¿ Benevolence

The church conducts a mercy ministry in which food is received and then distributed to members in need, and there are also funds set aside to help other types of needs.  We have come to the aid of various people in the neighborhood with funds, food and/or clothing, as well.  We also sponsor periodic clothing bazaars during per year, at which people can trade clothing and shoes that are in good condition.  At the same time, this is a ministry that must continue to develop in other ways if it is to better carry out its work.

¿ Children

Children and their welfare have in many ways been a main ministry focus of the Chile Mission Team. In her almost three-year stint (Feb. 2000 to Nov. 2002) as director of a children's home in the same neighborhood as our present ministry site Janine helped turn the home from collapse into a home of discipline, much love and encouragement and changed lives of children. 

Returning to Chile in May, 2003, after their second furlough,  the Swansons moved into the same neighborhood of the children’s home and began a Saturday outreach to area children. With Janine no longer associated with the children’s home, it allowed the Mission to concentrate more on area families and on the construction and development of the ministry site purchased at the end of 2000, a block away from the children’s home. With the help of Chilean friends, Richard and Paula Castillo, the children’s outreach took hold and began to open up relationships with many in the neighborhood. Others began to come and help and a vision began to grow toward the neighborhood, culminating early in 2005 with the planting of the new church, Iglesia Cristiana "JESÚS es El Camino".  It now staffs and directs the children's ministry.  Pictured above is the church's March, 2007, VBS.

The Iglesia Cristiana "JESÚS es El Camino", begun in February, 2005, is a church made up primarily of people of the neighbor or that live nearby.  Sunday school classes and Sunday services, as well as the weekly meetings of various groups within the church are held in various rooms and houses located on the property.

The church has a good mix of children, teens, young adults, and men and women. In the church service, we have from 30-50 people each week. Many of these people also attend Sunday School, which is divided into classes for adults, teens, and children. The church service and Sunday School are both open and informal atmospheres, where everyone feels welcome and cared about. God has been blessing us with growth, both spiritual and in number of people attending.

Teams of two guide each of the church's ministries and groups.  Each ministry team (consisting of its two coordinators and those others that help lead or teach) is encouraged to meet once per month, and also once per month, all of the ministry and group leaders come together to bring the other teams up-to-date with ministry "happenings", discuss specific problems, make known specific needs, and, in general, discuss special up-coming events carried out in common. 

A core leadership team of men is in formation, as the church continues to form and articulate its identity and purpose in the community.  The church also hopes in 2008 to more specifically identify its most likely receptive target audience for further growth, as well as work on the development of cell-type groups to enhance Christian relationship during the week.

The year of 2007 was a year of much more interaction with the neighborhood surrounding the church, through VBS activities, weekly soccer games and other activities with children and with teens in our local plaza, and the hosting of special events and presentations in the street.   

¿ Community Outreaches

We, as a church, are looking for healthy ways to plant our roots within the community - especially in ways that Jesus’ ministry through us can be carried out. Such opportunities have come about primarily through teachings at and interactions with nearby live-in drug rehabilitation centers, such as pictured in the adjoining photo.  There are also members of the church that we have been able to help direct to and support in such treatment.  

Another opportunity has come about in two local school in recent years, through the visits of churches that support Jack and Janine.  They have attended English classes in those schools, building relationships with those teachers and school administrations.  The hope and prayer are that those interactions in turn lead to other opportunities in the future with those schools and with others.

One of our weekly activities in the past has been English Club. Past attendance has been as high as 50 when we had visitors from the States, but we have had to suspend its regular meetings due to the lack of "gringo" personnel to help guide and develop it. It is an excellent opportunity for Chileans to learn and improve English skills, which we offer for at no cost. More than just teaching Spanish, our goal is to see relationships form and confidence built. In the middle of it all, Bible truths and terms are also taught and used to raise understanding of English.  Two current members of the church--both baptized in 2007--started participating through first coming to know us through English Club.  PTL!!!

The church's Men's Group continues to develop in approach and membership. Its meetings are varied in content and the emphasis is on Christian growth, real relationships and confidence-building.  We strive to become men of God that influence others. This type of ministry is especially valuable in Chile and in the church, as Chilean men are very private and, in addition, many churches have few men. Our church has been blessed with a good group of participating men.

 

Service projects have included helping one member do some much-needed repairs to her house and in helping two  other families replace leaky roofs. In most cases, people of our neighborhood have extremely limited resources and as one good minister friend shared, "Women tend to make and build relationships face to face, while men do the same, shoulder to shoulder.

 

The men's group has also fellowshipped with the men from a nearby drug rehabilitation center, both in going to the center and in hosting those men here (pictured here).

 

 

Please pray for our men as they grow together and reach out to friends. They are serious about their role in the church, in their families and in their other weekly encounters as well.

¿ Ministry Site / Construction

In 2000, we purchased our 10x50 meter ministry property (32 feet wide by 160 feet deep), totally overgrown with weeds and with a one bedroom adobe house in poor condition. This property has been in a state of metamorphosis ever since.

