Anniversary Sunday in Lautaro

This past Sunday our family made it a point to travel up to Lautaro again to attend the church's ninth anniversary service.

Lautaro is located 30 mins north of Temuco, and the church is still without a pastor.


A powerpoint presentation was used to explain the history of the ministry in Lautaro and to thank the missionary and national couples who have invested some time there in the past nine years.

Pastor Cesar, from the nearby town of Perquenco, came to participate in the anniversary celebrations. He comes to Lautaro once a month to preach and help out in overseeing the church ministry.

There was a time of opening gifts. Gifts from families and nearby churches were given to the church in order to help in the ongoing ministry. Some of the gifts included: towels, table cloths, pots, and new chorus books.

Pastor Miguel Mondaca, from Santiago, was the guest speaker. He challenged the church to be aware of these end times when false leaders, false miracles, and false gospels are ruining the church's testimony.

The children's SS classes gave special presentation of songs, verses, and poems about the ministry of the local church.

After the morning service, there was a fellowship meal - Chilean style (steak, salads, coffee, and cake).

Throughout the afternoon, there was time to talk with others about the history of the church and some of the blessings and works of God in their lives. I sat down at this table (above) for a while and learned that the lady in the purple and the lady next to her, in the black, are new Christians. They are so thankful to the Lord for salvation and the opportunity to attend a church that teaches the Bible. Hearing their testimonies was a great encouragement to my heart.

Our family is thankful to God for allowing us to get to know the members of the church in Lautaro. At this point, we don't know if our family will be ministering there on a consistent basis, but we do plan to go occasionally in the coming six months.

Please continue to pray for the following:

*The Lautaro church is still searching for a national pastor.

*The plans to build a parsonage in order to offer housing to a potential pastor.

*The development of male leadership within the church membership.

*For future ministry opportunities for our family to assist in some way at Lautaro.

What?...Me?...Teach English?

That was my first response when my Spanish tutor, Myrian, asked me to attend her English class last Thursday and teach Possessive Pronouns for 30 mins. I, for sure, ain't that good in English :), but I decided to go ahead with the challenge. Myrian, has five Chilean students on Thursday afternoons and wanted a "true native speaker" to teach a small portion of her two hour class to help the students be exposed to different English accents (mine is MinnesOOOtan).

The class went well despite the student's understandable terror and nervousness to practice talking with me. I was impacted (again) on how difficult it must be for people to learn English. English grammar is so crazy and haphazard. I am thankful that Spanish is more consistent with its grammar rules.

I plan to attend this class again in the near future and continue to develop these new friendships and help in any way I can, even if it's just encouragement.

Prayer Tools (Part 2)

Continuing in our "Prayer Tools" series...

2. Pray for Boldness in Witness

"(Pray)...also for me, that the words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel." Ephesians 6:19

Missionaries are regular people who fear pain and rejection as much as anyone else. When faced with opposition, they need God's strength to help them stand firm.

Pray that we will have boldness to overcome the fear of man, embarrassment, or failure.

Pray that the Spirit will provide us with words that communicate effectively in the Chilean culture and the Spanish language.

Pray that God will thwart the opposition of evil forces so that Gospel can be heard and known.

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Tomorrow - Part 3

Prayer Tools from the Apostle Paul (Part 1)

For the next week, we will be posting a seven part series entitled, *Prayer Tools from the Apostle Paul. We encourage you to use these tools to pray for our family as well as other missionary families or individuals that you support.

1. Pray for Open Doors

"Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving. At the same time, pray also for us, that God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ..." Colossians 4:2-3a

Open doors can't be taken for granted. Some missionaries work in difficult-access countries or in areas that are extremely resistant to the Gospel. But "open doors" include more than just access to nations and people groups. Individuals' hearts also need to be open and receptive to God's truth.

Pray that God will open doors of ministry, ministry partnerships and friendships.

Pray that we will be lead by the Holy Spirit and recognize open-door opportunities.

Pray that God will lead us past the many barriers to hearts and prepare others to receive His Word.

*based on a brochure with the same name, produced by Wycliffe Bible Translators.

