The Sound of Music

Dear Friends,

Music really speaks to people! This is a very obvious and universal truth: All over the world and all throughout history, every civilization, culture, tribe and socio-economic group has expressed itself through music. We use music to express our joy, our sorrow, our creativity, our struggles, our relationships, our love for God... It is a wonderful, essential tool, intrinsically woven into the fabric of all of our lives, whether we directly recognize it or not.

As was the case in both Melilla and in Santiago, Gus continues here in Lautaro to be very involved in music ministry and we are blessed to see how it can encourage and challenge believers in their walk with Jesus, as well as how it can touch non-believers & seekers, drawing them in...

Since moving to Lautaro two months ago, Gus has played the drums during worship every other Sunday, including for the church's special anniversary celebration! His participation has been so encouraging to the other musicians on the worship team (as many of you know from experience, it really changes the dynamics and flow of the songs when you have a good, consistent drummer setting the pace, literally 😉).

My talented husband has also been able to re-wire the sound system at church as well as research new equipment options and train the young sound guy. Those technical details are ones that we might take for granted on Sunday mornings, but are so important and, trust me, you can tell when they aren't working like they should!  Over the past couple of weeks, we have both received many comments from church members about how blessed they've been by the worship services and how much improvement they have heard in the rest of the musicians and in the overall quality of the sound! 😊

(Sunday Worship Team)

A couple of the guys from the worship team have started getting together recently with Gus and some non-believing friends and family members to form a blues-style band!  They are rehearsing once a week at the church, having a great time sharing and enjoying good music. This again has emphasized to Gus the strategic importance of designing a well-set up rehearsal room at the church as a way of drawing in the many gifted young musicians in this region.

There are also several people in church and in the surrounding community that we know of that would like to learn to play an instrument or learn more about music, and it seems this area of ministry will continue to be more and more of an open door into people's lives. So, as a couple, we decided that Gus should take advantage of a special study program at a music academy in the nearby bigger city of Temuco. This program lasts one year and will deepen his understanding of music theory while at the same time emphasizing teaching techniques. Upon completion, he will receive an official diploma that will allow him to teach music workshops around the country and, in approved scenarios, even teach music class in schools!

Our team leader (Miguel) has communicated that he wants this first year for us here to be one of adapting as a family and slowly getting more and more involved in the church ministries and community as everyone gets to know us better, so Miguel is thrilled about this opportunity for Gus to become better prepared in the area of music which fits so well into the overall vision for Lautaro and this region of Chile. So, Gus is all signed up and these past two Saturdays has had classes all day at the academy in Temuco!

(Back in school!)

Over this past week Gus has already had a couple of opportunities to teach some of what he learned at that first class, with our kids and with one of the youth from church! ☺️ The teaching program is not an expensive program, especially for all of what he is able to get out of it, but it does make our monthly finances a bit more tight. However, we are convinced this is a good investment for future ministry and work possibilities, so this year of adaptation is the perfect time for it and will be well worth tightening our belt buckles! 😉

Thank you for your continue prayers:

• For the kids and I here at home as Gus travels to Santiago this coming Monday-Friday for our mission organization's board meeting,
• For continued good relationships in the church of Lautaro,
• For wisdom in decisions for this year,
• For open doors in the secular community,
• For good progress to continue in the work on the school and other community services being carried out by teams that come to serve (three teams were hosted over the past month, and another few teams will be coming in the next months),
• For financial provision for our family and ministry needs,
• For good health for the six of us,
• For adaptation to the colder weather that is coming,
• And for music to continue being used by God to reach the people of Lautaro with His love & truth!

(Diego is 6 months old now!)

"Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him" (Col. 3:16-17).

Thank you for continuing on this exciting journey with us!  We appreciate your partnership so much!

For the Glory of His Name,

The Guevaras

Easter Morning Follows Lonely Saturday

Dear Friends,

Happy Easter!  Our Lord is Risen!  The phrase, "He is risen" has been said millions of times in hundreds of languages, but remains so incredibly powerful. And the fact that Jesus is no longer dead is what drives us all to keep working to extend His eternal Kingdom, by His grace and in His strength.

We will write a new ministry and family blog post later this week, but had just wanted to wish everyone a blessed Sunday!  (I [Karissa] am actually staying home this morning with a sinus infection, while Gus takes the older three kids to the church service.  We appreciate prayers that this sickness passes quickly and that no one else gets it.)

I know that some of you might not be in the "Easter mood" today...  Perhaps you've had a rough week or month or year so far, and you're not really seeing the light at the end of the tunnel yet.  I wrote something yesterday to share on Facebook, and wanted to share it here too, in case it might encourage you:

"That Saturday must have been beyond horrible... Their best friend and teacher was dead, their hopes completely dashed.

John had stood there by the cross the day before, crying, watching his close friend and leader die. But Peter had an even worse memory: the last look he had seen on Jesus' face was the pain of betrayal as Peter denied Him for the third time.

