"I want to thank you all again for your many prayers and support for those of us in Chile right now. Please continue to pray for the church here as we work through everything that has happened. Please pray for those who have suffered losses through this, that God will provide both with emotional comfort & hope as well as in the physical needs many have. Please be praying for our team and church family here to have wisdom and compassion in sorting through how we can help."We met together as a team this evening (finishing just about an hour before curfew) to discuss how we can start helping out. For now the decision is to focus primarily on church members and their families, as several of them lost homes or businesses. In addition, many people are out of work, which exacerbates the problem. Please pray that God will provide for the needs of all of the missionaries and other families in the church and that we will be able to be a blessing to many others who do not yet know Him.
"Please pray for me as I seek to follow God's Spirit in how I can be of help here. There are many people with physical needs and a myriad of different ways to help, so it can be a bit overwhelming sorting through all of it. As a team we have talked about helping people with food, clothing, and reconstruction. I have also been praying about whether God would be leading me to offer my house for someone from the beach community (Iloca) who has lost a home, so please pray that God will guide in that decision as well. And if He leads me to host someone, please pray that God will provide and that He will bring the right person here and use me to speak to them and draw them to Him.
"This weekend our church family had been planning a baptism in a river near Curicó, but the earthquake has shaken a lot of people up (oops, again, no pun intended!), so they decided to do the baptisms in a pool in Juan & Adriana's backyard. Please pray for the baptism to be a blessing to the church family and to be a witness to others. It looks like four people will be baptized: Pamela, Mandy, Gabby, and Danny (who just accepted Christ a week or two ago). Please pray that they will all continue to grow in their love for the Lord. Please pray also for Cynthia, who has not yet been baptized but is hesitant to do so. Thanks!
"While we are thankful for the safety God provided for our church during the earthquake, we are all very sad to find out that my former roommate, Laura, lost her father this week-end when he had a heart attack. Laura finished her term here in September and thankfully has been able to be with her parents in the months since then. Praise the Lord that she was able to be with her family in this time, but please pray for God to fill them with His comfort & peace during this time.
Praise the Lord for the blessing of many more opportunities to share with my neighbors and get to know them better. Those of you who have Facebook may have seen the interesting cookout we had as a neighborhood last night, when I got to try cow intestines for the first time (they taste like liver for those who want to know)! I now have a list of several neighbors to be praying for and have had the blessing of getting to know several of them rather well over the past few days.
"Please pray that God would continue opening doors and guide our conversations to Him! Thank you all so much for your prayers!! God is using them to open doors, encourage people in their loss, and guide us in how to serve Him best! May He continue to bless you all with the joy of seeing His mighty works throughout the world!"
Prayerfully consider a gift to the Chile Earthquake Relief Fund. 