Toastmasters Club
The Lake Chapala Bilingual Toastmasters Club meetings have moved to the Lake Chapala Society Sala and are held every Monday from 7 to 8:30 p.m. The August theme is “Building Enthusiasm.”
The group continues to alternate meetings held in English and Spanish to assist members learn both languages. The Monday, August 18 meeting will feature an improvisation competition on “Table Topics.” Both Spanish and English speakers can compete.
Spanish winners will move to the next level contest, which will be held at lakeside. The opportunity for English winners will be announced. For information in English call Guy Jobidon at (376) 766-5181. Marissa Urrutia has information in Spanish at (33) 1600-5937.
LCS Bus Trip
The Lake Chapala Society (LCS) is planning a bus trip to Tonala and Tlaquepaque on Wednesday, August 20. The group will leave at 9 a.m. from the sculpture in La Floresta. The bus will go first to Tonalá and then to the central plaza area of Tlaquepaque. Those who wish may leave the downtown and go to the Forum Mall which includes a Home Depot. The bus will leave Tlaquepaque at 4 p.m. to return to lakeside. The price of the trip is 250 pesos. Those who wish to attend can sign up at the LCS on Monday, August 18, or Tuesday, August 19, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Monthly Pet Food Drive
The monthly pet food drive for shelter animals will be held from 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. on Thursday, August 21 at the Lakeside Friends of the Animals (LFA) Shelter pet food store.
This drive is held on the third Thursday of each month. It’s an easy system. Shoppers who visit the LFA pet food store on the day of the drive can purchase food and let the volunteers know which shelter they wish to help. All of the shelters need extra help during the summer months. There are fewer adoptions during this slower time, and this is the season when young puppies and kittens are left on the shelters’ doorsteps. All area shelters are filled to capacity during the months when many of their regular benefactors are not in residence at Lake Chapala.
Those unable to visit the store on August 21 can purchase and donate pet food for their favorite animal shelter at any time. At the time of purchase shoppers can just tell the store clerk that the cat or dog food is a donation to the shoppers’ favorite area animal rescue organization. The LFA store will hold the food the shopper has purchased for the designated shelter to pick up. Shoppers are reminded that they must contact the shelter they have chosen so that group can stop and pick up the food.
Volunteers from Anita’s Animals help each month at the pet food drive. Pet food purchased at the LFA store helps LFA support several lakeside charitable organizations.
Experimenta Mole at LCS
Coordinator Patti Combs reminds area residents of Experimenta Mole, the second session of the Lake Chapala Society’s (LCS) summer cultural series. This Friday, August 21, 1 p.m. meeting will explore the wonders, tastes, variety and history of mole, Mexico’s king of sauces. Leading the meeting will be Cetty Zambrano.
Lakeside Progressives
The August 12 meeting of the Lakeside Progressives was held at the Peacock Garden Restaurant. Conversation continued to explore what the members can do about problems exposed by the July meeting’s book report of “Beyond Outrage” by former U.S. Secretary of Labor Robert Reich.
In addition to signing petitions, writing to officials, participating in demonstrations and voting, the new volunteer administrator will work on a Lakeside Progressives website.
The group’s Facebook page is Lakeside Progressives. Email Chad Olsen at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. with questions or information about the September meeting.
Yard sale
Organizers of the Jeanne W. Chaussee Education Fund garage/yard sale slated for later this month hope to raise enough money to cover the cost of basic school supplies for more than 100 students at an indigenous Tarahumara school in the Copper Canyon. The cost of the supplies ranges from 600-1,200 pesos per student, depending on their grade. Many students from this school have gone on to win university scholarships and become professionals.
What makes this school special is that the students are first taught in their native language and then Spanish. The children are taught to be proud of who they are and where they come from. They are given the skills needed to survive in the outside world if that is what they want, and learn how not to be taken advantage of by outsiders.
The garage/yard sale will be held Saturday and Sunday, August 23 and 24, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Pescadores 2 in Riberas del Pilar, the eastern most street. To get there from Chapala or Ajijic, from the highway turn toward the lake at Mom’s Restaurant, take the first left. Go to the end of the street (two blocks) and turn right.
For more information, or to help, contact Chaussee’s daughter, Libby Townsend, at (376) 766-1167.
Buddhist Community
The Heart of Awareness Buddhist Community meets in Ajijic for meditation and dharma teachings at 4:30 p.m. each Wednesday at Encarnation Rosas 9. Wednesday, August 20, a film, “Beginning a Daily Practice,” featuring Brad Warner, an American Zoto Zen priest, will be shown.
The group’s Movie Night will be held at 5 p.m. on Monday, August 18 with the 2008 Japanese drama ”Departures,” in which a young man returns home after a failed career as a cellist. He finds work as a traditional Japanese ritual mortician. This was the first Japanese film to win the Academy Award for best foreign language film.
