Travelling is good – a blessing – and also difficult.
We’ve been travelling for 5 months, which is a long time to live out of a suitcase, be out of your routine, be away from familiar surroundings. And if we’re here much longer, it will be a record time away from home.
But travelling has been a blessing as well. We’ve been able to spend time with family. We’ve been involved in ministry in many different churches. We’ve visited friends, and even made new friends.
We got together with some people at Avant who do so much for us (not pictured was Carolyn – we appreciate you too!):
One church even put together a pretty cool Mexican display for me to stand in front of (Prairie Tabernacle):
Shari shared at a women’s prayer meeting, and is preparing for another. And for those who have been asking, my Mom is doing a lot better! Here she is at the prayer meeting (front and centre)…
And of course there was another Where did the Bible Come from? seminar. Here’s a group pouring over “ancient” manuscripts of the fabled story of Javier the Louse…
Well, there has been so much happening that I won’t go into it all here. But it’s been fun!
But we’ve also been missing Mexico. In fact, we even missed a church anniversary service for the first time – although we were “there” in spirit, and we did record a video message for the service.
And so the time is coming to prepare for travel back to Mexico. We would appreciate your prayers for reasonable tickets, and that God would give wisdom as to timing! There’s a lot to do before we go, so I’d better get to it.
So there we were, right in the middle of Canada, and I decided to ask the dangerous question, “Where are you from?”
No, literally, we were right in the middle of Canada. See?
Ok, well, the middle of Canada from east to west, anyway.
We saw another family there, and my Mexico spidey-sense went off, and I asked them where they were from. Sure enough, Mexico! But they now live in Canada. We enjoyed a long chat with this family right there – pulling out our slightly dusty Spanish – right smack-dab in the middle of Canada.
Well, we’ve had all kinds of interesting experiences here in Canada. For two weeks we travelled through Saskatchewan and Manitoba – and finally, at the pinnacle (or at least mid-way point) of our trip, we visited our mission office in Winnipeg, in spite of rain and hail on the last leg. 🙂 We appreciate everything that the folks at Avant do for us! And we’ve had some good times with various people, and did some ministry in a couple of churches.
And by the way, the new friends from the middle of Canada weren’t the only Mexican people we’ve met. We even enjoyed an evening with a Mexican pastor and his American wife, who are planning to go into full-time ministry in Mexico. It’s always an encouragement to hear of more people joining the work of the Kingdom!
And, once in a while, Mexican food has been a part of our travels…
We’re looking forward to some ministry at the Prairie Tabernacle in Three Hills, and will also be returning to Cremona to run the Where did the Bible Come From? seminar. As always, the upcoming events are all here.
In family news, you’ll be glad to hear that my Mom is doing much better after a fall at the end of August!
Without going into all the details – it’s crazy-busy, we very much appreciate your prayers – and that’s all for today!
If you’re on our Support Team, you should be getting our quarterly newsletter soon, with the theme “Unusual Summer”. Well, it’s been unusual all right, for a lot of reasons! But here on Finding direction, it’s also been rather – silent!
But here I am, finally, taking a moment to write. So, yes, as you might guess, it has been pretty busy, in many ways! If you’ve been following on Instagram or X or Facebook, I’ve at least been trying to keep you up to date on our speaking engagements and seminars (which reminds me, I should send out a reminder about this Sunday! *adding to list*). Our schedule is also here, of course. But there have been a lot of other things going on.
We’ve enjoyed visiting quite a few churches in Alberta. As a bonus, I had the opportunity to teach a seminar on The Environment in Glendon, taking a look at the Bible’s teaching and how it relates (quite often clashes) with current views on environmentalism. We have a lot to think about and talk about!
We’re thankful that Nathanael has found a job – er – jobs. So both he and Hannah are keeping busy, and will likely be even busier as fall activities rev up. But this past Saturday we were able to celebrate Independence Day (Mexico) a little early, by going for tacos together! We even had the chance to chat with someone there from our home state. It was a rare time for the four of us to hang out together for a while!
We’ve had a lot of personal things to get done while in Canada, for ourselves and for family, so that means a lot of trips hither and yon. As I mentioned in our newsletter, when you’re missionaries visiting your “passport country”, you’re usually trying to cram a lot into a short period of time!
Ministry will be continuing in the weeks ahead, in Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and back to Alberta, including another Where did the Bible Come From? seminar. I have some fun tweaks planned for the seminar, so I’m looking forward to that.
Anyway, I can’t promise I’ll be stopping by here more often, but I’ll try! Meanwhile, if you’re going to be in the neighbourhood during any of our upcoming engagements, it would be great to see you. 🙂
Yes, your prayers are appreciated – even while we’re in Canada!
Things have continued to be very busy, but we did manage to take a day off last week as a family, which was very fun, and may possibly have included a board game. 🙂
Some of you may have heard about the tornado that hit, about 45 minutes from where we’re staying. It damaged about a dozen homes, completely destroying some of them. From here, we were watching the clouds carefully (see photo). Please pray for those who lost so much.
