Paul instructed Timothy not to let anyone look down on him because he was young, but to be “an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity” (1 Tim 4:12). The reminder is a good one: we can’t really do anything about our age (either adding years or taking them off!), but we can live an exemplary life of Christlikeness. We can model Jesus in our words, our lifestyle, our love, our faithfulness, and our purity.

This past month we enjoyed our first 18th of September, the Chilean independence day (complete with kite flying). Bekah celebrated her birthday with notes, cards and cake from the church ladies. We awoke that same night to our apartment building gently rocking and experienced our first significant earthquake (a 5.4 about 50 miles from us). Mark enjoyed three days of fellowship, teaching, and lots of Spanish at a pastors’ conference in Santiago with David and Andrés.

We thank God for the many opportunities we have to visit with our church families in their homes and to host them in our apartment. Looking over our calendar for the past month, I counted 22 visits with people from our church. The culture lends itself to many hours sitting around the table talking. While this is a challenge for our second language skills, we find it much easier talking with one or two people across the table than trying to converse with groups of people in the noisiness after church. It is also a blessing because many conversations become teaching and discipling opportunities. Besides meals, we have gone biking, played basketball, hiked, gone shopping, done work projects, and taken advantage of basically any other opportunity to be part of their lives. We are thankful for a flexible schedule that allows us to spend our time in these life-on-life moments.

We are praising the Lord that we received our Chilean identity cards Friday.
These enable us to live and function here in the country for the next year.

 Thank God with us:

• For his grace that changes us day by day into the image of His Son.
• For his grace that protecting us as we travel around the city and in the country. We are thankful for good health this month.
• For his grace in allowing us to proceed through the immigration process and receive our Chilean identity cards. Next steps are bank accounts, transferring the car title, and driver’s licenses.

Pray to God with us:

• For his grace to live in a way that truly displays Jesus Christ to the people around us in word, in example, and in faithfulness.
• For his grace to boldly speak God’s Word as we interact and live with our brothers and sisters here.
• For his grace to work hard at Spanish so we can continue deepening relationships and growing in our abilities to communicate God’s Word.

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