Back to School Rush

The back to school rush is on here in Chile. Summer break from school is coming to an end and next week school starts back up again.

The malls are buzzing with sales, promotions, and people getting their families ready for the first day of classes.


Here in Chile, uniforms for school (public and private) are mandatory. On the one hand, it takes most of the pain out of shopping due to the fact that only certain colors (Blue, black, and white) can be worn.

The clothing departments in the stores are a zoo these days. Chilean families are forking out the money (probably on credit) to pay for all the clothing, shoes, books, and school supplies.

Click HERE to read a first hand account from a missionary friend's recent experience getting her two girls ready for school.





As for our family, we just got the homeschooling boxes out of our storage area. Kristi needs to look over the material in the next week to gain her bearings. The plan is to start homeschooling the boys in a week or so, but closer to the end of March will take a break due to our move down to Temuco.

We would appreciate your prayers for Kristi as she starts homeschooling the boys during these busy first few months of transition to life in Chile.

Your Observations

We invite you to comment on your observations on the following two pictures (actually the second one is the same picture, just blown up a little). Click on the pictures for a larger view.

When you look at the following picture what comes to your mind?

What stands out to you?

What are your observations?

What are your questions?

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In a few days, we will update this post with some explanation of these pictures.

The Dilemma

For weeks now, we have been hearing the barking of the dogs every night from within a two block radius...but now we have a new dilemma - What to do with the cats?

Several days ago, someone put a box with six new kittens in front of our gate and then put a small plastic dish of milk INSIDE the bars of our gate. They had to have been less than two weeks old and all of them where malnourished. Obviously, their plan was to get the kittens to go inside our gate and eat while at the same time hoping they will associate our house with food.

Well, when we got home we saw the kittens eating. The kids thought they were SO cute and asked if we could keep them.

The dilemma now rears it's ugly head.

Do we keep the kittens?

Do we feed them?

Do we shew them outside our gate and hope someone else feeds them?

Surely we can't feed and care for six kittens right now, since we are moving soon, but what do we tell the kids when they want to feed them?

Every day someone from our street puts more food inside our gate or on our sidewalk. It seems like the whole block is waiting to see what we will do. Last night I overheard a couple walking by our gate saying, "How many cats are left today". Several have disappeared in the last couple of days, so now there are two left.

I am a cat lover, so this dilemma is hard on so many levels. We have no idea what the final outcome will be with the two remaining cats.

To be continued...

That's Different! - Observations from a Rookie Missionary

After five weeks of living in another culture, one begins to mentally list the things that are...well...different than his or her own culture. While the honeymoon stage is probably still ongoing for our family, we have been observing, contrasting, and comparing the two cultures.

This post lists several of the recent things that I have found "different" about living in Chile (both positive and negative).

- Speed bumps are everywhere

-It's hard to find an obese Chilean

-People water their sidewalks every morning to keep the dust at bay.

-If you love bread, you'd love Chile

-Sleeping through barking dogs is pretty much a nightly occurrence

-At church, you greet everybody...I mean everybody. No one is missed.

-In the States, Orange Juice rules and other flavored juices taste terrible. Here in Chile, Orange juice tastes terrible and any other flavor of fruit juice actually tastes like fruit.

-Chileans have an innumerable amount of slang words and sayings (modismos). Textbook Spanish from language school is one thing...real day to day Chilean Spanish is another.

-Summers are hot but without humidity (and mosquitoes)

-If your vehicle is bigger...you win!

-It's impossible for our family to go anywhere without people staring, touching our kids hair, or saying "Hey look at those kids! How beautiful!"

-You pay to use public restrooms

-Soccer rules! Period!

-Food is bought daily in small amounts and not in bulk

-People mow their lawns (if they have one) with weed wackers or electric mowers. I mowed our backyard patch of grass the other day with an electric mower. It just didn't seem right (or manly).

-More fruits and veggies...less fast food.

-Church services go over two hours on average.

-It's hard to find a good napkin at restaurants. They typically have something like tracing paper or something like what you would find inside a wedding announcement. Try cleaning off your hand with that after eating greasy chicken and french fries.

-Lock your doors! Twice.

-Everything is later here. Lunch is at 2 pm. Suppers are at 8 pm. If we get our kids in bed before 10 pm, it's a miracle.

I am sure that over time many of these things will become second nature, but in the meantime, we are adjusting to living in a new country and culture.

Please continue to pray for our family as adjust in order to more effectively communicate the Gospel and Biblical truth to the Chilean people.

These weeks with Jodie

Our family has been blessed by the short termer, Jodie Kunnari, these past few weeks. Jodie recently finished her Bible Institute training in SD and came to Chile to spend time with her parents (Dan & Diana Kunnari - our GMSA co-workers).

