As I am sure you have heard from many other missionaries, the World Cup is amongst us. Everywhere we go here in Chile there are banners, flags, horns blaring, and groups of people screaming “Chi-Chi-Chi, le, le, le – VIVA CHILE!!!” It is an exciting time to live outside the U.S. and experience the insane fans of South America rooting for their team. That being said – the US is advancing to the second round, so we have our own little badge of pride as well!!
We are now in the depths of the cold and rainy winter months here in Santiago. We often see our breath in the house in the morning and wear four to five layers of clothing around the house and the office, and pray for warmer weather. Many people from the church and school have been fighting colds, the streets have been flooded due to the rains, and it just feels generally miserable. On the flip side Doug is very happy as the Andean mountains above our house have received over three feet of snow this past week – it is incredibly beautiful!!
However, no matter how bad we think it is here, the people still without houses in Concepcion, the epicenter of the earthquake in Feb, have it MUCH worse. Doug and another ABWE missionary (Scott Russell) had the privilege to visit the city at the epicenter of the earthquake this past week. ABWE has been working with a national pastor, Esteban Maldonado, in a small town of Chiguayante, which is just south of Concepcion. ABWE has been working with Esteban to restart a church (Missionary Baptist) that had almost completely died two years ago, and we praise God for the fruit we have seen in this church. Scott, as the leader of ABWE Chile, preached in two different churches while we were there, and we, along with several other members of Esteban’s church, got to watch Chile play in one of it’s world cup matches.
ABWE has been working with this church to help fix some post-quake damage, and also to reach out to the many people who have lost their homes in this area. Many of our ABWE churches (our church included – “Good News Baptist”) have been involved in taking food, clothes, jackets, etc. to this church to distribute to those in need. God had been working, and people are responding to God’s salvation message. In the past 3 weeks three more people have come to know Christ through this little, but growing, church in Chiguayante!!The depressing part is that many people now live in “mediaguas” (or government shelter shacks being the better description) in large camps around the city. The majority of these people have no running water or toilets in their “house’, and the rain in this part of Chile is intense, cold, and non-stop. Imagine walking 5 minutes to the nearest outhouse in the blowing rain, the cold, and in the middle of the night! Many of these shacks are wrapped in plastic to keep out the rain, but this prohibits any air circulation so the germs never leave the house and make the people even sicker. Please, please continue to be in prayer for these people, and that we as ABWE would continue to have wisdom in how best to help the local churches meet the many needs in this part of Chile.
In our own church things continue to be going well, although it seems that due to the weather our attendance hasn’t moved much. Several of our older ladies have struggled with the cold, and one faithful lady, Leticia, had fallen and is still recuperating. That being said Heather has had some good meetings with the ladies, and Doug led the men of our church along with some men from another local church, out for a “leisurely” climb up part of the mountains that border Santiago. Doug was really hoping our neighbor, Nelson would come, as he said he was very interested, but unfortunately Nelson never came. Keep praying for Nelson and his (soon to be) wife Ines!!
You may remember from our last prayer letter that a couple (Juan Carlos & Nancy) had disappeared from our church after talking with them about getting married. Well on June 18th, we had the honor to go to their home for their official civic wedding!! We praise God for their response to God’s word, and look forward to them being back in the church with their son, Nicolas, and their very soon to be born baby boy!!
Caleb has started practicing with the worship team at our church as he now plays the triangle and chimes. This has allowed Daniel, one of the faithful men we’ve mentioned before, to play the bongos. We have really enjoyed watching Caleb grow into a young man and love this opportunity for Caleb to spread his ministry wings. He has also started guitar lessons with pastor’s son Alejandro. We continue to see great things happening. Unfortunately our teammates, Mark & Jen Rubin, will be leaving the church in the next two months to go help with another church that has greater needs. Please be praying for them in their new ministry, and for us as we will dearly miss their help, insight, and teaching.
Continue to pray for us regarding our financial situation. We received word of another church that has cancelled support of all their missionaries this past month so we are now lacking $831 of our required monthly support. Several churches has responded to our last prayer letter with some additional one-time donations for which we are VERY thankful. Please continue to pray that God will meet the needs we have.
Please also be in prayer as in the next couple months several ABWE missionaries will be starting new ministries or churches here in Santiago, and Steve & Leslie Schneider, our newest ABWE Chile missionaries, will be arriving on July 19th!! SCA will finish its school year on July 2nd so hopefully Heather will be able to refocus on ladies ministry and personal discipleship again, and Doug will be starting his Sunday school series on Philippians. Doug has also started a 28 week class on Biblical Counseling (all in Spanish) each Tuesday night. It takes Doug roughly 1.5 hours by metro to go to class, 2 hours of class, and then another 1.5 hours to get back – so please pray for safety, comprehension, and the family while he is gone at night.
Thank you so much for your prayers and sacrificial giving.
Doug & Heather
On the family front, the kids are doing well. Both Hannah and Caleb are
excelling at their Bible doctrines Sunday school class, (totally in Spanish) and Caleb loves the music ministry. We also have some adoption news to share. Many of you know that we’ve wanted to adopt for some time, well God is
opening that door. For more on this and the history of our journey please visit Heather’s adoption blog.
Nancy signing the marriage "contract" with 6 year old son looking on
The exchange of rings
The dinner afterward to celebrate was held out on their patio with 4 round tables to squeeze in all 35 or so people.