fiona will be, I think, once they learn how. But we want to encourage our visitors to start bringing books down for us to donate to the libraries. What a practical way to show that we care about helping the community and raising the level of education. Here’s a great article in the Economist magazine about reading in Mexico.

Today is December 12th. In Mexico that means it’s the Day of the Virgin of Guadalupe. 480 years ago today, so the story goes, an indigenous peasant named, Juan Diego, was on a hill outside (today’s) Mexico City when a Virgin appeared to him and told him to build a church there. His skeptical bishop asked for a sign and a few days later she reappeared to Juan Diego and told him to gather roses blooming out of season, put them in his cloak and take them to the bishop. When he opened his cloak to show the bishop, an image of the virgin was imprinted on it. The Virgin has been an important symbol of indigenous Mexican identity over the years, an object of faith and piety, and a symbol of hope to many hopeless people. Today 6 million people have made the pilgrimage to Mexico City to the Basilica where the cloak and other relics are kept. Last night was full of rockets, fireworks, masses and parties in her honor, and today we hear rockets exploding at least every minute all around the area. About 10% of the students showed up at the elementary school today, so there were no classes.

So what’s our take?
Read more…

This reflects the kind of work we think is the right way to do ministry, here in Pueblo Nuevo and in a lot (most?) of places:

“Atheism (Christianity) has been specially advanced through the loving service rendered to strangers, and through their care for the burial of the dead. It is a scandal that there is not one single Jew who is a beggar, and that the godless Galileans care not only for their own poor but for ours as well; while those who belong to us look in vain for the help that we should render them.” Roman Emperor Julian the Apostate (A.D. 332-36)

In other words, the early Church let their actions do their talking, and God used that in a powerful way.

Ok, I just tweeted this (see in the sidebar to the left?), but English is really weird (or is it “wierd”? I always get it wrong the first time). I was reading Fellowship of the Ring to Drew last night and came across this sentence: “Their cold eyes glittered, and they called to him with fell voices.” (Can anyone tell me who they are, and where this is from in the book?) Anyway, it occurred to me, where does English get off using fell as the past tense to fall AND as a word meaning cruel, evil? What’s up with that. Well a quick look on the Online Etymology Dictionary for the word fell gives the answer. Fell, as in “I fell down yesterday” comes from Old English, West Saxon, German (?), Old Norse, and a host of other abbreviations I’m not going to look up. It’s Northern European. Fell as in “cruel, fierce, vicious” comes from Middle (?) Latin and Old French, and of course is related to felon (but what about fellow?). Maybe both of them come from Ancient Indo-European and before that the Tower of Babel and the Flood and who knows, but I’m not looking THAT up.

So there you have it in (very) short. English is a hodge-podge of languages, coming with words that are the same sounds but come from different other languages, so you’ve really got to be on your toes.

So, would you like to come teach it? It’s fun! You get questions like that, even when they’re not from Mexicans! At least you’ll have the Internet to help.

Well, we wrote the letter before the month was over! Happy Thanksgiving!

November 2011 Prayer Letter

It’s been mailed and posted! Here is the start:

October has been full of new opportunities and challenges. We continue to work in the schools. We’re excited about the work we’re doing. Eddie and Sharalyn in particular are doing a great job with English in the high school and at the elementary. There are no big steps or interesting stories to tell about what’s going on, but in many ways that fits with our philosophy of ministry and life. God doesn’t generally work in big attention-grabbing ways. Usually he’s at work quietly, unnoticed, behind the scene. Think of what Elijah experienced on the mountain (1 Kings 19:11-13) or of Jesus’ parable of the seed (Mark 4:26-29). We’re praying for God to work through faithfulness over time.

For more, follow this link.

We did football again today. We only had three, well, two, not counting Drew, but they were both regulars. We’re going to go to a weekly practice to boost attendance, we hope, so that kids and their parents get into a rhythm. We need to reserve the field so we have space to run around without getting hit by soccer balls!

One of the more interesting characters in the Old Testament is Ahab. Not the whale-hunter from Moby Dick, but the king of Israel. Maybe the most interesting story from his life is when he connives with his wife to steal a vineyard–killing the owner in the process.

Ahab is stated to be the worst of the kings of Israel, a sort of anti-David. Yet of all the kings of the northern kingdom, I think he’s really the only one to truly repent of anything (1 Kings 21:27-29). Life is funny sometimes an it’s hard to see the things we should. I wonder if I were dropped into 9th century BC Israel how I would have seen Ahab: as a great evil, or as a competent king trying to balance competing religions and maintain his kingdom’s independence against powerful enemies (Aramean Syria and Assyria). Ahab is listed by the Assyrians as one of the stronger kings in a coalition of 12 kings fighting (successfully) it appears to limit Assyrian expansion. Politically speaking he was pretty successful.

And how about the prophets? Would I have seen Elijah and co as crazies? Clearly that’s all the wrong
perspective, as seen from God’s perspective revealed in the Bible. But there it is. It’s really hard to see history from God’s perspective.

Holiness is clearly more important and harder than I like to think. Ahab clearly failed (pretty close to how David failed, actually). And yet he repented for real, enough for God to relent some. He didn’t repent like David, and next chapter he dies defying God’s command not to fight at Ramoth Gilead. I’m pretty sure I won’t be having a pleasant chat with Ahab in heaven some day. Still he’s probably one of the most thought-provoking characters in the Bible. Learning to distinguish between hunan perspective and God’s perspective. Learning repentance from Ahab! Huh!

Today in devotional reading I came across 1 Kings 18:21, in which Elijah (in the original Hebrew) asks Israel, “How long will you limp along on two crutches (sticks)? If YHWH is God, go after him.  If Baal is God, go after him.”  I  think the verse speaks pretty well for itself, without much need for my reflection, but with my leg in a cast for 4 more weeks I appreciated the part about limping along on two crutches…

Today we played football with 8 guys.  It was a Fall-like 50 degrees this AM, there was a brisk wind blowing, and the volcanoes were just sharp and clear in the morning light.  We showed the guys how to throw the ball and catch it, then how to run a few basic routes.  Then we gave way off the nice synthetic turf field (to a high school girls’ game) and went up to the basketball court.  Eventually we broke into a 4-on-4 game, with Indianapolis Colt Eddie Ferguson as our QB.  I think only two touchdowns were scored–a deep bomb on the first play and a nice little out pass to Drew that he took in for a TD–but everyone had fun, no one got hurt, and what’s so bad about a 1-1 tie?  We’ll do the next one in two weeks, and hope to get to every Saturday.  What’s cool is that a couple of moms brought their boys.  Mike Contreras, a football-coaching fiend missionary here, who’s in the States for a few months, loaned us the equipment.  Thanks, Mike!  We’re using it!