Hi everyone! I’m just stopping by to let you know a couple of things that we’ll be doing, Lord willing, in the month of September.
I am planning to preach at First Evangelical Free Church [facebook] in Calgary on the 6th of September. The church is meeting in person, and streaming online as well. You’ll want to contact the church office for details if you would like to attend. Actually, I should contact the church office for details too! 🙂
We should be in the Calgary area for the next week and a half.
And on the 13th of September, I’ll be preaching at Grace Community Church [facebook] in Maidstone, SK. Once again, it would be wise to contact the church if you’re interested in attending. (We can help you with that if you don’t have the information.)
We’ve had a busy week here, even from quarantine. This morning we enjoyed our regular Old Testament Survey class. Only two more classes to go, and we’ll have a bunch of new graduates! 🙂
As I said before, I’ll try to keep you informed as much as I can.
So without going into all the details, let me tell you a little bit about our trip. First, things were a bit rushed at the airport in Mexico, because we arrived a bit later than we planned. It wasn’t bad, but we were wondering if things would go faster or slower than in pre-2020 days. Well, things did go a little slower.
So we didn’t have time to eat at the airport, and no meal on the plane. They did give us a little packet with things like a face mask, water, anti-bacterial gel, and gloves (when were we supposed to use gloves??).
Steward in his protective gear.
Actually, if you’ve ever been in the hospital having surgery, you’ll have some idea what the ambience was like on the plane. Stewards and stewardesses roamed the isle as little as possible wearing face masks and long white robes, reminding you to do things for your own good. We were given another unusual form, based on new quarantine laws. (We had already filled out a form online, and one at the Mexico City airport, so I guess that makes three.)
So we arrived in Toronto, and of course the reminders of COVID-19 continued. Going through one line, we stood in front of a white background while an official with what seemed to be a camera asked us to remove hats/glasses and look up. It wasn’t until later that we realized that he wasn’t taking a picture at all, but taking our temperature. I’m not sure if smiling makes your temperature higher or lower…
There were some things open at the airports, though not as much as normal. For the most part, it didn’t look like the stores were temporarily closed, but permanently out of business. However there were still some of the usual places to buy a magazine or souvenir, or a bite to eat.
Anti-bacterial gel was everywhere, although it generally wasn’t “forced” on us (as it tends to be in Mexico).
Anyway, due to a bunch of problems (including our first flight arriving late), we missed our flight out of Toronto. So it wasn’t until late that night that we finally got something to eat, at the hotel, thanks to the fresh deli items that they had on hand. A hard boiled egg never tasted so good.
So, a very short sleep, before dawn, we were off to try again. We did finally arrive in Calgary, a day late.
And we have been very thankful for friends who changed their schedules to pick us up, and now to provide us with a place to stay for our quarantine!
But, yes it was a long couple of days, so we need a little recovery time. But we’re getting organized and doing a little work today, before getting more into regular work tomorrow.
Well, ok, Nathanael was a little bit isolated at camp last week, since it was all online. But it sounds like it was a good time!
And as for the three of us, we will be isolated soon. Although, I’m a little confused. I thought that, if I were sick, I would be quarantined. If not, I would be isolated. However, one government website in Canada explained that it was the other way around – when we go to Canada, healthy as can be, we will be quarantining. But if we get sick, we’ll be isolating.
Which was all good until we filled out the special form to explain where we were going to — to be by ourselves, away from the healthy crowds. And we received this seal of approval. Which clearly says – we’re isolating. Even though we’re healthy as can be.
Oh well – what ever. Serves me right trying to get the terminology right.
But we’re not isolated yet. We enjoyed our service this morning. Little by little people are trickling back to the services, which is fun. We’re continuing our journey through the book of Romans.
And soon we’ll be headed to Canada. Still a lot of details to work out! But little by little we’re getting organized.
You could certainly pray for our health, if you think of it, along with smooth travels. (Without the health, there will be no travels at all! At least, not for a while.) And I’ll try to let you know how it all goes.
I haven’t talked too much here about our upcoming visit to Canada, so I’m just swinging by to give an update.
We had actually planned to go to Canada earlier this year, but our plans were changed due to the situation with COVID-19. We’re going to serve in ministry where we can, help out family where we can, complete some minor paperwork, and take care of some other things that must be done in Canada.
We’ll be mostly in Alberta and Saskatchewan.
Partly due to the reality of travel in 2020, we’re finding everything to be far more complicated, and by necessity far more last minute. So I don’t have a detailed schedule to share with you. But I will say that we will, Lord willing, be enjoying our mandatory quarantine during the last half of August. And at the moment I’m scheduled to preach at First Evangelical Free Church in Calgary on the 6th of September.
We just recently confirmed a place to stay for the first few weeks, although we may be looking more for a place a little later on. Yeah, it’s complicated. But we are so thankful for the people who have helped us with the details so far!
And no, we don’t know for how long we’ll be in Canada.
