1 Peter 2:2

Yesterday Micah spit up and some of it hit the edge of my Bible. We cleaned it up and no big deal. Today as i was opening my Bible to read i notice that the place where the spit up landed was a different color than the rest and i said to myself, "it brings new meaning to the verse that says desire ye the sincere milk of the word". Oh the irony. I love being a dad.

New heights

The feelings I am feeling are difficult to put into words. I feel like sometimes life has its climaxes and it feels like I’ve arrived to one. But even climax isn’t the right word because it implies that there is a plateau or downhill coming up and I don’t believe that’s the case.

I believe that this moment in life is an accumulation of everything that’s happened since that decision I made 8 years ago when I asked Jesus Christ to be my Saviour and I believed in His death, burial, and resurrection for my salvation. I never imagined the path it would take me down. I was just a broken, hurting, and lost teenager who finally turned to the Lord because of His goodness and love. I can truly say it was the best thing that ever happened to me. I remember writing to a man who had a large part in my conversion to Christ and thanking him for everything. He humbly replied, "God's love was just chasing after you and I was happy to tag along for the ride." He is still chasing after me and I hunger for Him.

As I look back and reflect, it feels like the last 8 years have been a wonderful story being written. Some of the recent additions have been my beautiful bride (definitely the second best thing that ever happened to me) and my precious son.

We are all packed up and ready to head for Patagonia in the morning. What does it feel like? It feels like it’s just the next chapter in this wonderful adventure waiting to be written.

 

Contentment

Something that happened recently caused me to remember a Sunday School lesson that I taught at Grace Baptist Church in Corona. I reflected on the truths from God's word that I had the privilege to teach. I taught on how godliness with contentment is great gain. I taught that having food and clothing let us be therewith content. I shared two quotes that I learned from a mentor of mine: "contentment is realizng that God has given me everything I need for my present happiness" and, "the enemy of contentment is comparison". Lately I was asked a list of ten questions that were supposed to make me think. One was, "If you could be any age what would it be?" I responded, "25". Another question was, "What is your dream job?" I responded: "missionary" I am so happy with the lot I've been given! And I am determined that when things change I'll be content then too! May the Lord keep us from discontentment, comparison, and coveteousness.

Today was a nice day. Kind of a long one, but definitely enjoyable. We took a trip to the coast with the Mcbryar family. Some highlights were Mexican food for lunch (sort of a rarity in chile), the pretty coasts of Viña Del Mar and Valparaíso, buying a neat coat for Micah for ten bucks and a beenie for three, having ice cream at the (cold) beach, and eating dunkin doughnuts. To think, I had to come all the way to South America to have dunkin doughnuts for the first time. Today was a relaxing tourist day. Here's a couple of pictures:

Other news-we got our car! Now its just a matter of getting a few things ready to go, packing, and heading to the tip of the world! I downloaded an app on my Chilean cell phone that allows me to text U.S. cell phones at no cost and vice versa. This basically makes me accesible to people in the states 24/7. Email me to get the number if you want to be able to text. Technology is amazing sometimes. I think to myself that Carey, Judson, or other missionary greats of yesteryears would look at us today, shake their heads and call us pansies! But then again, had the tehnology been available in the 17 & 1800's I'm sure they would have taken advantage of it too.

Language blunders

Last night at dinner I made two funny mistakes:

1. The waiter asked me how something was and I said that it was a little too raro for me. I wanted to say rare (which looks a lot like "raro", that's what we call in linguistics a false cognate), but instead I said strange.

2. I asked the waiter if when he brought the check we were supposed to pay at the table or if we were just supposed to leave (implying without paying). I meant to ask if we were supposed to pay at the register...luckily our waiter had a good sense of humor!

Date night

Last night was really fun. Annie got a baby sitter (Delaney, the McBryar's daughter) and organized for us to go out to dinner. Before we did that, we went to cerro san cristobal (saint christopher hill) which is where there is a giant statue depicting the Roman virgin Mary. We did all public transportation to get there. For Annie, this was really a new experience. For me it was my typical life when I lived here a couple of years ago. Here's some pictures from the top of the hill

Random fact: I have a cell phone now...it has internet, I've never had internet on a cell phone before.

