Los Angeles County

I am very burdened for the county of Los Angeles. It is unbelievable how many people are there. Who will go plant a church in the city of angels? There are about 10 million people in the county which means it is the most populated county in the United States. In fact, Los Angeles county is more populated than 42 individual U.S. states. The need for church planting in LA is tremendous.

Mathew 9:37-38

Then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few;

Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest. 

Medical Mission

In January a group of doctors and nurses from the United States will be coming to Chile to provide medical aide for free on one of the islands of Patagonia. There is a very large island (3,545 sq miles) in southern Chile called Chiloé. This isn't the island that the medical mission is going to. Chiloé is 3,545 square miles which is about three times the surface area of Rhode Island (to give you some reference). This island has many large cities on it. One of the smaller cities is a fishing town called Achao. My neighbor Fernando is from Achao. Not too far off the coast of Achao is an island called Isla Butachauques. This medical team is efficient in medical aide, but they aren't in Spanish! That is why my phone rang with a request to come along as a translator. I accepted and am so excited! It is for a week long the third week of January. What an opportunity! Pastor Reinhardt told me that the last time they did this they knocked on every single door on the island and over 50 people got saved. I am ecstatic for the opportunity. I know I will learn so much about Patagonian island culture. Maybe I'll even get to eat a curanto. Here are a couple of photos of curanto:

Curanto is a food that originates from Chiloé. I don't know the process too well but I know that they dig a hole, get rocks very hot, put giant leaves down at one point, and then they cook a mixture of seafood, pork, chicken, beef, and veggies in it for hours. My neighbor said that they're going to feed that to us there!

When you say yes to one thing you say no to another

I have entered a new time in my ministry. Up until this point I have received a lot of invitations to preach in different places. I don't remember turning down an opportunity, unless I already had a commitment. It is different now because I have responsibilities that weigh in the balance. If I say yes to an invitation to preach, then it is possible that I won't be there for my family or the church we are starting. Today I received an invitation to preach an anniversary conference in Monte Águila which is several states north of us. I was very humbled by the invitation but I had to turn it down. If I were to go then Annie would be left alone in this strange place for four days by herself. Also, we are just starting with our weekly Bible studies here in Coyhaique, and how can I leave them without a Bible teacher? It wouldn't be appropriate for Eduardo to be at our house alone with Annie, so what does it communicate to him if I teach "not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together" and then I cancel on him? Another tempting invitation I received was in Iquique where our friends the Reinhardts live. It was to preach the week of their teen or family camp. I was so excited to receive the invitation, but if I accepted then that meant that I would miss a week during the first month of our church (we plan to have our first service in February and that's when the invitation was for). We originally planned to start in January but my friend Dustin's dad Dave Reinhardt asked me to accompany him on a very special trip (I'll write about it in the next post) in January. Since the January invitation is potentially a once in a lifetime event I accepted and we are going to move the inauguration to the first Sunday in February. But how could I miss a week during one of the most important times of our new church? I am learning that when I say yes to one thing, it is often to the exclusion of another. Its so important to say no to the right things!

A new haircut

I gave Micah his first haircut this morning! Wow he looks so different! I figured I'd kill two birds with one stone (or, as they say in Chile, shoot two birds with just one bullet) and put a picture of him sitting up on his own as well as his new haircut!

Tomando once

"Tomando once" translates into English as "taking eleven". To give you some background to once I'll explain how meals in Chile are.

As an American, you can expect a great change in food when you come to Chile. It is not so much a change in food as far as what you eat, because the chilean diet is not all that different from the american diet (apart from much more coffee/tea and bread here than in the USA). The change you can expect is in when you eat. In the morning you can expect to have a light breakfast consisting of coffee or tea, bread, and any of the following: jam, cheese, slices of deli meat, butter, etc. This holds the Chilean over until lunch which is the main meal of the day. Lunch is eaten at around two in the afternoon and it is normally a salad, main course, and dessert (often times accompanied with bread). This is where once comes in. Instead of eating dinner, most Chileans just eat a meal in the evening known as "once". It has been my experience that once is very commonly identical to breakfast which means...yes, more bread.

I remember one day several years ago when I was visiting Puerto Montt, the capital of the region above us. I had eaten bread at breakfast, bread at lunch, and then bread at once. The whole day I was looking forward to accompanying the pastor to discipleship in the homes of some of the believers from the church. We went to two or three homes. Little did I know that at discipleship we'd be eating once! Wow. Here in Chile it has been my experience that pastors and missionaries always get served a double portion of food. As you can imagine, I had bread coming out of my ears that night. Chile is second only to Germany in most amount of bread eaten by the average person. I guess Robert Atkins (the Atkins diet) wouldn't survive in Chile!

