ST Highlight

1 June 2022

Church Planting Seminar and Wedding

Jim Ministry glimpses, Prayer and Praise, ST Highlight 0

What a boring title. I was going to get creative – like, “Brides”, as in the bride of Christ and the bride at the wedding. But I opted for boring. Oh well.

So this past weekend I had the opportunity to give the charge to the couple (the devotional) at a wedding of some friends from the Santa Bárbara church. I spoke on Ecclesiastes, in case you’re wondering (although I did end on a more positive New Testament note!). You can certainly pray for this couple as they seek to be a testimony among many who do not know the Lord.

I can’t comment on the speaker, but otherwise it was a nice wedding. The couple really tried to make it glorifying to the Lord. It was fun to see the bride and groom lead a worship music time along with some others from the church!

On Sunday we had a church planting seminar with some of the upcoming leaders in the church, along with Rod and Mayra Fry. It was a very encouraging time to talk about the church and think about areas we can work on in the future.

Some of our old VTI cohorts will recognize the activity in the picture that I pulled out of moth balls. This is one of two groups:

On the right, hidden behind a vase or something, is David Gomez. Some of you may remember that David served with us early in our time here in Ixtapaluca. He has been serving as a missionary in Uruguay, but is back home in Mexico for a few months and will be helping us with the church. He’ll also especially be helping Rod and Mayra with teams that are coming over the summer.

Coming up this weekend, our next Church History class, bringing us all the way to the coronation of Charlemagne in 800 AD. My, how time flies!

24 May 2022

The Personification of May

Jim Prayer and Praise, ST Highlight 0

Every year, I try not to repeat over and over how crazy busy May tends to be. And every year, I fail.

I’m really starting to think that the month of May is a living thing that has some kind of vendetta. It sneaks into our agendas and adds to our to do lists, when we should be checking things off. It delights in surprising us with the unexpected at the last minute.

Today I spent a good part of the day doing paperwork. Now, I admit, the timing was entirely my fault. However the complexity of the paperwork is entirely the achievement of government bureaucrats. So we’ll see if we can get that worked out this week… I at least hit the ball out of my court for the moment.

Then I spent another part of the day dealing with tech support – a problem which, believe it or not, they’ve been helping me with since last spring. But I was assured that they would solve all my problems, today between 5:30pm and 8:30pm when they give me a call. They have 4 minutes left – I expect I will be interrupted with the perfect fix in a moment.

Anyway, we would appreciate your prayer for endurance, especially this week and next. This weekend we’re looking forward to some special ministry opportunities, which I’ll try to tell you about later. But I do have to get ready for them. And Nathanael is on the home stretch of his semester, which essentially means exams and an unusual amount of chemistry.

Last weekend we enjoyed a special recognition service for a new pastor in a church in Mexico City. We saw lots of people from other churches that we haven’t seen in a while, so that and the service itself were a great encouragement. I was the keyboardist, something I haven’t gotten to do in a while. Somehow or other we end up being thankful for May, even though we don’t always get along.

Well, the phone isn’t ringing – so I guess I’d better go and get something else done, or else rest up for another crazy May day. Thanks for your prayers!

12 May 2022

Manic May v. 2022

Jim Family, Ministry glimpses, Prayer and Praise, ST Highlight 0

Well, “Manic May” is upon us once again – traditionally our busiest month of the year. And this year is not disappointing.

You don’t want a long litany of what’s happening, but I’ll give you a quick overview of some things.

Our institute classes are up and running for another semester. This time around it’s church history! So I’ve been making visuals for each week. I’m almost up to the year 600, so that’s certainly progress. Here’s a little segment from the timeline:

I also have a couple of sermons coming up which I’m preparing for. One of them is a continuation of our journey through Exodus, which I’m enjoying very much.

We’re hoping to get the church leaders together for a mini afternoon/evening retreat soon, so I’m getting ready for that.

On a family note, Hannah just celebrated a birthday (Happy Birthday!) and we were able to spend a little time with her and some others in the family virtually. And Nathanael has a birthday coming up – so we’re getting ready for that. I think a cake is being created, among other things!

There are some official/paperwork things that will need to be dealt with over the summer, so that’s happening. And we’re getting some other plans together for the summer, which I’ll be announcing in our next newsletter. Which I’m also working on!

