Tucked into a neighborhood in the hills surrounding Puerto Mont sits a little house with arrangements of flowers both natural and fake filling the windowsill by the front door. It blends in with all the other houses except for the streamers draped across the gate and garage roof, leftovers from a grandfather’s birthday. While it seems that this house is just another part of the quaint suburban scenery, it houses a couple who are world changers and kingdom bringers. Eva Sanchez completed school through the fourth grade and then helped with watching the babies and cooking as well as working as a vendor of baked goods. Later on she married her husband Mr. Sanchez, a police officer and man of God. She raised five children who all follow the Lord and in turn taught and are still teaching their children how to love the Lord and serve Him.
When we arrived in Puerto Mont around midnight on the 10th of April, she opened her home to us, putting fresh logs on the fire, filling us with hot tea and delicious coffee cake. She speaks no English, but her smile conveys paragraphs of affection and her servant heart is genuine. With my broken Spanglish and sign language, she told me that her table has been surrounded by missions teams from around the world and that she loves having us in her home.
One of the ways that we have connected (and I have learned more Spanish) is through the “Cocina”. Eating four meals a day in Chile, especially in southern Chile, is very common. There is breakfast, lunch, tea and dinner. Decked out in hair nets and aprons, Mami Eva invited us into her kitchen to learn how to make traditional Chilean food, laughing as we worked on rolling our “r’s” and practicing the correct pronunciation of “papa”. This word can mean either potato or dad based on intonation and apparently we talk about eating dad enough that we needed some help. Molly Fae (one of our leaders staying with us) has those two words down.
Mami Eva’s life is an example of someone who has been amazingly faithful with the people that the Lord has entrusted her with and because of this the people in her family are following the Lord to the second and third generation! She shares her home and heart without holding back and after a week of searching for hostels and fending for ourselves in a foreign, Spanish country it almost brought tears to my eyes when she walked us to the bus, told the driver to make sure we made it to the plaza in downtown Puerto Mont and then got us settled on the bus.
Though we have met many faithful, passionate pastors, I have learned the most from this woman of God. She is a prayer warrior, spending years praying for a pastor until the Lord healed him of a sickness that he had been dealing with for quite some time, faithfully proclaiming the miracles that God has done in her life and loving the people around her simply with actions. In between the sometimes hilarious miscommunication and bites of delicious dulce de leche cake, it has been a sweet stay with a beautiful woman of God. Today, we board the ferry to head to the island of Chiloe. There will be no translator, so please be praying for the Lord to give me and my teammates the gift of Spanish tongues.
Life Updates:
I saw how God gives good gifts when…I realized that my birthday month was in a country filled with roses. (I always get yellow roses on my birthday, but my God is so big that He gave me a whole country full)
My favorite Chilean tradition is…the kiss on the cheek to say hello and goodbye. It is so warm and personable! The first time I greeted one of the guys at the hostel this took me off guard, but now I love it.
A super memorable moment was…having a radio interview to share what the world race is. It was my first time on radio and it was so fun!
I am struggling with…the late night lifestyle here in Chile. Breakfast at ten and dinner at nine or later and bed around midnight is normal.
Thanks for reading!
