Antofagasta: The Checklist

As April approaches, our family will be focusing on an ever growing checklist in preparation for our move up to Antofagasta. Please pray for strength, sanity, and our sanctification as we attempt to check off the following on our checklist.

__ Sign the rental contract

__ Find a moving company

__ Go through our stuff and eliminate (give away) some things

__ Pay our April rent for our Temuco house & our Antofagasta apartment.

__ Find a home for our dog, Taffy. We can't have a pet in our Antofagasta apartment.

__ Pick up David's permanent residency visa in Temuco

__ Decide what items need to be stored at the Pirque Bible Camp (near Santiago). We will not be able to fit all of our things in our apartment.

__ Pay and close out household bills here in Temuco (lights, water, phone/internet, etc)

__ Come up with some creative meals to whittle down food items in our pantry

__ Last goodbyes with missionary co-workers & people from the church here in Temuco

__ Load the moving truck

__ Search for and buy airline tickets for Kristi, Kaylee, and Lukas from Temuco to Antofagasta. (They will stay in Temuco to hand over the house keys to our landlord. David & the boys will drive the van up to Antofagasta several days earlier to get a few things set up at the new apartment. A three hour plane trip is better than riding in the van for 25 hours.)

__ Deep clean the house to hand over to our Temuco landlord.

__ A two day drive up to Antofagasta (David, Jordan, & Ben) with the van full of items.

__ Unload the moving truck and hauling all the stuff up to the 11th floor (my legs are burning already). Thankfully, there is an elevator. There are several items that will not fit in the elevator and will have to be carried up the 11 flights of stairs.

__ Unpack in Antofagasta and set up our things in the apartment.

__ Set up an account for phone/internet in Antofagasta.

Antofagasta: The Opportunities Ahead

In the last post we shared some reasons why our upcoming move to Antofagasta may seem foolish. On the other hand, there are many positive reasons why the move is the RIGHT thing to do at this time.

1. God's overall plan for the world includes our family's obedience in sharing the Gospel. While we may not know HOW God will work everything out, we know God WILL work as we stay obedient to Him and faithful in the proclamation of Biblical truth. The human tendency is to want to know all of the answers beforehand. God's "Big Picture" plan is perfect and we need to keep everything in proper perspective (see picture below).

2. Antofagasta is strategic for a beachhead ministry. The city is projected to grow to 500.000 people in the next 10 years. Housing developments and high rise apartment buildings cannot be built fast enough to keep up with the amount of families moving to Antofagasta in search of decent paying jobs. When we look at the picture below of the new developments and neighborhoods being built in Antofagasta, we know that each house, each apartment means more families that need to hear and respond to the Gospel. Our mission has been praying for missionaries to go to northern Chile for many years.

3. Antofagasta is the capital city of the region, so there are multiple ministry opportunities in this urban setting. Antofagasta is the hub of all things in their region. Starting a local church in this key city would be a great springboard for yet more churches to be started in the future in smaller cities in this same region.

We are praying about exploring the following ministry options in Antofagasta (all with the end goal of starting a local church): Air Force & Army Base ministry, University ministries, Addiction ministries, Ministry to the handicapped (Teleton Hospital), and TESOL ministry (Teaching English as a Second Language). If the Lord opens up some opportunities in these areas (or others that are not even on our radar) we are willing to pursue them as a way to start making initial contacts within the community.

4. The opportunity to serve and encourage our co-workers. To make a long story short, we had originally planned to serve in northern Chile with a fellow GMSA missionary family, but the Lord closed that door. We wondered if our family could even minister in northern Chile without team members. Then back in Nov, we received a call from Dr. Daniel Monrroy. He asked if we were still planning on serving in Antofagasta, because his family was planning to move there due to his work at the Teleton hospital. He was very interested in helping our family start a local church in Antofagasta. Dr. Dan & his wife, Mily are pictured in the photo below on the left. They have three girls about the same ages as Jordan, Ben, & Kaylee. Mily is also expecting their first baby boy in June.

