van repairs

5 January 2019

More Holiday Happenings

Usually I check a little more often, but this time I didn’t. So by the time we were ready to leave, we realized that Hannah’s flight was arriving very early, so we were running late.

We had only driven a few feet when I remembered that I had left something in the house. So – quick re-entry, and back in the van, and – it would not start. Not even close. Waited a minute or two – no go.

SO – we ended up picking up Hannah via taxi. And we’ve learned that taxis are VERY EXPENSIVE on Christmas Eve (though, thankfully, a lot cheaper in Mexico than in the rest of North America).

But, after all that, we were at the airport in time to greet Hannah coming out of the gate – about 10 minutes to spare.

There were a lot of unexpected adventures. The van? Well, turns out it was the battery. So that was changed (by me).

The traditional low water pressure was a part of our holidays. Hannah and Nathanael wanted to sleep in – and hence found it very hard to get showers, because the water was generally low to non-existent during the day. Doing dishes takes a looooooong time.

And then on New Year’s Eve, we woke up to cold showers – the water heater was on the fritz. So we found a plumber to come and fix the tank (probably should get a new one, but no money for that). Thankfully, it was fixed without a lot of fuss, the same day.

Actually, we’ve had a lot of household/appliance problems in the past few weeks – and many more that we would probably take care of if we had the funds. We’re just hoping we’ll get a few months break – but who knows?

Anyway, aside from these things, we had a good time together. Tomorrow Hannah heads back to Canada (and cold temperatures! – about 33 degrees colder than here on Tuesday, according to the forecast).

We really enjoyed the service on Sunday. People had a lot of time to share, and we sang “requests” for the music. It’s always good to hear what people are learning, and to reflect on our hopes for our church in 2019.

So there you go! Just a little news. On Monday, the whirlwind of work begins again for all of us. It’s going to be a crazy week. But let’s not think about that. 🙂

22 November 2017

Mega Service and More Meetings

Jim Ministry glimpses, Prayer and Praise, ST Highlight 1

Mega Service 2017 Panorama
Music at the Mega Service Thanks so much to everyone who prayed for the “Mega Service” this past Sunday at Ecoparque San Pedro. I think the service went fairly well. In the picture above you can see the group in the beautiful outdoor location.

Rod did a great job leading an eclectic collection of music, and I spoke on “The Word of God” from 2 Peter 1:16-21. The picture on the right shows Rod and gang.

After the service we hung out at the park, where there was horse back riding, an outdoor labyrinth, and places to play soccer and other things.

After one day at home I headed to Puebla to meet with the Camino Global team leaders. The altitude changes are usually a health disaster for me, and yesterday was no exception, so it was admittedly a day of pretty severe pain. However, it was a good time with a few of the other missionaries I don’t see often, talking about various issues.

We’ve been trying to get our van verified, which we need to do every 6 months. This time it didn’t pass (due apparently to a sensor issue), and this led to four days at the mechanic’s. We’re hoping that we can get it verified in the next few days. Verification is what allows us to drive without restrictions of certain days.

Just a little news for you! Thanks for reading. 🙂

7 June 2016

Coming Up: Mt Calvary Church Team

Jim Practical matters, Prayer and Praise, ST Highlight 4

I’ve been wondering how exactly I was going to cart around all these team members with a van that had … well, problems.

Yes, it’s been about a month we’ve been trying to get some things fixed. The adventures have involved visits to mechanics and parts stores, hours of driving around and walking around … I can’t believe it’s been a month.

Anyway, as of a few minutes ago, the repairs are finally done!

So we’re looking forward to the arrival of the team from Mt Calvary Church on Friday.

Some of the upcoming activities (things you can pray about!) include:

Giving wheelchairs to people in need
Soccer tournament outreach
Ministry at the church
Various other evangelistic activities

That’s all in the space of a week and a day. So thanks in advance for praying for this team!

19 May 2016

Adventures in Van Repairs in Mexico

Jim Mexico, Practical matters 2

Ok, so maybe it’s not the most encouraging part of life right now, but we’re in the middle of several hundred dollars of repairs on our van. We have one more big repair to go – and then I hope we’ll be all right for a while.

Some of the repairs we’ve done at a local garage, with several bays, which may look like what you have in your town in many places in the world. There was some trouble at one point, I think with getting some bolts out. So this specialist was called in. Drilling

He drove up in a nice car, but came with an old hand drill, bare arms and no goggles. So as he drilled and drilled, sparks flew everywhere and he kept getting burned on his arms and getting sparks in his eyes. A little equipment would have helped – maybe with the money I paid him he can buy five or ten pairs of safety glasses.

Today the van was under the care of my friend Mardonio, who has a shop at his house. I had planned to have the van in today because I can’t drive it anyway on Thursdays, due to the current restrictions here in Mexico City.

Around 2:30pm, I went over to see how he was doing. Well, he hadn’t started yet. “You can’t drive anyway!” he pointed out.

Well, you’re right.

“Besides”, he said,”I have to work on this taxi.”

Just fix the taxi first... Take a look – the taxi is there in front, with our van behind. All he had to do is replace the interior, put the tires on, replace all the electrical work, fix the engine and then put the engine back in it.

If I have to wait in line behind that, I thought, this could take a little longer than I was expecting…

Thankfully, I just stopped by a few minutes ago and found he was done. Well, done “part 1”.

So I’ll be able to drive the van again, but carefully, because the van’s rear end (pardon the expression) is having some significant problems still.

Lord willing next week we’ll be able to get that repair done, although I’ll have to drive around in the city somewhere to find the part, apparently.

I wonder if he’ll be done the taxi by then?

23 July 2014

Heading South

Jim Practical matters, Prayer and Praise, ST Highlight 0

You’ll be glad to hear – our van is fixed! I haven’t gotten into the whole story here, and I’m not going to now…

However, the current news is that we’re heading south today – driving, driving, driving, on our way back home to Mexico!

As always, we would appreciate your prayers as we travel. If we don’t talk to you before then – Lord willing we’ll blog next from Mexico City!

12 July 2014

In a Fix?

Jim Practical matters, Prayer and Praise 0

Some of you have following bits of our latest “van adventure” on Facebook or Twitter.

It’s a veeeerrrrrrryyyyy long story. So I’m not going to get into all of it here – at least, not for the time being.

So here’s the short version. We had some van trouble while visiting friends in the USA. We did our best to make wise decisions, got the council of other people, prayed, discussed, and proceeded to get it checked out and then fixed.

Or perhaps I should say, “fixed”.

Thinking we would be leaving the state on Monday, four (VERY expensive) days later, we were still in it. The van is now … “fixed” … enough to drive. So far so good. But are things really fixed? Actually, we seem to have one or two problems that we didn’t have when we took the vehicle in to the mechanic!

I know, that raises all kinds of questions in your mind, and seriously, if we could sit down face to face I’d tell you the whole story.

Meanwhile, we’re taking some MUCH NEEDED days off, for physical and spiritual refreshment, assuming our van gets us to our destination.

So excuse me – I’ll be away for a while. I just wanted to make sure you weren’t completely left in suspense. Yes, we’re on the road again. At the moment. The story is not over, and I don’t know how it ends.

1 2