“But By MY SPIRIT, says the Lord Almighty”

 “Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the Lord Almighty.” –Zech. 4:6

“Who dares despise the day of small things.” –Zech. 4:10

The Biblical account of the exiled Jews’ return to Jerusalem from Babylonia under the rule of Cyrus king of Persia is pretty incredible, including their task of rebuilding the temple in Jerusalem.  There was much to do and so many obstacles in their way during those several years, and the most impacting lesson we can draw from the entire account is found in the above verses.  Zechariah wrote them to Zerubbabel, hand-picked by God to lead the Jews in the rebuilding of the temple.  What we need to realize is that these verses apply to us today every bit as much as they did to Zerubbabel!   

None of us are engaged “by accident” in God’s calling of us, whether it be in Chile or exactly where we live, and although we are called to be accountable and committed to completing our calls, GOD’S SPIRIT WILL ALWAYS BE OUR ENABLER AND IN CHARGE OF ALL TIMING, not us.  Also, every work of the Lord has its beginning, even starting with nothing.  It’s his specialty so to speak!  Pictured is a small section at the front of Jack’s daily Prayer Journal.

                                         

Another eternal specialty of the Holy Spirit is PRAYER, which ties us to God and to each other.  As we mention in every one of our monthly prayer updates, we and CHILE MISSION so appreciate your prayers and your sending us off to complete God’s work marked out by His Holy Spirit!  THANK YOU once again!! 

“For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him.”  –2 Chronicles 16:9

The final design and bid process for the construction of our two-story, metal maintenance/workshop/storage building to be constructed on the camp property have taken MANY months.  What would have been a fairly straightforward process in the US, we hope, will be totally completed very soon and ready to begin building after the finish of Chilean winter rains ending in early September.  We know, though, that God’s timing is connected and we give him all thanks.  We thank you for your accompanying prayers during this process!             

In the meantime, the covered parking platform with its balcony and room with space for extra beds is now totally under roof right before our rainy season sets in, and we again thank you churches and individuals that came to Chile this year to help build it from scratch!!  Abraham finished the roof in May and then left on a VERY well-deserved vacation with his family.  They are due back these first days of June.  Very well built and utilitarian in design, it should hopefully serve the camp for many years to come.

IN SANTIAGO, Carolina continues to receive and serve those coming to stay at CHILE MISSION’s Casa de Acogida for varied lengths of time.  As an update, we are pleased and grateful to relate that their 16 year old son Esteban did mostly recover from his hospitalized urinary tract/kidney-related infection, however he continues under doctor care toward his full recuperation.  Please continue to join us in praying for him and his complete healing.

Also, both Abraham’s and Julián’s families have visited several new churches in order to build up church connections in both locations, and although church visits are important toward the future of CHILE MISSION’s work, our main encouragement to both families is to follow up on those visits.  Our weakness is that usually a visit to our work is agreed upon, but with no exact date set.  Almost always, that date “falls between the cracks” so to speak.  Please pray with us for improvement in this area, as we see the involvement of local churches to be vitally important in spreading our vision there.

IN THE STATES, we hope to spend all U.S. summer in Cedar Lake, IN with a two-fold purpose:

• Prepare and sell our house on the Cedar Lake Bible Conference grounds. It’s been our blessed “home away from Chile” for these 33 years, since August, 1992.  We will miss it, but as we continue to spend time in the Midwest every fall to visit churches and friends and drive to the annual ICOM missions conference every November, we will not need to own a home.  Our children live pretty far away, with two of them with their families living in Los Angeles, prompting us to purchase a home in the Palm Springs area.

You are ALL invited to visit, whether we are there or not! 🙂

• As with wherever we find ourselves Stateside, we continue to visit both monthly-supporting churches, along with other churches and individuals seeking small work teams that can visit Chile to help on the camp property. There are a variety of tasks to connect to, including construction, clearing land, pruning fruit trees and planting.  We were SO blessed this year by those visiting who could operate our excavator!  Yes, Abraham continues to seek the help of Chileans, but the importance of mission visits from churches and from individuals cannot be over-stated.  Thank you, thank you, thank you!!

We also continue to ask God to lead us to those individuals who are able to make larger one-time donations toward the development of the Campo Vivo Camp.  We are so grateful to already have funds (roughly $200,000 in total) to construct our first two-story metal building and also the back-to-back bathrooms with showers in the tent camping area, and we know that the Holy Spirit will lead forward from there.  If you are such a person and are open to receive more information, please contact us.  We also would love to meet with you.  Our Email address is chilemission1@gmail.com and our main cell phone number is 949-394-8282. With the finishing of the tent-camping area, we can begin to receive groups, and from there we will be looking at constructing the multi-purpose two-story dining hall in 2027.

We SO APPRECIATE your continuing prayers toward these above Stateside issues and once again, THANK YOU FOR YOUR STEADY PRAYER AND FINANCIAL SUPPORT!!

Rejoicing, praying, and giving thanks to our “Holy Spirit-Powered” One, True God,

Jack & Janine