Our team gets the awesome opportunity to spend our next 2 months in Chile!! Whoo!! Our ministry here is baking and selling 4,000 kilos of Pan de Pascua, a traditional Chilean Christmas bread that’s very similar to fruit cake. Our team has had a lot of fun dressing up like elves and yelling through the streets of Los Andes. While the Pan de Pascua is fun, my favorite ministry moments haven’t been during scheduled ministry.
Our time selling bread in the streets has given us a great opportunity to minister to the people that we come in contact with. There are 2 extraordinary men that I’ve met that I want to share with you today.
The first man that we met is named Carlos. His English was flawless and he learned it all from watching Friends. He owns most of the large shoe stores in Los Andes. He’s been to Disneyworld 27 times! He goes every year; one year with his family and the following year with just his wife. He’s become so knowledgable about DisneyWorld that he plans trips for other families. Haley, my teammate that LOVES Disney world, and Carlos talked for at least 30 minutes about everything Disney. At the end of our conversation, he bought 5 pan de pascua from us (WHAT) and we got to pray for healing for his father.
The next man that we met was also named Carlos! Kirsten and I happened to run into him while we were on a run one night. We noticed his paintings and we had to stop to marvel at them for a while. He used spray paint, paper, and layering techniques to make some crazy cool street art. After we watched him make a piece, we talked with him about his job, his family, and his travels. He spends 3 months of every year in France doing street art. He has a 24 year old daughter and a 7 year old granddaughter. He talked to us about his church and about how he thinks that we’re called to be good people so that we can go to heaven. We got to share with Him about what a relationship with the Lord looks like and how it’s so much more than just being a good person and going to church.
When Chilean people see me, a girl with hair as white as her skin, they’re interested. They want to know where I came from and why I’m here. I stick out like a sore thumb. But it means that people are curious about who I am before I speak a word. It has caused some great opportunities to speak out and minister to people, even when we’re not on the clock for ministry hours.
