Kid's Edition March - June

 Enjoying a friend's birthday party!

Ben holding up Antofagasta.

Jordan and his friend, Rafa.

At another birthday party at the neighbor's house.

 Ben and Jordan at the Antofagasta pro basketball game.

They were able to meet the two American players after the game.

 On a family walk down by the beach.

Another family outing at the Coloso lookout (just south of Antofagasta)

 Kaylee at the Portada lookout.

 Ben and Nick cleaning at the new mission house.

Playing with the new LEGO sets grandpa and grandma Flinck sent.

Various mission house projects

We've been living in the new mission house for about a month and a half. There is still so much to be done for the house to be fully functional, but we wanted to share some of the completed projects so far.

Nick and Edgar fumigated the whole house a few days before we moved in back in late June.

 Fumigating the outside doors and windows.

 A multi-purpose ladder was purchased to help us complete the painting and other odd jobs around the house.

 A new stove was purchased and installed.

 Our van didn't fit inside the car port...

...because of this cement step.

So we rented a jack-hammer and took out the step...

 ...so that our van could be parked inside of the locked gate.

 Almost all the rooms in the house were painted.

 With the help of Ben...

 Lukas...

 Jordan...

 Kaylee...

 and Claudio and Roman.

Kristi's brother, Danny, helped us install a new calefon (water heater) in the back patio.

This is just the beginning of many small projects that are keeping us busy settling into the new mission house. We will post more photos of future completed projects. Thanks to all who have financially supported us. Without your support these projects would not have been completed. 

Baptismal Service

Back on July 1st, our church plant had it's first baptismal service. So many providential events lead up to that glorious occasion. It would be impossible to share all of those stories in this post, but allow us to share a few of them. 

This past year, the Lord, in His mercy, love, and grace, saved Susana (right) and Anna (left). Through a series of events in their lives, some godly examples, the Word of God, and much prayer, both of them accepted Jesus Christ as personal Lord and Savior.

I spent several months teaching through the importance of believer's baptism in our Sunday Bible study. After this study was completed, both approached me with their desire to follow and identify with Christ by taking the next step of obedience in believer's baptism.  What a joy it was to hear how the Holy Spirit was using His Word to work in the hearts of His new daughters.

God providentially provided a place for the baptism as well. It's a long story, but the short version goes as follows...Through an American friend of our here in Antofagasta, we were invited to attend an "Ex-patriot" BBQ in order to meet and get to know the growing and loving community that is those who live and work in Antofagasta, but are from the US, Canada, England, Scotland, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand. While at that picnic, our family was introduced to a family from Australia. They lived in a house with a large swimming pool in the backyard, so I kindly asked if it could a possibility for our church to use the pool for a baptism.  The Pacific Ocean is always available, but it's a bit cold during our winter months of June, July, and Aug. They graciously allowed us to use the pool on a Sunday afternoon. 

Before heading over to the pool for the baptismal, Anna (above) and Susana (below) gave their salvation testimonies in front of our whole group. They also shared with us their understanding of why they wanted/needed to follow Christ in believer's baptism. Many tears of joy were shed during this service.

The photo of our group in Antofagasta (taken at the baptismal service)

Please pray for Susana and Anna as they continue to grow in Christ. It has been an awesome experience to watch God's working here in this needy city of Antofagasta.  Thanks to those who have faithfully prayed for and financially supported our family and new church planting ministry in northern Chile.

Lessons from Slum Dwellers

I have been recently reading through a book that has challenged, convicted, and yet, encouraged me to ponder on many things (i.e. the Biblical definition of poverty, how to help others in need, and my walk with God). Allow me to share a portion of Steve Corbett & Brian Fikkert's book, "When Helping Hurts: How to Alleviate Poverty Without Hurting the Poor and Yourself"

One Sunday I was walking with a staff member through one of Africa’s largest slums, the massive Kibera slum of Nairobi, Kenya. The conditions were simply inhumane. People lived in shacks constructed out of cardboard boxes. Foul smells gushed out of open ditches carrying human and animal excrement. I had a hard time keeping my balance as I continually slipped on oozy brown substances that I hoped were mud but feared were something else. Children picked through garbage dumps looking for anything of value. As we walked deeper and deeper into the slum, my sense of despair increased. This place is completely God-forsaken, I thought to myself.

