Thursday, October 24, 2013

Lovely (and wet!) Tuxpan.

Now that October is nearly over, cooler weather has finally arrived.  I´ve enjoyed the temps in the upper 70s and the low humidity. I even put a sweater on after church last night! 
Last Friday I took some sunset pictures from the bridge that is over a tributary of the Tuxpan river and leads to our neighborhood. Enjoy!











After a lovely weekend, the clouds started to roll in.  The weather forecast predicted rain all week, but I think it all arrived on Tuesday!  It started to rain Tuesday morning and it rained hard all day...rain, rain and more rain! Buckets of rain, sheets of rain, waterfalls of rain! I had gone out in the morning and coming home around noon was quite a challenge.  The drainage system in downtown Tuxpan couldn´t handle all that water at once and the streets started to flood.  Unfortunately some houses were also flooded.  Thankfully the river was not high so the water had somewhere to go it didn´t overflow. 





Once the rain finally stopped in the late afternoon the water began to go down and by the next day it was easy to get around town again.  They´re predicting more heavy rain for this weekend!
And, just for fun, I´ve included a picture of my beloved mutt, Pecas.  The rain doesn´t bother her, at least while she´s indoors!

Monday, October 7, 2013

Ministerio La Final Trompeta

The Last Trumpet Ministry
There are many small, Evangelical churches in Tuxpan with creative names. I recently finished a course
"Teachers of Excellence" in one of these small churches.  Pastora Martha, together with her husband, Javier began "The Last Trumpet Ministry" about two years ago.  Many of their congregants are new to the saving news of Jesus Christ and need training and discipleship. They also want to raise up quality teachers to work with the children.  Therefore I was asked to give a teachers training course.
Rebekah and Pastor Martha
This group made an apron with cloth figures to represent the lesson

I invited children to attend because children make great evangelists and can be good  teachers, both now and in the future. There were about 15 eager students in the class, ages 7 to adult.  Along with a practical demonstration of how to teach a children´s class, they learned how to study a  Bible passage in depth, make up good questions and present their lessons in a creative way.  They were also assigned to read the Gospel of Mark during the course.
Putting together a puzzle of the memory verse

On activity was to write a letter to God asking Him to help them learn, grow and become teachers that are pleasing to Him. Here are some excerpts from their letters:

"Lord, I want to be a teacher of little children to teach them your word, give me the wisdom that I need...I will preach your word, give me strength."(Génesis, age 13)


"Lord, I want to be a teacher of children and teach them your word and that they can be saved...and that they can learn and preach to all the people on the earth" (Haniel, 10)
 "Lord, this morning I make a commitment to you, to be a good teacher...with your help to be honest, and to teach the little ones to love and respect  you as their Father...help me Lord Jesus to overcome these fears that keep me from growing."(Janet, adult)
 "Lord, I promise to be a good teacher and so I ask you to help and guide me, I ask that you give me patience...and  help me to bring children, and that you give me wisdom...I love you Jesus!" (Libni, 10)

"Lord Jesus...I promise to serve you more each day and strive to please you...guiding each little one through your blessed word...I thank you for the great privilege you have given me to work with the little ones." (María, adult)
Teaching the memory verse
To  practice their learning, the students were divided into three groups with a mixture of children and adults. Each group was assigned a passage from Mark to present to the rest of the class the next week. When the big day arrived, the students arrived early to gather their materials and make last minute preparations. Their hard work payed off and they far exceeded my expectations in the quality classes they presented!
Each group wrote a chorus to go along with the assigned passage.  Some made their own puppets and puppet stage to act out the lesson.  Another downloaded a short video to illustrate their lesson. All groups involved children as teachers, taught a memory verse in creative ways and wrote questions to help their students think about the Bible lesson and apply it to their lives. They are Teachers of Excellence! Pastora Martha explained that they have a children´s class on Saturday mornings.  She plans on having each group present their lesson they did for our course, and then they will rotate so each group continues to plan lessons.

 Pray they will continue the good work and impact many children with the Good News of God´s love.
Teaching the song they wrote
Next project...they´ve asked me to teach the "Narrating and  Acting out Bible Stories" workshop.  And the students who read the entire book of Mark during the course? One adult and three children received the prize!
Congratulations for a job well done!
One group made puppets