“EVERY SUPPORTING LIGAMENT AND EACH and EVERY PART”

Speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect THE MATURE BODY OF  him who is the head, that is, CHRIST. ¹⁶ From him THE WHOLE BODY, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, AS EACH PART DOES ITS WORK.  –EPH 4:15-16

Ligaments are connective tissues that join bones to other bones, and in the same way the above verses refer to “all supporting ligaments” that join and hold together the WHOLE BODY OF CHRIST—THE CHURCH.  The above verses mention God’s Truth, growing in maturity, God’s Love, and the Body doing its Work, and there are several N.T. references to the importance of UNITY of purpose and in faith toward “Acts of Service”, as mentioned in Ephesians 4:11-13.  The first church, as described in Acts 2:42, devoted itself to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, the breaking of bread, and to prayer.   

We’ve chosen the above verses emphasizing “every supporting ligament” of Jesus’ Body in the world and each part of his Body “doing its work”, to highlight our gratitude for the visits of the Visser Family and the ten-member team from First Christian Church in King, NC during the month of February, and of course for all of your on-going prayer and financial support for us and for CHILE MISSON.  Your steady prayers continue to result in God’s blessings of headway made in Santiago and in developing the camp property in middle, rural Chile.  We give God thanks for the place and importance of prayer in the first Church and in the world’s Christian Churches to this day and beyond!

There are several photos included in this month’s prayer & praise update to give you all a better understanding of what God is accomplishing. 😊 

In Santiago Rodrigo (being treated for larynx cancer) was given the green light to go home for two months, with his next check-up scheduled for April.  What great news for him, after spending the last eight months at our CHILE MISSION site Dulce Refugio in Santiago while in and out of the hospital for surgery and chemo treatments.  God loves to respond to the combined prayers of his children and those others who earnestly seek him, so thank you for continuing to pray for him.

Here he is with his niece Valentina ready to be picked up to go to the airport.  She and another niece alternated here to help prepare special foods for him to eat during his time of treatment.  She and Rodrigo are both more than ready to go home and very happy and grateful for the Lord’s healing touch.

Another mother has been staying on our Santiago site while her 23-year-old daughter is hospitalized being treated for burns over a quarter of her body due to another person throwing boiling water on her.  How sad!  Thank you for your prayers for all those we come into contact with through Dulce Refugio.

We also have MUCH to report IN MIDDLE CHILE at our Campo Vivo property in formation:

Firstly, the visit of the Visser family went very well in helping us think through several details related to the on-going development of the camp property.  We were able to walk through much of the land together.  Their boys aged 8 and 5 were constantly running and playing with Abril (6) and having a ball with Sunny the dog as well. 😊

Secondly, earlier in February Abaraham was dropping us off at a bus stop on the expressway to return to Santiago, when a man stopped a short distance from us when his pickup truck broke down.  He then approached us and Abraham asked him where he needed to go and volunteered to take him there as soon as our bus arrived.

As it turned out, Sergio (his name) lives on a large plot of ground of several hectares roughly 20 minutes away, where he grows many types of vegetables, along with avocado trees and grapes and a variety of other fruits.  We visited him with Abraham and the Vissers, and he wants to come out to our camp property to help look at the type and placement of what crops will grow in our soil and help round out our camp program with children.  What a blessing was this divine encounter with Sergio!  Please give thanks and pray with us as to how crops might come into play at some future date.   

Our third great news is that we how have the contractor, a young man named Alex, set to begin building our maintenance/workshop/storage metal building before the end of March!!  We met him when we and the Vissers were riding home with Abraham and Abraham noticed him working on a very large metal structure similar to the one we need to build.  As it turned out, Alex had built his structure by himself and he is a Christian with many of the same friends as Abraham & Catalina.

He recently visited our camp property and will be set to begin construction toward the end of this new month.  We would call this God’s plan through pre-arranging our “divine encounter” with Alex.  We’ve been praying for over two years for the building of our maintenance building and we have had prior agreements with contractors over that time that have fallen through, so we again thank you for praying with us toward this development!  The building will measure almost 10 yards x 24 yards long and one huge undertaking was the leveling of ground next to Abraham’s house of an area large enough for the project.  An architect will finish the final building design during the first two weeks of March and based on his calculations we will order the materials in mid-March.  Members of the First Christian King team leveled that ground and much more, as we describe their time with us below.    

Fourthly, as if “by cue”, the ten-member King team arrived on Saturday, Feb. 21^st and the seven guys on the team wasted no time in getting to work that afternoon, after flying all night and then taking the six-hour bus ride with Jack to the camp property.  The three women went first to our Santiago site with Janine and then traveled by bus to join the others the next afternoon.  The women did undergo one big surprise on their way to meet the bus when the hood of the Uber car they were riding in suddenly flew up and hit the car’s windshield!  The driver merely pulled over and wired it shut and they made the bus without any more mishaps. It was a new experience for Janine too!! 😊

The team worked incredibly well together, just as did our other visiting teams in 2025.  With several engineers/construction guys on the team they used the excavator and skid steer to completely dig out and level the large tract of ground needed for the maintenance building, as well as dig out a portion of the future lake area and build a dam to keep water from flooding the now-raised interior road next to it.  In addition the team sided the outside of our platform room.

The following photos show their work and progress. They are in order of leveling the maintenance building ground, working on the platform room, and digging the lake area to build a type of dam, with the righthand photos showing the completed job. Toward the bottom the right photo shows them boarding the bus to the airport. What a job they did!!

We now look forward to a week-long visit from two men from Broadway Christian Church in Mattoon, IL the last week of March to also help on the camp property before we return to Santiago to spend two weeks prior to returning to the States.  If you happen to be an excavator or skid steer operator and want to join them, please get in touch with us.  Our email is chilemission1@gmail.com and while we can’t answer regular phone calls due to cost, we can communicate through WhatsApp and FaceTime without cost which we can answer on our cell phone 949-394-8282. 

Rejoicing, praying, and giving thanks to our One True Jesus—Head of his Body in the World,

Jack & Janine