Before the concert
A quick video I took tonight to show you the venue of the concert, where our Christmas drama will also take place next week.
Jim
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Be a part of the Michigan team (and stay at home)!
Today I’ll be heading to the Mexico City airport to help pick up the team from Troy, Michigan. The team is going to be involved in a lot of Christmas activities here over the next 9 days (they fly out on the 22nd).
Now, obviously we would love to have some of you come down and join them – but I know some of you would love to be a part of the team through prayer!
But … what can I pray?
I pulled out some ideas from the seminar I teach on Maximizing Your Short Term Mission Trip. Here are some things you can pray today – or each day – that the team is here!
- Pray that they will have faith: That God will provide what they need, that God has a purpose in their visit, that God’s Word is worth sharing and is life-changing, that God can and will use them for His glory.
- Pray that they will be open: Open to new ideas, open to other points of view, open to learning, and allowing God to change them.
- Pray for health and energy: That each person would know how to pace her/himself, that they would stay healthy and have the energy to serve.
- Pray that each person would have the courage to be a servant and an encourager: to each other, to each person they come in contact with.
- Pray that each person would have wisdom in the midst of conflict: That they would deal with any conflict in a godly way, and that peace and unity would be strengthened.
- That they would get to know people: Missionaries, people they stay with, people they meet, etc, etc.
- Communication 1: That we would all communicate clearly with one another – team members with team members, with the Frys and us, with the leadership of the church, with all the believers who are involved in the ministry the next few days.
- Communication 2: That all of us would be able to share God’s Word clearly, through what we say and what we do.
- Communication 3: That the team together and each person individually would keep open communication with the Lord each day.
Leak of the Week?
All right, so it’s been more than a week since I was last talking about leaks. But "leak of the week" is much more catchy than "leak of the month", don’t you agree?
It was yesterday that we made the grisly discovery in Nathanael’s closet. Here it is:
That’s not all of it, but it gives you an idea. Now, this was in the back of the closet, so we didn’t see it right away. But we don’t think it’s been there for ages and ages – we’ve just started noticing some extra wet in the bathroom (right behind this wall) and on the ceiling downstairs (under this wall).
Water isn’t dribbling out like it was last time, but we think it may be a trickier problem to solve. It may either have to do with pipes in the wall, or perhaps a tiling issue in the bathroom.
But what do we know? We need to call Mario again. At the moment he’s busy in the church meeting place (remember the construction there?), but once the team from Michigan arrives he’ll take a break – and no better place to spend it than at the Cottrill house, right?
Meanwhile, I’ve carefully cleaned Nathanael’s wall (a temporary fix of course) so that he can use the room without the fear of a super-fungus monster creeping out of his closet at night!). Lord willing Saturday or Monday Mario can come and take a look. We may have people staying here next week – hopefully they won’t mind a little extra construction dust!
Christmas stuff for your small group, Sunday school, Christmas party… or general interest
I know some of you are looking for some last minute party games, or devotionals, or things you can do with your family or group over the Christmas season. Well, my Dad has posted some interesting things at his website, so I thought I’d pass them on.
First of all, there’s the Christmas Bible Quiz, a great one to bring out at the party. There’s a good mix of easier and trickier questions, and a mix of questions about the Bible and about familiar Christmas carols.
For example, do you know what Christmas carol started out as a single word? Which prophet predicted the virgin birth? And by the way, don’t breeze through and think you know everything, then skip reading the answers. There’s a whole lot of information and discussion starters in the answers too!
Print yourself a copy of the Christmas Bible Quiz here.
Also, my Dad has posted a great collection of devotionals based on Christmas carols. You’ll learn about the history behind many familiar carols, and at the same time be drawn back to the story of the incarnation and the purpose of Jesus’ coming.
You’ll learn things like – who really wrote Away in A Manger? What does "God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen" mean? What famous carol was first published as "A Hymn of Unknown Origin"?
One of the carols even includes a story about my great-grandfather, who got a nickname from a song we often sing at Christmastime.
Here’s an excerpt of one of the Christmas Carol Stories:
John Hopkins (1820-1891) was a clergyman and an experienced hymn writer. Most of his work is now forgotten, but Hopkins wrote the words and music for a Christmas song in 1857 which is still in use. The song was created for a Christmas pageant at the General Theological Seminary of New York. And you would think that Doctor Hopkins, writing for this distinguished body, would take care to get his facts straight. But apparently that did not much concern him … (read more)
See the index of Christmas Carol Stories here.
For more interesting Christmas stuff, here are some articles I’ve written in past years:
- 7 Things you might not have known about Christmas… – busting a few myths
- The Shepherds – ever wonder what happened the the shepherds afterwards?
- The origin of Christmas? – why the 25th of December? You might be surprised…
- Hope renewed – a song
- If Christmas was all we knew – what would we know about Christmas if we only had the "Christmas passages" in our Bibles?
- And for when Christmas is over – Happy Boxing Day – a new/old tradition
4 Servant Leaders
There were two events at our recent fellowship conference that I want to tell you about, because they involved some people that have a big part in our lives.
First, we all said goodbye to Toby and Marilyn Casteel. Toby and Marilyn just recently moved to the USA (they’re Americans) after spending 8 years serving (and I emphasize serving) in Mexico.
I haven’t written much about the Casteels leaving here because it all happened very fast, and during a time which was busy for us. It was the end of August when they let us know that they would be leaving. Toby’s health was the main reason, though of course we trust God’s greater plan in it all.
Recently I wrote an email to them – one I haven’t yet sent. We have a million things we want to say, but we’re not sure how to say them.
Let me just say two things here. First, many many believers in Mexico will miss the Casteels. They served missionaries in many ways – hospitality, counsel, experience in business, spiritual leadership. They led a key ministry called Mexscape, where they used their wisdom and creativity to rejuvenate many marriages. Counselling married couples was a special gift.
But we have to say – though we really can’t – how much the Casteels mean to us personally. They started as our supervisors in Cuernavaca, and have been friends, leaders, and counsellors in our lives too. Their input into our lives would go on and on if we had to say goodbye for good – but of course it goes without saying that we intend to stay in touch and hope to see them again soon!
The time of goodbye was filled with so many others saying thanks – I could write on and on, but I’d better stop there. There is a photo and a video of the Casteels from this time.
Also honoured at the conference were Rod and Mayra Fry. Each year, a missionary or missionary couple are honoured for their servanthood both where they are and to the field as a whole. The Frys have served in many ways – various churches, leadership roles, bringing short term people to the field. But one thing that was especially mentioned was their hospitality. It would be hard to find anyone that has as many people going through their home as the the Frys!
We’ve known Rod and Mayra a little for 15 years now, and are enjoying getting to know them better. From what we know, they were a great choice for the award. As with the Casteels, the Frys have already have an impact in our lives, and we hope we can learn how to serve just a bit as they do.
See some photos of this event here at Judy Stewart’s blog.
Thanks to all of you for your example! It’s obvious God is working in your lives and using you for His glory! 🙂
Explain our bathroom wall.
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Seriously, explain this to me. What exactly were they thinking?
Here we have our bathroom wall – the part over the sink. Directly in the middle, where the mirror should be, is a switch. So if you want a mirror over the sink, it also needs to be over the switch and plug in (the only plugin). Someone got the idea to put the mirror off to one side, but it’s a mirror with a light, so they wired it in from what was probably supposed to be a spot for a light above it. Maybe someday we’ll be able to save up the money to get that switched moved. Meanwhile, another reminder that with careful planning and creativity, anything is possible. |