Ministry glimpses

12 August 2004

On our way

We’re just about to leave for Camp Little Red. We’re able to all go together (we were wondering for a while because we’re all sick – but I think we’re going to make it! 😛 ), and we’re looking forward to it. Camp Little Red is away from electricity and all such stuff, and they run a great program for kids and teens. This camp is for 11-13 year olds, and I’ll be speaking to them about 7 or 8 times at their chapels.

We would appreciate your prayers while we’re gone! Please pray that the Lord would speak through me, and all of us, and in fact all the Christians there, to the campers. Please pray that God would give me special wisdom as I make last minute preparations for the sessions, and energy as I speak. Pray that God’s Spirit would do some special things in all of our lives! I’ll tell you how it went when we return. 😎

2 August 2004

Trips, Camp, Verses and more…

Jim Ministry glimpses 0

I’m just writing this one on the fly because I realized that I haven’t written for quite a while. But that’s the whole point of a blog, right, that you should feel free to write on the fly!

Life is very busy right now. We’re trying to plan our trip to Ontario, for one thing. We’re still looking for a place to stay, such as a basement apartment or something, in Southern Ontario for about 6-8 weeks around late October, November and early December. If you hear about anything that might be available, please let us know.

We’re also getting ready to go to Camp Little Red, where I will be speaking to the 11-13 year olds. There’s a tremendous amount that needs to get done before then, so that’s keeping us busy too. But we’re looking forward to it!

And there’s a host of other things we’re trying to get done, a lot of logistical things related to getting ready for our move to Mexico, and the normal household things we all have.

We’re still working on getting unpacked from our move. We got a little behind on working with Hannah on her verses, but she was very excited to learn 1John 4:19 in Spanish. She was so excited when she first learned it that she wanted to say it for God. I’m sure He was delighted! 😀

I enjoyed the opportunity to speak at our church on the 25th. It was a reworking of a message that I actually first shared back in the summer of ’93 at Grace Church in Newmarket, Ontario. My how time flies! 😉

I won’t babble on forever, I do need to get back to work. Have a great day!

25 June 2004

Friends from afar

Jim Ministry glimpses 0

We built this website for a number of reasons, one being to provide information for our friends around the world about what we’re doing. But we’ve also made new friends over the years. Take for example our friends in Tennessee. Recently I was able to chat a bit with someone from South Carolina.

Back in April we met Marissa. Marissa is from California, and was doing a school project on a missionary, and we were the missionary! 😉 She was an asset to us because not only did she send us encouragement, she also prayed for us. Thanks, Marissa! Her project is finished now, and she got 96%. I think that has a lot more to do with her academic ability than our excellent missionary skills! 😀 (But I hope God will give us the strength to serve Him so that we can hear His well done someday.)

God sends people from unexpected places to have a part in this ministry. Thanks to all of you! 🙂

30 March 2004

Whose turn is it?

Jim Family, Ministry glimpses 0

I really need to keep track of whose turn it is, so I guess I’d better write it down. Whose turn it is to be sick, that is. Here’s the way it looked in March:
Hannah gets sick
Shari gets sick
Hannah gets better
Jim gets sick
Shari gets better
Hannah gets sick
Jim gets better
Hannah gets better
Shari gets sick
Shari gets better

Yep, that’s what I was afraid of. It’s MY TURN!!! :crazy:

Seriously, that’s how it has been in March. Yikes. I think we’re all healthy at the moment, but of course very tired. The rest of this week is still busy, but I don’t think quite as crazy as it has been the last couple of weeks. Unless, of course, one of us gets sick again!

We did have some encouragement in the midst of it all. We were able to get together with some friends (in between sicknesses – right after the last ‘Hannah gets better’ and before ‘Shari gets sick’) on Saturday night. On Sunday night I presented the last half of the 2000 years of Missions seminar, which I think went well (you’ll have to ask someone who went for the real story!). And yesterday night we enjoyed some time with friends in Three Hills. Thanks so much to everyone who came! Hope you had fun.

Anyway, today we’re slowly getting unpacked and trying to get some semblance of order in this place! See y’all later. 🙂

25 March 2004

Gearing up for the weekend

Jim Family, Ministry glimpses 0

It’s time for an update on all that’s been happening here. Let me just say that it’s been a tiring, and very expensive week! So there’s good news and bad news, I suppose.

First, you’ll be glad to hear that whatever Hannah had only lasted 24 hours. So she’s over it. Praise the Lord! But it was rough while it lasted.

Secondly, the car is fixed. We did all our running around on the bus yesterday, but we were able to get the car back just in time this morning for Shari to make it to an appointment she had. The repairs were costly. It was actually nothing new – just a nagging problem that we’ve had for a couple years that we just didn’t do a good enough job of fixing the first time (it wasn’t anybody’s fault – just a judgement call that didn’t turn out to be the best). So in a way that’s good news that there’s nothing “new” wrong with it. After all, it is 21 years old. It may have been time to buy a new vehicle rather than spending so much on repairs, but we’re still in the process of raising money for a new vehicle and so far have only a small % of what we need. So for now this will have to do!

I was determined to get to bed early, to start catching up on a week and a half of sleep deprivation. Of course when you want to sleep, you can’t! 😕 And then at one or two in the morning Hannah got up and decided it was time to play, and had a temper tantrum when Shari told her it was time to sleep. So we dealt with that, and once again are looking ahead to the day when we can again get a full night of sleep!

Ending on a good note, though. Though exhausted, I seem to be over whatever I had – it lasted about a week (Monday to Monday). And we have some bright spots over the next few days. Saturday night some guests are coming over and we’re going to share a bit about Mexico. Sunday night I’m presenting part II of the 2000 years of missions seminar (come!). And on Monday we’re heading to Three Hills to share there. Yes, we will be lucky to survive all this in our condition. But you have to understand that these are encouraging points in our lives and they will at least renew us in spirit if not in body! Meanwhile, pray that God would multiply our sleeping hours! 😉

22 March 2004

Ploughing ahead

Jim Family, Ministry glimpses 0

God’s been giving us strength as we’ve ploughed ahead over the last few days! Shari has been slowing getting over whatever bug she had, although I (Jim) have now been pretty sick for about a week. Last night I was able to present the first half of my seminar, 2000 years of Missions, at our home church. There was an excellent turn-out, and I’m hoping for even more next week (so if you’re in the area please come!). The response was great and I got some helpful feedback that I’ll use next time I present the seminar.

Last night I was having trouble sleeping. I finally got to sleep, but then woke to hear Hannah in distress. We got up and found that she was sick, so we’ve been more or less up with her ever since (with a few naps in between). So needless to say we’re all a little tired around here at the beginning of another very busy week! But God is giving us strength, and I’m sure He’s listening to your prayers.

Hannah seems to be feeling a little better at the moment (hence I’m able to stop in and say hi to you!) so here’s hoping!

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