Heart of Awareness is a non-sectarian Buddhist practice community grounded in the original teachings of the Buddha as preserved in the Theravada/Vipassana tradition. Membership is open and includes people with Zen, Tibetan, and Shambhala backgrounds as well as those who have no prior experience with meditation. For more information, call Karin Miles at (376) 766-0020.
Lakeside Presbyterian
The recent series of sermons at Lakeside Presbyterian Church have been based upon Psalms selected by Pastor Ross Arnold. During the 10 a.m. worship service on Sunday, August 17, his subject, “Life Together,” draws from King David’s brief but joyful Psalm 133 which extols the goodness, pleasure and blessings of life together in a faith community.
Following the service, the parishioners will gather in the garden for refreshments and fellowship. Lakeside Presbyterian Church is on the Carretera between Vigolari and S&S Auto. Watch for the sign “You have family at Lakeside!”
The Little Chapel
“Remedy” is the title Rev. Gene Raymer has given his sermon for the 11:15 a.m. worship service on Sunday, August 17 at the Little Chapel by the Lake. Says Raymer: “God gave Solomon a plan to correct the sufferings of His people. That plan will work today to solve the problems facing the world, if we will implement it.”
The worship service follows a 10:45 a.m. refreshment period shared with the members of Christ Church. Following the service, members will enjoy food and fellowship at a local restaurant.
The Wednesday Mid Week Movie will be “Letters to God.” When a young boy learns he is dying of cancer, the letters he writes to God affect the people around the youth. Free refreshments will be served.
The Little Chapel by the Lake is located on the mountain side of the Carretera just east of the Chula Vista golf course.
St. Andrew’s Anglican
The theme of the 10 a.m. service on Sunday, August 18 at St. Andrew’s Anglican church is centered on an encounter Jesus had with a Canaanite woman. In this story Jesus initially appears abrupt and impatient before succumbing to the woman’s insistent faith. Father Winston Welty’s sermon, “Jesus’s Learning Curve,” suggests that
He grew, learned and matured as His earthly ministry progressed.
The children’s bilingual Sunday School begins each week at 9:45 a.m. Church members meet for a time of welcome, fellowship and refreshment in the garden after the service.
The food program supported by St. Andrew’s is always grateful for non-perishable items such as beans, rice, lentils, pasta, salt, oil. Donations can be placed in the baskets by the church doors on Sundays.
The annual summer parish picnic is planned to begin at 2 p.m. on Thursday, August 21. In addition to the typical picnic menu, the members and guests will join in games. Prizes will be awarded, including one for the best cowboy poem. Those who wish to attend must sign up by Sunday, August 18.
The address of St. Andrew’s is Calle San Lucas 19, just a block south of the Carretera in Riberas del Pilar.
Christ Church
Because Father Danny Borkowski is in Texas assisting with the arrangements following his sister’s sudden death on August 10, Deacon Rob Wells will preside at the 9:30 a.m. worship service at Christ Church on Sunday, August 17. He will base the sermon, “Listen and Understand,” on Matthew 15: 10-28 and serve Holy Communion with presanctified elements.
Following the morning worship service, the congregation will join the members of the Little Chapala by the Lake for fellowship time.
Wells is currently leading Bible study every Tuesday morning from 10 until about 11 a.m. in the Fellowship Hall of the Little Chapel. He is using The Jerusalem Bible as his basic text due to its rich footnotes and commentary as the group moves into the Gospel of Mark.
Christ Church meets at The Little Chapel by the Lake, on the Carretera, near the entrance to upper Chula Vista.
Unitarian Universalist
The Lake Chapala Unitarian Universalist Fellowship meets at 10:30 a.m. every Sunday at Plaza de la Riberas, Rio Bravo 10A, in Ajijic.
The group will have an interactive service on Sunday, August 17. Bob Koches will lead the meeting titled “UU and You.” Those in attendance will explore the direction of the greater UU movement and how it relates to the Fellowship here at Lake Chapala. A coffee hour will follow.
Open Circle
The 10:30 a.m. meeting of Open Circle on Sunday, August 17 features the Children’s Choir of San Juan Cosalá. This group is a new project in collaboration with the Orquesta Ajijic and Golden Strings. The 30 children, ranging in age from 9 to 13, began music classes in January 2014 under the direction of Daniel Medeles.
Those attending Open Circle gather at 10 a.m. each Sunday for coffee, tea and sandwich bites.
San Andrés English
“Mercy to All Humankind” is the homily theme chosen by Rev. Basil G. Royston, D. Min. for the attendees at the 9 a.m. English Mass on Sunday, August 17, at the Templo de San Andrés in Ajijic.
Says Royston: “We tend to think of God as exclusively as our own property. But God is God of all the world, of believers and unbelievers alike; and today we celebrate God’s mercy to all who are not believers.”
Those interested in learning more about the Catholic Church or are thinking of becoming a member of the Church, or are curious about what Catholics believe, can join a group of interested people that is forming at San Andrés Catholic Parish (English Mass). If you’d like more information, e-mail Fr. Basil at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.