A new prospect

My wife loves to design. Here in our city we do not have much when it comes to national chains, malls, etc. We do have a national chain though called Homecenter/Sodimac. It is basically your home improvement store. Think about my wife running wild in that store...I know, scary. I'm just playing around though because she is a very frugal person. All kidding aside though, the other day we went to the store and since I knew she was going to take a long time trying to decide what she wanted to by I went upstairs into their small cafe. There I wrote our church info on the backs of about twenty-five or fifty tracts while enjoying a juice. At the end I payed my bill and left a nice tip for the girl working. I also gave her a tract and said, "Here's a gift for you". That was that.

About a week went by, and Annie wanted to go back to the candy shop, I mean Homecenter. So we decided to grab a sandwich at their cafe and then do a little shopping. The same girl was working! This time when I went to pay I said, "Did you get a chance to read the book I gave you?" She said she did and that she liked it. Then she asked if we had a church and I told her that we did and that we'd just started with meetings the Sunday before. After conversing for a bit and witnessing to her our conversation was naturally coming to a close. She said, "I hope everything goes well for you guys with the church and that it grows." I said, "I hope so too. Why don't you join us?" She said, "That's why I asked if you had a church"! Praise the Lord! She, Fernanda, will be joining us for "once" with her husband and daughter, right after Sunday night Bible study. To see what "once" means, check out my next post

The end of the world

This is a short excerpt from my newest prayer letter I am writing: "We made it! Three weeks ago we arrived to Patagonia. As most of you know, Patagonia is a vast region in the southern part of South America. It extends into both southern Chile and southern Argentina. In Chile, Patagonia comprises the two furthest southern states, the 11th and 12th regions. Coyhaique is the capital of the 11th region. It is from there that I write this prayer letter. "

If you are curious to see where we are, click here.

To put some perspective on that:
We are 676 miles from the furthest southernmost city in the world: Puerto Williams.
We are 6,211 miles away from Los Angeles, CA where we both grew up.

New milestones for Micah

The last couple of weeks it has been fun to watch my son grow. He's hit six months now and Annie has been saying for the last six months that she wanted to feed him when he reached this age. Last week he ate his first thing that wasn't his mother's milk: Nestle Nestum Arroz. Translation: rice cereal...I think. It looks like the malt-o-meal I used to eat when I was little and it smells really good. He likes it! We recorded a video of the first time to show to our loved ones back in the U.S. Once we get good internet I will upload the video to youtube and send it out. Right now I am using the internet from my cell phone which is very slow, but it gets the job done. Another development was yesterday. Micah was in his pack n' play as we were eating breakfast. I look over and he had moved himself to the sitting up position all on his own! It was such a shocker because we've never really tried to make him sit up or anything and he just did it all of the sudden! It's fun to watch him develop.

You might just make a Patagón out of me yet

A Patagón is the Spanish term for somebody from Patagonia. Since my last post about fire building I have mastered the art (well, maybe "mastered" is a bit of an exaggteration, but I've gotten it down). Yesterday I was chatting with my neighbor who is from Achao, a city on the large island called Chiloé. I asked him if he knew how to do cordero asado (which in this region is where you butcher a lamb and prepare it on a pole to where it sort of looks crucified and the you cook it over wood for four hours) and Fernando, my neighbor, looked at me and said, "of course", like, "who doesn't?!" We made a deal that if I buy a lamb he has to cook it for our families and teach me how to repeat the process.

You don't need a wood stove in California

The week that we left California the temperature was above 100. Last night the temperature in Coyhaique was under 40 degrees...and its spring. The homes here are heated with slow combustion wood stoves. Using one is an art. If you were to have asked me what would be the most difficult part of moving to Chile a typical answer one could expect would be one of the following: money changing, the language, the culture, the food, etc. No, none of these has been the most difficult for me: it has been starting a fire! I tried what I learned from camping/boyscouts/summer camp: the teepee method. No luck. I have also had three people who have lived in this city for many years teach me. Do you know how humbling it is for a grown man to go to his neighbor and admit he doesn't know how to start a fire? Well, I have officially achieved the position of sissy gringo in his eyes! One of the three people who tried to teach me said to tear up some cardboard, pour some kerosene on them, stack smaller pieces of wood on them, and then light them before the kerosene turns to fumes. No luck. Another one of them said to drench some ashes in kerosene, put torn cardboard on them, stack smaller pieces of wood on them, and then light it. No luck. The third person told me to tear up cardboard, to absolute not use any kerosene, stack the wood, and light it. No luck. Each time I've been able to get some flames going, but they eventually go out. There are a lot of other things involved like knowing when to put larger wood on and knowing how much to keep your chute open or closed, but after much internet consultation I have come to the conclusion that my wood is wet. Somebody suggested these little bricks that continue to burn for awhile and that really help you to start a fire. I bought a couple of packs today. They come with 32 bricks each and they cost about $3 a pack. The man who sold them to me said that you only need one or two bricks per fire started. I must admit though, I am so determined to start a fire tonight that I will use all 64 bricks if I have to. I will persevere.