Also pictured in the photo are Tom & Connie Chapman (sitting on the couch). They have been serving as missionaries with a sister mission board in Antofagasta for around 18 years. They are graduates of Bob Jones University and have a church plant in the north central part of the city. Tom & Connie will fill the roles of our "adopted parents" and "grandparents" to our children while on the mission field. We are thankful for their willingness to help our family in the transition to ministering in Antofagasta. Our desire is to be an encouragement to them through times of needed fellowship and fun (i.e. celebrating Thanksgiving or the 4th of July together).

5. The harvest is white and the laborers are few. The need in Antofagasta is great and there are very few missionaries.

"For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!" Romans 10:13-15

Antofagasta: The Challenges Ahead

To some, a ministry move to Antofagasta seems to be a foolish decision. There are so many known and unknown challenges that face Gospel ministry, especially a ministry starting from zero.

Yes, there are many challenges facing our family as we prepare to move up to the city of Antofagasta. We would like to share some of them with you:

1. The high cost of living - For starters, we will be paying $1,000 dollars per month for renting a 3 bedroom apartment in Antofagasta (our apartment building below). The housing market in Antofagasta is crazy right now (borderline unfair), due to the mining boom and growing industry in the city. Water, gas, electricity, and food are more expensive in Antofagasta. On a human level, it would seem to be a foolish thing to move to such an expensive city and tighten "the financial belt" another notch.

2. Distance from fellow GMSA co-workers - The nearest GMSA missionary will be 678 miles away (as the crow flies). Interaction with co-workers will be few and far between. It would seem foolish to move so far away from fellowship, friendships, and joint ministry interaction.

3. The Desert - Why would anyone move to a city that is in the middle of the driest desert in the world (the Atacama Desert)? It would be foolish to leave southern Chile, where it rains and stays green all year round.

4. The Difficult sub-culture of Northern Chile - In southern Chile, people are warm, loving, and more open to the Gospel (in general). In northern Chile, it is the exact opposite, then times it by two. Those who live in Antofagasta are tough...you have to be (see #3). Money, drugs, alcohol, idolatry, broken homes, dangerous neighborhoods, and unhealthy physical and moral lifestyles are just a few of the common characteristics of daily life in Antofagasta. It would seem foolish to move a young family of 6 into the middle of that scenerio.

Despite the above, the Lord has lead us to serve and minister in the city of Antofagasta. As I was packing up my office the other day, I came across a poem written by a fellow Minnesota missionary in Africa. The words were impacting when I read it and thought about our upcoming ministry move from Temuco to Antofagasta.

To leave a place

You've learned to love,

To follow guidance

From above,

May seem to some

A foolish step

When path is dark

The way not kept,

But O the joy

of steps in air

When God directs

When He is there...

To make that way

We fear to trust

The very path

He planned for us!

-Kevin Zakariasen

Antofagasta: The Housing Search

Tomorrow, I hop a plane to fly to Antofagasta for six days with the goal of finding a house to rent. I would have loved for Kristi to fly up with me, but it just didn't logistically and financially work out. She will stay home with the kids in Temuco, but we will be in constant communication by cell phone and Skype during the search for housing.

My brother-in-law, Andrew Thompson, will be flying up to Antofagasta with me for three days. His presence will be a huge help to me by being an extra set of eyes and ears while looking at rental housing and dealing with realtors/renters. Having someone perfectly fluent in Spanish with me on the trip will help lower my stress level. ;)

Here are a few factors in our housing search that we ask you to be in prayer for:

*A house on the north side of the city (this is where the city is growing)

*A house within our financial limits

*A house with at least 3 bedrooms (4 would be better)

*A house with a flexible rental contract

*A kitchen big enough for practical hospitality

The goal is to rent a house for a period of 6 to 12 months. During that time, we would be systematically looking for a permanent ministry house for our mission to buy.

Other goals for the trip include:

*Spend some time with our future Chilean co-workers (Dr. Daniel & Milagros Monrroy)

*Spend time with missionaries Tom & Connie Chapman

*Attend Sunday services at the Chapman's church.

*Spend time getting to know the city (taking random buses, taking pictures & video, taking notes, asking questions)

Daily updates and photos will be posted on our Facebook page during the trip. I invite you to "tag along" with me on the trip and discover what God will do and how He will provide.

