Expomarítima // Marine Expo

Despite the cloudy and cooler day here in Antofagasta, our family, Dr. Daniel, and his three girls went down to the main port to look around at the 3rd Annual Expomarítima (Marine Expo) down at the Antofagasta Port.

The Antofagasta Port is located around 10 blocks north of our apartment. We can see it from our patio. Most days there are large shipping vessels anchored just offshore from our building.

Going to the Marine Expo killed two birds with one stone. 1.) It was a great homeschooling field trip for the children. 2.) It turned out to be a great source of information (brochures, pamphlets) for Daniel and I to learn more about our city, the port and mining industry. We have a lot to learn.

There were around twenty different exhibits to experience. Some of them included The Antofagasta Water Company, The Chilean Navy, Air Force, Fire & Rescue Squad, The International Port, Escondida Mining, The Municipality of Antofagasta, ONEMI (Chilean's equivalent to FIMA), University of Antofagasta.

We all came home with hats, Antofagasta pens, balloons, fridge magnets, and candy. The kids had a blast and it definitely was an educational experience in disguise.

Some things we learned today on our field trip:

*What to do in case of a tsunami. What zone our apartment is in and where to meet during a tsunami drill. The kids received a game (see above photo) to teach them how to respond during natural disasters.

*The wide variety of sea animals that live in our region.

*Apparently, this winter is supposed to be a cold one in Chile (in general). Here in Antofagasta our normal winter high temps are 62 degrees F (17 C). Which, by the way, we don't mind at all!!

*Using sunblock is vital in the city of Antofagasta (averages 330 days of sun per year).

*What the copper mining process entails (Interactive processes HERE)

*The process of desalination of the water for use in Antofagasta (Interactive video HERE)

The Monrroy's New Baby

We are excited to introduce our Chilean co-worker's new little baby boy.

Daniel Emmanuel Monrroy

Born: Wed. May 25, 2011

Weight: 6.3 lbs.

C-section

Milagros and the baby are now at home after two days in the hospital. Please pray for their family as they adjust to a newborn in the house.

The Next Puzzle Piece

Continued from the "So...Now What?" post...

For many months now, our family (and others) have been praying for prepared hearts to hear and respond to the Gospel and Biblical Truth in Antofagasta. By God’s providential Hand, we received the following email last week from a West Virginia University student.

********

Mr. and Mrs. Flinck,

My name is ________ and I am a fourth-year student at WVU. But more importantly, I am a follower of Jesus Christ. By His incorruptible love and grace, I have been walking with the Lord for 3 years now. In that time, He has led me down some very strange paths (as I am sure you are familiar with).

Last summer, God compelled me to step out of the United States, so I did. I went to the Himalayan Mountains of India among the Garhwali people for 8 weeks. Since returning from India, my passion for the nations has magnified greatly.

For the past 2 semesters, the duplex I live in has been like a 2^nd international house on campus. By the design of God, one of my very good friends became the resident assistant (RA) at the international dormitory and it is there that I have poured my life into. This is the primary reason I am contacting you.

The firstfruit of my labor manifested in a 25-year old international student named Edgar. He is from Antofagasta, Chile. He accepted Christ about a month ago and was baptized May 4^th into the Body of Christ. My friends and I have been praying for about a month now concerning a community/family to root himself in when he returns home. Our prayer and searching has led us to your blog page.

My hope and prayer now is that Edgar could connect with you and whatever church you are a part of in Antofagasta when he returns home.He is scheduled to fly back May 27^th. He desperately wants to continue studying the Bible with other Christians and will need a solid community to fall back on and keep him accountable. Please pray about what I have shared and reply soon.

In Christ, ________

**************

After replying to this WVU student expressing our willingness to meet Edgar and help him spiritually, we received the following email the next day.

**************

David,

I'm brimming with the Holy Spirit. Almost shaking. Praise God for His providence and grace.

Upon returning to Antofagasta, Edgar will be completing his college education as an industrial engineering student by preparing a year-long thesis. He must work with a company and write his thesis based on his work experience.

Edgar lives with both of his biological parents and 2 younger brothers (23 and 6 years old).

