Serving Christ in México
It’s been over two years since we moved to the Santa Bárbara neighbourhood and if you have been reading our updates you know it has been an up-and-down journey. That is still the case, but we can see progress, opportunities, and certainly God’s goodness.
So here is a little bit of what’s happening:
Continue reading “What’s Happening?”
When learning language it often happens that you go months, perhaps years, being oblivious to certain words or phrases. You can be so focused on understanding what a person is saying that your brain just skips over a word you don’t know and it never registers in your mind. Or maybe it is a phrase you learned but you haven’t yet heard it used in a real-life context, and so the phrase is merely theoretical.
Continue reading “Bread for the Scare”
Time and again the Scriptures call us to remember, to call to mind what God has done in the past. Just yesterday we crossed over the five-year threshold of our time here in Mexico, and I thought it would be good to take time to remember what God has done in those five years – good for ourselves and, I pray, good for you dear reader.
Continue reading “Five Years and A Day”
As I stood in the doorway, ready to leave, my wife asked me: “Are you bringing Jonatan to the rehab place today?” “That’s the plan,” I replied “but we’ll see what happens.”
My wife smiled a knowing grin.
Continue reading “A Friday in March”
She was always smiling. That’s what I’ll remember about her.
She lived just down the street from our ministry centre so it didn’t take me long to meet her and strike up a conversation. After that, I would see every week, usually several times a week. I’d smile back at her and wave, or stop by her doorway to talk a bit.
Continue reading “Ode to Ofelia”
Into the Field
Mission in Mexico is a relatively new missions endeavour. My family and I have been on the field for a mere four years and our current ministry in the Santa Barbara neighbourhood was started less than two years ago. Much of our work is focused on sowing the seed – outreach and evangelism. If a metaphor is useful, we’ve just stepped into a field of dry, crumbly dirt, dotted by weeds and rocks (kind of like the actual fields we see around here). Taking a handful of seed, we scatter it about, not knowing what will happen to it.
Continue reading “Sowing the Seed”
I’d seen him walk by a few times in the past weeks. Apparently we was living up the street with Manuel. Today, he stopped, took a hesitant step forward and then asked if he could come in. I closed my laptop and rose to greet him. His name was Francisco.
“Would you like to sit down?” I asked.
“Sure.” He took a seat opposite me at the plastic folding table where I had been working. His tired eyes took a quick survey of the room. He looked like a man with a burden.
Continue reading “The Man Up The Street”
The first week back in México felt a bit weird, but we adjusted quickly and it feels good to be back. We realized that we missed a lot of the noises, smells and other things that remind us that we are in México. In general, things are a little less neat and tidy here compared to Canada and it makes things more interesting.
Continue reading “Upon Returning”
We have just arrived back in Mexico from our furlough in Canada. A furlough, or at least this furlough, is a time of vacation, work, rest, presentations, visiting, meetings, and family, all mixed up and spread over a two month period. It is a time of coming home and missing home at the same time. A time of easing back into the familiar, yet still feeling out of place.
Continue reading “Seven Differences “
Furlough is on the near horizon. We are a week away from loading kids and suitcases in our van and driving across the country to Puerto Vallarta. After some time with fellow missionaries we will board an airplane and take a direct flight to Edmonton. A few weeks on the prairies and then it is off to Abbotsford, a trip up to Vernon, a quick couple days in Hamilton.
Continue reading “God At Work”
The Rabbi's Burrito 