Already finished and in use is the two-story multi-purpose building ("salon") at the rear of the site. The first floor consists of a large meeting room, small kitchen and two bathrooms. On the second floor is a large one-room unit with bathroom (future plans include a small kitchen and laundry facility). Our workers have truly done an excellent job and the building has been a real blessing.

The duplex directly in front of the rear salon is also basically finished, with one of the two houses being occupied by a family in the church (it is important to maintain a presence on properties here) and the upstairs of the other house making up that duplex being used to house our mission offices.  Each of the duplexes consists of two nearly identical houses. The first floor consists of a living/dining room, kitchen and half bath. The second floor consists of four bedrooms and a full bath. Each house is about 1,000 square feet.

Shown here is a view (taken in August, 2007) from the rear of the property toward the front, from the side passageway that leads to the rear multi-purpose building. As work progresses toward the completion of the other, front duplex (scheduled to be completed in late 2008), a project will be designed and submitted to the government so that abandoned children can live with Christian foster parents on our site. This project may include using at least one house for providing housing for others in need. In Chile, programs are virtually non-existent for battered women, mothers in need with their children or 18 year old adults who can no longer live in children’s homes. All those who live on the site will participate in the church and in other activities designed for and/or available to them. The idea is to foster Christian commitment and growth inside of a healthy, positive atmosphere.

At present, our construction crew consists of two full-time workers: Juan began working with us in early 2000 and Carlos began in late 2004. God has blessed all of the workers that have helped on this project with safety and harmony and we are extremely grateful. 

Juan and Carlos pictured here in December, 2007, in one of the bedrooms that they have completed in the front house of the front duplex.

                                                                                   

This is a photo Camila and Paulina, two girls that lived in the children’s home down the street where Janine was director for two and one half years, beginning in February, 2000. Camila, abandoned by her mother and without a father, was adopted in 2004 to a couple in Italy. Paulina and her two brothers were returned to her unmarried parents in 2003, both with problems of addiction. In many ways, they are indicative of the type of children and circumstance that we will be looking to help, when we are approved to receive children into our care. We have chosen to focus on abandoned children, as they have no family which is concerned for their welfare. We would like to provide a Christian foster family for those children, thus helping them to grow within the family of God at the same time. If possible, we would be looking to work with the Chilean government to provide adoption possibilities for these same children.

The church’s Women's Group meets weekly in different homes, doing the study, "EXPERIENCING GOD".  They also coordinate certain events, such as the periodic clothing bazaar for the neighborhood, and certain special meals in the church.  They also have made contact with a Christian drug rehabilitation center for women, where they sometimes lead devotionals. Chilean women often work full-time in their homes, take care of the children and everything that goes with that and provide for all the needs of their husbands. They shoulder these responsibilities usually alone and thus have very little opportunity to "be attended to". 

This is a photo taken at a special Mothers' Day outdoor breakfast hosted for mother's of those in the church in 2007.  It was a very special day.  The church has several young women members, most of them married and with a variety of educational and social backgrounds. One of the challenges has been in gaining the participation of those women who can attend in the weekly study.  Still, those that do attend are being knit together in good ways, as they become God's tool to minister and encourage other women in the church.

¿ Young Adults

The age group referred to in the United States as young adults, is referred to in Chile as youth.  Thus, the youth group in the church is made up of young people from eighteen to twenty-eight years of age and teens are called adolescents.

 

Our group of young singles and young married couples began meeting in 2004, under Richard’s (shown on the left) leadership. They presently meet weekly, as a home group.  They also are the main leadership guidance system for the church's teen group, connecting to the teens in one-on-one discipleship, in the teens' Saturday meetings and outings, and in the teaching of the teenage Sunday school class on Sunday mornings.  God has brought several fine young adults into the church. 

The launching of a youth (teen) group in the church in 2005 was seen as a way to minister to the needs of the three teens in the church, as well as a way to begin reaching out to the many teens in our neighborhood, the majority of whom are very closed to the idea of "church".  Thus is the challenge is before us!! 

Since their beginning in April, 2005, the group’s activities are quite varied, with attendance varying greatly at times.     Teen pregnancies, alcohol abuse and drug use are three very big problems in Chile, due to the lack of an alive Christianity and the power and influence of empty and unhealthy heritages passed down from parents to children. There is a lot of potential in the group, especially with 2007 being a year focused more on the equipping of our teens (in terms of discipleship and participation in events away from the church property).  As an example, in September, 2007, several of our teens and some accompanying adults attended a youth leadership/praise gathering in Mendoza, Argentina (pictured here).  They have also participated in other area-wide teen events near Santiago.  Please pray for our teens!

Jack has been actively involved in the Chilean Bible-training Institute these past several years. The institute is dedicated to the teaching and raising up of Chilean pastors, teachers and church leaders in different parts of the country. It  underwent a transformation in approach in 2006 to make it more accessible and used by more churches. Jack and Vic DeLeon, another Christian Church missionary working in southern Chile, are a part of this process and will continue to encourage, occasionally teach and support this important effort on one level or another into the future.  Pictured here is a graduation in the Church of Christ in San Carlos, Chile, in 2003.

What is clear, is that the future and vision of the church rests in the hands of its own pastors, teachers and leaders. Lack of vision and lack of unity and  have held back the Chilean Christian Churches/Churches of Christ.