Got to have that stove.
Friday, September 23, 2005
Thursday, September 22, 2005
Spam
I changed comments back to registered users because someone was sending me spam. No thanks, and stay off my blog, spammers.
Do you seriously think that I would use your service or recommend it to anyone else when you are uninvited?
Interaction among friends is welcome.
Do you seriously think that I would use your service or recommend it to anyone else when you are uninvited?
Interaction among friends is welcome.
Report for July and August, 2005
Report for July and August, 2005
Greetings once again from Santiago, Chile. This weekend was one of those unhealthy weekends. You know the type: Thanksgiving weekend, Fourth of July, Christmas, New Year’s Day, all the holidays where you eat. Specifically, the celebration is the Chilean Independence day on September 18th. One of the traditional foods is the empanada, a meat pastry that has a beef, onion, olive, raisin, and boiled egg filling. It took me a while to get used to this, but now I can handle them pretty well. It seems that part of being a missionary is breaking bread together. My problem is that I give the bread a pretty good workout after I break it. This weekend, in spite of my protestations that I am on a diet, I am trying to lose weight, I am trying to cut back, which is true, I was still obligated to consume my fair share of empanadas. Yesterday, Saul, who is the minister at the congregation in Domeyko, invited me to eat some empanadas there. I enjoyed three of the biggest empanadas I have seen in my life, but I had to fight a cat to get to them. Just as we are sitting down at the table, a cat comes walking in and jumps up on the table. I had to knock the turkey off. Good thing it didn’t affect the flavor of the empanadas.
The class on evangelism is producing several up and coming evangelists. Saul has had several Bible studies, some of which have resulted in baptisms. He asked me to help him with a Pentecostal couple. The husband is considering being baptized, but his wife is not. Saul asked me to work with him and them. We will see how this goes. Another study that Saul has is with one of my Bible correspondence course students. I asked Saul to visit this older man in his home because I thought Saul could use the experience, and also because the congregation in Domeyko consists of mostly older members.
Another student in the evangelism class (Jocelyn) is studying with her sister. She shared with me some of the difficulties that she has in convincing her sister of many different things. One reason that some of our Christians have a difficult time is that they have not come to a good understanding of many topics, and so it is harder to convince people of their need to obey the gospel. This young woman struggles with this problem.
Several of the young people from the congregation in Población Santiago (who have also been attending my evangelism class) held a campaign in Chillan, where we have been working on starting a new congregation. Two people were baptized. They came back to Santiago real excited about their trip.
I have another fellow, Gabriel, who participates in my Monday class, my Tuesday class, and my Saturday class. He has decided that he wants to be an evangelist. In Spanish, when somebody says that, they are not talking about preaching or teaching, they are talking about evangelizing. Gabriel has been doing a good job. He has signed up three of his friends from work for our Bible correspondence course. As you may know, my practice with Bible studies is that I always take someone with me, and I have them do the lessons, if it is possible, from the very beginning. This is to avoid developing a dependency relationship where they do not do anything, but expect the missionary to do it all. The reason this is not a good idea is that it creates bottlenecks. The more people we have evangelizing, the more we will grow as a church. My job is to help our people do the teaching well. Gabriel and I have been studying with one friend of his, Eduardo and his girlfriend, Delia. They are coming along well.
Gabriel told me Saturday that he was on the bus with his girlfriend when he noticed a young lady who was reading the Bible. He was looking for the right opportunity to speak with her, but did not know when that would be. The bus he was on with his girlfriend, who is a member of the Independencia congregation, suddenly stopped. The bus driver started fighting with the bus driver from another bus. This happens sometimes from the competition between bus drivers. Gabriel used this time to talk to the girl. As it turns out, she lives close to the Villa Los Andes del Sur congregation. Gabriel told me that what I had said about memorizing certain passages of the Bible so you could always talk about the Bible really works. He told me that he started talking about II Timothy 3:16-7, explaining it like I wrote it in the study, “¿Porqué estudiamos la Biblia?”. I was amused with him because he was excited.
A good indication that someone is evangelistic is if their family is Christian. In the city of Los Andes, to the north of Santiago, Roberto Matarana and his wife Elizabeth are Christians. Roberto and Elizabeth have worked to bring their entire family to Christ. I recently found out that she is evangelizing eleven persons. Three of the eleven have already been baptized.
Victor tells me that there were five baptisms in Población Santiago.
The church in Villa Los Andes del Sur lost a member this month. Viviana married an American of Chilean descent and moved to California. Jaqueline has been working with the women of the congregation. Milton has been preaching some good sermons.
