Missions Conference and Rain

This past Saturday 15 of us from Ixtapaluca traveled to northern Mexico City and attended a missions conference at the Ciudad Azteca Bible Church. A missionary couple from Mexico City who has recently returned from a closed country talked about the Great Commission, and related their experiences learning and living in a very different culture. It was so informative, encouraging and challenging!

Another Mexican who ministered in a rural area in central Mexico called La Huasteca talked about how closed many towns are to the gospel, in a region quite close to here (about 100 miles). He mentioned that although the constitutional rights of freedom of religion and freedom of the press should apply to all regions in the country, in this particular region, each town applies strict local traditions (usos y costumbres) that in effect supersede any other judicial code. In some towns, for example, it is illegal to convert to any other religion that is not traditional Catholicism. In others, it's illegal to take pictures, or even pick flowers. Violators can be tied up and thrown in jail for a while. Sounded like the wild west!

Once again, it has begun to rain heavily, causing flooding all over the Mexico City metropolitan area. Even the new highway, the exterior mexiquense, was blocked because of flooding yesterday early morning. In a neighborhood near the airport, around 15 blocks were flooded with aguas negras, or sewer water. Will this problem ever be eradicated? Every single year the city turns into chaos when the rains begin in earnest.

One good thing is that the rains clear out the smog and dust. Below, a picture of the neighborhood where we minister.