Hello Everyone, it’s been a while since my last update and much has transpired. While I have wanted to update you on everything of late, I have been struggling to find time to sit down and write, and to find exactly what I want to share. However, recent events have remedied that dilemma.
To get you up to speed, we travelled through Peru, served in Bolivia for a month, and have been in Chile for over a month now. While I have incredible experiences from Peru and Bolivia I want to share with you when I return home (like hiking 31 miles into a jungle), for now I will share with you how God is working in San Nicolas, Chile.
Last month as we were preparing to leave Bolivia for our our prearranged ministry hosts in northern Chile, we received word from the office that we were being redirected to help with a relief effort for forest fires burning in southern Chile. By the time we arrived, the Chilean Government, WYAM, and other disaster relief organizations were already serving in the worst affected towns, so our host pastors delivered us to help farmers in the outlying areas who would not receive assistance otherwise. The fires were already out, but we served for a few weeks by rebuilding burned down fences. The farmers were overjoyed to have us, and kept us busy digging holes, setting posts, and stretching wire.
A quick contextual note, Chile is very modern and developed. The highway and infrastructure systems here are equivalent to those of the USA; it actually felt a little bit like home when we crossed into Chile. At the Bolivian border crossing, the highway literally turns from a dirt road into a four lane divided asphalt highway with guardrails, brightly painted lane stripes, highway signs, and patrol cars. The towns and cities have landscaped parks and town squares that are irrigated and manicured with utmost care. The capital city has skyscrapers, a new and extensive subway system, and many upscale residential and commercial areas. It was a nice flavor of home after months in less advanced countries. However, with its economic stability has also come more liberal perspectives on public policy, education, and religion, just like in the USA. Our hosts explained that the prosperity of the nation has come with a general falling away from and disregard for God.
After rebuilding fences on several farms, the pastors began to find other ministry opportunities for us. This is where the story begins that I want to share with you.
Pastor Aldo Zepeda and his wife Andrea were one of our hosts. They started a church in their home in San Nicolas, Chile last year and are meeting regularly with a small group of about 20 members. Aldo is from the northernmost part of Chile, about 1,300 miles north of San Nicolas. Andrea was raised in San Nicolas. They married in 2012 after serving together in Brazil as missionaries with YWAM (Youth With A Mission). Now with young children, they are continuing their calling to missions by inviting the community into their home and holding church services in their living room. In an effort to serve their community and build relationships after the fires hit, they requested for a World Race team to come help with the disaster relief.
Andrea works in the local public schools in an administrative position. In Chile, English classes are a requirement for all students, and students begin studying the English language in kindergarten. However, the schools have few English teachers who can actually speak English fluently. Andrea knew the English departments would be eager to have native speakers visit their classes, so she asked them if she could bring our team to practice conversational English in the classrooms for a few weeks after our time with the farmers. She explained that we were missionaries and would share about our faith and missions experience.
A few blocks down the road from Aldo and Andrea live Gama and Annie, a young couple from Honduras. Both were raised in Christian families and love the Lord. Three days after their wedding last October, they packed up and moved to Chile, simply because they sensed God calling them to be missionaries here. They didn’t have any contacts in Chile or know what God wanted them to do when they arrived. After landing in Santiago (the capital) and spending a few days, they met someone who introduced them to Aldo and Andrea. Gama and Annie then moved to San Nicolás to serve in Aldo and Andrea’s church. Gama took up leading worship music in the services.
During Annie’s childhood, her family hosted American foreign exchange students in Honduras. Through living with the Americans, Annie unintentionally became fluent in English. When she and Gama arrived in San Nicolas, Gama got a job working at a sawmill. They were living on his wages until the forest fires burned down the sawmill, leaving them unemployed. They began using their time to pour into the church and assist with outreach to the community. They lodged part of our team in their spare bedroom and accompanied us to ministry with Aldo and Andrea each day.
The principals at the schools granted Andrea’s request to bring our World Race team into the classrooms to practice English. More than accepting our request to share about our faith in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, they even encouraged us to talk about our missions experiences and what we were doing with the World Race. They wanted the students to know what missions was and the cultural experiences we had encountered as missionaries. The principals weren’t even Christians themselves, but eagerly organized a meeting with us and the English department to plan our involvement for the coming weeks. It was evident God had given us favor with them so we could share Him with the students and teachers.
