A friend and fellow missionary just passed away. From what we know so far, Jim Eberline passed away Monday night, very suddenly. He was 67.
The prayer request first. Jim was in Guatemala at home. He had been in a video conference that morning, and appeared fine. His wife was in the USA.
So do please pray for the family. Cheryl is trying to get to Guatemala, I’m not sure where things are at now.
So for obvious reasons, please pray for Cheryl, her kids and grandkids and other family and friends at this time.
There has already been a huge outpouring of grief and also fond memories of Jim. I won’t presume to add much to that, other than to say we have appreciated Jim and learned from both Jim and Cheryl for many years.
When we first moved to Mexico, Jim was the field director. As you might imagine, having a Jim & Cheryl and Jim & Shari at parties led to a bit of confusion! But even after Jim and Cheryl moved on to other ministries and other countries in 2008, we still had contact with them and received an encouraging and challenging word, and even training in various areas that have been helpful in our ministry.
We are sad that there will be this temporary separation, we’re heartbroken for what Jim’s family must be going through, but we remain thankful. As I write, I keep remembering more and more lessons that Jim taught (or tried to teach!) us over the years. His life will continue to make a difference for many decades to come – and of course, for eternity.
As we listened to and talked to many short term missionaries over the summer, I was reminded again of the fact that we are all in this together, and that we all have the same challenge to face. Sure, we all have different lives, but it’s the hard thing that we all have to do – die to ourselves, and serve the Lord Jesus.
If you don’t want to “be a missionary” because you don’t want to “give up” something, or because you could “just never do that”, you need to face the question – are you actually willing to die to your sin, and take up your cross, and join the death march (Matthew 16:24-25)? If not, you shouldn’t be asking if you’re missionary material or not. You should be asking if you’ve really found salvation in Christ (Romans 6:2; 1Peter 2:24; 2Corinthians 13:5).
No, there’s no one on this side of the keyboard who has perfectly died to all his sin, who is living in perfect saintly harmony with Christ. But – like I say – we all have the same challenge, the same call, and the same Saviour.
I appreciated the perspective I recently read in The Trellis and the Vine by Colin Marshall and Tony Payne. They’re talking about how we need to be training people to serve the Lord in what they call ‘gospel ministry’, and they mention two mistakes that we often fall into . . .
In challenging people about gospel ministry, there are two errors we commonly fall into. One is to create two classes of Christians–those who are really working for the Lord and seeking to proclaim his kingdom (the ‘recognized gospel workers’), and the rest. In this model, making disciples is like Formula I motor racing. There is really only one driver, and the rest of the people involved do their bit in the background. They might work in the pits, they might help to finance the team, or they might find sponsors and organize the logos to be painted on the cars. But the driver is the superstar and the focus, and the rest of the team members are background boys. No wonder they feel like second-class citizens.
As we’ve already seen, this is not how he Bible envisages gospel work. There are not two classes of disciples–we are all both disciples and disciple-makers. All Christians are called to deny themselves, take up their cross, and follow Jesus to death; to give up their lives to his honour and service. It’s more like a football team, where each person does all they can to advance the ball downfield. There are leaders and captains, but fundamentally and above all else, everyone is a player. In fact, in many teams, it’s not necessarily the captain who is the best player or the most valuable contributor to any given game.
The second common error is to react to the first by dissolving the distinction between gospel work and other work . . .
The authors go on to explain the second mistake – to ‘baptize’ secular work to the extend that we feel it’s never appropriate to call someone to ‘full time gospel work’. And if you want to read the rest of the explanation, go read the book!
Bottom line? We’re all in this together. And my biggest problem is yours too – killing my sin. And we’re also all in this together – this Great Commission that has been given to us by our Saviour. And so we can all look forward to the joy of the harvest (John 4:36)!
Last night we finished up a series of 45 Bible studies. We did the Chronological Bible Study (15 lessons) and then Discovering Life (15 lessons) and Discovering Life 2 (15 lessons). No one has been there for all of them – but I think everyone has learned a little something. 🙂
We actually spent two weeks on the last lesson, which was both on spiritual gifts, and then the conclusion.
Here are some of us – well, one person had to leave early, and not all the kids are in the picture, but this is most of us adults from tonight… although not everyone came tonight… ok, enough disclaimers…
We tried to end the study focusing on the gospel itself. So this was my attempt at covering some of the key teachings in Scripture…
It was fitting, I think, to end with that great text from Titus. I pray that the last line would be a description of our church — a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works!
For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works. Titus 2:11-14
10 years ago today – a birthday party in Cuernavaca! It was time for the piñata, but the birthday girl (in pink in the front of the line) would need a lot of convincing before she would actually start walloping “Stephanie”.
It was 2007 Рand in Mexico, LazyTown was all the rage. The pi̱ata here is made to look like Stephanie, one of the main characters.
Nathanael (in the striped shirt near the front) awaits his turn, with his older sister Hannah (hair just visible – you can’t really make it out in this tiny version of the picture) waiting further back in line.
The girls in the mini-skirts were a part of the company that ran the party.
I didn’t have a chance to write after that. Nathanael and I were with the Connect Team in Villa Hermosa, a small village in the State of Veracruz (there’s more than one Villa Hermosa, so here it is on the map. Just zoom out to get an idea where it is. You can even see the main road on Google Street View.)
The people in Villa Hermosa were very gracious and we enjoyed our time of ministry in a couple of churches there, although perhaps our greatest ministry was just spending time with people.
The last team to come was from Leroy Community Chapel in Ohio. They did a lot of work with the construction of the main sanctuary for the church in the community of Jesús MarÃa. They finished the stage and also put up lighting. They also were involved in hearing aid/reading glasses evangelistic events, visitation, a craft class, and service at a rehab centre.
By the way, there are dozens of new pictures in our photo gallery, if you’d like to see what all this looked like!
I was especially excited about the event we had in Las Palmas. We’ve never done anything like this in Las Palmas, but the party hall was full of people getting their hearing checked, and getting reading glasses. We partnered with the municipality, who also brought in a chiropractor!
Apart from seeing people’s eyes light up when they could actually hear with a new hearing aid, it was exciting to see people hearing the gospel, and to see conversations going on around the room, often with Bibles open. A new family came to our Sunday service who had gotten to know us through this event.
When short term teams come to Ixtapaluca, one of the things they almost always mention in the feeling of community. That’s because of the Mexican culture, but also the service of fellow believers that they meet here. The team members usually stay in Mexican homes, and get to know people in real life.
So I’d like to close with a few photos from the goodbye party that we had for team #3 in the church in Jesús MarÃa. This team, and all the teams, made an impact on people’s lives. And the people here in Mexico made an impact on their lives. And God continues to work!
Team members have new Mexican familiesA birthday surprise for Michelle!Thankful for Google TranslateCross-cultural SelfieTwo churches from two countries pray together, under the newly installed lights!
When we first moved to Mexico, Jim was the field director. As you might imagine, having a Jim & Cheryl and Jim & Shari at parties led to a bit of confusion! But even after Jim and Cheryl moved on to other ministries and other countries in 2008, we still had contact with them and received an encouraging and challenging word, and even training in various areas that have been helpful in our ministry.
