A Weekend to D.F.

The MCC Mexico Team of 2041 -Â Â Hizee, Ziko, Isabel, Ezra and Hilary

It had been 3 months since our last MCC Team Mexico Retreat in Guerrero so we were off last weekend to Mexico City (a.k.a D.F.) for 4 days to reunite with “el equipo.” While it was great to see everyone again we also spent time recognizing the service of the Friesen-Pankratz family as they completed their 3 year term and returned to Canada this past Monday. We also will soon say goodbye to our to “YAMENers” – Clifford and Nompilo, both from Zimbabwe – who have just 4 weeks left in their 1 year assignment. Hopefully soon I’ll get a complete team photo to add to the post.

After again traveling by taxi, plane, and metro to arrive at the MCC Mexico Office we soon took off again by bus to a nearby town called Tepozlan, which our family had visited back in November, and were treated to a stay at “Posada Sarita.” Team retreats are often a combination of meetings, socializing and down time as well as a combination of speaking in English and Spanish.   They give us time to check in with each other, hear important news/updates from our Rep’s about internal MCC items and have some good discussions about our work and experience.  This weekend we spent some time focusing on the Advocay work MCC is doing in Latin America (LA) – Adrienne, our team member who is the Policy Analyst for all of LA – talked specifically about MCC LA advocacy work that is ongoing in mining, migration, urban peace building and rural justice.  I look forward to working with her a bit as she develops, amongst other work,  tools for facilitating advocacy learning for churches in this LA context.

At this point if you are a bit like me and wondering – what exactly is Advocacy? I really encourage you to do some research and ponder the question: was Jesus an advocate? for whom? how? what implications does this have for my life? my church?

While traveling and eating out with kids can be a challenge at times, as a whole Hilary and Ezra did wonderful in this latest adventure.  Hilary’s weekend mainly consisted of playing in dirt and taking showers.  Ezra enjoyed much time relaxing in the great hammocks and playing with Isabel and Ziko – his little buddy who has now gone back to Canada 🙁 .  The place we stayed had a great outdoor space with a variety of fruit trees – bananas, avocados, limes – and Tepozlan provided some great food and for Ezra and Hilary the ability to finally purchase some “luchadores” masks for their wrestling matches with their dad back home!

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