Throughout her three months in Chile, Jodie has been helping in the ministry in various ways. She helped teach all of the MK's during the missionary conference in southern Chile. Jodie also just got back from helping her parents on a missions/survey trip to Iquique, Chile (24 hours north).

Jodie has been helping in the following ways:

-Watching the kids while Kristi and I go to the grocery store or run errands.
-Playing with the kids in the backyard so Kristi and I could focus on "the to-do list" for several uninterrupted hours.
-Washing the dishes occasionally after mealtimes.
-Just being with us for times of fellowship and fun
-Going to the outdoor market with Kristi

Jodie will be in Chile until early April. She will continue to help us several hours in the late mornings and early afternoons until we move to Temuco in late March.

Thank you Jodie for your ministry to our family and your servant's heart. You have been a big blessing to us during these first months of living on the mission field.

Please pray for Jodie as she returns to the States in April and that the Lord will lead and guide her in the next stage of life/ministry.

The Container is Unloaded

Praise the Lord for answered prayer! We unloaded our container on Wed. after several days of waiting for the custom's paperwork. We are very thankful that this process was not delayed any further, thus causing extra fees.

The truck arriving at our unloading location. Above: Our field director, Curtis Steward, is helping the driver back into the driveway.

Custom's did physically go through about half of our stuff, and thankfully didn't charge us any exorbitant (or hidden) fees. We were thankful that the custom's charges were at a normal rate. Above: Curtis and I start the unloading.

Kristi and the kids were there to come and watch the container be unloaded. The kids were extremely excited about finding several of their boxes of toys. We loaded Curt's van up with several tubs and boxes to take back to our temporary apartment. The rest of our stuff will be stored until we move to Temuco (Lord willing) at the end of March.

After seeing all of our boxes, furniture, and tubs again, we really wanted to unpack and settle into our current apartment in Santiago. We will have to wait another month or so until we can FINALLY unpack. "Unpacking" is our family's new favorite word. ;)

We were thankful to have a small group of men to help with the unpacking. The unloading took just a little over an hour. Thank you men for your help and sacrifice of time and energy.

Continue to pray for our housing needs in Temuco. Our focus now shifts to getting our vehicle out of customs and researching for a house that will meet our family's needs as well as ministry needs. We will keep you posted on this process. We are confident that the Lord will provide in His perfect timing!

Pictures: Kid's Edition

The other day, our family was on our way back from spending an afternoon with our co-workers who live on the south side of Santiago. The kids were sitting in the back seat with me, since Kristi's parents were also in the van. I had my camera out on my lap, which is my usual habit.

Jordan asked if he could take some pictures with the camera. My initial reaction was "No way", but after thinking about it for a minute, I came up with an idea. I told Jordan, Ben, and Kaylee that they could have the camera for three minutes each and that they should take as many pictures as they could of things they want people to know about Chile.

So here it goes...

Jordan's pictures:

Jordan wanted to let you know that in Chile there is garbage on most streets. He thinks people should just put their garbage in the garbage can. (I agree with him)

...also that people who ride motorbikes can just go between cars at stop lights to get in front of the line.

Ben wants you to know that...

he thinks too many people load their trucks up to the top and they should be more careful.

...also that some people's property fences are ugly and they should get new fences.

Kaylee wanted you to know that her favorite city buses are the PINK ones. Each section of the city has their own color of bus.

Kaylee wants you to see her "fuzzy" picture. Kaylee gets a kick out of the "bumpy" streets here in Chile.

Kaylee misses Grandpa and Grandma Thompson already. They left for the States last week. All the children miss the extra attention.

So that's Chile from the kid's perspective. Maybe in the future, the kids will post again with more thoughts. Keep checking back and thank you for your prayers and support.

A Visit from Friends

Last Sunday afternoon, some friends of ours stopped by for a visit. The interesting thing about this visit is that we haven't seen these friends for many years. Matter of fact, our kids have never met their kids, but through technology, we have been keeping up with the Garcia family for years now. Our short time with them was sweet.

Pedro and Stephanie Garcia are ABWE missionaries in Iquique, Chile (a northern city). They have been in Chile over a year and a half. Pedro's father was our Spanish pastor during our year at language school in Texas. Steph and Kristi grew up together in Chile as MK's. So our families have connections, but we haven't been able to physically see each other for many years.

The Garcia family has three adopted children and two more adopted baby boys from Haiti are on the way. Follow the Garcias via their ministry blog, or follow their process of adopting the two boys via their adoption blog.

The children had fun swimming and getting to know each other in a better way, while the adults sat around and caught up on life. The Garcias were only in Santiago for a few days, and are now back home in Iquique. We hope to visit them in the future in northern Chile.

