Enough said?
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“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
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
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
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.
We got a chance to take the kids out to help them learn to ride their bikes this Saturday. One of the drawbacks of being a missionary kid is the lack of a constant environment and routine in which one can learn basic kid things like riding a bicycle. Well, Rebekah is now 7, and we decided that it was time that she learned this basic skill. Of course, her brothers wouldn’t be left out.
So we took Rebekah, Joseph, and Jonathan to the park, along with their bicycles. We had practiced a few times before, but for Bekah and Joseph, this was the day to go without the help of the training wheels. After about an hour, Bekah had it down and was running circles around us in the basketball court, while Joseph, although he had made significant strides, was sitting on the side with a broken pedal.
This got me to thinking about our methods of teaching as parents, and as missionaries. Here are some of my thoughts:
1. We have to establish a level of trust so that we can begin the training process:
Until we reach a certain level of intimacy, we may be able to give information, but training really isn’t possible. Kelly and I have a built-in relationship with our kids because we have lived with them for all of their lives, and we have been working with them in other areas as well. It is natural for us to be the ones to train them to ride their bikes. However, we have arrived with a cursory knowledge of the people and culture of Mexico, and we have to start from scratch in order to build relationships of trust so that we can begin the training process.
I have been given a great opportunity to develop these relationships in the Bible School. There I’m getting opportunities, not only to teach, but also to be with the students. It is through these times of being with them that they see who I am and what I have to offer as a missionary. This effort has paid off. We have had opportunities to preach and teach, and we are developing a seminar on leadership in order to address the needs of a student’s church. More opportunities to help are materializing as I continue to teach.
2. We need to teach so that people don’t expect failure, but at the same time are not afraid of it.
While working with Joseph, I realized that he would be riding very well, but with the slightest wobble, he was literally causing himself to fall. I needed to constantly remind him that he could do it, and although a fall or two was inevitable in the learning process, he could learn to keep his balance.
In teaching the class of hermeneutics, the students at first were almost deathly silent. Many of them were afraid of the ridicule of their fellow students. They were afraid of failure. However, as we established a safe place for them to do the work and a confidence within them that they could interpret the scripture, the class has become quite an animated place. What is more is that they are beginning to undertake the process on their own.
3. There will be hindrances.
Joseph had his pedal break as the result of a fall. Jonathan’s chain kept slipping after a previous bike-riding session. There are always unexpected items that we have to deal with. Still, a set of $3.80 pedals fixed Joseph’s problem, and a wheel adjustment Jonathan’s. Obstacles will come, but they don’t have to be insurmountable. What we need to do is find a way to get over them.
4. Success will come with time and patience.
Americans, myself included, think that we need to see results in the first week. Joseph was asking me to take his training wheels off on the first day. Still, the society that we are working in with its walled homes and busy work schedules doesn’t permit this to happen. Our persistent efforts to reach and teach will pay off, but they will take time. Sometimes it may feel like the training wheels are still on, but progress is being made.
One example is our neighbor, Marta. She works full-time in the house next-door, watching the children. Kelly, returning a ball to their home, provided an open door for her to ask about our work, and during a two-hour conversation about her life, she asked if we could take here to church this next Sunday. Marta is just one of the lives we can reach as we focus on living and modeling the basics of Christianity in our daily lives.
So continue to pray for us as we raise up disciples here in Mexico, and as we teach our kids to ride their bicycles!
To the left you’ll find a picture of our speedometer in our Ford Expedition. The thermometer (numbers on the bottom) read 102. That reading was taken in late August as we crossed the border between Texas and Mexico. Imagine my surprise when this Thursday I looked down to see a reading of 105! Yes, as you have read in my previous post, A Culture of Waiting, we’ve been dealing with the heat quite regularly, so regularly in fact that although the post season is on in baseball, it’s been nearly impossible to “feel the fall in the air.”
Still we’re finding that the people of Merida have a bead on beating the heat. Many stores and businesses close from 2-4 when Mexicans normally have their mid-day meal. Not necessarily an official “siesta” time, it is still a time to get in to a cooler place at the height of the afternoon temperatures. It’s no wonder most of the houses are constructed of block here instead of wood. While also providing more strength against the hurricanes that have been known to sweep the peninsula, they also keep much cooler than their pine constructed counterparts.
Don’t try to find anyone at a park during this time. While there are many in the city, they stay dormant through the day, only to come alive in the evening around 6:00 PM when things start to cool down. Restaurants see business pick up around 8:00 and most cultural events don’t start until 9:00, quite a challenge for this family that was accustomed to turning in at about 10:30. Still, we’re adjusting little by little. Besides two showers daily never hurt anybody.
Dividing up duties in my hermeneutics (Bible interpretation) class with Paul, I got a chance to lead the group in making observations about the texts that they had been given for homework.
