1 John 1:3 says, “That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.” We are thankful for the fellowship we have with the Father because of our union with the Son. Our access to God and our confidence in his presence is directly related to our relationship with Jesus Christ. In addition to the joy of having fellowship with our Creator, we enjoy community with others who also have such a relationship with God the Father. Because God is our Father, other believers are our brothers and sisters. What a blessing to share fellowship with the Father, the Son, and one another!

Another busy month is behind us, and we have had many opportunities to fellowship with our church body here in Antofagasta. We often spend time in their homes or invite them to ours. Chilean culture lends itself to long periods of discipling conversations, as it is common to spend several hours talking around the table after the meal is finished. We also enjoyed the opportunity to travel to Iquique, a six-hour bus ride to the north and spend a day with one of our GMSA co-workers, Sharon Bisbee. Bekah and Kristi Flinck flew to Santiago to spend a long weekend with the missionary ladies of GMSA and enjoyed the fellowship and the change of scenery.

Our church body is considering renting a larger facility for our Sunday meetings, which will bring both new opportunities for ministry and challenges as well.  Pastor Andrés was officially installed as a pastoral intern and we enjoy working with him and his wife, Cle. Mark and Andrés are studying the book of Jude together in Greek one day a week. We are still awaiting word on our temporary residence permits, but we are thankful that has not really hindered our ability to live and minister here. We work every day at speaking and communicating better, and although sometimes it feels like we aren’t getting anywhere, there are little breakthroughs here and there when we realize we have grown. We appreciate your prayers for us!

We are thankful for the church family
God has provided for us here in Antofagasta.

 Thank God with us:

• For his grace in allowing us to serve our brothers and sisters in many ways here in Antofagasta.
• For his gracious protection this past month—we traveled by bus to Iquique together and Bekah flew to Santiago.
• For his grace changing hearts and lives through the Word of God here in Antofagasta.

Pray to God with us:

• For God’s grace to minister the Word of God to our brothers and sisters here in Antofagasta. Because many of the people who attend our church are believers who are hungry for the Word of God and edifying fellowship, our ministry is heavily weighted toward discipleship of believers.
• For God’s grace to live lives of constant prayer: worshiping God at every instance of his greatness, thanking him at every manifestation of his goodness, confessing our sin as soon as the Spirit shows us our wrong, and short-circuiting anger, complaining, and worry by taking every need to God.
• For God’s grace to produce Christlike discipline in our lives that glorifies God by consistent mortification of sin.
• For God’s provision of a larger location for our church to meet on Sundays.

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