Popular posts

It should come as no surprise that the most popular posts here at Finding direction over the past three months have generally focused on COVID-19! So, here are the posts that have been most visited, in chronological order. The most popular of all is in bold.

• The Impossible COVID-19 Forecast (and why Mexico is not Canada or the USA) – Some early thoughts about the statistics, and the different challenges here in Mexico compared to the rest of North America.
• “Phase 3” and Upcoming Events – A glimpse of life as we entered into the worst phase of the epidemic in late April (a phase we’re still in).
• COVID-19 Update from Mexico, and Studying Psalms – More stats in May, and some relevant thoughts from the Psalms.
• Frustration, Sorrow, and Thanksgiving – Small frustrations and big sorrows, and a lesson from Jesus to His disciples.
• COVID-19: So Where is Mexico At? – Oddly, this is a post I’ve kept coming back to because of the handy links on each of the graphics, showing where Mexico, Canada and the USA are at each day. It’s been interesting to click those charts to see updates.

Well, what can I say? A lot has happened in 3 months! And it’s no surprise what most of these posts are about. But anyway, here are the posts that have most caught your attention, in chronological order, with the most popular in bold.

• Back from Colombia
• COVID-19: Here in Mexico
• COVID-19: Closer to Home
• Quick Video Update from Mexico
• The Impossible COVID-19 Forecast (and why Mexico is not Canada or the USA)

It seems like anything written more than three days ago is ancient history right now! But hey, let’s follow tradition. Here are the most popular posts from the past 90 days. Thanks for reading!

As usual, these are in chronological order. But the most popular post of all is in bold.

• The Colombia Team Lands (and how to find them online) You can still catch up on Hannah’s trip to Colombia (just last month!) using these links.
• A Few Things to Pray For… A ministry report from last month.
• Back from Colombia A video from Hannah’s trip to Bogotá last month.
• COVID-19: Here in Mexico A look at the situation in Mexico from here on the ground, from number-crunching to some personal observations.
• COVID-19: Closer to Home More on family and ministry, from the 20th of March.

If you’d like to check out some posts you’ve missed, now’s your chance! Here are the most popular posts from the last 90 days.

First of all, the series on the greatest Christmas carol was quite popular, so if you’re missing Christmas, go back and take a look at the whole series here.

But here are a few more, in chronological order…

• The Mysterious Exploding Toilet – actually, this is one part of a long story. Seems to me we had four toilet repair sessions between late summer and winter last year. But you’ll be glad to hear we’ve had a few weeks with functioning toilets (giving us time to deal with repairs of several other things)!
• The Last Hermeneutics Class (with video) – a glimpse of these exciting “institute” classes that are continuing with a new course this year.
• The Colombia Team Lands (and how to find them online) – they’re back, but you can still read about their trip!
• A Few Things to Pray For… – a few things going on here in Ixtapaluca!

If you want to catch up on what you’ve missed, now’s your chance! Here are the posts that have been most popular from the past 90 days.

Actually, the winner this time is a series of posts, so I’ll count that as #1. The series on Hark! the Herald Angels Sing! was very popular – so you can go straight to the index and read all the posts here: The Greatest Christmas Song II (index/resources)

Now that that’s out of the way, here are four more, in chronological order…

• 3rd Anniversary Service in Las Palmas Just a report on the service. We’re so thankful for what the Lord is doing!
• Retro: First Day in Mexico Special I don’t always include “retro” posts in this list, but this was a quirky special one.
• Grief, Uncertainty, and Peace Common themes in our family and church!
• The Mysterious Exploding Toilet Of course this post was popular. 🙂

I realize that historically, this isn’t really the end of another decade. But everybody’s talking about it anyway, since we have to remember to start years with “202” instead of “201” – so, as we enter 2020, let’s look back at the most popular posts of the last decade.

In 2011 – and updated in 2013 – Spanish Bible Versions – Free Online. I should probably update that again. This was originally posted because of work I did in the Where did the Bible Come From? seminar.

2012 was a big year, with the most popular post of the decade being Just how Stressed are Missionaries (and what can we do about it)?. I’m not sure what that says about this blog that this is the most popular post – but hey, it is an important topic to think about as we help our missionaries, especially when they’re new on the field.

Also in 2012, the story of the The Millionaire Missionary, continuing in “Nothing for Mama?”: William Borden (part 2). It was fun researching that story.

Another historic note I wrote the next year – William Tyndale.

Here’s an important post from 2014. I was actually thinking of doing an updated version of this, but when I reread it, I think it’s actually even more accurate now than it was then. Sadly. So – don’t miss 7 Reasons to Pray for Mexico.

It was actually 2018 that dominated the decade for some reason, when it came to “popular posts”. It all started with my parent’s 50th anniversary – see Elizabeth & Robert Cottrill – 50th Anniversary! and 50th Anniversary Celebration.

And another big family event in August – Hannah: Moving to Three Hills!

And other posts from 2018 that were popular with you were Quick Update with Real Live Prayer Requests, Prayer Request: Goodbye, for now. (on the passing of our friend and coworker, Beth Sandoval), and Camino Global, Avant – What has changed, what has not… (I almost didn’t include that last one, but it’s still mostly accurate, or at least links to accurate info! Obviously this was before the actual joining of the two missions. You might also want to read the more recent Camino Joins Avant (and a bit of Canadiana)).

We’ll leave it at that for now. Thanks for reading! Can you believe it, this blog has been here since 2002? And yes, that is a very long time ago!

Anyway, hope you all have a great new year, and new decade! To God be the glory!