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Iglesia Bíblica Sendero de Vida Santa Barbara

A Glimpse of 3 Churches

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Yesterday the church in the community of Jesús María was having its 7th anniversary celebration. They invited the church in Santa Bárbara 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!

Quick Recap of the Last Few Days

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The weekends tend to be busy times around here, and this past weekend was no exception! So here’s a bit of what happened…

On Friday, we had a Bible study learning about the Holy Spirit – His nature, what it means to be “filled with the Spirit”, and so on. Hannah taught the kids’ study, focusing on the books of the Bible.

On Saturday, activities like the kids’ club, soccer and youth club continued as normal. Hannah went to the youth club, but otherwise we weren’t much involved because I had a meeting in Mexico City and all three of us went (Shari being in Canada for a few days).

The meeting in Mexico City was with leaders of various churches in the area. Good meeting. And a short meeting. A short meeting is a good meeting. But seriously, it was good to study God’s Word together, pray together, plan together, and struggle with various issues together.

The Word of Life interns were over here a couple times during the weekend. On Saturday night we made “Canadian style nachos” – nachos with things like cheddar cheese and ground beef. The two girls from Mexico said that they had “never done anything like this before” – which goes to show how little much of the “Mexican food” in Canada resembles the real thing!

Fernando Font at Sendero de Vida Las Palmas
Fernando’s concert – look at all the open Bibles!

Sunday we had a guest from Uruguay, who took us through the life of Jesus and beyond – all with music! It was just Fernando and his guitar, and all of us with our Bibles open following along (and sometimes singing along) because most of the music was right out of the Scripture. Fun!

I also preached on Sunday, on “The Sower”, and thanks to a lot of work fighting with technology showed this video.

Garage Sale at Sendero de Vida Santa Barbara
Getting the garage sale started!
One member of our congregation has been struggling with some serious health issues. We were thankful to see him looking a lot better at the service on Sunday. Today Mayra and some of the women from the church in Santa Barbara are holding a garage sale to raise some funds for his medical bills.

And yes, Shari made a brief trip to Canada to pick up a few things, most importantly popcorn seasoning some medication that we can’t buy here. And Lord willing she comes home today!

We’re looking forward to having David Radlowsky back this weekend (and into the week), as well as a team from the USA. It should be another full weekend!

Valley Bible Church – A Whirlwind of Activity!

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The group of 36 people from Valley Bible Church (one of Rod & Mayra‘s supporting churches) was only here for 6 days, but they sure packed a lot in!

For one thing, they did 5 concerts in 4 days (which included their guest appearance at the 11th anniversary of the Path of Life Bible Church in Santa Barbara). The first concert was in an area known as Cuatro Vientos. A band from both the churches in Ixtapaluca joined together as the opening act – here they are!

Opening Act in Cuatro Vientos

The concerts were not without their glitches. In this concert, the cables ran across a street, with cars driving over them. The sound board was in a field, in the open – and yes, it rained.

Soundboard in the rain
Soundboard. In a field. In the rain. Sound man with a plastic bag on his head. Life.

Talkin' about GodThe second concert was lots of fun because it was in our own neighbourhood. We had the opportunity to share the Gospel with people in our own community.

One mother brought her son up before the concert even started, and he asked me a question about God. Later, Randy (a man from the team) and I had the opportunity to share and pray with a man who came to the concert. At one point, I handed him my Bible so that he could read a passage – and he said he had never held a Bible in his hands before! Needless to say, he left with one of his own.

On Saturday we were in downtown Ixtapaluca. Some ongoing confusion meant that we moved the concert from outside to inside, and started 105 minutes late. But no worries. We had lots of people to help us move cables…

Moving Cables

And to help us assemble wheelchairs for those in need (lots of church people helped with that too!)…

Wheelchairs in pieces!

And here’s the concert…

Concert downtown Ixtapaluca

Here’s a close-up from Sunday morning…

Sunday morning concert

The team members had a great time with families they were staying with (and we got to host two people – thanks for visiting, Priscilla and Mia!), a great time giving, a great time sharing the Gospel, and a great time singing. We were able to connect with new people, and even get together with people we already knew, through the service of this team. Yes, a short term team can make a difference. And so can you! Thanks for your prayers!

On Sunday they went downtown Mexico City to sing in a historic Methodist church…

Concert at a Methodist church in Mexico City

Now, I could write and post more (and I will try to post some hi-res photos in our photo gallery when I have a chance). But I have something better.

