...and the school year is underway!

It’s a beautiful Leap Day in Lautaro! Today was also the first day of our homeschooling year (remember, it’s still summer here in the southern hemisphere!).  It can be very challenging to teach various ages/grade levels at the same, as any homeschool family knows, and adding a baby brother, bilingual classes, busy ministry and a recent 400-mile move to the mix doesn’t make it any easier!  But it is such a great blessing to be able to teach them at home, and they do enjoy it!

The benefit to starting classes this week is that Gus has time to help me out before the next team arrives this Saturday. It is a huge encouragement to have his support in setting up the routine, since I can easily get discouraged when things don’t start smoothly. Teamwork is a great thing! (smile)

This morning was fun, the kids did well, and after schoolwork we all went over to the plaza right across from our house for a bit, to enjoy the sunshine!

 

I know there are important ministry projects currently going on and in the works for the near future, but Gus and I have always considered our family to be our #1 ministry. We always say this as a couple (and remind ourselves of it), but sometimes it’s easy to get so focused on other ministry goals and overlook certain aspects of our family life.

So this week I’d like to ask you to please be praying for us as a family (and for me in particular as the primary care giver & teacher while Gus is working) in this new school year that we’ve just started. Specifically, that it would be a fun, eye-opening year, that the kids would love learning, that I would be patient & energetic and full of God’s joy & peace.  And that we would take the time to enjoy the sunshine and bike rides! (smile)

Thank you for your support for our family!

In His Love,

~Karissa

A Very Full Week in Lautaro

Hola from the Araucania region of Chile! We have been in Lautaro for over two weeks now and are getting settled into our new home and church family!

Our new rental home!

prepping the wall panels

We've hit the ground running! Though a couple more suitcases & boxes still need to be unpacked, we are already in the throes of ministry: a construction team of fourteen has been here the past 10 days (they just left this morning), so Gus has been with them all day almost every day, working, translating and transporting! The classroom walls are going up in the school being built at the church, so that’s very exciting, visible progress!

and they're up!

We hosted two people helping with the construction this week in our home, and we also had a spontaneous 5-day visit from two of Gus’s aunts and a 6-year-old cousin from Santiago! So, our mostly unpacked and barely set up house has been quite full and sleeping quarters have been tight! (smile)

Now there’s a 2-week break from construction work, but another team comes March 5^th-14^th and then a third team arrives one day later, staying from the 15^th – 24^th! So most of March is going to be busy, busy, busy!

the cut is healing well

Prayer requests:

- For physical health (against colds and other illnesses as we’ve changed climates) as well as physical protection (i.e. Gus split his finger open on the work-site with a switch-blade that wasn’t properly locked! Thankfully one of the team members is a nurse and was able to stop the bleeding, bandage the cut and check on the daily healing progress.)

- For continuing to adapt well as a family to the weather, this house and the ministry here;

- For good relationships to continue to be built with members of this community;

- For provision for our monthly budget needs.

Thank you for your continued support through prayer and financial gifts! We are excited about what God is doing in this city and region of Chile, and are blessed to be sharing in this work with you!

Because of His Name,

Gustavo, Karissa, Jeremy, Elizabeth, Cristina & Diego Guevara

P.S.: Now that we’re here in Lautaro, our goal is to write a new blog post every week or two to keep you updated on current happenings. So, please subscribe to this blog if you haven’t yet and/or check back regularly for updated news! (wink)