I have been teaching the Bible class in Independencia, as well as preaching in several places. I currently have classes every day of the week, except Friday.
Congregations continue to meet in several different towns throughout Chile. The tiny church in Vicuña meets regularly, which is not difficult since it has only two members. They are working on their next member though.
People tell me all kinds of wonderful stories. Maybe my age is catching up with me, but I can not remember half of the stories.
We are still planning on the television program next year. Many good things happen all the time that indicate to me that we will be ready for it when it comes. One is that we are going to have a good number of experienced evangelists because a lot of people are evangelizing now. This may be the fruit of having a class on evangelism. If you were to ask me if we were focused on evangelism throughout my time here in Chile, I would reply that we were very much focused on evangelism, but perhaps many of the Christians did not perceive it that way, since many more seem to be evangelizing now than before. The other possibility is that the class on evangelism helped them understand that it was more possible. Another indication that we are ready for the program on evangelism is that more congregations seem to be more healthy spiritually than they were ten years ago. I think this is a benefit of having different activities and good interaction among the congregations.
One of the things that is a concern for next year is the cost of the outreach for next year. I predict that we will have some additional costs next year. How much will depend on the number of contacts.
Finally, the ministry to feed the children continues. This has been a star in the crown of the congregation in Población Santiago, both in their concern for these children, and in their reaching out to them and teaching them the Word. Costs are running ahead of income by about a hundred dollars a month. The sisters are working wonders in taking care of this need.
Thank you for your support. May God bless you.
In Christ,
Harry R. Hamilton
Greetings once again from Santiago, Chile. This weekend was one of those unhealthy weekends. You know the type: Thanksgiving weekend, Fourth of July, Christmas, New Year’s Day, all the holidays where you eat. Specifically, the celebration is the Chilean Independence day on September 18th. One of the traditional foods is the empanada, a meat pastry that has a beef, onion, olive, raisin, and boiled egg filling. It took me a while to get used to this, but now I can handle them pretty well. It seems that part of being a missionary is breaking bread together. My problem is that I give the bread a pretty good workout after I break it. This weekend, in spite of my protestations that I am on a diet, I am trying to lose weight, I am trying to cut back, which is true, I was still obligated to consume my fair share of empanadas. Yesterday, Saul, who is the minister at the congregation in Domeyko, invited me to eat some empanadas there. I enjoyed three of the biggest empanadas I have seen in my life, but I had to fight a cat to get to them. Just as we are sitting down at the table, a cat comes walking in and jumps up on the table. I had to knock the turkey off. Good thing it didn’t affect the flavor of the empanadas.
The class on evangelism is producing several up and coming evangelists. Saul has had several Bible studies, some of which have resulted in baptisms. He asked me to help him with a Pentecostal couple. The husband is considering being baptized, but his wife is not. Saul asked me to work with him and them. We will see how this goes. Another study that Saul has is with one of my Bible correspondence course students. I asked Saul to visit this older man in his home because I thought Saul could use the experience, and also because the congregation in Domeyko consists of mostly older members.
Another student in the evangelism class (Jocelyn) is studying with her sister. She shared with me some of the difficulties that she has in convincing her sister of many different things. One reason that some of our Christians have a difficult time is that they have not come to a good understanding of many topics, and so it is harder to convince people of their need to obey the gospel. This young woman struggles with this problem.
Several of the young people from the congregation in Población Santiago (who have also been attending my evangelism class) held a campaign in Chillan, where we have been working on starting a new congregation. Two people were baptized. They came back to Santiago real excited about their trip.
I have another fellow, Gabriel, who participates in my Monday class, my Tuesday class, and my Saturday class. He has decided that he wants to be an evangelist. In Spanish, when somebody says that, they are not talking about preaching or teaching, they are talking about evangelizing. Gabriel has been doing a good job. He has signed up three of his friends from work for our Bible correspondence course. As you may know, my practice with Bible studies is that I always take someone with me, and I have them do the lessons, if it is possible, from the very beginning. This is to avoid developing a dependency relationship where they do not do anything, but expect the missionary to do it all. The reason this is not a good idea is that it creates bottlenecks. The more people we have evangelizing, the more we will grow as a church. My job is to help our people do the teaching well. Gabriel and I have been studying with one friend of his, Eduardo and his girlfriend, Delia. They are coming along well.
