Just wanted to give an update from Chile! I wrote this end of last week, but there’s some lag time because we’ve just had very full days.
In some ways, it’s been hard to “land” here. Our travel from Bolivia to our ministry site here in Chile was split up over a week to accommodate all the different travel schedules we were working with. Arriving in Chile, it was clear that God had heard our prayers. We pretty much pray about everything in life right now, so several of us had been praying for a placement in the far south of Chile. Then, when we heard we’d be in Patagonia (YAY!) where it’s cold, we started praying for a fireplace. And then to top it off, I also asked the Lord if we could have a clean dog we could cuddle with. There’s tons tons tons of dogs all around the world, but most of them have some combination of fleas, mangey-patchy hair, and itchy teets. Not quite the type of pup you just want to cuddle up with. Upon arrival, we were happy to walk into our new house, complete with a fireplace and…a fluffy puppy! Yee!
Our ministry has been fairly scattered. We’re still trying to figure out who in the world race administrative team replaced our ministry information bio with “professional painting team”; in the meantime, we’ve painted several offices, hallways, fences, and a lot of tires. Just doin’ the Lord’s work, I suppose.
We’ve also been blessed to have been part of several churches here in Punta Arenas. Because there was a last minute change in our ministry contact, we are staying with one organization ( YWAM /JuCUM ), working with one church (Kabod), doing construction work for a preschool (The Happy Place) of another church (Gloria y Paz), and are also working with youth meetings at another church…We realized earlier today we don’t actually know the name of that place! (We met the pastor at a prayer meeting and he asked us to come lead worship at his church…he picked us up that night and we did!)
It’s been beautiful to see the passion and unity among the churches and pastors here. Last week, we finished with our painting job a day early, so we were asked to lead the morning prayer and worship time for the pastors of the community. For three hours, we sang in Spanish and English, prayed (and translated prayers), and locked arms with our brothers and sisters in leadership here in the south of Chile. Pastor prayer usually has about 30 different pastors present. It is a time for them to be in the presence of God, encourage one another, and cry out for revival in this region and in Chile. It was a beautiful sight to behold, and an even bigger honor to get to help lead worship for it. Praise God!
It’s cold here, but not miserable. I am staying in a room with three other girls, but I have my own bed (!) and covers(!). This is no small miracle, as it’s been 10 months since I’ve been able to use a blanket to sleep with OR since I wasn’t constantly sweating from my upper lip.
Other daily life things: We eat a lot of bread here. Most days it is served with pate and cheese or something called Dulce de leche that tastes a little bit like caramel. For lunch on the construction sites, we’ve been served like royalty, and are realizing that our stomachs have definitely shrunk because a normal sized meal has us all wide-eyed.
I used foam soap the other day and just couldn’t get over it. Soap! In Foam! Ha! I’m used to there being no toilet paper, so to have soap just purposefully put in a funny way to make it more squishy in my hands? Well, that just made me laugh. #PreparingForCultureShock
Our team is enjoying poking the fire, acting weird and not judging each other, and drinking lots of delicious hot drinks. We’re in disbelief that it’s the end of the race, and we are all trying to find ways to prepare ourselves and wrap our minds around our current reality.
Less than a week until we head to our FINAL DEBRIEF!