Nick working on the vlogSee that guy? That’s Nick, and he was videotaping the whole time. He has put together some excellent videos from the perspective of a short term missionary here in Mexico City.

So I’m going to try to post one or two videos a day, each evening, for you to enjoy, since Nick is generously sharing his videos on YouTube.

In fact, why not start today? I’ll post again in a few minutes with the video from last Wednesday. Ok, AND a video from last Thursday. That way we’ll be posting exactly a week after the event.

Thanks, Nick!

Oh, also don’t miss this post from Rod: “Immeasurably More!”

A Weekend for — KIDS!

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This is a weekend that we’ve been looking forward to (and praying forward to!) for a long time. And I know that some of you have too!

Word of Life InternationalTonight, a group of students is coming to Ixtapaluca from a Bible institute north of Mexico City (Word of Life – some of you are familiar with them). This is a big weekend in Mexico, because it’s CHILDREN‘S DAY (on Saturday, but we can celebrate all weekend)!

Tomorrow the team will be doing presentations for kids, and a youth event, and who knows what else, in the neighbourhood of Santa Barbara, hosted by the Path of Life Bible Church here.

On Sunday, they’ll split up between the two churches, helping with Sunday school and music. Then in the afternoon they’ll do their children’s presentation twice – at 3pm in Las Palmas, and at 5pm in Jesús Marí­a. Busy day!

On Monday they will be doing some presentations in the local public Junior High. Now, there are I think 1500 students there, so they will be doing classes, 3 going at the same time every hour, from 7am until early afternoon.

Word of Life Children's ShowWhy not just do the presentations in two or three big groups? Well, apparently because of the current state of pollution, the school is not allowed to have classes outside. Never mind that they have classes in rooms with open doors and big windows with no screens a few metres away. ??

So – busy weekend! We’re still getting organized to make sure everyone is fed, and to be prepared for what happens and for the new people we’re looking forward to meeting.

Thanks for your continued prayers, for the Palabra de Vida (Word of Life) group, with students, as I understand, from various countries in Latin America, for us, for the other believers here who will be involved, and for the many who will hear God’s Word.

Our History (ok, just a bit of it)

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In this month’s newsletter you’ll see, as I mentioned before, a rather egocentric view of history, featuring our own journey. It was actually interesting to track down some of those dates, which I had no clear record of.

Nathanael and Hannah November 2006The picture to the right is a larger version of the one in our newsletter. It’s Nathanael and Hannah, of course, only three days after we had arrived in Mexico. We still weren’t at our destination (Cuernavaca), but we were staying with our new friends the McManus Family in San Juan del Río.

So here’s our very first post from Mexico: The Cottrills are in Mexico

And as a follow-up, The conference (and how I missed it) (by the way, I haven’t been anywhere near that sick since!)

Here’s what I wrote soon before we moved to Ixtapaluca (we moved officially 6 days later): Still in Cuernavaca

From the leadership recognition service in Santa Bárbara, Ixtapaluca – a post and even a video: A Very Special Sunday for Sendero de Vida!

How can I forget the first Sunday service in Jesús María – even though I didn’t attend! The First Worship Service in Jesús María

And how about the leadership recognition service in Jesús María? Leadership Recognition Service in Jesús María

An early post about ministry in Las Palmas: Classes Among the Palm Trees

Of course there are many more memorable times, but there are just a few I mentioned in our newsletter. Oh, the memories!

Some December Events

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I’m sure there are many of you who are extra busy this time of year – well, it’s been no exception around here!
Clausura in Las Palmas
Thanks so much for your prayers for our closing events (clausuras) this month! There was a great turn out in Las Palmas from the English classes (there were about thirty people there, I believe). Julian shared about the Christmas story, and we all had good opportunities to talk with people and invite everyone to a new season of classes starting in January.

Talking about ChristmasOn the 11th we had our clausura in Jesús María. Another great turn out from the various classes. Shari handed out some gifts for those who had attended the baking classes. And I shared the devotional, contrasting Mexican and Canadian Christmas traditions and the message from the angels to the shepherds.

The following Saturday we went with some neighbours to the Coro Unido in Puebla, directed by Camino missionary Terry Vanderwerf, where we heard about the Lord Jesus in words and songs. “A Gift of Love” was the theme of the evening.

Coro Unido 2014

This coming Sunday we’ll be involved in an evangelistic event in Jesús María, and I’ll be preaching in Santa Barbara. Yeah, we get around. 😉

So now we’re trying, somewhat unsuccessfully, to get everything done that we need to do so that we can get a break over Christmas! So I’d better run – talk to you later! 🙂

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