Come back tomorrow for part 2

Language in Context

Apart from the working of the Holy Spirit in people's hearts, much of the effectiveness of a missionary's ministry is tied to deeply knowing the language. It's not just knowing the right verb endings and grammar, but understanding how the nationals think. Knowledge of their local phrases, jokes, slang, and historical events and figures.

Learning Chilean Spanish has been a continual battle for me and the kids these past months. It's hard to see progress on a day to day basis, but when you look back several months, there is some encouragement in this life long progress.

The following video, was a "tongue-in-cheek" skit that exposes the tenancies of not knowing how to use language in context. It was extremely funny to me, cause I know that scenarios like this happen in real life.



While I am still laughing out loud about this video, there are many serious lessons to be learned.

Some of them include:

*You can never study the language enough. It's a lifelong task.

*Being an interpreter is a very difficult task

*If you ever are asked to speak through an interpreter, please eliminate the jokes, American illustrations, and phrases.

*Never wing it, especially if you have to translate Scripture in a sermon.

Pastor's Meeting in Quino

I was able to attend another regional national pastor's meeting in a little country town north of Temuco called Quino. The trip in the van with the 5 other guys was an adventure, since the country roads weren't exactly smooth. Despite the BuMpS, we enjoyed the fellowship in conversation.

The country church in Quino hosted the regional meeting.

This has been the third meeting I have been to, and I am still learning many of the pastor's names and locations. It was a good meeting overall. There was some good discussion on several important complicated ministry issues. My head hurt afterward due to the full day of meetings in Spanish.

As always, there was a lunch after the meeting that provided more time to fellowship with the pastor's and church lay leaders. The next meeting is being planned for Nov., hosted by a church in Temuco.

Prayer Items:
*Godly men in places of national church leadership
*God's calling on more national men to serve full time in the ministry
*Unity and fellowship within the regional national pastor's and churches
*Increased vision and effective implementation of that vision

Update on the Vehicle Update

Yesterday, our field director had his important meeting concerning our vehicle situation. Thursday night, he wrote us an email stating the following,

"The meeting today (Thurs) was not a success from the standpoint of getting anywhere with the vehicles...I do need to talk with Roberto Caseres again to see if we can work out something else. I should be able to get that done tomorrow (Friday) so we can work out what we are going to do with the options we have available to us."

Please continue to pray for our vehicle situation. We desire to leave it in the Lord's hands, but there are times when we do get frustrated and ask "why again, Lord?". It is obvious that Satan is working to discourage us with these many hurdles and seemingly dead ends in the past 10 months.

Wait on the Lord, be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord! Psalm 27:14

Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God. Psalm 20:7

Vehicle Update (Aug. 19th)

Please continue to pray for our vehicle situation here in Chile. We received an email yesterday from our field director stating,

"I (Curtis Steward) am going to Valparaiso with Julio Moline (GMSA's lawyer) on Thursday afternoon to meet with the lawyer from the Contraloria (similar to the IRS dept.) who has denied permission to import the vehicles. I pray the Lord gives us favor with this man."

We will keep you informed as to the outcome of this important meeting.

Partnering with Northland

Back in June, our family was contacted by Northland Baptist Bible College (recently changed it's name to Northland International University) to consider participating in a new missions internship program. This pilot program was formed out of Northland's Center for Global Opportunities desire to provide and create mission opportunities for the staff and students of Northland.

In Northland's original email to us they explain that this program, " will be our version of a study abroad program. By utilizing Northland's Online program, students will be able to study abroad for a semester without disrupting the academic flow of their studies. Sufficient courses will be offered online this coming fall in order to facilitate five students in a overseas pilot program. In addition to these web-based courses, each student will receive six credits for a full semester of internship work under a qualifying missionary. Therefore, we would like to invite you to be one of these missionary hosts. Our desire for you is that your student may assist you in your ministry endeavors; our desire for the student is that he or she might be mentored by you. We trust that the Lord will develop a missions heart in every intern, whatever they might chose to do after graduation."

After some prayer, counsel from others, and much communication with the Northland Mission's office, our family accepted this opportunity to host a senior Northland student from Sept 13th - Dec. 12th.

