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.