Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Week 1 in Santiago

We arrived in Santiago, Chile just one week ago and what a week its been!

Last Tuesday when we arrived, Raul and Lynda welcomed us with open arms. They gave us their bedroom and have taken great care of us. They lead the church here in Santiago and have become good friends in the past 4 years as we have visited. They have two children, Felipe who is two years old and Isabella who is 6 months old. Isabella and Felipe have been having a great time playing with Maya.

The first thing that Raul and I did was to go to the Cerro San Cristóbal and pray. The Cerro is the tallest hill in the middle of Santiago and it offers a great view of the city. After that we got right to work. Kay and I were both able to be in Bible Studies each day.

Kay was involved in a study with a Brazilian woman named Rigianni. Even though the study was in Portuguese, Kay was able to understand most of the conversation and even contribute a few times. After studying Wednesday through Saturday, Rigianni got baptized on Sunday! Rigianni is in the middle of Lynda and Kay in the photo above.

I was able to be in studies with two different people. First, I was in the Cross study with a campus student named Nicolás on Wednesday. He is a very hard worker with a soft heart for God. After hearing about the sacrifice of Jesus, he knew he wanted to be a disciple. Later on in the week I studied with Francisco. He has been coming to church for a while and is still learning about God. On Sunday, Nico was baptized at church and we are hoping that Francisco can get baptized some time soon.

On Friday, the teens and campus students got together and welcomed us with a Chilean-style party. We ate completos (hot dogs with tomatoes, avocados and mayo) and torta (cake). We also played a number of games together to get to know each other. Already we feel loved by the group and we look forward to seeing what God is going to do.

Please keep praying for us, especially that we can keep warm. Most of the buildings don't have heat and with the temperature staying around the 40s we have to wear almost all of our winter clothes every day. But all in all we're having a great time and learning a lot.