Report from Santiago for June and July 2012

            Greetings from Santiago.  I hope that all of you are doing well. The winter here has been nasty. The air in Santiago has been extremely dirty, and as a result, we have all been walking around, coughing and hacking. I will be glad to get out of this air for a couple of months. Maybe I can get my lungs to functioning again.

I will be going to the States in September and October. I am looking forward to visiting with you all. Here is a hint about my missions presentation. I am going to highlight as many members of the different congregations who are actively involved in evangelizing others as I can.

            One ministry that deserves special consideration is the benevolence ministry. If you recall, I mentioned that Camilla’s mom, Juanita, had come across a friend of hers that had been suffering. As a church, we have been able to help that family. Liza told Juanita that she was now famous in the USA because I had mentioned her in my previous report, which made her feel good. The church in La Villa has a benevolence ministry that has been helping several people that are out of work. Our different congregations really show the love of God in helping others.

Since we have several contacts in Machali, we decided to start meeting in Camila’s, Juanita’s and Rigoberto’s home. This actually is good for us in several ways. It allows us to meet as a church with three members of the church (Camila, Rodrigo, and Judit) instead of asking them to go into Rancagua. So we have been doing things a little different on Sunday evenings. I let Sergio off in Rancagua at Eduardo’s and Yaya’s house and then I drive on to Machali. Liza and Felo usually go with me to Machali. So far, in Machali, we have been meeting with Camila and Rodrigo, their little girl, Anais, who is a precious little thing, Judit,  Camila’s mother, and her father, her brother and her brother’s girlfriend, and their little girl. All of these people are really nice people. They are also interested in learning more about the Bible. Sergio and Liza have been doing magnificent work on Thursdays in teaching the Bible there. On Sundays, I have been doing the Bible class there and the preaching. Usually Felo coordinates the worship service. Sergio and Juan Carlos, one of the members from the congregation La Villa in Santiago, have been working with the congregation in Rancagua. This splitting up of the effort does have its cost. Aileen, Liza’s niece, told me the other day that she missed me. I should also mention a conversation that I had with Camila. I do not remember the reason why we started talking about this, but in the course of a conversation, Camila mentioned that the reason why we had so much credibility with her was because every time she asked a question, we always answered with the Bible. I never say stuff like, Look at us, we are super Biblical, which I think is interesting, since she came up with that on her own. Camila is a new Christian, and she has already been instrumental in bringing her friend, Judit, to Christ. Judit is an excellent young woman.

On Sunday mornings in La Villa and also on Tuesday evening in Los Andes, I have been teaching the book of Daniel in the two congregations. In Daniel, God uses narratives to communicate spiritual truths. As I have mentioned many times before, Chile is a people oriented culture. Chileans are interested in stories about people, such as we find in Daniel. So, the study in Daniel was well received in both congregations.

The church in La Villa is doing well. The future building has motivated the congregation. Beto and I met with an architect a couple of weeks ago. Here in Chile, there are many regulations in play as far as building a building. One concern is making sure that the building will be safe in earthquakes. For this reason, an architect has to sign the plans. If anything goes wrong, such as collapsing in an earthquake, then the architect has to answer for his plans. The building also has to meet requirements of the ministry of public works, such as a certain number of bathrooms for a certain amount of people and so on. It is more complicated that I would have imagined. One regulation is that no more than 70% of the lot can be constructed on. Financially, we will do what we can when we can. We saved money for fifteen years just to have enough to buy the property.

Marlene is teaching a Bible class on Sunday mornings for the 8 to 10 year olds. The other day, she told me that she had taught a class that I had written up a while back on discerning between right and wrong. I was pleased that she had done this, because it is necessary to combat some bad thinking concerning tolerance that is common in the public schools. Any lesson on discerning right and wrong starts with the assumption that there is right and wrong. This is an assumption that many (such as the homosexual lobby) do not want anyone to make, because then one evaluates their behavior. Their proposal is that one should tolerate that with which they disagree. I point out a couple of things about this. Tolerance of ideas is a bad concept. If it is a good idea, then we should accept it. If it is a bad idea, we should reject it. We also have to be careful how we understand the idea of tolerating people. 1 Corinthians 13 does speak of love as being longsuffering, but it is not the same as the concept of tolerating people, which is that we should put up with people that we really do not like. This is not a Christian idea. Those who ask us to tolerate people instead of loving them asks us to do something different than what a Christian should do, which is to love one another. Loving someone does not mean that I accept all of their bad behavior. Loving people also means that we call them to repent of their evil ways. By the way, I try to model repentance.

