This past Saturday, the Seminary had a big publicity event. My participation in the event was to help the youth ministry students with our information booth, teach a youth ministry seminar, and organize a skit for one of the worship times. The event was a huge success.
There were more than 300 people at the event (which was our attendance goal), and during the two seminar times, my youth ministry workshop was packed. I spoke about the goal of youth ministry to more than 100 prospective students. We handed out fliers and collected names at our booth. I even ran out of business cards.
There is a great thirst for youth ministry training in Latin America. I believe that we are living in a time where youth ministry training is about to explode both in Mexico and other places in the world. It is humbling and exciting to be a part of what God is doing.
If you would like to support the work of our family in Mexico, click here to find out how to join our team.
Today we experienced our first ever earthquake here in Mexico City. I was sitting at the dining room table, Janell was upstairs working at the desk, and Nathan was out in the back porch swinging on our hammock swing. Ben was sleeping in his crib. Then it happened.
It felt to me like a giant was upstairs jumping up and down. I had never felt anything like it before. It seemed to last for about 15 seconds.
There aren’t earthquakes in Florida, so I wasn’t sure what I had felt. I assumed it was an earthquake. So, I went to twitter to let everyone know what I had experienced. I wasn’t the only one talking about it on there.
It seems there was a 5.7 earthquake near Puebla, which is about 3 hours from here (on a good traffic day). We felt it all the way up here in the northwest part of Mexico City. Of course, our family was all worried about us. About a minute after I wrote about it, Janell’s Dad called because he had seen it on the news, too. We assured him we were okay (although I’m sure he always has his doubts).
We are all fine. Benjamin slept right through it. Nothing fell off the walls or anything like that. We just bounced up and down for a while.
I just hope it doesn’t happen again for a while.
Today is the 2nd anniversary of the death of Jerry Falwell. I can’t believe it’s already been 2 years.
As a Liberty graduate, I remember listening to Dr. Falwell in chapel. I remember hearing so much about how he founded Thomas Road Baptist Church. I probably took for granted that I heard him preach and speak so much.
I know there are a lot of people who didn’t like him. I didn’t agree with everything he did, but I sure do know that he had an impact on me and many other people. I feel privileged to have been able to meet the man and have many fond memories of him.
Some of the things I remember the most are:
- Every year would start with Jerry’s “vision” sermon from Nehemiah.
- Jerry was constantly talking about “raising up young champions for Christ.”
- He was up at 5:45 every morning to study and spend time with God, and he would frequently tell us about what he had read that morning to encourage us to spend time with God daily.
- He built Thomas Road Baptist Church and Liberty University through prayer and hard work.
- Jerry was “one of us” when he crowd surfed at basketball games.
- He would drive around in his big black suburban and ride up on the sidewalk acting like a kid.
Jonathan Falwell has a video up on his site remembering his dad. Check it out here.
(image by: taberandrew on flickr)
Mexico City government officials have lowered the Swine Flu alert level, meaning that we will be getting back to the regularly scheduled program here in Mexico. Thanks for hanging with me and reading all the Swine Flu stuff here.
The fact that the alert is lowered doesn’t mean there isn’t a threat, but it means at least that things will be a little more relaxed. Waiters and waitresses and other workers will still be wearing face masks, and the government is still encouraging their use (although their effectiveness is debatable).
As for us, Seminary starts back up with classes on Thursday. Please keep praying for us. I will be traveling throughout the city on Thursday, so I’ll still take precautions to avoid getting sick.
Pray, too, that this country can recover from the economic impact of the Swine Flu. Pray for the families as they get back into the swing of things. Pray for the parents of young children who don’t go back to school until next Monday.
Monday afternoon I was playing on the beach with Nathan in Huatulco, Oaxaca, when Janell came running up to me with my cell phone. She was talking with Randy Smith of Youth Ministry International. I took the phone, and Randy told me that the Larry King show had contacted him and wanted to put me on their show that evening (here’s his blog post about the show).
A little later, I was on the phone with one of the producers of the show. She had seen that we had blogged about Swine Flu in Mexico City and was wondering what our experience had been (she had left a comment here on the blog, but I wasn’t checking while on vacation). I told her the basic story, and she said that Larry King would like to interview me about it later that evening. Everything was set up. I was going to be on Larry King.
She asked me to send in some pictures of what we had observed in the airport with the Swine Flu as well as a photo of me. So I did. She called back and said that they would be calling me around 8:05 pm Central Time to do the interview. So I sent out a few tweets and sent emails to our family and friends.
Then, I got another voicemail. It turns out that the show decided to cancel the part of interviewing me. Nancy was super nice throughout the whole process. I imagine that she has to cancel on people all the time. I have to admit I was a little disappointed.
But, at least I have a good story to tell about the day Larry King contacted me!
Last Saturday was Nathan’s birthday. I can’t believe it has been four years since he was born. He sure has changed a lot over the years.
We made him a birthday cake and put Bob from the movie Monsters vs. Aliens on it. We made Bob out of cupcakes. When he saw it, he said he thought we were going to put a flat one (just a drawing) on the cake, and he laid down on the floor to demonstrate what he meant.
He was happy with the cake, though.
I tried to stream live when we were blowing out candles and singing happy birthday to him, but the internet here didn’t want to cooperate. I have some video from before we sang and blew out the candles.
And these pictures from our family birthday party:
Due to the Swine Flu pandemic, we postponed his other birthday party that was scheduled for tomorrow.
Janell wrote that he was four on her facebook status, and I commented: “Four incredible years with my little buddy. Nathan you are definitely one of my best friends in the whole world.” It is definitely true. These have been four great years.
