Here in the city, often as we drive over to the neighbourhood of Jesús María, or more often when we take Hannah to school, we see something like this.

Yes, on the main city streets, a herd of sheep or goats (in this case both), with a shepherd or shepherdess (or goatherd) and a dog or some dogs.

They’ll quite often take up the whole street (often a very busy main street, you understand), in which case you just have to wait.  Or you can try to worm your way around them if you can.  Or they might just stream around you.

Yesterday, Shari happened to have a camera with her.  If we had a camera mounted on the front of our van, oh the things you would see.

• From a co-worker's blog – check out Miguel and Tania http://t.co/u6m8gbc7 #
• Now that's pretty useful – the Rulers of Israel and Judah Infographic ⌛ http://t.co/CTEyzfMq #
• Who knew? Mexican physicist Miguel Alcubierre theorized that a warp drive (a la Star Trek) may be possible… http://t.co/yKUvbEme #
• Going to Bible study. Tonight's theme – Jesus' Mission! Me voy al estudio de la Biblia. Tema de esta noche – ¡la misión de Jesús! #
• Important: In the USA, CAM International is now Camino Global. (CAM International of Canada is still CAM International of Canada.) #
• Important Reminder: CAM International of Canada is still CAM International of Canada. (Name change expected this summer) #
• The Gospel is NOT – "God really needs your love to be fulfilled. Poor guy." #
• Home sweet home #
• ⌲ Homeward Bound! ⌲ ¡Volviendo a casa! ⌲ #
• Interesting thoughts from a fellow missionary (in Thailand) – "Four Reasons Missionaries Fail to Learn the Language" http://t.co/eJkCfr5l #
• Met a man near Edmonton with a Chihuahua MX license plate. He's a farmer from Mexico. How cool is that? #
• The not-so-long-awaited part 3 from coworker Tina – Part Three: Quirkiness of living in Mexico http://t.co/WiPPkFwL #

Ah, the memories.  My first 0 sticker.  I wondered if I would get one.  It took a lot of work and conversation, but eventually I did.

You may or may not remember what a 0 sticker is.  Here in Mexico City, there are restrictions on who can drive when.  For example, a foreign vehicle (like ours) can’t drive between 5:30am-11am weekdays, one Saturday a month, and one day a week.  Yes, that’s a lot of restrictions!

But there is a way out.  If your vehicle is less that 8 years old, you can have it emissions tested for a small fee (for me around $23 Canadian), and you have the chance to get a zero sticker.  That means you can drive whenever you like for 6 months, at which time you go back and try again.

I’ve done this many times now, and we got our 0 sticker when we came back to Mexico in November.

Here we are 6 months later.

The van went through the line quickly … then I waited, and waited, and waited.  I spent a couple hours at the place, and was finally told that for some reason the "system" would not give me a zero.

So they were very helpful (they know me by now) and gave me my money back and suggested I try another Verificentro (where the test takes place).

So today I did.

Spending hours on something like this may remind you of the complexities of life here – there’s always something!

Anyway, I went to another place (a place that, as I recall, told me years ago that I simply couldn’t get a 0 because I was a foreigner).

Once again, they told me I couldn’t get a sticker because I didn’t have such-and-such, so I talked and explained and chatted and so on and so on….

Eventually, they felt they had enough paperwork to give it a try.

So I went into the prayer room (I’ll bet you didn’t know that Verificentros had prayer rooms!  Well, ok, they call it a waiting room, but that’s the same thing, isn’t it?), and reminded myself that God is more powerful than any computer system.  And that I would accept what He decided to do.

In no time, the tests were done – and I have a 0 sticker!

Praise the Lord!

So we can actually drive the van for another 6 months… then… we’ll see!

Our van being tested – can you find it?

Our other zero posts:

• 0 (zero)
• 0 (zero) -part 2-
• 0 (zero) The Return! (audio)

Today, in the USA (NOT in Canada), CAM International changed its name to Camino Global.

What does this mean?

Well, for today, it means that if you want to write a cheque (check) in $US to support the ministry here, you will send it to Camino Global in Dallas and you will make it out to Camino Global.

Things like the new US website and all stuff like that there will be rolling out little by little in the weeks and months ahead.

For more information about making donations in $US, read here.

Now, what about CAM International of Canada?  Well, CAM International of Canada is still CAM International of Canada.

So any cheques made out in $CA, and sent to the Canadian office, can and should still be made out to CAM International of Canada.

CAM International of Canada will be Camino Global as well, but that change won’t likely come until sometime in the summer.  We’ll keep you informed.

