The Barrage of Birthday Bashes

Each year, starting in July, our family celebrates four birthdays in seven weeks.

Jordan turned 10 on July 5th

Jordan's b-day party.

Kaylee turned 6 on July 12th.

Kaylee with two of her best friends, Antonia & Catalina.

Lukas turned 2 on August 1st.

Kristi turned 35 on August 24th.

FYI - calm down ladies, I got permission from Kristi to post her age.

Several friends surprised her with a late night b-day party in our apartment.

Kristi was given a notebook workstation for her Netbook.

Birthdays on the mission field are fun and full of fine friends, foreign food, and filthy floors. Thanks to all who sent e-cards, emails, Facebook messages, actual snail mail cards (yes, you read that right I) and Skype calls. Each are appreciated and encouraging.

IB Emanuel Children's Event

One of the last things our family did before our "friendly exit" from the Emmanuel Biblical Church was attending and participating in their annual winter vacation children's event (July 23rd). We will miss our new friends at IBE, but will continue to maintain Christian fellowship as a separate local church on the other side of the city.

Our children enjoyed attending and participating in the classes, games, and craft time.

Kristi assisted with the youngest class. Lukas and Kaylee were in that class.

I helped with game time, set up and take down, serving lunch, and took pictures throughout the day.

Click HERE to view the entire photo album from the ministry event.

Sunday Bible Study

On July 24th, we officially started a Sunday Bible study at 11:30 am. We are thankful for this next step in the church planting process. It is exciting and overwhelming at the same time.

Kristi teaches one kid's class (ages 2-10) during the adult Bible study. We are using Kaylee's bedroom for now, but as you can see, it will soon be too crowded.

The Bible study is around an hour long. During the hour we teaching a few choruses from the Psalms, have a time to Biblically answer two "commonly asked questions", read several passages of Scripture and make some applications to our lives.

Kaylee and Lukas setting up the chairs before the Bible study starts.

The children's class: Kaylee, Catalina, Antonia, Catalina, Elizabeth, Ben, Jordan, Camila, Micaela, and Lukas.

Darko (believer) has been coming these past weeks. He is from Santiago, but works in Antofagasta as an architect. He is thankful for a group to study the Bible with during his business trips. He was saved out of Mormanism a few years ago.

Lukas coloring his page after his class.

Please pray for us as we are forming a core group with the goal of starting an official church in the future. We need wisdom and strength as we labor and invest in this church plant each week.

Exercise Profits Little

"...exercise yourself rather unto godliness. For bodily exercise profits little: but godliness is profitable unto all things." -- I Timothy 4:7-8

I'll be honest, I'm not getting any younger. This November, I will turn 36. My "dad shaped" body is...well..."dad shaped". Time and energy have seemed to be low since moving to Antofagasta, due to moving, adjusting, and general cultural stress. Until...until I was invited to play some indoor soccer with a bunch of guys from Tom Chapman's church. Most Monday nights, we meet at a little downtown gym to play "baby fútbol" (or indoor soccer). We rent the gym for one hour and split the cost (around $2.oo US per person).

This time to kick the ball around has been encouraging to me on several levels:

*The Physical Level - Motivated by some friends to get out and put on some gym clothes, I have looked forward to this "low-level" pain called physical exercise. While the following morning, I may disagree with the previous sentence, it's something I need.

*The Pastoral Level - Edgar (a new believer) has been playing with us whenever he can. After each time of playing, we had some frank and encouraging discussions about what's going on in our hearts while competing. Competition brings out the best and worst in us sometimes. Being competitive isn't wrong, but in these discussions we've been able to point out some things in our lives that are wrong or sinful reactions, thoughts, or attitudes. Playing together has deepened our discipleship relationship. We are learning together. Man to man. Heart to heart. Edgar is now learning to play as a Christian. Giving glory to God. Thanking Him for an opportunity to play. Learning to play as a team, instead of only thinking about himself. My pastoral heart is thrilled to hear him tell me about these changes in his life. The Holy Spirit is helping him connect the dots between his new faith in God and how he should live life day to day.

*The Practical Level - It gives me something to do with "the guys". It's informal. It's fun. It's a diversion from daily life.

*The Parental Level - I took Jordan and Ben to the last game, despite it starting at 10 pm at night. They were excited to go and watch. It turned out that we were short two guys, so we let Jordan and Ben play with us. I have been teaching them some fundamentals of soccer, so it was a chance to "push them off the deep end". They absolutely loved being able to play, although I think over half the time they were just jumping up and down while squealing. Jordan and Ben as STILL talking about it. It turned out to be a memorable night with their dad. Now Kaylee wants to go next time. We'll see.

