Eating shrimp in Ecuador
Tuesday, November 29, 2005
Report for November, 2005
Greetings once again from Chile. I hope that all of you are doing well.
We began November with some welcome news. Steve Ridgell, with the Herald of Truth ministry, Rex Morgan, producer of the television program "Con La Biblia Abierta", Marlene Albarrán, my secretary, and I met with Christian Salamovich V., the executive director of the television station UCVTV- Universidad Católica Valparaiso TV 3:30 p.m. Friday, November 4, 2005. During our meeting we finalized the last details of our television program. In the coming year, we will offer a television program starting on March 1, 2006 through October 28, 2006 at 7:30 a.m. on Saturday morning. I invite you all to pray for the success of this venture. As you all know, we have been preparing for this opportunity for some time now.
In November, I spent two weekends working with two churches in Ecuador, one in Ibarra and one in Guayaquil. I taught a conference in Ibarra to a full house. The congregation is more active now, showing some improvement, specifically in two areas. They are actively considering naming elders. They are also having more success inviting in new people. In addition, they have finished construction on a couple of additional rooms to the church building, which they did themselves. I also gave some presentations at the church in Guayaquil. I found out that this church was on the brink of giving up and going home, when I first arrived there. Now they have a young man from Ibarra, Juan Pablo Rosero, Henry Rosero’s brother, who is working full time there. I spent the entire time in Ibarra and Guayaquil talking about the gospel. I figured that we would spend time on the basics. The result of this is that the two congregations understand more clearly what we believe. The congregation in Ibarra also has new people. Juan Pablo has been studying with two new persons. In addition, two people showed up Sunday morning when I preached from off the street. I suspect that they heard me preach during the week. At any rate, I think there is marked improvement in the churches.
Henry Rosero accompanied me to Chile. Beto Hernandez from Venezuela and Henry gave a series of presentations in Santiago during the last week of November.
On Thanksgiving, I invited the participants from my class on John on Thursday morning to participate with me in a Thanksgiving meal. We gave thanks to God for many things, and then we sat down to turkey and dressing and all the trimmings. Beto and Henry enjoyed this unique American experience tremendously. It was a pleasure for me to share that with all of the Latin Americans present. On Thursday evening, I continued my class on evangelism.
Saturday morning, we held our national men’s meeting that we have twice a year. I left the house with plenty of time that morning, but had the bright idea that I would take one of the brand new highways in town to the church. It was a colossal mistake. I got stuck in a massive traffic jam. It was thirty minutes before I could leave the area, and then I had to drive around until I found another route to the church. I arrived late to find everyone waiting on me, since I was to be the first speaker. I gave a talk on Ephesians 1. The theme was the spiritual improvement of the church. It was a good theme for all of us. Sergio Plaza also spoke and then Beto Hernandez ended it. We also had lunch together. It was good.
Sunday evening and Monday, we had a ministers’ mini-retreat. Twenty men participated. We went down to Casablanca about twenty feet from the Pacific Ocean. We talked about what God expects in men, in relation to manliness. We also ate some delicious fried fish fresh from the ocean. Undoubtedly, we are going to be known as the church that eats together. That is biblical.
Today, I am leaving for a trip to the north. I will be gone two weeks. This trip is to visit various congregations. Pedro Sanchez, Milton Muñoz, Henry Rosero from Ecuador, and Rolando Suazo from Vicuña will accompany me. I am going to write about it on the website, Preaching the Gospel in Chile, www.harry1976.blogspot.com if you want to accompany me on the trip.
God bless you. Thank you for your support.
In Christ,
Harry R. Hamilton
We began November with some welcome news. Steve Ridgell, with the Herald of Truth ministry, Rex Morgan, producer of the television program "Con La Biblia Abierta", Marlene Albarrán, my secretary, and I met with Christian Salamovich V., the executive director of the television station UCVTV- Universidad Católica Valparaiso TV 3:30 p.m. Friday, November 4, 2005. During our meeting we finalized the last details of our television program. In the coming year, we will offer a television program starting on March 1, 2006 through October 28, 2006 at 7:30 a.m. on Saturday morning. I invite you all to pray for the success of this venture. As you all know, we have been preparing for this opportunity for some time now.
