What we’re doing (now that we’re back)
An update on what we’ve been doing and what’s coming up now that we’re back from our trip…
Ministry glimpses
Peace with God
This summer I really enjoyed the opportunity to meditate on, and speak on, Romans 5:1-11. Before the summer I thought a lot about the "peace" that Paul talks about here, and how there are so few that really experience it. So I thought it would be really appropriate as we shared about Mexico.
This passage doesn’t contain any commands or suggestions for living – instead, it talks about the complete reversal that God has brought about in the lives of believers. If you’d like to look at the passage yourself, I thought I’d include here a few of the other related passages that I studied along with it:
- "through whom also we have access by faith into this grace…" Heb 10:19-22
- "The hope of the glory of God…" Rom 3:23; 2Cor 4:6-8; Rev 21:23; Rom 8:16-18
- "tribulations…" Jam 1:2-4; 2Cor 4; Rom 8:28-30
- "God through our Lord Jesus Christ…" Rom 1:18-32 (we were enemies of God, now we rejoice in God); Eph 2:1-13
If you’d actually like to hear this sermon, Garside Bible Church still has it up on their website. You can download it as an MP3, or listen to it as streaming audio. Just give me a bit of a break – I still had sinusitis pretty bad then. 😉
How Far did the Cottrills Travel?
I know, you’ve been waiting for the grand total – just how far did our van travel over the summer? In 79 days, it went…
12,010mi
It may interest you to know that the circumference of the earth is about 40,041km or 24 881mi. Yes, that means we travelled the equivalent of almost halfway around the world this summer! 🙂
People keep confusing me because they want to know how long our trip was, and what they mean is how long from Canada, as if we were hanging out in one place and then travelling from there. The fact is we were travelling all summer, and didn’t spend more than a few days in one place at a time. So that 19,329km of travel was spread out all summer, but if you’re wondering it was about 7 days of travel each way to Canada and back.
I’ve added more pictures of our trip to our gallery, and I’ll keep working on it. I still plan to post a few thoughts and videos here at the blog during an "Ontario Week", so stay tuned.
Ontario Days Ending
At The Beaches in Toronto, Ontario
If all goes according to schedule, tomorrow will be our last full day in Canada! The time sure has flown by, as we knew it would. So I thought I’d stop and give you an update and let you know what will be happening the last few days.
Basically, we’ve been zipping around southern Ontario, visiting family and friends. On Sunday, we enjoyed a visit to Heise Hill Brethren in Christ Church, where we shared and sang in the morning service.
On Sunday evening I had a great time sharing the Maximizing Your Short Term Mission Trip seminar, also at Heise Hill. We had a great group, some of whom had never been involved in missions, others who had quite a bit of experience, some who had even received teams as long term missionaries, or who were involved in missionary training. There were also a few members of a team that will be serving in Cuba this fall.
So we had a great time (well, I did, and it seemed like most everyone was having a good time!) going through the material, and then we took some extra time brainstorming specific topics, like – how can we get others interested in mission trips, when they’re not the ones going? What kinds of things can we do or bring with us that will help us interact with people of other cultures? We came up with some great creative ideas.
Today we were at The Beaches (or The Beach, depending on who you talk to), Toronto, with our friends the Beaches. And yes, while we were there we visited the beach.
And now… continuing south…
And now we continue our trip south, heading south of Lake Ontario to Wainfleet tomorrow, then on Wednesday we’ll be crossing the border into the USA. We’re looking forward to visiting Shari’s sister Amy and her husband Nate (and maybe… maybe… their new baby… will it arrive in time??), who you may know from their famous blog Under The African Rain.
From there we plan to continue south on the weekend, arriving in Mexico City the following week. As I have more specific dates I’ll let you know – we would appreciate your prayers as we travel and especially as we cross borders.
Lots more to say, but no time – maybe we can have an "Ontario Week" when we get back to Mexico, and catch you up on some of the interesting news. 🙂
Southern Ontario Update (Condensed Version)
Between a very packed schedule and very little time with internet access, I’m afraid I haven’t had a lot of time to update you. I have a feeling we’ll have to be doing some trip reviews once we get back to Mexico … sometime … ! 😉
Anyway, I’m going to have to give you the very condensed version at the moment, because I’m in a rush to get out the door.
We’ve spent a lot of time visiting people here in southern Ontario, which has been great. We also had a week of holidays at Fair Havens, which was a great time as a family (highly recommended, by the way, if you’re in the area).
We enjoyed a very encouraging Sunday at Garside Bible Church, where I shared about Mexico and preached. Always wish we could come more often and stay longer. 🙂
At the moment we’re zipping around Lake Ontario – north of it, south of it, and over to the west in Kitchener/Waterloo. That’s more or less what we’ll be doing until we leave Ontario on September 2nd.
If you still want to catch us on a Sunday, we’ll be at Heise Hill Brethren in Christ Church this coming Sunday (the 30th). We’ll be sharing about Mexico and singing, and I’ll be doing the Maximizing Your Short Term Mission Trip seminar in the evening (6-8pm). Feel free to call the church for details. It will be great to be back at Heise Hill.
Gotta run for now! See you soon. 🙂
Quick Ontario Update
Hi everyone! I haven’t had a lot of computer time lately, and that situation is probably going to continue at least for a couple of weeks. But I wanted to at least stop by and give you a quick update to let you know what’s going on.
 Hannah and Nathanael picked blueberries in Sudbury. Yum. |
I think I talked to you last from the train from Moosonee to Cochrane. Well, we had a good but brief visit with some friends in Cochrane, then we headed south to Sudbury and Peterborough.
We enjoyed reconnecting with friends in both places, and had lots of fun times too – I’ll try to get some pictures and video up later. On Sunday we shared at Lansing Avenue Baptist Chapel in Sudbury. We’re thankful for these churches and individuals who have such a big part in the ministry in Mexico.
So now we’re in Mount Forest, and will be all over southern Ontario over the next little while. Starting on Saturday, though, we’re looking forward to a much needed week of holidays before diving back into ministry again.
So, that’s the short story! Everyone’s health is better – you may remember that the kids had a little 24 hour flu or something back in Moosonee, and they’ve had a bit of an ongoing cough, but they’re a lot better overall. I still have a nasty cough, but I think I turned the corner toward better health on Sunday.
So God has been good, and it’s been great telling people a little about what He’s doing in Mexico!
Now I’ve got some errands to do so I’d better run. Talk to you later!