...But God!

 Dear Friends,

As always, thank you so much for your prayers over these past few weeks: they have been very felt! God is leading and providing in ways that only He can, and He delights in prompting His children to bless others through prayer, finances, encouragement, direction… and it is such an enormous blessing to be able to partner with you in this ministry!!!  

In the past weeks, we’ve received a couple very generous gifts toward car repairs, for both the Mitsubishi and the faithful blue Kia (that greatly needs some TLC)! This is a huge answer to prayer to have the finances to fix up the Mitsubishi to sell, as well as get the Kia back to being a dependable second car, especially considering all of the short-term teams we are hosting this year! So, thank you very much to those who have given so generously toward these expenses!!

Last month at church as a leadership team, we made the decision to not start home groups up yet this year, but instead doing something different for a couple months: we decided that it’s important that the leaders connect with each church family or individual in their homes (if they are willing!), getting to know them better, sharing a short devotional and praying for any needs. So, we’ve started those visits, in pairs representing the leadership team, and those have been really encouraging and meaningful times!

Even just talking about visiting and praying proactively as a group has led to other important clarification or counseling meetings with people. We really appreciate your prayers for this stage of visiting and all that God is bringing through this: 

(1st discipleship meeting with Xime)

Last Saturday, we had our yearly Volunteers Workshop at church! It’s always good to get back to the basics as a group about why we do what we do, what serving really means and the blessings that God has in store for us as we seek first His kingdom. We started together as a group, and then split into workshops talking about different ministries: worship, sound, greeters, Sunday school:

We have an intern, Daiana, here this month from ICI Los Heroes in Santiago! While here, she’s serving on the worship team as well as in children ministries. Daiana has also helped finalize the setting up of a new projection software for church worship which we are now using, and she trained a few of the youth to use that program at the Workshop on Saturday: 

Last week, we had a short but very sweet visit from Gus’ sister Niki and her husband Brad! What a special time with them. We had a lot going on in ministry that weekend (Niki and Brad jumped in to help out with that too!), and then we were also able to have some fun family time:

Now we are in full “Easter prep mode” at ICI Lautaro! On that Sunday, we will have at least one baptism in the gym immediately after the Easter service, and then will all have lunch together there too. Gus (with the help of a couple brothers from the church) has been working very hard building new round tables for the church! The only tables we have are rectangular, and those obviously don’t allow for the same level of conversation and interaction the new round ones will: 

(enjoying the result of their hard work!)

Also, we have never had baptisms here at church for lack of an actual baptistry to have them in! So, we just bought a 400-gallon water tank, and this next week Gus will build a ‘front' for one side of this plastic tank to give it a nicer look:

Besides cleaning, setting up and decorating, this next Tuesday we’ll paint at least one wall and install some new lights, to give the stage area at church a fresh look. All this in addition to our responsibilities of prepping the worship for that day, sermon, short Easter movie for the Sunday school class, little bags of candy/chocolates for the kids, the Easter lunch for the whole church… 😉

We really appreciate your continued prayers for God to lead, give wisdom, clarity and energy during this busy and important time! And in the midst of the ‘physical prep work’, please pray that the Lord would be drawing those He wants to be at that special service, as well as touch the hearts and give conviction to those who should take the public step of baptism!

Then, on the 28th, a team of men from Santiago will be arriving for a week of very specific & needed work: Replacing the leaking 2^nd story roof over the classrooms! We’ve been purchasing materials this week for the work that will start up in 2 weeks: 

Please pray for each of those team members that are preparing to come, pray for good weather that week of outdoor jobs, and pray for protection in travel and work for each person coming to help with this immediate need!

As most of you are as well, we’ve been very busy these past few months, and we’re looking at a lot going on over the rest of the year too. We are very grateful to God for the work that He has given us and the way that He is leading in ministry. At the same time, we recognize that the first ministry He has given us is our marriage and our family, and it is SO important to continue to strengthen those bonds, deepen those relationships! Yes, we really LOVE serving God as a family (it is the hugest blessing!), but we also just enjoy living life together in general!  

It had been several months since Gus and I had been out on a real date, so in the past couple weeks we’ve gone out a couple times: once for dessert before going shopping for things for church, and then a few evenings ago we went out for sushi! 

How fun to just connect somewhere different, get some time for just the two of us, and talk about God’s blessings in our lives! We are reminded of this Truth that we celebrate every day, but in a special way during this upcoming Holy Week: 

“We were all by nature children of wrath... But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ! By grace you have been saved….” (Ephesians 2:3b-5)

Thank You, Jesus, for the gift of forgiveness and grace You gave us at the cross, that gives us hope and strength for each new day and for eternity!

And thank you, friends: for your faithful prayers, encouragement, and financial support! Thank you for taking the time to read our letters and updates. Our family and ministry are so very blessed by your faithfulness, love and care!

 Because of Jesus,

Jeremy, Cristina, Liz, Diego, Gus & Karissa