For centuries, men and women who believe in God have confessed and embraced the fact that they are “strangers and pilgrims on the earth” (Heb 11:13). In other words, foreigners and refugees are in good company. This past month we arrived in our new home, Antofagasta, Chile. It does feel funny to call a place that we hardly know “home,” but we are embracing our new lives here in Chile.

We are very thankful for God’s provision of a beautiful apartment in Antofagasta on the sixteenth floor overlooking the mountains and the ocean and located near our coworkers, the Flincks. They have helped us so much in these first few weeks we hardly know where we would be without them. We are also close to bus transportation, which is important since we don’t have a car yet. We are buying all the little things in your house that you only have to buy once (salt and pepper, scissors, ironing board, etc.). We have also begun purchasing furniture and are anticipating the arrival of a table to sit around, a couch to sit on, and shelves to put books on. God has been good to us.

We are thankful for the opportunities to get to know the church people better little by little as we have conversations with them (and then compare notes to see if they said what we thought they said). We are enjoying getting to know our teammates better, both the Flincks, and Andrés and Cecilia, sharing meals together, praying together, and hearing how God has worked in our lives.

Starting a new life is difficult: we struggle with understanding and speaking Spanish, finding things in stores, and of course with our own sinfulness, but our new home is not our final home. Like many brothers and sisters have testified before us, we are looking forward to an even better home—a heavenly one (Heb 11:16). We appreciate your prayers and ask you to continue praying to God in Jesus’ name through the Spirit’s strength for us.

We are thankful to partner with faithful brothers and sisters.
Here Mark talks after church with Pastor Andrés, David Flinck,
and Sami, a Bible institute student who was visiting that week.

 Thank God with us:

• For his gracious provision of a comfortable apartment in a great location as well as the kindness of the Flincks in getting us settled in. We are thankful that God has provided everything we need and much, much more.
• For his gracious protection and health as we have traveled back and forth from Santiago a few times this past month.
• For the wonderful privilege of teammates in the church planting ministry here in Antofagasta.

Pray to God with us:

• For his grace and strength to demonstrate Christlike patience as we furnish our home and continue to await the processing of our residency paperwork.
• For his wisdom as we continue to work on hearing, understanding, and speaking Spanish.
• For his Spirit’s strength in making disciples in this city filled with unbelievers who need Christ and believers who need to be taught to obey everything Jesus has commanded us.

This is our March 2018 email update. You can sign up to receive our updates in your inbox here. You can download a printable PDF here.