Starting the trip to Arica

Notes from Day One

The road from Santiago to Arica is simple to navigate. All you have to do is get on the Pan American Highway and head north. No other road goes north for the entire length of Chile. It would probably be foolish to have another road go the length of Chile, since the country is only 120 miles wide at the widest.
Generally speaking, I hardly notice the countryside outside of Santiago, when we begin the trip, until we get to the ocean. One time, a visitor to Santiago made the comment that Santiago was in the desert. I never considered it that way until he said it. It helped me understand how North Americans see Chile. It is hard for me to consider Santiago as being in the desert, because I know what the north of Chile is like. That is desert.
The drive from Santiago to Ovalle, our first stop, is a drive of about five hours. In Ovalle, we are going to meet with Angel, a Bible Correspondence student. We are going to meet him for the first time. I have talked to him several times on the telephone. After we visit with him, we will continue on to Vicuña. There we will stay with Rolando Suazo. Tomorrow, Rolando will accompany us to the north.
UPDATE. We went to Angel’s house, but we were later than we expected. He was not there. We will have to call him later, and meet him on the return trip, or at another time.
In the trip, we decided to look at the book of Nehemiah. One of my favorite questions for our ministers is What is the central concept of the book (or passage)? This usually keeps them tied up for hours. We have been reading the book as we go along. Then I ask them to tell me all that they observe from the chapter that we read. The book of Nehemiah has a good message for us on our trip. God will give us success (2:20). It also describes several ways that people impede us as we work to achieve success.
When we arrived at Rolando’s house, he was waiting for us with a nice little supper. The church that eats together, stays together. After we visited for a bit, we all headed for the bed.