Jim

About Jim

Posts by Jim :

9 February 2012

Ixtapaluca at Night

Today is the last day! Yes, I have indeed taken and posted 30 photos in 30 days.

I had a few ideas what I could take a picture of today. Most days I’ve just taken pictures of things that have been going on in the regular course of life.

But I thought I’d end with something a little more abstract.

One of the things that struck me about Mexico City, when I first saw it over 18 years ago, was the view of the city at night. The city lights – that stretched on and on and on. Each light representing another person – someone that God was reaching out to.

So I went up on the roof again and took this shot.

The Municipality of Ixtapaluca is home to about half a million people. Mexico City as a whole has about 20 million, and the urban centre of Mexico is home to roughly 30 million.

Take a look and think of those unfathomable numbers – then see the houses to the right and remember – every person, every family is important.

8 February 2012

Volcano Popocatépetl Appears

Jim Mexico 1

The whole time Brittany the photographer was here, we kept telling her we had these magnificent volcanoes all around us. But the weather being what it was, she kind of had to take our word for it.

Today, however, was a windy day, and the clouds parted and volcanoes started popping out of nowhere.

So I quickly snapped this picture of Popocatépetl, known to the slow-of-tongue as "Popo".

Popo is one of several active volcanoes in central Mexico. The name comes from the Aztec (Nahuatl) for smoking mountain, and it smokes a lot. Perhaps due to the wind there was not a lot of smoke to be seen today, though you can see a puff if you look closely.

Click the image to see higher resolution versions. This is the second-last day of 30 photos posted in 30 days.

7 February 2012

Freshly Squeezed

Jim Mexico 2

Today’s picture of the day is from the city of Puebla, but it could have been taken in many cities and towns in Mexico.

Shari, Nathanael and I went to Puebla to take Shari to the doctor and take care of some other errands. The trip went well for the most part, although we were pretty exhausted by the time we got home!

Anyway, the picture is of a roadside juice stand. Freshly squeezed juice is a joy of Mexico that I don’t take advantage of nearly as much as I should. But there are some wonderful stands like this, and when you get into a restaurant you can find some fancier mixes – pineapple, orange, papaya, mango, nopal (cactus), banana – and on and on. What can I say? Sweeeeeet!

6 February 2012

Our Team (I finally took a picture)

Jim Missions 1

We’re a part of many different teams. One of these is called a "T2" or Transformation Team. It’s made up of missionaries with our same organization in the area (in our case Mexico City and Puebla).

We don’t all work directly together (although some of us do), but we come together to encourage, pray for, and support one another. We’re from 4 different countries, but we all love the Lord and Mexico – and we’re all citizens of Heaven (Philippians 3:20-21).

And today I finally got a picture! All right, I remembered at the last minute when everyone was rushing out the door – but we did get a picture! Here it is…

5 February 2012

Temporary Meeting Place

Jim Ministry glimpses, Prayer and Praise

As many of you know, the church plant in Jesús María (Iglesia BÃblica Sendero de Vida Jesús María) grew out of the small house we were renting long ago. Move to another house? Well, they’re all small – no help there.

So we temporarily moved to a studio above some stores just for Sunday mornings. We rent it just for Sunday mornings, and every Sunday we move instruments, stools, sound equipment, etc, into the building, up the narrow winding stairs, around the corner, through the hall and into the room.

Good exercise, but not great for the equipment, or for the church budget. Also rather time-consuming.

Please pray with us that we can find a building – or a lot to build on – that can be used for ministry.

Here in Mexico, people love to get together and invite their friends and family. Events like getting together to worship on Sunday are a blessing.

But in these housing developments, everything is small. We’re praying for space.

The church family has been raising funds little by little. You can help too, if you like – in Canada go to http://bit.ly/cgcadonate and give to Project #63604, or for US funds go to http://bit.ly/donateusa and again give to Project #63604.

So here’s the building we’re in in the mean time. It’s the second floor, behind the arched windows. Normally it’s used for Zumba classes.

During the morning service on Sunday, all three store fronts are open below doing a booming business (this was taken before the service, when we were starting to unload instruments). I wonder what they think of our worship above their heads?

I’m attempting to take and post 30 pictures in 30 days. I believe the 30 days will be ending this week sometime…

4 February 2012

Coffee Shop – Grand Opening!

Jim Ministry glimpses 3

Today we went to the grand opening of the new coffee shop, an outreach of the community centre. There wasn’t a spectacular turnout, but enough people to make it fun.

You can see in the picture below how it was today, more or less. There were a two or three more tables outside that you can’t see.

So far it’s been a good place to come and sip tea (sorry, no coffee for me…) and talk to people.

It’s actually been interesting to hear people’s reactions anew as activities have started up again at the community centre – and of course the cafÃ© is new. I think some people kind of expect us to be here to make a bunch of money and take it out of the country. When they find out that most of the classes are free – and that the coffee shop… well, it may or may not break even – they have a little trouble figuring it out.

One man I talked to the other night said it was great to have this buena onda in the community – meaning like a good atmosphere – good feelings – in a place where there is so much bad feeling spread around.

So here’s hoping we can continue to spread buena onda in Jesus’ Name – helping the community and sharing His love. Even with coffee. Or maybe tea.

«‹ 261 262 263 264 ›»