Last night after heading to downtown Santiago we had a date. It was a blast. Annie planned two games that were real fun: one we had to guess what the other would answer to ten questions and the other was called like shopping bingo or something. We went to the mall and had to observe people doing things like a kid trying on a hat or a parent with three kids; as we observed that we got to ex a square until we got bingo. It was fun and we laughed a lot.

Pastor Elias Huenulaf

Last night we visited a great church in Lo Espejo, a commune next door to the one we're staying in. The church is called Bible Baptist Church and the Pastor is Elias Huenulaf. He had us sing and he also asked me to address the congregation. I shared our burden for Patagonia. His two sons are fluent in English and we enjoyed conversing in English. He has a son who is very talented on the piano, he played a couple of pieces for us including Chopin's Nocturne (I especially enjoyed that). His other son is named Andres. Andres actually went to an independent Baptist Bible college in Florida. He is very interested in going to the 11th region of Chile to start a church. I couldn't be more excited because the church that we are starting will be the only independent Baptist church in that entire state. The state below it doesn't have one either. Andres is planning a survey trip to come check out the state. We've offered our home to him and told him that in any way we can be a help, "cuenta con nosotros", or, you can count on us.

Weep No More

Tonight we joined Iglesia Bautista Amistad again and sang this song called No Temas Más or the title of the English version is Weep No More. The song is composed of music is from an old hymn called O Word of God Incarnate with new words written by a Baptist evangelist named Steve Pettit. The new version is a beautiful song about the resurrection.

Speaking out of turn

The oddest thing happened to me yesterday...I was sitting around with a bunch of Americans, and started my sentence in Spanish. About 15 words into it me di cuenta (i realized) that I was speaking Spanish. They got a good laugh out of it. I hope this is a positive step towards Spanish becoming the norm.

This little laugh has stolen my heart

Materials for the church in Patagonia

The hymnals are all finished and I think they look pretty good! We got 75 of them.

We are also order several banners for the church. One with the church logo, one with the schedule of services, and also one that has a missions emphasis for inside the building.

I was able to obtain 1,000 quality copies of the gospel of John at 5 cents a piece! What a deal!

Chilean Independence Day

Today marks the start of Fiestas Patrias (Patriotic Festival) here in Chile. The 18th of September is their 4th of July, except rather than just celebrate is on the 18th it becomes basically a week-long ordeal. Today was a special day here for chilean churches. Pretty much all the churches have some combination of the following happening after service:

Choripan (barbeque'd chilean sausage served with bread and pebre/a chilean pico de gallo)

Traditional chilean outfits

Emboque (a little wooden toy)

It was a fun day for us. I preached at the church that I helped to start, Iglesia Bautista Vida (Life Baptist Church) and then afterwards we had an asado (bbq). I got the emboque on my first two tries...everyone was impressed of course (I guess this gringo has what it takes!). I got to see many of the people that I ministered to when I was here before. One of the dear women in the church brought some pretty pink flowers of Annie. And of course, as always, Micah was the life of the party!

Preaching to about 30 teens

Last night I preached at the youth group at Iglesia Bautista Fe (Faith Baptist Church) on the fact that God is the owner of all things and how this ought to affect our finances, our purity, and our surrender to His service. Here is a picture of Micah right before I preached...you can tell he's gearing up for an exciting sermon!

En la mansión do Cristo está / Higher Ground (in Spanish)

It's your seal

Today at the restaurant I gave a tract to somebody and one of my old students from the Bible college points to me and says with a big smile, "Es tu sello" (it's your seal). What he was saying was that it was like my signature or something that marked me. You know, like when a political figure of days past would send and important letter, he would have a special seal that distinguished that the letter was from him. It made me feel real special to hear my student make that comment: may my life be distinguished my many Christian seals like passing out tracts, reading the Bible, praying, always being faithful to church services, etc.

We are making progress toward leaving for the south. I finished the hymnal and dropped it off today at the printer; we're getting 75 copies. My guess is that 75 hymnals could comfortable serve 150 people. Also, I found out today that our car will be ready to be picked up tomorrow. The only thing impeding us from picking it up is the wire transfer. I sent it three days ago to my friend's bank, but it hasn't quite gone through yet and I need it to go through for us to be able to finish purchasing the car.