Maybe if he hadn't behaved like such a coward things could have ended differently, he thinks. But then again, Peter is still baffled by the fact that Jesus didn't let him defend Him with the sword He had told Peter to buy....

What a terrible day of shattered hope, that lonely Saturday.

Are you living through a season of regrets or confusion?
Do you feel like God has not answered in a way you could understand?
Or do you think that after your latest rebellion or failure there is no way He could still forgive you, let alone love you?

There are things at work in places you wouldn't believe right now. It may seem eerily quiet & lonely, but soon dawn will break, the stone will be rolled away and the One who was dead will rise victorious. He hasn't given up on you!"

Thank you for your continued prayers and financial support. 

May God continue to bless & encourage you today and every day. 

Because of His Death & Resurrection,

~ The Guevara Family

...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)

After a Few (Thousand) Miles...

Dear Partners,

We are back in Chile, where it is winter! (It’s hard to imagine that, isn’t it?)  Here’s a short summary of what the past few months have looked like:

Time in the U.S.

• We drove over 5,000 miles across nine states, visiting and sharing with people from 17 different churches!
• One family lent us a car for the whole three months, fourteen different families hosted us in their homes, and countless others invited us over or out for meals and sharing times.
• We were blessed to be a part of Karissa’s brother’s beautiful wedding, including all the pre- and post- wedding time with extended family!
  
  (Jeremy’s birthday party at the coast with lots of family!)
• The kids were great sports adapting to all of the driving, staying in different houses, trying new food and just in general having a different schedule than what they’re used to.
• All in all, we were able to spend almost three months catching up in person and spending quality time with family and friends, visiting with supporters, and sharing with new acquaintances. 
• We are very grateful for having been able to take this busy furlough and are thankful for all of you who gave to cover our needs and hosted our family so generously!  It was a huge blessing to spend time with you!!

Back in Chile

Our flights home went well, and everyone arrived safe and sound.  We have all been fighting colds, though, for the past couple of weeks since getting back, so we’d appreciate prayers to be able to completely get over these illnesses as a family.

Ministry:  We are back now into our ministry activities in Santiago: Gus is playing drums every other Sunday for worship as well as teaching drum classes again, while Karissa is helping in Sunday school.  This next week we will begin a counseling study with the married couple that desires to serve by leading, teaching and training other young couples.  We will also be reconnecting with the other families from the married couples’ ministry we started last year to see how everyone is doing.

Gus’ Family:  We were blessed last Thursday to go out to dinner with some of Gus’ biological family to celebrate his grandmother María’s 87^th birthday!  She is the only other believer on that side of the family. It was a special time to spend with other relatives that we hadn’t seen for a while. And most importantly, two of Gus’ aunts that hadn’t spoken to each other in three years both were there with good, friendly attitudes, which brought Grandma María to tears.  We have been encouraging them both over the past year to put aside their petty arguments and bitterness and take the step toward reconciliation, especially for the sake of their mom, and it was such a blessing to see that happen this week and to see the sisters laughing and joking together again!

 (Grandma María with her three daughters)

Baby:  As far as pregnancy, our newest little one is growing well!  Karissa is now 7 months along and in the latest ultrasound it was confirmed that we’re having a boy! So, Baby #4 is now officially Diego Eduardo!  Baby Diego’s due date is October 26^th, which will be here before we know it, and his older siblings can’t wait to meet him!

Move South:  The plan is still to be moving south to Lautaro as a family in January 2016!  That will be summertime here and a good time of year to make that transition.  We are looking forward to serving the Mapuche indigenous people there, using our gifts to minister in the local church, working in church-planting in the surrounding communities, and developing the missions training center. One of our goals during our recent furlough was to explain the project in Lautaro and communicate our current family and ministry needs. We were blessed to be able to share this with several churches and individuals that are not currently affiliated with the work here in Chile. We received a lot of positive feedback and prayer for the vision, project and needs.  We haven’t had specific confirmations of new support, though several have said that they will get back to us on that, so we are hopeful that, God willing, new financial partners will come out of those many conversations and sharing opportunities. We believe that God has called us to Lautaro and prepared us for this work, so we are confident that He will provide for and continue covering the needs for our family and ministry through those that He touches and calls to be a part of this work!  Thank you to all of those who have faithfully been partnering with us over the years, and thank you ahead of time to the new partners who will be joining!

Prayer Requests:

• Full recovery from colds/flu and good health for our family.
• Continued good pregnancy for Karissa and healthy development for Baby Diego, due at the end of October.
• New financial support to cover the amount we are short for the move south to Lautaro (we are currently at 50% of what we will eventually need to cover family and ministry budgets there starting in January).
• Fruitfulness as we continue teaching and training here in Santiago over the next few months.

Again, it was a huge blessing and encouragement to see and spend time with so many of you this summer!  We hope and pray that God continues to bless you and use you to be a source of blessing and encouragement to those around you, as you have been for our family!  May His peace and joy fill your lives and your homes!