Additionally, Edgar's girlfriend, __________, is in need of a church. She grew up in Ukraine. She always believed in God and prayed to Him often. But when she moved to Chile around the age of 14, she became depressed and stopped praying and reading her Bible. However, she is reading her Bible again and wants to know the Lord more than ever. She is currently in Antofagasta now. She just began her first year in college. If you or your wife could contact her that would be wonderful.

Invigorated, ________

*******************

Would you pray with us for this opportunity to invest in Edgar and his girlfriend's life? We desire to meet them both soon and help them spiritually as the Lord gives opportunity.We will keep you posted on how things develop.

“Praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly, as I ought to speak.”

Eph 6:18-20

Addressing the Perception of the Missionary Territory & Task

This past week, I have been enjoying reading through a book entitled, "Overcoming the World Missions Crisis: Thingking Strategically to Reach the World". I wanted to share a portion from chapter nine, The Necessity of Theological Training for the Missionary, by J. Ronald Blue, in order for you to better understand some of the complexities that we face here in Chile and that you can know how to pray for our family in a better way.

He writes...

Fallacy One: The Perception of Missionary Territory

To (some) individuals, missionary is synonymous with mediocrity in relation to theological training. They think that a little biblical knowledge and a lot of brawn are all that a missionary needs. But nothing could be further from the truth. Of all of the people who are engaged in the Lord's work, the missionary is probably in greatest need of sound, thorough, theological traning. (p.175)

Although much remains to be done in primitive areas of the world, the vast majority of missions work today is accomplished in the arena of sophisticated societies and progressive peoples. Of the more than two billion "unreached" people (i.e. those who have not yet heard a clear presentation of the gospel), most are not primitive pagans. They are more likely enlightened individuals who are quite religious but wrapped up in complex countrerfeit religious systems. The God-given vacuum in their souls has be stuffed with a virtual smorgasbord of religions that supposedly give meaning to life.

The modern missionary is called upon to penetrate these complicated religious systems, which seem to grow like weeds from strange theological substructures. The roots might be hopelessly entangled, but they all claim to draw from mysterious revelation, issued by a divinity or god...Much missionary endeavor is directed to areas of the world where "Christianity" has become as garbled and confused as non-Christian religions.

In addition to those who claim some kind of religious affiliation, the missionary challenge encompasses the estimated one-fourth of the world's population who are enmeshed in "secularism". More than one billion secularist - men and women who have fallen prey to the gods of humanism, Marxism, existentialism, hedonism, and materialism - too, are mission territory.

The mission field is hardly some uncultivated plot of enriched soil waiting to receive the good seed. Rather, it is a jungle infested with weeds and parasitic plants that have matted the soil of people's souls, repelling the true gospel. The modern missionary is called upon to wade into that jungle of diverse ideologies and divergent theologies. (pp.175-176)

Fallacy Two: The Perception of the Missionary Task

The missionary endeavor involves more than gospel proclamation. And although missionary evangelism is perceived as glamorous, it has often been reduced to sharing a standardized presentation of the gospel or spouting a few key verses to the unfortunate and unsuspecting pageans of the world. Colorful tracts are dropped over jungle villages; sound trucks race through dusty streets, blaring recordings of John 3:16; powerful transmitter hum on remote islands, sending the Good News to isolated souls who huddle around their radios. The outreach is alluring, but the task is exceedingly more complex.

The missionary must acquire a new language, adapt to a new culture, analyze a new religious system, appreciate new values, avoid new dangers, adopt new habits, account for new emotions, attain new expectations, ascribe to new regulations, abstain from new taboos, address new problems, anticipate new opposition, answer new conflicts, apply new criteria, advocate new solutions, advance new goals, effect new changes, admit new defeats, acknowledge new limitations, while proclaiming the gospel message.

And this is but the beginning. Once the missionary has penetrated the target culture and effectively proclaimed the good news of life in Jesus Christ, they must work with those who have responded, bringing them to productive spiritual maturity.

The territory in which missionaries work is as big as the world, and the task that they must perform is as wide as God's diverse work in that world. Neither the arena nor the assignment is for theological neophytes. (pp. 176-177)

We hope that this gives a more realistic picture of what missions entails and how serious the task should be perceived by the missionary, as well as his/her prayer supporters.

