“The REAL SEED and SEED NOURISHER”
As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but WILL ACCOMPLISH what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. –ISAIAH 55:10-11
The above passage in Isaiah SO appropriately describes our seven full weeks of interacting with over 2,000 children and teens at Round Lake Christian Camp and also two separate VBSs in two Ohio churches!! Just think of all the Gospel and Mission seeds that were SOWN AND WATERED in these young lives. There are several Bible passages and parables that speak of sowing & watering seeds and of the soil they fall on, etc., but a main point of these passages is that GOD is both the SEED and the ONE RESPONSIBLE for its growth. We love this passage in Isaiah for its message!! Please think of the difference it would make upon all those in churches throughout the U.S., let alone churches worldwide, to see ourselves as the Lord’s SEED SOWERS in our families and in others.
It was INCREDIBLY satisfying and fun to enlarge the “JESUS worlds” of so many children and teens, and we are also INCREDIBLY grateful for your prayers for our time here!! Everyone learned a lot about Chile and about the need for a Christian camp there. Roughly only 20% of Chileans know Jesus as Savior. We now pray for these young lives as they continue going forward. This past month we included a photo of some baptisms, a MAJOR FIRST STEP OF RESPONDING TO GOD for each child/teen. The Holy Spirit moved in many ways during the camps! For us, it was a challenging time to adjust our time with the children every day—balancing our time between challenging them to be missionaries and making the learning lots of fun. Here are some July photos:
We also taught them songs in Spanish, including “JESUS LOVES ME”, a center post theme of God that supports all the rest. Click on this link to view the video of the song: https://youtu.be/WfX9sNZdp5Y
Looking ahead, we leave Round Lake on August 5th and then travel to Chile for just over two weeks on August 10th, with lots of details to attend to in our short time there. We are sorry to report that our friend that was due to join us on this Chile trip has been diagnosed with prostate cancer and is beginning treatment immediately, thus postponing any plans for a Chile trip. We pray for both him and his family, that they would be assured of God’s presence and healing touch.
Speaking of CHILE’S FUTURE CAMP, look at Abraham’s homemade bridge, allowing them to leave and enter their property via the higher ground during their days of steady winter rains. We have a BIG PRAISE to share in that Abraham’s on-going emails and calls into the office of the government official directly responsible for public roads in the area of our camp property paid off and the official finally came out to personally see the totally flooded sections of road by our camp property. He has promised to re-route those sections of impassable conditions to higher ground once the weather conditions change toward the end of this year. TYL!!!
During our time with Abraham & Family at the camp property we will mark boundaries for the first building to be constructed to get ready for Chilean summer this coming January through April. WE WELCOME THE HELP FROM ALL INDIVIDUALS AND CHURCHES that are able to plan a trip to come to Chile during those up-coming months!! PLEASE CONTACT US if you and/or your church group might be able to make the trip and PLEASE EVERYONE PRAY for this upcoming “construction/building” window of opportunity!! We plan on being in Chile for the entire Chilean summer and would love to receive you there. The round-trip airfares are currently below $700 and it will only take some initiative in planning forward. We can help you think it through. Thank you again!!
We also give God thanks that Abraham’s mechanic was able to repair the transmission on the Toyota pickup so that the 4-wheel drive works well again.
IN SANTIAGO, Carolina continues to receive adults in need of medical treatments and parents of hospitalized children from other parts of the country. We shared last month about the passing of baby Matías, who battled a serious virus from birth. It was a blessing to be able to extend condolences to his parents! As you know, we are the only “Casa de Acogida” in Santiago that receives both men and women when they accompany their children. We can do that because we have have one of our four houses on our mission site set aside for women and another house for men.
As we wrote last month, we also appreciate your prayers for being able to sign ALL needed documents to make needed changes to the statutes of our legal foundation “MISIÓN CHILE” while we’re in Chile this month. Especially included is the ability of the Foundation to receive all types of donations from inside and from outside of the country.
Praising, praying, fasting to GOD, the REAL SEED AND SEED NOURISHER,
Chile Mission 