Dear Friends,
We pray that you and your loved ones are doing well, in the
midst of this very different year. It is already September, and many people
have been expressing that 2020 has felt very long, but also flown by,
simultaneously! It is a strange phenomenon with so many things still up in the
air, and yet new opportunities each day to praise God, enjoy peace in Him, and
share His love with others...
Over the past few weeks we have started having some friends and
families over as the weather is getting nicer and people are feeling better
about interacting with some outside of their immediate family. And a couple
weeks ago we all were able to go to Melipeuco and spend some time with Luis and
Andrea after Gus had a meeting with an engineer. (We even got to play in the
snow for ½ an hour!) It is very encouraging for all of us to get out and about
a little bit, and mostly just to be able to do more things in person with
friends!
Gus continues to connect on a weekly basis with other
missionary guys here in the south over Zoom in a couple different meetings, to
encourage and build each other up. And I just recently started doing the same
with the missionary ladies/wives. We are also regularly messaging back and forth
with or calling local friends and acquaintances who are going through hard
times and need help, counsel or just a listening ear, some of whom have come
over to our home for a couple hours to share their hearts. I’ve been able to go
to two different friends’ houses in the past couple weeks to hear what they are
going through physically and spiritually, and pray for them. These are opportunities
we don’t take for granted anymore!
Besides ministry, it has been good to keep busy physically this
past month with different projects: Gus built shelves for our closet and desk/shelves
combos for our bedroom (the kids and I helped sand and paint them), and on the
sunnier days we’ve all been working together outside, fixing up the property
little by little, and prepping for building the fence in October, hopefully. Our
continued desire is that this would be a fun, relaxing and rejuvenating place for
guests who need to recharge or even reconnect with their Creator!
Here are some specific prayer requests for September:
- Next week (Sept. 6th-14th) we will have a missionary
family of five coming to stay with us. Please pray that it would be an
encouraging time for all, that relationships would continue to be strengthened
and that they would continue to adapt well to ministry in the south of Chile
(even as ministry looks so different this year!).
- Please continue to
pray for Agustina, a 9-year old girl who has been struggling for a couple
months with spiritual and psychological issues, and who was just diagnosed a
week ago with thyroid cancer. Please pray for healing for her and for wisdom
& peace for the whole family as they go through this treatment process.
- Thank you for your prayers for Simón, a teenage young man who
has had really bad digestive pain. Thankfully, testing came back negative for
stomach ulcers, praise God! Please pray for him to make good choices in his
eating habits and pray that God would heal him and his family from the damage
apparently caused when the father left them (which has led to enormous
emotional stress and anxiety).
- Pray for a few different friends who used to attend church
(most even served in different ministries), but left a couple or a few years
ago after feeling misused, misled or abandoned in different ways. Right now they
are each struggling in their faith and reaching out for help and spiritual
friendship. Pray that God would use us to point these friends back to Him, not
covering up the wrong done, but showing through our words and example that God’s
love never fails.
- Pray for a team bonding/retreat day planned for September
26th (Lord willing). All 4 other missionary families here in the south of Chile
will be coming to spend the day at our house, so we can all get to know each other
better in person and encourage/challenge one another in this work. It looks
like restrictions on travel and private gatherings groups of more than 10 should
be over at that point, so prayers appreciated that everything works out, as this
opportunity to all get together in person would be a big energy and spiritual boost
right now for the team!
- Please pray that the regular weekly zoom meetings would
continue to be an encouragement and healthy challenge for all of us engaged in
those.
- Please continue to pray for the kids and I as there are a
couple months left in the school year (and as we have increased visitors we’ll
need to get more creative with class schedule).
- Thank you for praying for our health as a family! We are all doing well and feeling great (maybe just some sore muscles from the outdoor work this week!), none of us have been sick at all the past few months, and we know that this is a blessing!
As always, we are so very grateful that you stand in the gap for our family and the ministry here, partnering through your prayers, financial support, and encouragement! There is a deep purpose in everything that is going on and we are honored to serve in this work alongside you!!
“Therefore,
my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give
yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in
the Lord is not in vain.” (1 Corinthians 15:58)
Please let us know how we can be praying for YOU this
month as well!
In His Hands,
Gus,
Karissa, Jeremy, Elizabeth, Cristina & Diego
