The first printing of booklet of the series Templos Vivientes (Living Temples) was published under the same name of Templos Vivientes. I really did not think it would become more than just the one booklet (a series was not yet been thought of).

My vision at the time was that this little booklet would be distributed in the villages of Mexico, especially in the area where I had been working. It was full of illustrations to make it easier for parents to read the story to their children.

Back in the early 1980s many of the village folk in Mexico were still illiterate. The illustrations would help these parents learn the story and so be able to read it to their children. Thankfully with the help of government programs, today most adults can read.

As I commented in the last chapter of this story, my vision started out small, but it did not take long until it grew multiple times. Once other issues were added and published, the first booklet was renamed Templos de Dios (God’s Temples) and the complete series took the name Templos Vivientes.

God’s Temples tells the simple story of the Gospel using different colored cartoon houses as illustrations.

God’s Temple As I mentioned in chapter 1 of this story, the first cartoon house in the booklet “God’s Temples” was purple to represent that we are created to be children of the King of kings. Purple is a color that is used by royalty to represent their position.

In the Bible, 1 Corinthians 3:16 tells us we were created to become Living Temples (temples filled with God’s Holy Spirit).

Next comes the yellow house, representing our God designed destiny, if we so choose to cooperate with Him. Yellow represents the light and we are told in Revelations 21:23 that in heaven there will be no need for the sun or a light bulb.

Heaven will be filled with the light of the glory of God. We are also told that God is light, and there is no darkness in Him. 1 John 1:5.

The next pages show a black house which of course represents the sin which entered into the world.

A temple, even though it is built (created) for God, cannot get into heaven in this state. The Bible clearly states that we are all born with the seed of sin in our lives. Romans 3:23 tells us we have all sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

Ezekiel 18:4 also states that the soul that has sinned shall die. Death is a consequence of sin. But there is an answer – and the second half of this booklet shows the way out of this predicament.

The truth is we do NOT have to stay in this negative state. We do have a freedom of choice. We are all free to choose who we will follow (Christ Who leads us to heaven or our selfishness which will lead us to destruction).

Who do you choose today? (The gospel of Mark is a great book to start with when you first pick up the Bible).

Have you ever been at a time in your life where you just knew you were meant to be in a certain place? After the first several months in Cuernavaca it was time to return to New Zealand to visit my family and friends. I had been away for 2 yrs already.

During my stay in New Zealand, Anna Lee’s husband died (Anna Lee Carlton is the founder of the magazine, Bread For Children, that I was working with) and this created a need for help at the head office in Florida. I was asked to return to Florida for a time, rather than to Cuernavaca. However I had received a very strong impression during my time at home, that was to go to McAllen Texas.

Florida
I returned to Florida where Anna Lee assured me that as soon as it was possible, she would release me to go to McAllen where I could also be supportive to the work of the magazine since McAllen is a city on the border of Mexico.

The year spent in head office was a great time of further training for what was ahead of me. I learned a lot about preparing copy for the print shop and also had the opportunity to deal directly with the staff at the print shop.

My American Parents

It was in Florida that I met a couple who became my “American parents”. Their children still keep in close touch with me to this day. (This couple are now both waiting for us in heaven). I was blessed with 2 couples in the States who both became my American parents, and one couple in Mexico.

After just over 1 year in Florida, I was released to go down to McAllen, Texas. My american parents saw me off on the bus trip early that morning and we set off for the 2 day, 2 night trip to South Texas.

McAllen, Texas
Early in the morning 2 days later the bus finally pulled into the station in McAllen Texas where I was met by a new friend. At the boy’s orphanage I had met a couple who studied Spanish at the missionary language school. They made arrangements for me to be able to stay in one of the dormitories there since it was summer time. This would give me an opportunity to look for an apartment. The school was practically deserted.

Ideas Came Flooding into My Mind
During the first day ideas suddenly started flooding my mind, and I sat down with pen and pencil and started writing and drawing. For the next several months I worked with the preparation of what turned out to be the first of the series of booklets, Templos Vivientes (Living Temples). It was an incredible time as ideas seemed to come from “nowhere”. The time was right.

I had found an apartment within walking distance of shops and a cafeteria as well as some other stores including a copy shop. Inquiries at the coffee shop revealed that my budget would allow me to print 200 copies of the first booklet (I was planning to do this using photo copies to begin with).

The booklets are full of illustrations that would help parents who’s reading skills were not tops be able to read them to their children. My plan was to take the 200 copies back to one of the villages near the boys orphanage and give them to the mothers asking them to read the books to their children.

