On Sunday, November 6, 2022, the third Bible Church plant in Ixtapaluca celebrated its 6th anniversary. The church initiated in 2016 in a nearby neighborhood called Palmas 1, thus the name (Iglesia Bíblica Sendero de Vida Palmas, or Path of Life Bible Church Palmas). Since the pandemic, we’ve been meeting in a different neighborhood entitled Santa Cruz (holy cross). Perhaps we should change the name of the church to “Path of Life Bible Church of the Holy Cross?” Sounds biblical to me!
Although the mood was somber in light of the passing of our brother Edgar, Violeta, Edgar’s wife was in agreement that we should celebrate the anniversary as planned, which we did. It was a joy to see nearly the whole service led and directed by our dear Mexican brothers. Several different people gave testimonies as to how their faith has grown in the past several years, being part of the church. Our friends John Schimmel and Frank Villalobos sent a brief video (below), congratulating the church on this milestone.
It was encouraging to look back on how God has been faithful to this little church over the past 6 years, and remember special times when we clearly saw God’s hand in our lives. It was also a time of reflection, recognizing that many people who once faithfully attended are no longer with us, for a variety of reasons. I’m sure nearly every local church could say the same…if everyone who once attended were still here, we’d have to buy more chairs, or rent a bigger facility. It is also exciting to look towards the future, as we will likely see our first elders recognized this next year, as well as begin raising support for the purchase of a property, a place of more permanent testimony for the church. You can check out more info as well as a video of the service on our co-workers Jim and Shari Cottrill’s website HERE. If you’d like to see a post of our very first anniversary as a church, you can check that out HERE.
After the service there was, of course, lots of food. Oh, and so good! After the meal, we participated in several group games and Bible trivia dynamics that were lots of fun. Although this past weekend was very difficult in many ways, especially with the home going of Edgar, it was a joy to see a church express their sincere love and support, and become perhaps more unified than ever before. It is truly a blessing when we live together in unity.
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