Time to Travel

Update from Kris:

This past week included lots of fun celebrations, with Father's Day, Gus' birthday and our 8th anniversary!  We are so grateful for all of God's blessings to us as a couple, as a family, and with our extended family and friends as well...

Speaking of extended family, this next Monday, June 23^rd, Cristina and I are going to the U.S. for two weeks!  My parents, siblings, grandmas, and a couple of family friends all chipped in and bought the ticket so we could be there for the wedding of one of my cousins!  I haven’t been back in the Pacific Northwest in almost 4 years and Cristina has never been at all…, so it will be great to catch up with extended family and friends and introduce them all to our ‘baby’! 

There are two short-term teams here right now, so over these two weeks that I’ll be gone, Gus will continue coordinating details for those and other teams, working from home and arranging for other full-time workers to be on-site with the teams so that he can be with Jeremy and Liz. 

So, please pray for a safe, good trip for Cristina and I, as well as protection on Gus, Jeremy and Liz here at home in Chile.  Please pray for good times for the three of them here, that it would be a fun, special bonding opportunity as Jeremy and Liz get more concentrated time with Daddy! 

(Father's Day photo)

Light at the End of the Tunnel

Update from Gus and Kris:

These past few weeks have been full with church ministry responsibilities as well as organizing the details for short-term teams and getting lots of family paperwork done!  In addition, three weeks ago we started marriage counseling for a couple from the church who was on the verge of divorce.  There is deep hurt and lots of miscommunication on both sides, and they have two small children affected by their struggles too.  But by the grace of God it now seems like they are both very willing to take the steps necessary to work through their issues and restore their relationship.  We are meeting with them on Thursday nights going through some marriage counseling material and Karissa is also doing a women’s Bible study with the wife on Wednesday afternoons to help encourage her.  Please pray with us for this couple as well as their children, that God would restore what has been broken, protect their children, be glorified in their family, and give us the words to encourage and challenge them through this process.  And please pray for strength, energy, and wisdom for us as a couple as we are spending lots of time preparing these studies, being available when one of them has needed to stop by to talk through something specific, and just in general shifting around our family and work schedule in order to counsel this couple during these difficult weeks.

On a completely different note, thank you so much to one supporting church as well as three individuals who gave special one-time financial gifts that have helped us out so much over this past month!  These were answers to prayer: we are completely humbled by your generosity and continue being amazed at how God provides and covers our needs in ways that we cannot anticipate.  Please continue praying with us for new regular supporters to cover our monthly financial needs.  And to all who currently support us financially: Thank you for your faithfulness, for allowing us to serve, and for being a part of what God is doing in the churches here in Chile!

One Body, Many Parts

 Update from Gus in the South of Chile:
 
The same team that worked on the Libertad church last week is now with me in Lautaro, a city about 8 hours south of Santiago.  The IberoAmerican church here has a great vision to reach its community through very practical ways, including a huge focus on the indigenous people group of this region (the Mapuches), who are rejected or shunned by many churches in the area. They also have great discipleship and training for believers, with a good focus on preparing for missions work.  Our main project this week is to prepare the ground and lay the foundation for the grade-school that the church is constructing with the support of like-minded churches and the help of short-term teams!

Something we've been talking about a lot this week is how we are a multicultural group, with different backgrounds and different giftings, but we are all members of the same Body serving together right now, each with different functions.  Christ is our Head and we all do our part to keep moving forward in the work He gives us each to do.  This school project is just beginning and will take the work of many more teams coming to give their time, energy and resources over the next several months.  But when it is done, this school will bless over 600 children and their families and allow this church to continue being a witness to the Gospel of Jesus in new, practical ways for the people of Lautaro!

Repairing a wall... changing lives!

Update from Gus:

Hi Friends!  Thank you for your prayers!  We just finished up the first work week with the short-term team that’s here.  They did a bunch of patching jobs, primarily fixing up one of the walls of the Sunday school classroom at the church called “Libertad”, because it was leaking really bad and flooding the room during the rainy season. (Not a very inviting situation to have little kids in!)  So, the team worked hard and it’s looking great now, as you can see in the photos below! 

This church was the first one in our movement here in Chile and has special meaning for me personally.  You see, I was 15 years old, living on the street, a depressed drug addict, and ended up going to a concert at this church even though I’d sworn I’d never set foot in a church again.  But God had a plan, and none of my party plans for that night worked out, so I ended up going to this church, hearing great music, and listening to a testimony from an American guy whose life sounded strangely like mine, except that now he had hope because Jesus had changed him.  And on that night, God touched my heart and I felt compelled to make the biggest decision of my life and give everything to Him.  It was a long process after that, and many more miracles, but that night at that church is what God used to start my conscious walk with Him.

So, this team may have “only” been working on fixing a leaking wall for most of this week… but God knows what little boys and girls are going to be in that room over this next winter, warm and dry, hearing about Jesus’ real, personal love for them for the first time!  No job is too small or unimportant with a God that changes the ordinary into extraordinary and the common into supernatural!

Welcome, Friends!

This is a new space that we’ll be using for short, specific updates on ministry and family happenings.  We’ll continue to send out more “formal”, longer newsletters every couple of months via email (if you don’t get those and would like to, please write us at gusykris@gmail.com).  So, the idea here is that, if you’d like to be kept more up-to-date on current goings-on and join us in prayer for the short needs that we’ll be highlighting here, please subscribe to this blog (using the "follow by e-mail" option on the right)!  

Here’s an update for today:  

Gus –

Our missions organization’s Board (made up of people from various churches in the U.S. and here in Chile) is currently in the middle of their annual board meetings.  I’m helping out with transportation for that and have also been blessed to participate in some of the meetings, including giving a short report about what we are doing.  It is very encouraging to see / hear how things are going in the other churches of the IberoAmerican movement and is great to be able to share with the board members that have traveled down from the U.S. for these few days.  Then coming right up, next Monday two short-term teams will be coming to serve in different churches and communities here in Chile. So please pray for energy and wisdom during this week of meetings and for the next couple weeks with teams working on construction and outreach projects.  We want to be good stewards of our time, energy and resources, and be led by His Spirit in all that we do! 

Kris –

Please continue to pray for us as a family to continue adjusting to Gus’ busy schedule.  It’s nice that on non-team weeks he spends more time at home than a normal office job would allow.  But still, the kids (OK, Mommy too!) definitely miss Daddy during the weeks when teams are here, and especially back-to-back teams.  So I would really appreciate prayers for patience, energy and wisdom for me during these next couple weeks, so that we’re not just “surviving”, but that they could be special times when the kids and I thrive and have fun together in new ways!

Blessings in Christ,

Gus&Kris (and kids!)