We are excited to introduce Jenna Kurtz to you all. Here is what else we know about her so far.

*She is from Northern Indiana.
*Her major is Cross Cultural Ed. (TESL)
*Spanish minor
*Plays on the basketball team
*Has a servant's heart


Follow her travels and thoughts by bookmarking her blog entitled "Where He Leads".

Please pray for the following items as Jenna's arrival date approaches:

*Preparations and logistics to be ironed out.
*That our family will be a blessing to Jenna during her time with us.
*That we would be effective in monitoring and mentoring Jenna's cross cultural exposure.
*That God will be glorified in this opportunity

One Day Bible Institute Workshops

This past Saturday, I was able to attend some Bible Institute workshops that were being given at the Lican Bible Camp. These workshops included the content of a semester long Bible Institute class, but trimmed down and squeezed into a two hour teaching time. The workshops were held at the Lican Bible Camp to help those who live and attend small country churches to receive some solid Bible Institute teaching.

Pastor Ivan Reyes taught a two hour workshop on Homiletics (Preaching).

Missionary Dan Thompson and others, did a lot of work cleaning and preparing for these Bible Institute workshops. It is his desire to plan another set of workshops for Nov or Dec. The goal would be to expand the workshops into a two day event and host people on the campgrounds overnight. Please pray that these workshops would continue to grow and be effective in teaching others who desire to dig deeper into God's Word.

Victor Beñaldo taught a session on Evangelism/Discipleship. He helped the people know how to better communicate their salvation testimony to others.

For each session, there were full handouts that the people can continue to use and study at home.

Missionary Daryl Thompson taught a session on the Doctrine of the Holy Spirit. This doctrine is very important to understand here in Chile, due to the large influence of the Pentecostal church.

What a blessing it is to see that these workshops can share basic Biblical truths and doctrines to help Chilean lay leaders and church members in their personal walk with the Lord.

Continue to pray for the ministry of the Bible camp property.
There is so much to be done.
There is so much potential for ministry.
There is a great need for workers.

Bible Conference on "New Age Theology"

This past weekend (Agu. 8-9), our church hosted a Bible Conference on New Age Theology.

There was good attendance and support from a few surrounding churches.


Pastor Ivan Reyes, from Villarrica, was the speaker. He did a wonderful job explaining...

Where did the New Age theology come from?
What are some of the main teachings of New Age theology?
Who were some of the founders or historic events of New Age theology?
How does New Age theology compare with the teachings of the Bible?

I believe that this Bible Conference was effective and a success. These conferences are just one of the ways that the local church members are equipped with Biblical truth.

New Family Photos - Aug, 09

Thanks to all who pray, support, and care for our family and ministry here in Temuco, Chile. We are grateful to God for all of the wonderful ministry partnerships that He has brought across our path.

August Missionary Prayer Meeting

This past Thursday, we were able to host the once a month prayer meeting with all of the area GMSA missionaries.

We had a full house this time and enjoyed time sharing Works of God, praises, and prayer requests. Each family brings some food to share for a meal afterward.


Kristi and David Flinck (extreme left), Daryl (standing on left) and Earlynne Thompson, Hartmut (standing in the center) and Gaby Beyer, Dan (standing on right) and Liz Thompson, Carol Thompson (Kristi's mom), Heather and Anthony (working at the Lican Bible Camp for a few weeks - sitting in front)

The Flinck kids and the Thompson kids (cousins) always have a blast during these times together. They play upstairs during the adult prayer times.

The extra blessing this time was that Grandma Thompson was here. All three of Terry and Carol's children are serving on the mission field.

Andrew Thompson and family - Salto, Uruguay

Kristi Flinck and family - Temuco, Chile

Danny Thompson and family - Lican Ray, Chile

In the Arms of...

In Lukas' short life, he has been passed around in the arms of...

siblings...

adopted grandparents (co-workers, Mr. & Mrs Thompson)...

Tia Patti, from church...

Heather, the short termer...

Gaby, our missionary c0-worker...

and of course, Grandma Carol (Kristi's mom), who flew in from Argentina for 9 days to help and hold all the grandchildren.