I appreciate your support for this work. Thank you for your help. May God bless you.

                                                                                    In Christ,

                                                                                    Harry R. Hamilton

Report May 24, 2012

Report From Santiago, Chile, May 24, 2012

            Greetings from Santiago, Chile. I hope that all of you are enjoying your warm weather. It has been unseasonably warm here in Santiago. I am sure that we will be getting some cold weather next month.

            The other night, on the way to Los Andes, I was talking to Saul about his mother. Saul is serving as the minister for the congregation that meets on Domeyko street. He is a native of Ecuador. His mother was baptized several years ago when she made a visit to Santiago. As you might imagine, she is elderly. Saul was telling me about her activity in the town where she lives. She goes to church regularly and participates in activities like women’s meetings. Even more importantly, she has been sharing the gospel with her children and her grandchildren. Saul told me that several of his brothers and sisters are now Christians as are several of his nephews and nieces. The lesson for all of us is one is never too old to talk to others about being a Christian.

The Christians here in Chile are involved in outreach in a variety of ways. Newspapers do not have the circulation that they used to have, so it is difficult to justify an ad buy.Television and radio are mostly out of our reach, but Luis, the young minister who works with Pedro and Helmer in Los Nogales, is doing a radio program in Maipu at an independent radio station. Practically all the churches have web pages, but most of the congregations and the youth groups are doing Facebook more than anything else. Some of our young ladies post Bible verses on their pages. We have our most success when we invite people, so I remind them to invite, invite, invite. All of the congregations do outreach in their neighborhood through passing out leaflets.

Sergio and Milton went and taught the Bible in Peru during this month. They returned Tuesday. Sergio dropped by this morning to give me an abbreviated report. Ten people were baptized. Equally important, they were able to work with several of the ministers and elders from different congregations.

As a missionary, I have tried to shape my ministry through the use of strategic concepts. One, for example, is that I would be congregation oriented, working within congregations to establish long lasting churches. Another is that when I first arrived in Chile, I determined that it would not be about me. Rather, I would work with people that wanted to serve. I would work with anyone that God sent my way. I also determined that I would challenge them to be the most that they could be. The bottom line is that God has blessed us with some excellent people.

I believe that is due to the fact that we teach the Bible seriously and well. Last November, Camila was baptized. Before she was baptized, she really took her time considering becoming a Christian. Camila is Anais’ mom, for those of you who saw the photos of me with Anais. Camila and I have become good friends. I told her the other day, Camila, you fall well with me, which is the Chilean way of saying, I really like you. She told me, Tio (Uncle), you fall well with me, too. The reason that I like Camila is that she has taken being a Christian seriously. She talks to me about Bible questions. I do my best to teach her, so that she can teach others. However, I am not the one that teaches Camila the most. Elizabeth, the lady that cleans my house, goes to Machali every Thursday to teach in Camila’s home. A while back, Elizabeth told me that she would love to have been a missionary. I told her it is never too late. Then I told her we would have to see what doors God opens up. One door that opened was teaching Elizabeth’s own family in Rancagua, which we have been doing for the last five years or so. This is how we met Camila.

One day, Camila asked Elizabeth if she could teach a class in her home. Elizabeth agreed to do so. She started going on Wednesdays. Camila has really been an example for us. She invited her best friend, Judit, and her mom and several of their neighbors. Judit is a university student, studying something very similar to what I studied at Texas A&M University, which is Agricultural Engineering. I explained that at A&M, I disappointed all my professors. Judit laughed and said, me too. What I like about Judit is that she is a serious student of the Word. When I teach, she takes copious notes, and I have no doubt that she does that with Elizabeth. She reminds me of one of the elders at the congregation in Los Nogales, Raul. He heard the Word, found out what he had to do, and never looked back. Not too long ago, Judit was baptized. She is a good person and will be a great Christian young lady.