In His Love,

Gustavo, Karissa, Jeremy, Elizabeth, Cristina & Baby Diego!

Summertime in the U.S.A.!

Dear Partners,

Warm greetings from sunny Liberty Lake, WA!  We are finishing up our first month in the U.S., so have two more months left.  So far our time here has involved a LOT of driving (and there´s more to come!), but it has been wonderful to be able to visit with many, many individuals and churches in several different states!  It´s been fun to reconnect with long-time supporters and friends, and encouraging to be able to share with new churches and individuals about what is going on in Lautaro, Chile and what our roles will be there starting next January! 

We really appreciate the generosity and hospitality of those who have opened up their homes and hearts to us, those who have invited us over or out for meals, and those who have taken time out of their busy schedules to visit with us for a couple of hours. We´ve felt loved, listened to, and cared for by so many already, and we´re not even half way through this furlough yet! It has been such a blessing to introduce our children to so many people and to see them loved on as well.  And we are excited for what is still to come in June and July as we continue visiting with others here in the U.S.!

Please pray for us as we continue traveling, connecting and sharing:

•    Pray that God would continue to direct and bless our time here, and use us to be a blessing to those around us as well.
• Pray for good health and energy for our whole family over these remaining two months (the kids were just sick for a week, but are now feeling much better).
• Pray for God´s continued provision for ministry and family needs.
• Pray for fun times with extended family and friends as well!

Thank you for your partnership in this work and with our family!  May God bless you as you seek to be a blessing to others!

In His Love,

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

Merry Christmas and More....

Dear Partners,

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from Chile!  We hope you are able to enjoy quality time with your families, as well as good "down" time to rest and reflect on His goodness!

This year of transition has flown by and we are so thankful for the work that God has allowed us to be a part of here. We really are blessed to be a blessing!  There are exciting and new things coming, so please read to the end and pray with us!

Ministry in Santiago

This next year will entail continuing with the work we are currently involved in: Gus will continue coordinating short-term teams, organizing the sound at church, playing drums on Sundays and teaching/training up new drummers. He is also on a couple of different committees in the church and the missions organization, helping to re-structure and define vision and strategies.  Karissa will continue focusing primarily on the kids' schooling, deepening relationships with other women from the church, continuing to help in the church nursery/Sunday school, and together we will keep going with the young couples' ministry and counseling individual couples.  We are excited to keep serving in all of these areas and training up new people to cover these needs as well!

2015 Travels to the U.S.

Things keep coming together for our furlough from May-August 2015: Since the last time we wrote, we have received a couple of additional financial gifts as well as being offered a car to use during our time in the U.S.!  We have been very blessed by the generosity of those who have given toward this trip as well as those who have offered us a place to stay while in different cities. So, thank you so much!! Our plan over the next couple of weeks is to firm up dates for visiting each place, and as soon as we have those we'll be in touch to schedule visits with as many churches and individuals as possible!

2016: Another Move!

In other exciting news, we wanted to let you know that we have been praying over the past few months, asking God if Santiago is the place where He wants us to stay long-term or if He has something else for us in the near future. And over these months, we have sensed and seen confirmation that our job here is to serve, equip and train for a couple of years, and then move on to another place with specific church-planting and project needs.

After praying, talking with our supervisors, and meeting with the pastor/project leader at the church in Lautaro (a city in the south of Chile where Gus has taken a few teams this year), we have peace that God is leading us to that location, and have committed to moving there in January 2016!  The church in Lautaro has a huge vision and project that includes a school that is currently under construction, a housing facility for some of the students and a missions training program, in conjunction with church-planting goals in the many rural, indigenous communities surrounding the city.  That region of Chile is the poorest and has the highest percentage of indigenous peoples, who have traditionally been shunned by other Christian communities. (See this short video from Pastor Miguel in Lautaro, sharing a bit about the vision and project: https://vimeo.com/109575711)

Our roles there will include:
1) Integrating into and serving in the local "mother" church in Lautaro,
2) Helping in the next steps needed for the school and missions training projects, and
3) Building relationships in surrounding communities toward the future goal of church-planting and leadership-training in those areas.

This move will bring new challenges in ministry and family, but we trust that God will continue to lead and provide as He always has done!  We still have work to do here in Santiago, and will focus during 2015 on completing well the things that we have started, continuing to train and equip in the areas where we are serving, and seeking to be a blessing to this local church in as many ways as possible over this second year here.  We look forward to sharing with you in person while in the U.S. about the work in Santiago as well as more specifics about the church and project in Lautaro!

Thank you for your continued prayers, support, gifts, words of encouragement, care & concern for our family and the ministry to which God has called us.  We pray that He would bless, encourage and supply all of your needs during this Christmas season as well as all of 2015!

Because of the Savior born in Bethlehem,
Gustavo, Karissa, Jeremy, Elizabeth, & Cristina

(Photo 1: Painting ornaments and making cupcakes with Grandma, Grandpa and Aunt Christy!  Photo 2: Lunch date!)