Gabriel told me Saturday that he was on the bus with his girlfriend when he noticed a young lady who was reading the Bible. He was looking for the right opportunity to speak with her, but did not know when that would be. The bus he was on with his girlfriend, who is a member of the Independencia congregation, suddenly stopped. The bus driver started fighting with the bus driver from another bus. This happens sometimes from the competition between bus drivers. Gabriel used this time to talk to the girl. As it turns out, she lives close to the Villa Los Andes del Sur congregation. Gabriel told me that what I had said about memorizing certain passages of the Bible so you could always talk about the Bible really works. He told me that he started talking about II Timothy 3:16-7, explaining it like I wrote it in the study, “¿Porqué estudiamos la Biblia?”. I was amused with him because he was excited.
A good indication that someone is evangelistic is if their family is Christian. In the city of Los Andes, to the north of Santiago, Roberto Matarana and his wife Elizabeth are Christians. Roberto and Elizabeth have worked to bring their entire family to Christ. I recently found out that she is evangelizing eleven persons. Three of the eleven have already been baptized.
Victor tells me that there were five baptisms in Población Santiago.
The church in Villa Los Andes del Sur lost a member this month. Viviana married an American of Chilean descent and moved to California. Jaqueline has been working with the women of the congregation. Milton has been preaching some good sermons.
I have been teaching the Bible class in Independencia, as well as preaching in several places. I currently have classes every day of the week, except Friday.
Congregations continue to meet in several different towns throughout Chile. The tiny church in Vicuña meets regularly, which is not difficult since it has only two members. They are working on their next member though.
People tell me all kinds of wonderful stories. Maybe my age is catching up with me, but I can not remember half of the stories.
We are still planning on the television program next year. Many good things happen all the time that indicate to me that we will be ready for it when it comes. One is that we are going to have a good number of experienced evangelists because a lot of people are evangelizing now. This may be the fruit of having a class on evangelism. If you were to ask me if we were focused on evangelism throughout my time here in Chile, I would reply that we were very much focused on evangelism, but perhaps many of the Christians did not perceive it that way, since many more seem to be evangelizing now than before. The other possibility is that the class on evangelism helped them understand that it was more possible. Another indication that we are ready for the program on evangelism is that more congregations seem to be more healthy spiritually than they were ten years ago. I think this is a benefit of having different activities and good interaction among the congregations.
One of the things that is a concern for next year is the cost of the outreach for next year. I predict that we will have some additional costs next year. How much will depend on the number of contacts.
Finally, the ministry to feed the children continues. This has been a star in the crown of the congregation in Población Santiago, both in their concern for these children, and in their reaching out to them and teaching them the Word. Costs are running ahead of income by about a hundred dollars a month. The sisters are working wonders in taking care of this need.
Thank you for your support. May God bless you.
In Christ,
Harry R. Hamilton
Thursday, July 28, 2005
I thought this was funny
I was out exercising and I saw a newspaper with a headline that I will translate from Spanish.
"The Antichrist will be born in 2009. All you losers, this is your chance."
"The Antichrist will be born in 2009. All you losers, this is your chance."
Wednesday, July 27, 2005
Saturday, July 09, 2005
New Puppy
I have a new puppy now. It is a female, a Boxer, and we have decided to go with the name Abby. That was a choice of convenience. We got on the Internet, looked up names, and Abby was the first one we came to that I liked. She is cute as the pictures will attest. This puppy has managed to get into absolutely everything. She has had me laughing a lot here in the last two days. I actually posted these fotos in the reverse order that I wanted. I should have thought about it more.
Independence Day
I had an excellent 4th of July Independence Day celebration as these pictures will show. I forgot to take a picture of our group eating together. Maybe I was too busy.
Report for May and June 2005
Report for May and June, 2005
Greetings from Santiago.
Every time that we have had success starting a new congregation, it has been due to the desire of someone in the congregation taking the lead and taking responsibility for the work in his area. I can point to several individuals such as Augusto Fuentes in Arica, Jaime Correa in Iquique, Daniel and Susana in Puerto Montt, Roberto Maturana in San Esteban, and Juan Huerta in Los Andes. Rolando Suazo appears to be such a person in Vicuña. Last month Pedro Sanchez and I went to visit him for the express purpose of baptizing Hugo, a friend of Rolandós. We had a good visit. We were able to study the Bible with these men, and we had the opportunity to share some nice meals. I found out that Rolando likes to sing, and has been in the past a member of a chorus in Vicuña. With the baptism of Hugo, the congregation consists of two members. This is how we do it. We start with one and go from there.