Please continue to pray for our family as we, with the Lord's help, take on the challenge of understanding and ministering to those here in the Chilean culture, with the long-term goal of planting a local church.

So...Now What?

Remember when you were a kid and you opened a 1,000 piece jigsaw puzzle for the first time? After dumping all the pieces out on the table, you thought, "Now what? Where do I start?". Then someone wiser than you, maybe your mom or dad, your uncle, or your grandpa, gave you a tip that you never forgot. Start with the four corner pieces and then find all of the side pieces. I would venture to guess that to this day, you still use that tip when putting a puzzle together.

After about two weeks here in Antofagasta, we are asking the same basic questions, "Now what? Where do we start?". Of course, we have an inkling of a basic church planting plan, but looking around the city there are way to many puzzle pieces that don't seem to fit together....yet.

So what, where, or who are the proverbial corner pieces?

Well, we know that one corner piece is Dr. Daniel Monrroy's family (wife Milagros; daughters, Micaela, Elizabeth, & Catalina). We have already begun to deepen our relationship with them in these short two weeks. Our children are playing together. Their kids are trying to speak English to our kids, and our kids try to talk in Spanish to them. Every Wednesday night from now on, Daniel and I will be meeting to talk, brainstorm, and pray about this venture we've embarked on called a new church plant.

Our family will be temporally attending Iglesia Biblica Emanuel (Emanuel Biblical Church) during our transition and orientation months in Antofagasta. Emanuel has been a blessing to our family already by providing some first Christian friendships and fellowship. Our children have been able to attend S.S. classes with other Chilean children and provide needed interaction.

EMU missionaries, Tom and Connie Chapman (BJU grads), have been serving in Antofagasta for about 18 years. They have welcomed our family to their city and have offered to be of help to us as we start a new ministry in this growing and needy city. While we haven't met everybody in Antofagasta, it would be safe to say that the Chapmans and Emanuel Biblical Church are one of, if not the only, conservative, Gospel preaching ministries in the large city of Antofagasta. We are thankful for their presence in the city. We look forward to pursuing the same goal despite being on different sides of the city.

The Lord has given our family a few corner pieces and we continue to wait on Him to show us how more puzzle pieces will come together in the future. God's providential hand has already given us some contacts to pursue and follow up on. It all started with the "ding" of our email a few nights ago...but more about that in a future post.

Settling in

Settling into a new city, neighborhood, and apartment building apparently takes time. Our energy level these past days have been drained like a pair of used rechargeable batteries. A night's sleep just didn't seem enough to "fully recharge" our batteries to continue to tackle the overwhelming job of unpacking and organizing our apartment. I think we need fresh batteries...or maybe we are just getting old. ;)

Our view northeast from our bedroom window.

Ben holding up Lukas so he can look out the "sun room" windows (before the truck was unloaded).

Jordan and Ben will share this bedroom. They love their view out over Angamos Avenue.

Settling in means making a HUGE mess before it all can be put away, cleaned, or organized. This past week our apartment had to be navigated by stepping over tubs, suitcases, random toys, and boxes.

Lukas in the "sun room" after the truck was unloaded. It was total chaos!!

Our living room and dining room were full of items. Little by little, we now have a manageable living space to sit and eat.

We had to improvise for eating last week, since our large dinning room table wasn't put together. Napkin plates, finger food, and tight quarters summed up our mealtimes.

All in all, settling in doesn't have an easy expiration date. Settling in should be communicated with levels of settling in (Those levels may included: Unpacking, Organizing, Getting to know your city, Confidence in getting around the city, and making new friendships).

Please continue to pray for our family as we continue to transition into our new ministry location.

Trip up to Antofagasta

Upon leaving Temuco, we drove 8 hours to Santiago, arriving after midnight. We stayed at the GMSA apartment/office building in Ñuñoa. After a good night's rest, I (David) met the moving truck the next day at the Bible Camp to oversee the unloading of a portion of our belongings. The truck was on time and the unload was uneventful. The truck driver confirmed his arrival date in Antofagasta for the following Sunday. Our family decided to stay in Santiago a few extra days, since we would beat the truck to Antofagasta and the truck couldn't be unloaded until Monday afternoon, due to our apartment building regulations.

