“Missionaries one and all!”

1 Peter 1:18-20         Christ was chosen by God before creation

John 3:16-17           Christ was sent by God

Matt. 28:18-20        The disciples were chosen and sent by Christ

1 Peter 2:9-10          WE ALL are chosen by God

2 Cor.5:18-20a         WE ALL are sent by God

All of the above verses define LOVE God’s way.  We know that missionaries are sent out from churches to other countries, cultures and languages, willing to give their all.  At the same time, God’s grand mission to rescue and reconcile the world is even much bigger, as WE ALL have been chosen and sent to take the Good News of Jesus Christ to all places near and far.  A good place to start may be inviting someone to a church service, and as always, on-going prayer for that person needs to be right in the middle of it all!   No wonder we are encouraged in Eph.6:18-20 to continually pray for one another!

To ALL you prayer-partnering fellow missionaries we give thanks!  We so need each other’s prayers. AMEN AND PTL!!

August CHILE prayers and praises:

• Last month we celebrated the re-location of the electric poles and lines on the camp property.  We now look forward to and pray for their final connection with the transformer and the electric meters.  As usual, Coelcha isn’t naming a date. 😊¿? (the Spanish version of question marks)

• The Google Meet visual call on July 6^th between us in Indiana, Paola in Santiago, Abraham in middle Chile, and Matías, the potential architect in southern Chile, went very well!  We want to hire Matías to help us with the placement and final design of what we construct.  We are still so grateful for the initial visit of EMI (Engineering Ministries International) in Feb. 2020, in which they walked the land and planned and designed structures and systems with us in the development of our camp property.  Matías has their final report in hand, which will help immensely with his actual work with us.  His masters degree is in landscape architecture, emphasizing country settings, so we think he will be a good fit.  He will be coming to Bodeuca in the coming weeks to meet with Abraham and go forward with us from there.                                                                                                               
• We, too, look forward to meeting with Matías and Abraham when we return to Chile at the end of August.  We are grateful that Chile seems to be relaxing their control of the entrance and exit of citizens and permanent residents (like us).  They now require those entering and leaving to be fully vaccinated and there is a catch….  while we both will have a scan code on our cellphones documenting that we have indeed been vaccinated, the Chilean government has not concluded that they will recognize such scans from other countries.  We hope to be able to enter, move around, and leave within about a month.  We already know that we will have to quarantine for 10 days, with daily governmental visits to insure we are complying.  Thank you, Lord, for looking after such details. 😊                                                                                                                                                                       
• Paola, our paid onsite manager in Chile, is Columbian and has just left for six weeks to visit her family there.  It’s been over one year that she’s seen them due to covid, and we pray for a safe and blessed time for her visit with her family and newly born niece.                                                                                                                                   
• We have a new “guest” member of the Chile camp team.  Her photo is here below.  A Christian friend not far from our land bought the horse for his granddaughter and, due to his final days of battling brain cancer (Thank you Lord for our eternal home!!), he preferred to have the horse with us.  Interestingly, both of his sons-in-law were schoolmates of Abraham and our son Jayme in Santiago and they have remained friends.

August Stateside prayers and praises:

• As we wait for our flights to Chile we will be spending time in continuing work on our house in California to get it ready to live in.  We haven’t been there for six weeks and are looking forward to making more progress.  We are very grateful for attentive and helpful neighbors!

Praising, praying, and fasting to our CHOOSING AND SENDING ONE, TRUE GOD,

Jack & Janine

“EXTRA, EXTRA, READ ALL ABOUT IT!”

 ¹⁶ 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. ¹⁸ Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.  –John 3:16-18

This month we join all of you in celebrating and commemorating the United States independence as a sovereign country, as originally penned in the Declaration of Independence and then won through SEVEN YEARS OF WAR AND LOSS OF SO MANY LIVES.  While the United States will always be evolving into that country described in the Declaration of Independence, it continues to be a beacon of light and freedom to the rest of the world.  Our prayers for our country and testimony as Christians are so needed!

The bigger question remains.  Is it possible to be “free and independent” and yet still live in chains?  The answer, of course, is YES.  So many today will not know TRUE freedom simply because they do not believe in Jesus as Savior and Lord.  We Christians have that most important REAL freedom living inside of us to share with an unbelieving “free” world.  Let’s keep praying for, encouraging, and giving thanks for each other as we celebrate THIS July 4^th!!  ALL PEOPLE EVERYWHERE need The Best News of Jesus, as their forever life and future depend on it.  There are so many ways to share him, and we so appreciate your prayers for God’s work through us in Chile!

July CHILE Prayers and praises:

• We have a HUGE PRAISE to share about Coelcha, the electric company responsible for moving of our electric lines.  They arrived at our camp property the last week of June to announce that they would be returning to remove and re-locate the electric lines from the middle of our planned lake area, and TODAY, JUNE 30TH, they did arrive to begin installing the new posts in their new location!!  TYL!!  This also means that our next building steps can go forward.  THANK YOU FOR PRAYING WITH US these many months!!  We have been waiting a long time for them to respond—especially since we had to prepay the $9,000 cost of the project this past February.  Below are two photos and next month we’ll have more to show.  
• We will be doing a Google Meet visual call on July 6^th between us in Indiana, Paola in Santiago, Abraham in middle Chile, and the architect in southern Chile that will be helping us with the final designs of what we will be constructing on our camp property.  Please pray with us for a fruitful meeting.  
• We continue to pray for a final agreement with Rosa on the location of the border between our properties. She has refused to work with Abraham, preferring to wait for our arrival.
• Thank you, Lord, that the renewal of Janine’s permanent residency was approved by the Chilean consulate in Los Angeles!  She was scheduled to return to Chile in May, but the country’s tight covid restrictions and lockdowns prevented that.  Praying for the relaxation of those restrictions, we both now hope to return to Chile this August or September.
• Thank you as well, Lord, that in the meantime we can continue our weekly meetings via WhatsApp with both Paola in Santiago and Abraham on the rural camp property.

July Stateside Prayers and praises:

• We are grateful for continuing progress made on the house in California.  Finishing the grouting of the floors, texturing & painting walls and ceilings, and the installation of kitchen cabinets and appliances are our three main areas to concentrate on.  TYL!
• We shared last month about Devyn’s (due Sept. 6^th) pregnancy in Houston.  We just learned that Jayme and Malia in Birmingham, AL are expecting their third child one week before Christmas!  She did recently graduate from her 3-year “Family Practice” medical residency and we give God many thanks.  It is important to include pregnancies in our prayers.  In this photo taken at her graduation, Malia’s father, Patrick, is on the left.  Havalah is 5 and Matthias is 3.

Returning to our July focus on Spiritual Liberty, did you know that almost one third of Chileans doubt the existence of God and over one third of Chileans consider themselves to be un-affiliated with religion in general?  At the same time, according to Barna and Gallup polls, only two thirds of U.S. adults and 40% of U.S. teens believe in God with absolute certainty, only half of Americans consider themselves Christians, and less than half of Americans belong to a “house of worship”.  The above photo shows where we can find people today as they pursue life outside of the church.  Sadly, physical life is all too short and so often ends abruptly without warning.

It would seem that the “EXTRA, EXTRA, READ ALL ABOUT IT”  headline really does apply to the GOOD NEWS OF JESUS in the U.S., in Chile, and in all the world!!  We, the Church, are the hope of the world!

Praising, praying, and fasting to and through our John 3:16-18, True Independence JESUS,

Jack & Janine