We hope that you like the new name of our News Notes --- “CHILE CONNECTION”. It was actually James’ idea to change it and we like it a lot. It speaks to what we hope our newsletters represent to you—a real information connection to what you are a part of with your prayers and finances. We continually give God thanks for our partnership with each of you!!

Speaking of giving thanks, we had a very nice Thanksgiving lunch for our workers, including Humberto’s family and Maritza, James’ fiancée. We held it on Friday instead of Thursday so that Jayme could be there. In spite of the fact that I, Jack, fixed the turkey and dressing (because Janine was in the States), everything was delicious. With thirteen of us at the meal, we barely had enough of “Tomás” (Tom, in Spanish - ugh!) left over to make soup the next day. We all looked forward to sharing this very special tradition across cultures and, of course, we had plenty to thank the Lord for. Our team lives for Him.
 

Follow-Ups And The Future

Just a reminder about our new U.S. phone number that you can use to call us here in Chile. It is 626-771-0492 and registers to California, but rings here in Santiago. You will be billed as though you were making a call to California on whatever calling plan you may have. The phone is in our office, so the best time to call is between 9:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m. on weekdays. This half of the year (between Oct. 30th and next April when the clocks change again) we are two hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time, three hours ahead of Chicago and five hours ahead of California. You can visit our website by clicking on the following link to see our latest information and photos: www.chilemission.org.

National Missionary Convention

Janine returned on December 2 from her visit to the U.S., where she, James and Katie represented us at the National Missionary Convention in Atlanta, Georgia. We will now contact the university students that expressed an interest in doing a two-month internship this coming June and July. Janine's trip went very well, but we are VERY GLAD to have her back! Katie will be due back in Chile before the end of the year and James around the middle of January. To mark your calendars now, next year’s NMC will be held in Indianapolis on November 16-19 and all three of us (Jack, Janine and Jayme) will be there, maybe even with a couple “U.S.” kids, as well.

Our Next Furlough

We are planning to be in the U.S. sometime in August of 2006, to be available for church visits until year-end. Our plans are to return to Chile sometime during January 2007. We would love to hear from you churches about possible dates to visit and we look forward to being able to be with you in person. Please click on this link or contact us at Jack@ChileMission.org. It’s amazing just how fast that time does pass, as it will have been over three years since our last extended time in the States.

Our Women/Our Men

The women's ministry group continues to grow through women inviting their friends. They meet every Thursday in the afternoon - studying, talking, building friendships and growing as Christians. Different women lead the lesson each week, in which they’ve been studying the Francine Rivers book (Janine’s very favorite author), Melancholy (but in Spanish, of course), about Bathsheba. They also recently took it upon themselves to plant a new flower garden in front of our rear building, where we hold all of our meetings and church services. It’s a pleasure to see them arrive with smiles and enthusiasm and to see all of them benefit, as well. It’s becoming an excellent neighborhood outreach, with more and more friends joining the group. On Thursday, December 1, they hosted a Christmas edition meeting, with a special lesson, food and gift exchange. Please keep praying for them, as God continues to work in their lives!

 Women's Special Christmas meeting.

5^th Wednesday special get-together, with Plenitud men present

The men's ministry group has also been blessed and is growing. It is structured so that every first Wednesday evening of the month is used solely for prayer and for planning work projects for the new month. The other Wednesdays, members of the group take turns leading the lesson time, for which we are using Jim George’s book (in Spanish), The Influence of a Man of God. It’s been an excellent study.

Every fifth Wednesday, however, we plan something completely different, focusing not on studies, but on just building friendships in an informal way. Thus, we invited the men of the Christian live-in drug rehabilitation center, Plenitud, here in La Cisterna (and where Jack teaches every other week) to join us on Wednesday, November 30. We men cooked hamburgers, presented a great skit, sang, shared testimonies and ended in prayer, but most importantly, we showed them that men belong in the church and that they belong being and working together as a powerful force in the body. Something that I, Jack, have seen many times in the men who have left the two centers that I have taught at during these several years in Chile, is the tendency of men finishing their time at the center to return home and not plug themselves into a local church and then fall again into drug use. Of course there are many other factors also at work, but active church membership is certainly a main one. We all need that connection in our lives - not to “warm” a pew, but to find life in the body. Our shared evening with the men of Plenitud was fun and significant. Pray for them.

Thank you, too, to those of you who are praying for Marcelo and Ignacio (see our Sept/Oct News Notes). Unfortunately, Ignacio continues to stay away from the church, although we have had several contacts with him. His family has moved and he now rents a room very near us, living alone. He still has his job, but it is impossible to reject God’s help and power and at the same time find strength and solid ground to stand on. Marcelo also has his moments of choosing wrong places to pass his time and then end up drinking, but he stays connected and continues to grow in the Lord.

And Now, Our Construction Progress

Adobe house in place 

Well, at least a little remains

The two victors

WHAT adobe house??!!

As you can see from the above photos, construction progress doesn’t just include buildings “going up”. God has certainly blessed our site progress, as the razing of the adobe house means that we will soon be ready to start excavating to put in the trenches for sewage, plumbing and phone lines and for the footings of the other duplex, which will stand at the front of our site and duplicate the duplex already built.

Special gifts and your prayers and financial support have and are making possible the development of our ministry site. On Saturday, December 17, our children’s group will be putting on a special evangelistic Christmas presentation for our neighborhood. The platform will be set in front of Humberto’s house and the people will be able to stand inside the front part of the site. We’ll look forward to sharing those pictures with you and God bless you all, from all of us!

Love, in a neighborhood/world-penetrating Jesus,

Jack and Janine and the Chile Mission Team