Saturday visitation

This last Saturday we had Eduardo over to our house and then he and I went door knocking together. By the end of our time door to door I had run out of tracts, but there was a man washing his car. Although I really love tracts and carry them around all the time, you don't need tracts to preach the gospel! There was evangelism before the printing press. Eduardo and I approached the man who we came to find out was named Rodrigo. Rodrigo listened to a very clear presentation of the gospel for about 20 minutes and really seemed to be on the fence about making the decision to trust Jesus Christ as his personal Saviour, but he just wasn't ready. He was very friendly and extremely receptive. I'll be back to that home. Eduardo seemed captivated and that was really a blessing. I hope that soon when we go out together he will be doing the talking as well.

Oh that every born again child of God would loose themselves of the plague of muteness!

First Bible study

Yesterday marked the commencement of the ministry of Central Baptist Church of Coyhaique: to my knowledge, the first independent Baptist church in Patagonia (on the Chilean side, I know of one 8 hours east of us in the Argentinean side). I suppose you could say the public ministry of this new church started a couple of weeks ago when our family walked the streets of the city preaching the gospel from door to door.

The meeting went very well. We had one in attendance! Eduardo came, who is from the church in Puerto Montt. The Bible study began with a time in prayer. We passed around the prayer card for the Kuhlman family, church planters in Seattle, WA. Then we took prayer requests and spent a time in prayer. We then sang O Love of God, I Stand Amazed, and I Love You Lord before studying love for about 30 or 45 minutes. It was a great start!

Getting accustomed to the region

Today we were introduced to "mate". It is a type of herbal tea that is normally drunken out of a dried gourd, although today ours was our of a ceramic type of mug. Here is a picture of what it typically would look like:

I was taught a few very important things about drinking mate. First off, if somebody has welcomed you into their home and offers you mate, it is extremely important to accept it. If you don't accept it, there is an immediate barrier placed. Although it is extremely bitter, and isn't pleasing to the typical gringo pallet, I believe it can grow on you. Everybody passes it around and drinks from the same metal straw, so I'm sure my brother-in-law Russell wouldn't like it! I find this next piece of information to be very important... Once you drink the mate down, you pass it to the next person and they fill it up with water only to drink it down and pass it again. It goes around till it gets to you again. Well the important thing to note is that if you pass the mate back to the person with the kettle and say, "muchas gracias", that means you've had enough and they won't pass it to you again. Otherwise you may get it handed to you all night, and then it'd be important to know where their bathroom is!

In other news, we met a contact given to us through a missionary in Puerto Montt (the capital of the state above us). His name is Eduardo and he lives here in Coyhaique. Eduardo committed to attend our weekly Bible studies, which are scheduled to start next Sunday afternoon at 5 pm. It will at least be he, Annie, Micah, and myself. I visited Jenifer's house, the gal who I led to Christ this week, but she wasn't home. I hope to establish contact with her and see her continue to grow. Hopefully she will be the other person attending and I hope that eventually other members of their families will get saved and be become a part of the church.

Our house is coming along. The only thing that we're missing now is firewood (yes, it is wood heated, like pretty much every home down here), gas (for hot water and the stove), and we're set to go (apart from a few minor details like installing appliances and getting a couch/dining table)!

I'm loving the adventure! And I know God is with us! (Matthew 28:20)

The firstfruits

In the time of harvest, the firstfruits are always very important. We read about a feast of firstfruits in Leviticus 23:9-14. We see in Proverbs 3:9 that God is interested in our firstfruits financially. Jesus, in relation to His resurrection from the dead, is called the firstfruits (1 Corinthians 15:20).

It is with great rejoicing that I write this entry. Yesterday I experienced the firstfruits in relation to the harvest of souls in this city. We have been here for 9 days. One of our first days here I gave a gospel tract (the Chick tract, "Guilty?") to a lady on a sidewalk near the plaza. Yesterday as I was parking my car a woman kept staring at me. I wasn't sure if she was just shocked to see a gringo or what. She was a large Mapuche woman. The Mapuche or an indigenous group here in Chile; some would call them Indians, like the American Indians, but they really don't like that word so I stick with Mapuche. She approached the car and said to me with absolutely no emotion in her voice, "I read the little book you gave me. It was beautiful." It was then that I remember who she was, asked her name, and she said Jennifer. I began a conversation with Jennifer about how to have her sins forgiven. It was very well received and she understood clearly so our conversation ended with her taking my hand as we bowed our heads to pray. She asked the Lord Jesus Christ to be her Saviour! It was wonderful. She didn't have a Bible so I have her a book of John and told her to start reading it. She gave me her address and told us that Saturday evenings or all day Sunday is a good time to visit. We'll be seeing her soon. Praise the Lord!

