Holidays in Santiago

This year we celebrated a very special holiday time with our family. Even though they live thousands of miles away, they made the trip down to Santiago just to spend time with us. It was a blast! Thomas & Tina with their daughter Leila came from Ft. Lauderdale, Rita Hoyt came from Orlando and Dan & Mary came all the way from Kabul, Afghanistan.

We spent a fun-filled week showing them around Santiago and giving them a taste of our life here in Chile. To start off, on Sunday, they spoke at the church here. Thomas met with the Chemical Recovery ministry before service and encouraged that group with a few lessons from his life. Dan and Mary shared about their work in Afghanistan and then Dan preached a great sermon about staying firm in our convictions until the end. After service, Dan, Mary and Rita had a lunch with parents of teens while Tina and Kay gave a class for the Campus sisters. God really used the family to encourage, inspire and call the church higher.

On Monday we spent time together, toured the city and then celebrated Kay's birthday with some ice cream from Bravissimo.

Tuesday we climbed Cerro San Cristóbal and had a picnic. Tuesday evening we celebrated Christmas and shared gifts from all around the world.

On Wednesday we had a special Chilean lunch, Pastel de Choclo, spent time with Christian and Luz who lead the church here and then went to midweek. Thomas shared a few thoughts with the campus and teens while Dan and Mary did split classes for the married men and women.

Thursday we went to Viña del Mar and the family was able to see the Pacific Ocean. We celebrated Leila's one year birthday by taking her to a clinic to see if she had an ear infection.

Friday brought the week to a close with a lunch at Jorge Ivan & Maria Lucia's house. They have become great friends of ours and housed my mom for a week.

Sending the family off at the airport was difficult, but we had savored every moment and enjoyed a holiday time that we will never forget. Thanks to our family for coming to visit us, participating in our lives and giving us the best Christmas present ever: you!

To our brothers and sisters in Florida

We want to wish you all a Happy New Year from Santiago, Chile. First we wanted to thank each and every one of you for every prayer that you have prayed for us and for the churches here in Chile. Thank you for the emails and calls and cards we have received since we moved here. Thank you for sacrificing financially for missions, not only for Chile, but for all of South America. There is an indescribable amount of spiritual need and we are so grateful that you are sacrificing to meet these needs.

Although the church here in Santiago has met its share of challenges this year, we are watching God transform us and we have seen many victories in the past few months. We have been encouraged to watch a teen and three campus students be baptized. The church has had some incredible victories through our chemical recovery ministry and we have seen 5 people graduate in the recent months. One family in the church was able to adopt a baby boy and we had our first wedding in our small mission church, Viña del Mar. We want to ask for your prayers for the church in Concepción because the couple that was leading the group there is now leading here in Santiago. Please pray that God will strengthen the brothers and sisters there. We personally have been growing in God's grace and watching him work in our lives here. We are speaking Spanish now relatively fluently and learning to serve God and his church in South America. You can also pray for a woman that Kay has been able to reach out to named Laura. She has been diagnosed with terminal cancer and is eager to learn about God's word.

We want to you to know that we are constantly inspired by your faith and by the miracles that God is doing with each of you. You can be sure that although we are thousands of miles away, your faith is having a mighty impact.

And finally,

May the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen. (Hebrews 13:20-21)

With all of our love,

John, Kay and Maya Hoyt

Times of Rejoicing for the Cardona Family

Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart. Ps 37:4

The Cardona family has been a rock for the church here in Santiago for years. They have given their hearts and served the church in more ways than we know. This last year for their family has been one of miracles and answered prayers. Sometimes it feels like God knows just the right time to answer the prayers we have prayed for years. Over a month ago, Jorge Ivan and Maria Lucia were able to baptize their oldest daughter, Mariana (15). There are very few things I can think of that are more special than baptizing your child. Jorge Ivan said that it was one of the best days of his life. Only a little while later, they received a call from an adoption agency with news that there was a little boy ready for them to take home. As a family, they have prayed earnestly and dreamed for that moment. A few Sundays ago we were able to hear a welcome at church from the Cardona family with their new son, Juan Pablo (11mos). Maria Lucia shared in tears that God has truly given her the desires of her heart.