We’ve enjoyed some times of ministry already, and are busy preparing for upcoming opportunities. We had a great time this past Sunday, seeing old friends and making some new ones. And if you’re near Cremona or Mirror, check our schedule and be sure to come out and see us!
We’re looking forward to enjoying some time with family this month – including some family members that we haven’t seen for many years (and a younger member of the family who some of us haven’t even met yet!).
We also appreciate your continued prayers for the church in Mexico, and the short-termers who are visiting. We’ve been hearing good reports of new contacts and opportunities, and we’re praying for much fruit! Right now there’s a family visiting from the USA, learning about ministry in Ixtapaluca. And on Saturday another team comes. That’s in addition to other visitors and interns, and all the Mexican believers who are serving with them. Today there are two baking classes happening through the community centre – a great way to reach out to more people in the community in a fun way!
Thanks for your prayers! There are a lot of exciting things happening, in both countries!
It may not surprise most of you – but I’ll just say it – it’s been busy!
Someone asked me on Sunday if we were getting some time off, and I said, “Not yet”…. and in fact, the person who asked is a doctor, so I kind of hung my head in shame and decided that we’d better create some downtime, or we wouldn’t get any!
That confession out of the way, the good news is that it’s been busy but not all work – lots of variety, in fact. There’s always a lot of business packed in when we’re in Canada. Of course, there was Nathanael’s graduation and everything that went along with that. We’ve also had some good chances to visit with people, some time with family, and started our season of ministry here with a prayer meeting this past Thursday.
Windshield
Before our official ministry time even began, we were driving down a well-maintained major highway. A semi-truck was heading toward us, and somehow flung up a rock – a large rock – about the size of a baseball – at our windshield. Having driven all over North America, I admit I’ve never seen anything like it. It pulverized the windshield (so we’ll be buying a new one), but thankfully didn’t go through, because it was heading right for me.
So – we’re thankful again for safety in travel! This trip could have been very different already. Thanks for your prayers!
If you’ve been checking our schedule, you know that we’ll be at West Zion Mennonite Church (between Carstairs and Disbury) this coming Sunday (2nd of July) and then Cremona Country Fellowship on the 9th. Come out to see us!
We’re still looking for churches who would be willing to have the Where did the Bible Come From? seminar. Feel free to contact us for details!
We would appreciate your prayers that we would get everything done that we need to get done – and that we would have rest as well.
And yes, we have carved out some time off, in case any doctors ask again in the near future…
We were so thankful for the leadership recognition service on the 30th of April – so why didn’t we post anything about it? Well, for those who know us well, we could just say “it’s May” (hence crazy busy) and that might be enough. But we were also trying to get the news out to our Support Team first, so hopefully many of you have already heard the news! If not, there is probably a letter on its way to you. 🙂
(left to right) Ezequiel, Esther, Viri, Oscar
Anyway, yes! On the 30th of April we had a special service to recognize the first national leaders of the Path of Life Bible Church Las Palmas (Iglesia Bíblica Sendero de Vida Las Palmas)! Ezequiel and Oscar have already been doing the work of elders, but this service was a time to specifically honour them and their wives, to talk about leadership in the church, and to lay hands on them and pray for them.
I (Jim) had the privilege of leading the music, with Nathanael as one of my fellow musicians, and all the songs were chosen by Oscar and Ezequiel. It was neat because the songs all emphasized their desire to look to the Lord and put Him first. In fact, every song except one was directly a prayer – and the one that wasn’t was instead a testimony. (I don’t know which songs have English versions, but you might recognize songs such as “Psalm 5 (Give Ear to My Words)” and “Yet Not I But Through Christ In Me”.)
Oscar shared a little bit about our friend Edgar, who passed away this past November. It was important to us that he be remembered in this service, because he had had a leadership role as well. We miss Edgar, but look forward to seeing him again soon.
Rod preached about the role of pastors in the church from 1 Peter 5, and other texts. Martín, pastor of the church in the community of Santa Barbara, gave the charge to the congregation.
Next the two couples were presented with various symbols representing different aspects of the ministry…
Shepherd’s staff, representing pastoral leadership (1 Peter 5:1-4).
Basin and towel, representing humble service (John 13:3-5).
“My house is your house” decorative plates, representing hospitality (Titus 1:7-8).
Framed verses – 2 Timothy 3:16-17, representing the Bible as our authority.
Shari and I presented the last one.
Then we laid on hands and prayed, along with other elders and pastors and their wives from the area.
Time of Prayer (photo courtesy Nathanael)
Of course, no special service would be complete without some food and a time of celebration! And some cakes! Maybe even some impromptu games!
A cake featuring 1 Timothy 3:1-7
No one really wanted to leave, so I think it was evening by the time everything wrapped up. 🙂
Thanks so much to everyone who was praying – and who is praying! We’re so thankful for these men and their families, and for many other men and women who are already helping with the ministry of this congregation. But the work of this young local church is only beginning – may God grant that it would be a light here in Ixtapaluca and around the world! Please continue to pray for this church, and especially these leaders, who are finding their way into the service of this growing congregation.
