As believers in Jesus Christ, we are to think like Jesus, to have the same mindset as he did (Phil 2:5). When Jesus was obeying his Father to the point of death on a cross (Phil 2:8), his heart and mouth echoed David’s words from Psalm 31, “Into thine hand I commit my spirit” (v. 5; Luke 23:46). Like our Savior, we also should be praying the same prayer and entrusting our lives, our day, and our future to God’s sovereign control.

This past month we entrusted our days to God’s sovereignty and many of them turned out differently than we had planned, but all in perfect keeping with God’s providence! The new location where our church has been meeting on Sundays has been a blessing. Extra space and the challenge of thinking biblically about our purpose as a body has helped us grow, and extra exposure and a different area has enabled us to make new contacts. As a church, we hosted a guest speaker and his family from Santiago, and we hosted a men’s lunch at our apartment. It was a good time of fellowship and encouragement.

We celebrated several birthdays with our teammates this past month and we received the exciting news that our team will be increasing by one next year—Pastor Andrés and his wife are expecting their first child! Mark, along with David Flinck and Pastor Andrés, flew to La Serena for a weekend regional pastors’ meeting and enjoyed good fellowship with the other men and gained a new appreciation for the warmer temperatures of Antofagasta. Our church had a fellowship lunch after a Sunday morning service, followed by an informational “family meeting,” and then a special time of celebration around the Lord’s Table. We had the privilege to drive up to Alto Hospicio (about five hours north) to join in a celebration of a sister church’s anniversary and they also honored our fellow GMSA missionary, Sharon Bisbee, for her 33 years of service to the Lord. We drove back, getting home about 3:00 on Sunday morning, but the Lord gave us strength. We are thankful for the great car the Lord has given us. We appreciate your prayers and beg you to continue praying for us.

We are thankful for faithful coworkers.
We had the opportunity to celebrate with a sister church in Alto Hospicio,
as they honored Sharon Bisbee for her 33 years of service to the Lord.

 Thank God with us:

• For his grace in changing us and our church family into the image of Christ step by step. We are excited to see God working in the lives of individuals and families.
• For his grace in protecting and caring for us. We have enjoyed good health and safety.
• For his grace in directing and redirecting our steps and our plans.

Pray to God with us:

• For his grace to open ourselves humbly to those around us, learning and growing in our knowledge of God, our new culture, and Spanish.
• For his grace to await patiently the approval of our applications for temporary residency. It has been six months since we sent in the application. In the next few weeks, we will need to renew our tourist visas.
• For his grace to commit our lives into his hand.

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