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