Prayer and Praise

13 June 2017

A Few Photos from Mt Calvary’s First Few Days

Jim Ministry glimpses, Prayer and Praise 1

Here are a few photos to give you a glimpse of what has been happening so far with the team from Mt Calvary.

Flooded Street in Las Palmas, Ixtapaluca The first night, for some of us, was a blur of flooded streets. booster cables, and getting very wet.

Mt Calvary at Sendero de Vida Las Palmas Half of the group (or so) shares a song at the Sunday service in Las Palmas.

Hearing Aid Demonstration Showing people how to use their new hearing aids at a special event to help the community, hosted by the church in Santa Barbara.

Fat Bulldog. A very fat dog at the children’s home we visited yesterday. His name is Balboa. And seriously, the picture doesn’t do him justice. He was a ball of flesh and fat.
Gustavo and Nathanael

Eating pizza and drinking Coke with the kids at the children’s home (Nathanael and Gustavo in the foreground).

Children's Home 2017 Some of the children at the children’s home (they have a total of about 18 right not), along with one of the owners.

9 June 2017

A Month of Short Term Teams (and how to pray)

Jim Missions, Prayer and Praise, ST Highlight 1

Today 28 people will be arriving in Ixtapaluca, to be involved in the ministry here. This will begin a month of short-term MANIA, featuring 3 different teams.

The first team to come is from Mt Calvary Church in Elizabethtown, PA, Rod‘s home area. This church sent a team last year (pictured below doing an evangelistic skit at a public junior high school). Also coming to check out the ministry here are Phil and Jessie, from Kansas. 13 Mexican families have generously agreed to host people from this team.

If you know us, you know that we believe in short term missions. Ever since the itinerant ministry of many of the Apostles, God has used short term missionaries. And we’ve been blessed by the fruit of short term teams. There are many in our churches who are there because of short term ministry in cooperation with long term ministry.

So how can you pray for us and for these teams coming over the next 30 days? Here are some ideas:

Pray that there would be a real connection between team members, teams and missionaries, teams and local believers, and believers and unbelievers. This means true unity in the Spirit among believers of whatever culture, and an opportunity for those believers to share Christ with unbelievers.
Pray for health and strength. Some days can be pretty intense, and serving in a tropical country always has special health challenges. Pray for missionaries, host families, and team members. And pray that God would show His strength in us, even when we’re weak.
Pray for humility and open-mindedness, and the ability to listen. We all need to serve one another and serve the Lord, and learn from one another, even when our first reaction toward someone or something is overly judgmental.
Pray that we would grow to be more like Christ, and that people would see Him in us.
Pray that we as believers would remember to turn to God in prayer, and turn to His Word, when we need help (and when we think we don’t!).
Pray for long term results. First, that people would come to know the Lord, that new friends would be made, and that local believers would grow. Also pray for short term team members, that this time would be a part of long term growth, and a new vision for service in their churches, in their communities, and in the world.

25 May 2017

The Bible Teacher’s Guilty Confession (and some upcoming events)

Jim Ministry glimpses, Prayer and Praise 1

I’m such a bad Bible study leader. Do you know what I did?

I’m so ashamed.

For our Bible study passage we … we … we opened the Bible at random.

I know, I know.

Actually, it’s not quite as bad as it sounds. We had just finished a two part study on how to study and understand the Bible. We did a review, and then as a bonus we look at 7 ways to look for Christ in the Old Testament. My claim was that you should be able to open up to any page in the Old Testament and find Christ.

So – after we got the training, we tried it out. Sure enough, we found Christ in several ways in – where was it? Some chapter in Jeremiah. It was quite interesting, actually. I noticed some things I hadn’t before.

Really, you should try it. Just don’t open the Bible at random expecting that it will be talking about you. That’s when you get into trouble!

Tomorrow we’ll head into “grey areas” – yes, actually a study about how to figure out what to do when the Bible doesn’t address it directly (how to dress – video games – going to the casino – you name it!).

Actually, this study is online in English – here is part 1, and here is part 2.

Cake creation 2017 begins! I’m preaching on Sunday, and would appreciate your prayers. Once again I’ve been learning about some things that have really confused me in the past, from Mark 6. Amazing stuff.

In the midst of all this – it’s (a slightly belated) birthday season! This week, a party for Hannah, and next week a party for Nathanael. Hannah’s party is a dolphin theme, and we’re taking her and some friends to the aquarium in Mexico City.

But if you know Shari, you won’t be surprised to know – cakes are being created!