Once upon a time, in a far away land

This is going to be a long post, because it’s the first time I’ve had internet on my computer in a while. I think the trip can be divided into the following cities: Santiago, Loncoche, Lanco, Panguipulli, Puerto Montt, Puerto Chacabuco, and Coyhaique. As you read, keep in mind that this is roughly 1,000 miles of travel. Another thing to remember is that the words I will use could never truly describe the trip. Chile is one of the most beautiful places on earth and we saw about half of the country (the longest country in the world).

Santiago

We left Santiago early Friday morning. It was a great trip! There’s a very tasty sausage in Chile called a longaniza…not to be confused with the Mexican longaniza that you can get in the states. Well everybody in Chile knows that the best longaniza in the whole country is in the city of Chillán. I decided that we couldn’t drive through Chillán without trying their longaniza! So we made a little stop there. In the afternoon we visited a place called Monte Águila. There are two Mexican missionaries there, and I was there specifically to meet a third who we found out is back in Mexico right now. I enjoyed meeting the others anyway. One of their names was Rodolfo Ventura and the other’s first name was Roberto.

Loncoche

Our first stop to stay overnight was in Loncoche. It was there that we met up with Jody Ray. She is a great example of what a Christian lady should be and we sure love her. She opened her home to us Friday and Saturday night. There we also made a couple of other friends named Cyntia and Cristian, a young couple living with her. Cyntia has a brain tumor and is taking medicine that makes her extremely ill so I have been praying for her.

Lanco

Iglesia Bíblica Bautista el Calvario is the church in Lanco where Jody attends. It is about 15 minutes or so from Loncoche. Her son-in-law Neil Arias started the church. He is now pastoring a Spanish department of a church in Tucson, Arizona. I was invited to preach at this church on Sunday morning, and we also sang.

Panguipulli

After Sunday lunch we left Panguipulli to meet some new friends, Steve and Sandra Reyes. They have 3 adorable children, and they’re funny kids too. Their son said to me, “You’re stomach is big, you must have eaten too much fish.” Then the next day he said, “Carl, you have a funny name, but it’s a good one anyway.” We attended church with them Sunday night and sang in the service. After church and the next morning we played games with them. It was refreshing for all of us, and I think it will be a good friendship in the future. The highlight of my stay with them was late Sunday night. There is a lady in their church whose mother was ill to the point of death, and the doctors said that she’d never wake up (I’m not sure if it was a comma, or if she was just sleepy/incoherent for a long time). Steve received a phone call informing him that she had woken up, so he and I headed out to the hospital and I stood next to her bed as Steve led her to Christ.

Puerto Montt

Our plans changed a couple of times as we tried to determine what would be the best way for us to get to our destination in Patagonia: Coyhaique. It was a blessing to cross paths with Cyntia and Cristian in Loncoche because as it turned out they had a lot of family that had made the trip to Coyhaique. The trip is not as straight forward as one would think because of the Andes. You can’t just drive there. Instead you have to either travel through Argentina or take 1 or several boats to get there. We determined that though it was a little pricier, taking one boat from Puerto Montt to Puerto Chacabuco would be best because of the gas we would have spent, the uncertainty of travelling the other route, and because of the dirt roads we avoided with our excessively loaded vehicle. Pastor Louis Long and his wife Kathy received us into their home on Monday night in Puerto Montt. Sweet couple. We shipped out Tuesday night at 8 pm.

Puerto Chacabuco

The boat trip from Puerto Montt to Puerto Chacabuco was a 24 hour trip. We were very comfortable in a cabin with four beds and a private bathroom. I loved the trip, though I must admit I’ve never really developed my sea legs. I saw dozens of islands on the trip. On one of the islands were two populations: one by the name of Puerto Aguirre and the other by the name of Caleta Andrade. We really need to plant a church there…maybe two.

Coyhaique

Late Wednesday night we got in to Coyhaique. Home sweet home. This is where we will live and do ministry. Coyhaique is the capital of the XI Region of Chile with a population of over 50,000. We were received into the home of some friends and are there until we move in to our own place. I believe the Lord ordered our steps to a certain home and we sealed the deal with evangelism in that neighborhood on Saturday. We write up the contract this Tuesday and move in whenever we are ready. I can’t wait to get settled in and start a weekly Bible study that will pave the way for the church we are starting in a few months.

What an adventure! I’m so glad to share it with my best friend, Annie, by my side.

We made it

I have really missed blogging this last week, and boy they've been exciting days. There is so much I plan to say, but blogging from my cell phone just doesn't cut it. I hope to have internet with my laptop soon and then I can write something substantial. For now it'll suffice to say that we made it to Patagonia safely and we're now looking for a place to live while we stay with a friend.