Jim

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13 December 2005

2006 Evangelical Blog Awards

This past February I was first introduced to some missionary blogs through the Evangelical Blog Awards. Lo and behold, the awards are going to be given out yet again – and you can have input, if you act now!

There are 21 categories (if I counted right!), including Best Evangelical Missionary Blog, Best Evangelical Youth Pastor Blog, Best Evangelical Teen Blog, Best Overall Evangelical Blog, and Best Evangelical Family Life Blog. Nominations are open until the 5th of January – but don’t wait – go nominate somebody now! You don’t need to nominate for every category.

Of course you’re welcome to nominate this blog 😉 but there are plenty of better blogs that deserve a nomination. If you’re looking for missionary blogs, head over the Missionary-Blogs.com and nominate someone from the list. This contest was a great way for people to learn about new blogs that otherwise they would miss. If the contest can generate lots of interest this year, it may be back in 2007. But it’s all up to you! Go and nominate someone.

All you have to do is register for the forum and post your nominations [Link no longer available]. It’s that easy. Don’t wait until January!

13 December 2005

Weekend fellowship

Jim Family, Ministry glimpses 0

As missionaries, we have several churches that we stay in touch with. These churches are like a part of our family – we think about them often, visit when we can, pray for them. We’re excited when we hear good news, and pray when we know the church is going through a difficult time.

But every once in a while we go to visit a church and wonder – will anyone really remember us? Are they praying? Do they ever look at that letter on their bulletin board?

That’s why it’s such an encouragement to go to a church like Innisfail Baptist Church. We had such a warm welcome, and great conversation with people who were really interested in Mexico and really concerned for us and the Mexican people. We had a wonderful visit, even though it was short, renewed some acquaintances, and fellowshiped with some friends at lunch.

We got home in time to eat a sandwich or two (barely!) and then we went to our own church for the Christmas program. Hannah was a Christmas angel this year. Then we had some more time to fellowship over some home made goodies that people had brought.

It was a great day, looking back, although as you may imagine by the end of the day we were really ready for a long winter’s nap!

There are some more pictures of Hannah in the Christmas program in our photo album.

9 December 2005

Technology’s bad side

Jim Misc 2

Yes, RadioShack is back in Canada [Edit: Actually, now it’s gone again!]. Yesterday I walked in and made a purchase, and this bag is proof. What did I buy? I’ll leave you to imagine. It set me back about $6 or so.

Today I wrapped up a poll here at CottrillCompass.com. It was a poll about technology. What technology would the world be better off without? Here are the answers, and my comments:

At almost 72.73% was TVs/VCRs/DVD players. No surprise there, I suppose. So why would the world be better off without these? Arguably the most common criticism concerns the inappropriate content. It’s been argued that the medium itself tends to lend itself to the whole sex and violence thing. There’s also the complaint that TV is a rather non-interactive medium, causing more people to sit and absorb rather than engage and think and be active. There’s a lot of good that’s come from TV, but the negatives put it at the top of the list.

At 18.18% was computers. Perhaps the number would have been higher if the poll had not been conducted via computer! So what’s up with computers? Well, a lot could be said. There’s the negatives of content, of course. The addictive nature of certain things like games and the internet. And perhaps the fact that computers again are less social that other forms of interaction. As much as people interact via computer, that personal contact is always lacking.

Finally, at 9.09% came cars. If you’re now staring at your screen with shock and amazement, just calm down for a moment and consider the controversy that erupted when cars first started to appear on the scene. They completely transformed society, and it could be argued it wasn’t in a good way. While we often think of cars as bringing people together today, in the early days the concern was that they took people away from one another. For thousands of years, society was strongly based on community. It was not easy to get away from your family and friends. With cars, you could easily get away. You could get some privacy with your boy/girl friend. You could gain new independence. You can see how it could be a mixed blessing. In many cases, the only reason that cars bring us together today is because they made our society more travel-oriented and moved us apart. Now our families are often only the people we see on TV (they’re everywhere we go), and we get advice from books and talk shows rather than our own community.

Of course, technology has its positives – this was a negative poll. Every once in a while it’s good to consider the effect technology has had on our lives. It’s not always neutral or good.

But on a more positive and fun note, check out our new poll and tell us what your favourite ethnic food is. I tried to include some ethnic foods that are most popular around here, but you can always choose "other" if your favourite isn’t listed (or you can leave a comment and complain!). 😉

7 December 2005

Coke is Blak!

