Last night was a horrible night. Nathan woke up at 5 am and wouldn’t go back to sleep. He’s been fussy, so we’ve been fussy. It’s not easy to live on a few hours of sleep, especially when you have a meeting in the morning. Then, when you go to your meeting and the guy you’re meeting doesn’t show up, that makes it even worse. At least the “meeting” was at Starbucks so I could get a large coffee and wake myself up a little.
I’d rather see a sermon
Than hear one any day
I’d rather one would walk with me
Than merely tell the way.
UPDATE: The eye’s a better pupil
And more willing than the ear
Fine counsel is confusing
But example’s always clear.
-Edgar Guest
Thanks to Dave for giving me the rest of the quote (see comments). I was quoting from The Lost Art of Disciple Making that had the partial quote in it.
We say that if you can minister in Mexico City, you can minister anywhere. Three of the things I think are big challenges to youth ministry in Mexico City are space, transportation, and time.
Because of the way things are built here, there is little space. Churches don’t have a lot of room. There are no “church parking lots” where you could go out and play games. There are no fields that are on church property. If you are lucky, you get to share a room with some other classes for your youth meetings. Maybe, you can have your youth meetings in the church sanctuary. You will more than likely never have your own space for youth.
Transportation is the second challenge. If you want to go on a trip, you must rent transportation, which is not always cheap. Even for a little short trip to the mall or something, everyone will have to go in the public transportation (not always safe with younger teens). If parents or youth workers are fortunate enough to have a car, it’s a two door Chevy that barely holds 4 people.
Time is the third challenge, and it may be the biggest of the three mentioned here. Because of the traffic, many people leave for work at 6 AM and get home at 9 PM. There is little time for ministry to them. If a pastor or youth pastor is going to make visits, it will take him all day to visit a few people. If we try to have midweek services, few can make it. Students who are studying in the university have little time, either, because of their schedules. Even middle school and high school students could be in classes until 7 at night.
So, pray for these three big challenges to ministry in Mexico. Pray that we will be able to figure out ways around them so that youth workers can better minister to the young people of this enormous city.
This morning, I’ll be preaching at Renovacion, the church where Huberto works as the youth pastor. I’ll be sharing a story about a boy who sets off to become a knight, using it as a parable for the journey towards spiritual maturity. I am praying that it will connect with people to take a look at their own spiritual journey and see if they have the same characteristics that the boy has as he becomes a knight. I’ll post more later.
We found some shoes for Nathan today! They are made of stretchy material, so they fit better and are easier to get on him. We went to the Bazaar, a flea-market sort of place, and bought them. They were only 120 pesos, too! That’s about 11 US dollars. He loves them. It was much easier today than the other day. We’ll put up a pic soon.
