“FAITH, TRUST, & PRAYER”
In all of Hebrews 11 we find tremendous examples of TOTAL faith!
And Proverbs 3:5-6 tells us, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take.” -NLT
Now add Philippians 4:6-7, “Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. 7 Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.” -NLT
How many, many times have Faith, Trust, & Prayer in combination with each other come into play for us and for Chile Mission, just as it has for you over the years through to today, and as they will into the future! God’s faithfulness continues to overwhelm us, and your prayer partnership continues to make a real difference! THANK YOU!!
A huge current example has been the purchase, loading, and sending of our 40’ container from Cedar Lake, IN to Chile these several last months—all of which was made possible with MUCH generosity, MANY key people and MUCH help. Abraham has made many contacts regarding our paperwork in order in to receive the container through Customs and not pay the typical very large taxes (about 20%) assessed on everyday purchases and on incoming shipments of goods.
Toward that end, Jack and Abraham recently met with a Customs official at the large mid-Chile port of Talcahuano (near Concepción) who in turn govern the incoming shipments to Coronel, Chile, where our container is arriving. They took several supporting documents regarding our not-for-profit Misión Chile Foundation, the Bill of Lading, and the letter of donation from Chile Mission, Inc. in the States.
We had (with your help!) already been praying about the disposition of the Customs representatives, we prayed and gave thanks before leaving the house to meet with them, and then prayed and gave thanks as we entered the Customs office. The official was totally disposed to helping us and looked all through our documentation, saying that he didn’t see any need for us to hire a professional shipping agent to handle the required port and Customs paperwork. He also explained what to put in a letter requesting recognition of our Foundation and exemption from all taxes connected with our reception of the container. Needless to say, God got a big “THANK YOU, LORD!!” from both of us. 🙂
To show how you never really know where you stand regarding final governmental decisions in Chile, when Abraham returned to the same office a couple days later with the letter of solicitude, a different person received him and left him with little hope that all would be approved. In addition, Abraham just also received word that the Port Authorities might want to fumigate the container contents upon arrival and likewise, with the container now due to arrive on November 2nd, it might take the Customs Authorities almost 10 days more to rule on our tax exemption.
But God is working… We have been asking him to direct us through Abraham’s many recent contacts to provide us with a professional customs agent to deal with the port requirements and all needed documentation, and the agent who handles Samaritan’s Purse shipments to Chile is now reviewing our paperwork. Another TYL!! to be sure and no matter what, with all of these unknowns in play, we thank you for your prayers and we give thanks to the Lord!
Now for the second “container” miracle being prayed for… trucking the container from the Port to our camp property. Winter water is still flowing, and some deep mud still covers some critical areas of our only normal access road to the toll road that connects us to the port. Thus, it is looking quite improbable that the truck bringing the container to our camp property will be able to negotiate the road coming from that direction. In another answer to prayer, we were able to talk with the Administrator of the town of Quillón, responsible for that part of our public access road. He promised help and sent city workers out to our road two days later, but even with repairs, the standing water on the sandy road make safe passage for such a heavy truck unlikely.
Meanwhile, Abraham drove out of our property going the opposite direction to evaluate access to our property from there. It will mean a longer trip for the truck with the container, but the government in charge of that section of road has begun repairs with leveling machines on the worse areas of their part of the public access road, and Abraham has also gone out with our excavator to fill in and level the road’s areas of deep ruts. All of this almost sounds like the twists & turns of a modern reality show, but YES God is working and is faithful and YES we greatly appreciate your prayers!
The Mennonite mission based in Columbia is also sending four young men to Abraham the first weeks of November to help him with the unloading of the container, once we are able to receive it and transport it to our property. What a blessing!
Speaking of receiving the help of that same Mennonite mission that continues to send us teams of both young women and men, Abraham was recently hugely blessed to receive three young men who helped him in several significant ways for roughly two weeks. They finished the inside of the new 10 x 20 foot room built on the platform behind Abraham’s & Catalina’s house, they made and installed new cabinetry in the house kitchen, they poured a large cement pad outside of the house’s front door, and they cleared land and helped install a new needed barbed wire border complete with fence posts along the road. Here are some photos of some of their work in process:
Lastly, a nearby neighbor, Leonel, now works for Abraham two to three days a week, helping clear land and chainsaw trees. He is a steady worker, well-acquainted with manual labor working the land, and even lives less than a mile away. Abraham & Catalina have been close friends of Leonel and his family these recent several years. Another big blessing!
With all of the above blessings in motion, as we have been asking in our recent Prayer & Praise monthly updates, we sincerely ask all of you supporting individuals and churches to talk to us and plan a trip to help develop our camp property. More small groups will continue to be needed for these immediate years to come in developing the land into a functioning, God-centered camp for children, youth, and adults well into the future. Please pray about making another (or first!! 🙂 ) trip to physically continually being a part, and then let us help you put a team in place according to your timing needs. Thank you!!
SWITCHING GEARS TO SANTIAGO,
Our Santiago Chile Mission “Sweet Refuge” site continues to be a blessing to Chileans arriving in Santiago for complicated medical treatments either for themselves or for their children. It was special for us to meet several guests during our recent time in Chile, some of whom have stayed in the site previously. Carolina not only coordinates all visits, but personally interacts with each person and prays with them as well, and she & husband Julián meet and pray with all residents weekly as a group.
She recently received word from the mother of Dominíc, now just over 3½ years old, that he continues to do well. As we have shared in these past years, he was born in April 2022 with his internal organs out-of-place and his parents were told by doctors to plan on him dying because he wouldn’t live long. We all have been praying for him and for his parents ever since, and here is the recent photo of Dominíc sent to Carolina by his mother. He does need surgery to correct a hernia and will need heart surgery in the future, but God’s touch has definitely been on and continues to be on his very precious life!
SWITCHING AGAIN TO THE STATES,
We now head out on our way to this year’s ICOM missions conference in Atlanta, visiting special people and supporting churches beforehand and after. We appreciate your prayers for safe travel and for any and all “divine people encounters” during the trip. It would be great to see any of you at our Chile booth at the conference. As we have mentioned, the dates of this year’s Conference are November 20th through the 22nd.
Finally, we can’t resist showing you the beautiful flowers and sky outside of the fron door to Abraham’s & Catalina’s house. As with all other photos, you can double-click it to enlarge the picture.
Rejoicing, praying, and giving thanks in and to our “Faith, Trust, & Prayer” One, True God,
Chile Mission 