The apostle Paul, quoting the prophet Isaiah, wrote to the church at Rome regarding the confidence he had in the gospel he preached, “For the Scripture saith, ‘Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed’” (Romans 10:11). In our world, we can count on a very few things. We’ve all gotten some great internet deals that turned out to be a complete waste. We’ve probably all talked up some brands and then been let down by certain models. At some point, we’ve entrusted ourselves to people and they’ve disappointed us. But every one who puts their confidence in God will never be put to shame.

We appreciate your prayers and concern for our health, and we thank God for recovery from our brief viral infection last month. We are all better, but the virus has torn through Chile this past month, just as it has the rest of the world. Several of our church people have been sick for a few days, none seriously, but it has upset people’s summer vacation plans, family gatherings, and our church meetings.

Our church determined to return to a “normal” Sunday morning format at the first of the year, but after just a few weeks, new restrictions from the government have forced us to change our location and format several times. We did get to meet at least once in a “mostly normal” service this past month, and Mark was able to teach live and in person for the first time in almost two years! But with the outbreak of more cases than ever, the restrictions have tightened to the point that we are only allowed 25 people in the building at a time, and only if we have scanned and verified their digital vaccine passes. As Pastor Andrés has told us many times since we began meeting together in person last May, we value the unity of the body over comfort or convenience. In other words, we would rather meet all together than just some of us in a more convenient or comfortable place, so we’ve always tried to make it possible for everyone to participate. Therefore, the past two Lord’s Days, we’ve enjoyed meeting together in Jesus’ name in a plaza near where several families live. We appreciate your prayers for us and our church family as we seek to continue to meet together each week.

Thank you for praying for our church as we voted this past month to call Pastor Andrés as our senior pastor. God made his will clear through the will of the congregation as the proposal was approved unanimously. We thank the Lord for another step toward the maturation of this young church.

We are still working on our furlough preparations for the end of April—just two and a half months left. Please continue to pray for the resolution of our permanent visas.

This is our February 2022 email update. You can sign up to receive our updates in your inbox here. You can download a printable PDF here.