Not everything that we try at the community centre “works”. The drama/theatre/cinema course was one of those things.
I created a complete course in the community of Jesús María, but for whatever reason it fizzled out. Time of day? Promotion? Time of year? A poor teacher? Who knows!
That’s not to say it won’t be resurrected someday! Meanwhile, all I have are the memories, and lots of notes and course materials.
This poster represented some basic “house rules”. The other photo shows two students doing some improv.
If you’re on our Support Team, you should be getting our quarterly newsletter soon, with the theme “Unusual Summer”. Well, it’s been unusual all right, for a lot of reasons! But here on Finding direction, it’s also been rather – silent!
But here I am, finally, taking a moment to write. So, yes, as you might guess, it has been pretty busy, in many ways! If you’ve been following on Instagram or X or Facebook, I’ve at least been trying to keep you up to date on our speaking engagements and seminars (which reminds me, I should send out a reminder about this Sunday! *adding to list*). Our schedule is also here, of course. But there have been a lot of other things going on.
We’ve enjoyed visiting quite a few churches in Alberta. As a bonus, I had the opportunity to teach a seminar on The Environment in Glendon, taking a look at the Bible’s teaching and how it relates (quite often clashes) with current views on environmentalism. We have a lot to think about and talk about!
We’re thankful that Nathanael has found a job – er – jobs. So both he and Hannah are keeping busy, and will likely be even busier as fall activities rev up. But this past Saturday we were able to celebrate Independence Day (Mexico) a little early, by going for tacos together! We even had the chance to chat with someone there from our home state. It was a rare time for the four of us to hang out together for a while!
We’ve had a lot of personal things to get done while in Canada, for ourselves and for family, so that means a lot of trips hither and yon. As I mentioned in our newsletter, when you’re missionaries visiting your “passport country”, you’re usually trying to cram a lot into a short period of time!
Ministry will be continuing in the weeks ahead, in Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and back to Alberta, including another Where did the Bible Come From? seminar. I have some fun tweaks planned for the seminar, so I’m looking forward to that.
Anyway, I can’t promise I’ll be stopping by here more often, but I’ll try! Meanwhile, if you’re going to be in the neighbourhood during any of our upcoming engagements, it would be great to see you. 🙂
Ten years ago today we were at a kids’ club in the community of Jesús María. There were about 80 kids every day (and not always the same kids!). Shari helped out with the little kids, and also found time to lead a baking class (that moms could come to while their kids were at the club – another opportunity to make friends and talk about the truth).
There was a visiting short-term mission team from Pennsylvania, and so the baking class mission was to make whoopie pies!
The theme of the kids’ club – airplanes! Hence the cool piñata…
Yes, your prayers are appreciated – even while we’re in Canada!
Things have continued to be very busy, but we did manage to take a day off last week as a family, which was very fun, and may possibly have included a board game. 🙂
Some of you may have heard about the tornado that hit, about 45 minutes from where we’re staying. It damaged about a dozen homes, completely destroying some of them. From here, we were watching the clouds carefully (see photo). Please pray for those who lost so much.
We’ve enjoyed some times of ministry already, and are busy preparing for upcoming opportunities. We had a great time this past Sunday, seeing old friends and making some new ones. And if you’re near Cremona or Mirror, check our schedule and be sure to come out and see us!
We’re looking forward to enjoying some time with family this month – including some family members that we haven’t seen for many years (and a younger member of the family who some of us haven’t even met yet!).
We also appreciate your continued prayers for the church in Mexico, and the short-termers who are visiting. We’ve been hearing good reports of new contacts and opportunities, and we’re praying for much fruit! Right now there’s a family visiting from the USA, learning about ministry in Ixtapaluca. And on Saturday another team comes. That’s in addition to other visitors and interns, and all the Mexican believers who are serving with them. Today there are two baking classes happening through the community centre – a great way to reach out to more people in the community in a fun way!
Thanks for your prayers! There are a lot of exciting things happening, in both countries!
It may not surprise most of you – but I’ll just say it – it’s been busy!
Someone asked me on Sunday if we were getting some time off, and I said, “Not yet”…. and in fact, the person who asked is a doctor, so I kind of hung my head in shame and decided that we’d better create some downtime, or we wouldn’t get any!
That confession out of the way, the good news is that it’s been busy but not all work – lots of variety, in fact. There’s always a lot of business packed in when we’re in Canada. Of course, there was Nathanael’s graduation and everything that went along with that. We’ve also had some good chances to visit with people, some time with family, and started our season of ministry here with a prayer meeting this past Thursday.
Windshield
Before our official ministry time even began, we were driving down a well-maintained major highway. A semi-truck was heading toward us, and somehow flung up a rock – a large rock – about the size of a baseball – at our windshield. Having driven all over North America, I admit I’ve never seen anything like it. It pulverized the windshield (so we’ll be buying a new one), but thankfully didn’t go through, because it was heading right for me.
So – we’re thankful again for safety in travel! This trip could have been very different already. Thanks for your prayers!
If you’ve been checking our schedule, you know that we’ll be at West Zion Mennonite Church (between Carstairs and Disbury) this coming Sunday (2nd of July) and then Cremona Country Fellowship on the 9th. Come out to see us!
We’re still looking for churches who would be willing to have the Where did the Bible Come From? seminar. Feel free to contact us for details!
We would appreciate your prayers that we would get everything done that we need to get done – and that we would have rest as well.
And yes, we have carved out some time off, in case any doctors ask again in the near future…
Ten years ago today we were having a daily sports camp in the community of Jesús María, run by our friends Mike and Teo. In the photo below (click the image for a larger version), you can see the soccer players in the foreground, and if you look closely in the back to the right you can see the basketball court.
Of course, in the middle is the iconic water tower / sundial that became the logo for our community centres. At the bottom of it you can see a mural that presented the gospel.
The sports camp was a great opportunity to share the gospel not only with kids in the community, but also with their parents who came to watch.
If you’d like to read more, check out this post from back in 2013, Why a Sports Camp?
