Friday, November 18, 2011

Report From Santiago, Chile for September and October, 2011

                Greetings from Chile. In the congregation in La Villa, we had a traumatic episode that made us all mad, sad, and a whole range of emotions in between. Some of our young people (Daniel, Paulina, Elsa, and Paulina’s friend Carolina) were visiting Sergio Paulo’s house (Sergio Paulo is Milton and Jacqueline’s son) for his birthday. Daniel, Paulina, Elsa, and Carolina stepped out to buy some Cokes and stuff for the birthday party. On the way back, they were attacked by a gang of about twenty teenage boys.  One of the boys started trying to grab Elsa, so Daniel stepped in between them. Then they tried to get away from them by running. Unfortunately, Daniel fell down, and when he did, three of the boys started stabbing him. When Paulina saw what they were doing to her cousin, she ran back screaming at the boys. In doing so, she was able to distract their attention from hurting Daniel. When she went back, one boy pulled out a pistol and pointed it at her head. Fortunately, she was able to get Daniel up and they ran to Milton’s house. Even more fortunately, Milton was able to get Daniel to the hospital really quickly. The doctor said that they had delivered Daniel to the hospital just in the nick of time. Daniel told me later that he could hear the doctors and the nurses, but it was as if they were far away. We are extremely thankful that Daniel survived this traumatic episode, and that nothing happened to our beautiful young ladies. It was extremely traumatic for our girls. Paulina and Elsa (and I am sure Carolina) cried for days. Daniel is recovering quite well now.

                This affected our church. I am sure I weary all of you with the recital of the relationships of our members, but it is important to remember that many of our members are not just church family, but they are family. I have known Paulina, Daniel and Sergio Paulo all of their lives. Paulina and Daniel accompany me when I go to Los Andes. Paulina also has been doing secretary work for me, especially as we prepare for our retreat. Liza, who works in my house (Paulina is her daughter), Marlene (my dear friend who also worked with me for years here in the house, Daniel is her brother) and many others are upset about this as you can imagine. We all realize, though, that it could have been much worse. We are thankful that it was not.

                On Sunday mornings, I teach class and preach at the Villa, except for the last Sunday of the month when I go to Domeyko. Saul, our preacher there, is doing an excellent job. The attendance is up. They are evangelizing people. The congregation is participating with the Villa in the retreat that we will have the last weekend in November. In both congregations, I am teaching different themes rather than going through any books of the Bible. I have been teaching about sin, faith, and other themes central to an understanding of what it means to be a Christian. On Sunday evening, several members of the congregation in La Villa and I go to Rancagua where we meet with the church there. I always teach the class and I share the preaching with others, as is my practice. We have had several visitors to the congregation in Rancagua. Last Sunday, we had a lady who had visited before, but she freely confessed that she did not understand anything at all about the Bible. I used that as an opportunity to talk about how you would understand the Bible, if you were to sit down and start reading it. I explained that you understand the Bible at three levels: the Bible as an entire book, the different books of the Bible, and also the different passages, whatever they may be. I explained that at the level of the complete Bible, Genesis 1-11 is a prologue which describes the problem that man has with God, which is sin. What you do not find in Genesis 1-11 is the solution to the problem of sin. The solution begins in Genesis 12 where God makes three promises to Abraham and in Genesis 17 where a new promise is made. The four promises are the promised land, the great nation, blessings and cursings and the covenant. These four themes flow throughout the Bible. I then showed that each book has a central idea that helps one to understand why the author wrote the book. Then I showed that each book has many passages. Each passage has a central idea that God is trying to communicate to us. After we had discussed all this (and I did not go through all this just because of the lady, but because I thought it would be good for the others to hear it), the visitor told us that she had a great desire to learn the truth, but she also wanted to be spiritual. I used this opportunity to show her John 4:23-24. When I showed her that, she started crying, and said that was what she wanted. Liza’s sister Ya-ya told her to come every Sunday and we would all study the Bible together. Ya-ya is very good about inviting people to her house to be with us. A couple of weeks ago, Liza asked a little boy if he wanted to come to Bible class. He was playing in the little plaza in front of Ya-ya’s house. He asked Liza if she was going to teach him about Jesus. Liza replied that she would. The little boy shouted, “Yippee!” It made me laugh. He was excited though, because the next week, he brought one of his buddies.

                My Monday Bible Study with the ministers has been well attended. I am going over different themes related to studying the Bible and preaching. We have several younger people who are participating in this, such as Daniel that I mentioned before, as well as several of the older guys. One of the fellows who participated in my class in past years, Julio, is gravely ill. I went to see him yesterday in the hospital. He was not doing well at all.

