Jim

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11 May 2018

FusiÃ³n and other Ministry in April/May

Jim Ministry glimpses, Prayer and Praise, ST Highlight 0

I’ve been slow to report on recent ministry, because it’s just so crazy around here right now! May is traditionally our busiest month, and this year is no exception.

Word of Life in Las Palmas — The Word of Life team with some of the Las Palmas congregation.

Anyway, we did indeed have a great time with FusiÃ³n, the group from Word of Life Mexico. They were here for the Children’s Day weekend at the end of April. They put on events at all three churches, presenting the gospel and connecting us with new people in our communities.

A moment from “The Great Escape” with the Word of Life team

Between the team and those here, we had some great conversations with people and several people made confessions of faith. Please continue to pray for those who heard God’s Word through these events.

The team also participated in our morning service, teaching Sunday school and sharing from God’s Word in the service.

We had more visitors last weekend, from a church in California, who came to see what all the excitement is about here. 🙂

We have a busy weekend coming up, where all four of us will be serving during the morning service – fun fun fun! AND, it’s “birthday month”, so there are some parties coming up.

If you want to hear more about the Word of Life team, check out Rod’s blog – he has a video there if you can view it in your area: Word of Life/Palabra de Vida Mexico for Kids Day 2018 (video)

10 May 2018

Retro: Art and Cars Birthdays!

Jim Family, Just for fun, Retro 0

Is there a rule that you can only post one picture in a retro post? I guess not, since I’m the one making the rules!

However, I can’t post this on the day it happened, because it was two days. Ah well. This is about half-way between. 🙂

So, it’s birthday month! Ten years ago this month we had an “art party” for Hannah, which was a lot of fun. Here’s Hannah with her cake and cupcakes.

Art party cake! Shari was the cake-maker, of course, but I think Hannah drew the rainbow that you see in the cupcakes. 🙂

And Nathanael had a “Hotwheels party” that year! I thought the piÃ±ata turned out pretty well…

Car piÃ±ata And to finish off, here’s Nathanael actually ready to take a whack at the piÃ±ata on party day. Now you can see the bottom of the piÃ±ata – Hotwheels, of course…

Hitting the car piÃ±ata

26 April 2018

Do You Receive Our Newsletter?

Jim ST Highlight 1

We send our a quarterly newsletter, called “Notes from the Cottrills”.

Do you receive it? Great! If you’re in doubt whether or not we have your current address, be sure to let us know. We’re getting a special letter ready for you now!

Hannah Art from our January 2018 newsletter By the way, if you are wondering if we have your address, just check if you received our last letter. It would have been around the beginning of February, and it featured art by Hannah. The theme was the love of God, and it contained news about earthquake relief, our upcoming time in Canada, health issues, and other ministry updates.

If you don’t receive our newsletter, you can! Just go here to sign up.

Now this is a little confusing, but everyone who receives our newsletter is a part of our “Support Team”. (Confusing because some people equate “support” with money, but we use it in a broader sense. Maybe I should change the name to something catchier. Or maybe we should keep bucking the trend.) Those on the team are considered special partners with the ministry.

So everyone on our Support Team receives our newsletter. If they like, they can also receive our “email update”, which is sent out a little more frequently, sometimes in the case of an urgent prayer request. About 40% of those who receive our newsletter also receive our email update.

About once a year, we send out a paper newsletter to everyone (even those who usually receive the newsletter by email). This allows us to share more private news that we don’t put online, or include special goodies. 🙂

So if you’d like to be a part of the team, go here!

24 April 2018

Coming this weekend . . . Â¡FusiÃ³n!

Jim Ministry glimpses, Prayer and Praise, ST Highlight 0

Children's Day 2018 Here it is!

In case you can’t read it, it says…

Come and celebrate Children’s Day with us!

When? 4pm, Sunday the 24th of April

Where? Party hall “The Happy Corner”, Palmas 1, beside High School #161.

You’ll have fun. There will be games and much more!

Don’t miss it! It’s completely free!

Does that sound great, or what??

This is just one of the activities will be taking place in three different communities this week, with a team from Word of Life Mexico! I’m not sure I have all the terms right, but I think this is part of their ministry called “Fusion Zone”.

I think they’re doing a presentation called “The Great Escape”, but we’ll learn more in a few days.

The team will also be helping out at our service on Sunday, with the kids. Someone from the team will also be sharing God’s Word with the adults.

The fun starts at the first event – 7pm on Friday – and continues until the above event is over.

21 April 2018

God likes nomads.

Jim Ministry glimpses, Practical matters, Prayer and Praise, ST Highlight 1

Earlier this month we had to give up a house we had rented in the community of Las Palmas. Since 2013, our team has rented this place to house visiting teams and interns, to hold Bible studies and kids’ clubs, and to store church supplies (since we have no building).

But the owner contacted us to tell us that they had to leave their other house, and so they needed this one to live in.

So, we moved out of the house, affectionately known as “Kerpis” (after the street name), and temporarily farmed out the furniture and supplies to various people’s houses. We do hope to rent again, but for now, the ministry has no permanent location.

In some ways, we could see the providence of the move. Although it’s obviously inconvenient, we’ve been enjoying doing our Bible study at alternate locations.

Two of the families in the church have locations that are very conducive to our Friday night study. And the bonus is, we’re connecting (and in some cases reconnecting) with some of the kids in another area of Las Palmas.

Shari is encouraged to see what the kids are learning at the Friday study. They’re really interested and asking great questions. God does some interesting things when you’re nomadic!

Tomorrow I’ll be going alone to preach at a sister church about an hour north of here, while Shari and Hannah help with the Sunday School in Las Palmas. We certainly would appreciate your prayers as we share the gospel at two locations tomorrow!

By the way, we need Bibles! If you would like to help with one or two, check here for details and contact us ASAP.

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