On the way back from Vicuña, Pedro and I traveled through rain the entire time. This is not the most pleasant experience in Chile, because when you are next to the ocean, as we were for at least three or four hours, fog rolls in with the rain, it is hard to see, and sometimes the rain comes down in sheets. On top of this, when you add the mountains to that mix, it can be stressful. This time, it was even more obnoxious in that the traffic came to a stop at 76 kilometers outside of Santiago. We had to wait for an hour. Later, we found out that there had been a landslide. With all the rain, rocks and mud came tumbling down from the side of a mountain, blocking the road, and evidently causing a wreck.
Jaime, a Christian, has taken responsibility in Chillan. He lives outside of the city of Chillan. He has been meeting in that city with a few other Christians. Somebody said that six people had been baptized there, but I do not think that all of them are meeting together, although Jaime has been working with them. Pedro and I visited him earlier this year. In May, Jaime came to Santiago with his wife, and participated with us in the National Meńs Meeting and in the mini-retreat we had afterward. Sergio Bustamante and the young people from Población Santiago have been visiting regularly and working with Claudio and the new congregation in Chillan.
In May, we had a National Meńs Meeting. The participation was about 80 men. We held the meeting in the building in Independencia. As is our practice, we had three presentations. Helmer Rosero, Pedro Sanchez and I gave them. The theme was spiritual growth. Another practice is that we eat lunch together. The ladies from the congregation in Independencia prepared the meal, and you have to give them credit. They do an excellent job. One of our visitors was Claudio from Puerto Montt. He is a young fellow, in his late twenties, that was baptized a couple of years ago. He was probably the visitor from the farther away.
After the Meńs Meeting, we had a mini-retreat on the Sunday afternoon and Monday following the Saturday of the Meńs meeting. Most of the participants are from the Monday ministeŕs class, but we started having this mini-retreat after the Nationwide Meńs Meeting so that out of towners could participate. These activities really help out. One reason is that the more active people are, the more they work with the church.
In spite of the rainy weather, we had a clear 4th of July. Since all the men come to my house on Mondays, we decided to celebrate the 4th in typical picnic fashion, and the weather cooperated. It was nice, even though it was cool. I put my barbecuing skills to the test. Two Bible Correspondence students were baptized in Punta Arenas.
In Población Santiago, a fellow, Jorge Hidalgo, has been suffering from gangrene. He had both of his legs amputated, unfortunately. This did not keep him from being baptized on the 2nd of July.
As you might have heard from the news, a good sized earthquake did considerable damage to several places in the north of Chile. In Arica, one of the neighborhoods where I had several Correspondence course students was leveled. Everybody in the church there in Arica escaped damages.
I have a printer here that was a gift several years ago from the brothers in Lexington, Kentucky. Since several of them worked for Lexmark or IBM, they sent me a Lexmark printer. I had it worked on last month. I bring this up because the technician remarked that I had about th of a million copies that I had printed. I thought that was a bundle of Correspondence courses. It has been a welcome tool.
One or perhaps more of the childreńs classes at Hidden Valley Church of Christ in Houston took up a collection for the Childreńs Lunch program here in Santiago. They raised 188 dollars which I though was excellent. It also helped us to meet the needs for the month.
We had a visit from two members of the congregation at Southside in Lexington, Kentucky, Steven Spear and Bryan Barrett. Steve worked here in Chile with the church for a year and a half. Bryan is the preacher for Southside. We had a good visit.
We also had a visit from Rex Morgan with the television program "Con La Biblia Abierta" and Steve Ridgell with the "Herald of Truth." We had some good discussions about running the television program and we are looking forward to this next year. I am already getting several things in motion so that we will be ready for this when it shows up. One television station that we are considering was added to the cable this month, so it will have broad exposure in the future. We will also have an increase in expenses next year, such as mailing costs, advertising, travel expenses, if this program brings in new contacts. Remember that ten years ago, we received a thousand contacts. Please pray that we receive even more next year.
We are giving the priority to the television program. This means that other projects such as a university will go on the back burner.
Thank you for your support.
In Christ,
Harry R. Hamilton
Greetings from Santiago.
