“BAPTIZED INTO DEATH AND LIFE”

What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? ² By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? ³ Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? ⁴ We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.  –Romans 6:1-4

How significant are the events of this week culminating with Easter Sunday!!  The beauty of the first 14 verses of Romans 6 is found in how our own baptisms connect us directly to Christ’s death and resurrection:

(Baptizo (βαπτίζω): This verb literally means to immerse, dip, or submerge. In secular Greek, it could         describe immersing a garment in dye or a vessel in water. In the New Testament, it is used specifically for  the ceremonial act of baptism, symbolizing cleansing, purification, or initiation into the Christian faith.)

Once we (Jack & Janine) understood God’s design for baptism found in the Bible, our own baptisms completely changed our approach to life, and the events of this week as Jesus’ death and resurrection took on a whole new meaning.  Regardless of your denominational background we pray the same for your own JESUS relationship!  We also give you MANY THANKS for your continuing prayers for us and for CHILE MISSION!

We enter the month of April with praise and gratitude for God’s steps of progress both in Santiago and on the Camp property in middle Chile. Our past two months have been more than busy, and here we thought we were half retired-haha!  This Chilean summer (Jan – March) laid the foundation for April.

• We sent photos this past month of the work accomplished to be ready to begin constructing our maintenance/workshop/storage building.  All preparations have fallen into place regarding the completed structural engineering plans, the ordered materials, and our constructor Alex ready with his crew to begin construction the second week of April.  TYL!!  Alex estimates that he and his crew will be able to complete the entire metal structure with roof within two months, right on top of Chile’s winter rainy season.  Thanks for your prayers to help us get to this point and please pray with us for his successful work to completion!  The estimated cost will be just under $60,000 and we are VERY grateful to have the funds ready!  Its dimensions are 9 X 24 meters (30’ X 79’). Seen in the two photos, several metal parts were delivered on March 31 to Alex’s large work structure to be assembled there ahead of time. Alex is standing directly behind Abraham in the right-hand photo.

• We also have been able to recently purchase another older 4×4 pickup truck.  It is a 1990 Toyota double cab with larger tires and older drive train design more adaptable to the very muddy winter conditions by the camp.  The plan is to now correct the electrical problems in our newer truck.  The replacement truck even came with an electrical winch on the front (another useful benefit), and as seen in the photo, Abril wasted no time in inspecting the “new arrival”.

• Another HUGE step forward in motion is the hopeful joining of Cesar & Shlomit and 7-month-old daughter Liz to be teammates of Abraham & Catalina.  The plan to incorporate them is moving forward well but there are more issues to meet with them about, including the underlying concept of becoming a part of God’s KINGDOM PLAN AND GOOD PURPOSE for the camp Campo Vivo (the countryside “Alive”).  It will be a true “Missionary” change for their family and not just a change of jobs and location so to speak, and as you can see from their photo, little Liz is ready to go! 😊  Again, thanks for your prayers!  We will include more about them in the coming months.

The tentative plan is for Cesar to leave his current job and begin working with Abraham in September.  Shlomit will remain in Santiago until the end of the year when summer begins and schools let out.  She is a teacher.  Meanwhile, Cesar will make periodic trips home.  The maintenance building will have in it a small apartment complete with living, dining, and kitchen areas and with 2 bedrooms, bathroom, and a laundry area.  In the future this will be our office with break area and staff bathrooms.  They will live there as a family and ASAP we plan to construct them a house on the property.

• Lastly, we greatly appreciated and benefitted from the week-long visit of Dave and Tyler from Broadway Christian Church in Mattoon, IL.  They worked hard for three full days on the camp property and then helped with needed garden work on our mission site in Santiago.  They are looking forward to returning next year with others and Tyler is even considering coming back for a longer period of time later this year.  We are praying for both of these intended plans!  They dug holes with an auger and inserted over 100 fence posts now ready for barbed wire to mark the line between our property and that of our neighbor.  The photos show the beginning stage of their work and the end with all accomplished.  Thanks again, guys!!

• Another photo was taken at the end of their time in Chile during a meal we had together in Santiago.  

Seated next to Jack is Juan, now 21 years old.  What a pleasure to have him with us for the day, as he was turning 7 years old when he came to live on our mission sitio in Santiago as part of the nine children who were “children of the state” arriving to live in two of our houses.  Juan was 9 when our children’s residence was closed.  Janine keeps in touch with the kids who now almost 13 years later are all adults, and she and Fabiola (our hired psychologist to work with the children throughout those years) continue to look for opportunities to encourage and counsel them.  Juan is an excellent young man that appreciates good advice and his relationship with us. Unfortunately, like most of the kids, he has no relationship with his own family. This is where we can fit in to work with them and counsel them. 

Next to Juan at the table is Tyler and across from him is Dave.  Carolina and sons Abdías & Esteban are also at the table and her husband Julián took the photo.

These first 2026 three months for us in Chile now come to an end in mid-April, as we head to California to attend our oldest grandson’s graduation from Grand Canyon U. in Phoenix, AZ.  Grand Canyon is the largest Christian university in the U.S., with almost 100,000 students on and off campus and undergrad through doctoral studies.  We’re proud of Joshua, who already has been hired to be a kindergarten teacher in the fall.

In addition to all the points covered above we have one more GREAT reason to celebrate and thank God for this new month of April, when on the 17^th we celebrate our 55^th wedding anniversary!  We’d be right to say that God both carried and protected us for years and now continues to guide and uphold us through every single step of the way!!  We love each other and together celebrate and serve God, family, and his work through us.  We continue to be so blessed!

Here are two photos:  the first on our wedding day and the second in the spring of 1992, getting ready to leave the U.S. that August for one year of language school in Costa Rica and then on to Chile.  It wasn’t until one year after our baptisms on March 2, 1986 that we opened ourselves up to God’s future beautiful plan for us with our family.  Jack was almost 39 and Janine almost 36.  We continue to follow God’s plan, learning from Jesus and his Word as our center posts.

We’d like to end our Easter April with a tribute on how to “follow Jesus”, found in Philippians 2:1-4….

Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, ² then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. ³ Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, ⁴ not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.

The passage goes on through verse 11 describing Jesus’ humility and mission.  Thanks again for your prayers!!

Rejoicing, praying, and giving thanks to our “One True “Death & Life FOR ALL” JESUS,

Jack & Janine

“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