What they were assigned to do was to determine the component parts of the passage, verbs, pronouns, conjunctions and the like, as well as to find any comparisons, contrasts, and cause and effect sequences that there might be within the text. From there, I began to show them the way that their observations can lead to questions that can guide their study of the passage.
I found it interesting to note that, although these students had taken a class in hermeneutics, before, many of them had never mined a passage in this way. While I find that to a certain degree alarming, I also see the opportunity that we have. We have the opportunity to teach them what it means to be true students of the Bible, disciples of the Word, and it is my prayer that they will be disciples that will make change in Merida and throughout southeastern Mexico.
Guy Muse who writes the M Blog, has started a series on what God is teaching him these days. In part from his inspiration, and in part from the events of this past week, I’d like to chime in and share what God has been sharing with us these days.
Sometimes it takes more than one teaching in order to learn a lesson.
Jonathan went to the hospital last October in order to correct a congenital hernia. Those of you who have been reading this blog may remember this post about the event. He had the operation which corrected the problem, and one would think that we wouldn’t need to revisit the situation again, right? Wrong. This week we found that he had a hernia on the opposite side as well. He went in for the additional surgery yesterday. (He is recovering well. Thannk you to those who prayed.)
To us this has been an example of how, in the same way Jonathan needed two surgeries in order to correct his problem, we often need more than one teaching in order to learn the life lesson that God is trying to teach us. Kelly had the opportunity in Thursday’s chapel to share this reality. We think that we understand how to abide in Christ, and yet God reveals to us that we have much to learn. We feel that we have a handle on how to be a humble servant, and yet we find ourselves in the painful circumstance where we need to humble ourselves in front of others.
Is it some kind of terrible game that God plays with us? Although it feels that way sometimes, I would say no. I guess it is more like what Aslan revealed to Eustace Scrubb in the Chronicles of Narnia book, the Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Converted into a dragon because of his lust for treasure, Eustace found himself alone and pitiful until he had an encounter with the lion Aslan. Aslan took Eustace to a pool where he told Eustace to “undress and wash.” There, in front of the pool, Eustace found that he could shed the dragon skin. So he peeled it off of himself in order to wash in the pool. To his horror though, he found that no matter how hard he tried, the dragon skin would always reappear. It was only when Aslan “undressed him” with the deep cuts of his claws did Eustace find that he was truly free from his dragon skin and the isolation that it had brought upon him.
I believe that God teaches us his lessons in an ever deeper way, so that we too may shed the “old man” the natural, selfish mindset that keeps us from reflecting Christ in this life. His teaches often hurt, wounding our pride and self-reliance, but the product is always worth the price because, in the end, what remains is less of the corruption of this world and more of purity that reflects the kingdom of God.
When I wrote down my thoughts at the beginning of the year, I intended to form a base from which to work, a foundation on which I could build the rest of my missionary life. But, as many of realize, our intentions are not always what get carried out. My conversation teacher, Giselle Mata, says, “Hay algo entre el querer y el hacer.” As I have reviewed my concepts for living, I have found that in some areas, I have moved forward, but also that in several, I have lagged behind, or fallen flat. I guess that is precisely the reason why many don’t make resolutions, because they are afraid that they can never live up to them. On the contrary, I believe that without a clear goal we’ll never know when we have arrived, or possibly we’ll never arrive anywhere. With a goal it is easy to see when you have failed, but without one it is impossible to know when you have succeeded.
Evaluating the past 5 months, the areas in which I have failed the most have been in the areas that have required taking time. Not that I haven’t been without excuses. This morning, for example, caused me to find a car that could borrow to take a lunch that my daughter forgot to her school and make it back to attend chapel at CINCEL by 7:45 AM all after running 3 miles and getting the boys showered and ready. I say this not to complain, but to show that time is something that has a tendency to slip through my fingers. Unless I mark out a place in time intentionally, I never get the time that I need to do the things that I believe are important, like pray with purpose, read the Bible allowing the words to affect my soul, and be an intentional spouse and father. I have been recommitting myself to these priorities.
In recent days, Kelly and I have started reading a devotional “My Utmost for His Highest” together. It has served as a springboard for sharing our feelings and out prayer needs like never before. But it would never have been realized unless we had put aside the books for a few minutes in order to share this time together. This last weekend, Joseph and I went on to a Father/Son camp. The picture above is of Joseph and me along with a few of the friends that we made there. We spent time learning to build fires, (campfires), shoot BB rifles, and roll in the mud. Certainly none of these activities was necessary on its own, but the time that I spent with him was priceless, especially as I got to see him pass to the altar on Saturday night to accept Christ.
We received a statistic from DeLonn Rance, a fellow missionary and AGTS professor that said that 90% of missionaries spend less than 10 minutes a day in prayer. Why: I believe for lack of time. I can understand this. I see my time taken up with homework, study, projects, preaching, and miscellaneous activities everyday, but I can’t allow them to be my excuses. I need to take time, time from the urgent in order to do the most important. How about you?