16 May 2017

A Verified Vehicle

Jim Practical matters, Prayer and Praise, ST Highlight 1

It took the better part of yet another day. And there were many more strange and bizarre adventures as I talked to many different officials.

And I’m just not going to waste your time with all the details.

But at the end of the day (yesterday), we had a verified vehicle. With license plates.

Vehicle Verification So what does that mean? That means that after three and a half months of no van, we now have a vehicle that we can drive every day (unless there’s an unusual level of pollution – sometimes the government adds special restrictions).

Praise the Lord!

We’ll be trying to get the van back into good shape before the short term teams start arriving – in 3 weeks and 3 days!

I kind of feel like I need some driver’s training to remember how to drive. But Shari says it’s “just like riding a bike”. 🙂

12 May 2017

Thanks for praying! (No, really.)

Jim Ministry glimpses, Prayer and Praise, ST Highlight 1

I don’t always report back properly after asking you to pray – but then again, here on earth we only see a fraction of the results of your prayers!

For example, we had an excellent weekend with Renacidos. New people were connected to the community of believers, and many many people heard the gospel.

I mentioned to you the Bible studies I was doing on Friday nights – recently focused on how to understand and study the Bible. These have been fun studies – and hopefully useful! Tonight we’re doing an extra-special study – a review of what we’ve learned, and a look at how to look for Christ in the Old Testament.

Sometimes I specifically ask for your prayers before I preach on a Sunday morning. I sometimes wonder – if I really knew what I was doing, and what was going on people’s hearts – would I freeze and be too nervous to speak?

God does amazing things in our hearts through His Word.

The last time I spoke, it was on Mark 5:21-43 (listen in Spanish). In this part of the book, Mark tells us about two hopeless causes – a woman who no doctor could help, and a girl who was beyond help because she had died.

Afterward I got thinking about the people who were listening. Someone with a mother in their house, who had come home from the hospital for her final days. A man who we almost lost this year, who has one leg and recently lost a good part of his remaining foot. Someone with a father with cancer. A sister with a chronic illness. The list goes on and on – and in such a small group!

There is no hope from me – no hope from within this world. But such wonderful hope from another world – from our Lord Jesus, the Resurrection and the Life!

Pain is not the basic reality of life. Death is not the end.

So this is why we need your prayers – because the darkness is deep, and the Holy Spirit must shine His light to guide us beyond what we can see.

Thanks for praying!

10 May 2017

We have License Plates! But….

Jim Practical matters, Prayer and Praise, ST Highlight 1

Oh, aren’t we negative. Just when we should be jumping up and down and celebrating, we have to add that nasty, negative “but”. Some people’s children.

Well, first of all, yes, we are thankful to have license plates! I spent the better part of 3 days, this week alone, in long lines and interesting conversations with officials trying to get the process completed.

In all, it’s been 107 days – over 15 weeks – that I’ve been trying to get license plates. And we haven’t been able to drive our van during that time. 3 months and 17 days with no van, and countless hours spent in lines over – how many times did I visit that office? 8 times? 9 times? I’ve lost count.

I could tell you stories about this week alone. Like how two officials came out of the office after I’d been in line for a long time and said,”Well, the power has gone out… we’ll see if it comes back on…”

Or the time when someone came and said they were only taking 45 more people that day, and there was some confusion over whether I was person #44 or person #46.

And every day they found something else that I needed to bring next time.

And because it took so long … I had to pay a fine. Yes, even though I started the process the first day I possibly could.

But – thanks to the kindness of certain people in said office, and thanks to many of your prayers, and thanks to God’s mercy – we have license plates!

But…

But, the van will be parked tomorrow, because we won’t be allowed to drive it.

First of all, to drive here in the city you need to verify (emissions test) your vehicle. And we can’t do that until next week (because it takes that long for the new license plate process to finish going through the system). That means we can’t drive on Thursday (tomorrow), or Saturday, or until after 11am any weekday.

To add to the fun, the people at the verification place and the license plate place are arguing about one of my documents. The people at the verification place say that I need to get a form, go to a bank, make another payment, and then wait several days more before I can get the vehicle verified (bringing us to the end of next week before I can even try to get it verified!). They blame it on an error on one of my documents.

The people at the license plate place say “That’s ridiculous! We filled the form out perfectly, you shouldn’t have to pay that extra amount.”

And even after that, the question remains – will the van even pass the emissions test, or will it need some work done first?

So I hope you won’t be too hard on me for adding the “but”. We are glad to have the van – that we can drive sometimes. But the adventure of finishing all the paperwork could continue for another week or two. And I have three days of work to catch up on in the mean time!

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