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.