Thank you Pedro and Steph for taking the time to visit our family!

The Literature Project

One ministry our family has volunteered to help in while we are in Santiago is the literature project. Recently, a full container of literature from Great Britain arrived to be distributed to the churches and works in Chile.

The literature office/room is located in the backyard of the GMSA Santiago office property. We have recently moved another load of material into this back room for storage and future distribution.

Stacks and stacks of new SS material have been added to the inventory.

The SS material was produced by New Tribes and is a chronological series of lessons from the OT.

Troy & Jodie Kunnari (MK's) have helped with the moving and labeling of the many boxes that have recently arrived at the office.

We have organized the literature room in order to locate materials more quickly.

Samples of each type of literature are on display in the literature room for people to look through when they stop by to buy materials.

To view more pictures from this literature project, go to our Facebook page.

Please keep this ministry in your prayers. There is much to do and so much potential for all of this literature. It needs to get into the hands of the churches. That is our goal. We desire to continue to assist in this project.

Food from Conf. (Part 6)

Part of living on the mission field is learning to enjoy new foods and new ways to eat food. This is one dynamic in learning a new culture. We are happy to announce that adapting to Chilean food has NOT been a problem for our family. The following are sample pictures of what we are "forced" to eat on a regular basis. ;)

Chileans love their tomato salads (with cilantro and oil).

Cookouts are taken seriously here...it's like an art form.

The meat is cooked over the burning coals from the fire. Notice that Andy (in the hat) is shoveling fresh coals from the fire and putting them underneath the racks of meat. This insures that the meat is cooked slow for maximum flavor.

Speaking of flavor...there's no A-1 steak sauce used here. The meat is marinated with seasonings (like the garlic seen above) before it is cooked.


Potato salad in Chile is made (and tastes) a little differently, but is very good.

The meat is finished and ready to be eaten.

Popcorn at fun night was a special treat for everyone. Popcorn is not a common snack here in Chile.

The tradition at conference is for the teens to wash the dishes throughout the week. Of course, there is a "tip" jar to show your appreciation for their work.

There are many things we would love to make for you if you come down for a visit. We are confident that you will like many of the Chilean meals.

Prayer Items and Blessing from Conf. (Part 5)

The Lord provided some answers to prayer and also confronted us with many more items to pray about this past week at the annual GMSA missionary conference.

Support Update:

During the week of conference, we received a couple emails informing us of new commitments to partner with our ministry. We praise the Lord for His timing and provision for the support needs of our family. Our support level is now at 88%. Only $520/month yet to raise to be at 100%.

Orientation/Mentorship Ministry Location:
Kristi & I had a great meeting with the Chilean field council to discuss our future ministry location during our orientation time. We are happy to announce the following:

- We will be moving to Temuco, Chile (8 hours south of Santiago) by the end of March (Lord willing).

- We will be mentored by Daryl & Earlynne Thompson (see picture on right) They are 39 year veteran GMSA missionaries in Chile. They will be moving to Temuco in early March to be the director of the Bible Institute (and teach).

-There is a national church located in the 21 de Mayo neighborhood that plans to start a new church plant just south of Temuco called San Ramon. With the help of the few families from the 21 de Mayo church and the Thompsons, our family will assist in any way we can to see that this new "preaching point"in San Ramon blossom into an established church.

-Our ministry roles for this orientation time may include (by not limited to) the following:

1.) David finding a language tutor and continuing to study Spanish

2.) Develop relationships and contacts in the San Ramon area

3.) Help and observe Daryl in the Bible Institute in any way (office work, library, & maintenance)

4.) Hold evangelistic and outreach ministries (at our linguistic level) in the San Ramon area

5.) Learn about the culture and history of Chile from Daryl & Earlynne

6.) Gain confidence in knowing how to live in Chile (where to buy things, paying bills, & transportation)

Prayer Items:

- Our shipping container is scheduled to arrive in the port on Monday, Feb. 9th. We are currently working on a paperwork issue with the shipping company. Long story short...we have the original bill of lading from when the ship left New York in Jan., but on the way down to Chile the shipping company put our container on another ship...thus making the bill of lading invalid to Chilean customs. This a shady move on the part of the shipping company, 'cause they are charging $150 to produce a "corrected" bill of lading.

Please pray that the Lord would intervene and that the $150 charge would be waived and that the container would be able to be given to us immediately upon arrival.

- Once the container is released to us, we will need to unload it at a storage location just outside of Santiago. Please pray for strength and several to help with this process. We need to unpack the container in Santiago, because the shipping company will charge us a rental fee if we wanted to wait till March, when we plan to move to Temuco. It's unfortunate, but there's nothing we can do about the situation.

