Let all the earth fear the Lord; let all the people of the world revere him.  ⁹ For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood firm.  ¹⁰ The Lord foils the plans of the nations; he thwarts the purposes of the peoples.  ¹¹ But the plans of the Lord stand firm forever, the purposes of his heart through all generations. ¹² Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people he chose for his inheritance.  –Psalm 33: 8-12

GRATITUDES

We hope you saw our mid-October update with photos giving thanks for the successful final closing on our purchase of the large tract of land in middle Chile.  As last month’s photo showed, try to imagine a room full of nine brothers & sisters and other relatives, none of those siblings with more than a sixth-grade education and one not knowing how to read or write, present with a witness on his behalf.  Some of them asked about the necessity of opening a bank account in order to cash their check!  The property will be developed into a camp for children & youth, as well as be equipped as a year-round retreat center and more.  We remain so extremely grateful to the Lord!

We have already applied to EMI, an international ministry of retired Christian architects, engineers, & surveyors who help plan and layout mission projects in countries outside of the U.S.  The application process has gone well and we now await a formal agreement letter from them to put their team of 8-12 persons on alert, hopefully coming to Chile in or around March 2020 to spend one to two weeks on our land in order to produce site plans, etc. to use in the staged development of the property.  Please pray this step forward with us.

PLEASE ALSO PRAY

We have two photos to show you of a massive protest in Plaza Italia in Santiago two weeks ago and of what was on all Chilean newscasts a couple days later:

Some of you may be familiar with the vast unrest affecting almost all of the country of Chile at this time.  Street protests (now mostly peaceful), store ransacking, closed banks and schools, and wide-spread military presence are all reality, as enforced curfews and states of emergency in many cities continue, with new lows in the value of the Chilean peso in world markets.  …… this all initiated by an announced increase in metro fares on or about October 16^th, from 770 pesos a ride to 800 pesos a ride—roughly a 4% hike (4 U.S. cents).  Youth and delinquents quickly reacted, destroying metro stations and even burning train cars they could get to, causing hundreds of millions of pesos damage.

On the surface, the small fare increase may not seems like much, but to the huge number of lower middle and lower class of Chileans (perhaps close to 80% of the country) who rely solely on public transportation, it was the “last straw” in their struggle to meet daily needs out of a salary of around $550 per month, less the cost of public health insurance and retirement benefits( app. 25%).  The discontent has been long in brewing for a variety of reasons concerning the imbalance between the “haves” and “have nots” in Chile.

The state of peace throughout all major cities of the country can at best be described as fragile.  While we look at promised reforms and changes in the president’s cabinet and in congress, we are reminded by the above Bible passage that only the plans of the Lord stand firm forever, the purposes of his heart through all generations.  Please join us in praying for Chile and for all countries.  NO country (not even Rome in its day) is immune to Chile’s current circumstance.  In the middle of it all, Jesus remains the LIGHT OF THE WORLD!

In ending, we would also like to again invite you all to attend this year’s missionary conference (ICOM) for the Christian Churches/Churches of Christ.  The conference will be held in Kansas City MO. this year between Nov. 14-17, and is definitely worth attending!!  We will be at our “CHILE MISSION” booth and would love to see you there!

OUR BIGGIST GRATITUDE OF THE MONTH??  Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8), and we are called to be his ambassadors to this world!!

Praising, praying, and fasting to our God AS LORD through Jesus, the LIGHT OF THE WORLD,

In his love and GOD unity,

Jack & Janine

“Ah, Sovereign Lord, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and outstretched arm. Nothing is too hard for you.”  –Jer. 32:17

There is a saying, “God is never late; He’s seldom early; He’s always right on time.”  Together with Jeremiah 32:17, they make an ALL POWERFUL combination for the Christian in every circumstance! 

 We began this month’s Praise & Prayer Needs letter with the above.

We are sending this update to GIVE GOD THANKS AND PRAISE!!!  WE CLOSED ON THE PURCHASE OF THE 90-ACRE PLOT OF LAND YESTERDAY, OCTOBER 4^TH , and yes, we now have in our possession the land that God opened up and brought us to for the future permanent children’s camp & related other important ministries to families in Chile!!

We are so used to every significant process and purpose in Chile taking months and months, if not years and years.  Our search for land has itself taken more than 8 years, so you can only imagine how we look at time.  We agreed on price one week ago and we have closed on the purchase only nine days later.

