Chris' parents have come!

Chris' parents have come to visit. We have visited Lamani (Mayan Ruins) and Shipyard (Old Colony Mennonites).

Today was very boring for them. I (Cory) had to work in the morning at the school. Then I had Spanish lessons (yes I am taking Spanish now) at 1:30-3:00 and then tutoring from 3:00-7:00. The motorbike broke down today, so I rode my bicycle to a few of my appointments. Man, didn't realize how much out of shape I was. Then when I did get the truck, the tail gate fell off!!!!

The Trinity Sermon

I preached on the Trinity last Saturday night in San Felipe. I had a great time during the week pouring over the subject and trying to put together what God has been teaching these last 10 years or so. I was very excited to present it. I think it went okay but it was very difficult because it was being translated and I had too much content and was trying to chop it out as I was preaching. All the same I think it made some sense and I really hope God used it.

The translator asked for a copy of the manuscript and he is going to translate it into Spanish and then give it to the people in the church so they will be able to understand it better.

I have put the English transcript online.

Unity

I preached last Sunday in San Felipe about unity. Willy translated for me. It was his first time and he is more used to Creole than English but he did great. The text was Eph 4:1-6 on how God has given us all a high calling.

Here is my summary:

- Ephesians 4 says that we have a calling to live up to

- We need to live a life of humility, gentleness, patience and we must bear with each other in love

- I shared a story about how I was wronged and maybe you too feel you have been wronged by someone. We must let it go and seek to live in love, everyone is watching us, this is our high calling in Christ

- I shared stories about how when I was a youth pastor all the churches got together and prayed and we saw God move among our city. Churches that were divided found healing and people came to Christ.

- I shared how there are churches all around the world and we all worship differently but we are all one body.

- We have one body, one spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith and one baptism.

- I challenged you to unite with all the other churches in San Felipe and the world to bring Christ to the lost

- But I also warned you that there is a bad teaching that we are one with everyone

- Not everyone is our brother. Some people worship some other Jesus.

- Then I asked how we should treat them

- I warned about how the church did bad in the middle ages by killing those who did not agree

- Instead we need to be like Jesus who died for those who did not believe in him

- And then I shared stories of how in my city we have an event called “Love Abbotsford” and all the churches get together to do acts of kindness to the people in our city.

And now I want to close with a prayer from Jesus. In this prayer he actually prays for you and me and He reveals one of his greatest desires for us today.

John 17:20-23

When we were done Willy asked for the manuscript. He is one of the elders and he really wanted to go over it again and then discuss next Sunday how they could implement it. His challenge to the congregation was that too often we hear things and it goes in one year and out the other (this is a rough translation from his body language). We need to take this to heart.

So please be in prayer for that little town. I told them that they could not just take what we do in Canada and put it into their village, it has to be translated into their own setting. I am excited to see what God will bring about.

I will preach again then on Saturday the 25th of November. The topic will be on the Trinity in hope to be able to help them some with a teaching in that village called "Jesus only". That teaching claims that there is only Jesus and not the Father or Spirit.

Thanks once again for joining us on our adventures.

Chris

Prayer for San Felipe

I was sick with a headcold (they call it snod' a'nieze here) last week so couldn't make it San Felipe. We made it last Saturday night though and it went really well. My Spanish is still really poor so I did not catch most of the service but I did recognize two songs and the elder who was preaching told me it was on 1 Kings 18 (Elijah prays for rain).

10 people were baptized last Sunday morning in that church and the pastor is very excited about the growth in it. I'm signed up for preaching next Sunday at 9am. I asked them what topic to preach on so the pastor called a little meeting of all the elders right there in the middle of the pews. It was fun to watch them talk about it and try to figure out what the greatest need was, especially since the service was about to start and this delayed them (which is fine in Spanish culture). The topic they chose was inter-church unity. Cory suggested I preach from John 17 where Jesus prays for us (that we would be united). She also suggested bringing in some stories from love Abbotsford (do any of you have any you could send me?)

Feel free to post any content you have on inter-church unity in the comments section or email me.

I also value your prayers for this little church and our ministry there.

Chris