Report on trip to Chalchocoyo

Thanks to those of you who prayed for my trip to Chalchocoyo, San Luis Potosí. My dad and I had a great time. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I was there with my family when I was a child (4 years old) and my dad preached in one of the first annual conferences held there. Now, 31 years later, I was privileged to preach at the conference. It was a tremendous blessing to meet several people who attended the conference 31 years ago, including the current pastor of the church (who was also 4 years old when I first visited!).

The theme of the conference was "Faith in action in a materialistic world." I preached three messages on living the life of faith, primarily from Hebrews 11. What a joy it was to call God's people to a single minded focus on him and to a life self-sacrificial obedience and service!

Here are some photos of our trip (with commentary). Click on the photos to enlarge.

The church where the conference was held:





To give you an idea of the humble circumstances in which the people of this church live, here's the church kitchen where the (amazingly delicious) meals were prepared (notice the "stove" in the second photo):


The village of Chalchocoyo is situated on the side of a mountain. Most of people in the village still speak the local indigenous dialect, Náhuatl, although the majority now speak Spanish as well (the pastor still preaches in this dialect). From the road, most of the houses belonging to the 7,000+ residents of the village are hidden by the thick forest. It is common to see people carrying water and wood to their homes.


The area is simply beautiful. Here's some shots taken from the road going up the mountain to the village.