July Kid's Edition (Photos)

The kids playing with their friend, Rut, at our house.

Jordan jumping in the playroom.
Ben took the picture.

Goofy Ben

Lukas at church.

Enjoying our winter break from homeschool.

Kaylee in San Ramón, picking up kids for S.S.

Kaylee helping clean the kitchen floor with her new broom.

Lukas and (Tia) Maggi at church.

The boys at their FAVORITE store...Legos!!

Lukas...always in his stroller.

Family time at McDonald's in Los Angeles, Chile.

Ben again...always the clown.

Lukas is eating more solid food now.

Lukas (11 months) & his pal, Ricardo, (5 months) from church.

Apartment Fire Repairs

Since the fire that occurred at Daryl & Earlynne's apartment last month, there has been some steady progress in the repairs. Here are some of the pictures I took last week of the progress.

Before picture of the back bedroom.

New drywall is going on the wall (which is a big blessing, because before the fire, the room had little if any insulation).

Ramón has been working on the project while Daryl & Earlynne are in southern Chile for a short break in between the Bible Institute semesters.

Lord willing, everything will be ready to go before Daryl & Earlynne get back from their trip next week. I will post more pictures once the project is completed.

July Kid's Video Edition

For part one of the July Kid's Edition, we put together a short video of the children.




Come back soon for part two (photo edition).

July Pastor's Meeting

Every three months or so, I attend a regional national pastor's meeting. The following video is a small taste of what those meetings are like...

BI Final Exam & Party

After 16 weeks of classes, the first semester of my Bible Institute class has been completed. I am thankful for the opportunity to teach Bible Study Methods to my ten students.

During our last class, the final exam was taken. A large majority of the students did very well, and I was pleased with their effort throughout the semester.

Adolfo taking the final exam.

My class STARTS at 9 pm and ends around 10:20 pm each Thursday night. My kids (Kaylee especially) have been asking and asking me if they can attend a class. For the last class time, I took Jordan, Ben, & Kaylee. They sat in the back with their own notebooks to draw and color pictures while the students took their exam.

After the final exam, we all had a small pizza party to celebrate the end of the semester. It was a great time of talking and laughing around the table. I am thankful for each of the students the Lord gave me this past semester. Each one has potential to serve the Lord, and we're praying that each one will go into full time Christian service.

Above: Mauren's dad came to pick her up from school. She is getting married to Bernardo this coming February. The kids were pretty tired by this time, since it was WAY PAST their bedtime.

I now have a four week "winter" break before the second semester starts on Aug. 19th. Continue to pray for me as I prepare for the next 16 weeks of classes.

Homeschool Field Trip

To celebrate the end of our homeschool year, I (David) took Jordan, Ben, and Kaylee to see a famous Chilean musical called La Pérgola de las Flores (The Flower Market) at the Temuco Municipal Fine Arts Theater across the street from our little neighborhood.

Our German co-worker, Gaby Beyer, plays cello in the Temuco City Orchestra. She invited us to attend the dress rehearsal the night before the opening show. Above: Gaby and the children.

Gaby encouraged us to attend, because the musical is a cultural learning experience. La Pérgola de las Flores, is based on the conflict that arose in the 1930s when the mayor of Santiago wanted to shut down the flower market. Throughout the musical, many different segments of Chilean society are introduced, poked fun at, and stereotyped. For example, the working class, the neighborhood gossip, the police, the rich, and the politicians.

Here is a sample of what we saw and heard.



The kids loved staying up late and listening to the musical. We plan to go to several other dress rehearsals for other classical concerts in the coming months, since Gaby can get us free tickets.

July Birthdays

We've been celebrating a few birthdays in our family.

Kaylee turned 5 on July 12th.

Jordan turned 9 on July 5th.

Thanks to those who send e-cards!

In August, we will celebrate two more birthdays. Lukas turns one on August 1st, and Kristi's birthday is on August 24th.

Scenes from San Ramón

Kaylee & Franco riding in our van out to the San Ramón ministry.

Maggi & Kaylee walking the streets to pick up children before the service starts.

It was raining that Sunday, and umbrellas were a necessity.


Pastor Marcelo teaching the children of San Ramón.

Omar (23 yrs.), Franco, & Kaylee sitting in the back during song time. Franco was playing his toy guitar. It made for some "interesting" sounds.

Teresa (pastor's wife - in the orange) teaching the older girls.

Directing the Church Choir

A couple months ago, several people from church approached me and asked if I would be willing to sing in a group that wanted to prepare a special musical number for the church. I accepted. During our first practice, we all realized that the musical number that was picked out was a bit more difficult than first thought. This was due mainly to the fact that the accompaniment track was extremely tricky. Each stanza got increasingly slower and thus threw everyone's timing off.

