Jim & Shari Cottrill

Email: [email protected]
Phone: 1.403.276.9505
https://cottrillcompass.com
Visit our mission website here: https://avantministries.org

Jim’s mother led him to the Lord around the age of 3 or 4. At the age of 7, Shari was learning some Bible verses in school. She came home and talked about them with her parents, who led her to the Lord. We praise the Lord for His mercy!

In 1998 we began serving in full-time ministry training high school and college age teams which travelled around the world focusing on drama and music ministries. In 2003, we joined CAM International, which has now joined with Avant. Both missions were started in the late 1800s with a focus on reaching the lost with the Good News.

Our Current Role at Avant
We are currently church planters in south eastern Mexico City, in the municipality of Ixtapaluca. This work involves serving the community through community centre outreach, evangelism, Bible studies, leadership training, and networking with like-minded churches and missions in the area. This area of Mexico is one of the least reached areas in the Americas, and one of the most populated urban areas in the world.

About Avant
Avant has been focused on reaching the unreached since the 19th century, planting hundreds of churches over the past 130 years. Today, there are still many places in the world that are unreached and have no church. Avant's vision is to make a difference in time for eternity by rapidly planting and developing churches where none exist. We serve the Lord by “planting and developing churches” with several hundred missionaries worldwide, in 50 countries.

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Bev Huff

email: [email protected]

I was raised in a Christian home and attended church faithfully.  It was at the age of 6 that my father passed away suddenly and my mother at the age of 30 began to raise four children on her own.  It was my mother’s godly life and faithful walk with God that inspired me to live for Christ. At the age of 13 I received Christ at Echo Lake Bible camp and was disciple by godly youth leaders.  

While I was attending college and was challenged by a CEF director who spoke during a chapel service to give a summer to teach 5-Day Clubs.  I attended CYIA training and served as a summer missionary that summer for CEF of Manitoba and for the first time experienced what it meant to be a witness for Christ.  That is when the Lord planted the seed in my heart to serve with CEF.  For the first time I experienced God using me in sharing the gospel and I witnessed the miracle of children as well as adults coming to salvation and a personal relationship with Christ. 

 My Current role in CEF

For the past 17 years, I have had the joy and privilege of serving in the North American/Caribbean region as an Education Director.  I have witnessed God at work in many ways in developing the outreach and ministry of CEF in the Carian.  I consider it an honour to have had a part in helping open” Specific” countries in the Caribbean, with training programs helping to increase the number of Instructors and providing key training to help strengthen and ministry. As well as the joy of having opportunities to ministry to children and seeing them come to Christ. I praise God for what He is doing and look forward to what is ahead. 

Ministry roles with CEF 

•  Regional Education NA/C – 2006 – present 

•  Canadian CMI Director – 2002-2005 

• Education Director – CEF of Manitoba 1981-2005 

•  Area Director -City of Vancouver, British Columbia 1978-1981       

• CYIA Summer Missionary – 1977 & 1978 

About CEF

Child Evangelism Fellowship of Canada (CEF) is an evangelical, Bible-centred mission whose purpose is to evangelize boys and girls with the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and to establish (disciple) them in the Word of God and in a local church for Christian living. Our concern in seeking to evangelize children is that, “not one of these little ones should perish.”

2025 Dec Update

Thank you for praying for the thousands of trainings and Christmas Party Clubs being conducted in the Caribbean this month.

1. Continue to pray for wisdom in the recovery efforts in Jamicia after hurricane Melissa. The CEF office in the parish of Westmorland was destroyed and the area surrounding it was severally damaged. Also pray for our worker in St. Elizabeth parish who had twenty-three inches of water in her home and lots everything.

2. Praise God sixty people have registered for the JYC leaders’ Zoom course in January. Pray for the printing of the Junior Youth Challenge Leaders course manuals as well as the shipping of them next week. Pray that they will arrive on time and safely.

3. Pray as I travel to Winnipeg Dec 16-30 for the Christmas season. I am trusting the Lord for no snags while going through US immigration on December 30.

4. Please continue to pray for my Green Card renewal process. There is no update yet except it is in process. My present card expires in February 2026, and I am trusting God that all will go smoothly.

5.  Pray as Janet and I prepare to teach the Junior Youth Challenge course. This is the first time we have conducted this course so there are new lesson plans and details to take care of.

6. Pray for the students of God’s choosing for the Instructor of Teachers course scheduled in April 2026.

7. Pray that I will continue to be faithful to God’s calling in 2026.

I am so grateful for your faithfulness in prayer partner

 Bev Huff

CEF of the Caribbean

James and Anna Young

About Us

James was originally from Vietnam. He fled to Hong Kong with his family when he was young. James went to church in a very young age. He accepted Jesus as his personal savior after he came to Hong Kong. He was baptized at Christian and Missionary Alliance Mei Foo Church in October 1978. In 2023 his life was transformed after a serious health issue. During his recovery period, he received God’s calling to take up the Itinerant Missionary role for the Prairies. He submitted to God after praying together with Anna for a few weeks. With faith and joy, James and Anna stepped forward and accepted God’s calling.

Anna’s sister shared the gospel with Anna when she was young. Anna was baptized at Christian and Missionary Alliance Mei Foo Church in Hong Kong when she was a teenager. Being a Christian for many years, Anna put too much focus on the secular job and life issues, not knowing God has a special plan for her. Until there were some significant life events happening in her life, she realized God is her only dependence, nothing else. Anna submitted to God’s calling in humility and started this missionary journey with James after weeks of prayers. God reassured and empowered her to get on this missionary journey with James, as a couple, in many ways.

Current Roles and Challanges

As an Itinerant Missionary (Small Town Mission), our role is to lead and develop Small Town Mission Ministry by networking and partnering, mobilizing and educating churches to involve in small town missions and to proclaim the Gospel together.

Every new role has its challenges. We are just like a sponge to soak in, learn every aspect of the role itself. We understand that missionary life is not complacent but a sacrificial commitment. To connect and mobilize with the churches involving in this ministry required lots of good energy and heavenly wisdom. We need to balance a creative mind and yet follow God’s plan to carry out all the missionary duties for this ministry.

About CM Canada – Small Town Mission Ministry

CM Canada – Small Town Mission Ministry follows Jesus’ teaching: “Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness.” (Matthew 9:35) With that, our vision is to regularly send out visitation teams to visit Chinese friends and communities in small towns, and to bring Christian faith, love, and care to them. We also build up local believers through testimonies, love, and bible teachings.

We cannot do this alone. We partner with churches (that is YOU) in big cities to fulfill and proclaim the Gospel together.