But it’s all good, because as you all know, we never plan much ahead anyway. Ok, that may not exactly be true.
So we do appreciate your prayers as we continue our last minute planning, and for endurance as we travel! It will be a long trip for us, because we’re flying to Toronto and then to Calgary (I know, all you world travellers are laughing at us for calling that a “long trip”).
Meanwhile, there’s lots going on here during our last little while in Mexico – Bible study, OT survey class, preaching, and lots of other details!
There’s a lot going on right now – and now it’s a matter of juggling both in-person events AND virtual events!
So this Saturday we continue our 60 hour Old Testament Survey class – that’s online.
Announcing our Sunday service
But on Sunday – Lord willing – we will have an actual church service! Imagine! It’s been 19 weeks!
And not just any service – a baptismal service! So please pray for those getting baptized. Exciting! We’ll be meeting at the facilities of the church in Jesús MarÃa, so that we can use their baptismal tank.
Some of our “re-opening” will really take place gradually over the next three weeks, so every Sunday will be a little different.
So please do pray as we prepare and try to meet the government’s requirements and people’s expectations. As you can guess from the graphic, there will be masks in the service!
And then, starting on Monday – a kids’ club! And we’re back to virtual again.
A special ministry in Mexico called “Summer Missionaries” trains believers to lead kids’ clubs all over Mexico, and this year due to the uncertainty of the COVID-19 restrictions, they’ve moved everything online, and organized it so that individual churches can have their own special clubs.
So our club will be a combination of videos to watch, songs to learn, crafts to do, puppets to watch, and also an interactive time with other kids online and leaders from our church. Pretty exciting! Shari has already been busy registering children for next week’s club.
Oh, and some of you already know, but we’re planning a visit to Canada! Out west, although we are also planning a longer visit to Ontario later on (next year, if God permits). We have some business to attend to, as well as ministry, so it had to be AB, SK (and maybe MB!) this time around.
This is actually not the time we planned to go, but everything is super-uncertain and complicated due to COVID-19. So our plans have been and ARE in flux – what a surprise, eh?
So we’re really taking our plans one step at a time. Lord willing we’ll be flying to Canada mid-August. But as you know, if someone gets the sniffles the morning of the flight, they won’t let us on the plane. SO – like I say – one step at a time!
We will be looking for places to stay (first of all, a place to quarantine when we arrive), so we would appreciate your prayers – and if you have any ideas/contacts, do let us know!
And as for our last month in Mexico, who knows what else will be virtual and what else will be in person? Let’s just try to get past this weekend first, and then we’ll see!
This week has been full of smaller frustrations, deeper sorrows, and many reasons for thanksgiving.
Ixtapaluca Sunset
“Smaller frustrations” include problems with our internet, which I’m trying to resolve today with the help the folks at our ISP. I was leading the service, and the music time, on Sunday. And because it was online, I was starting to wonder if I would even be able to lead. We had someone else “host”, if that made any difference. And God answered our prayer and we made it through. However, it was hard at times to hear what other people were saying as they shared.
The service theme was patience – something that none of us have any trouble with, so we didn’t learn much.
We also had a day without water – thankfully, that hasn’t happened for a while.
Deeper sorrows? Two people that we have known in our ministry passed away this week. One was Juan, who was in the hospital with COVID-19. Some of you have been praying – thank you! Please continue to pray for Juan’s wife, Blanca, and their two grown children. The other was Marcos, who was involved briefly in the church at Jesús MarÃÂa, and later attended our church in Las Palmas. He had had significant health problems for a long time. Please pray for his family as well.
Even so, we have a lot to be thankful for, as we see God work even through these sorrows.
I’ve been studying the book of Matthew over the past few months, and was so encouraged by Matthew 14. Jesus and His disciples had planned for a time of rest, but were followed by thousands. And in His compassion for them, Jesus began to teach them again.
But it was getting late, and they needed food. The disciples suggested that they send the crowds away to go find food (still thinking of that little holiday they had been planning?). Jesus answered,“They need not go away; you give them something to eat.”
Oh, sure. We have thousands of loaves of bread here in our lunch-baskets. No problem.
It is a wonderful illustration for me. How do we give so many people in need the things that they need? Challenging times, death, sickness – sorrow. We don’t have the resources. But – our Lord does. So He can say, “Feed my sheep”. And we can – because the resources come from Him. And that includes His Word. We have the food. But it’s not from us.
And finally, the disciples find themselves in an even worse situation – life and death for themselves, in a storm on the sea. This is simply not the holiday they had in mind. And Jesus wasn’t even there.
But just because Jesus isn’t physically present (and He isn’t), does that mean that He is not watching? That He doesn’t care? That He doesn’t have the ability to help?
No, the disciples were still in His hands, and He still had all the resources they needed. Whether for their personal needs, or for the crowds in need. We may not have all the resources. But we know where to look. And His resources are endless and abundant.
