It’s been a crazy few weeks – but good crazy! Bible and Wheelchair Presentation, New Shoelaces! In a nutshell the community was served, new contacts were made, and the Gospel of Jesus Christ was preached – exciting!
Most of our activities centred around the neighbourhoods of Jesús MarÃa and Las Palmas. There were soccer tournaments and sports camps. Craft classes and English classes. Apple pies and roasted cactus. Wheelchairs and shoe laces. Tiling and painting. Verse memorizing and song learning. Going for wings and stopping for tacos. The seniors’ shelter and the rehab centre. Services and Sunday Schools.Shari handing out a snack
Making apple pieWe’re thankful for everyone who was a part of it – both the local believers and those here for a few days, weeks, or months.
I hope some of those who came to help will come back again!
Please pray for those who heard the Gospel – that they would come to Christ and that His Spirit would do amazing things in their lives. Please pray that the momentum would continue as we head into the fall.
Community centre classes will start up again in September, and there is already a considerable amount of interest. Please pray that the Lord would bring many of these people back to hear His Word. We’re excited about what God may do in the future!
Yesterday we went back to the senior’s shelter with the interns and the team (from New Jersey) that’s here this week. You can see a handful of pictures below of today’s activities.
The home is only a few minutes from our house, inside a brick factory. A family there has taken in seniors (mostly – some younger) who have been abandoned and/or abused.
The theme this summer has been the fruit of the Spirit, so Mayra shared the final set today, with a clear presentation of the Gospel. Then Rod led some music.
After that we cooked and served breakfast for them (pancakes – just like a Stampede breakfast!).
Then we had some time to hang out, and do a craft based on the theme.
We have a doctor on the team with us, so she went around taking people’s blood pressure while I translated. There’s one man who is really struggling with some health issues right now – please pray that he will be able to get some help at the hospital soon.
It is always a tremendous blessing to visit. We’ve enjoyed helping out in a few ways, and have a few schemes up our sleeves for the future. One of our interns noticed that some of the residents needed new shoe laces, so she went and got some nice colourful ones to share. How fun is that?
Here are a few pictures from the day. I’ll post some larger versions next time I update our Photo Gallery.
We’ve enjoyed having four interns here serving with us over the summer. But it’s time to go from busy to CrAzY again as we host a team from Uncharted Waters over the next week.
So this means continued community centre classes, plus a sports camp in Jesús MarÃa in the morning, a sports camp in Las Palmas in the afternoon, some “beautification” of the community centres and surrounding grounds, painting the at the church property, and who knows what else!
Anyway, the caravan will head to the airport in less than an hour to pick up the team and we’ll take it from there.
When this team leaves, we do some frantic cleaning and … — welcome another team! Yeah, busy summer.
Thanks so much for your continued prayers! We look forward to great things this week as God works!
By the way, for more information about sports camps and why we do them, be sure to check out this post from 2013: Why a Sports Camp?
Those of you who receive our quarterly newsletter know that we’re currently raising funds for a replacement for our van. So what’s the reason for that?
The short story is this. Due to various regulations in Mexico, over the next few months we will be drastically restricted in the hours and days during which we can drive our van, and eventually we will not be able to legally drive it at all (unless we take action).
Complications
Now there are various spheres of laws and regulations that come into play here. For example, the laws of Mexico City. Due to concerns about pollution, certain vehicles can only drive certain hours and days. There is a system of verification, and vehicles are tested and have more or less liberty based on their emissions, age, origin, etc.
There are also national laws, that relate to importing foreign vehicles, nationalizing vehicles, regular payments, license plates, and so on.
There are laws related to the state of our visas, and there are restrictions on what vehicle you can drive based on the type of visa you have and when it expires.
To add to the confusion, all three of these categories of law have been changing, and are continuing to change. For example, there seems to be one thing that Mexico has agreed to in the North American Free Trade Agreement, but they’re not yet implementing the rules on the ground, causing some confusion depending on whom you are talking to.
This doesn’t even take into consideration what we need in a vehicle, our future plans and everything else related to our own situation.
“Complicated” would seem to be an understatement.
The Plan
So this summer we are taking a road trip to Canada. We actually had to go anyway for other reasons, so we decided to take the opportunity to sell the van we have before it comes under more restrictions (we cannot legally sell our van in Mexico).
We will most likely purchase another vehicle in Canada (there are various pros and cons to this, as opposed to purchasing a vehicle in Mexico – so we may still change our minds), and eventually get Mexican plates for it.
The Project
Camino Global has approved a project which will allow us to raise up to $12,000 (Canadian dollars – currently about US$9,560) for the newer van, taxes, and eventual fees to nationalize it.
So far CA$300 has been raised – thank you so much for your help!
Our van is one of our most important tools. It allows us to move people around for ministry, move materials, help people move, bring people to services… As most of you know, we do a lot of driving, both in and out of Mexico. So our prayer is that we would find a reliable vehicle that we can continue to use in our ministry.
As you can see, we still have a ways to go to complete this project! If you would like to be involved, here’s what you need to know:
If you’re donating in Canadian dollars, you can give toward the Cottrill Van Project, project #082708V. The project will be open until the end of August. Visit our Canadian donations page here.
If you’re donating in US dollars, please give to our general fund and not to the project. In other words, you can just make a special gift as you normally would. For information on how to give in $US, click here.
Although this project is open until the end of August, remember that we will (Lord willing) be purchasing the vehicle in August, and so it would be helpful to have the full amount in the account as soon as possible.
If you have any questions about why we’re doing things this way, or how this will all work, feel free to contact us any time. You can also contact Camino Global Canada for more information at (647)977-3226.
On Wednesday we went to Chalco (with the team from Mt. Calvary Church) and presented another eight wheelchairs to people in need of them. Each person was given a Bible, and Mayra gave a presentation of the Gospel to the recipients and their family and friends who were there.
Here are the eight people who received the wheelchairs, given in cooperation with the Free Wheelchair Mission. In the bottom right you can see Mayra sharing with one woman, using the woman’s new Bible.
To see this event in our Photo Gallery, just click the image below.
As many of you know, we have a team here from Pennsylvania. It’s been a great start to summer activities, with a soccer tournament, tiling at the church property, baking classes, visiting a home for seniors, a wheelchair presentation, English classes – and we’re not done yet!
Eventually I’ll post some pictures in our photo gallery, but here are a few just to show what we’ve been up to in the past few days…
I hope some of those who came to help will come back again!
We’ve enjoyed having four interns here serving with us over the summer. But it’s time to go from busy to CrAzY again as we host a team from 
The short story is this. Due to various regulations in Mexico, over the next few months we will be drastically restricted in the hours and days during which we can drive our van, and eventually we will not be able to legally drive it at all (unless we take action).
Camino Global has approved a project which will allow us to raise up to $12,000 (Canadian dollars – currently about US$9,560) for the newer van, taxes, and eventual fees to nationalize it.