Templos Vivientes – The Vision Grew.
Before Templos Vivientes fully ready for the copy shop a friend introduced me to a Canadian missionary couple. They were looking for someone to rent an apartment adjacent to their home to have someone there when they were away. It seemed to be a good arrangement and so I accepted. Then they said “oh by the way, we also have a print shop in the back which you are welcome to use”.

My 200 copy budget ended up printing 2000 booklets for the first run, and in two colors! This booklet was reprinted many times to a total of 50-60,000 copies.

May your vision grow as you follow it! I would love to hear about the growth of your vision. There is plenty of room below in the comments to share. I look forward to hearing from you.

What a diverse team, a Colombian, a Kiwi and an American!

Anna Lee and her secretary had visited Mexico City previously and had been connected with a magazine distributor in Cuernavaca Mexico (Trine V.). Trine had introduced Anna Lee to a printer and she was in the process of transferring to another area, leaving her apartment vacant in Cuernavaca.

Everything Was Prepared For Us.

So we had an apartment to go to and a printer waiting for us. All we needed to do was to take the original copy of the magazine down and some equipment to continue working with future volumes.

There was even a car provided. Wow!

The trip down was not too eventful until we reached Mexico City and I tell the story of that little adventure right here..

We finally arrived about 1.30-2am rather tired and worse still we had kept our landlady up waiting for us. Trini was also still up waiting and she was due to leave the next morning, well actually later that day

Despite the lateness of the hour, in true Mexico fashion we were greeted warmly by Mrs Gonzalez (landlady) and offered some hot chocolate.

The next day we unpacked all of the originals of the magazine ready to take to the printers. The front page story was about a little boy in Mexico who had fallen into a water tank and was miraculously rescued.

I had made a sketch of the scene from the story and of course the main character was the little boy who’s name was Miguel. I thought that was a fictitious name.

The Surprise Is Revealed

Mrs Gonzalez came down to see if we needed anything and her youngest son was with her. He was about 5 years old. She introduced us to Miguel. I could not believe my eyes when I saw Miguel. He looked just like the sketch I had made, and yes he WAS the little boy who had fallen into the water tank.

It was a true story (which we knew) but even the name had not been changed. I showed them the sketch and they agreed the resemblance was incredible!

Wow, not only did my sketches turn out accepted for the magazine (remember this was the first time I had tried drawing with no “reference” that I could copy and adapt), but I had managed to capture the resemblance of a young boy I had never even met!

I could see that this was another indication that God was leading all the way!

When God calls He equips, there is no doubt about that. It just takes faith to step out and do things!

Introductions To Cuernavaca and The Culture of South Mexico.

Mrs Gonzalez turned out to be very supportive in attending to our every need. Her eldest son showed us around Cuernavaca and took us downtown to a treat of some great coffee and an experience with the Mariachis!

Cuernavaca quickly became my favorite city. It did not take long for me to decide that, and I never really left, just when I needed to return to the border to renew papers and travel to conferences etc.

The City of the Eternal Spring, it is called. Who could not enjoy a city that is never TOO hot yet never TOO cold and that has markets that offer any fruit or vegetable you can think of fresh every day!

Preparing For Greater Things

Our daily schedule in Cuernavaca was divided between editorial work, visiting the print shop and going out to the market and the streets to distribute the newly printed magazines. They were eagerly received where ever we went.

We also visited the different churches of the city and surrounding areas and were often invited to speak in the meetings. Of course we always took bundles of magazines with us.

Little did I realize at the time that all that we were doing was training for what was ahead of me.

Check back in a couple of days to see the next chapter in the unfolding of this adventure, and meanwhile I trust this is encouraging you to follow all that God puts in your heart.

Be prepared! As you start to follow His Vision for your life you will discover that it will always get bigger.

Chapter 2: The Beginning

As I mentioned in the first chapter, one of the things I noticed during my first months in Mexico was the lack of Christian literature available for children (this was in 1977). At the time I was helping oversee a dormitory in a boy’s orphanage near Monterrey.

At Christmas we went into the city to look for some books to give the boys for Christmas and were horrified to find there was so little to choose from.

Christian Literature Was Always A Part of My Vision

I always had the publishing side of missionary work on my heart. We were constantly receiving visiting speakers at Youth For Christ, and several were from Christian Literature Crusade. Their stories always fascinated and challenged me.

One of the first materials I published was a little magazine for the local Sunday School I was teaching at the time. As well as the magazine, I set to work doing children’s puzzles for my class. A teacher from one of the largest churches in Christchurch, NZ saw them and asked permission to publish these puzzles in their weekly church bulletin.