The video below is what I will experience as the plane lands at the Cerro Moreno Airport just north of Antofagasta.

Antofagasta: The City

This will be the first in a series of posts explaining the dynamics of our upcoming ministry transition to the city of Antofagasta. As an introduction, this post will mainly focus on some facts about the city and area to give you basic orientation.

*Antofagasta is the capital city for the II Region (similar to the division of

states in the US). This II Region is the second biggest region in Chile (11,860 square miles).

*Population of Antofagasta (2010 estimate): 360,000 people The projection for growth in the city is 500,000 people in by 2020.

*Nickname = Pearl of the North (La Perla del Norte)

*Origin of the city name: It is probably a compound word that comes from "Anto" which means big; "faya" which means dry lake; and "gasta" which means pueblo (or town). People of the Great Salt Lake (El Pueblo del Salar Grande).

*The city is located on the Pacific Ocean in a bay that makes a natural port. Steep coastal hills border the eastern side of Antofagasta.

*The Tropic of Capricorn is located just north of Antofagasta's city limits.

*The city is roughly 7 miles long and 1 mile wide. (Click map below for large size)

*Climate wise - Antofagasta has very mild temperatures throughout the year. Very little weather change. Morning fog that burns off by midday. It rarely rains in Antofagasta.

*Antofagasta's economic development is mainly based on copper mining and other non-metallic minerals such as nitrate, lithium, and iodine. Because of the recent boom in mining, Antofagasta is the most expensive city in Chile. Despite the recent economic crisis in 2009, Antofagasta has lower rates of unemployment than the rest of the country. Due to the high average salary of Antofagasta, it has become one of the cities with the highest proportion of foreign professionals (specifically engineers and technicians).

Do you have change!!!

Here in Chile, having change is a good thing.

"Change" meaning smallish coins or bills in your pocket. One thing that I still mentally struggle with is that the average Chilean business (which could be anything from my little bread store on the corner to a medium sized store downtown) seemingly is never prepared to give you change when you purchase an item. Chilean coins (the $100 peso coin and the $500 peso coin) and the $1,000- and $2,000-peso bills, are worth more than their proportional value compared to higher-denominated bills.

For some reason it seems like there are not enough of them around, and people do not spend them freely. If I go into an average store to buy an item for $1.500 and hand the cashier a $10.000 bill, he or she will automatically ask me, “¿No tiene más sencillo?” (Don't you have something smaller?) regardless of how many $1.000 and $2,000 bills he or she actually has in the cash register. They give me (the customer) the feeling like I am messing up their personal till. Come on...you're the business, which means you SHOULD be prepared to give out change.

I read once that someone actually had a cab driver accuse them of taking a ride in his taxi just to break a $10.000 bill. And forget about $20.000-peso bills (if you’ve ever actually seen one). I avoid ATMs that dole them out. Tip: if you’re in a bind, a good place to break large bills is the supermarket, the bigger the better. I find myself doing this ALL the time. I'm constantly thinking about making small change for my coin purse. Did I just type "purse"? It's more like a coin "holder".

The Chilean Peso has a somewhat more exciting history than dollars and pounds. For starters, it didn’t even exist until 1975, when it was introduced to replace a highly devalued Escudo. Just in the last 10 or 15 years, there has been all kinds of neat money upgrades, such as the "pink plastic" $2.000-peso bill, now the "purple plastic" $2.000 peso bill, the replacement of the $500-peso bill with a coin, and the two-tone $100-peso coin.

1 Chilean peso = 0.002049 U.S. dollars

1 U.S. Dollar = roughly 480 pesos (this fluctuates daily)

Ever wonder where the U.S.-coin nicknames penny, nickel and dime come from?

Here in Chile, coins and bills have nicknames as well.

• Gamba – 100 pesos
• Quina – 500 pesos
• Luca, lucrecia – 1 thousand pesos
• Gabriela – 5 thousand pesos
• Arturo – 10 thousand pesos
• Palo – 1 million pesos

It’s pretty clear that “Gabriela” and “Arturo” refer to the the historical figures depicted on those bills, Gabriela Mistral and Arturo Prat. Gamba means “prawn” in Chile, and palo means “stick”. Luca is the one of these you really need to know. It can be generally used as "money" (No tengo lucas para la fruta - I don't have money for fruit)

In the next post, we will share about a different kind of change. Our change of ministry location and the process of transitioning to the city of Antofagasta.