- During the month of Feb., our family will be working on completing the time consuming process of getting all of our paperwork finished.
Items we will be working on:

- David's temporary residence visa (this process is easier since Kristi is a Chilean citizen)

- Our children's Chilean citizenship paperwork (they will have dual citizenship...again, due to Kristi)

- David's official Chilean ID card

- Obtaining a cell phone plan

- I am sure there will be more paperwork items that will come up that we will need to deal with in the next few months.

Please pray for patience in this process. Pray that the Lord will place friendly and profitable government workers in our path to speed this process along.

- Our vehicle is being stored in Chile...but we are still waiting on several issues that are holding up customs. Again, certain "technicalities" (sometimes read "ridiculous") demands have brought the release to a halt. Our field director is working on our behalf in this matter. Please pray that the issues would be resolved soon. Having a vehicle for transportation around the busy city of Santiago would be a HUGE blessing (think: three small children).

- During the month of March, David will be traveling down to Temuco to help the Thompsons move into their new apartment and also search for a house to rent.

Please pray for housing for our family that will meet our need (family & ministry), that will be in the right location, and will be in a reasonable price range.

- To add to all of the above prayer items, we are happy to announce that Kristi is expecting again and due in early Aug. We are thankful for this new little life and we trust in God to bring this new baby to full term. Kristi will need to find a good doctor while we are in Santiago. She will also need to find another doctor and hospital once we move to Temuco.

Pray for her strength and for a healthy pregnancy. The coming months will be very busy with unpacking, moving, many trips to government buildings, and common "everyday" things. Just the thought of it is draining, but then add a pregnancy on top of it all and that makes it more difficult for Kristi.

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We will continue to keep you updated on all of the above via our blog and emails. Also for those interested, you can view more pictures by clicking on any of the following links.

First week in Chile

Santiago, Chile Jan. 09

Lican Ray Missionary Conf 09

Our GMSA Family & Friends

Boat Trip on Lago Calafquen

MK Ministry & Fun

Thank you all for our prayers and support.
We love you all and miss you.

Ministry to MK's & MK Fun (Part 4)

My wife, Kristi, has always said that one of the highlights of each year while on the mission field was going to missionary conference each Jan. Now that I have personally been to camp with our three children, I am beginning to understand why her statement is SO true.

For the MK's, the week of camp is a mix of VBS, freetime, and eating. That's about it. Basically, "the life of Riley". Their little imaginations take over and flesh out into "selling junk" at a little store they made up (see above).


Each year at missionary conference, there are short-termers who help with the little MK's. We were blessed this year to have Jodie Kunnari and Bethany Heckman to serve in this ministry to the MK's. Jodie (above) came down to Chile on the same plane as us, to visit her parent's for three months (Dan & Diana) and to occasionally help our family.

Bethany Heckman came to Chile for a one year short-term experience. Before conference, she helped Dan & Liz Thompson by helping with the homeschooling of their children. Then during conference, she (along with Jodie) was in charge of teaching the MK's Bible lessons, songs, and craft times during the adult preaching sessions in the morning and evening.

Bethany is now in Argentina for several months, but will be coming back to Chile sometime before she flies home in the fall.

Thank you Jodie and Bethany for your willingness to serve on a short-term basis and for your involvement in serving & teaching our children.

The MK tradition at conference is to have a parade at the end of the week for all the parents. Each year a theme is picked for the parade based on what has been taught during the week. This year the theme was "The Army of The Lord". All the kids were dressed up in camouflage and "war paint".

One of the many faces of Kaylee.

Jordan, Bryan V. & Ben

After the parade, another short-termer, Greg T., took all the little ones on a "hay ride" (minus the hay) around the campground.

Probably the only day during the week of conference where you will see all the MK's clean and their hair combed is Sunday. But even Sunday, dress clothes can get dirty...so cameras need to be ready to click quick.

All the MK's sing the songs they have learned during one of the last evening sessions. They are a joy to watch.

The teen MK's usually have someone else to teach them throughout the week. This year Dan & Rita Chamberland (from Maine) served at the teen leaders. Above: the teens sang a song at the end of conference. During the afternoons of conference, the teens have activities that keep them busy. Things like...horseback riding, going to the zip-line, hiking, swimming, going into town, and games of soccer.

Well...that's what the MK's do during camp. Maybe you, or someone you know, would be willing to serve in this ministry to the MK's next year? There is a great need and opportunities for service are numerous.

Please pray for all of the MK's. They have many challenges and hurdles to go through during their childhood. But they also have the great privilege of living in another culture, being bi-lingual, and being involved in cross-cultural ministries. We would appreciate your prayers for our children as they continue to adjust to life in Chile.