Happy August!

Dear Partners,

We hope you are doing well! Most of you are halfway through your summer, while we are halfway through our first winter here in the countryside. 😊

(would you believe that less than 24 hours passed between these two photos, and no filters used?)

Weather was very strange and unpredictable here in July (many locals said so too), causing damage to roads and fields and even houses in many cases, not to mention the illnesses and infections going around. We weren’t able to visit several people that we had wanted to, and there were meetings that had to be cancelled due to being unable to get our car out after one especially rainy and muddy week! 

(our destroyed road/driveway)

So, all that to say, this past month was in many ways different than planned (when does everything really go according to our “plans”?), but it was still a very good month nonetheless! 

Here are some praises from July as well as prayer requests for August:

Praises

• The short-term team from Oriente did a great job in Ralco in July and it was a great experience for everyone involved! Amador and his family are getting the hang of hosting and organizing the work to be done (with Gus’ guidance and help), and we know that God has amazing blessings in store for that town and mountainous region!

(the Oriente team in Ralco)

(Gus doing the bbq for the team on the last day)

• There are 10 leaders and volunteers between Melipeuco, Los Ángeles and Ralco that signed up this past month to start studying in the online IberoAmerican Bible Institute program! Gus has been encouraging them for the past few months to take advantage of opportunities to deepen and formalize their theological and practical training, so when this new program became available, most of them signed up right away! May God bless and lead those who are seeking to better understand His Word and His calling on their lives...

• Our well is now functional, so we have plenty of water! What started as a frustration & concern (our road/driveway being destroyed by rain and the city water truck not able to bring us water anymore) became the push needed to get the well usable and now be independent in that area! We are grateful for the help of friends to make this possible. And now our kind neighbors are allowing us to park our car on their land and leave via their driveway since we don’t have access to ours right now, until we are able to get the road fixed when everything dries up. We are so thankful to God for his provision, in every sense of the word!

(pumping out the contaminated well water)

(we now have a working well, with protective walls and a cover!)

• None of us has been sick at all over the past 6 months. Good health, especially for the kids, is an enormous praise and blessing that we don’t take for granted!

• Our oldest child, Jeremy, turned 11 this past month! It is amazing how time flies... but what is more amazing is seeing what God has done and continues doing in Jeremy’s life, heart and mind. If asked, he’d tell you that he wants to be a missionary when he’s older and preach the Word to those that don’t know Jesus; he wants to write worship songs but also songs about the challenges of life; he wants to direct and produce movies that are “family appropriate and have good, encouraging messages”; he wants to make fun, family board games about seeing the world and learning about the Bible... among many other things! Honestly, it wouldn’t surprise us if Jeremy did all that and more, because God’s love and passion just pour out of him... God teaches us so much through Jeremy (as well as through each of his siblings, of course), and we are so blessed to see him grow into such a sweet and conviction-filled young man!

(the big birthday boy enjoying his cheeseburger at a fun, U.S.-style restaurant in Temuco)

August Prayer Requests

• This weekend (Aug. 9th-11th) Gus will be in Santiago seeing to some things there. Please pray for his trip to be good and for us here without him those couple days.

• This Saturday (Aug. 10th) while Gus is gone, I will be going to Melipeuco with the kids and with a couple friends, to have a Bible study for the women there. Please pray for a safe drive and for us to be a blessing to the ladies in Melipeuco!

• On Aug. 21st we’ll be driving up to Santiago to see family there for a couple days, before flying to Ecuador on the 24th! We are going to help set up the space for the conference, Gus will help set up and execute the sound & worship for those few days, and we'll be teaching a marriage workshop, as well as visiting with those attending and serving in any other ways we can. Please pray for a safe trip for our family, for all of the preparations for this conference, for wisdom in what we will be teaching, and ultimately that God would use all of those serving to be a blessing to our Ecuadorian brothers and sisters.  Also, please pray for protection over our house here while we are gone for those couple weeks.

• We greatly appreciate your prayers for continued good health and protection during the remainder of winter, the transition to the heat of Ecuador, and in general with all the traveling over the next month!

Thank you dear friends, as always, for your prayers, your encouragement and your financial support. We are honored to serve God with you!

