The Pan de Vida youth group celebrated 3 years in ministry this past weekend. The theme was "Masterpiece", with the focus on how God has been working in their lives to create a wonderful piece of art. In preparation, the youth were divided into teams of 3 to draw their own masterpiece. As an incentive to be very creative, they were told the pieces would be judged and a prize would be given for the winner. This stirred them to really reflect and focus on making a blank piece of cardboard into a beautiful testimony that others will see. It was very interesting to see all the different approaches each group made but still resulted in true masterpieces.
The night of the celebration, a local pizza business donated all the ingredients for the youth to make their meal. The youth then had a banquet feast of pizzas and pasta salad. Afterwards there were games that involved quizzing on the messages and scriptures that they have been learning through the meetings and outreaches they have been having. They were then given an opportunity to share testimonies and do skits, dramas, worship music and other games in praise to how God has used the youth group to work in their spiritual growth and personal relationship with Jesus.
Kike then gave a message based on the theme Masterpiece. Then they each received a photo album to remind them of how much God has done in their lives through the ministry of the youth group. It was definitely an evening of celebration and motivation for the kids to continue to persevere and work hard on following God and seeking His plan in their lives.
Last week the Children of Hope staff from Canada came to Mexico and hosted a retreat for all the volunteers of Pan de Vida and Dulce Refugio Orphanages. This year our guest speaker was Pastor Tim Klassen of Abbotsford, British Columbia.
Pastor Tim started the sessions with scripture from 1 Thessalonians 5:9-11 stating that we are encouraged and equipped to walk with God. He then gave us short and to the point questions asking How close are we to God, why and what are we going to do it about it? This caused us all to look deep within ourselves and where we are in our journey.
We then moved into 4 disciplines on how to improve our relationship with God. Discipline #1 is turning our affection from other things and learning to preach the gospel to ourselves. He went on to ask us Idol indicating questions. It is scary how much more time we can put on other things that really are not important in the grand realm of things. We need to really believe God's love for us and His sacrifice to come and fully restore us through with the presence of His Holy Spirit and a personal relationship with Him.
Discipline #2 was about Cultivating Humility. We need to acknowledge our need for God, express gratitude, be active in the Word and prayer. We also need to examine our relationships, cast our cares upon Jesus, reflect on our days and always rest. This helps us become consistent in our behavior and receive the positive affirmation of God's Love.
Discipline #3 focused on rest. We can get so busy doing and often it can be in service to Jesus but then we never take time for Him. We must rest in Him. The Discipline #4 focused on Prayer and the way we show our dependence on God.
During these sessions Pastor Tim gave us time to have personal reflection in our current relationship with Jesus and really evaluate the questions we had been asked. We also prayed corporately and he emphasized on the need for us to always pray personally with Jesus. I cannot express how much all of these sessions over the 3 days refreshed us and confronted us with our need to have more of Jesus in our lives and to feel his presence within us.
I am thankful that Children of Hope provided us with this ministry to come together and encourage one another through intimacy with Jesus and fellowship with one another. Now the hard part begins with putting the disciplines into action. We were reminded that we will only get out of a relationship what we are willing to put into it. So if we take time away from the unnecessary things that can only distract us and shift it to focusing on Jesus and His sacrifice on the cross, we will feel His Holy Spirit and know He truly loves us!!
1 Thessalonians 5:9-11 For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him. Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.
The end of October marks the time when many countries have traditions of celebrating Halloween. Here in Mexico it is a 3 day holiday called Día de los Muertes/Day of the Dead. History has it that Halloween is a time to celebrate the harvest season but also it is where the boundaries of the living and dead worlds overlap. Often the dead will send spirits back to cause havoc. In doing this, many people would dress in costume to mimic or appease them. Over the years, Halloween has evolved to now being more about people dressing in costume, especially kids, who then go trick or treating. However, as much as it is cute to see kids all dressed up, there is still something very real and serious about provoking spirits.
Here in Mexico, the Day of the Dead is not about kids trick or treating. I will briefly describe it but if you are a real history buff, you can google and get the in depth version.
For the Mexicans, what the day represents, is taken very seriously. The people continue to follow this pagan ritual and build shrines to commemorate the day. The people then visit these shrines to pray for the dead to come back so they can communicate with them. Often the shrines will be built out of the cempasuchitl flower, also known as the flower of the twenty petals or the flower of the dead. The shrines will be decorated with pictures, clothing, music, and other favorite items of the loved one. Many of the altars will always include favorite foods of the loved one so the dead can enjoy the aroma, tissue paper that represents wind, water in a container to quench the thirst of the spirit from it's long journey and a candle that will be lit for each soul.
Many people will dress as skeletons to embrace the celebration and show that it is not a time of mourning but a time of unity. I have some pictures to give you an idea of how serious the people are about this tradition and how misled they are about the spirit world. We as Christians know that the one and only spirit that we need is the Holy Spirit of our Saviour Jesus Christ. He is the truth, the life and the way!!
