Global Ministries

Lectionary Selection: John 3:1-17

Prayers for Mexico:

God of the Past, the Present and the Future,

We thank you for the new life you give us in your Son Jesus, through whom we can participate in your kingdom. Thank you for Jesus, our light and bearer of a new creation.

We affirm our faith in the missionary God, who so loved the world that he gave his Son to save us. In the midst of so much pain and suffering, we affirm that Jesus, the son of God, accompanies us on our pilgrimage.

We testify to the arrival of the kingdom of God as a new time (kairos). Full and lasting life takes place here and now in the midst of the communities where we serve.

We receive your love as an expression of salvation, as an act of a God who offers with generosity. Your love without limits is for everyone without discrimination, exclusion or marginalization.

We celebrate the incarnation of God in Jesus. With the sending of his Son, God confronts the powers of darkness and death, and offers us a full and abundant life.

We work in Mexico to live out the values ​​of your kingdom. Grant us the strength to live into a new time of health and well-being for all, especially for those who suffer from poverty, exploitation and violence.

We pray that your Spirit may descend upon your church and cause us to be born to a new life in Christ. Come, Holy Spirit and unite us as sisters and brothers in favor of life, justice and peace! In Christ our Lord. Amen.

Durante el segundo semestre académico del 2017 (julio-diciembre) la Comunidad Teológica de México (CTdeM) ofreció a sus estudiantes el curso Taller de lectura e interpretación bíblica, con la participación de 20 líderes y lideresas de diversas iglesias. El curso se desarrolló como parte de los programas de Diplomado en Biblia y Licenciatura en Teología. Los estudiantes llegaron de los distintos Seminarios que conforman la CTdeM, compartiendo sus experiencias y riquezas confesionales.

One of my favorite things about traveling to new places is trying all the food, and Mexico is no exception. Food is such a large part of every culture; it creates community, strengthens relationships, and, more often than not, shows recipes and techniques that have been passed down for generations. What we eat shows what is in season, the things that can and cannot be grown in an area, as well as changes in traditions that have happened slowly over time.

 Dear Friends and Family:

Retoños en las ruinas: esperanza en el trauma.... Roots in the ruins: hope in trauma - A spiritual accompaniment program to nourish hope and develop resilience in the midst of conflict and emotional trauma. During the past year, I have continued to facilitate the "Retoños" program alongside the staff from the Institute for Intercultural Study and Research (INESIN) in southern Mexico with participants from Mexico, Chile, Nicaragua, Puerto Rico, and the United States. In each of the five courses, the experience of storytelling and story-listening is at the core of our time together. We encourage each other in the face of the challenges, changes, and choices shaping our personal lives, communities, and countries. I wrote the following story while thinking about the impact that people who have lived through the devastation of earthquakes, hurricanes, and floods and the uncertainties of political unrest and forced migration have had on their own healing and the healing of others through simple acts of goodness, kindness, and compassion. This story and newsletter are dedicated to the children, women and men who keep fluttering their wings against all odds, sending out whispers of life, hope, dignity, and peace blowing softly, but tenaciously, against the storms of destruction and death.

I want to first share about the Program of Change. 35 women and men have worked together in this program. This program was created to address the harsh reality that addictions are the primary roadblock to maintaining proper drug protocols for HIV medications.  The residents of Las Memorias have access to anti-retroviral medication.  The problem when living in addiction, the addiction rules and health suffers.

In celebration of International Women’s Day, 9,000 women from all over the world gathered together at a retreat in the highlands of Chiapas, Mexico to celebrate art and culture, play sports, and talk politics, grassroots organizing and self-love. Planned and led by the women Zapatistas, this international event was the first of its kind and drew women from as far away as South Africa, Patagonia, and Palestine. Every one of the 16 women who work at or are full-time volunteers at Melel Xojobal, along with 12 teenage girls who take part in our programing, attended this 5-day retreat in an effort to promote sisterhood, recognize and understand the different struggles of women all over the world, and retake our bodies and spaces as women.

Lectionary Selection: John 10:11-18

Prayers for Mexico:

Today we pray for Mexico, caught in the shadow between light and darkness.

In the womb where nativity waits,
In the grey fog before dawn,
In the curve of the tunnel hiding the exit,
In time suspended, half-way, no longer there, not yet beyond.
Between despair and hope shared,
            but not yet fulfilled.
Between fear and courage opening its wings
            but not yet alight.
Between sadness and joy bubbling up from the depths
            but not yet overflowing.
Between suffering and justice opening its hands
            but not yet embracing.
Between hate and the seed of love planted
            but not yet germinating.
In Mexico,
The shadows incubate dignity to be born.
The shadows solemnly announce the joy of new day.
The shadows excitedly predict a new breath of freedom.
The shadows stretch us irresistibly towards the light.
As the shadows point the path to the sun,
So our faith leads us on the path of peace.
Here, in the land of the eagle and the jaguar,
The cactus and the chocolate tree,
Where the sun hides behind the mountains
and beyond shimmering seas,
shalom is forged in these shadowlands.

(Prayer originally in Spanish. Written and translated by Elena Huegel.)

La fe es la certeza de lo que se espera, la convicción de lo que no se ve. Hebreos 11:1

Los sábados plantamos árboles.

Nos reunimos en el Instituto de Estudios e Investigaciones Interculturales (INESIN), uno de los consortes de Ministerios Globales en San Cristóbal, a las 7:30 a.m. Cargamos alrededor de 200 árboles y nosotros mismos nos subimos también en la parte trasera de una camioneta y condujimos 30 minutos en una carretera y 30 minutos más en caminos desiguales de tierra y grava para llegar a la granja de un pastor local. Subidos en el lado de una montaña, miramos hacia las llanuras a otra cordillera, que ya estaba empezando a estar cubierto por las siempre presentes nubes del día.

Download PDF Bulletin insert

Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. Hebrews 11:1

On Saturday, we planted trees.

We met at the Institute for Intercultural Study and Research (INESIN), one of Global Ministries’ partners in San Cristobal, at 7:30 a.m. We loaded around 200 trees and ourselves into the back of a pickup truck and drove 30 minutes on a highway and 30 minutes more on patchy dirt and gravel roads to arrive at the farm of a local pastor. Perched on the side of a mountain, we looked out over the plains to another mountain range as it was just starting to be covered by the ever-present daytime clouds.

Lectionary Selection: Mark 1:21-28

Prayers for Mexico:

Father and mother God,

We ask for your guidance in listening to the voices of those who, like Jesus in the temple, speak from their own authority, those who carry the authority of their people, those who may see parts of the world differently than the way we see them. We ask you to open our eyes to the achievements of those who surround us and to teach us to share what we have learned.

We thank you, today and every day, for teaching us what it means to be seekers of the light in the world.

In this dire time of discomfort and discord between the U.S. and Mexico, we ask that you guide our steps and the steps of our leaders towards building relationships and breaking down walls and towards a better understanding of our neighbor country.

In your heavenly name we pray, amen.