Being at home is a funny concept: how do we decide when we are at home or not? After spending six months traveling around the United States and definitely not being at home, we’re happy to return to Chile, where we feel at home, even though we’re foreigners. But even then, we’ll never really be “at home” until we are with Jesus. Paul says that living by faith means that “we labor, that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him” (2 Cor 5:9). In other words, as long as we are away from our eternal home with Jesus, our goal is to be pleasing to him.

We arrived back in Chile on October 22 after a few delays, a night on the floor at JFK airport, and several standby flights. We were able to return to our apartment and get resettled in a familiar place. We’ve jumped right back into the life of our church family, visiting church families, participating in a church-wide activity, seeing new members join our church, and sharing the Lord’s Table. Mark was able to travel to Santiago for a week-long pastors’ conference as well as get back into the regular teaching schedule. Our church was able to begin meeting indoors again last month, and we’ve gotten to meet several new families that have begun attending over the past six months. Jesus is still building his church!

This coming Friday we have appointments to finalize our permanent visas and get our ID cards. Lord willing, this will mark the end of three and a half years of prayers and effort. We thank you for faithfully partnering with us in prayer and trust God will bring a good resolution to this process.

Our teammates, the Flincks, will be taking a survey trip to look at gospel opportunities in the second largest city in our region, Calama, about three hours away up in the desert. We appreciate your prayers for wisdom and clear thinking as we think about ministry possibilities in the future.

Jesus has been gracious to our church, giving us shepherds and teachers to equip us to do the work of the ministry, building up the body. We thank God for his continued work through Pastor Andrés and also through our elder, Adrián, for their faithful and effective ministry among our brothers and sisters in Christ. It is a blessing to be built up and encouraged through their biblical teaching and example.

We appreciate your continued prayers for us and for the Iglesia Berea here in Antofagasta.

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