This ain't no fish story, I've got proof!

This afternoon I went out to do a little fishing is a man in our church. We had a great time and both caught big Chinook Salmon! Definitely the biggest fish I've ever caught. I think it was like 15 lbs! Here's a picture of mine:

You're looking at the new Chaplain of...

Today I was presented with a wonderful opportunity to influence 250 students from ages 3-14, their families  and their teachers. There is a local school called Lyons College, and today I met with the director of the school, the treasurer, and another lady who is probably like and administrative assistant to the director. They asked me if I would consider participating in the school on a "religious" level for and hour and a half each week. I gladly accepted! My duties will include giving a short talk during the equivalent of the flag salute on Monday mornings and also counseling with kids on Monday afternoons. I believe this will be a great door to preach the gospel to many people who I otherwise would not have been able to!

Patience

Flexibility is an important word for a missionary. I will use an experience from today to illustrate this (or I could have used my experience at the bank the other day when I waited in a line for 3+ hours).

Our fire place was purchased used, and the previous owner had broken the glass on the door and replaced it with a functioning metal piece. Today I decided to replace the glass, and here is how it went:

I went to Place A to purchase the glass, but they sent me to Place B and said if that didn't work go to Place C.
I went to Place B and purchased the glass ($60), but they informed me that I also needed two types of rope that they didn't have. Place B told me this rope could be purchased at Place A or Place C.
I went back to Place A, they had the rope for their own use but wouldn't sell me any, but they said I could get it at Place C.
I went to Place C where I was told that they didn't have the ropes, but that I could get them at Place A or Place B. When I said I'd been to A and B they said to try Place D.
I went to Place D and they said I could get the ropes at Places A-C, but when I told them that I couldn't they sent me to Place E.
Place E had one of the ropes and was shocked that Places A-D hadn't had them. I purchased the one rope and by their recommendation made one last stop at Place F which was the factory for Place C. Place F had no door, so I went home. Patience.

Handsome baby Micah

Micah is such a great kid. I have so much fun with him. He was just crying in his crib looking into the kitchen watching mama cook. I went over and reached in to give him a hug. He walked over, I hugged him, gave him a back rub for a little, and now he's sleeping. He's got a bunch of teeth! Crazy kid. I think when his teeth come in it hurts his mouth. He is fully walking now, he started at 10 months. We are getting into colder weather now, and over the next few months it will only get colder until the weather hits an all-year low in like July-August. So we have gotten used to making fires everyday. The wood oven gets too hot to touch and so if Micah can get to it while we have a fire then he is going to get burned pretty bad so we need to get a protective fence for him. I cut his hair last night, and that's the reason for the title, I thought he looked very handsome with his new haircut. We got a couple of packages full of clothes for Micah and I know Annie was thrilled. They look perfect, like they're going to be the perfect size for the next 6 months or so!

Our first baptism

We had our first baptism this month! Luis was baptized in the Coyhaique River. There is a nice bend in the river about 5 minutes from our house where it gets deep enough to come up to my chest so we chose that place for the baptism. The water was freezing! But once I was in it I really didn't even realize. The baptism happened without any hicups. That morning was a big morning for church attendance. There were 28 people who attended service, and only 3 of them were visitors who'd come to see Luis get baptized. That is our highest attendance since the inauguration last month. Our lowest attendances were on Wednesday nights, 7 one night and 8 another. The service where 8 people came was actually last Wednesday and it was a neat service because there was no power; we had prayer and Bible study by candle!

I am so impressed by Luis. He has been a Christian for about a year and is already making decisions of consecration that show great spiritual maturity. He is such a blessing to me and I just hope that I can be the spiritual influence on his life that he needs. Today he is busy all day and we have church tonight at 8. We'll probably get home from church at 10, and he wants to come over to study John 15 with me after service. This is just a small example of what a great guy he is! I believe that God is going to do great things through his life, much more than He will ever do through me.

Visit from Jason and Seth Kenney

We had a wonderful visit a few weeks ago from my friend Jason Kenney and his son Seth. While they were here they were really a blessing; both with a heart to serve. I tried to really use them while they were here so we had a busy few days! We were able to evangelize two communities by leaving a gospel tract on every door in both of them. One is called El Blanco and the other is called Valle Simpson. El Blanco is about halfway between us and Balmaceda while Valle Simpson is about halfway between us and El Blanco. Below is a picture of Luis from our church visting door-to-door in El Blanco. El Blanco probably has about 125 homes while Valle Simpson has about 100; both need a man who loves God and who will live among them shepherding those people. Both places need someone who will spend hours daily visiting them in their homes, evangelizing, teaching them the word of God, conducting weekly services, and ministering to their needs. Does our church need to send someone? Or do we need to win someone who already lives there and train them to be a pastor? We need more laborers.

We took the Kenneys fishing in Lago Pollux, but it wasn't really a successful trip because of rain and a bum motor. I did catch one off the dock though, and they seemed happy enough that someone caught a fish! I filleted it when we got home and cooked it up for the guys with a little butter, pepper, and lawry's (specially imported in our suitcases). Jason is quite the fish fanatic; eating, that is.

The Saturday while the Kenneys were here we held our first men's meeting. There were 3 men from church present, plus me and the Kenneys; we had a wonderful time eating a simple breakfast with coffee, prayer, and a message from the word of God.

On Sunday I had Jason preach for us in the morning and evening, he did a great job. That day was a wonderful day as we had our first baptism! I'll write about that in the next post. I was so glad that the Kenneys came for a visit and they were really a blessing to us.