ST Highlight

10 October 2023

In the Middle of Canada

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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!

13 September 2023

Unusual Summer – or Silent Summer?

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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. 🙂

7 July 2023

Thanks for Your Prayers (even while we’re in Canada)!

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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!

29 June 2023

3+ Weeks in Canada

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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.

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…

17 May 2023

Leadership Recognition Service

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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. 🙂

Ezequiel and Esther, Viri and Oscar — (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.

Laying on hands and praying. — *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!

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.

Food time after the service! — *Food time!*

Our coworker Rod had a post about the service up ages ago – with lots of pictures – you can check it out here: An Important Step in the Life of a Local Church

28 April 2023

It’s been a week (or so)

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It’s been a pretty crazy ~~weak~~ week or so. Not just for me. But I can talk from my perspective because it’s my blog post.

I was sick on Friday – sicker than I’ve been in years. Nothing contagious. I went to a meeting that evening – it’s kind of a blur. Then, I came home and it wasn’t pretty. In fact, I’m still recovering.

Somehow, I got up and preached on Sunday. It really is hard to believe, looking back. For the sermon time I felt pretty much normal, but before and after wasn’t so good. So I’m thankful for that brief moment! Maybe if anyone didn’t like the sermon, they’re not so thankful. But be that as it may.

Our friend Ezequiel was also sick on Sunday – he went to set up, and then realized that going to the service itself wasn’t going to happen!

It’s been busy because we’re getting ready for the leadership recognition service on Sunday. I know that we all would appreciate your prayers, because I know that it hasn’t been only Ezequiel and I that have faced some extra challenges this week. Pray especially for our two leaders and their families (Oscar and Ezequiel), and for us and our fellow missionaries Rod and Mayra Fry.

But yeah – anyway – talk about stream of consciousness – Sunday is a very special Sunday, as we recognize our first Mexican elders. We’re looking forward to a special time, and a whole bunch of special visitors, and a time of food and fellowship after the service. So we would appreciate your prayers.

For those of you on our Support Team, I will try to get a newsletter out to you next month ASAP with some details of the service.

Today I was working with the repairman, who was here yet again working on our hot water tank. As with many things, tanks and parts are getting more expensive and the quality is going down. So he’s been here twice – I think the second time we’ve had more success! However it is becoming kind of a running… er… joke… that we’re finally prioritizing getting certain things taken care of, and it turns out the issue is not really “fixed”.

Tonight is the Chronological Bible Study, so I’m looking forward to that. Hopefully it’s well attended – but, wow, looks like quite the storm is brewing! We’ll see if it actually turns into something.

Anyway, there is a lot happening, a lot coming up. So we appreciate your prayers as always, as discipleship, evangelism and general growth continues here in Ixtapaluca.

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