We would love to see you if you’re in the area! Here’s our tentative schedule:
Lord willing I’ll give a report on the ministry in Mexico, and share from God’s Word. Hope you can join us!
Some of you may be wondering about our trip from Mexico to Canada. Yes, we did have some “drama”.
We thought a direct flight would help us avoid some of the complexity that often comes with our travel, but in this case it was not so! It appears that we got on our plane without being told that most or all of our luggage – that is, everyone’s luggage, not just ours – would not even be placed on the plane!
So when we arrived in Canada, there was no moving belt of suitcases. Only a long and slowly moving line of passengers filling out luggage claims forms.
According to the airline website, they spent the next few days trying to locate our luggage. After about 3 days, one of Shari’s suitcases arrived. The other three remained MIA.
About 5 days after we left home, the rest of our luggage finally caught up with us.
However, two of the suitcases will likely not fly again, because of the damage.
The airline should reimburse us somewhat, at least financially, though not for the hours we took dealing with the situation. But we have to wait another three or four weeks to find out. So we’re hoping that all that goes smoothly. But I kind of have a feeling that the drama is not over!
If you’ve been paying attention, you know one of the main reasons why we’re heading to Canada around this time – there’s a wedding coming! Our daughter Hannah and her fiancé Brandon are deep into preparations, and hopefully we are being of some help!
We will also be visiting some churches while we’re in Canada. We’re hoping to get to see some congregations we weren’t able to catch the last time around in Alberta, and then we’re going to Ontario to visit some churches and various friends and family there. It’s been quite a few years since we have reported to our churches in Ontario in person, so it’s important that we take the time to do so. If you’d like to see us, drop us a line and we’ll see what we can do! If we’re at a church in your area, we would love to see you there too.
I’ll try to get a church schedule in our newsletter, and maybe even here on the website if I’m ambitious. But as you can imagine things are pretty busy right now!
We would appreciate your prayers, as this will be a pretty intense and busy time. Pray as well for Hannah and Brandon, and also for Nathanael, who will be facing big changes himself. Pray that we would be able to be a help and encouragement to family, friends, and churches as we serve.
Pray also for the church in Las Palmas while we’re gone. Not that we’re indispensable – by no means! – but naturally our absence means more work for those we are leaving behind.
And now – let the journey begin!
The 30th of April is Children’s Day in Mexico! It’s the 20th of November in Canada, but it tends to be a much bigger deal in Mexico.
In 2016, ten years ago, we had a group from Word of Life (Palabra de Vida) in Ixtapaluca to add to the festivities. They helped us out with some evangelistic activities, and part of the fun included a huge BALL!
To read more, check out a post from that era – A Weekend for – KIDS!
Ten years ago today, I had the privilege of escorting Hannah into her big celebration – her 15th birthday party!
As you may know, the 15th for girls in Mexico is a big deal. Looking back, it really was a huge blessing to see so many friends and family together, many who were there to encourage and pray for our daughter.
The theme was “heritage”, a time to also celebrate the family heritage that we are blessed to have.
Here’s Hannah with her friends – 10 year ago today!
Although we’re working mostly with the church in Las Palmas now, we’ve had some recent opportunities to connect with what’s happening at the church in Jesús María. So, in answer to the question, things are going well! 🙂
We enjoyed having an old friend from Jesús María come and preach (Oscar Luna), and we really appreciated his visit. He joined us in our series on Deuteronomy, taking us through Deuteronomy 7. Oscar preaches in Jesús María along with Rod.
When Nathanael and his friends were here, we went up to Jesús María for their regular youth event (yes, if you’ve been here, you know you go “up” to Jesús María – kind of like going “up to Jerusalem”). There was a good group there enjoying some games and then learning about the book of Judges. Here’s a little volleyball:
That morning we also went with a group from the church to the hospital for some evangelism. Our church goes too, but they go on a different day, so usually we don’t see each other. Here’s some of the group making sandwiches (tortas, to be exact) to bring to serve to patients, their families, and hospital staff – whoever!
Rod, who is working more with the church right now, just posted some more recent information about a youth retreat (two from our church joined them) and a missions trip to the state of Oaxaca – and some other recent special events!
Check it out: Anniversary #16, Good Friday and Easter, Youth Events, Oaxaca mission trip
Praise the Lord for His continuing work at the Path of Life Bible Church in Jesús María!