CottrillCompass.com

Never what you expect…

Fri, 06 Apr 2012 21:37 GMT

Today was not what we expected – then again, no day has been what we expected!

But we had a great time anyway. We enjoyed a bilingual prayer meeting the morning, and the team gave an impromptu concert.

Then we spent some time cleaning the community centre area and rented house, and working on some of the projects of the week. Today was mostly painting – here are Janice and Janelle painting the swing set that was built and put into place this week (while Nathanael tests them out). It has already gotten a lot of use!

Later in the afternoon we headed up to the ruins above Ixtapaluca, and had some good views of the city around.

This evening we went to a Good Friday service – packed into the rented house:

Ismael led the service, and Rod led the music. Several from the church gave testimonies about what the Lord has been doing in their lives – it's incredible what He has brought people through – and to.

Believe it or not, we even had a guest speaker tonight. Ready to "preach, pray or die at a moment's notice", Dave gave the devotional while Mayra translated. He did a great job, and really focused us on what the Lord did for us.

Then we spent some time hanging out with friends – under a full moon!

Tomorrow will be a day just to spend time together, as we travel up to the pass between the volcanoes. The families who have been hosting the team members are all invited to come, so it should be a lot of fun! It's great to see so many new friends that have been made in a short time.

This past week’s Tweets…

Fri, 06 Apr 2012 16:49 GMT

The super amazing grand finale of the kids' club this morning at the community centre! #
Not that we're surprised… "Report on Europe finds 'numerous' anti-Christian actions, crimes" http://t.co/YlZ0RTaL #
MI Team all looking healthy today! They're hard at work with "kids' stuff" at the community centre. #
The Gospel is NOT – "Jesus probably died for your sins and perhaps rose again – maybe rose spiritually – but that's not important…" #
Newborn baby girl abandoned in Ixtapaluca. So sad. Taken to the hospital and now stable. Praise the Lord. #

Video Clips from Today

Thu, 05 Apr 2012 21:10 GMT

When the dust has cleared, I hope to make a video of the team's time here. But for today, I had my computer automatically choose some clips and throw them together for you, to get a glimpse of what happened. The clips move by quickly, so pay attention!

Today was the last day of the kids' club, and the closing program. Everyone heard the Gospel more than once today, and some of the children talked to the leaders about salvation.

During the club this morning, some of the Moms got together with Shari and also Heather, Janelle and Janice from the team, and they had a baking class. They made some delicious apple-cheese-pie-stuff, which you'll see in the video.

Also throughout the day, construction projects continued, such as work on a swing set for the community.

The last thing I have clips of from today was a visit to a restaurant called Espartacos (the Mexican word for Spartacus, but with an emphasis – EsparTACOS).

This afternoon the team came back to our house to chill out a bit – and some of them even learned from Hannah and Nathanael how to use trompos.

Here are the clips…

A very full day!

Wed, 04 Apr 2012 21:33 GMT

Wow – I just don't really know what to say about that day – today! So much happened, it was kind of like a week all packed into a day!

Well, maybe it's not worth it to go into too much detail. The kids' club went well today, as usual. The children are learning a lot about the Gospel, about Jesus, about the Bible.

Trying bannock at the English Class

I was looking forward to hanging out at the club today, but we discovered that we were out of gas at home and Shari had baking to do in preparation for the big baking class tomorrow. Our second tank was defective, so I went out to find somewhere to fill the gas – and that led to a stop by the police and other adventures I won't get into (don't worry, the police let me go… apparently I hadn't done anything wrong. I guess they just wanted to chat…)

In the afternoon the team did a lot of cleaning and construction-related stuff. (Our word "construction" loosely means anything related to screws, wood, paint and metal – we're doing a lot of small projects).

The English class this afternoon was a smash-hit – packed out with people from the church and the community. The team played some games, taught some geography and even made bannock.

After the class we went out for tacos (YUM), and then they team went to do some more socializing (which, without doubt, is a very important reason why they're here!).

Shari, Hannah and Nathanael were on their way to join us for tacos when Nathanael fell splat onto the pavement. He had quite a goose egg, and we went to the doctor as a precaution. But the doctor felt he was fine, and he's doing well now. Although I admit he looks a little worse for wear.

So that's a quick summary of our day – here are a few pictures. By the way, eventually I'll upload some high definition pictures into our photo gallery. Time being limited, I'm just throwing up a few previews here.

Dave plays hopscotch – with all his might!

Parachute game!

I guess it was a bit of a Dave-centric day for pictures – but here's Dave again, showing everyone a Canadian coin at the English class.

MI Team on Tuesday

Tue, 03 Apr 2012 21:13 GMT

Just a few pictures today to whet your appetite for the pics I'll try to post later!

Here's the team (without Emmanuel) at the kids' club this morning. Notice their fine t-shirts with the community centre logo!

This afternoon the guys cleared out, cleaned, and painted this room at the community centre. It's all ready for a new set of English classes! And actually, the paint was already dry tonight and we used it for our Bible study.

The girls were off shopping for baking class supplies (the baking class is Thursday).

We shared testimonies in English and Spanish at the evening Bible study. It was amazing to hear how God has worked in lives from totally different cultures!