We, the realtor, and all nine living children (originally 14 in total) of the mother’s inheritance (their father had died years ago) were present this week – Oct. 4 – for the closing of our purchase of the property.  The closing took almost 2 hours and all of the inheritors needed to be there to complete the sale to us.  What was particularly incredible to us is that all of these details were put in place in only one week.  Only God could pull that off!! 😊  None of the 9 siblings had completed more than 6^th grade in school and one needed a witness to his presence because he didn’t know how to write.  This has certainly been a large step for the camping ministry—now begins the work!  We are starting with a small frame three-bedroom house—not sure if we will have enough pressure for a hot water heater or not!  We also have a potential lake on the property, which we hope to deepen and extend for swimming and water sports!  We have lots of hills and valleys to fill with future projects!  God is good!  Here is a panoramic photo of the whole group, with Jack included:

We’re also including a photo of Rachel, her husband Humberto, and their two girls Josefina (5) and Maddie (5 mo.).  You’ve been praying for them for three months, and she continues to recover from her AVM (similar to a stroke) several months ago.  She was hospitalized roughly three months, including her surgery and recovery.  As you can see in the photo, she is now home (PTL!), and we want to say thanks for all of your prayers.  It has been a difficult situation for the family, with extended family helping with the two girls and the challenge of the complicated surgery and recovery along with language difficulties!

As always, God is the power and our source of help.  He is the only true God of the universe and it is he who rescues us through his son.  May all of us always look to him first, not last.

Praising, praying, and fasting, to our “OUTSTRETCHED ARM” God,

In his love and unity,

Jack & Janine

“Ah, Sovereign Lord, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and outstretched arm. Nothing is too hard for you.”  –Jer. 32:17

There is a saying, “God is never late; He’s seldom early; He’s always right on time.”  Combined with Jeremiah 32:17, they make an ALL POWERFUL twosome for the Christian in every circumstance!  All of this to say that through the Lord we have located land to purchase for the development of a permanent children’s camp & Christian retreat center in middle Chile, agreed to a price with the owners, and all necessary legal documents are being gathered to complete the purchase and close on it in the coming week!!  To say that we are VERY grateful to the Lord would be a gross understatement.  Thank you to many of you for your faithful prayers these past years!  Please join us in giving God thanks and join us in praying for the impending closing!!!  There are many details to be thought out.  We will be sure to let you all know as soon as we have finished the purchase process.

We wrote in September’s letter of a contact with Leo, a Christian man (and friend of our dentist’s assistant) in middle Chile that wanted to sell his five acres on a river, purchased by him and his wife to use for a church retreats.  His wife died a few years ago, and he didn’t feel that he could continue with the project.  While his property would not be ideal pricewise and “sizewise”, our new relationship with him will be very beneficial in many ways.  This trip to middle and southern Chile turned out to be 2 ½ weeks.  At the beginning of the trip we called a realtor and he showed us a property of 90 acres.  While quite large, it held much promise.  We then continued south to pass out our information to hospitals about our housing ministry to mothers coming to Santiago for special medical care of their children.  Afterward we returned to middle Chile to again look at land.  Making contact with the realtor and Leo we were able to see the 90-acre property once again, this time with the sibling “inheritor” coordinating the sale of the land on behalf of her eight brothers and sisters.  The date was Sept. 25 and on that same date we agreed to a price with her to put in motion the processing of all needed documents.  Leo himself was quite taken by the property and its potential, along with its price of $3,000,000 pesos per hectar (2.4 acres), which corresponds to $1,700 (U.S.) per acre.  All other properties we’ve seen are being sold for much higher prices, while this land is also ideal for our purposes.  Again, we ask for your prayers as we approach the closing.  Here are three photos:  one with Janine, Rosa (the sibling owner), Jack, and Leo; one including the small house they used to live in; and a third of some of the land.

While on the trip we were also able to meet with the coordinators of two other ministries, “FAMILIA ROYALE” (Royal Family) which is a ministry to abused children, and “PEPE”, which is a pre-school ministry to children at risk and poor children, many of them not knowing Jesus, providing them with basic Biblical concepts about Jesus and Christianity.  Both ministries are international and both are Christian-based, with Jesus in the middle.  Some of those we work with are looking to develop these exact kinds of ministries.  Please pray toward the possibility of putting one or both ministries into practice here in Santiago in the future.

Thirdly, Rachel continues to make excellent rehab progress. She is home and is regaining coordination and her speech ability!  TYL!!  Pray that her good therapy continues through the Chilean system, as Rachel’s U.S. family helpers will, in the end, return to the USA.  In a similar situation, Ursula, a friend from a church in northern Chile, has been just released from a clinic here in Santiago after spending 67 days hospitalized to solve the bleeding from her intestines.  In the end, she was able to undergo the necessary treatment using the necessary medical equipment and it appears that she will now heal and go forward.  TYL!!

While Chile is perhaps the most advanced, stable country in South America, so many such treatments seem to rely on opportunity “in the moment”.  We know that God was with her in all of this, and we are grateful!

Fourthly, we will be heading to the States before the end of Oct. to visit churches and participate, as always, in this year’s missionary conference (ICOM) for the Christian Churches/Churches of Christ.  The conference will be held in Kansas City MO. this year between Nov. 14-17, and is definitely worth attending!  We will be at our “CHILE MISSION” booth and would love to see you there!

Praising, praying, and fasting, to our “OUTSTRETCHED ARM” God,

In his love and unity,

Jack & Janine