In November, I spent two weekends working with two churches in Ecuador, one in Ibarra and one in Guayaquil. I taught a conference in Ibarra to a full house. The congregation is more active now, showing some improvement, specifically in two areas. They are actively considering naming elders. They are also having more success inviting in new people. In addition, they have finished construction on a couple of additional rooms to the church building, which they did themselves. I also gave some presentations at the church in Guayaquil. I found out that this church was on the brink of giving up and going home, when I first arrived there. Now they have a young man from Ibarra, Juan Pablo Rosero, Henry Rosero’s brother, who is working full time there. I spent the entire time in Ibarra and Guayaquil talking about the gospel. I figured that we would spend time on the basics. The result of this is that the two congregations understand more clearly what we believe. The congregation in Ibarra also has new people. Juan Pablo has been studying with two new persons. In addition, two people showed up Sunday morning when I preached from off the street. I suspect that they heard me preach during the week. At any rate, I think there is marked improvement in the churches.
Henry Rosero accompanied me to Chile. Beto Hernandez from Venezuela and Henry gave a series of presentations in Santiago during the last week of November.
On Thanksgiving, I invited the participants from my class on John on Thursday morning to participate with me in a Thanksgiving meal. We gave thanks to God for many things, and then we sat down to turkey and dressing and all the trimmings. Beto and Henry enjoyed this unique American experience tremendously. It was a pleasure for me to share that with all of the Latin Americans present. On Thursday evening, I continued my class on evangelism.
Saturday morning, we held our national men’s meeting that we have twice a year. I left the house with plenty of time that morning, but had the bright idea that I would take one of the brand new highways in town to the church. It was a colossal mistake. I got stuck in a massive traffic jam. It was thirty minutes before I could leave the area, and then I had to drive around until I found another route to the church. I arrived late to find everyone waiting on me, since I was to be the first speaker. I gave a talk on Ephesians 1. The theme was the spiritual improvement of the church. It was a good theme for all of us. Sergio Plaza also spoke and then Beto Hernandez ended it. We also had lunch together. It was good.
Sunday evening and Monday, we had a ministers’ mini-retreat. Twenty men participated. We went down to Casablanca about twenty feet from the Pacific Ocean. We talked about what God expects in men, in relation to manliness. We also ate some delicious fried fish fresh from the ocean. Undoubtedly, we are going to be known as the church that eats together. That is biblical.
Today, I am leaving for a trip to the north. I will be gone two weeks. This trip is to visit various congregations. Pedro Sanchez, Milton Muñoz, Henry Rosero from Ecuador, and Rolando Suazo from Vicuña will accompany me. I am going to write about it on the website, Preaching the Gospel in Chile, www.harry1976.blogspot.com if you want to accompany me on the trip.
God bless you. Thank you for your support.
In Christ,
Harry R. Hamilton
Tuesday, November 08, 2005
Report for September and October, 2005
Greetings. Spring has arrived here in Santiago. I will confess that I have already made some ice cream (chocolate and peach), but I have not really had any good barbecues yet. Generally I need a good excuse, such as a visit from friends. The secret to being able to have barbecues and make ice cream is to always share it with somebody.
In the congregation at Villa Los Andes del Sur, Pilar and Beto took a turn at being missionaries. The school that Pilar works at sent several teachers to Cuba for some educational conference. Pilar tells me all these teachers are Communists, which explains why they went to Cuba. Pilar and Beto used this trip as an opportunity to visit with some of my Bible Correspondence Course students. They were able to clear up a couple of things with my students. One is that some of the lessons did not arrive, possibly due to censorship. Since some of the people had not heard from me, they thought we were not sending lessons. We were able to clear up the point about our faithfulness in sending them. What we will do in the future is that I will step back and let the Chileans maintain the contacts to avoid censorship difficulties. Pilar and Beto reports that the Cubans they visited with were thrilled at the visit. They all want to know more about the Bible. You can imagine the difficulties. Pilar and Beto were also touched by the poverty of the Cubans. Most can not afford anything. They lack basic necessities such as soap and shampoo and other such items. Pilar and Beto plan to collect some items to send them. The contact is great. It motivated the Chileans and the Cubans. As in all missionary work, you never know what will work out, but we have an opportunity to do some good.
