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This has been
quite a full and pivotal ministry year for the DCCC Chile Mission Team and a
significant step forward toward the establishment of Jesús Es EL CAMINO
Christian Church. God has provided key people as the Chilean component of our
team, given us the construction help and means to build a beautiful multi-use
building as a center to begin meeting in as a church and base our ministry out
of and has blessed us with a growing number of participants in those ministry
outreaches. We recently came together as a team to start forming a vision
statement and reflect about 2004. Below are each person’s highlights from their
respective areas of ministry. Although we know that you were really looking
forward to reading Humberto’s, Richard’s, Paula’s and Claudia’s comments in
Spanish, we have taken the liberty of translating them into English for you.
I guide the Bible Study on Wednesday nights. What has impacted me most has been the interest displayed by everyone attending to grow and to learn more about Jesus. The group has grown in size to ten, including my own two children and we have the desire to keep growing in number. I believe with all my soul that GOD is with us and that in Him we are all victorious!
For me, this was a year of “rest” in spite of being at the ministry site almost every Saturday night to coordinate our outreach to older youth (16 to 25 years old) - “rest” in the sense of feeling God’s presence, listening to his Word, praying together and through the singing of great praises to Him. Few youth attended, but those that did found something special and are committed to continuing. Through it all, God is good and his timing is right for all things.
I know that the time is upon us to mature and work hard at developing this important outreach, but for now I do feel God’s protective, sustaining hand over this new ministry and his blessing over its future. I am connected to something I love.
I give God thanks for this past year in which I learned much of the love and promises of God. I’ve received much joy in seeing all of the changes (in some cases, significant changes) that have taken place in the children that participate in the Saturday “Kids' Corner”. It brings me joy to see children that before didn’t know anything about God today knowing who it is that loves and cares for them more than anyone. In addition, they’ve learned much from the Bible. I’ve come to learn that without God, we are nothing, for it is Him that fills our lives and it is Him who has brought each and every child to Kids' Corner, setting them on a path to become a child of His.
I give infinite thanks to God for his wisdom, blessings and accompaniment and I give Him thanks for the others in our ministry that have helped me do this and for making Kids' Corner possible. Thank you, Lord.
I want to express the joy I feel in being a tool in the hands of our Lord. Between the several mothers that I was able to have an influence with, I remember one in particular that especially benefited, improving her family, personal and economic situations greatly. It impacts me to think how the Lord use s each one of us in what He would accomplish. I’m also very grateful for the time I was able to spend helping with the children on Saturdays. I want to continue reaching souls for Christ.
The highlight for me in 2004 was being to receive and work with the church work groups from the United States, to show them the work, to work along side of them and to see how they also worked together as a team for God and for us. The churches that came here gave their time with much love, touching many lives.
After spending one whole semester in Chile with the Swansons in 2001, God laid it on my heart to return for at least two years. Since my arrival in October, I have seen first hand that He is definitely moving in this place. I am awed watching kids grow and learn about God and watching people mature in the Lord through the Bible Study and through the older youth group. The English Club continues to grow, as well and each day I am reminded that we are here for a purpose, as God molds us into the team He will use.
I am excited to think about what the future holds for me here, being involved in the church plant, working with teenage girls and helping with ministry to women. May God continue to use us mightily as He brings people from different cultures together to complete his will.
My heart lies with children - - especially children with little or no hope. Thus for me, it has been very rewarding to see what God has done in the lives of the kids who participate with us. The same holds true for the impact we have had in the life of any of the children in Jayme’s school, where I’ve been helping with their English learning and working with the principal to improve learning conditions.
Our Thursday night English Club at the ministry site is attracting more and more people of all ages. Many aren’t Christians and what they don’t realize yet is that God wants so badly for them to know Him and call Him Lord and Savior. It’s very satisfying for me to see this part of our ministry take root and grow. Its also been very interesting to me to be a part of a team of both Chileans and “Gringos” looking at the cultural issues, including the reality of how our teammates and others see us - we are educated, have cars and live in a real house, instead of a room with a shared bathroom. We think and act differently and sometimes I can’t help but ask myself what they really think of us or wonder about us.
My highlights from 2004 include:
seeing seven team members, both Chilean and North American, develop four new ministry outreaches, work at forming themselves into one team,; seeing great, continued construction progress at the ministry site and see neighborhood people respond.
seeing ministry identity and purpose taking place, especially in the recognition of all of us that this identity and purpose represent the seeds and roots of a new church.
seeing adults, youth and children respond to something that God is doing.
receiving five young people as part of the two-month internship we offer every year, led this year by Joel and Jennifer Searby, from Lincoln, IL.
making progress in my ability to “lead” this team.
having more supporting churches come to Chile and to know that more are due to arrive in 2005!!
seeing as very possible the completion by mid-January of the process to submit our corporate by-laws to the government to gain official recognition as a church.
appreciating the positive, inviting, Christian atmosphere of love, teaching, growing and care that exists at the ministry site and within the ministry team.
This week, we had our first church service at the ministry site, with over fifty people in attendance to celebrate Jesus’ birth. Humberto preached. On a personal note, we are so excited to have both Jordan and Julian in Chile for Christmas, Jordan arriving from the Dominican Republic after completing her semester there and Julian arriving from Azusa Pacific University, where he is in the middle of his first year of college. It would be wonderful if next year’s celebration could include Jonathan and Family as well.
We sincerely thank each of you for your prayers and financial support during 2004 and during these past years. The ongoing cost of construction over the past three years, with much still to do, has left us at the end of 2004 with no available ministry funds to continue both summer ministry outreach and make good building progress. If your spiritual gift is giving, we boldly yet humbly and gratefully ask you to consider helping our ministry with an extra gift of financial support before the end of the year or in January. We’ve accomplished so much with your help and in kingdom terms, that’s how the Lord operates.
All of us here truly do wish all of you a very special Christ-filled Christmas!! May 2005 prove to be a year of God’s significant moving in your life…..to win a few through you!
With much love in a born, “real person” Jesus,
Jack & Janine and Family, Paul, Sandra and Katie
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