Pan de Pascua… Both a blessing and a curse. For the month of November and spilling into December, our team spent our days making thousands of kilograms of Pan de Pascua.
Nueces (nuts)
Pasas (raisins)
Frutas Confitada (candied fruit)
Canela (cinnamon)
Ron (rum)
ETC. ETC. ETC.
The vision for the ministry was to make and sell enough bread to replace the roof on the church. Last year holes and leaks in the roof cost the church a fortune in damage to the sound board they use for worship on Sundays. So with our help making and selling bread, we could help raise funds to get this church a new roof!
It’s the middle of summer here in Chile, with temperatures in the high 80’s and low 90’s every day. We made bread three days a week, and on the days we were not making bread, we flooded the streets walking from shop to shop, salon to salon, person to person selling the treasured Pan de Pascua to the Chileans.
And let me tell ya— it was hot, it was sweaty, and it was EXHAUSTING. Bread making might not sound like much, but in an enclosed kitchen with no air-conditioning making over 2000 pounds of bread a week actually wipes the energy right out of you.
On this particular day, our team gathered around in prayer before entering the streets of Los Andes to pray for the people that we would be in contact with.
‘Lord today I pray for fruitful conversation. Today let us interact with someone who’s curious to learn more about you, let our smiles be contagious, let our hearts be seen, and let the joy of the Lord break any language barrier that may be present.’
It’s quite entertaining watching a bunch of native English speakers learn how to communicate with what little broken spanish we have. It usually involves us asking them to talk slower in order for us to MAYBE understand one or two words they are replying with… On this specific day the team approached a man sitting on a bench outside a shoe store.
*Enter Micky Mouse*
Just kidding, but serious…
“Hola, quieres Pan de Pascua?”, we say.
To which the man responds with, “Hi.. I speak English…How much is the bread?”
It’s not very often we find an english speaker, so the team jumped at the opportunity to converse. The team absolutely loves and adores relational ministry, which at times can be very hard in other countries if you aren’t fluent or don’t have a translator with you that day. So we made our way over to the bench, eager to know more about this man, and excited that the Lord had answered prayers so quickly.
He’s the store owner.
He actually owns multiple shoe stores in town.
He’s been to Disney World.
He LOVES Disney World…
HE’S BEEN TO DISNEY 24 TIMES…
WHAT.
This man sat and talked to the team for over 20 minutes about all things Disney, and THEN he ended up buying 5 things of Pan de Pascua from us, and invited us over for dinner with his family.
Disney World: coming in clutch since 1923.
I love this culture. Everything they do is out of a heart for relationship. I can’t even count on one hand how many times we’ve been invited to dinner, to ice cream, to hang out, to swim, etc. Chileans LOVE spending time with people. They love meal times and family and cherish the moments together.
And what started as a simple question about bread, morphed into a conversation about the universal love language, Disney, which morphed into an invitation to build relationship. And my most memorable moments here in Chile have been the ones involving a lot of laughter and conversation around the dinner table.
We met his children, his wife, and his mother in law, all whom were so generous sharing their home and their food. He barbecued ribs and different types of meat for us to try, and we brought s’mores— the most iconic American treat. And a woman from the church who went with us that day to this man’s house, was able to share the gospel with the mother in law. It was such a beautiful moment. The woman cried and cried and cried. And we were able to pray over the family and invite them to the Christmas service where we will be singing Christmas songs, putting on a super powerful drama, and helping the children of the church with a song.
And that day I was reminded of three things:
- Disney literally runs the world.
- Every. Single. Moment. is a chance to share Jesus.
- The table is one of the most powerful tools for ministry.