For two weeks our World Race team and Annie helped with classes in the schools. Aldo, Andrea, and Gama came along to invite the students to church. More than anything, the English teachers wanted us to have conversations with the students so they could hear English spoken by native speakers. We shared our personal testimonies, answered questions about American culture, asked about Chilean culture, and spoke about our faith in Jesus Christ. The teachers gave us freedom to talk about anything we wanted. We taught the stories of Zaccheus and Jonah to the elementary school kids and shared our World Race experiences with the high schoolers. We even taught them the English versions to songs they knew in Spanish. Each day, Annie helped translate to keep the conversations moving with the students.
The effort was a gold mine of blessings and an answer to Aldo and Andrea’s prayers for God to establish His people in San Nicolas. In the elementary school, we met a 4th grade boy named Esteban who asked us to meet his parents after school. We visited their house and learned they were Christians who were new to San Nicolas. They were seeking a church to join and attended Aldo’s service that Wednesday night and then again on a Sunday. After the Sunday service, Esteban’s father told Aldo his family has plans to join the church. That was one blessing. Another blessing was that the principals offered Annie a job when they realized the extent of her English fluency. They wanted her to help translate for a new CHINESE teacher from China who could only speak Chinese and English. Annie would translate the Chinese teacher’s English into Spanish so the students could learn Chinese grammar LOL! The timing was a blessing for Annie and Gama, since they had recently become unemployed. Oh, and get this, another blessing was that the Chinese teacher is a CHRISTIAN!
During our first week in the schools, Andrea met another family new to town. They had come to San Nicolas because of the good schools for their kids, but were also Christians on fire for the Lord. Andrea invited them over for dinner one night to get to know them. Andres, the father, had recently quit his very profitable career as a directional driller for Halliburton to be closer to his family. In the process God got ahold of him and gave him a heart for missions, so they also arrived in San Nicolas unemployed and seeking how God wants to use them there. By the time we left, a friendship was fast developing between this family and Aldo and Andrea. It was another answer to Aldo and Andrea’s prayers for God to establish His people in San Nicolas.
God’s sovereignty was more evident with every day we went to the schools. We became increasingly aware of how He was drawing His people to this community to accomplish His work. It was like He was raining Christians down on San Nicolas. He brought Aldo and Andrea together though they had been born 1,300 miles apart. Then He brought Annie and Gama from Honduras, our team from the USA, the Chinese teacher from China, Esteban’s family from Santiago, then Andres and his family. Andres had been born in Mexico, studied in Europe, and drilled all over Central and South America. However there is no oil and gas in Chile, so we laughed about how his profession is basically useless in San Nicolas. It was awesome to see God provide a translator for us through Annie and a job for her just when she and Gama needed it, through the English she “accidentally” picked up as a child. We were continually amazed by how God gave us favor with the school and community leaders, who weren’t even Christians, to enable us to share Jesus with the community. The mayor of San Nicolas was so pleased by our involvement in the schools that he even asked if our other team in Ninhue 15 miles away would like to go into the schools there. He had connections with the mayor there and would gladly put in a good word for them.
Furthermore, when we had arrived at Aldo and Andrea’s house, they were praying about constructing a temporary facility for their church to meet in. For tax purposes, they had filed with the Chilean government to become a registered church and the laws in Chile require the church move into an official building within a certain timeframe. With the paperwork nearly complete, they were praying for a place to construct a structure that would meet the requirements of the law. Their plan was to wait a few years and save money to build a more permanent church building later. They asked us to pray with them for clear direction for the church. Two days later, they received permission to construct the temporary church on a nearby property. Aldo couldn’t contain his excitement. Later, he drove us to another empty lot and explained that the mayor had donated that site for construction of the more permanent church later. Anyone wanting to deny God’s activity in San Nicolas would have a hard case to argue.
I wanted to share this testimony to encourage you that God still bringing about His kingdom. We weren’t even scheduled to go to San Nicolas until the fires hit. Through this experience He’s shown me He will move when He’s ready to, and in incredible fashion. How is He working around you?
We have three months of of this incredible privilege left. After Chile, we head to Argentina, followed by Uruguay and then Rio de Janeiro Brazil. Thank you for your partnership, prayers, and encouragement.
Blessings,
Neal
