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Category Archives: Ministry glimpses

Sunday School and Texcoco

25 February 2008 – 4:14 pm

Sunday School in Cuernavaca

I’ve got to stop posting about prayers requests - people actually pray and then want to know how everything went!  ;)

Seriously - we appreciate your prayers.  Thanks!  The Sunday School class went very well.  Now, we have to admit there were only 3 students - two were our kids.  There was another helper from the church, and a few other people hanging around (because we basically share space with the nursery).  So how many students do you need to have before it’s worthwhile?

Well, it was worthwhile, of course.  The kids were into it and learned.  We were blessed, and had a good chance to use our Spanish and continue developing ministry materials.  And it’s a lot less nerve-racking to teach 3 students and not 50.  However, I had to pop a balloon as part of the class, and that was a little traumatic.  I’ll get over it.

We’re heading out to spend a few days in Texcoco, to check out the ministry there and visit with our friends Rollie and Jo Ann Smith.  We’re looking forward to it, but we’re not in the "travel groove" yet, so it will be … interesting, I’m sure!

In case you’re wondering, here are the general locations of the three places we’ve visited this year.  Ixtapaluca and Texcoco are the areas we’re considering moving to (probably late spring/early summer):


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By Jim | Also posted in Prayer and Praise | Comments (3)

Teaching Sunday School this morning

24 February 2008 – 8:45 am

Good morning everyone! If you’re reading this in time, we would appreciate your prayers as Shari and I teach in the children’s Sunday School class this morning. (In Spanish - woo hoo!)

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By Jim | Also posted in Prayer and Praise | Comments (2)

Holiday activities (in pictures)

6 January 2008 – 6:31 am

Santa Balloons

Sometimes I post things in our Photo Gallery and then don’t write anything about them here in our blog.  There were a lot of activities over Christmas that I didn’t write about, or things I wrote about that I didn’t include pictures of.

Well, now you can check out some of those things in the gallery.  For example:

  • Decorating our Christmas tree
  • Our church Christmas program.  Hannah and Nathanael were Mary and Joseph, and Shari sang in the chorus.  Jim helped control the kids!
  • Shari’s trip to Canada - including photos of the family and Amy’s boyfriend Nate, their family Christmas and a hockey game they went to (¡muy canadiense!)
  • Ximena’s birthday party that Hannah and I went to.  Ximena is one of Hannah’s friends from school.
  • Hannah and Nathanael’s school Christmas program at Colegio del Bosque.  There are a few pictures, and even a short video with clips of the program.
  • A posada we attended - a posada is a traditional Christmas party.  We were asked to bring a piñata, so we had quite the adventures trying to figure out what was a proper piñata and what should be inside a proper piñata on such an occasion!
  • Building a gingerbread house - a family activity.
  • Christmas Day - family celebrations and guests.  Actually, I didn’t take a lot of pictures later in the day when our guests were here, so I don’t even have pictures of all the O’Briens.  Don’t worry, we love you all!

To see the photos, go to our Recent shots… album. (edit - these are old photos now, and are mostly in the Misc older photos album)  The photos are shown newest first, and right now the photos from December take up about nine pages.  Or, here’s the first photo from December.  Then you can click previous to go to the next picture.

By the way, be sure to leave your comments!  Just go the the picture you want, and click on Add Comment on the left side bar.

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By Jim | Also posted in Family, Mexico | Comments (0)

Moved with compassion

19 November 2007 – 9:02 pm
Helping hand

At one of our recent Bible studies, Luis Eduardo started talking about what he had seen outside of a local hospital.  This is where, of course, many families bring thier sick for treatment.  The problem is, many of these families are very poor.  They come from out of town, and have no family here to stay with.  They can’t afford a hotel.  So, they sleep outside the hospital on the ground.

Not only can they not afford a place to stay, they can’t afford warm clothes.  Luis Eduardo said many of them were in shirt sleeves - men, women and children.  With the temperatures getting down below 10C (50F), it’s cold enough to make more of the family sick!

Imagine the trauma of having someone in your family seriously ill - then added to that you have to sleep outside with no shelter, no warm clothes and little food.  My friends wanted to do something about it.

You know, organized, planned giving is a great thing.  Everyone should think through how they give, and make the most of what they can give.  Jesus encouraged planning and counting the cost (Luk 14:25-32).  But if we’re going to be like Jesus, we also have to let ourselves be "moved with compassion" (Mat 14:14).  That means spontaneous, joyful giving - not relying entirely on calculating logic.

So I get pretty excited when I hear people simply seeing a need and getting excited about helping out!

Please pray for those who are giving up blankets, sweaters, coats and food for these people, and pray for those who have gone and will go again to the hospital to talk to these people and help where they can.

Speaking of spontaneous giving, many have been giving to help those who have been left with nothing after the disaster in the State of Tabasco.  Many gave sacrificially right away.  It’s now being made an official "project" of CAM International, so Lord willing others will be moved with compassion.  Rod Fry just came back from Tabasco - to hear his account and see pictures, see his recent post.

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By Jim | Also posted in Mexico | Comments (0)

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