Meanwhile, if you would like to donate in $CA, here’s the info.

Thanks for your patience!  We’re all hoping the confusion will be over with soon.

• When Church Planters Want to Drink Sweet Tea from a Garbage Can (missionaries do strange things) http://t.co/SzyxG8SX #
• Good read just 99¢ on the Kindle – "Feed My Sheep: A Passionate Plea for Preaching" –Get it while it's on sale!– http://t.co/VZxk47BF #
• A mitad de nuestro tiempo en Canadá; ¡disfrutando tiempo con la familia! Halfway done our time in Canada; enjoying time with family! #
• What are the Top 10 Most Read Books in the World (past 50yrs)? Visit the link to find out… http://t.co/XxuBk567 #
• Long-awaited post from our coworker Tina – Part Two: Quirkiness of living in Mexico! http://t.co/vSCGmCIB #
• Some things are just cheaper in Canada. Just sayin'. #
• The Gospel is NOT – "A neat club to belong to" #
• Jim's Journal – "A good deed" — http://t.co/mAdciDAU #
• Crazy day in Canada, but we survived. Good to see Shari's brother and his family. Sure ready for some rest now! #
• From our coworker Tina: quirkiness of living in Mexico http://t.co/xgSHfX6n #

So we’ve come to the end of our 30 Spanish verses.  We didn’t do it in 30 days – there was a break in the middle.  But that’s all right.

Here’s an introduction to the project – A New "30 days" Project! (Want to join me?), explaining why I did it the way I did.

Every verse is listed in order below.  There’s an added feature – if you hover over the title, you should see an excerpt from the post.  And if you are on the blog, you’ll be able to hover over the verse and see it too.

I got most of them memorized, but I’m not satisfied yet, so I’m going to keep working on them until I really have them down.

However, I’ve found it very useful already.  It helped with my Spanish.  It taught me a lot about these verses.  And yes, I’ve already used my knowledge of the verses in real life, and I’ve been able to quote parts of them when the situation called for it.

As I said when I started, I found that 30 verses wasn’t very many.  There are so many very familiar verses that were left out.  Although I chose carefully, I could just as easily have chosen a whole different set.

If you would like to memorize these verses in Spanish, here are the pdf sheets to make cue cards with RV60 on one side and NBLH on the other:  Set 1, set 2, and set 3.

1. How could Jesus be Begotten?! (John 3:16)
2. The First and the Great (Deuteronomy 6:5)
3. Ancient and Compact! (1Corinthians 15:3)
4. Time in the Tomb (1Corinthians 15:4)
5. Is Cephas really Peter? (1Corinthians 15:5)
6. Rejected by His Own (John 1:11)
7. A counter-cultural goal (John 1:12)
8. John’s Surprising Theme (John 1:13)
9. Everyone’s Problem (God’s Solution) (Romans 3:23)
10. The Bible’s Least Known Most Important Passage (Romans 4:4)
11. I’ve Got It – But It’s Not Mine! (Romans 4:5)
12. Better just to admit it… (1John 1:9)
13. What is "this"? (Ephesians 2:8)
14. Boast, no. Praise, yes. (Ephesians 2:9)
15. The Focus of History (Luke 24:46)
16. This is the Gospel (Luke 24:47)
17. Anywhere (Matthew 28:18)
18. It’s hard to GO (Matthew 28:19)
19. A Commanding Presence (Matthew 28:20)
20. The Nature of the Scriptures (2Timothy 3:16)
21. Every Good Work (2Timothy 3:17)
22. We’ve been deceived (Jeremiah 17:9)
23. How to Worship 101 (Romans 12:1)
24. Want to Know the Will of God? (Romans 12:2)
25. Incomplete = More Complete? (2Corinthians 12:9)
26. Are You Pulling and Pushing? (Hebrews 10:24)
27. So why do we meet together? Hebrews 10:25
28. God has struck us down? (Hosea 6:1)
29. Who can stand before Him? (Hosea 6:2)
30. The Grand Finale (Hosea 6:3)

This is an old post card from our mission talking about the need in Mexico.  It’s old, but it still applies (at least until CAM changes its name!) – so here it is!

Here are some more opportunities in Mexico.