Blessings in Christ,

Gus, Karissa, Jeremy, Elizabeth, Cristina and Diego

For tax-deductible donations:

Online, please use the link below and scroll to “Gustavo Guevara” under the “Fund” tab: https://pushpay.com/g/iamchilenationalworkers?src=hpp&r=monthly

Through regular mail, please make checks payable to “IberoAmerican Ministries”, designate to “Project: Guevara - Chile”, 
and send to:
IberoAmerican Ministries
P.O. Box 1493

Monroe, WA 98272 

Prayer for July

Dear Friends,

Thank you for your prayers this past month! It was very busy and very productive! The Projects in Melipeuco, Los Ángeles and Ralco are all moving forward well, as all three locations had short-term teams visiting and special workshops in June:

(Amador & Gus working with a team in Ralco)

(Women's Bible Study in Melipeuco)

(Working with a short-term team in Melipeuco)

(teaching a worship workshop in Los Angeles)

July Prayer Requests:

• On Saturday the 6th, we'll go to Ralco as a family. Gus needs to meet with Amador to fine-tune plans for a team coming the next week, and I (Karissa) will meet with ladies there to continue a Bible study we've been doing together. We will stay that night in Ralco and visit the Los Ángeles church as a family on Sunday the 7th.

• On Sunday the 14th, Gus will be preaching in Los Ángeles and then driving that same day to Ralco, to be there when the team from the Oriente church (in Santiago) arrives on the 15th! That team will be there for 10 days, so please pray that they’ll be able to get lots of good work accomplished!

• On Saturday the 27th, we'll be going to Melipeuco so Gus can continue with ministry planning meetings and I can teach Part 2 of the women’s Bible class we started a couple weeks ago. Prayers for that day trip and the meetings involved!

• This past month, for various reasons I was not able to visit the three women mentioned last update, who all live within a few miles of our home... Please pray that if it’s God’s will, those visits would work out now in July! He knows when the timing will be right.

• We absolutely LOVE hosting but unfortunately have been very short on water these past couple of months. A good friend has graciously financed our well being dug, and we had been moving forward with each step as time and weather has permitted (photo of the kids helping to dig the trench).... Right when the plumbers were here last week to get the tubing installed, a rainstorm started that lasted 5 days straight with no breaks at all. We don’t have the protective walls built yet on the well (we're waiting for the connection to be done and functioning properly before raising up and covering everything), so now the whole well is completely overflowed with flood water... It’s not the end of the world, but we do appreciate prayers for a relatively simple draining solution, that the weather would cooperate for a few days to get it all finished and that we'd have a functioning well soon! It would be nice to actually be able to shower regularly again and wash more than one load of laundry a week... 😉

(flooded well and trench)

• A couple weeks ago while we were in Melipeuco for the day, we came home to one of our puppies dying, apparently severely injured in a fight with a bigger, wild dog who had been coming onto our land regularly. It was of course very sad for the kids, as this was the first pet we’ve had to bury... It also showed us that it is imperative that we build the fence around our land asap. Finances have been holding us back from doing that sooner, but we’re going to have to bite the bullet and get that built this month. There have been plenty of fun animals to have on our land (like horses & sheep), but others have been more dangerous or destructive. So, prayers appreciated for the finances, logistics and weather necessary to get the stakes in and a simple fence secured! (Photo of Cristina with the two puppies we still have)

Besides the busyness of ministry in June, we were also able to squeeze in our first date in 6 months, as well as some fun family activities: Gus and I went out for lunch and to see Aladdin for our anniversary (he got a free movie pass for his birthday!), and then the next week we saw Toy Story 4 as a family! What great movies!! Thank you for your prayers for special couple and family time!

(anniversary lunch date!)

(that was a fun family movie!)

Thank you so much for your prayers and financial support! We continue to be blown away by the generosity of so many of you, which allowed us again in June to visit each ministry location a few different times, not needing to worry about the funds for gas. We are honored to be representatives here in the south of Chile of God’s worldwide family, in partnership with you. Thank you for being a blessing to others! And if you haven't been to this part of the world before, please come visit us sometime!

In Him,

Gustavo, Karissa, Jeremy, Elizabeth, Cristina & Diego

Big Answer to Prayer, and June Requests

Dear Friends,

First off: Please Rejoice with us! Enough gifts have come in to cover our family’s tickets and related expenses to go to Ecuador for the conference in August! Praise God!! We are so incredibly grateful for the generosity of so many of you, giving toward this missions trip... It is a blessing in so many ways to have received this huge answer to prayer! We are now looking forward to preparing the marriage workshop we will be teaching there, as well as Gus helping with sound tech, and other ways we will be able to serve our Ecuadorian brothers and sisters!

We have several prayer requests for June, and we would greatly appreciate if you could join us in lifting up these specific needs:

• Gus is currently in Ralco with the short-term team from Yuma, AZ! They are doing work in the church building and will have opportunities to reach out to the community as well. Pray for God to bless, protect and guide these few days there in Ralco!

