Our new Web Site is officially up and running. It has a new name - "ChileMission.org". The previous web site "MissionsAlliance.net/Chile" is out-of-date and no longer unavailable. Now, we have new, updated Email addresses that match our web site, which are listed below (they are also very easy to remember). Please use these new Email addresses in place of any others that you may have and disregard the Email addresses we listed in our previous News Note. We apologize for the confusion and thanks for bearing with us.

General address	JesusIsTheWay@ChileMission.org
Katie Hayden	Katie@ChileMission.org
James Coons	James@ChileMission.org
Jack Swanson	Jack@ChileMission.org
Janine Swanson	Janine@ChileMission.org

We have also updated our Photo Gallery on the web site. It now contains all of our ministry photos and much more.  It’s there for you to use and you can click here to view it:

www.ChileMission.org/Gallery.htm

Technology is sure great when it works. Through Vonage, one of the new Internet “broadband” communication companies, we now have a California-based phone number we can use to call you and to receive calls from you. We pay $25.00 monthly for unlimited calls to the U.S. and Canada, with no other charge. To call us here in Chile, those in the U.S. and Canada are only charged for an inside-the-U.S. phone call.

The new number is: 626-771-0492.

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.

National Missionary Convention

Janine, along with James and Katie, will be attending and representing us at the National Missionary Convention this year in Atlanta, the weekend before Thanksgiving. This is the eighth year in a row that we will have had a booth at the convention and we hope that many of you will be able to attend. In addition, as always, she will have a room set aside to meet with supporters and other friends on that Friday at 12:30 p.m., so stop by our booth to find out its location. Janine's time in the U.S. will be very limited, so if you are able to see her there, we’d be very blessed.

CLICK HERE for more information on the National Missionary Convention.

Recent Photos and Developments

 

Jack, Janine, Katie and James

As we’ve mentioned, both James and Katie will be in the States at the same time during the National Missionary Convention, seeking support to return to Chile and to continue working with us. They are both deserving of the prayer and financial support that God raises up for them. James is now engaged to Maritza, a key Chilean member of the mission team and they are due to be married in June 2006. Although James mainly focused on helping the mission in the areas of communication and administration, they together are planning to develop an outreach to adult singles and couples in 2006. Maritza is a very special woman and currently coordinates the church’s women's group and helps coordinate the English Club outreach. Katie’s main ministry focus will continue to be centered primarily on teens, as she develops a discipleship ministry among teen girls.

 

Jayme, Janine and Jack – Oct.2005

As you can see from the above photo, Jayme keeps growing and getting older (he’s now fifteen), while we keep getting younger. Well, at least you can believe the part about Jayme! 

Spiritual Victories and Defeats

Every week contains both spiritual victories and defeats. It’s almost like a conglomeration of the whole of ‘Wide World of Sports’ in that sense. The victories, though, are many and come in the form of a healed relationship, a deeper relationship and/or friendship with someone, a solid step forward toward knowing and following Jesus in a real way or a new child, teen or adult becoming a part of us. Subtle or obvious, the victories are recognizable and give God glory. For example, Marcelo led one of this month’s topics at Men's Group. He was prepared and did an excellent job. He’s also been very responsible on the job (he works for us) and is a steady member of the church. The baptized Marcelo is quite different from the drug and alcohol-consuming Marcelo who walked the streets of our neighborhood just over one year ago, sleeping where he could and stealing - a young man without hope, without value and without direction. He came to a crossroads in his life at the local drug rehab center where Jack teaches every other week- and he chose Jesus. It’s been a year and through our collective investment in him, he continues to mature and grow in the Lord. Marcelo represents just one on-going victory amongst many and better yet, everyone in the neighborhood knows him. In the above photo, he is standing between co-workers Carlos and Luis. Please pray for Marcelo, as nothing significant in life can be put on “automatic pilot”. We are his family.

Ignacio, on the other hand, came to the same crossroads at the same drug rehab center this year, with one difference. While he also recognized the need for a change in his life and came to understand that Jesus was the answer, making a decision to be baptized by Jack in May, he has been unable to “turn the corner” he needs to turn. He continues to struggle with his addiction and is in danger of losing both his family and his job. In his late forties, he wants change, but has basically withdrawn from the church, unwilling to give and do what it takes to live a new life. Several of us have invested love, time, prayer and encouragement in both Marcelo and Ignacio, but with very distinct results.

There are ways in which Chilean culture works against people like Ignacio. For one, people inside of families are allowed an amazing amount of freedom to choose their own path without the interference or mutual commitment on the part of others in the family - even those in authority. For example, as a general rule, parents do not feel that they have the right to control the decisions or actions of their children - even when that child is not yet a teenager or is a child living at home. In Ignacio’s case, he feels that he has no right to ask his children to accompany him to church services. There are few absolutes, outside of going to work or to school.

Secondly, the past strongly controls the future - be it a mindset, a tradition, a family example or a set of circumstances.  Everything around a person tells them that their future has been pre-determined by their birth and/or childhood. Thus, because they seriously doubt that Jesus/God can change their lives or futures, they are unwilling to believe that He can. In addition, many times those closest to them will not be able to give them the support they need because they themselves are “chained” to empty beliefs or to a defeated past. Combined with that, it is very cultural to have one’s feelings “catered to”, which means a shortage of willing and prepared “caterers”. Many Chileans know basically nothing about Jesus or about the power of God.

The silver lining in this “cloud” is relationship and that is our hope with Ignacio. In addition to praying for his heart and mind to open, our visits and time together are valuable in the building up of a relationship with his whole family. An excellent article was written for Global Missons Network, Inc. on the importance that personal relationships play in Chile (and perhaps other Latin countries) by Joel Searby. He, along with his wife, Jennifer, spent over six months with us between 2003 and 2004. The article, entitled, One church, Many Churches, appears in the 2005 first quarter issue of E Journal. His article can be accessed by registering to receive the on-line journal at their website, www.globalmissionsnetwork.info.

Relationships are not only at the center of outreach to Chilean non-Christians and new Christians, but also very necessary in obtaining commitments from established church members to help weekly in one area of need or another. Often members’ commitments follow their formed relationship with other members and even those that should be mature and responsive don’t always step forward because you haven’t spent enough time building relationship with them personally.

In conclusion, Chilean missionary life is definitely challenging, but at the same time extremely rewarding. We hope that what we’ve been sharing with you through in this News Note has given you a better idea of what we do and of how we go about it. In spite of cultural differences and obstacles, God makes himself known and felt, thus, more and more people are coming to know Him. Even in this morning’s church service, there were two new visitors. One was a good neighbor who has started attending the Thursday afternoon woman’s group. The other was an elderly male neighbor, who was attending a church service for what he said was the first time in his life. As a church, we have been and continue to be richly blessed.

Your steady prayers are so important - thank you for them and PTL!!

In a Spanish-speaking, relationship-building Jesus,

Jack and Janine and the Chile Mission Team

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