Jim Food, Just for fun 0

Hmmmmmm…how to get that caffeine fix. Do you drink coffee? How about a Coke?

Choices choices choices.

Well, my friend Alan just pointed out to me that you may no longer have to struggle over that choice. In 2006 Coca-Cola Blak will hit the market – Coke infused with coffee. It’s another one of these mid-calorie versions – not a kilzillion calories but not diet either. France will get the first taste, and it will make it’s way to other countries later in the year. So…are you going to try it?

7 December 2005

Handel’s house and ours

Jim Ministry glimpses, Misc 1

On Friday night, something rare and amazing is going to happen. Shari and I are going to go out, and Hannah and Nathanael are going to stay home (with an adult friend, of course)! The time off and time together for Shari and I has been very lacking. We’re going to go to a concert hall and see the Messiah with some friends, and we’re looking forward to it!

It was 1741 when Handel locked himself in this house in London for 21 days to work on Messiah. He was depressed, and in debt, but at least he had the place to himself!

We love our children. Still, the occasional time when we don’t have to watch them is a blessing. I’ve recently updated our "Get involved!" page to better reflect what a help it would be if someone could help us with Hannah and Nathanael every once in a while. Now that Nathanael’s a little older, maybe that will be a little less scary for some of you. 😉

But another thing that may make it easier is that you don’t even have to babysit for hours by yourself – if someone could even come over and watch them while we’re here, maybe take them outside, that would be a huge help. You see, we have so much to do when it comes to planning and sorting and packing for our move to Mexico, that we could just use some time to work on it together.

Of course, a little time off is nice too, even if it’s only 1/2 an hour for coffee. If you live close, and wouldn’t mind watching the kids for an hour or two, that alone would be heaven-sent!

Many of you are reading this from several hours flying distance away, and this isn’t a practical way for you to help. Don’t feel bad! There are lots of ways to be involved.

6 December 2005

Early December update

Jim Family, Ministry glimpses 0

It’s been a while since I gave you a general overview of what we’ve been up to lately. So, here goes!

Nathanael:
Nathanael is excited about all the Christmas decorations he’s seeing everywhere. He’s enjoying things like colouring, reading (or at least looking at the pictures!), and playing with his toys. He’s learning lots of new words, and even working on some phrases (yesterday he was asking Hannah for a paper – "Hannah paper have-it!") Nathanael’s here now, so here’s what he has to say: uuy i uiuu

Hannah:
Hannah is also VERY excited about Christmas. She’s been helping with the decorating and gift buying or making and so on. Hannah loooooves to colour, and go places and be with people. In the evenings, we’ve been learning about the Christmas story through Christmas Carols, with this cool book Christmas Carols for a Kids Heart (click the graphic to learn more). The book was an early Christmas present for her. Hannah is also looking forward to furthering her acting career by being an angel in our church Christmas program.

Jim:
Variety is the name of the game! There’s been paperwork to do as always, and the regular work around the house and errands to do. I’ve been working on my final course before Mexico. For this part of the course I’m reading Bonhoeffer’s The Cost of Discipleship (click the graphic to learn more), a book I’ve been wanted to read anyway. I’m a little behind where I want to be on the course, so I’m trying to catch up. I’m getting ready to speak this coming Sunday in Innisfail, and I’m working on engagements for the new year. And, of course, we’re all getting ready for Christmas! And the list goes on…

Shari:
As with all of us, there’s lots of variety! Again there has been a lot of paperwork, housework and errands of various flavours. Shari was speaking at our church’s ladies’ Christmas party last week (she talked about Christmas traditions in Mexico, inspiring the last blog entry). She’s getting ready for a wedding she’ll be going to later this month in Oregon. And the list goes on and on…

Well, I’m brushing very broad strokes here. It really is very very busy right now! But we are making progress.

By the way, I’ve updated our donations page to show where our support is at, so that should be accurate at least for a few hours. As you can see, the numbers are all still rising. It looks like some supporters will need to cut back in the new year, so please pray that there will be others to take their place.

On another website note, I’m continuing to repair the categories of the blogs. Now there’s a whole year that you can view by category, so you can check that out using the menu to the right. I was reminded that a year ago we were in the USA, beginning our whirlwind tour across the northern States. About a year ago I was writing these Christmas thoughts about the shepherds.

Speaking of how busy we are, I have some errands to do – the doctor’s, preparing for Sunday, this and that – I’d better run! Thanks for stopping by.

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