Last Day at the Beach (in Texas)

Our family had a four day weekend due to Thanksgiving. No classes on Thursday and Friday. So instead of going shopping and risking the threat of getting killed at Toys-R-Us, we, and a few other families, decided to go to South Padre Island one last time before we travel north to MN on Dec. 12th. Mom, if you're reading this, bring blankets in the car when you pick us up at the airport...seriously.

Paul Wilson, enjoying the sun, sand, sounds, and smells of the beach one last time.

Jordan and Ben stayed occupied by playing in the sand and digging for "who-knows-what".

Right before our picnic lunch one of the guys caught a small crab and everyone was entertained by looking at the small details of the crab's shell and legs.

Jordan insisted that I take this picture of him on "his" wooden pallet, which he told me was a leftover piece of someone's raft to escape from the pirates.

Kyle and Peter Wilson provided more fun by showing our kids how to find and dig for small sea creatures.

"Look Grandma, a sea shell!"

Everyone was tuckered out by 2 pm, especially Kaylee, who usually takes a nap around then. She did find a comfy position under the towel for a short break time.

There are things we will not miss about language school and South Texas (like tests and chiggers), but going to the beach is not one of them. We will soon fly back to the "reality" of real winter on Dec. 12th. We look forward to seeing many family members and friends one last time before we fly to Chile on Jan. 12th. But as we leave South Texas, we will also leave what has become a second family.

We will miss all of you guys and will remember all of the good times we've had while going to language school together.

Last Week of Tutors

Next week is the last week of classes and the last week for my tutor hour. Since Jan., I have been meeting with a language tutor 50 minutes a day, four days a week. These times with my tutors have been profitable for practicing my language skills that I have been learning in class and putting them into "real life" random conversation.

Above: Obed de la Cruz taught me a few more chords during my tutor time this past week.

I wanted to thank each of my tutors for their patience with me, for their friendship that has developed over this past year, and for their help in teaching me so much. My tutors this semester have been Alex from Spain, Obed from Mexico, Reynaldo from El Salvador, Fernando from Mexico, and Sebastian from Chile. I will miss my time talking with each one of them, although it wasn't always enjoyable raking my brain to come up with conversation.

As a gift to my tutors for their hard work, I bought them each a copy of "Knowing God" by J.I. Packer (in Spanish, or course). My prayer is that all of them will graduate from RGBI and serve the Lord faithfully back in their county or in another country if the Lord leads.

Class Chapel

At the end of each semester, the graduating class is responsible for planning a 50 minute chapel, all done in Spanish. Our class started planning the chapel a couple months ago, since we needed time to divide the responsibilities.

Michael Godbold welcomed everyone and shared with the audience our desire to use the theme of Thanksgiving for the entire chapel (our chapel was on the Tues. before Thanksgiving Day).

Amanda Clayton, Tara Wiebe, & Bethamy Anderson sang a special number. Corrie Anderson, Jared Thomas, and Dallas Wiebe accompanied them on instruments.

I (David Flinck) read one missionary story that lead into the congregational hymn "Loores Dad al Cristo El Rey" (All Hail the Power of Jesus' Name).

Phil Thurston prayed for the offering, while Carol Patton, Roxanne Wilson and a few others helped with the offering (that goes to RGBI alumni on the mission field).
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During the offering, Jared T. played his violin, while a powerpoint played showing pictures of each of my classmates and families and the country or ministry that they will be serving in after graduation.

All of us then played a role in a short drama about being thankful, which then lead into Paul Wilson giving a short challenge from God's Word.

In the skit, each person had a different view towards Thanksgiving and being thankful. The scene was set in a Starbucks, where all of our characters converge in conversation about the topic of Thanksgiving. Above: Michael Godbold portrayed a "tree-hugging" environmentalist who is trying to get everyone at Starbucks to save napkins, listen to nature, and save the whales.

Roxanne and Carol (on the left) play a mother and daughter who are asking why God allows evil or bad things to happen in the world. They couldn't be thankful to God because they thought God was absent during difficult times.

Paul Wilson (right), plays a Christian who is going around the Starbucks asking what everybody thinks about Thanksgiving and why they are thankful. Jared Thomas and Amanda Clayton play a couple who are only interested in themselves and each other. They have no time for God and Thanksgiving.

Corrie Anderson (center, in black) plays a Christian who works as a church secretary. She is so busy with the work of the ministry each week. Everyday finds her doing something related to the church ministries. She finds herself ungrateful to God and others, because she doesn't receive any thanks for the things she does for God and the church. Bethamy Anderson plays the Starbucks worker. I (on the right) play a professor who sits and watches and listens to each person in the coffee shop share their attitudes towards Thanksgiving. At the end of the skit, I get up and share my post-modern view that I am thankful that we all live in a world were everything is relative and that there is no absolute truth.