Meanwhile, Camila has been working on her mother. Every morning, she wakes up and talks with her mother, Juanita. She tells her, she needs to repent of her sin, or she will go to hell. Basically, Juanita has been sitting on the sidelines, studying the Bible on Thursdays, but not making any commitment. However, something happened yesterday that has her thinking. She was out on the street, when she saw an old friend of hers. The woman looked horrible, but Juanita did not want to ask her why she looked so bad. So she asked her instead, Luz Maria, what has happened that you look so beautiful this morning? Luz Maria told her, Juanita, I do not look beautiful this morning. I look bad, and I know it. It is just that I have had so many problems. My husband was thrown in jail, I got evicted from my house, I have nowhere to live, nothing to eat, so I tried to kill myself. The municipality had agreed to give her a shack to live in, but it was hardly fit to live in. Juanita told her that they were going to take care of that immediately. So she and Luz Marie went directly to the mayor’s office. Juanita, upon arriving at the mayor’s office, told him, Mister Mayor, you did very well to give Luz Maria a place to live, but it is hardly fit to live in. It needs to be fixed up. So the mayor told her, there are two businessmen outside that you can talk to. So Juanita talked to them, and they agreed to fix up the house. They made the arrangements and got to work on it. Everything worked out just fine. Juanita later told Camilla and Elizabeth that she had prayed to God that everything would work out. Liza told her, this is why you need to be a Christian. You have a good heart. I told Liza afterwards when she told me the story, now you need to tell her that she needs to glorify God with her good deeds instead of herself.

Later in the afternoon, when Elizabeth was teaching the ladies’ Bible class, the mayor went over to Juanita’s house. Juanita told the mayor; here we study the Bible every Thursday. The mayor met Liza. All the ladies told him that Liza was a great Bible teacher.

The lesson here is that you never know who will be a good Bible teacher and a good minister, which is why you challenge people. You never know who will step up. Marlene told me today that her yoga teacher was talking about how the world was going to come to an end in the next few days. The yoga teacher was talking about Nostradamus or the Mayans or maybe both. So Marlene told her, we do not really know when the world is going to end, maybe it will end in a few days, maybe sooner, which is why you need to repent of your sins. Elizabeth and Marlene are women of the Word. They are not the only ones. Pilar has brought several of her friends to the Bible class in her home. As a result, my Wednesday night Bible class has been packed. Romina has also invited a friend as has Fabiola. Just so you are aware of it, is not just the ladies that are making good ministers. Elizabeth’s husband Rafael (or Felo) coordinates the worship service every Sunday evening, when we go to Rancagua. Here in the last month or so, he has preached a couple of times and done quite well. Roberto has also preached some good lessons.

Two people were baptized in Paine.

The other day, I was in Los Andes, talking to Alexandra, a young lady who is married to a young man named Jorge, who recently became a Christian. She mentioned that she and her husband read the Bible together every day. I thought what an excellent way to get their marriage going. As a Christian minister, I am pro-marriage, without actually having to take the leap.

The congregation in Los Andes (an hour outside of Santiago) is motivated. The class on Tuesday evenings is growing slowly. The worship service on Sunday is evidently at least twice the number that shows up on Tuesdays. I only go on Tuesdays since I have other places I go on Sundays.

About six weeks ago, Marlene went down to the municipality and got a list from them of everything that we needed to do to get construction approved on our lot. The list is long. The first thing we had to do is get a certificate of some kind. They said it will take only fifteen working days to get it. Well, we are just now getting it back, so now we can move on to the second thing. This is all permits, which is not actual construction. If we started to build without all the permits we need, we could be asked to tear down what we built, and even pay a fine. This aspect of the situation really can try one’s patience. Fortunately, I have lived in Latin America so long that I am accustomed to this. My response is to tell Marlene and Elizabeth, you are the president and the secretary of our corporation, go get it done. They usually laugh in my face, but then from the goodness of their heart, they go do what needs to be done. That is different from me. I usually just do what they tell me to do.

I appreciate your support for our work. Due to your continued support, we have a vibrant and energetic church here in Chile. May God bless you.

Report for February, 2012

             Greetings from Santiago, Chile. We are in the last stages of summer here. Already the nights are getting real cool.

Here is some important news. I have closed the post office box. Please do not send any mail to Casilla 9692, Santiago. They wanted to raise the price about five times what it was, so I decided to not continue it. This ends thirty years with that Post office box.

