Greetings from Chile

We are in Chile in a mission trip from our Arden church.  I’ve had the job of coordinating it.  We have 40 people mostly from out church and a few from others.  Our job is to build a church building here.  Actually our job is to begin a church building and another group is coming next week to finish it.  We are working in Concepcion which is the second largest city in the country.  The church is now meeting in a kindegarden building.  There are about 40 members.  They are very excited to think they can actually have a church building.

We have had a lot of trouble connecting to the internet.  They are supposed to have wireless here at the hotel but some computers can connect and some can’t.  I haven’t been able to connect for a few days.

The trip here was long!  We met at the Fletcher church and drove to Charlotte (2 hrs) and then parked in the long term parking (only $4/day) and got checked in and flew to Atlanta and then had a 6 hour wait.  When we booked our tickets it was $200/person cheaper.  Then a 9 hour flight to Santiago overnight.  The plan was oversold so they called Carla and me and said they would have to upgrade us to Business class so they would have room for everyone on the plane.  We didn’t object and enjoyed it. Tried not to feel too guilty.  We got to Santiago alright and then over an hour for everyone to get through immigration and get luggage.  We had a bus take us the 6 ½ hour ride to Concepcion.  Fortunately the roads are great and we had a comfortable bus.  We even got most of the luggage underneath (which I had been worried about).

When we go to our hotel about 5 pm Friday people were wondering as it is in poor neighborhood and it looks a little run down.  The rooms are tiny.  Like no chair or desk or place to lay out a suitcase. But after being here a couple of days it feels like home and everyone seems satisfied.  After all this is a mission field.  The local church prepared a light supper for us and we went over there and ate about 8 pm.  That late is very common here.  We all came back to the hotel and died in sleep.

Sabbath we had a devotional here at the hotel and  then took the bus to the church.  (We actually have a bus and a van our use for the time we are here).  They had a nice service and then the ladies had a wonderful lunch for us. We came back and changed and went for a walk along the ocean in a park and went to the fish market where they have a number of seals and sea lions that they feed and one was actually out on the side walk.  We didn’t have long enough and then most of us went back to the church and went out with the members in small groups passing out invitations to the health fair they were doing on Sunday and our meetings this week.  It was interesting going to the homes around the church.  There is obviously no zoning and the houses are just kind of build on to with a lot of extra rooms for the family or renting.  Everything is behind a gate.  After that we be came back and ate a good supper.  We are having wonderful food.  Maryjo came with us to run the kitchen and she does a great job.  She actually came a day early so she could buy food and get ready.  She is going to the market and getting great fruit.  If you look closely in the stores at home this time of year you will see a lot of our fruit is from Chile.

Sunday the work on the church began. It always starts out slow getting the first row of bricks but they did real well.  Part of the day it drizzled lightly.  Everyone was tired by lunch.  The ladies took lunch to the site at noon.

I went to the health fair the local church put on.  They had never done anything like that before for a church of 40 members it was very ambitious!  They had a dentist who would do simple extractions.  A pediatricians who would exam kids.  A nurse doing blood pressures.  A nutritionist and even a lawyer.  They also had a social worker doing some counseling and had clothes to give to those who needed them.  One of the most popular was 4 hair dresses who would do free hair cuts.  Bonnie Hover who came with us is a hair stylist and she did hair all day.  They had very nice banners announcing it and showing where to go etc.

Today (Monday) I went and talked to the faculty at the public school we will be using for our meetings.  It is next door to the Adventist kindergarten where we are building the church.  The public school has over 1400 students K-12 and 55 teachers.  We told them what we were doing and hopefully some will come.  The school year is just starting this week on Wednesday at that school and today at the Adventist schools.

Then we went to town to change money.  Every exchange gives a different rate so we found the best rate we could and I exchanged for our people and for the group expenses.  The exchange rate is better than when we came in October so it is helping cover some of our expenses.  We were for example to stay in a hotel 3 blocks from the worksite.  But 2 weeks before we came we found out that construction was not done and so ended up in a hotel about 20 minutes from the site.  That has complicated our logistics but is working out.

I hear there has been a lot of snow at home but glad to miss that.  The temperatures here are about 70 during the day and 50 at night.  The high in Santiago is about 15 degrees higher.

Well, it is almost time to eat and go to our meetings.  More later.

If you want to hear from other perspectives or see some pictures you can check this week on www.ardenadventist.org

DeWayne