The next few days in Santiago were a God send. We needed rest after weeks of craziness. It was nice to just DO NOTHING for a change. We did visit our co-workers, Jonnie & Carolina Rea (from N. Ireland) as well as Sharon Bisbee (from NJ) during our stay in Santiago.

On Sat. night, April 30th, we left Santiago around 9:30 pm to drive the l-o-n-g trip to Antofagasta. We wanted to leave at night in order to arrive in Antofagasta later the next day so that we all could just go right to sleep (instead of arriving in the morning, kids bouncing off the walls, while the parents are dog tired).

We made good time up to La Serena, where we had planned to stop at a gas station to sleep for a few hours. Upon stopping, all the kids woke up and Lukas (especially) didn't want to go back to sleep. Kristi and I tried to catch some shut-eye, but little Luke Skywalker didn't let us. So we pressed on up the road with Coke in hand.

Around an hour before Copiapó (6:30 am), we ran into some thick fog that forms in the desert valleys at night. It was incredibly thick and slowed us down quite a bit. Passing large semi-trucks and overnight buses was impossible and dangerous. We eventually made it to Copiapó, around 8 am and stopped to get gas and have some breakfast. It was a brisk morning, since Copiapó is a desert city that's away from the coast.

After that needed stop in Copiapó, we started on the LAST stretch up to Antofagasta. Of course, that last stretch seemed to go on and on forever. The sun was HOT. The landscape all looked the same...dust, sand, and rocks all with a hue of light yellow due to the beating sun.

Kristi and I took turns driving for sanity and sleepiness sake.

Typical desert scene in northern Chile.

Ok, you definately can tell it was hot in the van, since both Jordan and Ben had their shirts off.

Finally, we arrived in Antofagasta!! Our friends, Dr. Daniel & Milagros gave us our apartment keys, fed us, and we all got a good night's sleep.

Thanks for your prayers for our long trip. We praise God for His protection on the road and for His leading us here to Antofagasta.

Loading the Truck in Temuco

On Wed. April 27, we loaded our belongings into the moving truck in Temuco. The truck was a little late, but it gave us an extra 45 mins. for last minute preparations.

Most of the items were put outside in the car port BEFORE the truck even arrived. Rodrigo, a 22 yr. old from church, came and helped move some heavier items from upstairs.

Missionary Daryl Thompson and Pastor Víctor Beñaldo came over as well to help. They took on the big job of dismantling the dryer so that it could taken out of the house (Chilean doorways are so narrow). They eventually lifted it out through the back laundry room windows. ;)

The items that were destined to be stored at a Bible Camp garage just outside of Santiago were all labeled with red tape. We weren't going to be able to fit everything in our new apartment in Antofagasta. A quarter of our things needed to be stored for the next year, while we searched for a house to buy in Antofagasta.

Everything fit in the truck without any difficulty. Just as we were loading the last 10 items in the truck it started to sprinkle. Once the truck left, we went back inside to start the final clean up in all of the rooms. By then, Pastor Marcelo and Teresa had arrived and were a huge help with the clean up. After a quick lunch at the Temuco Bible Institute with Daryl & Earlynne Thompson, Kristi and I went back to the house to pack up the van and lock up our Temuco home for the last time.

By then, it was really raining hard. We took it as Temuco's parting gift to us...tears of sadness mixed with joy. We didn't care getting wet cause we knew that in Antofagasta, we would miss the sound of raindrops.

We dropped off the house keys at the landlord's office downtown and headed north out of Temuco that very same day. Come back again to hear how the trip went...

Obedience

Obedience

by George MacDonald

I said, "Let me walk in the fields";

He said, "Nay, walk in the town";

I said, "There are no flowers there";

He said, "No flowers, but a crown."

I said, "But the sky is black,

There is nothing but noise and din."

"There is more," He said,

"There is sin."

I said, "But the air is thick,

And fogs are veiling the sun."

He answered, "Yet hearts are sick

And souls in the dark undone."

I said, "I shall miss the light,

And friends will miss me, they say."

He answered, "Choose tonight

If I am to miss you, or they."

I pleaded for time to be given;

He said, "Is it hard to decide?

It will not seem hard in heaven

To have followed the steps of your Guide."