A New Baby!!

There is a new baby at church.

Little Luis Felipe was born in January to Luis and Lucy.

Pastor Marcelo praying for Luis Felipe during a baby dedication service.

Please pray that the new parents, Luis & Lucy, will raise their child in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Pray also that they would join as members of the local church. They have expressed a desire to do so in the past, but haven't done it yet.

San Ramón Update Feb '11

Over the summer months, there have been some developments in the San Ramón ministry. The house being used for the Sunday ministry has been re-sided. There are some plans for an addition to make room for another SS classroom.

Despite the summer months being ideal months for family vacations, the number of children that attend each week has been consistent and much better than last summer. Several young teenagers have been coming and starting in March, there will be a separate SS for the teens.

A family from the church in Temuco has recently moved out to San Ramón. They live on the same street as the ministry house. They plan to help in the San Ramón ministry by developing the current relationships with the parents in the area.

As our family is getting ready to move 1,000 miles north to Antofagasta, we are grateful for the opportunities to serve in small ways in the San Ramón church plant. We will miss the ministry team and the families who live in San Ramón.

We will continue to pray for this ministry after we leave. Will you continue to pray as well?

Feb '11 Kid's Edition

Ben & Kaylee: We've been helping daddy and uncle Daryl down at the BI.

Ben: I had to move big pieces of cement.

Ben & Kaylee: We helped clean up a big mess around the BI project.

Kaylee: Look what I found!

Ben & Jordan: We wanted to show you our FAVORITE aisle at the supermarket.

The LEGO aisle!!!

Kaylee: I spend all my time in doll aisle!!

Lukas: Look what daddy has been up to...packing up books.

We are moving soon, and I LOVE to climb on all of the boxes.

Kaylee: The ministry house in San Ramón has new siding.

It's white now!!

Kaylee: It was such a hot day, so I tried to give some water to the kittens in San Ramón.

Kaylee: I always have so much fun when daddy takes me

out to the San Ramón ministry on Sunday afternoons.

Yet Another BI project

The Lord has presented us with yet another project at the Bible Institute. I keep joking with Daryl that his middle name should be "Construction". This time the project is the boys bathroom. As the 2011 school year approaches, it became evident that it needed some serious attention.

But that's not the whole story...Several weeks ago, Daryl was trying to fix some plumbing in the bathroom. He was pounding on the cement floor, when all of a sudden, he fell through the floor. Thankfully, he didn't fall all the way through, since he held himself up by his arms and elbows. The cement floor was so poorly made, it just crumbled when Daryl hit it. The whole cement floor had to be taken out (photo above).

In order to put a new wooden floor in the bathroom, we had to take all of the rotten boards out and put in new framing.

Above: Daryl explaining the project to me. Kaylee, Ben, and I went to help him out one morning. The kids moved the old cement (pictures forthcoming in the Feb Kid's Edition), while I worked with Daryl putting in the new boards.

The new tile floor in the boys bathroom.

Brand new sink.

The new shower is almost completed.

The new toilet has been installed.

This project is a temporary fix, since the BI is still waiting for the new building to be built. Please continue to pray for the building permits to be approved, for God's provision for the rest of the funding, and for increased participation and support by area Chilean churches.

Bernardo & Mauren's Wedding

On Feb 5th, our family attended Bernardo & Mauren's wedding at the Lican Bible Camp property. Both of them were student's in David's Bible Institute class last year, so it was extra special to see them move on to the next step in their lives. David was asked to be their unofficial photographer for the ceremony.

Mauren walking the aisle with her dad.

Introducing Mr. and Mrs. Bernardo Vargas!!

Click HERE to view all of wedding pictures.

Please pray for Bernardo & Mauren as they have started their married life together. Bernardo has three more years of study at the Bible Institute, and Mauren needs to complete a few classes to graduate. Their desire is to serve in full time ministry in the future. We have invited them to consider working with us in northern Chile after they both have completed their Bible training.