Serving Christ in México
Unless the Lord builds a house,
its builders labor over it in vain;
unless the Lord watches over a city,
the watchman stays alert in vain.
In vain you get up early and stay up late,
working hard to have enough food
Psalm 127
You moved across the country to start a new job. A dear friend has wronged you. Your husband has cancer. Your child is rushed to the hospital.
Continue reading “The Parts We Leave Out”
We’ve finally moved and are more or less settled in, so it is high time for an update. It has been an exciting time as we have been adjusting to our new neighbourhood, arranging our new house and planning more ministry activities.
Continue reading “In Santa Bárbara”
I sometimes joke that the national pastime in Mexico is searching for change. Mexico is still very much a cash economy and there are many places that won’t accept a credit or debit card. In addition to that, there are security concerns which means many stores do not want to keep large sums of change in the till. This leads to a never-ending pursuit of looking for change, of which there always seems to be a shortage.
Continue reading “¿Traes Cambio?”
It is easy to draw a bold, black line through the empty page between the old and new testament and to think that what God did in the past with Israel is largely separated from what he is doing today in the church.
Continue reading “The Same”
A lost sheep
All his home in a heap
Wears the street on his feet
Bones with no meat
Cause he struggles to eat
The wind at his cheek
Searches retreat
From the shame and the sleet
Discovers relief
Beneath headlines of last week
And slips to sleep
Between a snitch and a sneak
Is the Christian life one of sustained joy and blessing? Does the Christian ever suffer from forces outside their control? Does our prosperity in life correlate closely with the strength of our faith?
Continue reading “A Sojourn in Meshech “
The last update I wrote on this blog was about our plans to move into a different neighbourhood and start a new ministry there. That was a couple months ago now and we are happy to be able to update you all with the way plans have progressed.
Continue reading “A Space to Be”
The Book of Psalms is, among other things, an instruction book for how to speak to God. The psalms give us just the right words to speak when we are at a loss for words, or when we are stuck in the common rut of repetitive prayers. But even more than allowing us to borrow God’s own language, they demonstrate the appropriate way to approach God in prayer.
Continue reading “Remembering to Believe”
We are all saved from sin by the once-for-all sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. But that does not mean our salvation stories are all the same. Sin leads us into all sorts of damning situations, and God’s steadfast love is always there to redeem us.
Psalm 107 is a good example of this; urging the redeemed of the Lord to praise their Redeemer for his manifold redemption. In this Psalm we encounter four different scenarios that allude to Israel’s past, but are not identified with any one specific event. These four places of deep trouble offer us a glimpse into the varied and wonderful ways in which God redeems his people.
Continue reading “Manifold Redemption”
I imagine that if I asked you to name a traditional Mexican dish, pozole wouldn’t be the first to come to mind. And yet, it is a dish that enjoys widespread popularity in Mexico and which boasts ancient, albeit disturbing, roots in the pre-Hispanic civilizations. You can expect to see it in restaurants and on dinner tables in September, around Mexico’s independence day, and during the Christmas holiday season.
Continue reading “Pozole”
The Rabbi's Burrito 