Last Day of School

Today was the last day of homeschool for Jordan and Ben. They will have a short "winter" break before starting again in a few weeks.

Above: Our homeschool books and materials for this coming year just arrived the other day. The kids are excited to start with this new curriculum, but at the same time looking forward to taking a break from school.

Redeeming Technology & Fostering Partnership (A Missionary's Perspective)

My wife often tells me stories of when she was a missionary kid living in southern Chile during the late 70's-early 80's. Telegrams were still used, phone calls with bad connections were common, and snail mail took forever. Then when the fax machine came into use, it was "the greatest thing" since sliced bread. Missionaries, mission offices, supporting churches, and family could send information at a click of several buttons.

Today, technology has advanced, both for evil and for good. Computers, the internet, blogs, Facebook, Skype, and scanners have changed how people communicate and send information.

The following are of some recent examples of the ways a few of our supporting churches and individuals have been redeeming technology and fostering a ministry partnership with our family on the mission field. We pass them on so that others would consider doing the same.

In random order:

*A supporting church sent us an email with a few pictures of their recent VBS. This year they had the kids divided up into teams by several missionary families the church supports. One of the teams was "Team Chile". It was an encouragement to us to receive this update and pictures, with some explanation of how the church is putting missions before the congregation.


*Each week several individual supporters, pastors, pastor's wives, family, and friends, comment or communicate back with their thoughts, questions, and encouragement on our ministry blog.

*Several churches, pastors, and pastor's wives, have sent our family e-cards for birthdays, anniversaries, and for the birth of little Lukas. This is an efficient way to send your love, best wishes, congratulations, or condolences. It wasn't more than a few hours after the birth of Lukas that we received several e-cards from supporters.

*Once a week, we receive several emails from a supporting church that list recent prayer requests, prayer letters from all of the other missionary families that the church supports, and announcements about what is happening in all of the church ministries in the coming weeks. This is EXTREMELY helpful to us to stay connected with what God is doing in the ministry of that supporting church. A simple e-mail attachment of the weekly bulletin fosters partnership.

*As I am typing this, my Skype program is letting me know that a supporting pastor is sending a message with his congratulations on the new baby, and with a question about if I knew of any missionaries in another South American country, because the church is helping a young man from the church hook up with a solid missionary and church during this man's 6 month visit to a certain country. I appreciated that he asked me for my thoughts. It forms ministry partnership communication.

*At any given moment, I can go to several supporting churches' websites and listen to the sermon audio online. This is encouraging to our souls, and beneficial to remaining in touch with our supporting churches.

*I recently received an invitation via Facebook to attend a supporting church's "Putt and Shoot" men's activity. I won't be able to attend, but I appreciated that I was included in the invitation list and was made aware of this upcoming event. This fosters true ministry partnership!

*A supporting church recently finished their church building project. We have been able to follow the progress of the addition, since they post pictures and commentary on Facebook. Our family was unable to attend the dedication service, but we commented on the pictures and sent our congratulations to the church people. This fosters ministry partnership!

*A couple of our supporting churches have designated a family from the church membership to correspond with us via e-mail or watch our blog for updates. During the Wed. night prayer meeting or other special "Mission's Moment" times, this family updates the church members on what God has been doing in our family and ministry.

*I have been asked by a couple churches to participate in a live Skype video call to update the members on any family ministry news, prayer requests, or praise items. I was also able to listen to answer some of the questions that they had during the call.

These creative ideas have been effective in fostering a meaningful ministerial partnership for the Gospel between our family and supporting churches/individuals...at least that's our perspective.

What is your perspective?

Introducing Lukas Daniel

We are thankful to God for giving Kristi a safe delivery, and giving our family a new little baby boy.

Lukas Daniel Flinck
17:26 - Aug. 1st, 2009
7.2 lbs. 20.2 inches

Kristi and Lukas are back at home after a day and a half stay at the hospital. Thank you for all your prayers and words of encouragement in the last few days.

Go HERE and HERE for more pictures.

"...children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward.

Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one's youth.

Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them!"

Psalm 127:3-5a