For God SO LOVED the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall NOT PERISH BUT HAVE ETERNAL LIFE. ¹⁷ For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.  –John 3: 16-17

A VERY BLESSED JESUS-CHRIST-MAS TO YOU ALL!!  Many Christians throughout the world know John 3:16 by memory and verse 17 is just as important.  Jesus Christ IS the most remarkable, wonderful LOVE gift of all time from God to the entire world!  One well-known hymn begins, “Come, Thou long-expected Jesus, born to set thy people free.”  We cannot let complacency dull our response in how we live him and share him.  Rather, let this month of December reconnect us all to the above GOOD NEWS as never before!

Thank you all again for your steady prayers for us and for the work of Chile Mission!  We have much to praise God for and look to him for as we enter December.  We praise and thank him for this year’s ICOM, our November missions conference in Peoria, IL.  Every facet of the conference plays a part in directing our focus as churches and individuals outside of ourselves.  Here below are two  good photos of Chilean Patricio Curinao singing at the conference.  He was able to get connected with other Hispanic outreaches while in the U.S.

We also praise and thank God for our recent time in family with all of us present.  Our family photo is a Christmas greeting to you all from the growing Swanson family!  Thirdly, we are grateful and expectant as our son Julian & wife Devyn get ready to begin a two-year commitment in January with World Medical Mission Samaritan’s Purse in Cusco, Peru.  He is a doctor and she will work with young people in their small town in other ways.  A large Quechua Indian population comes to that hospital for treatment.

This month’s PRAYER REQUESTS center around our entering 2018.  “Transition” is a key word.  Please pray for the following:

• As mentioned last month, we meet in mid-December with the older youth and young adults that will help guide this coming summer’s camp experience for children in middle Chile in January, using Domingo’s & Sandra’s property. Please pray that the transition from the summer VBS format we have used these past two summers to a true “camp” experience will be understood and embraced by those in leadership roles.  We already have tents purchased.
• Please also keep praying for the transition taking place on the Santiago mission property into a ministry to house and support mothers coming to Santiago to be near their hospitalized children in long-term medical treatments. The vast majority of Chilean men and women do not know a real Jesus.  At present, the main children’s hospital near us still does not have a procedure in place to send us mothers needing housing.
• We hope to transition out of living in our rented house by mid-year into the remaining house on our Santiago mission property. Three of the four houses on the property are ministry related and the fourth house has been set apart for extra living purposes whenever they arise (us now, visitors, and those in training, etc.).

Please pray for this huge transition as it will require the redirection of furniture, supplies, and extra children’s clothing currently stored in the fourth house.  Secondly, our own furniture and extra belongings will need to be sold.  The move itself will leave us more mobile and able to travel in and out of Chile more frequently in the coming years.

You have heard of “Pay it forward”.  We are “Praying all of the above transitions forward”.

Praising, praying, and fasting in our “Jesus-Christ-mas” GOD,

Jack & Janine