LIA School
The children of the Love in Action School were recently feted during an end of the year “graduation” ceremony. The event was designed to recognize the academic and personal gains of the students and the ongoing assistance and devotion of the staff and teachers. During the 2014-2015 school year, the children’s average GPA improved from 8.1 to 8.5.
For the first time since the elementary school opened in 2013, middle school curriculum will be added when students return to school in late August. With the academic improvement of the students, the administration and staff is looking to the community to help fund the continuation of this educational improvement and level of curriculum.
Donations may be presented to Director of Administration Dalia Zepedia at the Love in Action campus or those interested can help directly on the website www.loveinaction.org.
Consulate Announcement
In a July 23 communique, the United States Consulate General in Guadalajara reports that due to an announcement that CI Bank in Ajijic is again able to issue U.S. dollar checks for payment of consular services; the consulate will resume regular services on their Wednesday, August 5 visit to the American Legion and Lake Chapala Society (LCS).
U.S. citizens who plan to visit the Consulate for notarial services must make an appointment, according to details on the website This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..">This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. All questions can be directed to that website.
LCS Singles
An open meeting to re-group as the LCS Singles Committee is planned for Monday, August 3, 1:30 p.m. in the cafe area of the Lake Chapala Society.
All those ready and willing to be active participants are invited to attend. You do not have to be an LCS member to attend.
Reply to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. if you plan to attend.
Ted Talk Seminar
The Tuesday, August 4 LCS Learning Seminar from noon to 1:15 p.m. for LCS members will be chaired by Fred Harland. This first of the experimental August meetings features a Ted Talk recording of Harry Potter author J. K. Rowling’s 2008 Harvard Commencement address.
As Rowling speaks on “The Fringe Benefits of Failure,” she offers powerful and heartening advice to dreamers and overachievers. She shares her own hard-won lesson which she deems “worth more than any qualification I ever earned.”
LCS Bus Tours
Concha Gurski, newly appointed coordinator of the LCS bus tour program, has announced a pair of August shopping trips. Those attending must pre-register at the LCS office and pay the fee of 250 pesos for members or 300 pesos for non-members.
Lakesiders will have a rare bus shopping opportunity on Wednesday, August 5 when the destination is the Home Depot store, followed by the Outlet Malls along Lopez Mateos.
Shoppers will be back on familiar turf during the Thursday, August 20 trip to Guadalajara’s Plaza Galerias, with stops at Costco, Sam’s, Super Mega and Super Walmart. First timers will see an inviting array of boutiques, restaurants, clothing stores and shops, including Best Buy, Sanborn’s and the Liverpool department store.
Celebration of Mexico
The organizers of Niños de Chapala y Ajijic (NCA) are planning the second annual Celebration of Mexico at Agustin Vasquez Calvario’s Restaurant Viva Mexico Tia Lupita in San Juan Cosala on Saturday, August 15, 3-7 p.m.
NCA planners are working with Vasquez to pull out all the stops beginning with a full buffet of iconic Mexican dishes.
To keep the party moving, there’ll be plenty of live entertainment, highlighted by area folk dancers exhibiting a sampling of the Republic’s traditional dances. Parents of San Juan Cosala NCA children will display and sell their own handmade crafts and baked goods.
All proceeds from the event will support NCA and the hundreds of gifted students who can continue their education through the generosity of supporters. Tickets at 250 pesos are available at the NCA Bazaar in Riberas del Pilar (across from the 7-11) or from the events coordinator at (33) 1695-6422.
Police course
Chapala and Ajijic police personnel invited the Axixic Masonic Lodge to participate in a ceremony to honor local police officers recently compling a course at the Instituto Tecnologico Superior de Chapala. Shown above, from left are: Past Senior Warden Dr. Antonio Pinto, Ajijic Comandante Lucano, Lodge Master Wes Weston, Chapala Commandante Torres, and Past Master Jim Jensen. Local Masons strive to work with local law enforcement groups and assist as requested.