• This Saturday (after the team heads back up to Santiago) Gus will be going to Los Ángeles to teach a worship workshop to the small church group there and have some community-building time. He will also stay the night there and preach at their Sunday service. Pray for this group of very motivated young people who are passionate and desire to receive training to better serve & reach out to their community!

• On Saturday the 15th, we will be going as a family to Melipeuco for the day, so that Gus can have a strategic meeting with the church-planting team there in the morning, and I (Karissa) can have an outreach/discipleship meeting with the women in the afternoon. Please pray that it would be a productive & blessed day!

• Then, it looks like on the 20th we’ll be heading back to Melipeuco for a couple days to help a short-term team doing some work on the church and outreach! Pray for the details for that trip (it’s a really big team!) and that the work we’ll all be doing would be a blessing to the community there!

• Also in the next couple weeks, I should visit three different friends out here in the countryside who have been asking me to visit for a while, but schedules just haven’t worked out. One is a believer who needs encouraging, one is a young woman who has recently made some very poor life choices but says she wants counseling, and one is not a believer nor is anyone else in her immediate family, but she is feeling very lonely right now. Pray that God would work out the timing for those visits according to His will (and not just human logic), and that I could be a blessing to these women who all live within a few miles of our new home.

• Please pray for our children in the midst of the busy-ness of trips, visits, schoolwork and colder weather (winter is almost here!): that they would stay healthy, be grateful for the blessings we have and enjoy this season too, even if they feel cooped up some of the time! Also, for us to not overlook the need to connect with them each individually, outside of schooling or ministry interactions...

• Lastly, June 17th will be Gus’ birthday and our 13th wedding anniversary! We would love to get some time to go out on a date that week to celebrate, not that it’s an urgent prayer request by any means, but it would be fun if it could fit into the schedule somehow. 😉  

Thank you so much for your prayers, financial support and encouragement!! We are genuinely privileged to partner in this Kingdom work with you...

“This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.” (1 John 5:14)

Because He answers prayer,

Gus, Karissa, Jeremy, Liz, Cristina & Diego

Everything Made Beautiful, In His Time...

Hello, Dear Friends! 

As most of you approach summer and we approach winter, we hope you are doing well and filled with hope in Jesus! 

(morning frost on this chilly, autumn morning)

It has been a few months since we have written a full newsletter, so hopefully this catches you up on what is going on here in southern Chile:

Regional Work

This year, Gustavo has been easing into his role of coordinating the work in Melipeuco, Los Ángeles and Ralco. Each of those projects look so different from each other and require distinct approaches, so Gus is constantly communicating with the local leaders in each location to define goals, needs, plans, teaching, training, etc.

• The church in Melipeuco is now meeting in the new church building (1st stage completed) and Pastor Luis & his family are living in their recently-finished home! We are working to encourage the leadership to define new, fresh ways of reaching out and meeting the spiritual needs of the community around them in a place that seems spiritually heavy and blinded in many ways. 

(Easter Sunday School Class in Melipeuco)

• The group in Los Ángeles is small and has struggled through the instability of the past couple of years (for a variety of reasons), so Gus is currently providing tools and guidance as needed toward goal-setting, defined vision, passion and relevancy. The potential in that city is huge as it is a university hub with lots of students and young couples/families forming who are turned off by traditional churches and the hypocrisy they have seen from “religious” people... We are stepping in faith toward the growth that we believe God will bring over the coming months and years to the Los Ángeles church!

• Amador and his family have been in the town of Ralco for a couple of months now and feel that they are beginning to understand how the culture and society in that mountain community works. With that in mind, he and Gus are currently defining strategies for reaching out with the hope of Jesus in a place where broken families, abuse, neglect, discrimination and misunderstandings are a dime a dozen... They are excited that the first short-term team from the US will be going to Ralco for a few days in June to do some work on the church building and community outreach!

(picturesque drive to the town of Ralco up in the mountains)

Please pray for all three of those locations, with their unique challenges and blessings, that God would grant clarity, wisdom and unity in decision-making for the leaders involved to motivate the believers to be the salt & light, to reach out to the lost in their communities!

(We were blessed in April to receive a couple of one-time gifts to help with gas expenses for us to travel to these locations during this month. That has been a tremendous help, so we ask that you would please continue to pray with us that this financial need would be covered in the months to come as well, and if God lays it on your heart to give toward that need, we are very grateful for any and all help!)