It also looks like we'll be getting cells phones this week. The plan I'm getting has 200 minutes to call anyone, unlimited internet, 100 messages, and 4 numbers that I can call with unlimited minutes. Here in Chile, the cell phone plans are pretty different from the U.S. The cell phone companies are really stingy with their minutes so when it comes to cell phones everyone really worries about their minutes. The way it works is when you call somebody you get charged minutes but they don't.

Today I ate at what is called el mercado central. It's like a flea market in downtown Maipú (the city where we're staying), and there are a bunch of typical Chilean restaurants there. I ate mushroom chicken which was  pretty normal, but the interesting thing was the appetizer they brought out. It was raw fish with onion and other fresh veggies in a lemon/vinegar mix. It was pretty tasty. The meal also included a salad (tomato w/cilantro), bread, and rice. I ended up full and my meal was just 2,000 pesos which is about $4.

One interesting difference in Chile is the difference between the comma and the period. Pretty much anywhere where we put a period in numbers they put a comma here, and vice versa. For example, the number two thousand would be 2.000. Or two and a half would be 2,5 instead of 2.5.

You can do it little fingers

I've been working round the clock on our hymnal. It looks like its going to have about 250 Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs. My fingers are tired. I'm doing some last second finishing touches so that I can print them up here in Santiago before we go to the south (everything is cheaper here). I'm also working on getting banners done for our church because the cost would be much cheaper here.

Today I preached 3 times. Sunday school and main service at Iglesia Bautista Fe and evening service at Iglesia Bautista Omega. In the morning I preached on the taught on mission and preached on total consecration to God. Tonight I preached on surrender to a God who is seeking. We ate lunch with Cristian's family, and Jenny's family. Cristian is the pastor of fe. We sang in both churches, I love to sing for the Lord. I love to preach, too. I saw a lot of old friends today, and even had a lot of invitations to homes. For example, one of my old seminary students is having us for a late lunch next Saturday before I preach to the youth group at church.

Missionary Jason Holt was at Omega tonight, and afterwards they brought us over to their house. We had a great time eating and just laughing a lot. You can read their ministry updates here.

I managed to get all of the information I need in order to do a wire transfer, which will enable us to pay for our vehicle and hopefully have it by the end of the week!

Date night

Tonight the McBryar's daughter Delaney watched Micah for us and we got to go out on a date. It was nice to go out, enjoy dinner, and talk about everything that's been going on in life. I love Annie more today than I ever have. She's my best friend.

To put a cherry on top of a wonderful night, our waiter was very unoccupied and kept wanting to talk the whole night. At the end of the night I gave him a tract with a generous tip, and then proceeded to preach the gospel to him. He was all ears. God is reaching out to Matias.

New car

I think we found a car yesterday...we looked for about 8 hours trying to get a good deal. The car is a 2005 Honda CR-V in great condition apart from some cosmetic details. It has 112,000 kilometers, which is about 70,000 miles. That is one of the adjustments you have to make in a foreign country, knowing how to convert values in your mind: gallons vs. liters, pounds vs. kilograms, miles vs. kilometers, dollars vs. pesos etc. I think its pretty easy to figure our kilometers...its about 6 miles for 10 kilometers so if you take 60% of the kilometer-age, then you have a rough guess of the mileage. Here's a picture of the car:

Hymnal for church plant

I am working on a home-made hymnal for us. That will be cheaper than buying the books, and also I then have the liberty to put in or take out certain songs. I am basing it on this hymnal. Here is a picture of the front and back cover I had designed by a friend of mine:

If the resolution isn't the best, its because I just did a screen shot. I'm planning to get these hymnals printed up before we leave for Patagonia. It's just a matter of getting them formatted in time.

Last night I preached at Iglesia Bautista Esperanza where Jason Kenney is pastor. Their website is here: http://www.millionstotell.org/

As I am thinking about the move to Patagonia, I'm realizing that we just have SO much stuff. I think we're going to need to get a trailer and hook it up to whatever vehicle we buy. I have a washing machine and a fridge from when I was here last. We also have nine 50 lbs bags, five carry-on size ones, we'll be buying a big printer, and there are seven big/heavy boxes full of audio cds that we're going to be leaving at every door in Coyhaique before the first service. That's a lot of stuff. I guess that's why they say, "Possessions have a way of possessing you."