They asked me to direct them and guide them through the difficult timing. They also wanted me to teach them to sing in four part harmony. That didn't quite happen, but we did develop two parts (melody and harmony) for the song.

We met as a group at the church every Saturday night for weeks. Each week we saw improvement. Click on the video below to hear how the choir sounded.

Various projects at church

Under the leadership of Pastor Marcelo, our church in Temuco is taking on several maintenance projects in and around the church building. We are excited to see that these projects are being promoted and that the members are participating not only in the commitment of financial giving, but also in the physical participation.

During my times with Pastor on Tuesday mornings, we have been talking about the importance of excellence in ministry. It is important to take care of the church building and facilities to have a good testimony in the neighborhood. Obviously, a good testimony is MUCH bigger than just physical beauty, but no one wants an ugly building and unkempt property.

One project that is being completed is pouring a cement base under the current church property fence. This will insure that animals (like dogs and cats) won't be able to come on the church property and leave their "offerings". ;)

The front entry cement slab had several large holes that were dangerous to anyone entering the church building (especially for children and the elderly). That old slab was taken out and a new one was manually poured.

Unfortunately, I (David) wasn't able to be present at this work day (June 28th), due to our trip up to Santiago. I was pleased to hear the report from Pastor that several men showed up to work on the project.
Richie smoothing out the cement.

The finished entry. What a blessing to have this much needed project finished!

The inside project is to upgrade the bathrooms. The desire was to install functional bathrooms to meet the needs of church members and visitors alike. The plan is to put new tile on the floor and walls and to install new stools and sinks.

Above: View of the ongoing project in the men's bathroom. The new sink and tile on one wall has been installed.

View of the progress in the men's bathroom.

Above: The men's bathroom (before picture) I will post the AFTER pictures in the near future as the project is completed.

Please pray for continued financial & physical participation by the members at our church. There are so many projects that need to be addressed in the future. With the Lord's help and provision, we hope to see these projects tackled this coming year.

Another Fire at the BI

During this past year, there have been several trials/opportunities facing the Temuco Bible Institute ministry. First, there was a major earthquake back in February. Then, in May, there was a fire in one of the BI buildings. Finally, there was another fire in Daryl & Earlynne's apartment on the 3rd of July.

Upon noticing the flames during their breakfast time, Daryl & Earlynne thought for sure that their whole apartment would be lost, due to the flames spreading rapidly. Thankfully, several BI students put out the fire before it spread throughout the whole apartment.

The fire damaged or destroyed the cleaning closet and parts of the two adjacent guest bedrooms.

The fire damage in the guest bedroom.

Please pray for Daryl & Earlynne as they attempt to fix and repair the damaged areas of their apartment. The fire happened just a few weeks before the winter break, and Daryl & Earlynne REALLY needed a break. Now even more BI repair plans need to be dealt with each day. Pray for strength and wisdom as we try to fix the apartment in the very near future.

Click HERE to view the rest of the photos of the fire damage.

June Santiago Trip

During the last week in June, our family needed to take a trip up to the capital city, Santiago, for some mission business. With four children, the trip is never quick (9 hours one way), but the scenery makes up for the craziness in the minivan.

One of the the reasons for our trip up to Santiago, was to spend some extra time with Dan & Diana Kunnari (GMSA co-workers). They were getting ready to head back to the States for a furlough, so our Chile missionaries were going to hold a goodbye party for them. Above: We spent some time together in the Kunnari's empty apartment and watched the Chile vs. Brazil World Cup soccer game. As you can see from the picture, Kristi was pretty nervous during the whole game. Unfortunately, Chile lost. :(

I (David) had a Chile Field Council meeting during one of the mornings. Since Chile is sooooooo long, whenever our missionaries are together, we try to capitalize on the time together to get some mission business done.

We were also able to spend an evening with some former RGBI language school classmates, John & Laura Niemeyer. It was great to catch up with them again and hear about the ministries they are involved with in Santiago. Above: the kid's table for supper. Sorry no group photo.

Whenever we are in Santiago, our family tries to visit Kristi's childhood friend. Carola and Kristi lived across the street from each other growing up in Santiago. It's always nice to see her family and try to be an encouragement to them.

During the Kunnari goodbye party, we all were able to spend time around the table laughing and sharing stories and testimonies of how God was working in our lives and ministries.

We also spent time in prayer for the prayer requests and ministries of the missionaries.

The GMSA Chile missionary family.

Click HERE to view more pictures from our recent trip to Santiago.