ST Highlight

29 April 2017

Visa #1: Finally.

Jim Practical matters, Prayer and Praise, ST Highlight 1

The visa. You may not believe it, but I have my visa. And the picture to the right is proof.

93 days ago, we sent in the first document for the process. About 79 days ago, the government office started the official process. And now – what else can I say? It’s done!

So what’s the next step? The next step is to continue our quest to get licence plates for our van, which we haven’t been able to drive since January. They were supposed to call us when the paperwork was ready from their end, but we haven’t heard from them yet. So – a little face-to-face will be taking place in the next week or two (we’re going to be away a good part of next week, otherwise I would be a little more sure on the date).

Now that I have my visa, the rest of the family can begin the process for theirs. That won’t actually happen until late in the summer, because there are limits on how soon we can begin the process.

So, the adventure continues – but this is a big step in the right direction!

Thanks for your prayers!

28 April 2017

A Big Weekend with Renacidos!

Jim Ministry glimpses, Prayer and Praise, ST Highlight 0

We have a big weekend coming up! If you’d like to pray, here are a few highlights:

Children's Day Event 2016 - in Ixtapaluca with Word of Life — Children’s Day Event 2016 – in Ixtapaluca with Word of Life

Tonight – I will be continuing the Discovering Life 2 Bible study. This week and next week we have especially fun topics – this week, How to Understand the Bible, and next week How to Study the Bible.
Tomorrow morning (11:30am) instead of the normal kids’ club, there will be an outreach in the community of Alfredo del Mazo. A group is coming from Word of Life Mexico (besides the interns who come every weekend) to do some special presentations in honour of Children’s Day (which is actually the 30th). We will also be providing reading glasses and hearing aids to people in need.
Saturday evening – another presentation from the group from Word of Life (the group is called Renacidos – Reborn). This time in the Path of Life Bible Church in Santa Barbara.
Sunday morning – we’ll be having an early service, so that we can worship and pray for the days’ events. This is actually Children’s Day, so after the service we’ll head back over to the community of Santa Barbara, where Renacidos will have evangelistic activities for the kids and their families.
After the activities, we’ll have the interns (I think around 25 people this time around) at our house for lunch. If we can find something to feed them. 🙂

So lots of teaching, outreach and evangelism this weekend! We would appreciate your prayers as we meet new people. We would also appreciate your prayers for the new church in Las Palmas, who will be very involved, and for new people – believers and unbelievers – who have recently connected with the church community.

19 April 2017

Ixtapaluca Project: Complete!

Jim Ministry glimpses, Prayer and Praise, ST Highlight 0

A few years ago, our team initiated a project to help the local church in the community of JesÃºs MarÃa, Ixtapaluca, to purchase land and begin construction. Great news! We have reached our goal, and completed the project!

This project of course is only a gift to help with some of the cost. The church has raised a great deal from other sources, such as offerings and garage sales. But working together, these funds have now been mostly converted into soil and brick and wire. The church has land, and part of a structure.

The next goal is to finish the walls of the main sanctuary and put up the roof. Lord willing that will be done this summer!

For all of you who helped with this project – thank you! If you donated, you should receive a final report sometime soon.

Already this building has been used for Sunday services, Bible studies, counselling, classes for the community, temporary storage of things like wheelchairs for people in need, and much more. As I’ve said often, the building is only one of many means to an end – to see disciples of the Lord reaching out to share His truth and love.

This is a good time to post a few pictures, to remember what has happened over the past few years…

First Service JesÃºs MarÃa — Very first service in a small rented house in 2010. It was packed!

Construction begins — Peeking over the wall, you can see construction beginning. First, they had to demolish the old pig sties! (2013)

First service on the new property — First Sunday service on the new property, in the temporary sanctuary (2014).

Baptisms 2016 — Baptisms in the roofless sanctuary in 2016.

Children's Ministry Seminar 2017 — Representatives from all three Sendero de Vida churches at the Children’s Ministry seminar in JesÃºs MarÃa (2017).

29 March 2017

Visa Progress March 2017

Jim Practical matters, Prayer and Praise, ST Highlight 1

Queues likely As some of you know, I’m in the process of getting my permanent visa for Mexico. Well, good news! The paperwork is almost ready, and next week – Lord willing – I will be able to go to do the finger-printing-and-document-signing to finish the process.

So – we’re very thankful!

The theory is that once I have all my paperwork, I will actually be able to get license plates for our van. As you may recall, we haven’t been able to drive the van since late January, due to the paperwork complications. So yes, it will be nice to have the van again, especially before the teams start coming! (We actually had a couple of teams in March, and it did make things compicated!)

Anyway, just wanted to give you a bit of an update. Still no visa, still no van – but I’m hoping that in a week or two, after a long line or two, I’ll have some more concrete news for you. 🙂

27 March 2017

A Glimpse of 3 Churches

Jim Ministry glimpses, Prayer and Praise, ST Highlight, Video Blogs 1

Yesterday the church in the community of JesÃºs MarÃa was having its 7th anniversary celebration. They invited the church in Santa BÃ¡rbara and also the church in Las Palmas to attend.

So I thought this would be a good time to show you around the new sanctuary (which is still being built – you can help!), and also to show you some of the people from all three churches. The video is a little long – over 10 minutes – but I haven’t shown you these people and places for a while.

There’s no music – sorry – didn’t want to fight with YouTube’s varying copyright restrictions. But there was a lot of cool special music too. 🙂

Anyway, I’ll explain more in the video itself – so here we go!

22 March 2017

The Sower

Jim Ministry glimpses, Missions, ST Highlight 0

Earlier this month I preached on the parable of the sower, from Mark 4:1-23. I’ve been reflecting quite a bit on the parable, and its implications in ministry.

As a part of the message I gave everyone four cards, one representing each of the four types of soil – on the path, rocky, thorny, and good. It was a chance to evaluate our own lives, and also to think about the people around us who might represent the different kinds of soil.

In a way, the parable isn’t very encouraging. In fact, in the book of Mark it’s very much presented as a judgement. People had rejected Jesus up to this point (even accusing Him of being demon possessed!), and so the parable really explains why. Why so many people appeared to follow or at least listen to Christ, but ended up leaving rejecting Him.

And one thing to notice is that the soil never changes in the parable. There is no soil that starts bad and ends up good.

But there is good news in the rest of Scripture – hearts do change – and that is a miraculous act of God. And that happens.

And that’s why we can see people around us who seem to be “bad soil”, and we can pray for them, and keep scattering seed, and see God work.

This past weekend we had another team here from the United States, and also had David here from Calgary. Last night as David and I were walking from visiting someone to get to the English class, we were talking about the ways in which short term missionaries have an impact. Yes, there are teams out there who don’t do much good (and even do harm), but here we have seen wonderful fruit from short term interns and teams.

In a way, it’s amazing that any of us have an impact. Sinners, who don’t see the big picture, who often have the wrong priorities.

But there’s something we do have – the Holy Spirit, and His Word. That’s something that short term missionaries and long term missionaries all have. And we keep scattering the Seed.

We’re really just helpers. The Sower is Jesus Himself. And He’s still working. A lot of people reject His Word. But He keeps spreading it everywhere – on good soil, and on bad. And once in a while, amazing things start to grow!

«‹ 37 38 39 40 ›»