I finally had to move from my house. The real estate agents assured me that there were no houses available in La Florida, the municipality where I live. They were pretty much right. As fast as I could find a house, somebody else beat me to it. In the end, it amounted to who I knew. One of my neighbors found out that another neighbor wanted to rent a house. All of my neighbors in the passageway here told her that she should rent to me, so she did. The house is smaller, which is definitely complicating my Monday meetings. So far we are meeting outside. Several of the Chilean brothers helped me move. It was a lot of hard work. It was good for the weight loss program. I think I lost four kilos in four days.

The year 2011 was a good year for us. The congregation La Villa Los Andes Del Sur bought a lot. It was motivating for the congregation that they could see some fruit from the long years of saving money. The lot was a good buy, considering that the other lots and houses in the area sell for a lot more than what we paid. Since we bought it, we put up a fence on the two sides that border the street, in effect closing up the property. This cost about 6,000 dollars, of which I put up 1000 dollars and Delbert and Beverly Langford put up 1000 dollars, and the congregation put up the rest.

Apart from the lot, the Lord blessed us in other ways. The congregations that I work with baptized 52 people. Also, Pedro reports that 95 were baptized through his ministry in different parts of Latin America and also in the USA. Last year, we also had two wonderful retreats as well as several conferences and other activities. As all of you know, I have worked with several congregations in teaching and preaching. These activities will continue in this year.

In January, a young man (Wilson) arrived from Colombia to work with the congregation in Lota that was established as a result of the aid to the earthquake victims. The previous couple had returned to Colombia. Unfortunately, upon their return, the wife died from pneumonia that she had contracted in Chile.

We had a short visit (one day) from members of the Lake Houston Church of Christ. The Lattens visited the congregation in the Villa. I thought we had an excellent visit considering that it was so short. Maybe the word is getting out that the best way to visit Harry is in small doses.

The Bible study in Machali on Wednesdays is going well. Currently, about ten people are studying. You might remember that Machali is outside Rancagua. Anais had her first birthday in Machali. Camila, her mother, and our first Christian in Machali, invited several of us from Santiago to her birthday party. I met a lot of people who are related to Camila. One of Camila’s close friends, Judith, has been attending church with her in Rancagua.

I have also been sending Bible Correspondence courses to Collipulli. Thirty more people have signed up.

Three people were baptized in Los Andes. One person is the husband of one of the members of the congregation, Alesandra.  We have been studying with him for a while, so it was good to see that he had been baptized. Alesandra is the daughter of Teresa, who is the sister of Elizabeth in Los Andes. You may recall that I have mentioned in the past that Elizabeth in Los Andes has done everything she could to help her family become Christians. This is a different Elizabeth than the one who works in my house.

Also, a young man named Pedro was baptized. The third person that was baptized is the husband of one of Roberto Labra’s daughters. If you recall, Roberto Labra passed away last year. He was the first convert we had from our trips to the jail in San Felipe years ago. Earlier this year, his wife passed away. Pedro spoke at the funeral. Since the funeral, the church in Los Andes has been studying with several people. The result is that this man was baptized.

Recently, one of the professors from the Bible Institute in Quito, Ecuador (Juan) came and visited us. He came to my Men’s Meeting on Mondays. He also went with us to Los Andes Tuesday. He has been staying with Saul at least part of the time he was here.

One of the areas where I spend a lot of time is teaching others to evangelize. Most of this activity is on the informal level. People ask me questions about how to engage with their friends and family. During the class time, it is more formal training. Several concepts guide my activity in this area. First of all, I understand church leadership to be the lifting up of others. So I help people to be teachers, evangelists, preachers and other servants. Second, it is important that all the Chileans understand that they are the ones that need to take the initiative on this. If the church is to exist, then everything has to be done by them. I am the resource guy. I help them to learn, to think, and to communicate their faith. I mention this because I believe that we have an army of evangelists who are engaging with the people around them. Most of the time, efforts at evangelism are unsuccessful, because people often decide to be sinners rather than Christians. We can appreciate the efforts of our Christians, though. If the Lord is willing, we should have other stories of people who have come to Christ.

I want to remind you that we would appreciate any help with our building. Currently, we are in the planning stage for the building. Sunday, I will be talking with a builder. We have to get a plan approved by the municipality and then we can start building. Most likely, we will do what we can when we can.

I appreciate your faithfulness in supporting the work here. May God bless you.