Yesterday, a group of 5 pastors from the States (lead by Bill Park - GMSA Dir. of Enlistment & Encouragement) made a stop in Temuco to visit us, our co-workers, and the ministry in the area.
Standing (L to R): Bill Muller, Bill Park, Guy Glass Kneeling (L to R): Jim Miller, David West, Steve Byrd
The Bible Institute hosted a meal and short program explaining the history and ministry of the BI ministry. Area national pastors, current BI students and professors were also invited to participate in this event.
The US pastors with the GMSA missionaries from Temuco.
The group picture.
The US pastors will spend one day down at the Lican Bible Camp before heading back up to Santiago in preparation to fly back home in a few days. We are thankful for their willingness to come to visit the ministries here in Chile. We pray that this trip was a blessing and challenge to them as they go back to minister to their congregations in the States.
View all of the pictures from the US Pastor's Visit HERE
We had so much to say about what we've been up to, so daddy let us write another chapter of our adventures.
We have been enjoying having Miss Jenna live with us. She has been here one month now. I (Kaylee) love when Miss Jenna reads stories to us.
Sometimes we all go to the mall for a special family night. We love to go to the toy store and look at all the new toys (especially the Legos). We eat at McDonald's once in a while for a special treat.
We took Miss Jenna to a dress rehearsal practice for the Temuco Philharmonic Orchestra at the Temuco Fine Arts Theater across the street from our house. It was so cool. We heard a lot of new instruments, like the cello, trombone, and oboe. The tickets were free, so we want to go again sometime soon.
Jordan: Mommy made something for supper the other day that we've never had before. Ben called them "Giant Steaming Pine Cones", but I think they are called Artichokes. We had fun peeling off the "leaves" and dipping them in butter.
During our trip to Santiago, we showed Miss Jenna another Bible Camp, called Pirque. It was a beautiful day, with a great view of the mountains.
Kaylee: I have a funny story...when I was at Lican Bible Camp last week, my cousin, Morgan, and I got into the black sand and got all dirty. We had so much fun.
Jordan & Ben: Every Thursday our family drives to the BI, so that mommy and daddy can have prayer time with the other missionaries. We usually play outside in the BI parking lot while mommy and daddy pray. Last Thursday, daddy let me take his camera so that we could take pictures by ourselves. The rest of the pictures are some we took.
This is mommy at the missionary prayer meeting. She is writing down some prayer requests. Little Lukas is sitting on her lap.
Ben is showing you the main BI building. It's huge, and has tons of hiding spots for "Hide & Seek".
Kaylee loves to go to the BI, cause she loves to help "Aunt" Earlynne at her apartment.
"Aunt" Earlynne is our adopted grandma here in Chile. We love it when she makes cookies and lets us help her make them and eat them!
Every Thursday, daddy and "Uncle" Daryl talk a lot. We don't know everything that they talk about, but we know that they talk a lot. I took a picture of them for you.
Kaylee: My baby brother, Lukas is starting to suck his thumb. Sometimes he gets frustrated that his hand doesn't do what he wants.
I'll use my thumb to tell you that that's the end of this chapter of adventures. We will be working on more pictures for next month's Kids Edition.
It's difficult to fully explain all of the complicated and multi-layered in's and out's of what has officially turned into a fiasco. We often have family, friends, and supporters ask about the status, so here is an attempt at explaining what has recently happened. The following will be more like the cliff note’s version.
*The van arrived in Chile one year ago this month. If you remember, we shipped the van to Chile earlier than our expected arrival to insure that it would be released by the time we arrived in Jan. 09. (insert rye smile here)
*The issue these past months has NOT been with customs, but with the equivalent of the IRS department here in Chile.They are saying that our mission GMSA (or MESA as it’s called here in Chile) doesn’t have the correct paperwork for tax exempt status.Of course, this is not true.Our mission has had this status for years and has been able to bring in used vehicles without problems for years.But apparently, are mission is missing paperwork that proves that the van will be used with the handicapped.We believe that this issue is partly because of a new Chilean law that makes it harder for organizations to bring vehicles in, and partly due to Catholic discrimination against Evangelicals (non-Catholics).
*So, after numerous attempts to gain approval of the paperwork under our mission’s name over the past 10 months, it was best thought to attempt to bring it into Chile under the name of our national church association called UCB.UCB has all the paperwork in order that pertains to the handicapped issue and has recently brought in several vehicles for the ministry by nationals.
*So then we needed to make a letter of donation from MESA to UCB. This entailed a bunch of paperwork, signatures, and time in the mail. As part of this process, the vehicle needed to be driven back to the port (from free storage at our camp) to officially “take it out of the country” (kind of like no-man’s land). This is where our vehicle is currently located.
*We submitted a request to have the van stored again at our camp (see picture to the right), just south of Santiago, as we wait for the UCB paperwork process to go through.This request has recently been denied.Their reason given was that items can be stored “off site” only once.This means that now we have to pay daily storage at the port for the duration of the UCB paperwork process. We are currently waiting to her back from our field director as to the amount of this daily storage charge.
That’s the l - o - n - g and short of it.
It’s been an interesting, confusing, frustrating, expensive, but faith-growing year. We are thankful that we don’t have to deal with this personally, since we live so far from Santiago.Our field director has been handling the situation with all of the port agents, lawyers, and govt. officials. This includes trips to the port, interviews, paperwork, phone calls, and emails.
If…and it’s a big if…if the “IRS” office approves the UCB paperwork, we could have our vehicle out in a matter of 60 days (a normal span for vehicle release). But who knows...Chile is famous for it's red tape.