Countryside Home

We have been living in the countryside outside of Lautaro for over three months now, and what a different life it is!  Besides the beautiful views of volcanoes to the east, we routinely see an array of various animals, including (but not limited to): horses, cows, sheep, pigs, chickens, geese, lizards, frogs, and so many different kinds of birds & insects... The kids are loving the zoo-like experience!

 (pigs looking for dinner, with a volcano backdrop)

 (our neighbors' flock of geese...)

(...and their sheep)

There have been numerous challenges, like getting working electricity, running water and a usable internet connection. At the end of March a wildfire came very close to our house, which required help from several neighbors, firetrucks and even two planes spraying fire deterrent and water! Thankfully no one was hurt and there was no damage to our property nor anyone else’s... only fields of wheat chaff and dry grass were burnt up, some bushes and a few trees. God’s protection was over us and our neighbors!!

 (yes, that is our front porch to the right, with fire right across the road!)

(Gus explaining to the neighbors where the fire came from)

Besides the obvious challenges of another move with kids and getting set up in a new house (in addition to building a woodshed, operating a generator and digging a well, among other things!), this change has been such a blessing for all of us. The kids are loving the outdoor space, the new house, the views, the animals... Homeschooling motivation is different when they can run around outside for hours after finishing their books!

 (hands-on learning opportunities!)

(completed woodshed!)

(ready for winter)

 (digging the well)

(about 15 feet dug so far... hopefully not too much further to go!)

We’ve been over to a neighbor’s to pick apples and deliver cookies/brownies a couple times, and the kids have had lots of fun playing with some neighbor boys on the weekends. Besides the families that have lived in this area for generations, there are ten lots about 500 yards from us that have recently sold, and the new owners are starting to build their fences, dig wells and start their house constructions! So, probably by next summer, there will be several more families out here that we're looking forward to meeting and getting to know! We firmly believe that God opened up the door to purchase this property and move here for a purpose...  We are excited to show His love to families in this area as He allows those new relationships to begin to develop!

(picking apples, chestnuts and quince at our neighbor's)

(awww, so much cuteness!)

(recently cleared out lots across the main street from us, now sold and starting to be developed)

There is still a bit of work to do inside and outside, and it’s been somewhat awkward at times to have friends over when electricity and water issues are not 100% nailed down yet. But despite that, we have still been blessed to have over 30 different guests over for at least a meal since we moved here, and 7 or 8 of those guests have stayed the night!

(friends over for Liz' 9th birthday)

Hosting is something that is so fun for all of us (the kids really love having guests over!) and it is such a blessing to have the space to do that well in a beautiful area where guests can relax, unplug a bit from their daily grind, seek counseling if needed or just enjoy themselves. That is something we have always desired our home to be: a warm, rejuvenating place where friends from near and far feel welcome and at-home. So, please come visit us! That’s an open invitation!! 😊

VIVE Ecuador

As we reach out to our “Jerusalem” (the people in this countryside area where we now live and our friends in Lautaro) as well as to our “Judea and Samaria” (Melipeuco, Los Ángeles and Ralco), God continues to push us to serve “to the ends of the earth” as well!

At the end of August, Lord willing, our Mission will be putting on a conference in Ecuador (similar to the VIVE conference this past January near Santiago), and the organizers have asked us as a couple to teach a marriage class there. That type of teaching opportunity is something we are very passionate about, and ever since Gus and Jeremy went on a missions team to Ecuador two years ago, we have been hoping and praying we could go some day as a family!

(Gus leading one of the prayer times at the VIVE conference this past January)

Honestly though, at this time we are living with an extremely tight budget after construction expenses, so the $4,000 needed for our family to make a trip like that is completely beyond our financial capacities. Having said that, we believe that if God desires for us to encourage couples at this conference, He can miraculously provide those funds: So, we humbly ask you to pray with us that God would provide if that is His will, and if He puts in on your heart, please give toward that missions trip! (If so, please let us know that is what your gift is for so we can designate properly!)

God’s Timing

The first five months of 2019 have had many moments of excitement, disappointment, hope, frustration, joy, and many other emotions... for us, and probably for you as well. There have been times we wished one day or week would be over soon, and others we wished would linger longer! That is life, though, isn’t it? Everything is not quite enough, and many times we are not quite what we wish to be either... We won’t be completely satisfied until we are in God’s presence without the stain of sin to continually mess things up. But until that day, there are so many who don’t know Him, who have never felt peace, never experienced His forgiveness, never been filled with true joy...

(Gus captured this photo of the full moon a couple months ago!)

