Yeah, I’m honestly sitting at the good ol’ writer’s block. So, I’ll just talk about ministry. That always brings ideas.
Saturday, December 2nd
Like normal, this day we had the program called Recoleta Kids where we play sports with kids as a ministry opportunity. This week was a special-ish week though. One of the leaders of the program, the woman from Brazil that I mentioned in my last blog, is an advocate/semi-professional for sexual abuse prevention. That’s what she teaches about as her “job.” I’m not sure if she gets paid or not because she’s mentioned before that she’s looking for a job somewhere to work in her field. All I know is that she goes to schools and churches and teaches about sexual abuse prevention.
Every week for Recoleta Kids there’s a specific subject from the Bible that the leaders use games/sports to teach. This week, as mentioned before, was a special-ish week because it was about sexual abuse prevention. The leaders used games to teach things such as “You should be wary if someone mentions something explicitly sexual like this,” “You should be wary if someone touches you here,” or “NOBODY is allowed to touch you here” etc.
It was hard for all of us to get involved because, well, not everyone speaks Spanish or is able teach things in Spanish, either. So, our role as the people from United States is to just play when necessary or sort jerseys. Little ways to serve.
Sunday, December 3rd
This day we had our normal Sunday with church and things as such. But, after church, all 14 of us got split into different groups to go spend time with the members of the church for lunch at their respective homes. Other people came to the members’ homes as well. There were kind of multiple parties that everyone went to. As for the experiences at the homes, the stories varied. Some people received treats such as ice cream with dulce de leche while watching a movie. Some people had really awkward conversations with people because they didn’t speak Spanish. My group, me and Abby Elgard, had a great time at our member’s house. We went with Hermano (Brother) Crisnel, a Haitian in the church. He actually just had a baby girl and he, his wife, and his baby were blessed in front of the whole church on this same day. Pretty cool way to get introduced to someone. We went to his house afterward and his house is literally around the corner from the church so that was pretty nice to walk to (some people had MUCH longer trips to their members’ houses).
[This is a footnote because I can’t figure out where to put this. Because lots of people were coming to the party, Hermano Crisnel asked if he could borrow some chairs from the church, so we brought them with us on our way over there. This information is necessary for later.]
When we arrived, he asked us to wait outside while he went inside. Turns out, his entire family had been cooking authentic Haitian food. After two hours of waiting and having incredible conversations with the other Chileans and Haitians that had come to the party (that’s a-whole-nother topic), we finally got served some delicious food. Granted, some of it was as unexpected as finding a robber in your home, but it was all definitely amazing (unlike finding a robber in your home…).
Among the food was Haitian fried chicken (I considered moving to Haiti immediately after I took my first bite), Haitian lasagna (lots of meat and sauce, much less of the pasta part), and a salad mix of cabbage, carrots, and some spice that had so much heat that I think the devil spit on it to make sure it was spicy. All in all though, all of it was delicious and the conversations were beautiful too.
We stayed for about four hours and the party started to die down a little bit so they asked if we wanted to return the chairs back to the church. Abby and I were starting to get a little (lottle) fatigued so we agreed and I think we mentally communicated that we saw this as a way to get home and relax. Nothing against the people at the party, they were super fun and nice. This was just the end of our work week and we were ready to rest and recharge with the Lord. So, we walked back to the church and returned the chairs. After returning the chairs, Hermano Crisnel asked if we wanted to come back to his home again. Part of me stuttered and tried to say “Nah, we’ll just stay here” but then I thought, “Alright, just a half hour more.” So we went back.
That was actually a better decision than I thought it was going to be. We ended up having a very deep conversation about the Lord with Hermano Crisnel (who spoke broken Spanish just like I do sometimes, which was perfect for us). We shared our testimonies and some life stories. It was a great time. I think we actually only stayed for a half hour unintentionally. It felt like a few minutes, but after we had our deep conversation, Hermano Crisnel suggested that we went home. So, all in all, good decision.
Monday, December 4th
This day was adventure day. The majority of our group went to go hike up a nearby mountain (only one of a thousand around here). From the stories I heard, they had a great time. I stayed home because I’d been planning to work on some music on my laptop. I actually got a decent amount of work done so I was happy with the results. Other than that, Monday was kind of a relaxed day. ’Twas a great start to our “weekend.”
Tuesday, December 5th
This was our Sabbath so we all took time and intentionally spent time with the Lord while also resting. My squadmate, Jacob, started making a picture slideshow on his laptop (he’s highly into photography) and asked me to make a song for it. So, I spent about two hours working on a simple, piano/guitar cheesy slideshow song (think about when you see people on tv running into fields of sunflowers with their kids and smiles as white as those teeth you see in Colgate commercials). It was a lot of fun and he wants me to make more songs for the rest of the slideshows he makes in the future. We’ll see how that develops.
Later in the afternoon, a group of us went out to the mall to get wifi and chat with people back home. I got to call my mother and best friend Ian after two weeks of not having called them, so that was nice. We spent about six hours at the mall (oops…).
Wednesday, December 6th
This day was another normal school day with the kids. We went to our respective schools and such. I helped teach P.E. as usual. Nothing majorly momentous. We had the English class that we teach at night but I didn’t teach because it was the other group’s turn to teach. We have two groups that teach so that not everyone has to teach every single time. Also, on average, there are about eight students and 14 of us native English speakers. Not a very solid ratio that requires everyone to be there. I’ll be teaching on Friday though. Looking forward to that.
Thursday, December 7th
Again, another average school day. Spent time with the kids at the school and watched a group of kindergarteners sing “All I Want for Christmas is You” except it was in Spanish. That was quite interesting if I do say so myself.
After school, I came home and my teammate Connor immediately asked me what time it was. I told him it was 1:30 and he told me something that I enjoyed quite a bit. He said “Over at our school the basketball coach is playing with the players and I told them that some other Americans were going to come at 1:30. Do you want to go?” Of course I said yes, so Jacob and I went and walked 20 minutes to Connor’s school to play basketball. 7 other high school guys showed up and we played some fun pickup basketball that I haven’t been able to do since Ukraine. We played for about 2 hours and I got to start building some relationships with the guys there. Also got to talk a lot to the coach as well. Everything seemed to go super well and everyone seemed really happy. I think it probably helps that I speak Spanish (this is a gift from the Lord and I will never say otherwise). The coach told me that they’ll be having this every Tuesday and Friday after school and I’m welcome to come if I want. Again, of course I said yes. This is actually perfect because every time we have scheduled ministry time is either only in the morning or late at night. So, barring any serious schedule change, I should be able to come to every opportunity. Going forward, I’d love to continue building relationships, eventually share the Gospel with these men, and disciple them with the Lord. Please pray for that as we have less than a month left here in Santiago. Pray that God would open doors for me to continually be able to come and also for opportunities to share the Gospel.
Conclusion
We’re going to see how the rest of our ministry is going to shape up following next week. Next week, all schools are finished and their summer begins. That being said, 3 of our 5 ministry days will be wide open because we won’t be at the school. Our host, Pastor Daniel, has told us that he wants to do a lot of street evangelism and go knocking on doors spreading the Gospel. We’re excited to do whatever the Lord has for us. Please pray for us going forward.
