Our youth group from church is in Orlando this week doing mission work. We'll end our week at Walt Disney World touring the World Showcase at Epcot and learning a bit of "missions & outreach" information about each country. This is what we'll be learning:
Mexico
·
History
of country The site
of advanced Amerindian civilizations - including the Olmec, Toltec,
Teotihuacan, Zapotec, Maya, and Aztec - Mexico was conquered and colonized by
Spain in the early 16th century. Administered as the Viceroyalty of New Spain
for three centuries, it achieved its independence early in the 19th century.
The global financial crisis beginning in late 2008 caused a massive economic
downturn the following year, although growth returned quickly in 2010. Ongoing
economic and social concerns include low real wages, underemployment for a
large segment of the population, inequitable income distribution, and few advancement
opportunities for the largely Amerindian population in the impoverished
southern states. The elections held in 2000 marked the first time since the
1910 Mexican Revolution that an opposition candidate - Vicente FOX of the
National Action Party (PAN) - defeated the party in government, the
Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). He was succeeded in 2006 by another
PAN candidate Felipe CALDERON. National elections, including the presidential
election, are scheduled for 1 July 2012. Since 2007, Mexico's powerful
drug-trafficking organizations have engaged in bloody feuding, resulting in
tens of thousands of drug-related homicides.
·
Population
in 2011 114,975,406
·
Population
age 0-14 in 2010,
27.9%
·
Life
expectancy (females and males, years) 79.7/ 74.9
·
Infant
mortality rate (per 1,000 live births) 16.77
·
Unemployment in 2011, 5.2% % of labor force
·
Homelessness
rates In Mexico City an estimated 40% of
people live in informal housing Source:
www.unhabitat.org
·
Population
Below Poverty Line 18.2%
note: based on food-based definition of poverty; asset based poverty amounted
to more than 47% (2008)
·
People
living with HIV/ AIDS 220,000
·
Religion Mexico has no official religion;
however, most people in Mexico report they are Christians, and this is
reflected in several aspects of life there; Christmas is a national holiday and
every year during Easter all schools in Mexico, public and private, take
vacations.
During the Spanish conquest and
colonization of Mexico, Roman Catholicism was established as the dominant
religion of Mexico, and today, about 89% of Mexicans identify themselves with
that division of Christianity. It is the nation with the second largest
Catholic population, behind Brazil and before the United States. 6% of the
population adheres to various Protestant faiths (mostly Pentecostal), and the
remaining 5% of the population adhering to other religions or professing no
religion. While most indigenous Mexicans are Catholic, some combine or
syncretize Catholic practices with native traditions.
The Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints (Mormonism) has a growing presence in the major border cities
of northeastern Mexico, and over one million members nationwide. Judaism has
been practiced in Mexico for centuries, and there are estimated to be more than
45,000 Jews in Mexico today. Islam is mainly practiced by members of the Arab,
Turkish, and other expatriate communities, though there is a very small number
of the indigenous population in Chiapas that practices Islam.
·
United Methodist Missionaries
·
Berman, Guillermo - Mexican Methodist Border
Mission Coordinator in Reynosa, Mexico.
·
Henderson, Muriel- Program coordinator,
fundraiser and teacher for the "Give Ye Them To Eat" program in
Puebla, Mexico.
·
Henderson, Terry-Director, "Give Ye
Them to Eat", Southeast Annual Conference, Methodist Church of Mexico.
Such a neat idea to incorporate Missions into each country you visit! Have a great trip!
ReplyDelete~Terri (fellow C&C writer.) ;o)