During the first few months of 2026 we have had a couple of kids coming off and on to our Sunday services. It’s one of the stages in the church when we have a lot of youth and young adults, and not a lot of kids!
But I wanted to give a shout out to the faithful teachers (including Shari), who have been preparing lessons – being prepared even when no children attended, just in case!
Everyone prepared an evangelistic message for children that visited or started attending. There was always someone prepared for the class, even in times when no children attended regularly.
The kids have come this year are still very young, so the teachers began learning how to simplify, simplify, simplify – because everyone can learn something about the Lord, somehow!
Praise the Lord for the faithful dedication of these teachers. Please pray for more children – and more teachers as well!
I’m a little over 3 months late, but I did want to report on an evangelistic event that we had in Las Palmas, because it was a good time.
So one of our beloved Christmas traditions here in Mexico is ponche, a hot punch filled with fruits. So we set up a stove on the street in front our church meeting place, and served ponche to the passersby.
Some served the hot drinks, some shared the gospel, some walked around the neighbourhood to invite people to come, and some played Christmas carols.
And we also handed out little bags with a candy or two, a verse, and information about the church.
Many people heard the gospel and received information about the church. About 200 of our little information cards were handed out, which means that many households in the community now know that we’re there.
You can see in the image above right that we have a sign at street level for the church, and we hope to put another one up above so people can clearly see where we are.
We appreciate your prayers as we continue to build on this start, or actually restart, since we’ve returned to Las Palmas after meeting elsewhere!
So, what if I started to post again, once in a while?
Yes, it’s been a crazy time – not just today (which was crazy), not just the past few weeks, but the past few months. It would be nice to get back into some kind of equilibrium – but I’m not holding my breath. Instead, I’m just stopping by to post!
I might catch you up on a few things from the past few months, but let’s start with the most recent – the last month.
We’ve enjoyed quite a few visits! We got together with some new friends in Mexico City rather suddenly and spontaneously – in fact, our van was in the shop, and it j was just finished and we just grabbed it and we drove into the city to get together with Jon and Danielle. It was quick, but a good time of fellowship!
Then we got together with Jessica – you remember Jessica, she used to live here in Ixtapaluca, and is still with our mission. She was down for a meeting, and was nice enough to come by so we could catch up a bit. Glad she finally made it back!
Then along came what I called “Nathanael’s Gang” – Nathanael and three of his friends, Thomas, Emilee and Elira. The whole group had a bit of a “missions vision” trip, learning a bit about Mexico and ministry here.
Thrown into the mix was Natalie, former missionary to Guatamala who will be coming to Mexico – the state of Oaxaca – to serve. She came for a day of cultural orientation along with Nathanael’s Gang. As you can see, Mexican orientation has something to do with Coca-Cola and soccer. Go figure!
Elira, Emilee, Thomas, Nathanael, and Natalie.
And of course all of this involved a lot of hanging out with Mexican friends as well – often over tacos…
The Gang was only here for a few days, but Nathanael stayed to have the pleasure of having two of his wisdom teeth removed. Oh joy! But you’ll be glad to hear he healed quickly, and we were able to enjoy some good times together.
Although, admittedly, not as much time as we had hoped for. There have been an unusual amount of challenges and complications in the midst of all of this – you know those times when everything goes wrong at once, or everything breaks down at the same time? Well – stuff like that. So that meant less time to enjoy Nathanael’s visit.
But God has been good, and a lot was accomplished in spite of it all.
Did I miss anybody? Probably. We even got to see our coworker Rod in there somewhere – an event that is rarer than you may imagine!
Nathanael is actually on the plane to Calgary as I write. And I have a music practice to get to! So – hopefully – I’ll talk to you later.
We would appreciate your prayers for the family of our former director, Keith Elliott, who passed away this month.
Elliotts and Cottrills 2016 (click to enlarge)
Keith was our Canadian director back before Camino joined with Avant. He and his wife, Ruth Ann, were a great encouragement to us at the time. In fact, as you may guess from the picture above, they visited us here in Ixtapaluca 10 years ago next month!
Keith’s obituary explains what happened:
On Wednesday, December 17, 2025, Keith was able to fulfill his heart’s desire to be the kidney donor for his beloved wife and life-long ministry partner, Ruth Ann. Keith experienced a complication from the transplant surgery. After many days on life support, surrounded by his family, Keith passed from this world into the loving arms of his Saviour on Saturday, January 3, 2026.
We had actually been hoping to have Keith and Ruth Ann down here again to do some ministry with our pastors, and were very much looking forward to having them. But the Lord had other things in mind. We’ll have to wait a little longer to see him again!
The Elliotts served for many years as missionaries in Mexico, and in Ecuador. Until health issues led them home to Canada, they were serving in Costa Rica, doing pastoral care.
Again, please do pray for Ruth Ann and the rest of the family, for comfort and direction in the days ahead.
I’m not going to take the time to tell you about all of our whirlwind adventures in Canada. But let’s just say that it was an extremely busy, but also very good time!
We had the opportunity to serve in 6 churches in Alberta, get some paperwork and other errands taken care of, attend a conference, and spend some time with family and friends.
Of course if you get our newsletter, you already know about the most notable news from our visit – an engagement! In case you missed it, here’s the note right from our letter.
No doubt there will be more news to come on that topic! But I can tell you that we’re looking forward to a wedding in the spring. 🙂
Our trip home to Mexico was somewhat eventful, due to a cancelled flight. We ended up travelling for almost 24 hours to get from Calgary back to Ixtapaluca, unexpectedly visiting San Francisco along the way, but God was good and we arrived – even with all our luggage, which boarded more airplanes than we did!
We appreciate many of you who prayed for our trip.
And now, after being gone for a few weeks, we’re leaping back into life here. There’s lots to get done over the next little while. But Christmas is coming! So we’re hoping to get a bit of a break over the holidays if the Lord allows.
It’s hard to believe that we’ve already had three Sundays in our new (rented) hall back in the neighbourhood of Las Palmas. There’s still a lot to do. We have some significant leaks that need to be worked on. There’s more painting to do, curtains to make – well, ok, it’s a long list!
But I at least wanted to share a few pictures to prove that we are actually there!!
For example, although we’re hoping to get a bigger sign up on the wall, we do have a sign up on our door (right).
On the first Sunday, I shared some pictures of the “pilgrimages” of our church – 6 or 7 places where we’ve worshipped, depending on how you count, including this place…
We have an actual Sunday school room… the first time we’ve had an actual room, now that I think about it…
We took some time on the first Sunday to celebrate those who have been in our children’s Sunday school class in the past…
We had our first youth group there on Saturday, and even celebrated some birthdays (although not all the people with birthdays showed up – more cake for everyone else!):
And yesterday we celebrated Mexico’s Independence a few days early with our first potluck back in Las Palmas!
We’re very thankful for this new space that we can use!