Confirmation and Direction from the Home Church

So when we saw the need in Mexico, I wrote to the church in NZ that was supporting me at the time sharing what I saw. The secretary who was familiar with what I was working on before I left New Zealand, immediately replied with an article she had seen in the Women’s Aglow magazine. It was about a children’s magazine that was being published in Florida. Bread for Children was the magazine, and the author (Anna Lee Carlton) shared her vision to start publishing in Mexico.

At the time I was working with a lady who had been in Argentina for many years and so of course her spanish was very good, while mine was still in the beginning stages. We contacted Anna Lee, director of Bread For Children, and were flown over to Florida to meet the team there. The few days with Anna Lee, her husband and the staff sealed the next step in my adventures on this side of the world.

We returned to South Texas (the base for going in and out of Mexico), packed and returned to Florida. We were to prepare the first issue of Bread for Children in spanish which was to be translated as “Pan Para Los Hijos”.

One of the first things we noticed was the absence of illustrations in the magazine. We commented on this and mentioned that Mexican children need visuals. (All children do actually, but we were preparing Pan Para Los Hijos).

Who Was To Do the Needed Illustrations?

Anna Lee was fine with that, but who was to do the drawings? So far my drawing skills had been limited to copying or at least adapting a sketch from an existing one. But there was no point of reference for any sketches that were needed now.

However I volunteered and sat down with a pencil to see what I could do.

Immediately my mind was filled with images of the scenes at the boy’s orphanage near Monterrey. I had something to copy and adapt!

A very big surprise was awaiting me in Cuernavaca where we were to be sent to print the first volume of Pan Para Los Hijos (Look for this surprise in next article, to be published on Thursday, Jan 8th, 2009).

]]> http://kiwichamp.com/the-beginning/feed/ 2 http://kiwichamp.com/culture-shock/ http://kiwichamp.com/culture-shock/#comments Wed, 12 Nov 2008 03:37:44 +0000 Jill Rapley http://kiwichamp.com/?p=130 The challenges of life are always around. Even though now and again we do find spaces of time when all seems “smooth sailing”. Its usually not long before a new challenge shows up!

If you don’t find enough challenges in your life at home, I can guarantee you when you travel to a foreign field you will find all you need. First thing you will discover is this thing known as culture shock which mostly means “your way” of doing things is not the only “right way” in this world. If you have traveled at all, you will know what I mean.

My philosophy is that you can cope with anything when you know there is an end in sight. As for missionaries and others who are planning to stay awhile, thats a whole different ball game.

Culture Shock Briefing
In fact most missionaries go through some sort of briefing or orientation before embarking on such as adventure, so they know what to expect. At least they will have SOME idea of what they may face upon arrival. What really happens is that your world is suddenly turned upside down when you enter a foreign country with the idea that the return date is set somewhere in the rather distance future.

Now if you are a perfectionist and find yourself traveling to a country like Mexico, you are in for a mm what’s the word? Treat? Wild ride?

Well one thing is for sure, the perfectionist traits of my personality are now nowhere near as defined as they used to be.

Facing The Need To Change
One of the first situations I faced was with some new found friends who were also working with me in the office. As insignificant as this situation seemed, at the time it was a “big issue” to me, and that’s the whole point about culture shock. It is not the big things that can be difficult to handle, it is those little things. I had dictated some letters to be sent out and they were typed and presented to me with a big smile, all ready to sign.

Oh my, what is this, was my first reaction when I looked at the letters. I can’t sign this! First I had asked for them to be justified, and they were sort of. Each line was filled with a number of xxx at the end sufficient to create a perfectly justified look. Mm, and then the grammer! Sure my Spanish was not perfect at the time, but even I could spot the grammar errors, and I was supposed to sign this! Help!

So the challenge her was should I return the smile as I signed the letters, or return the letters? This was my first week in this environment so my perfectionist traits were still very strong and the letters were handed back for retyping.

That was the first day, but it was not long before I realized that as bad as these letters looked to me, they looked just great to the girls with me. Plus I had to face the question, what was I here for? To change their culture? Or to show them how to live the Abundant Live within their culture. The latter of course was my true mission.

Lessons From Culture Shock – What Is REALLY Important?
So it was time for ME to change! Culture shock raises some very valuable questions:

• How important to you are the people around you?
  
  
• Is enjoying your friends more important to you than having YOUR own way in everything you do?
  
  
• Do you spend your time with your friends trying to change them?
  
  
• Is your culture and ways of doing things more important to you than your friendships?
  
  

Yuli

Tags: culture, culture-shock, Mexico, perfectionist

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