Tara Wiebe played a busy young pregnant mother (she is pregnant for real) who has no time for God and thanksgiving due to the mounting pressures of housework, child care, and a dis-connected husband at home. Above: Jared's character is showing off his strength by "helping" the young mom with her stroller. Funny, funny stuff.

Phil Thurston plays another Christian who IS thankful for things in his life (salvation, friends, family, etc.)

The chapel closed with our class president sharing a 10 minute devotional on thankfulness.

After all the hard work getting the chapel ready,
we celebrated by skipping our next class!

It was a blessing to serve together as a class in this chapel.
Each one brought different ideas, talents, and advice.
Our prayer was that the chapel would be a blessing to all despite our imperfect Spanish.

New Prayer Card & Commissioning Service Information

Our new prayer cards are done!
They will be passed out at our commissioning service to those who can attend.

Commissioning Service Information:

Saturday, Jan. 3rd
1 PM
Berean Baptist Church
8825 W. Broadway
Brooklyn Park, MN 55445

Guest Speakers:
Neal Cushman (David's college missions prof.)
Rev. Terry Thompson (Gen. Dir. of GMSA)
Dr. Cary Flinck (pastor of Berean Baptist Church)

A time of refreshments will follow the service

For more information, please contact Pastor Flinck (763)-221-1039

For those who cannot attend, but would like a prayer card, please contact us via email or comment back on the blog. We would be happy to send one to you in the mail.

Class Skip Day

Each semester here at language school there is a tradition for the graduating class to kidnap a professor and skip class. Our class picked last Friday for the Skip day. It just happened to be one of the coldest days of this semester (49 degrees).

We all meet by the mail room at 8:15 am to plan the kidnapping of Prof. Milton Morocho (our conversation teacher).

Prof. Morocho drops off his two children at the campus daycare every morning, and when he came out we all were there to jump him.

Paul Wilson (our class president) escorting our victim to the car. Our whole class (and families) then drove to IHOP for breakfast.

Our kids and the Patton kids at IHOP.

We all had an enjoyable breakfast with laughter, memories, and picking on each other.

After breakfast, we decided to all go bowling, since we didn't want to go back to campus and study. Above: J, B, & K wait for the lanes to clear.

I think this is the first time our children have ever bowled. It was pretty hilarious watching them "launch" the ball down the lanes. The bumper guards were up, so they at least hit some pins down each time.

Overall, it was a great day off from class, despite the cooler temps. We will look back to the day's activities with fond memories of our classmates and families.

Support Update - Nov. 22nd

We received word today from another church in MN that recently partnered with us in ministry.

Praise the Lord for His timing and Provision!

We are currently at 83%

14 Supporting Mid-west churches

21 Supporting Individuals

Thanks again to all who pray and support our family. We love you all and desire to be your faithful representatives for the Gospel in the needy country of Chile.

Class Pictures

Above: My Second Semester Classmates

I can not even put into words how this group of special people have impacted my life for the last 11 months here at language school. Our family will miss them all and will be praying for them as they head to the ministries God has called them. Final goodbyes will be hard, but we plan to keep in contact with each one to see what the Lord will do in and through them on the mission field.

Above: The First Semester Classmates (Fall 08)

While we haven't spent the whole year studying with this group, many of them have become close friends and will be missed as well when we move from RGBI in a few weeks. This group will continue on for their second semester of Spanish after a short Christmas break.

Matthew 9:37-38 "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few, therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest."

The Simonton Group

Last week the Simonton CC Group was an campus. Each year members from their church come to RGBI and divide up amongst themselves all the missionary couples and have a time to get to know them and meet some of their needs.

On Thursday afternoon, we all met our assigned couple, Ron and Amy (below)

They came over and asked us several questions about some urgent needs that our family had.

Several couples from SCC fixed our clothes lines and also replaced some of the rusty children's swings at the play area. What a blessing!

One of the men from the church, came over and helped us with our old laptop. Our computer is running much better. His advice was a big blessing to us and we are very grateful.

Ron and Amy (and the SCC) bought us some new luggage, since we really needed to have some more suitcases to fly home to MN. Originally, remember, we were going to drive home in our mini van, but after the accident we needed to fly home. The kids each received a back pack for the plane trip, filled with goodies and games.

Our suitcases were full of goodies and gift certificates.
We were blown away and overwhelmed with the sensitivity and generous gifts from the Simonton Group. Each missionary family was truly blessed by the group.

Our family and several other missionary families, were taken out to eat at Logan's Steakhouse by the Simonton Group.

We all had a great time getting to know each other in a better way.
Thank you Simonton Group for thinking of the missionary families!

Jordan and Ben got a kick out of Logan's cause you were encouraged to
throw your peanut shells on the floor. A kid's delight!

Developments (Update)

#1 - Praise the Lord we found reasonable tickets this afternoon for our flight from MN to FL.

5 one-way tickets for our family

2 round trip tickets for David's parents. They will be flying with us to FL for a short vacation, time at the GMSA Home Office and a few days with Kristi's parents.