Then to my amazement, right there among the dung, I heard the sound of a familiar hymn. There must be Western missionaries conducting an open-air service here, I thought to myself. As we turned the corner, my eyes landed on the shack from which the music bellowed. Every Sunday, thirty slum dwellers crammed into this ten by twenty foot “sanctuary” to worship the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The church was made out of cardboard boxes that had been opened up and stapled to studs. It wasn’t pretty, but it was a church, a church made up of some of the poorest people on earth.

When we arrived at the church, I was immediately asked to preach the sermon. I quickly jotted down some notes about the sovereignty of God and was looking forward to teaching this congregation. But before the sermon began, the service included a time of sharing and prayer. I listened as some of the poorest people on the planet cried out to God: “Jehovah Jireh, please heal my son, as he is going blind”. “Merciful Lord, please protect me when I go home today, for my husband always beats me.” "Sovereign King, please provide my children with enough food today, as they are hungry.”

As I listened to these people praying to be able to live another day, I thought about my ample salary, my life insurance, my health insurance, my two cars, my house, etc. I realized that I do not really trust in God’s sovereignty on a daily basis, as I have sufficient buffers in place to shield me from most economic shocks. I realized that while I have sufficient education and training to deliver a sermon on God’s sovereignty with no forewarning, these slum dwellers were trusting in God’s sovereignty just to get them through the day. And I realized that these people had a far deeper intimacy with God than I probably will ever have in my life. - (taken from pp. 68-69)  

New posts forthcoming...

Sorry about the lack of blogs in these past two months. With the recent move from our apartment to the new house, we've been extremely busy. The dust will be settled soon and we promise to post updates in the near future. God HAS been working here in Antofagasta and we can't wait to share those stories.

For those with Facebook, we do update daily on our "Flincks in Chile" ministry page.  We encourage you to "Like" that page to inform you about what God is doing via photos, videos, and prayer requests.

One Year Ago Today

One year ago today (May 1st, 2011), our family arrived in the city of Antofagasta after the long drive from Temuco. We arrived on a Sunday afternoon very tired. 

Praise the Lord for His faithfulness, provision, mercy and grace during this first year of church planting ministry in northern Chile. There has been many ministry highlights during these past 12 months.  We have been serving in the country of Chile for a total of 3 yrs. and 4 months. 

Thank you for your faithful prayers and financial support for our family and church planting ministry here in this needy city. We count you as partners and co-laborers in the work of the Lord.

The Housing Search (Part Three)

For extra background, read part one & part two...

Many have asked us what happened to the probable house purchase (fully explained in part two). We haven't forgotten, it's just been crazy around here the last three weeks. I now have the time to sit down and tell you what happened. Thanks for your patience and interest. We know many have been praying for our housing search.

On April 5th, our Chile field director, Curtis, and his wife, Diane, flew into Antofagasta with all the paperwork & money ready to make the purchase on the house that had been in divorce court. The day had finally arrived! At 10:30 am, we had a scheduled viewing at the house so Curtis could physically eyeball the property. At 12:30, we were to go to the notary to sign the paperwork.

On the way home from picking them up at the airport (9:30 am), I received a call from Kristi on my cell. I had to pull off the road at a park to chat with her (since it's against the law in Chile to talk on cell phones while driving). She said, "Do you want the good news first or the bad news?".

Oh no, what happened?

Kristi had just gotten off the phone with the realtor. The realtor said that when she called the lawyer (on the husband's side) to double check the time for the house view, he told her that he had sold the house the previous day to another party for a higher price. While chatting with Kristi, the realtor was in tears, she was upset at what the lawyer did without notifying her.

