Happenings in Chile

While I’ve written fairly extensively about my trips to Peru and Bolivia, I haven’t written as much about Chile. To be truthful, the trips to Peru and Bolivia were easy to write about inasmuch as they were a timeline of events that naturally followed one another.

Chile is different because there are some days filled with the mundane, or the day-to-day life. While I’m loving it here, not everything I do is exciting to write about. However, I do want to keep everybody up-to-date on what I’m doing.

Every week I’m given the opportunity to teach Sunday School, which is a great thrill for me. I’m currently working through I John exegetically and my study has proven greatly beneficial and enlightening, although I still have much to work on in this area. It was to my dismay that I found out a few weeks ago that I was speaking too quickly and the congregation was not understanding me. Since then, I have tried to slow my pace, which is a hard thing for me because I naturally speak quickly, even in English. However, the reward came a couple of weeks ago when somebody told me, “Today I understood the whole message!” And they were excited about it. Once a month or so I’m preaching in the evenings as well.

We’ve been working on construction in the church and I love the way Iglesia Bautista Omega looks now. It’s like it’s brand new! We laid ceramic in both the auditorium and in the nursery, and now we have to paint soon.

One of my greatest thrills was going out visiting with a church member who recently finished a discipleship course with the pastor. It was his first time going visiting and I was so impressed with how well he handled everything and connected with the people. Door-to-door evangelism is a little different here because every house has a gate in front of it for protection from thieves. So instead of knocking, a person calls out, “Hallo!” (Almost like “hello” but with an “a” and without the puff at the beginning of the word) and then the resident comes to the gate. We conducted a survey that led to the presentation of the gospel if the person would allow, and I was surprised by how well it was received and how friendly most of the people were about it.

One week we went down to the middle of the plaza in Maipú, the section of Santiago where I live. While there, we handed out a bunch of different John and Romans with an invitation to church. I was able to connect with a couple of men, one Peruvian and one Venezuelan, and have great conversations with them. I’m hoping for even more gospel conversations in the future.

A Quick Photo Before Heading to Plaza Maipú

On Tuesday nights and Saturday mornings I try to go to seminary classes with those training for the ministry. While this isn’t a requirement for me, it is a good thing to be involved in and I try to do it unless I have something else going on. Along those lines, our midweek service is on Wednesday nights but another church’s is on Thursday nights, so I’m trying to go to both.

Another major project I work on is the media for 250Project. You can find more information about it here, but a great door has opened in Chile to train men and women for the advancement of the gospel and I’ve been given the privilege of working to promote it.

Along with all of this, I get together with Jason Holt and another missionary, Daniel Sparks, once in a while to discuss different questions I have about the ministry, among other things. I’ve actually learned a lot just in these talks as well as in talks with other missionaries both here and while I was in Peru.

Jason gives me books to read, which I work on reading and then derive questions from them to ask him. These books have actually been a great help to me and opened my understanding about how Jesus conducted His ministry.

This is just a basic overview of what’s going on here and what I’m involved in. I love Chile so much and am already dreading my departure in a few months. However, I must make the best of the opportunity God has given me here and then follow His leading from there.

Thank you all for your prayers and support! If you’d like to give toward this internship, you can do so here. God bless you!