Paul concludes his summary of the gospel in Romans 8 with several rhetorical questions, one of which is this: Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us (Rom 8:34). While Satan (or anyone else, for that matter) could legitimately accuse us of being sinful and thus deserving of God’s wrath, that objection would not hold up for one second. Why? Because Jesus drank the dregs of God’s wrath and completely absorbed every bit of God’s righteous judgment. He died for us. And as if that wasn’t enough, he rose again, and you can find him seated at God’s right hand, so you don’t need to search the archives to determine if we actually have righteous standing before God. No, Jesus himself will testify to that, pleading our case and guaranteeing that nothing can or ever will separate us from God’s love in Him.

Our God is still saving sinners: one Lord’s Day after our service at the beach, a young mother who was invited to join our Zoom meetings earlier this year talked for a while with one of our ladies, and ended up kneeling at the beach park praying for forgiveness and confessing Jesus! Jesus is building his church and death itself can’t stop His advance! Please pray for this young lady and the impending struggles she will face as she seeks to follow Jesus (he said himself he didn’t come to bring peace, but a sword).

We continue to meet as a church on Sunday afternoons at the beach without interference, and the times of fellowship have been sweet. Mark taught a short series of biblical principles about our building (it isn’t the Old Testament temple, it isn’t essential to being a church, and it’s a tool that can help remove distractions from our mission of making disciples of Jesus Christ), and that has led to many good conversations. Our church continues pursuing how we can remodel our building to pass the city’s inspections and serve as a meeting place for the believers. Please pray for wisdom in this process, as well as our meetings in the interim.

As a church, we hope to elect our first elder in the coming months. Please pray for wisdom and unity for our church in this process. We are in the early stages of planning our first furlough for May through September 2022. We look forward to seeing many of you and telling you what God has done here. Please pray for the planning process. We continue to await the final resolution of our permanent residency here in Chile. Please pray for God’s grace to grant us those documents.

This is our July 2021 email update. You can sign up to receive our updates in your inbox here. You can download a printable PDF here.