• Through security and ready to fly. Things going well so far. #
• Sad, especially in light of further evidence that girls are being "weeded out"…‘Create the family you want: Boy or Girl’… #
• ¡Feliz Día de las Madres! ¡Gracias a todas las mamás maravillosas! Happy Mother's Day! Thanks to all the amazing Moms! #
• Still no water to shower with. And the roof is leaking. Wait! I have an idea! #
• The Gospel is NOT – "Good news for a few privileged classes" #
• Please pray for us as we go to an important meeting (regarding our visas) in Puebla this morning. Thanks! #
• The Big Day is here! Please pray for the first elders of the local church in Jesús María and their families. #

Once again there’s a lot more here than meets the eye.  It seems to me that to know the LORD is more than just to know who He is.

You know the old expression, to know him is to love him.  In this case, knowing the LORD means acknowledging Him – recognizing who He really is.

In refusing to let the people of Israel go, Pharaoh said, "Who is the LORD, that I should obey his voice and let Israel go? I do not know the LORD, and moreover, I will not let Israel go." (Exodus 5:2)

The ruler of Egypt knew the claims that Moses made about God, but he didn’t recognize God’s authority.

God promises that someday they shall not teach, each one his neighbor and each one his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest. (Hebrews 8:11)

Hosea calls the people over and over to know the Lord, to repent, to return to Him, and experience His healing.

In chapter 4 he writes:

Hear the word of the LORD, O children of Israel, for the LORD has a controversy with the inhabitants of the land.  There is no faithfulness or steadfast love, and no knowledge of God in the land; there is swearing, lying, murder, stealing, and committing adultery; they break all bounds, and bloodshed follows bloodshed…

My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge…

And later in chapter 6 he says:  For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.

This knowledge is a recognition of who God is – and the natural response – repentance, and thankfulness for His forgiveness and healing.  Do you notice how, in both of these passages, love is parallelled with knowledge?  They’re not opposites – they’re intertwined.

We must get back to the topic of the resurrection, which we touched on yesterday.  Even in the early days of the church the connection was made between this verse and the resurrection.  After the mention of the third day in verse 2, the going forth of the Lord is as sure as the dawn.  Of course, early in the morning, Jesus did go forth from the tomb.

I still say we shouldn’t be hasty to make a direct connection here to the resurrection.  But the Lord’s triumph on resurrection Sunday was certainly the start of something.  Something that Hosea longed to see.

Jesus’ triumph over the grave was the beginning of the end of sin and death and pain.  He then ascended into heaven and poured out the Spirit – another important coming.

And Jesus will come again, to put all wrongs right.

This is then, I think, a verse that can be applied to the small things, and the big things.

The small things are like when we return to the Lord, when we repent and seek Him in His Word, and He brings forgiveness and healing.  Or when He meets us in our difficult circumstances.  See Lamentations 3:22-23.

And the big things are things like – well, the thing – when He returns.

Jesus will come to us, with healing, with love, and with forgiveness.  There’s no doubt.  It’s as sure – more sure – than the regular seasons of the earth, or the sunrise itself.  In fact, Jesus calls Himself the morning star – the first sign that a new day is dawning.

Our sorrows can only be temporary.

"I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify to you about these things for the churches.  I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star."

The Spirit and the Bride say, "Come."  And let the one who hears say, "Come."  And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price.

…He who testifies to these things says, "Surely I am coming soon."  Amen.  Come, Lord Jesus!

(from Revelation 22:16-21)

Believe it or not, we are on our way to Canada!  But we’ll only be there a few days.

Since returning to Mexico in November, we’ve been working on issues related to our visas.  A number of things have changed, and so we’ve basically been starting from scratch with a number of documents.

Our work on this has been in some ways a comedy of errors.  Emails didn’t arrive, information was lost, there were meetings about things that don’t concern us and yet impacted some document somewhere, changes in Mexican law…

The work goes on, as we try to get documents from Canada and documents from Mexico and figure out legal issues.

To make a long story short, our visas are expiring and we are required to leave the country – and then come back.

It’s not what we would have chosen.  However, we can see some good things in all this.

First of all, we will be able to briefly visit Shari’s parents and my parents.  Obviously this is not something we are able to do very often!

Secondly, we do have some business to do in Canada, and this may actually save us a trip down the road.  So we’ll try to make the most of our time and deal with some things while we’re there.

Some of the things we’re planning to do should actually save us some money, so thankfully it’s not a 100% drain on the wallet!

As an added bonus, we get to see our Mothers right around Mother’s Day, and the Grandparents get to see the Grandkids right around their birthdays!

So we’re off for a few days.  If you think of it, do pray for us as this will be a challenging trip in many ways.  Also, pray for our visa situation.  We had an encouraging meeting on Monday, and hope that we’ll be able to get the final documents in order very soon.

All right, gotta run.  We have a plane to catch.