This month Mark had the privilege of teaching about the person of Jesus Christ, specifically talking about the name that Matthew recalls in his gospel as he tells the story of Jesus’ birth. The angel’s words to Joseph about a virgin conceiving, bearing a son, and giving him a specific name remind Matthew of Isaiah’s prophecy of the sign the Lord himself gave to King Ahaz. There too, a prophesied birth of a baby was a sign of God’s presence and coming deliverance of his people. The beauty of the name Immanuel applied to Jesus is even more striking, since he literally was “God with us.” Because of the incarnation, the disciples of Jesus enjoy his continued presence until the end of the age (Matt 28:20).

We are thankful for God’s presence with us and his continued protection as we traveled, Mark to the US to spend two weeks with his parents and Bekah to the south of Chile to visit missionary friends there. Jesus continues to build his church here in Antofagasta, and we are thankful for a steady stream of visitors to our services as well as the continued faithfulness of our members. The building we are renting that seemed so big a year and a half ago has been full and warm and stuffy the past few Lord’s Days. We continue to look for a better and more permanent location to rent: please pray that God would provide in his perfect timing.

We are thankful for our teammates, David and Kristi Flinck and Andrés and Cle. We rejoiced together over the announcement that Cle and Andrés are expecting their second child next year. Cle has experienced complications again with the pregnancy, so we are praying for God’s continued protection for her and the little life inside. As we move toward a new year, we are trying to keep our eyes on the goal of making disciples and specifically, of seeing Iglesia Berea be independent and self-sustaining. Lord willing, we hope to see the church install a pastor and work toward electing elders. Please pray with us about this.

The coming month brings a planned trip to Argentina December 30 for our mission board’s annual conference. The tickets are purchased and the plans are in place, but the Foreign Ministry keeps changing policies and requirements, and since we are still waiting for our visa applications to be input into the system (six months and counting), we don’t know if we will be allowed to travel. Please pray with us about this.

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