FAM International Archives - Finding direction

17 January 2013

Hurtling into 2013!

Jim Mexico, Ministry glimpses, Missions 1

With the unexpected trips of the past couple of months, it’s taking us a little while to catch up with 2013! Although frankly so much has happened already in 2013 it’s hard to believe it’s only the 17th!

As you may know we took a trip to the border to be involved in the Rio Grande Bible Institute mission conference, and to deal with some paperwork. I’d rather not describe all of our adventures, but let’s just say we weren’t very involved in the conference, between health issues and paperwork issues.

In spite of all that, two bits of good news…

Samuel in the workshop at RGBI

We did get the paperwork done that we needed to get done – without a hitch.
The conference actually went very well, and CAM/Camino/FAMex were well represented by Rod, Samuel, Fernando and Erik. They talked to a lot of students, gave an interview, and presented a workshop about using creative means in evangelism and reaching out to urban and rural areas of Mexico.
We were able to bring some things back from the US for some friends here.

Home again, we’re still catching up after our trip, although the kids have started school again with a vengeance. Today Nathanael was learning about the Imperial Woodpecker (currently his favourite bird – sadly, it’s probably extinct). And Hannah was learning about liquid cohesion.

Community centre activities started up this week, and Shari helped with a baking class this morning. So far everyone seems encouraged about the number of people coming to the community centre and to the Bible studies.

Lord willing I’ll be helping out in various areas during the first part of this year – giving Bible studies, preaching, and being involved in outreach in various areas (not just JesÃºs MarÃa). We also continue to help with fundraising efforts here and abroad for the new church property. And – let’s face it – we have visas on the brain and are still working to get those! 😛

We’re looking forward to various people coming short term in the months ahead. We’re hoping to see some families come down, as well as individuals and teams. Anyone want to do some construction work? 🙂

So – I guess we’re well into 2013, whether we like it or not! Today I was reminded of these familiar words from the Gospel of Matthew, about our Lord’s compassion. Truly so many people are “harassed and helpless”. Please pray for labourers!

And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction.

When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.

Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest.”

(Matthew 9:35-38)

4 December 2011

Sending a Missionary

Jim Mexico, Ministry glimpses, Missions, Prayer and Praise 0

Today was a day to say goodbye. Our friend David will be heading to Uruguay in just a few days.

David is from Mexico City, and he was a part of the Iglesia Bíblica Ciudad Azteca (Ciudad Azteca Bible Church) for many years, before coming to Ixtapaluca as a church planter.

David was instrumental in the starting of both the churches we’ve been a part of here in Ixtapaluca.

Now David has been accepted with FAM Mexico (a CAM related Mexican mission agency), and is heading to Uruguay to work with a church planting team there.

There had been a commissioning service here in Ixtapaluca for him already (while we were away), so today was a chance to say goodbye. David led the worship time, and Rod preached from the Gospel of Mark.

During the service, the youth and the children made special presentations. Hannah had a part – she read a verse in Spanish (I believe it was John 4:35), and later gave a little farewell in English, reading from Numbers:

The LORD bless you and keep you;
the LORD make his face to shine upon you
and be gracious to you;
the LORD lift up his countenance upon you
and give you peace.
(Numbers 6:24-26)

Afterwards we had a potluck, and a big cake. 😛 What a privilege for our baby church to help send David to share God’s Word in a faraway land!

We’ve had the privilege to work alongside David ever since we came to Ixtapaluca, and we will miss him very much! But our loss is their gain in Uruguay. Please pray for David as he experiences life in another very different culture, and as he shares the Gospel with the people he meets there.

David cuts the cake
If you’re in the United States, you can now support David through CAM International. For more information, check out this post at our coworker’s blog: Ticket Purchased

24 February 2005

Where’s that mission field again?!

Jim Mexico, Missions 0

I was just visiting the website of FAM International, a Latin American mission agency related to CAM International. It’s so exciting to see Latin Americans rising up with a vision for missions, reaching out around the world.

You may be interested in hearing what some of their priorities are as they look around the world to see where the needs are. Two of the countries are very familiar to us – Mexico, and Canada.

Of course we’ve written before about the need in Mexico. FAM wants to reach out to the Hispanic population in Canada (perhaps 200,000 and more) and the USA. They also have a vision for Spain, and the Muslim world, particularly Africa and Turkey.

FAM missionaries join with missionaries from other parts of the world, such as the USA and Europe to form multinational teams reaching out to many parts of the world. We look forward to hearing more about what God is doing with FAM! You can visit their website by clicking on the graphic (but be warned, it’s in Spanish).