Ministry glimpses

28 July 2009

Cochrane, Ontario

We’re enjoying the people in the French/English town of Cochrane, Ontario at the moment! On Sunday I shared about Mexico and preached in the service at the First Baptist Church, and since then we’ve been able to spend a little time with people here, talking and laughing and wading and praying and eating and four-wheeling (it was Hannah and Nathanael who did the four wheeling. I think they’re hooked!). 😉

Our previous visits to Cochrane have been pretty brief, so it’s great to have the time to do more than just say "Hi" (of course, this is too short too, but it always will be until Eternity!).

We’ve thought a lot about our friends in Cochrane while we’ve been in Mexico, and we’ve prayed for them, so it’s great to see what’s happening here in person.

We even talked to some people who want to come down to Mexico both short term and long term, and that’s exciting!

We’re looking forward to spending some more time with some people in town today. In between times we have lots of work to get done, including getting ready for our train trip tomorrow to Moosonee, where we’ll be until Monday.

Our van takes a drive in Cochrane, Ontario.
Like much of Ontario, Cochrane has been pretty rainy lately.

24 July 2009

We made it to Ontario!

Jim Family, Ministry glimpses, Prayer and Praise 4

1:28pm, 24 July 2009
Yes, we made it to Ontario! After a whirlwind trip visiting family and getting other business done (everything from paperwork to shopping to x-rays), we’ve made it at last to Ontario – a place to stand, a place to grow (as an old song says, for the uninitiated). No doubt we’ll be growing, but we won’t be doing a lot of standing!

We’ve got another full day of travel ahead before reaching our first main destination – Cochrane (see our schedule here). I’m looking forward seeing everyone there again – it’s been a long time.

As we go I’m finishing some updates on my Maximizing Your Short Term Mission Trip seminar, which I think should be useful to people considering short term missions (and those who have been before). It looks like I’ll be presenting it at least three times (but if anyone else is interested while we’re in the area, let me know and I’ll see what I can do).

And although we finally have all our places to stay booked while we’re in Ontario, we’ve still got a lot of work to do to make sure we can see as many people as we can while we’re here.

Meanwhile, the trip is interesting too. We’ve learnt where the cleanest washrooms in Canada are (in Lloydminster, SK, according to the sign and the local reputation) (and if they’re the cleanest in Canada, the country where even the dirt is clean, they must rival any in the world!). Today east of Winnipeg we visited the washrooms that must be competing for the dirtiest, but for some reason they had no sign.

Oh, we’re also trying to teach Hannah and Nathanael more useful information about the country (then again, what can be more useful than "where’s the washroom?"), like geography and history and how to pronounce Kapuskasing and all stuff like that there. Even saw a bear and a moose today. And didn’t hit either.

Well, I’d better go – we still have some driving ahead of us today! And we’re looking forward to landing in Cochrane tomorrow and enjoying our time with people there. Tomorrow night our mad dash east is finished!

11 July 2009

And now we’re heading East!

Jim Ministry glimpses 0

Yeah, that’s pretty much it. North, east, then south. How’s that for an oversimplification of the trip? 🙂

Anyway, we drove somewhere around 7000km (4350mi) north, and all in all had a pretty good trip. I’ve got a few of the best pictures from our trip in our photo gallery (if you’re reading this close to the time, they’re probably still in our Recent shots… album). We were able to (briefly!) see a few friends, and spend a little time with family.

We also had quite a bit of business to take care of in Calgary, of which we got quite a bit done – visits to doctors, banks, things like that.

We also enjoyed the chance to visit First Evangelical Free Church to give an update to those of you in the area who were able to make it. It was great to see you! Wish it could have been longer – it was such a fly by visit.

So now we’re heading east, spending a bit more time with family as we do so, before finally ending up in Ontario in less than two weeks. It will be another 3-4000km (1900-2500mi) before we start heading south again (on the 3rd of August). But we’ll actually be in Ontario until the beginning of September.

We’re trying to finalize some of our plans for where we’ll be when in Ontario, so I’ll be back to give you more details a little later. Meanwhile, we still have some work to do to get the schedule organized. I’d better get back to work!

26 June 2009

Hitting the Road – Schedule Notes

Jim Ministry glimpses, Prayer and Praise 0

Yes, today we’re hitting the road! Leaving the ol’ homestead and driving north for, oh, about 5,766km (3583mi).

But not all in one day, of course.

Here are some key dates that you might be interested in:

Today! We leave.
27 June 2009 Lord willing we’ll be crossing the Mexico/US border today. We would appreciate your prayers that everything will go smoothly. It will probably be late afternoon when we’re crossing.
29 June 2009 Making a brief stop at the CAM International office in Dallas.
2 July 2009 Lord willing we’ll be crossing the US/Canada border this day. We would appreciate your prayers that everything will go smoothly. It will likely be mid to late afternoon when we’re crossing.
5 July 2009 We will be sharing for about 10 minutes in the service at First Evangelical Free Church in Calgary. If you’re in the area, I hope you can stop by and see us! Check the link for service times and location.
9 July 2009 Just a curiosity – we’ll finally stop heading north and start heading east on this day. I’ll tell you more about our later schedule later!

We’re doing things a little differently on this trip. For one thing, while we’re travelling we’re going to be travelling fast. Normally we try to visit more people while we travel – and we would love to – but this time we’re making a priority of two things – visiting family, and visiting friends and family in Ontario. We would love to see more of you, but we can’t see everyone every time!

Hopefully we can see more of you on another trip.

We would appreciate your prayers for the whole trip. It’s been a while since we’ve done this travelling thing. And as I said, we’re travelling fast – there’s going to be more long hours in the van than we’ve done normally. It will be quite the adventure!

But we do pray that God would be glorified in all we do, and that we can really share with others the "memory of His abundant goodness" (Psa 145:7) as we mentioned in our newsletter.

22 June 2009

Baptisms!

Jim Ministry glimpses, Prayer and Praise 0

Yes, yesterday was an exciting day! There were 8 baptisms in our church!

Oh, if you’re still thinking of "church" as a building, no, it wasn’t where we usually meet. We had a worship service at a water park in Texcoco, and 8 people were baptized in one of the pools. (One of the very ccccold pools, but I won’t say that because it wouldn’t be spiritual!)

It was great to worship and spend time together, and hear the testimonies of these people. There are some pictures now in our Recent shots… album if you want to check them out (unless you’re reading this quite a while after the fact, in which case they may still be in here somewhere).

It’s so exciting to see what God is doing in the Iglesia Bíblica Sendero de Vida!

13 June 2009

Team Ixtapaluca

Jim Ministry glimpses, Prayer and Praise 1

On Wednesday we met with our new ministry team here at our house for a time of prayer and planning. Â And this time – I got a picture! Â Here it is:

You might recognize the couple to the left. Â After that, on the couch we have Adriana, and sitting in front of her her son Axel and next to Axel her husband JosÃ© – that’s the Palacios family. Â Next on the couch in Mayra, and in the red shirt her husband Rod. Â That’s the Fry family without their three children. Â Finally on the floor is DavÃd Gomez.

This is the team we’ll be working with in the fall here in Ixtapaluca. Â We appreciate your prayers for each person here. Â We’re looking forward to seeing what the Lord has in store for the months ahead!

(Some of you might have noticed I’ve actually caught up putting photos in the gallery – check out our most recent pictures here)

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