Lakeside Presbyterian
Of the message for the Sunday, August 2, 10 a.m. worship service of the Lakeside Presbyterian Church, Pastor Ross Arnold says, “While teaching his disciples, Jesus said to them, ‘And when you pray …’ the clear implication was that the followers of Jesus would, indeed, spend time talking with God. On several other occasions, Jesus gives instructions about how and why his followers should pray.”
Arnold says this week’s sermon, “If You Love Me, Pray,” will “help us understand how those same principles apply to our lives.”
Following worship and refreshments, the Pastor’s Forum convenes in the church library at 11:30 a.m. There, attendees are free to ask questions about the sermon, the church, the faith, or any other topic of interest.
Lakeside Presbyterian Church is on San Jorge in Riberas. Just turn toward the lake at Mom’s Restaurant and go two blocks – the church is on the right.
St. Andrew’s Anglican
There are times when complaining can be an act of faith that gets response from God. One of the readings during the Sunday, August 2, 10 a.m. worship service at St. Andrew’s Anglican Church remembers how the complaining of the Israelites in the wilderness resulted in an unexpected gift of “manna,” food to sustain them for 40 years. The meaning of that gift, and the notion of faithful complaining, is the focus of Fr. Winston Welty’s sermon, “The Complaining Bread.”
Sunday School begins at 9:45 a.m. Refreshments follow the worship service in the garden. Every Sunday, the feeding program supported by St. Andrew’s welcomes donations of non-perishable food items, left in the baskets by the church doors.
The annual Parrish Picnic is scheduled for Thursday, August 13, with a Happy Hour at 1 p.m. The meal featuring Sloppy Joes will be served at 2 p.m. St. Andrew’s is located at Calle San Luis 19, a block south of the Carretera in Riberas del Pilar.
Little Chapel by the Lake
Activities on Sunday, August 2 start with fellowship and refreshments shared with the congregation of Christ Church Lakeside at 10:45 a.m. The worship service follows at 11:15 a.m. with a message by Pastor Gene Raymer speaking on the topic, “The Four Rs – Recognition, Repentance, Redemption and Resolution.” Members of the congregation continue their fellowship over lunch at a local restaurant after the service.
“Experiencing God” is the study title for Tuesday, August 4, 7 p.m. The Wednesday, August 5 midweek movie starts at 4:30 p.m. Admission is free and refreshments are provided. Saturday, August 8, members of the congregation travel to Jocotepec to celebrate with the students and staff of La Ola.
The Little Chapel by the Lake is an interdenominational congregation located on the Carretera just east of the golf course in Chula Vista.
San. Andrés English
Fr. Basil G. Royston, D.Min. leads the English speaking congregation of San Andrés Parish Church in a 9 a.m. Mass using the theme “Bread from Heaven.” Royston says, “Through Christ we have undergone what St. Paul calls a spiritual revolution and we can no longer be satisfied with material things. We need the food that comes from heaven, the bread of life which we receive at this Mass.”
At this first Sunday of August, the members of the congregation share earthly bread in their monthly offering of non-perishable food, cleaning, laundry and other needed household items to help Villa Infantil of Guadalupe y San José, the home of 30 orphans and their caregivers.
Christ Church
The members of Christ Church Lakeside Episcopal will meet on Sunday, August 2, 9:30 a.m. at the Little Chapel by the Lake. Fr. Danny Borkowski will preside and give a message with the theme, “The Bread of Life,” based on John 6: 24-35.
The congregations of Christ Church Lakeside Episcopal and the Little Chapel by the Lake share a common coffee fellowship between their respective services from 10:35 until 11:10 a.m. in the Fellowship Hall of the Little Chapel.
The sessions of the Tuesday Bible Study are Tuesdays at 2 p.m. in the fellowship hall of The Little Chapel by the Lake. The group is beginning an in-depth look at the Gospel of John.
