2018 Mexico Trip Report
On June 28-29, Tedd had the privilege of six teaching sessions at the Pachuca, Mexico, Home Schooling Conference, hosted by Pastor and Mrs. Carlos Perez.
A brother who, with his daughter, spoke a little English, picked me up at the airport in Mexico City for the two hour drive to Pachuca, Mexico. I was taken to the home of Pastor Perez where a small group of homeschooling folks had gathered for a meal. The home was in a very poor section of the city. I was struck with this simple and plainly furnished home where this family serves Christ and homeschools their three children.
Following a meal and introductions to various workshop speakers, I was taken to my hotel for the night. Hotel Los Banos is a small colonial hotel. My host repeatedly got keys from the desk clerk and went up to check out various rooms before finding one that met his approval. I was taken to room 28. It was a large, clean, recently painted room, with old hand-carved furniture worthy of a museum. It looked like it would be a comfortable room, however, there was a nightclub next door, so I was entertained with loud music each night until 2:00 a.m.
There was no breakfast at the hotel, so when Pastor Perez arrived the next day with my translator, Nathan, I was taken to a carry out pastes restaurant. Pastes are small pocket pastry from the Hidalgo region of Mexico. They are usually stuffed with meat, cheese, rice or some combination of fillings. The Mexicans in Hidalgo eat pastes for all three meals.
The conference was held on the grounds of a Pentecostal Bible college that was on summer recess. My translator, Nathan, was a man who had translated for me in Mexico City in 2016, so he was familiar with the material I was teaching. I think he still struggled a bit with understanding me ( I think I speak to rapidly) and finding the right words in Spanish. Nathan is a dear brother, who was raised in Mexico as an MK, so his Spanish is better than he command of English. He has suffered the sudden and unexpected loss of both of his parents in 2018. They had been frequent speakers at this same conference so there was a video retrospective of their lives and ministry during the conference.
The six sessions I taught were well-received. At a few points the breakout sessions and plenary sessions overlapped so the crowd size varied from session to session. One afternoon session was interrupted with a violent thunderstorm that created such a din we had to suspend the meeting for 15 minutes. One of the highlights of the conference was a youth orchestra that was conducted by Pastor Perez’ eldest daughter. It was such a joy to hear the young people playing their instruments with such joy.
This conference was unable to pay for my travel and only able to provide a very modest honorarium. We are always grateful to our home church and friends whose donations to Shepherding the Heart Ministries make it possible for us to serve people whom we could not otherwise serve.
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