Tony, Jordan and Emmanuel with some of the youth after the Bible study.

And that's not the half of it! Busy day – long day – good day – good night!

Memory Verses: Pause!

Tue, 03 Apr 2012 06:43 GMT

So, as you may have guessed, it's pretty busy around here! So I think I'm going to put the 30 days of memory verses on pause temporarily.

I might be able to keep going over the next few days, but I've enjoyed writing the summaries of the verses and I don't think I'd be able to get those done too.

So I'm going to pause for a few days. I'll try to carry the verses I've memorized so far so that I can review them, then when I can I'll finish off the 30 verses.

Meanwhile, I'll keep trying to post a little on what the MI Team is doing for those who are in Canada. And it's been fun to get into the Word with them this week (we've spent a little time in Isaiah and Ephesians lately).

So stay tuned, and we'll be back with the rest of our 30 verses soon!

MI Team on a Monday

Mon, 02 Apr 2012 19:49 GMT

Good news – the team was all looking healthy and chipper today – and ready for action! Today we headed over to the community centre with the team for a time of devotions and prayer. Then we jumped right in to getting things set up for the kids' club.

The kids' club started today with a bang. Marta did an excellent job organizing everybody. There were almost 50 kids there today, but we expect to see more as word spreads. Then again, these things are impossible to predict!

The team spent the afternoon cleaning up after the club and preparing for the evening's English class and activities later in the week. Oh, and of course the stopped for tacos in there somewhere.

The English class tonight…. well, it didn't happen! After several announcements and 600 flyers, no one came – another demonstration of just how unpredictable events can be here.

However, we do have some strategies to try to get more people out for the next English class on Wednesday!

So in the space of the English class we spent some time talking about Canadian and Mexican culture, which hopefully was useful. It was something we were planning to do today or tomorrow anyway.

Not too much was done on construction today – we spent the day waiting for material to arrive, although John went with some men on a hardware store run to get some things that will be needed later.

The good news is that people spent time together, and friendships are being formed, and the team is doing a great job.

Here are a few random pictures for you:

A Pastor eating "Pastor Pizza" (no, really)

John with the family that made the Pastor Pizza

One of the teams at the Kids' Club

Activities at the Kids' Club

Kids enjoying hot dogs (and a serious discussion) at the kids' club

MI Team: Days 1-4 (video)

Mon, 02 Apr 2012 06:56 GMT

Below is a somewhat rough video with clips from the past 4 days (Thursday to Sunday). It will give you an idea of what the MI Team has been up to in their first few days. It's not all video of the people on the team, but more clips of the activities they were involved in.

I didn't take a lot of video in downtown Mexico City. One thing we did was go to the Basilica in the city, and you can see a video from another visit back in 2010 here.

The team has already been a big help, but they are really just going to be diving into some of their main ministries today. But through the activities and social times of the past few days, new friends have been made, they've worshipped together with the Mexican believers, and there have even been some who have prayed to receive Christ.

The team is doing well, although as I have mentioned there has been a bit of sickness – two or three of the guys – but they seem to be getting over it quickly.

Today the kids' club begins, and there's an English class in the afternoon, plus some construction work… stay tuned!

Last 90 Days Most Popular Posts – (1 April 2012)

Sun, 01 Apr 2012 20:33 GMT

Here are the most popular videos from the past 30 days. I usually post these on the last day of the month, so they're a little late, but here they are! They're in chronological order, the most popular in bold.

The MI Team is doing well. The guy who was sick yesterday is all better! But his brother was under the weather today. Lord willing we'll have everyone healthy at the same time tomorrow. We've been giving everyone strict orders to get some rest! I have a video to show you – I'll try to get it online in the morning.

MI Team and Easter Egg Hunt

Sat, 31 Mar 2012 22:19 GMT

I won't write a lot tonight due to the lateness of the hour (and we lose an hour tonight because of Daylight Savings), but I wanted to stop by anyway especially to update those faithful readers who are wondering how the team is doing.

Today we had a major event for the community – which included decorating eggs, decorating cookies – and a massive Easter egg hunt (we're talking over 800 eggs!).

These things are not a tradition here, so it was quite a novelty. We had a great turn out, over 200 people I believe and about half of them people that were not familiar to us.

There was a very clear presentation of the Gospel, and some great opportunities to share with people afterwards, either to make friends or share the Gospel again too.

The team was a great help, hiding eggs, guarding eggs, and finding ways to communicate with people.

In the afternoon they spent time preparing for the week ahead – there's lots to do.

One of the team members, Tony, was feeling sick, but he went back to his house to sleep and is being well taken care of by his adopted family. We kept checking up on him and we think he should be doing a lot better tomorrow. It's been a whirlwind so far for everyone, so we are working hard to make sure everyone gets some sleep tonight and doesn't push themselves too hard.

In the evening we went to the home of some people in the church who make great pizza (as a business), and it was a blessing to spend time with them. AND their pizza is FANTASTIC.

I'm going to leave it at that for tonight. Lord willing in the next day or so I'll have some video and pictures to post, so stay tuned!

Oh, I wanted to point you to Tina's blog – she has some pictures of the community centre activities from yesterday and today, and some commentary…

Closing Program for the Community Center
Easter Egg Hunt!