Getting Settled

On Saturday, November 19th the church hosted a barbecue at Hurtado Park. Everyone brought enough food for their family, and several families shared picnic tables in a pot-luck style. It was a wonderful day of fellowship, food, and games. The weather was beautiful, but a little hot for November. We are still getting used to the fact that it is “summer” here. The barbecue was an activity to help us “Extendernos” by inviting family and friends. “Extendernos” is the third part of a campaign called “90 Dias de Vision” that has been going on at church. The three parts of the 90 days of Vision are “Levantarnos” (reaching up), “Adentrarnos” (reaching in), and “Extendernos” (reaching out). After the 90 days of Vision, we will begin “Verano de accion” (Summer of Action).

We gathered for a devotional time after lunch and before the volleyball game.

During the week of November 20th we continued to learn more about our daily schedule. After 2 weeks in Santiago, our schedule is becoming more routine. Here is a brief synopsis of the scheduled activities each week:

Sundays — Bible class at 11:00am; Church at 12:00pm; Lunch with the university group
Mondays — our day off
Tuesdays — 9:30am mission team meeting
Wednesdays — 9:30am meeting with Scott and the other interns; 2:00pm men’s lunch; 7:30pm class with university group and young people
Fridays — English Conversation Class at 7:00pm
Saturdays — 11:00am futbol game

We also have plans to meet during the week with a few of our contacts from the Friday night English classes and practice our Spanish and let them practice their English. We are also planning to begin Spanish lessons with a Chilean tutor that the team has recommended.

We are currently involved in a Bible study with Kelley Grant (one of the missionaries) learning the introductory Bible studies the team uses for evangelism. The strategy of the Bible studies is to have three people involved; the contact you want to study with, a leader and a silent partner. The idea is for the silent partner to help find verses and be a sort of co-leader, that will eventually be a study leader. Currently, John is scheduled to be a silent partner with Kelley in one study and Scott in another study with a teenager who has recently moved to Santiago. Those studies should begin the week of Nov. 27th.