La Ola Children’s home fund-raiser is set for Saturday August 1.
Unitarian Universalists
Frank Howell will present “How Conservatives and Misogynists Took Over the Early Church” during the Sunday, August 2, 10:30 a.m. meeting of the Lake Chapala Unitarian Universalists Fellowship. He delves into how a gender-equal early religious movement was taken over by hard-liners and orthodoxy.
Unitarian Universalists draw from many sources including direct experience of that transcending mystery and wonder, affirmed in all cultures, which moves us to a renewal of the spirit and an openness to the forces which create and uphold life.
The Fellowship notes that the following principles and sources of faith are the backbone of their religious community:
“The words and deeds of prophetic women and men which challenge us to confront powers and structures of evil with justice, compassion, and the transforming power of love, wisdom from the world’s religions which inspires us in our ethical and spiritual life and Jewish and Christian teachings which call us to love our neighbors as ourselves and humanist teachings which counsel us to heed the guidance of reason and the results of science, and warn us against idolatries of the mind and spirit and spiritual teachings of earth-centered traditions which celebrate the sacred circle of life and instruct us to live in harmony with the rhythms of nature.”
The local group meets at Plaza de la Ribera, Rio Bravo 10A. Further information is available at www.uuflc.org.
Open Circle
Attendees of Open Circle will gather in the rear gardens of the Lake Chapala Society at 10 a.m. on Sunday, August 2 for socializing and refreshments.
Howard Edmond will tell tales from the Grimm Brothers, a modern tale by Richard Kennedy, and an old English tale about death in the program, “Stories Your Mother Never Told You.” Edmond will conclude the program by playing a Native American flute and the telling of Lakota and Huichol stories.
“Come,” he urges, “awaken the child within; together we will dance through words and worlds of wonder!”
Edmond enjoys spinning tales and swears he was thrown out the side door of the family ’52 Chevy Wagon after his father got sick of hearing him sing “You Ain’t Nothin’ but a Hound Dog” for six hours. For the ensuing three weeks he lived with the last of the Adirondack wolves, who viewed him as a fellow wild thing.
When Edmund was 12, short big-eyed green men came through the wall and took him on a space excursion. Following high school he served four years on a Navy nuclear submarine. Next he worked as heating mechanic, landscaper, and sheet metal estimator. At 34 he rediscovered his passion for storytelling and has been telling them at schools, libraries, business dinners and churches ever since. He had five specials on PBS radio and has performed on an ABC affiliate.
Arnt J. Thorkildson takes on the place the printing press invented by Johannes Gutenberg plays in the history of the world during the Sunday, August 9 meeting.
Thorkildsen was born in Norway. In 1947, following World War II, he and his family moved to Seattle. He was educated there and majored in history, which has always been his first love. He served in the U.S. Navy and saw active duty in Korea. He settled in Ajijic seven years ago.
Buddhist
Heart of Awareness Community meets on Wednesday, August 5 with Noble Silence at 4 p.m. followed by a formal meditation, dharma teachings and discussion at 4:30 p.m. There will be a recording of Joseph Goldstein and Fleet Maull in a dialogue on the topic “What are we learning from being mindful?”
The First Sunday Long Sit is set for Sunday, August 2 from 9 a.m. to noon. Arrive by 8:50 a.m. to prepare for three rounds of 40 minutes sitting and 20 minutes walking meditation.
The Monday, August 3, 3 p.m. Dharma Movie Matinee, features “Ram Dass Fierce Grace.”
The sangha is at Guadalupe Victoria 101, suites A&B, in Ajijic. The Heart of Awareness is a non-sectarian community grounded in the teachings of the Buddha as preserved in the Theravada/Vipassana tradition. Prior experience or affiliation is not required. For further information on the community and scheduled activities, visit www.heartofawareness.org or call Janet Reichert at (376) 766-6069.