                On Tuesdays, I still go to Los Andes. Sergio usually accompanies me, but he broke his hand, and so he has been in his house. Paulina and Daniel have also been accompanying me, but this week, Chile played against Paraguay in soccer, so they stayed at home to watch it. I have been studying some of the same themes that I studies in Rancagua. Not everybody that goes to church on Sundays in Los Andes goes to the Tuesday night class because of work and school, but we do have a regular bunch. The class is helping the church. The church in Los Andes had seven baptisms.

                On Wednesday evenings, I have my class in Beto and Pilar’s house. Their living room is packed. We have people sitting on the stairs and in the hall. We are currently looking at the theme of repentance. I talk to the Christians about establishing an environment of repentance in the congregation. (I searched my mind for how we say that in English and for the life of me, I cannot remember how we say this). We all do stupid things, and we need to be able to say, I am sorry I did that. I try to remember this when I do stupid things also.

                This month, I have been visited by several members from Collipulli in the South.  They have come to study the Bible with me on several occasions. They are really motivated. Due to the efforts of one of the brothers in Los Nogales, they have started studying the Bible with me, both in person and by correspondence. I have been able to get the Bible Correspondence Course started up again. I had several sign up from Talcahuano, several from Collipulli, and some from the other side of the mountains from Collipulli in Argentina. Paulina printed out a couple of boxes of Bible studies and sent them to Collipulli, Talcahuano, and Argentina. Unbelievably, I ran out of ink in both printers, and I also ran out of paper at the same time. It cost me 150 dollars to buy more ink, about 300 dollars for the paper, and then a hundred dollars more to send off the boxes. I also spent about 700 dollars on Bibles to give to the students that needed them. This is just to remind you all that the work fund expenses always mount up. So far, seven people have been baptized in Collipulli.

                Once a month on Saturday afternoon, the church in La Florida has invited me to give an evangelistic presentation. They have been good about inviting people. I usually follow the evangelism ideas that I presented in my doctoral thesis. What that means is that I teach passages that will transform the way that they think. This is where conversion takes place. Last time, I talked about the difference between the religion of the Old Testament and the religion of the New. Previous to that, I had talked about the darkened understanding in Ephesians 4:18. Most of my presentations are well received. The congregation in La Florida reports five baptisms.

                Liza, Sergio, Paulina, and Daniel have been going to Rancagua and Machali on Wednesdays. Liza has been a little bummed out because her father and brother told her and Sergio to not study with them anymore. They are still going to Machali and the study goes well there. Last Sunday night, I drove over there with Roberto and Fabiola and Felo and Elizabeth after the church service in Rancagua and we had once with Juanita and Camila. This was about ten pm, so I wound up getting back home about 1:00 am. These people are growing in their understanding of what God wants from them.

                One of the former members of the congregation in La Villa, Isaul, had moved to the town of Colina outside of Santiago to be closer to his work. He reports that five people were baptized in that town.

                Sometimes I feel like a gossip columnist more than a missionary, but I would like to remind you of a few things. Chile is a people oriented society. The church is about people, and the truth is we have a lot of fine people here in Chile. Newcomers want to be with serious, good people. I teach the Bible to inspire people. I also assume that people want to be treated as adults. So there is always the challenge to be better people. Our Christians have always been good about inviting people, and as a result, I always have new people in my classes.

Last Saturday afternoon, we had our Semi Annual Men’s Conference. The participation was about forty, which may be due to the fact that I changed the time to the afternoon. The men really enjoyed the topic which was creating spiritual growth in the church. The ladies had a similar conference in October with about 80 persons attending. They always do better than we do. They also do not invite me, for obvious reasons. That is probably why they have a better attendance.

I may not always talk about everybody, because it is hard to keep up with everyone. Pedro has responsibilities in different places, so I do not see much of him now. Milton comes every Monday to my Bible study, but I usually forget to ask him what he is up to. One of the elders at Los Nogales, Sebastian, always comes to my Monday class, except when he is in the extreme south. He visits the church in Punta Arenas. If you do not know where that is, get out your map. It is great that we have a congregation, even though it is small, there.

Currently, we are trying to get the municipality to cart off trash from our lot. They say they will do it, but have not yet. This is typical of Latin America, by the way. We may have to pay for it. Since we are short on money, we are trying to not spend any more money than we have to.

Delbert and Beverly Langford visited me from Texas. It was my first time to meet them, but we have common friends and acquaintances. They really liked the congregation in La Villa.

I would like for you all to know that I really appreciate the support that you all contribute to our effort. I know that times are difficult in the States. I look for ways to cut costs, but it is not always so easy. I do trust in the Lord. May God bless you.

In Christ,

Harry Hamilton