Before we get into that Dane has been preaching in the Harbor Witnessing here in Manzanillo. Here is an experience from him:
I've really enjoyed the privilege of this form of ministry. The port here is the busiest by volume of commercial ships in all of Mexico. So there are always ships with people from around the world to preach to. Myself and another brother were talking with a Chinese man who thankfully spoke English (a requirement to be a worker on an international ship) as neither of us speak Chinese. He was the ship's cook and was on break so he had time on his hands to talk and was eager to see the literature in his own language. We showed him a few bible questions in the Truth Tract and when we answered the first one from the tract he had another, which just happened to be the next question on the front. He was so impressed that he wanted to place a piece of literature next to each plate of food for the crew to read. He'll put more experiences in the next post.
Here we go!
Here we are packed into our 1995 Toyota Corolla ready for the road!
Our First stop: Guanajuato, Mexico
Established in the 1500's this Colonial town is rich with culture and romance. It was established as a booming mining town.
It's known for it's crazy narrow streets!
The view from our hotel room
This place had the best Mexican doughnuts we've had
We saw one of our little sisters at this door.
In these mines they found many different metals. For over 250 years, it produced about 30% of the world’s silver. Gold and many other minerals were found there too.
These are the tunnels the miners would have to work in - the shovel gives scale. The working conditions for the slaves were tragic and brought about death at a very young age.
As we walked down about 500 steps it helped us appreciate Proverbs 2:4 - what it really took to seek silver!
The city’s most famous tourist attraction is the Mummies of Guanajuato Museum which contains a collection of specimens that mummified naturally in the adjoining cemetery. Authorities began exhuming bodies in 1870, when a new law required residents to pay a tax for perpetual burial. If survivors didn't pay the tax, they exhumed the body. If the body was mummified, they stored it in a building above ground and people began paying to see them in the late 1800s. The burial tax was abolished in 1958. At first, the mummies were displayed in a poorly lit tunnel that visitors entered with a torch or candle. Visitors were allowed to touch the mummies with some even breaking off pieces for souvenirs or to verify the body was real.
Our Hotel (well, Hostel) that Rob and Lydia shared with us was located right above one of the most famous spots in Mexico, the Callejón del Beso (Alley of the Kiss). It has two balconies that nearly touch each other. The name comes from a legend of two young lovers who would sneak out of their adjoining homes and reach across the balconies to kiss.
All the tourists (including us) line up for their kissing picture. Until late at night we would hear enthusiastic chanting of "Beso! Beso! Beso!" ("Kiss!Kiss!Kiss!")
This building was constructed from 1560-1565
And the guys are excited about the castle tour :-)
What to do next...
Rob and Lydia were the BEST travel partners. We're all goofballs
The battle was EPIC!
NEXT STOP: Central American Bethel Branch. The name of the branch had coincidentally been changed the day before - from the Mexico Branch.
As you can see Lydia loves anticipating our Spiritual Food.
In between us is the great couple - the Solanos. They hosted us in Mexico city. They were great!
Some fun statistics:
They have produced more than 40,000,000 Bible Teach books
They produce 8,000 books per hour (16,000/hr of the smaller books)
Since the work was so severely restricted in Mexico a Kingdom Hall construction program wasn't begun until about 1992. A record number of 1,000 Kingdom Halls were dedicated in 10 years. Here are some before and after pictures:
A lot of the writing is done at the New York branch but some of it is done here:
It was a privilege to meet Esther. This bright, spunky sister was part of the fourth class of Gilead.
It was great to see the Geswaldis there. They were CO's for us in Manzanillo about 1 year ago. Now they are serving at Bethel and are heading up an Arabic Language group in Mexico City. Oh, and they don't know the language, so they are learning it too. Amazing.
Bethel Lunch! Ruben's brother is at the head of the table.
Tour Group - On the right is Heather - she was a delightful and very informative tour guide.
Bethel was an amazing experience to see. How encouraging it was to see our Brotherhood working hard for Jehovah here in Mexico. We felt like family and were up-built and faith-strengthened.
NEXT STOP: Teotihuacan Pyramids. The city is thought to have been established around 100 BC. It was the largest city in the pre-Columbian Americas, with a population of 125,000 or more, making it at minimum the sixth largest city in the world at the time.
Part 2 is next. Mexico City highlights...
No comments:
Post a Comment
Feel free to say hello to us, comment on what you saw or let us know what you would like to see.