Ecclesiastes 3 tells us that there is a time for everything, that God makes everything beautiful in its time, and that “He has set eternity in the human heart.” There is something deep inside each person that longs for and knows that there is more. You and I already know who that “more” is, so let’s show those who don’t know, not just with words but with love and truth-filled actions. And when the time is right, they will respond. But let’s be ready with that message of Hope, wherever God has us now!

Thank you so much for your encouragement, prayers and financial support. We are so blessed and honored to partner in this Kingdom work with you!!

Because His name is Beautiful and His timing is Perfect,

The Guevara Family

(For tax-deductible donations, please use this link and scroll to “Gustavo Guevara” under the “Fund” tab:  https://pushpay.com/g/iamchilenationalworkers?src=hpp&r=monthly )

(in Melipeuco at Conguillio National Park, with the Volcano Llaima in the background)

Working, Planning, Building, Moving

Dear Partners,

Happy December from Lautaro! We pray that you and your families have a very Blessed Christmas and New Year season, filled with hope for what God will do in 2019 and beyond... May God use each of us to touch the lives of others and point them to Jesus, through our words, our actions and our attitudes!

Here are some photos from the past couple of months, followed by important prayer requests:

(The 1st stage of construction of the church in Melipeuco is almost complete!)

(Gus has been working closely over the past few months with Luis in Melipeuco [top left] and Amador in Los Angeles [top right], and will continue to do so even more this next year as Gus is appointed Regional Coordinator for the projects in the South of Chile!)

(Marisol and Sarai, two young women that are close to our family, attend our home group, are involved in women's ministry with Karissa, and that went to Ecuador on the short-term team from Lautaro in September)

(Isabel, a single mom, and her children Felipe & Cony are a part of our home group, and we as a couple have been counseling them through family issues over the past few months)

(Cristofer & Yenifer, and their two sons, Bastian and Alonso, have become close family friends this year, and both Cris & Yeni got baptized in the past 12 months!)

(Jeremy and Liz passed their final exams, so the 2018 home-school year was a success, praise God!)

(The construction on our house, 10 miles outside of Lautaro is progressing! More on that in the prayer requests below...)

(Marisol's brother is a volunteer firefighter, so he invited our kids go see the trucks at the station a few days ago, including this "really old firetruck", as the kids called it!) 

(We had a very short but fun visit the other day from Gus' sister Lori and her husband Daniel, and they brought a mini-gingerbread house set to do with the kids!) 

These next few weeks, please JOIN US in prayer for:

• Our trip to Oregon for Christmas and New Years’! Karissa's extended family bought us plane tickets, so we will be driving to Santiago this Sunday and flying to the USA on Dec. 19th and returning Jan. 4th. Prayers appreciated for safe travels (driving and flying) and good time with family, both in Oregon and in Santiago! 

• The mission-wide conference, “VIVE”, taking place outside of Santiago, January 9th-13th! There are several families from the south of Chile that we have encouraged to take this step to attend the conference (most of whom have never been to such an event), including Luis & family from Melipeuco, Amador & family from Los Angeles, Cristofer & Yenifer, and Isabel, Marisol and Sarai, all pictured above. Please pray for this conference to be an inspiring, refreshing and transforming experience for all who will participate in this 4-day event, from various countries! (Any one-time gifts contributing toward these specific families' attendance fees are very welcome and appreciated! Please let us know if you'd like more information!)

• We need to be out of this current rental home in Lautaro by January 31st as the owner is going to move here! Which means the house we are building on land outside of town needs to be livable by then... Please pray for all of the details of construction to come together well! 

• Along that same line, our house in Santiago sold for significantly less than what we had hoped for, which means that finances for getting our land here ready and building the new house have been quite strained. And unfortunately we have had to resort to credit again (which was not the plan), in order to make sure we are out of this rental home on time. Please pray with us for God's continued provision, for peace rather than anxiety, and for wisdom in stewardship of the resources He has provided. (Any end-of-the-year gifts are very welcome to help with these construction and moving expenses!)

• Please pray for God’s leading and guidance in all the plans moving forward in 2019 in this part of southern Chile: specifically for the churches and projects in Lautaro, Melipeuco, and Los Angeles, for all of the leaders & workers involved in decision-making to strive for extending God’s Kingdom and working towards unity in purpose.

In this season of gift-giving and receiving, we recognize we would not be here were it not for God’s generous gifts through many of you. We very much appreciate your faithful support through prayers, monthly giving and one-time donations! Our family is blessed by you, and you are a fundamental part in allowing us to serve here in the south of Chile... Thank you so, so much for your partnership in bringing the truth of Jesus to this region!

Because of Emmanuel, God With Us,

Gustavo, Karissa, Jeremy, Elizabeth, Cristina & Diego