First Day of School 2010
Yes, today is the big day. Here are some thoughts after the opening ceremonies….
Prayer and Praise
Unscrewing the Door: A Sunday Ritual (Video)
… or, "coming unhinged". Or, "you belong in the kitchen" …
Last Sunday morning (the 15th of August 2010) I took some pictures and video during our time together as a church (Iglesia BÃblica Sendero de Vida Jesús María – that is, Path of Life Bible Church Jesús María). This video shows some of that, along with some thoughts. And that brings us to something we want to pray about and work towards.
Check it out!
Mexican Summer Missionaries 2010
I just read a brief report from fellow CAM missionaries the Buhlers. The report was all about the summer missionary program here in Mexico, that encourages Christian youth to reach out around Mexico using kids’ clubs. Every year thousands of children hear about the Lord Jesus in these clubs.
The training took place in July in Mexico City this year. 23 youth took the training – they represented 15 different churches and 8 states of Mexico!
Again many children heard the Gospel, and many made confessions of faith. The Buhlers ask for prayer for these children, as follow-up and discipleship continue in various parts of Mexico.
You can see a picture of the summer missionaries on the Buhler’s blog in their report on the training time here.
The Guadalajara Team (Video)
On Sunday I flew to Guadalajara to join a team for a couple of days. It was a joint team from two churches in Hamilton – Primera Iglesia Bautista Hispana and Garside Bible Church.
The team was involved (actually, as I write, they’re still involved – they leave tomorrow) in an outreach in the north of the city. It’s a poorer area where some people from a local Baptist church have been serving for quite some time in hopes that a church can be planted there.
So it was a great opportunity, and the team was doing a great job. They presented the Gospel clearly, they had lots of fun with the kids, they worked hard, and they were very organized (even when unexpected things happened, which they always do!). I’m guessing on the first couple of days there were 80-90 children.
On the first day, the police stopped by in the middle of the club. Were they going to shut us down? Were we missing some permit or doing something they didn’t like?
No, actually they came to congratulate us for what we were doing to help the kids in this neighbourhood!
It’s exciting to think that this team is a part of a work that may lead to a new church plant – which will be a witness in that community for many years to come – maybe until the Lord returns!
I made up the video below to give you a bit of a picture of what they were doing. It also shows the faithful Mexicans who are working here each week. Here it is…
Preaching – and Flying
This morning I’m preaching on Ephesians 1:11-14. Which is a little tricky, because verse 11 actually starts in the middle of a sentence.
The whole entire sentence is Ephesians 1:3-14 – yes, over 200 words in the Greek. I’m not exactly sure how I feel about the English translations tendency to split this passage into more and more sentences as the years go by – surely Paul had a reason for writing this all together!
Actually, I can think of a reason right now. This passage intertwines the work of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – three individual persons working in perfect unity – one God. At times, it’s hard to know which person of the Trinity Paul is talking about!
But anyway, this morning’s theme is inheritance (in Spanish herencia). I won’t give it all away, but if you want a clue:
- Check out which phrases or ideas are repeated over and over in 3-14. One will probably occur 7 or more times, depending on your version.
- Read the rest of Ephesians.
- Read John 17:1-26.
- Read Psalm 16:1-11.
- Read 1 Corinthians 12:13.
- Read John 6:27.
After today’s service, I’m headed to the airport. I’ll be flying to Guadalajara later today, to join up with a team from Garside Bible Church and their sister church Primer Iglesia Bautista Hispana.
As I understand it, the team will be joining some local believers and putting on a day camp north of the city, in an area that they hope will be a new church plant in the near future. Exciting stuff!
I’ll be returning on Wednesday. I’ll try to update my Facebook status and Tweets as I’m able, so you can see what’s going on. 😉
The Guadalajara Metropolitan Area mantains a large and dense population – over 4 million people. This actually makes it one of the largest cities in Latin America. Interestingly enough, the area also supports a huge Canadian population – some down for the winter, some year round.
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Guadalajara
Jalisco, Mexico
Ixtapaluca
Mexico
Fun Videos and Veracruz Trip
I know it’s been video-central here lately, but I thought I’d post a couple of fun videos that I didn’t make myself.
First, in honour of the last game of the World Cup today, here’s a commercial from the USA. (Andrés Cantor, featured in the commercial, is a Spanish language sports commentator in the USA, originally from Argentina.) Check out the comments on the YouTube page if you want a translation. via Pros Apologian
Next, my friend Daryl sent this amazing video of a 3 dimensional optical illusion. The setup, made in Japan, won a 2010 award for the best visual illusion of the year.
I’m (just Jim) heading to (the state of) Veracruz today with some friends from here and the summer interns from the USA. We’ll be gone for 5 days… helping out at a church tonight, visiting a Christian mission, and spending time together. Apparently, we even have our own logo/graphic for the trip. You never know what’s going to happen when you have a graphic artist along.
The interns had a "LOST" theme this summer. Hopefully we don’t get ….
The map above shows the general area where we’ll be – the city of Veracruz and north to Tuxpan de RodrÃgues Cano.