Special Missions Offering

From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work. - Ephesians 4:16

This past Wednesday, November 14th, the church here in Santiago took up a Special Offering. The leadership had recognized the need for extra financial support in September and decided to have this special offering to help meet the needs in Santiago and in the mission churches of Concepción and Viña del Mar. With only a short time to prepare, the disciples here gave with all of their hearts and raised almost 2,400,000 Pesos which is about $4700. That might not seem like much to disciples in first-world churches, but it's a big sacrifice for the Chilean disciples.

We were especially proud of the Teen and Campus ministries who put together an event called "La Velada Primavera". It was an evening of entertainment, food and fun with all the proceeds going to the special offering. Some of the teens worked in the kitchen preparing home-made juices, sandwiches, pizzas and snacks while others served the food and collected money. The campus students and a few other disciples worked to put together various types of entertainment. I played the part of Don Jeronimo in a short comedic sketch called "Médico a puros palos". Altogether it was an enjoyable night for many disciples that resulted in an offering to help advance God's kingdom.

Other than the offering, another source of encouragement has been our newly added sister, Diana Arrue. Diana is the daughter of Italo, a brother who has been a disciple for a number of years in Santiago. Diana had studied the Bible a number of times before this summer, but in the midst of the recent difficulties in the church, God was really working on her heart. She studied almost every week with Kay and some of the other campus girls and was baptized on October 14. Since then she has been a dedicated member of the campus ministry.

God continues to work in amazing ways even while we are surrounded by trials and temptations. I personally have been very encouraged by my recent studies of Mark and Isaiah. So much so, that I've started another blog, La Palabra Poderosa to share some of the things I'm learning. My Spanish is a work in progress, so please be gracious.

Please keep us in your prayers as we close out 2007 and continue to seek God's will in 2008.

A little strengthening action

After spending some time in Antioch, Paul set out from there and traveled from place to place throughout the region of Galatia and Phrygia, strengthening all the disciples. Acts 18:23

We have had the chance this past month to travel to both Montevideo, Uruguay and Concepción, Chile to strengthen the brothers and sisters there. It is an answer to many prayers that we are able to be down here in South America and live a small portion of what Paul was able to live. Honestly it was a time of strengthening for us also. It is sobering to visit small churches that are struggling to stay together and keep their faith burning strong. It is hard to see the needs so great and feel like there is no way to meet them all.

We traveled to Montevideo in the beginning of October and spent a great week with the six disciples that are there. It was incredible to spend time with Pablo and Rosa, who are leading the group, and strengthen our friendship. We have made a commitment to each other to talk every week and it has been great so far. We are really praying that God will inject faith into the group even though it is so small. While we were there, Kay was able to meet a girl who wanted to study the bible. It was a small reminder that there are people everywhere searching for God, we just need to find them and bring them to him.

This last week we spent time in Concepción, which is a city about six hours by bus from Santiago . There is a group there of 12 disciples, two of which were baptized in the last couple of months. It is a young church that was planted this year from Santiago. We have recently begun a "Member Missionary" training program here in Santiago that will be sending groups to Concepción and Viña del Mar starting in December. We will be doing a 4-week training course and then begin sending out small groups every month to encourage our smaller sister congregations. Right now, we have about 25 disciples training with us for these projects and they are fired up about giving and serving and traveling, by their own means, to help these brothers and sisters.

We were able to spend time with the disciples in both Montevideo and Concepción talking about faith and praying for God's hand to protect them from the attacks of Satan. There is so much work to be done and so many prayers to be prayed. But we know that God is working, and we are confident in his promise that they will be "more than conquerors through him who loved us." (Romans 8:37)