Whooo it's cold!

A couple of random pictures from the last week:

When we got into the car to go to our church meeting on Sunday and there was a little owl about the same size as my fist just a few feet away from me hanging out in the cherry tree.

I walked out of Lyon's College the other day where I do chaplaincy work, saw the snow on the hills, and realized it was absolutely cold! It actually snowed a little that day here in Coyhaique; they called it rain-snow. The temperature almost as low as 20 degrees farenheit...and we're just about to get into the coldest months of the year! June, July, and August are supposed to be the coldest months. Don't mistake this for complaining, I actually love the cold. Just ask me in a couple of months though ; )

Missions Conference

I'm so excited! We are planning our first ever missions conference. We are flying in Pastor Cristian Alarcon, a Chilean pastor who I became close friends with while I was living in Maipu in Santiago. He pastors Iglesia Bautista Fe where I taught in the Bible college and who is the sending church for Iglesia Bautista Vida that I helped start in its first year.

We already support one missionary whose name is Miguel Triano. We began supporting them on our first Sunday in hopes of setting the pattern for the rest of the life of this church. They are Mexican missionaries serving in Cape Coast, Ghana, Africa. I wrote to him tonight and asked if he could participate in the conference in some of the following ways:

• Record and upload to youtube a special song done in a church service in Cape Coast
• Record and upload a greeting (as long as he wants) to be played in the conference
• Send us a Spanish sermon about missions, like about surrendering to go to the field or financially supporting missions (to be burned onto CDs and given to the brethren here)
• If it could work, maybe we could try to skype with him in a service...and although we do have wireless at the property that one sounds a little more tricky

I am planning for us to take on at least one more missionary. We are hoping to be able to support a lower amount of missionaries at a higher amount of money per missionary. My idea is that because of that we'll hopefully have more interaction with the missionaries and be able to have a bigger impact in the regions we are invested in. Ideally this will also lend itself to church members being more involved our missionaries' lives like praying for them, writing to them, knowing the names of their families, etc.

Aren't your feet cold?

The other day I was having work done in the house. The handy man who came to do the work saw that I had no shoes or socks on...not a big deal for someone from California, but he shockingly said, "Aren't your feet cold?!", and he almost looked offended that I didn't have shoes on. Truth is though that I had a nice fire going and you could have comfortably worn shorts inside the house and not gotten cold. I have to remember to wear shoes when Chileans are over!

I've been slowly working on Annie's kitchen trying to make it better. Here's a few things that I did last week (well, I paid for the water heater installation).

This bad boy took me like 3+ hours...and I still wonder if it will just collapse

No more running to the cupboard on the other side of the kitchen for spices when we're cooking.

This little water heater is going to make doing dishes much easier; no more washing with the electric kettle.

Happy Mother's Day

Yesterday was Mother's Day in Chile, or Sunday is? I don't know, I'm confused about it all...but that's not the point. The school where I do chaplaincy work invited me to a special Mother's Day Assembly and asked if Annie and I would sing and if I would give a reflection. I was thrilled to see well over 100 moms there, and also the 250 member student body. I read this Scripture:

2 Timothy 1:5
When I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith that is in thee, which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois, and thy mother Eunice; and I am persuaded that in thee also.

I spoke of the importance of mothers being a model for their children and specifically models of faith. Then I spoke of how important faith is: it is the entrance into God's family (Acts 16:31) and it is what we live by after we are saved (2 Corinthians 5:7). What a great opportunity to preach the gospel to hundreds of people who may have never heard it presented clearly!

A second mile kind of guy

Matthew 5:41
And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain. 

There are some people, where if you ask them for something it's harder than trying to get grape juice out of a raisin. I want to be a second mile guy.

What happened to the little flutters?

Last night I had my hand on Annie's stomach and felt the baby kick; she's only 4 months along! She was asleep. Well, tonight she felt a pretty monstrous kick herself, very neat.

Another blog

You may or may not know that I have another blog. I am not as frequent on that one, but from time to time I have the desire to write something that doesn't really fit on here, so I will post it on the other blog. I guess the other blog is more geared towards sharing Bible and this one is more towards sharing experiences; although any Bible believer knows that the impact of believing the Book is intricately woven together with our experiences. Anyways, if you are interested, here is the link: http://goyeintoalltheworld.blogspot.com/.