Wisdom Teeth and Big Face

We are enjoying having David and Karen with us. I don't know if David is enjoying it as much as we are. Yesterday he had his two bottom wisdom teeth removed. They were growing in completely horizontally, inside his gums, pushing the rest of his teeth to together. The dentists said that they had never seen anything quite like it. (We've always known David is a special fellow!) The surgery went very well. The doctor said that he was an excellent patient. Of course the surgery really made for some interesting facial variations for David. He has tried to keep the swelling down with ice, but when he got up this morning ... Well, you can see for yourself! Just compare it to some of the other pictures below! Thankfully he hasn't experienced very much pain. This also gives David an excuse not to have to practice trumpet for a whole week!

Ah! A well-fed post-Merry Christmas to all!

Yesterday was certainly a day of rejoicing in the things and people the Lord has brought into our lives. Yesterday in church the message was on three gifts that God has given us: mercy, grace and justification. These three things are ours because of Christ’s work on our behalf. Although the sermon focused on how the ‘gifts’ we give to Jesus are many times motivated by pride and self-interest, I came away with a greater appreciation for the greatness of “all [the] spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ” (Eph. 1:3) that we have received.

I was also especially thankful for the family God has given me. My wonderful wife and children are also precious to me. Even my wife’s family was part of my special thanksgiving. We are enjoying David and Karen’s visit (my wife’s younger brother and sister). We have had a lot of fun playing Settlers of Catan and Age of Empires. This year Daniel and Angelo Salvatierra, two young men from my father-in-law’s ministry in Chile who are preparing for the ministry here in Monterrey, are staying with us as well. I think they have a new appreciation for Christmas now (at least the food that accompanies this occasion—go, Susan)! They enjoyed opening the presents from their family in Chile that David and Karen were able to bring.

We were also amazed at the generosity of God’s people. Every year we marvel at the material blessings the Lord provides for us through the giving hearts of His people. We made off like bandits. I was telling someone how almost all of the very nice things we have were given to us. We thank all of you for thinking of even the material gifts as well!

I didn’t think that I was going to like having Christmas fall on a Sunday. As you know, many churches cancelled their services yesterday because it was Christmas. I read of one mega-church that stated that they didn’t have services because their services required the work of several hundred volunteers. They didn’t think that it was fair to ask these people to spend that time away from family and friends. Yesterday Susan and I had the opportunity of putting together and organizing a 30 minute program with special music and Scripture reading. It was a delight to be doing it in combination with David and Karen, but it was extra-special to serve the Lord on a Sunday that was also a Christmas Sunday. I know that I sang and played with a greater spiritual focus and enjoyment than usual. Those churches that thought it was too much to ask people to serve only deprived their people of an extra-special blessing.

Beautiful Day, Wonderful Activity

For those who may check for an update tonight, I am posting an abbreviated update. We had a wonderful day. Thank you for your prayers. The weather was beautiful. They had been calling for cold and rain that was supposed to end during the morning hours, but instead it was bright, sunny and temperatures of around 65. We had 90 children, and, what was even more surprising, we had 18 mothers show up with their children. Several of the mothers made professions of faith. I will try to post pictures later on. Right now, I need to go continue my sermon preparation for tomorrow morning. Unfortunately, this week was not conducive to studying. I am parking my 1 John series for the holidays. I will be preaching on the response of the wise men and Herod to Christ in Matthew 2. Thank you again for your prayers.

Inspection and Saturday Outreach

Yesterday the University had its third inspection by an official from the Education Department. It was a very detailed inspection (inspecting such details as the number of hours each class was offered, if the teachers signed the attendance book, etc.). In both her report and her comments to the University staff, the official was very complimentary about the level of organization and the atmosphere here at the college. She left with a wonderful impression about what is happening here.

Her main objections centered around the Bible classes and chapels. While she stated that it was not a problem to have those, we should not include them in the official class schedule we present to the Education Department, and we should not even include them on the official attendance sheets. This highlights the fact that there is still significant resistance to mixing Christianity with education in Mexico. Ironically, the Education Department has just launched a "Spiritual Values" program in the public elementary schools. Since we are in the midst of an academic review, we are going to add our Bible classes to the official curriculum under the name "Christian Values." We hope that it will be approved. It could be a ground-breaking, pioneering moment, not just for us, but for other Christian educational institutions in the future.

Changing veins, Saturday we are having a special Christmas activity at the mission. We will have pinatas, chili dogs, Bible stories, etc. We hope to reach many new children and their parents as well. Please pray that the weather will be favorable. If it is cold and rainy, Mexicans will simply not come. They are calling for clouds and about 60, which is fairly cold by Monterrey standards. As long as it doesn't rain, we should be fine. Pray that we will effectively reach new families through this outreach.

An update for all you poor frozen souls who have been incredibly uncaring about our "cold snap": it has warmed up considerably. Currently it is about 50 and should get up around 70 today. Thankfully it didn't stay cold enough to really get cold inside the houses. Our bedroom was staying around 50, but that isn't too bad, I guess. Another update tomorrow, Lord willing.

Brrr! It is cold! The temperature dropped from a balmy 80 degrees two days ago to 37 today. (Yesterday it was somewhere in between.) That doesn't give your body time to adjust. It feels like about 20. Without any heating, the cement block houses become like refrigerators. Often it is colder inside than outside! It is supposed to be this way for a while. I am glad that we only have this weather two or three months out of the year. I am a hot weather person!

This week has been one of those weeks when I hardly had time to think. On Monday I had my very first migraine headache. (not an experience I want to repeat), which naturally set me back for the whole week. In preparation for our end-of-semester module in the theology program (Missionary Jim West is teaching a two week module on Apologetics), we were wrapping up our classes and having final exams. We were also preparing for the end of semester Christmas concert with the University orchestra and choir. I play trumpet, and Susan accompanies the choir on the piano. The additional rehearsals as well as the performance on Saturday added some spice to the week. The concert was at a concert hall downtown. It was a combined effort with the Christian school. Aaron's preschool class (he attends a few days a week while Susan teaches English) dressed up as sheep. They sang Silent Night, Holy Night and Away in a Manger. His teacher is Pastor Julio Montes' daughter, Sari. The other blonde kid is Jonathan Gibson, the eldest son of AJ and Ruth Gibson, our co-workers here in the ministry. Sorry the picture isn't very good.

This week we begin to wrap up some of our non-theology major classes. Finals, grading projects, etc. will take up a considerable amount of time this week.

Please pray for an activity we are planning to have at the mission on Saturday, the 17th. We will have a special activity that is intended to draw new in new children. We expect to more than double our attendance on that day (somewhere around 100 children--maybe more). We are in the midst of the planning phases right now.

I have included a picture we took of Aaron and Ana. They are as cute as ever. They enjoy each other at times (like in this picture) and try to kill each other at other times! Ah, the joys of being siblings!