Humanly speaking, it gets laughable at times, while at the same time very frustrating. We do know and trust that God's plan is best. We, as humans, only have a short view of the situation. God, on the other hand, has the eternal, the perfect, and the Big Picture view, not only in this situation, but in every situation, for everybody, everywhere in the world.
We would continue to ask that you keep this situation in your prayers.
There is so much to tell about what we have been doing this past month that daddy thought that we would need two chapters of our Kid's Edition.
We just took a BIG trip up to Santiago. It was a long trip, but we were able to stop at some huge waterfalls. We loved running around, throwing rocks into the water, and looking at the waterfall. Daddy has been reading a book to us each morning at breakfast that talks about how God created everything and about how God has made Himself known to us through nature and the Bible. We love to be outside and learn more about God's creation here in beautiful Chile.
While in Santiago, we visited tons of people. Some people we didn't know and some people we knew. We always ask mommy and daddy if the people we are visiting speak English or Spanish, cause we are still learning Spanish. We are always glad when we visit people who know English. We visited our Texas friends, Chase, Trey, and Mackenzie. Daddy went to language school with their daddy and mommy. It was good to see them again. They just moved to Chile and are learning Spanish too. Little Lukas is getting big. We (Jordan, Ben & Kaylee) all love to take turns holding him and making faces at him.
Lukas is starting to have "tummy time", but he's still pretty small to crawl or walk.
While in Santiago, we visited mommy's friend, "Tia" Carola. "Tia" Carola grew up with mommy in Chile. They were best friends growing up.
We (Jordan & Ben) are in homeschool this year. Sometimes we have days off when we go to camp or take trips, but most days we are in school. I (Jordan) have a new way of learning this year. I get to take classes on DVD from Bob Jones. I am in third grade. (Ben) Jordan, let me say something! I (Ben) am in second grade this year, and I get done with school earlier than Jordan, cause I don't have to watch DVDs. When it's break time, I love to play in the backyard with the cat.
I (Kaylee) was so excited to pick up my play kitchen set that mommy and daddy have been storing in Santiago. Daddy put it in the back of the van so we could drive it back to our house in Temuco. I play with it everyday.
Mommy bought me (Ben) a kite the other day. Chileans love to fly kites and now I have one to use. It was one of my birthday gifts. I was so excited to pick out the one I liked the best.
Come back tomorrow for chapter two of our Oct. Kids Edition!!
One day after our Santiago trip, we packed up again to travel to the Lican Bible Camp to participate in the Jóvenes (College Age) Retreat.
The theme for this year's retreat was "Young People Conformed to the Heart of God".
The weather was cool and rainy, but the views from around camp were beautiful, as always.
The main speaker was Pastor Ricardo Daglio from Villa Regina, Argentina. We appreciated his willingness to come over the Andes to speak and participate in the camp ministry.
Many campers and staff were pleased with the preaching sessions and focus on the Word of God. Pastor Daglio challenged the campers from Psalm one.
While our family was only able to stay for two days, it was a blessing to attend and participate in another camp retreat. Above, is the group picture of campers, counselors, and staff.
Continue to pray for the Chile Bible Camp ministry. There is so much to do and so much potential. We would appreciate your prayers and participation in order to see this ministry advance for the cause of Christ.
In part two, we will share a few more photos from the retreat.
One is shaped by his or her heritage, whether it be for good or for bad.
On Kristi's side of the family, there is a three generation span of serving on the mission field.
Walter and Helen Jespersen - China (1936-1952 with CIM - China Inland Mission) Terry and Carol Thompson - Chile (1973-1994 with GMSA); GMSA Gen. Dir. (1994-present) David and Kristi Flinck - Chile (Jan. 2009 - present with GMSA)
In the video below, Kristi's grandpa shares a bit of his testimony and a few stories from his time of missionary service in China. We encourage you to watch the video and find out why we love and respect Grandpa J. so much.
During our 5 day stay in Santiago, we spent the nights at our GMSA apartment. It's nice to have the apartment available for our missionaries, during trips to the capital.
We took Jenna to see some sights downtown. One of the places was the big Catholic Cathedral. It's always a reminder to us why we are serving here in Chile...to share the true Gospel of Salvation through Christ alone.
Chileans are looking for answers. They have no real hope within the Catholic Church. Sermons (like the one we heard above) are full of mumbo-jumbo wrapped in sugar that dissolves at the first sign of trial. Only the Word of God is solid and true.
There is only one mediator between God and man. It's not a priest. It's only Jesus Christ himself. He paid the penalty for sinners and through Him only is the way to forgiveness of sin and eternal life. One of the main reasons for our trip to Santiago, was to complete Lukas' paperwork for his US Citizenship, passport, and Social Security Number. We paid a visit to the US Embassy downtown to have our interview. We were thankful to get this important paperwork started.
Speaking of Lukas...he was such a little trooper during our whole trip. We are thankful for his low key personality and temperament.
After some fun fill, but exhausting, days in Santiago, we packed up and headed back to Temuco for one day, before driving down for the Oct Youth Retreat at the Lican Bible Camp.
View all of our pictures from the Santiago trip HERE.
We'll tell you about the retreat in a future post.
Standing (L to R): Bill Muller, Bill Park, Guy Glass
The Bible Institute hosted a meal and short program explaining the history and ministry of the BI ministry. Area national pastors, current BI students and professors were also invited to participate in this event.
The US pastors with the GMSA missionaries from Temuco.
The group picture.