So while these times of indoor soccer are only profiting little physically, it has proved to be a profitable time for spurring us on toward practical godliness.

The Candy Man

Last week, we shared some names, photos, and prayer requests about people we are ministering to on a weekly basis. I promised to introduce you to The Candy Man. It all started when...

...a 10 yr old girl, named, María José, attended our Saturday Kid's Club in the Park. She is seated with the hat on in the photo above. While talking with her after the club, she mentioned to us that she basically lived at the park. Oh really? Why is that? She then replied, "My dad works at the park. He's the Candy Man. So everyday after school, I come to the park to play and be with my dad until he gets off work."

Normally, on Saturdays, our family arrives at the park early to set up and hand out invitations to the Kid's Club. While handing out the invitations, I saw the Candy cart and remembered what María José told us about her dad, The Candy Man!!! Putting the invitations in my pocket, I decided to spend some extra time talking to him and finding out more about his life, his story, and his family. After introducing myself, he remembered hearing about our little Bible Club from his daughter. He thanked us for teaching his daughter and showing kindness to her and the other children at the park.

After asking several open ended questions about his background and life, he went on to tell me the sad reality of the recent events in their family. You see, Gabriel (The Candy Man) wasn't always the Candy man. He used to work as a carpenter for a good company. Life was good (at least it was good in the eyes of an unsaved man). His wife had a good job downtown as well.

Then life turned upside down. The wife, Roxanna (pictured below with Kristi), lost her job, because her company closed its doors. She then started to sell candy at the park to continue to help the family's finances. But selling candy in the park was quite a pay cut for her.

Then she found out that she had breast cancer. As you can imagine, this was a devastating blow to her and the family. Her doctor recommend chemotherapy (8 sessions, one every 21 days). Long story short, Gabriel had to leave his good job as a carpenter in order to help his wife at home, since her strength and health was greatly affected during the treatments. It was then, Gabriel went from a carpenter to The Candy Man.

Their family now lives a few blocks from the park in a rented room. Gabriel now mans the candy cart seven days of week. Roxanna relieves her husband once a day so he can go home to eat lunch and rest for a couple hours. This is their new life. It's a hard life. Through our conversations with Gabriel and Roxanna, there have been opportunities to share with them about our Sovereign God and His love for them. Whenever our family goes to the park to play or do the Kid's Club, we stop by and chat with them and have our children pick out a candy to buy from their candy cart. We are deepening and developing a relationship with them.

Our little group of believers and attenders of our Bible studies are pooling together some food items in the next few weeks to give to this family. We would like to fill a large basket full of practical food items as well as a Bible and other Gospel literature. I have offered to pick Roxanna up from the hospital and drive her home on the days of her chemotherapy.

So whenever you are passing through the candy aisle at the local grocery store, would you pray for us as we minister to The Candy Man and his family. We are praying for more opportunities to share the Gospel and Biblical Truth with this family. Wouldn't it be amazing if God saved this family?

To be continued...

A Visit from the Cousins

A few days after Kristi's parents visit back in June, Kristi's older brother and family came for a four day visit. Andrew & Kolette Thompson (above) are serving as missionaries in Salto, Uruguay. During their children's winter break (remember it's winter here in South America), they wanted to take mini-vacation here in Chile. They spent several days in Santiago with the grandparents and then flew up to Antofagasta to see us and view the new ministry location.

Though the visit was short, we all enjoyed the days together. We normally only get to see Andrew and Kolette's family about once a year. Above: Elias and Lukas in the double stroller.

We all went to the mall and caused a lot of head-turning, due to the sheer amount of gringo children under 10 yrs old.

Elias is two and a half years old. Just a half a year older than his buddy, Lukas.

Natalia - 7 yrs old.

Josiah - 10 yrs old.

It was a crazy few days, but days well spent. Visits from family are always special. We look forward to seeing Andy & Kolette again this coming January, since our family will be flying to Uruguay for our annual GMSA missionary conference.

Kid's Edition - June '11

Still catching up on the Kid's Editions...thanks for your patience. Here are some photos of the kids from June.

Jordan at his desk

Ben at school (Homeschool)

Jordan & Ben's S.S. class at the Emmanuel Biblical Church

Lukas all ready for bed, but not before "book time".

Kaylee, running around on our little beach by our apartment building.

Lukas loves to play outside too...

but is still getting used to the feeling of the sand in between his toes.

Jordan & Ben at their favorite spot by the rocks on our beach.

Elizabeth carrying around Lukas.

A stop at the LEGO store at the mall is ALWAYS a good idea!

During a family walk down to the main city beach 6 blocks away from our apartment.

Playing dress up with neighbor kids.