This past month, Pastor Andrés has been preaching through Ruth, highlighting God’s “loyal love” to David three generations before his birth. We have also been doing a Bible study with a couple studying the covenants of the Old Testament, and when we arrived to God’s covenant with David (2 Sam 7), the key word is “loyal love.” Even when David and his descendants sinned, God would punish them, but he would remain loyal to them and not cast them away like he had with Saul. As David said, God’s goodness and loyal love would pursue him forever (Ps 23:6). This same loyal love is what was behind God’s promise to Zerubbabel in Haggai 2 that a King would come from his line. This has us eagerly awaiting and praying for the second coming of Jesus and his kingdom to earth.

Our church celebrated the resurrection of Jesus as four believers identified publicly with Jesus in baptism last Sunday. It was a great time of rejoicing in our new life united with Christ followed by remembering Jesus’ death together around the Lord’s Table. It is exciting to see how Jesus is building his church here in Antofagasta.

We thank the Lord for answering your prayers regarding our application for permanent residency this past month. We gathered all eleven different documents (for each of us), scanned, and uploaded them to the foreign ministry website. Now we wait! The current waiting period is about eleven months, but that’s okay, because we know God is in control and he turns the hearts of kings wherever he wishes (Prov 21:1). Please pray that the application will be accepted so we can return to a more “normal” status as resident aliens.

We continue to try to obey the Great Commission, making disciples, wherever and whenever. We are thankful for chances to encourage our brothers and sisters in Christ to follow Jesus more closely and to submit every area of their lives to his lordship. We also are thankful for opportunities to give the gospel to unbelievers, encouraging them to believe in Jesus and to confess him as their Lord and Savior. Looking back over the past month, I counted at least 32 instances where we met with people along those lines apart from our weekly Sunday and Wednesday services. We thank God for those opportunities! Please pray that we will be faithful stewards.

This is our July 2019 email update. You can sign up to receive our updates in your inbox here. You can download a printable PDF here.