Discovering Life

29 January 2021

Just a Little Ministry Update

Jim Ministry glimpses, Prayer and Praise, ST Highlight 1

We appreciate all you people out there who are praying for the ministry here in Mexico! I probably don’t give updates as much as I should, but here are a few things that are going on.

We had a fun youth event the other day, sacrificing two frisbees and two pizzas to the cause. We had a devotional and talked about the concept of “seeking the Lord” from the story of Asa in 2 Chronicles 14-16 (a fascinating story, by the way).

Bible studies have started up again for the new year, with “Discovering Life 2”, a 15 week study (although we’re not meeting every week). Tomorrow night we continue, studying about how God works in our lives.

Shari is working on a women’s event, which will take place in February. Please pray that this will be a good time of fellowship and encouragement for the women of the church!

The Institute classes continue. We’re doing a survey of the New Testament. Numbers have gone down somewhat, but there are still two churches heavily involved. We should be finishing this course in the spring.

I’ve started doing classes for musicians who want to be involved in worship music, and I’m doing some training for those interested in helping with the sound system. Nathanael has been helping with the sound, and also played his ukulele last Sunday.

There are three men preaching on Sunday mornings right now – well, not at the same time. We’re taking turns, like we learned to do in kindergarten. Anyway, that’s two men plus me. We’re pushing through Romans 9-11, and so we’ve been spending a little extra time discussing the text together, which has been a help to me, anyway!

It looks like we’ll be starting an “anthropology” study as well, one Sunday a month this year. This will be a look at the biblical teaching about men and women, probably covering topics such as artificial intelligence, transhumanism, race, reproductive technology, art, justice, sexuality – you know, some of the topics which occasionally come up these days! I’m working on the first part of the series now, which will start, Lord willing, in February.

A couple other things you could pray about. Please pray for the family of a woman who passed away recently. This woman was highly involved at the church in Jesús María. She was in her 40s. Please pray that the family and her friends would be drawn to the Lord – especially pray for those who are not saved.

Also, a much lesser situation in comparison, but we’re struggling through some small issues with our van insurance. Please pray that these issues would be resolved completely soon. And then we have some maintenance and repairs to take care of. It’s all taking too long (in our impatient opinion)! 🙂

There, now you know some of the things that are happening here! Thanks again to all those who are praying!

4 August 2020

Continuing Ministry…

Jim Ministry glimpses, Prayer and Praise, ST Highlight 0

Last Sunday we celebrated baptisms together, this Sunday it was communion!

Setting up a tent for the service — Setting up a tent – just one of the coverings we used

This past Sunday we met outdoors, a place we’ve met before, at a property owned by a friend in our church. We will probably meet here for a few weeks, because they place we used to meet in is not currently available. But we’re used to moving around!

It will probably take a while, though, before everything goes smoothly. But there were lots of people on hand before the service to help set up tarps and tents and hook up sound equipment and set up chairs.

This was our special monthly adoration service, and we’ve been learning about the fruit of the Spirit. This week, goodness! And God has been good.

On Friday we also completed our virtual kids’ club! We had only a handful of kids, but mostly not church kids, which was neat. And with the online format, a small group probably works better anyway. In spite of some technical challenges, the kids and their families were exposed to God’s Word and clear presentations of the gospel throughout the week. The teachers found creative ways to present the truth in an interactive way. Thanks to all of you who were praying!

Playing a game with the kids — Playing a game to review a Bible verse at the kids’ club

So this week we continue with our hermeneutics class, and we also finish our 15 week Discovering Life bible study.

And we also appreciate your prayers as we continue to work on the challenge of a visit to Canada. A lot of work, short time, full of change and uncertainty. But God is in control of it all!

18 July 2020

Preparing…

Jim Mexico, Ministry glimpses, Prayer and Praise, ST Highlight 0

It’s been a pretty crazy week. Well, we knew it was going to be busy, but on top of the “busy” came all kinds of “unexpected”.

Some weeks are like that. But I have a feeling it’s the first of a few more crazy weeks!

So let’s start with a little update regarding where Mexico is “at” when it comes to COVID-19. When I last showed you the charts, about a month ago, COVID-19 infections and deaths were still going up quite steadily.

But let’s look at a comparison. (The charts look different because I’ve zoomed in on the current ones.) Here’s the chart from a month ago, and the chart from today. You can see that new infections has largely levelled off:

Daily cases - 17 June 2020 — Chart from last month

Daily cases - 18 July 2020 — Daily cases as of 18 July 2020

So of course cases in the USA went up, cases in Canada levelled off, and so did cases in Mexico.