#2 - Praise the Lord we found a great deal on 5 one-way tickets from Miami to Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires to Santiago, Chile for Monday, Jan. 12th, 2009!

David's parents will be able to send us off at the Miami airport before flying back to MN.

Thanks for your prayers about these items.

We are excited!

Exciting Nov. Developments

In His timing, the Lord has recently brought in a few more supporters and we are currently at 82%. We have been waiting to break the 80% support level for a while now, and we now are starting the process of moving toward the goal of leaving for Chile in Jan. 2009.

Here is a summary list of the process we are in (past, present, & future "Lord willing")


*Received word of support increase

*Contacted Supporting pastors, mission office, and field director to ask for their thoughts and advice on how to proceed.

*Received word back from the above with good advice and an overall sense of support and encouragement in this next step of faith.

*We are currently looking for a good deal for plane tickets.

*Dec. 9th - Graduation Day from Language School

*Dec. 12th - Flying back to MN

*Dec. 13th - Dec. 31st - Packing till the cows come home, tons of paperwork, spending time with family, saying goodbyes, possibly sleeping a little.

*Jan. 3rd - Commissioning service planned at Berean Baptist Church (Sat. 1 pm)

*Jan. 5th - (Updated) Flying to Ft. Lauderdale, FL to spend some time at our mission office, late minute shopping, repacking our suitcases, and some down time with family.

*Jan. 12th - (Updated) Flying to Chile for our first term!

*Jan. 13th - 20th - In Santiago (capital) resting, unpacking, and repacking...for

*Jan. 21st - 30th - Traveling south to attend the annual GMSA missionary conference at Camp Lican Ray. (the picture on the right is the town Lican Ray, where the camp is located)

*Jan. 31st - Return to Santiago, unpacking container, and look for an apartment.

We would appreciate your prayers during this last stage of preparation. We will continue to keep you posted on this process.

Stocking Up for the Ministry

Since arriving here at language school in Jan., we have been stocking up on literature for our future ministry in Chile. The RGBI bookstore has been a wonderful blessing and help in this area. Bob, the manager, has been very helpful to me in the area of literature. Almost everyday after my tutor hour, I stop in and ask him a question or two about what stuff is available in Spanish.

We have systematically added ministry tools to our shelves during these months at language school. Here are just a few examples of the type of literature we have been purchasing and will use in the ministry in Chile. We are stocking up now, because books and resources are more expensive in Chile. We want to be a wise steward of our ministry money for these resources, so we have been trying to think ahead and buy many of the resources now.

"The Lamb" (English & Spanish)
Written by John Cross
This excellent childrens book (10 chapters) clearly communicates the Gospel and the need for the perfect Lamb of God, Jesus.

I just completed reading the book to our children and they really enjoyed it and learned a lot. I have been using the Spanish book during my tutor time to practice reading chapters at a time.
We plan to use this book for neighborhood story times and clubs.

To learn more about this book or read the book online go HERE

We have been systematically buying Spanish discipleship materials from various levels of spiritual growth. Above: Level 1 Discipleship Booklets in Spanish that deal with Assurance of Salvation and Growing in the Christian Life.

Level 2 Discipleship series in Spanish

The 7 book series includes:
Your Life in Christ
The Spirit Filled Follower of Jesus
Walking with Christ
The Character of a Follower of Jesus
Foundations for Faith
Growing in Discipleship
Our Hope in Christ

Level 2.5 - Three part series in Spanish

Level 3 - The Stranger on the Road to Emmuas
also written by John Cross
A great resource for covering creation to Christ in a Bible study group setting.
You can read or listen to portions of the book HERE

Level 4 - Firm Foundations
Similar to The Stranger on the Road to Emmaus book,
but more indepth (something like 52 lessons)

I have also been picking up Spanish books for a small personal library to use in training future Chilean men for the pastorate. These books would be books that would be a one volume help for each doctrine or issue (Example above: Church History). Others include: several systematic theologies, commentaries on several books of the Bible.

Spanish Bibles for our children to use and read as they learn the language.

We do desire to use these tools in the ministry, and we are excited about getting to Chile soon. There is a possibly that one of our first term sub-ministries will be with the literature ministry. Currently, there is no one who is able to run the administration of the receiving of materials, maintaining an inventory of materials, the promotion of materials, and the distribution of materials to the national churches. This is a ministry that I can serve in as my language level improves over time. We look forward to serving in this small ministry to the local churches of Chile. Pray for us as we need wisdom in the coming months about how to go about helping in the literature ministry.

We would love to provide resources and materials to Chilean pastors, leaders, and churches throughout our ministry. This is a vital ministry and opportunity to advance the Gospel and help Chilean pastors become more effective in proclaiming Biblical truth to their church members and people in the community. If any of you would like to learn more about this ministry opportunity, please contact us for more information.