It’s nice to take the time to check out the flowers, many of which are popping up as a little bit of rain starts here and there. It’s really still dry season, but the clouds give it a try once in a while.

Nathanael is frantically trying to finish up his grade 11 year. He had another exam today, with more to come. Less than four weeks until he’s done – we hope!

We recently celebrated Mother’s Day at our church, so here are some of our mothers…. click for a larger image:

So anyway, lots happening! At the moment we’re just hanging on for dear life, but I wanted to at least stop by and give you a quick update.

19 April 2022

The Red Sea and Holy Week

Jim Ministry glimpses, ST Highlight 0

God encouraged us and taught us during Holy Week. And we finally crossed the Red Sea.

But first, we had MK Camp. It was a great time to get out of the city and see old friends and make some new ones.

We had some fun, studied God’s Word together, and even spent a day at the lake.

Back home, we had a great weekend celebrating God’s love. We had a Good Friday service Friday evening, with readings from the Gospels and a time of worship.

And on Sunday morning… well, we crossed the Red Sea.

We’ve been studying Exodus, and it so happened that we finally got to the shores of the Red Sea on Palm Sunday, and crossed through on Resurrection Sunday.

Planned by God and not us, we also read Psalm 66. We read a Psalm each Sunday, in order, and Psalm 66 was especially appropriate;

Come and see what God has done:
he is awesome in his deeds toward the children of man.
He turned the sea into dry land;
they passed through the river on foot.
There did we rejoice in him…
Psalm 66:5-6

It was interesting connecting the parting of the Red Sea and the salvation of Israel with the Resurrection and our salvation. And the theme will continue next week, as we sing along with the Song of Moses on the other side. I’m preaching next Sunday, so I’m enjoying Exodus 15 already.

Many people have connected these events together, of course. One of those was John of Damascus, in his hymn, written about 1300 years ago, which we also sang on Sunday (in Spanish, of course). I’ll include it at the end of this post.

After the service we had a potluck, which was fun except quite a few people weren’t able to stay.

Potluck at Sendero de Vida Las Palmas — Potluck on Resurrection Sunday

So we were very blessed to spend time with God’s people, and to meditate on His Word. Praise the Lord – He is alive today and forever!

Come, ye faithful, raise the strain
Of triumphant gladness;
God hath brought forth Israel
Into joy from sadness;
Loosed from Pharaoh’s bitter yoke
Jacob’s sons and daughters,
Led them with unmoistened foot
Through the Red Sea waters.
’Tis the spring of souls today;
Christ has burst His prison,
And from three days’ sleep in death
As a sun hath risen;
All the winter of our sins,
Long and dark, is flying
From His light, to whom we give
Laud and praise undying.
Now the queen of seasons, bright
With the day of splendour,
With the royal feast of feasts,
Comes its joy to render;
Comes to glad Jerusalem,
Who with true affection
Welcomes in unwearied strains
Jesus’ resurrection.
Neither might the gates of death,
Nor the tomb’s dark portal,
Nor the watchers, nor the seal
Hold Thee as a mortal;
But today amidst the twelve
Thou didst stand, bestowing
That Thy peace which evermore
Passeth human knowing.
Alleluia! now we cry
To our King immortal,
Who, triumphant, burst the bars
Of the tomb’s dark portal;
Alleluia! with the Son,
God the Father praising,
Alleluia! yet again
To the Spirit raising.
John of Damascus

26 February 2022

Celebrations of Hope

Jim Ministry glimpses, Prayer and Praise, ST Highlight 0

We’ve had some very busy, very “social” days lately. But it’s been good to have some times of prayer and celebrations of hope.

Last Friday we went to a church planting workshop put on by our mission agency. It was a blessing to get together with coworkers from around the country, talking about how to move forward in ministry.

Sunday was certainly a celebration of hope. Having a Sunday almost exactly half-way between Christmas and Easter, we had a Christmas/Easter Service! (In Spanish, we actually use the word Pascua or Passover, for Easter. I do actually believe that, contrary to popular belief, Easter is likely a Christian term. But here in Mexico it’s generally Pascua, and Holy Week (Semana Santa), and Resurrection Sunday.)

This was originally my Dad’s idea. The first half of the service has Scripture readings about the birth of Christ, Christmas carols, and so on. The second half features songs from Good Friday/Resurrection Sunday. The idea is to bring the two together, and show why they are both important.