So even before getting home from the airport, the house we were going to purchase that morning, was already sold the previous day. Case closed. God's final answer. An answer that we had prayed for, meaning a clearly closed door.

Obviously, we were all bummed. Curtis and Diane had taken time out of their schedules and ministry, to fly up to make the purchase...and now, we were back to square one.

Back to praying for more leads.

Back to spending time online looking for leads.

Back to calling phone numbers asking for prices, locations, square footage, etc.

Back to...back to not knowing.

Curtis and Diane ended up staying with us for four days. It was profitable for them, because they were able to meet the people we minister to on a weekly basis, they were able to attend a Sunday Bible study, and they were able to get to know our city personally.

After Curtis and Diane left, both Kristi and I were a bit overwhelmed. We had gotten so close to the purchase, and now another affordable option seemed unlikely and distant. For several days, we didn't feel like doing anything. We were discouraged. It was like we were zapped of all our energy, and yet, the ministry, homeschooling, and life had to keep going on.

We were thankful for our times in God's Word and some encouraging comments and notes from family and friends via email and Facebook, because those days were a sanctification struggle. Honestly...it was hard.

Several days ago, I read an article online that was talking about how the kindest thing God could do was to disrupt OUR plans. Wow, was that article ever timely. It really slapped me around spiritually. We are daily refocusing our trust and confidence on our sovereign God. The God who knows all things and can supply anything, to anyone, at anytime.

We would ask you to continue to faithfully pray for our housing search. Pray that we will follow and trust God in everything, even in this housing search.

We've had to shift our mental gears back to looking for houses.

More walking around the city.

More hours looking online.

More phone calls.

More house viewings.

And more opportunity to live out the Gospel in our lives.

To be continued...

GMSA Missionary Conference 2012 Part Two

Continued from part one...

The flight over the Andes Mts. was amazing. Majestic peaks, valleys in the shadows, all handiwork of our Creator.

Upon arriving in the capital city of Montevideo, we made our way to the camp ground over 6 hours away where the conference was going to be held.

The GMSA missionary group photo. Our missionary co-workers from the countries of Chile, Uruguay, and Argentina.

The annual Thompson family photo. Terry and Carol Thompson (serving in Florida), Andy and Kolette Thompson (serving in Salto, UR), Dan and Liz Thompson (serving in Lican Ray, Chile) and our family (serving in Antofagasta, Chile).

During the conference, there are business meetings, preaching sessions, field meetings, and time to relax.

The main speaker this year was Dr. Dave Burgraff from North Carolina. His sessions and workshops were a great blessing to the missionaries.

Our GMSA co-workers who serve in Chile.

After a week of conference, it was back to the bus terminal to travel back to the capital in order to catch a flight back to Chile.

Waiting for the bus to arrive.

Click HERE to view all of our photos from our trip to Uruguay.

GMSA Missionary Conference 2012 Part One

Each year the GMSA missionaries gather during the summer for a week of conference and encouragement. This year the conference was in the country of Uruguay. In part one, we will share about the first leg in our journey.

We flew from Antofagasta to Santiago. The flight only takes two hours compared to 17 hours by bus or car.

Antofagasta from above...

While in Santiago, our family was able to visit several established churches. Above, is the church in the Micalvi neighborhood.

We were able to encourage Pastor Manuel Rivas and family during our time at his church.

We visited our GMSA co-workers, Jonnie & Carolina Rae, at the Monte Verde church plant in a Santiago suburb. The church just purchased and moved into a new building.

Each time we visit Santiago, we try to visit some language school friends, John & Laura Neimeyer. They serve with Baptist Mid-Missions, planting a church in southeast Santiago. It was so great to see their family again.

David even had time to play one round of golf with three other ABWE missionaries. This was a special blessing to play with them and relax a bit. It's been three years since David played golf.

After our time in Santiago, we jumped on another plane headed over the Andes. Come back for part two...