Today we’re heading down to Cuernavaca, Mexico. It’s the city where we studied Spanish when we first arrived in Mexico, located about 2 hours south of where we live now. It’s also where our friends the Cottrills have lived while studying Spanish.
We’re going to take Jon and Nicolle there for language school. Jon will be helping Huberto as an intern until December of this year. He’s a student at Huntington University, and he’s doing his PRIME internship here with us. He’ll be studying Spanish for the next month, and then they’ll be moving up to Mexico City to work with Huberto at Renovation Christian Church.
I’ll try to take pics and video of the city and post them here.
View Larger Map
(Image by: mehdi_mex on flickr)
Here’s a video of the 2008 graduation at the Mexican Baptist Theological Seminary, which included the graduation of the first student from the Center for Youth Ministry with a bachelor’s degree in youth ministry.
You can read my thoughts about the day here.
(Here’s a larger version on Vimeo)
Saturday was graduation, the first graduation in the history of the Mexican Baptist Theological Seminary that included a youth ministry student. After four long years, Huberto Perez Bravo graduated with a bachelor’s degree in youth ministry (licenciatura en ministerio juvenil).
The graduation ceremony was two hours long, and then we had a celebration dinner that lasted another 2 hours. It was a historical day, culminating years of hard work and investment. This graduation was more special for me than others in the past because many of the nine graduates had been students in my classes.
One of my favorite things about the graduation was seeing Huberto with his youth group and church members who came to celebrate with him. His church has been through a lot of things, and I feel that they deserve the diploma as much as he does. He has learned a lot by leading them, and I’m happy for them all.
We’re not done, at all. Next year, we’ll have another graduate, and then there are 3 more who will graduate the following year. I have a feeling that many students will be coming to the Center for Youth Ministry in the future.
Check out our pictures on flickr from graduation day.
Don’t forget to check out our thank you video.
Today is May 5th, or Cinco de Mayo. Guess what. There’s not a whole lot of celebration of Cinco de Mayo in Mexico City.
Mexican Independence Day is not on May 5th. Independence Day is September 16. May 5th, instead, is the celebration of a historical battle between the Mexican army and France in 1862. The battle took place in Puebla, where I’m sure they are celebrating a lot today.
The interesting thing about the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862, is that the Mexican army was outnumbered by the French, but they were resilient and won the battle anyway. Of course, the French eventually won and occupied Mexico until 1867, when Maximilian was executed by Benito Juarez.
It’s interesting to me how a holiday so widely celebrated in the United States has its origins in Mexico but is not widely celebrated here. It’s amazing how little the two neighboring countries really know about each other.
Links: Kaboose info on Cinco de Mayo
Today was the last day of class at the seminary for this school year. I’ve got a flood of emotions inside. I’m excited, proud, reflective, a little sad, emotional, happy, and all kinds of other things that I can’t describe.
If all goes according to plan, and all of the work gets turned in, Huberto will graduate with a bachelor’s degree in youth ministry. He’ll be the first certified graduate in youth ministry in Latin America. In my opinion, he has definitely proven himself as a leader and great youth pastor.
I’ll write more about it later, but for now, I wanted to say how crazy it is that four years have gone by, and we are finally seeing some fruit from the labor.