With so many new people at our church right now, it was also an opportunity – not only to do something fun and different, but also to remind ourselves of the basics of the faith. Who is Jesus? What did He accomplish on the cross? Why is it important that He rose again?

As you can see, Shari even thought of having a poinsettia and lily display. 🙂

But anyway, it really was a celebration of hope. What an encouragement to remember that Jesus has acted in history – and continues to do so – to bring salvation. He is indeed the Sovereign king of all.

Speaking of having lots of new people, we need more chairs! So I went and bought 16 more this week. And we also need to expand our tent – literally – so that we have shelter from the sun. So that is an ongoing challenge.

On Monday, we enjoyed getting together with Chuck and Karla, fellow missionaries in Mexico City. It was good to catch up with them, and pray for one another.

We even had a chance to “get together” as a family, connecting with Hannah in Canada, this week. We chatted and played some board games (online) together.

And Lord willing we’ll be seeing other coworkers next week, Mark and Angélica, who serve in the city of Pachuca.

Cottrills and Topps — Jim, Nathanael, Shari, Chuck, and Karla

And I’m hoping to have a prayer time with some of the pastors in our area next week as well, this time via video conference.

Meanwhile I’m preparing to preach tomorrow on “The Purpose of the Plagues“, as we continue through the incredible book of Exodus.

Some of you have received our newsletter – let us know if you don’t get it (it’s the “Different Opinions?” letter). Oddly enough, it was held up at the US/Canada border! Not by police, or truckers, as far as I know, but by some mistake. So I’m not sure what’s up with that. But do make sure that, if you’re on our Support Team, we have your current email address and physical address, in case something goes wrong with one or the other.

Today is Bible study day! Women in the morning, men in the evening. May God continue to teach us through His Word.

14 February 2022

Going Through Purgatory

Jim Ministry glimpses, Prayer and Praise, ST Highlight 0

Don’t panic! It wasn’t that bad. Actually, it was quite good – just very busy!

Nathanael with friends after the service. — *Nathanael hanging out with friends after the Sunday service. We meet just behind this little Christian bookstore, owned by a woman in the church.*

This past weekend was full of blessings, actually. On Saturday morning, the women of the Las Palmas church had their first regular Bible study. (Lots of clarification there, of course – there have been regular Bible studies for adults, and lots of women’s activities, but I don’t think we’ve had a regular women’s study until now.)

As you might have guessed, I (Jim) was not there. However, from the reports I heard it was a great time. A great turn out, everyone sharing… very cool. And, on Sunday, more women showing interest (e.g. purchasing the Bible study book they’re using).

Sunday evening was the first men’s study. And as seems to be a common trend in the world, fewer numbers! But actually we had fewer men in the first place, and one got called into work, another got sick… so we had a small study. But it was a fun one – that’s where we went through purgatory.

One of the men had been talking to some people in the week and had received a paper about how biblical purgatory is. So we took some time to look at some of the Bible passages. (Spoiler – purgatory actually is not biblical. So although we went through the topic of purgatory, no one will actually go through purgatory!) And, as is often the case, God surprised us with a lot of truths that had a very person application for us.

On Sunday morning we were counting the chairs and wondering if we should buy some more. Yes, we were full up – men, women, teens and children. Some of our regular people were away, but there were also lots of visitors. So we were taking time in our service to explain how we do things, and to make sure people had access to information about our church. And sharing songbooks, because we didn’t have enough.

I always have extra respect for people who visit – it’s a brave thing to visit a church for the first time. Especially around here – sadly, we hear horror stories about people who visit churches and have a very bad experience (many of these would not be biblical churches at all – a reality in this area). So I hope we made everyone feel welcome.

I don’t think it’s a coincidence that many of you have been contacting us lately, telling us that you’re praying, asking what you can pray for. We even recently enjoyed a couple of special prayer times with coworkers via video chat. And if you’re part of our Support Team, you’ll be getting a newsletter in the next week or two (Lord willing) with news and prayer requests.

It did feel like a battle going into the weekend (and coming out of it!) for various reasons. But sometimes opposition reminds us that God is working in a special way.

So thanks for your prayers! Do continue to pray for the many new people we’ve been coming in contact with, especially those who do not yet know the Lord.

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