It is much colder here in Tocopilla, Chile than I was expecting. We have beautiful weather with lots of sunshine, zero rain, huge mountains, and a glorious ocean view but it is always windy and my World Race wardrobe usually does not suffice in keeping me warm enough. But there is always coffee. Lots and lots of instant coffee. I’ve also never consumed such a huge amount of bread, rice, and pasta in my life but walking at least 6-7 miles per day makes the carb load even out…I think.
There are hundreds and hundreds of stray dogs here who are so friendly which makes it even harder not to want to adopt every single one of them (Jon doesn’t allow me to pet them…. cruel, I know).
I’ve been picking up new Spanish phrases and even though my accent is terrible and I’m pronouncing words wrong half the time, the people of Chile are still so friendly and kind!
In the mornings, we wake up, walk a ½ mile to the church to cook and eat breakfast, then either work on fixing up/renovating the church here or start street evangelizing which involves going door to door asking people if we can pray for them (it’s a good thing the Lord doesn’t only speak one language).
After lunch, we go back out to different neighborhoods and continue to pray for the people of Tocopilla and talk to them about Jesus until dinner time. We end our nights with team testimonies, feedback sessions, church Bible study, or special house visits.
On Saturdays we spend our mornings and afternoons hanging out with inner city kids who live in the projects (most of them have never even heard of Jesus Christ) and we play games with them, sing songs, and teach them about the love of Christ. They speak Spanish, we speak English, but by the grace of God we are still able to disciple and impact these amazing kiddos.
Starting tomorrow, our team will begin teaching English in the town’s schools here. We will be paired in 2’s and have been assigned to different schools and age groups.
We’ve been very, very busy here in Chile and have been told that missionaries (especially Americans) have rarely ever come to this city in the past. We are the very first World Race missionary group to come here and we know that God has us here for so many reasons. Enjoy some pics of our time here so far!
Lookin’ good, boys.
Working on the church!
Street evangelism!
Door to door prayers.
We met this beautiful woman, Magdelina, when we asked to pray for her. We stayed a while and got to share the sweet love of Jesus with her. (PS- That’s our ministry host, Pastor David!)
Doin’ the thing.
This was a special house visit we made to a family who our ministry host knew and we were able to speak life into him and his wife. We cried, we laughed, we prayed over them, and we ate tiny pastries.
My attempt at taking a picture with my favorite stray- Señor Hairy (He likes to follow us when we walk to church each day).
Balloon attack!
Teaching the kids how to play ‘Duck, duck, goose.’ (Pato, pato, ganso in Spanish).
We taught the kids about Jesus and even taught them how to pray!
I want them all!
Lots of earthquake damage in the church.
Girls room!! (named the Estro-den by Matthew). Basically, we stay up too late laughing and being weird every night so it’s like having a slumber party for a whole month!!
We met this woman on the beach and talked with her about Christ and invited her to church!
We are so excited and honored to be the hands and feet of Jesus here in Chile!! Thank you for everyone’s prayers!
Jon & I are still in need of donations to keep us on the field. We greatly appreciate any amount of donation and have been so thankful for those who have faithfully given to our mission.
Hasta la vista, baby!