It will be nice to get to Coyhaique and be able to let our roots grow, but we've gotta get all this stuff down there. It looks like we're going to need to get a trailer or something. My hesitation with that was that I don't want to pay for a second vehicle when we take the barges in the south. Last night I met a man at Esperanza named Sergio. He is from Puerto Montt (that's the city that you take the barge from). He explained to me that it may just be better for us to drive into Argentina and not take a barge. I had my doubts because when I was in Coyhaique my friend brought a car there from a little bit up north and he took the barges. Sergio explained to me that sometimes the barges are better because of the weather, but that since we are going into spring he thinks it could be a good idea to make the drive through Argentina. It'll all work out, we'll see how!

Yesterday I went to the Bible college where I taught three or four classes when I was here in Chile last. It's called Chile Baptist College. It was great to see some of my old students. A big group of us went out to breakfast. Lot's of folks in the community, contacts I made when I was here, have been asking for me. One was the owner of the restaurant so it was nice to see her. Tonight we're going to a family conference at the church that I helped to start. I will get to see a lot of people that I ministered to when I was here last, and they will get to meet Annie and Micah. It should be a great time.

Sunday evening I preached at Born Again Missionary Baptist Church. I preached on what to do when you don't know what to do. Thank God that He is constant even though life's circumstances aren't.

Yesterday morning we went in to take care of some of the paperwork for our visas. Chris McBryar is helping us with all of our errands. In Chile, for a U.S. document to "count", it has to be legalized by a proper Chilean authority. It is kind of a long process. Yesterday we went in to the Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores to have our birth certificates, marriage license, and work contract from CMC legalized. I went in to the wrong place which proved to be blessed of the Lord. I asked the man at the help counter where I could get my documents legalized, and after a short conversation he asked us to sit down as he took the papers to the proper office around the corner. This meant that we probably skipped a short walk and a very long line. He said it was because of Micah, who is just 4 months old. Then we walked about 20 minutes to the next office: Extranjería. You have to go up a flight of stairs to the second floor. The line was so long that it came all the way outside of the waiting area, outside of the office, up and to the stairs. Thinking that Micah was my ticket, by the grace of God, we walked past the whole line and I asked the lady giving numbers out, "Where do you wait if you have a baby?" She handed me a number and said that it would get us to the front service counter right away. Sure enough, it did. I'm so thankful for God's hand at work in each situation.

The government worker (Cristian) that was helping us get the paperwork together for the visa said that we would get a response in 15-30 days, and that if the answer was in the affirmative the visa would take 2 months. I informed him that we'd be living in Coyhaique (here in Chile, that's known as the extreme south), and asked if we would have to come back to Santiago during any of that process. He said surprised, "You're going to be living in Coyhaique? We have an office there, and you can do all of this there. Plus, their requirements are easier than ours!" It will be very convenient to take care of the visa process from our future home.

Tracts, tracts, tracts. Time doesn't always afford us the opportunity to use our mouths to explain the glorious gospel of Christ, but I try to always give a gospel tract to every person I interact with. Even the waiter at the little cafe we stopped at for Micah to nurse.

Last night we got together with a bunch of missionary families for a going away/birthday party for Travis Birge. He was here for 6 months. We saw a lot of great friends: the Kenneys, the Holts, the McBryars, Susan Moore, as well as some short term missionaries. Unfortunately, my team lost in the board game we were playing.

Arrival to Santiago

We arrived in Santiago yesterday. Always experiencing God's blessings. We had one bag that should have cost us $249, but then the lady at the counter said she'd just count it for our son (who wasn't supposed to get any bags).

Yesterday we went out in a group of 7 and passed out over 200 tracts.

The McBryar family has very generously offered to put us up during this time while we stay in Santiago. I preached at Iglesia Bautista Amistad this morning and that went very well. A year or two ago when I was here in Chile I was handing out gospel tracts a couple of blocks from this church inviting people to come. Well it was to my great joy this morning to find out that the man leading the music at the church was invited by me! Since I met him on the street a couple of years ago he visited the church and has become a faithful member. Today he said to me, "I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for you." Glory to God!

The McBryars put their prayer letters online here: http://chileforchrist123.wordpress.com/.