Every time that we have had success starting a new congregation, it has been due to the desire of someone in the congregation taking the lead and taking responsibility for the work in his area. I can point to several individuals such as Augusto Fuentes in Arica, Jaime Correa in Iquique, Daniel and Susana in Puerto Montt, Roberto Maturana in San Esteban, and Juan Huerta in Los Andes. Rolando Suazo appears to be such a person in Vicuña. Last month Pedro Sanchez and I went to visit him for the express purpose of baptizing Hugo, a friend of Rolandós. We had a good visit. We were able to study the Bible with these men, and we had the opportunity to share some nice meals. I found out that Rolando likes to sing, and has been in the past a member of a chorus in Vicuña. With the baptism of Hugo, the congregation consists of two members. This is how we do it. We start with one and go from there.
On the way back from Vicuña, Pedro and I traveled through rain the entire time. This is not the most pleasant experience in Chile, because when you are next to the ocean, as we were for at least three or four hours, fog rolls in with the rain, it is hard to see, and sometimes the rain comes down in sheets. On top of this, when you add the mountains to that mix, it can be stressful. This time, it was even more obnoxious in that the traffic came to a stop at 76 kilometers outside of Santiago. We had to wait for an hour. Later, we found out that there had been a landslide. With all the rain, rocks and mud came tumbling down from the side of a mountain, blocking the road, and evidently causing a wreck.
Jaime, a Christian, has taken responsibility in Chillan. He lives outside of the city of Chillan. He has been meeting in that city with a few other Christians. Somebody said that six people had been baptized there, but I do not think that all of them are meeting together, although Jaime has been working with them. Pedro and I visited him earlier this year. In May, Jaime came to Santiago with his wife, and participated with us in the National Meńs Meeting and in the mini-retreat we had afterward. Sergio Bustamante and the young people from Población Santiago have been visiting regularly and working with Claudio and the new congregation in Chillan.
In May, we had a National Meńs Meeting. The participation was about 80 men. We held the meeting in the building in Independencia. As is our practice, we had three presentations. Helmer Rosero, Pedro Sanchez and I gave them. The theme was spiritual growth. Another practice is that we eat lunch together. The ladies from the congregation in Independencia prepared the meal, and you have to give them credit. They do an excellent job. One of our visitors was Claudio from Puerto Montt. He is a young fellow, in his late twenties, that was baptized a couple of years ago. He was probably the visitor from the farther away.
After the Meńs Meeting, we had a mini-retreat on the Sunday afternoon and Monday following the Saturday of the Meńs meeting. Most of the participants are from the Monday ministeŕs class, but we started having this mini-retreat after the Nationwide Meńs Meeting so that out of towners could participate. These activities really help out. One reason is that the more active people are, the more they work with the church.
In spite of the rainy weather, we had a clear 4th of July. Since all the men come to my house on Mondays, we decided to celebrate the 4th in typical picnic fashion, and the weather cooperated. It was nice, even though it was cool. I put my barbecuing skills to the test. Two Bible Correspondence students were baptized in Punta Arenas.
In Población Santiago, a fellow, Jorge Hidalgo, has been suffering from gangrene. He had both of his legs amputated, unfortunately. This did not keep him from being baptized on the 2nd of July.
As you might have heard from the news, a good sized earthquake did considerable damage to several places in the north of Chile. In Arica, one of the neighborhoods where I had several Correspondence course students was leveled. Everybody in the church there in Arica escaped damages.
I have a printer here that was a gift several years ago from the brothers in Lexington, Kentucky. Since several of them worked for Lexmark or IBM, they sent me a Lexmark printer. I had it worked on last month. I bring this up because the technician remarked that I had about th of a million copies that I had printed. I thought that was a bundle of Correspondence courses. It has been a welcome tool.
One or perhaps more of the childreńs classes at Hidden Valley Church of Christ in Houston took up a collection for the Childreńs Lunch program here in Santiago. They raised 188 dollars which I though was excellent. It also helped us to meet the needs for the month.
We had a visit from two members of the congregation at Southside in Lexington, Kentucky, Steven Spear and Bryan Barrett. Steve worked here in Chile with the church for a year and a half. Bryan is the preacher for Southside. We had a good visit.
We also had a visit from Rex Morgan with the television program "Con La Biblia Abierta" and Steve Ridgell with the "Herald of Truth." We had some good discussions about running the television program and we are looking forward to this next year. I am already getting several things in motion so that we will be ready for this when it shows up. One television station that we are considering was added to the cable this month, so it will have broad exposure in the future. We will also have an increase in expenses next year, such as mailing costs, advertising, travel expenses, if this program brings in new contacts. Remember that ten years ago, we received a thousand contacts. Please pray that we receive even more next year.
We are giving the priority to the television program. This means that other projects such as a university will go on the back burner.
Thank you for your support.
In Christ,
Harry R. Hamilton
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