One of the brothers at Población Santiago, Luis Lucero, reports the baptism of his aunt, an elderly woman who lives in the city of Cartagena. This lady was a Jehovah’s Witness for forty years. She is now the only member of the Church of Christ in her city.
Pedro Sanchez went to the USA. While there, he worked with the Spanish speaking congregation in Lexington, Kentucky. This congregation is fairly new with a young preacher. Pedro worked with him, and also gave Bible studies. The congregation was motivated. Pedro also studied with several families and baptized seventeen people.
The program for feeding the children has been going well. Our sister Olga has developed an outstanding ministry in this area. She has also been attending evangelism classes. I am impressed that so many of our people want to do evangelism here in Santiago. Recently, the young adults at Villa Los Andes del Sur began an evangelism class to prepare for the Television program next year.
The Men´s class on Mondays has been going well. Several of the guys are learning to study the Bible and preach. All of us are looking forward to next year.
I have been teaching a class in Independencia on Sunday morning. Currently the theme is “spiritual gifts.” This theme is always difficult, especially here in Chile with the Pentecostal influence. The Chileans find it interesting to see what the Bible actually says about the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
May God bless you. Thank you for your support.
In Christ,
Harry R. Hamilton
In the congregation at Villa Los Andes del Sur, Pilar and Beto took a turn at being missionaries. The school that Pilar works at sent several teachers to Cuba for some educational conference. Pilar tells me all these teachers are Communists, which explains why they went to Cuba. Pilar and Beto used this trip as an opportunity to visit with some of my Bible Correspondence Course students. They were able to clear up a couple of things with my students. One is that some of the lessons did not arrive, possibly due to censorship. Since some of the people had not heard from me, they thought we were not sending lessons. We were able to clear up the point about our faithfulness in sending them. What we will do in the future is that I will step back and let the Chileans maintain the contacts to avoid censorship difficulties. Pilar and Beto reports that the Cubans they visited with were thrilled at the visit. They all want to know more about the Bible. You can imagine the difficulties. Pilar and Beto were also touched by the poverty of the Cubans. Most can not afford anything. They lack basic necessities such as soap and shampoo and other such items. Pilar and Beto plan to collect some items to send them. The contact is great. It motivated the Chileans and the Cubans. As in all missionary work, you never know what will work out, but we have an opportunity to do some good.
One of the brothers at Población Santiago, Luis Lucero, reports the baptism of his aunt, an elderly woman who lives in the city of Cartagena. This lady was a Jehovah’s Witness for forty years. She is now the only member of the Church of Christ in her city.
Pedro Sanchez went to the USA. While there, he worked with the Spanish speaking congregation in Lexington, Kentucky. This congregation is fairly new with a young preacher. Pedro worked with him, and also gave Bible studies. The congregation was motivated. Pedro also studied with several families and baptized seventeen people.
The program for feeding the children has been going well. Our sister Olga has developed an outstanding ministry in this area. She has also been attending evangelism classes. I am impressed that so many of our people want to do evangelism here in Santiago. Recently, the young adults at Villa Los Andes del Sur began an evangelism class to prepare for the Television program next year.
The Men´s class on Mondays has been going well. Several of the guys are learning to study the Bible and preach. All of us are looking forward to next year.
I have been teaching a class in Independencia on Sunday morning. Currently the theme is “spiritual gifts.” This theme is always difficult, especially here in Chile with the Pentecostal influence. The Chileans find it interesting to see what the Bible actually says about the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
May God bless you. Thank you for your support.
In Christ,
Harry R. Hamilton
Saturday, November 05, 2005
Television Program
Steve Ridgell, with the Herald of Truth ministry, Rex Morgan, producer of the television program "Con La Biblia Abierta", Marlene Albarrán, my secretary, and I met with Christian Salamovich V., the executive director of the television station UCVTV- Universidad Católica Valparaiso TV 3:30 p.m. Friday. During our meeting we finalized the last details of our television program. In the coming year, we will offer a television program starting on March 1, 2006 through October 28, 2006 at 7:30 a.m. on Saturday morning. I invite you all to pray for the success of this venture.
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