And now daily deaths, starting with the chart from last month:

Daily deaths - 17 June 2020 — Chart from last month

Daily deaths - 18 July 2020 — Confirmed deaths to 18 July 2020

So over the last month Canada’s numbers really went down, in the US they went down/levelled in spite of the drastic increase in cases, and in Mexico things have levelled off/gone down.

So on the 6th of July, a lot of things started opening up in our state, such as shopping malls and restaurants (with restrictions of course). This Monday, two weeks later, the next phase of opening is set to start. This will include a host of small businesses (although, let’s face it, many didn’t really close down), outdoor sports activities, hotels, and “religious services”.

The opening up does come with the usual warnings – wash your hands, wear a mask, continue “healthy distancing”, and so on.

Whether or not we’ll have a face-to-face service next Sunday I don’t know yet, but we’ve already been preparing for it. We met together (online) and talked about how we might handle things and what might need to be done. Like many churches, we’re considering a “hybrid” in which we will at least record, or maybe even stream online, as well as meet, at least for a while.

By the way, if we meet on the 26th, that will end 18 weeks of not meeting in person – just over 4 months. A third of a year.

This week we also had a meeting with our four preachers – your servant being one of them, and a man who is preparing to preach his first sermon another one of them! We shared a few ideas about preaching and sermon prep.

We certainly appreciate your prayers in a very busy time – busy for a lot of reasons, but I won’t get into them all in this post. But here are a few things that are coming up:

Tonight, our “Discovering Life” Bible study.
Tomorrow, our online interactive service. I will be preaching.
Tuesday, our hermeneutics class continues.
Thursday we attend an Avant seminar on church planting.
Saturday we continue our Old Testament Survey course.
Sunday —— !!! ?

20 August 2012

Discovering Life and Journibles

Jim Devotional and Bible, Video Blogs 2

Today I was working on tomorrow night’s Discovering Life 2 Bible study. The topic is Who is the Holy Spirit?, and it gets into the person and work of the Spirit, and especially focuses on being filled with the Spirit.

We’re going to start out with this verse – it’s amazing how much is here in these few words –

"But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father,
the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father,
he will bear witness about me."
Jesus in John 15:26
I also started something I’ve wanted to do for a long time – a Journible. Basically, these are beautiful little books in which you can write out complete books of the Bible, along with your own notes. So far so good.

The Journibles really make you slow down, since you have to really make sure you’re writing the right words. You are forced to reflect on what you’re writing in a different way.

If you’d like to try it for yourself, you can get various books in the series here.

Here’s a little video about Journibles:

6 August 2012

Fall Starts in August (what’s happenin’ in Ixtapaluca?)

Jim Ministry glimpses, Prayer and Praise 0

I know, you thought that fall started in late September. Well, here in Ixtapaluca, where a lot of the kids are going back to school in mid-August, it feels like it starts a lot earlier. In fact, I believe I saw my first Christmas display in Walmart in August one year. 🙂

On Tuesday nights, a new series of studies is beginning. Discovering Life part 1 will be restarting, covering topics such as What is God like? and What was Jesus’ Mission?. Pastor Ismael will be teaching that course.

I’ll be teaching a different group – Discovering Life part 2. Topics in this class include How does God work in my life? and What is the Church? and How can I study the Bible?

On Saturday mornings, the Chronological Bible Study will be starting again for the third run. This will especially involve people who can’t make it Tuesday nights.

At the same time, a weekly kids’ club will be starting up, with the theme Learning from Rondi the Bear. No, I can’t shed much light on that – our very capable Marta will be running the club. The beauty of this is that we’ll be able to invite parents of the kids to the Chronological Bible Study while their kids are at the club. It would be great if we could see more people from the community taking the study, which is very non-threatening and evangelistic.

It remains to be seen if we’ll continue with this track of studies, but for now things seem to be going all right. The current set will continue until around the end of October.

Our community centre maestra Tina is hard at work planning the new series of activities at Centro Cultural Tiempo de Vivir. The regularly scheduled program will be starting up mid-September, allowing us to finish a 12-week set before Christmas.

Shari and Tiffany will be teaching baking classes. English classes are coming back with a whole new look. And there will probably be other standards such as basketball and music and tutoring and knitting. And an exciting new offering – family photos! Come and get your picture taken by our resident photographer – Tina! 🙂

We would certainly appreciate your prayers – not so much for the activities, but for the people we’ll be interacting with. And we also are looking at some of the big issues of the rest of 2012 and into 2013 – first, a building where the congregation in Jesús María can meet. And – well, there are still so many communities without a Gospel witness here in Ixtapaluca – what might God have in store for us next? How can we reach out to new areas?

That’s only the first stirrings of what’s coming up this fall. Thanks for your prayers!