Shooting through

Dear readers, I am now the proud owner of a plane ticket to Santiago! I'm heading out from Hobart on the 23rd February next year. I thank God for everyone's interest, concern, prayers and generosity. I feel like I am heading off with a mass of support and very much in partnership with a whole bunch of people, which is a huge blessing and help.

Please pray that God will count me worthy of his calling, and that by his power he may fulfill every good purpose of mine and every act prompted by my faith, so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in me . . . And that I will make the most of my final weeks in Tassie, my commissioning service will be a blessing to my church family and any of my non-Christian friends who decide to attend, and finally that I will have a good attitude during my first few weeks in Chile.

El balón del gas

My new Chilean friends put me onto this series of quirky videos about the idiosyncrasies of Chilean culture :D

Seventy percent

I'm delighted to say that, as of last week, I've reached 70% of the ongoing financial support that I need. When I get to 80% I can book my plane ticket! I'm anticipating hitting that mark in the next fortnight or so and heading off at the start of February. This will give me time to do a good job of finishing up my work for Crossroads and to have a decent holiday/prep time.

I'm very aware that it is because of people's generosity that it is all coming together for me. My supporters are absolutely serving and caring for me, yet at the same time they are serving God as they fulfill the role that he has for them. Indeed, people's generosity is "a sacrificial offering to their God as part of their obedient worship. Their giving is to be just as thoughtful as when the Israelite of the Old Testament went and chose the lamb without blemish from his flock. It is intentional. It costs. But it is an act of spiritual worship that pleases God because it is in tune with his desire that Christ be known" (see Philippians 4:14-19). How lovely.



Quote taken from B Dipple, Becoming Global: Integrating Global Mission and your Local Church: a Practical Approach (Sydney: Sydney Missionary & Bible College, 2011), 73-74.

Square eyes

People go all goofy over photos. There's often an expectation that the visiting missionary will show photos and anxiety if technical failures or lack of time makes this impossible. Now I don't really ever absorb information visually so I probably shouldn't have an opinion, but I do wonder how much people benefit from seeing a string of exotic photos. It only makes me feel the cultural divide and distance all the more. At our SIM training earlier in the year we had a talk on presentations and aesthetic and the lady said to only show three slides, telling the story of each. I totally think this is the way to go because it would draw your listeners in to the world of those three people. So I'm looking forward to the time when I will have three stories (and more!) to share.

The Spanish come to Chile

I've been reading about the history of Chile.1 Like Australia, its modern history began when its indigenous peoples were invaded and violently overrun by Europeans. But, unlike Australia, the southern part of Chile remained firmly under indigenous rule for some years. And all this began 2 1/2 centuries before the English made it to Australia. Oh and they waged war to become a republic. Here's what happened...

The Inca empire of Peru was conquered by Spanish conquistadores in the early 1530s. A few years later, in 1540, the Spanish kingdom pushed south to Chile. The indigenous people of Chile's central region had already been overthrown by the Peruvian Incas, but their rule stopped at the Maule river (250km south of Santiago) where the Mapuche still maintained their independence. When the Spanish arrived, they established towns further south than this, but a Mapuche offensive begun in 1598 drove them all north of the Bío Bío river (500 km south of Santiago). From the early 1600s a small standing army was stationed at the frontier. Warfare between settlers and indigenous peoples lessened over the course of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and cross-frontier trade increased.

Those indigeneous peoples north of the Bío Bío were treated as second-class citizens and forced to become labourers on the Spanish elite's rural estates. This practice, in combination with the introduction of foreign diseases, caused the disintegration of indigenous society, hastened further by the "near-total absence" of European women which saw the emergence of a new, majority mestizo ethnicity north of the Bío Bío. The minority upper class was made up of Spanish people born in Chile (creoles) and Spanish people from Spain (peninsulares). The latter were the only people permitted to participate in the Audiencia, Chile's governing body, which served under the Govenor of Chile.

On September 18 1810 (the dieciocho, Chile's national day ever since), in reaction to great political unrest in Spain in the Napoleonic wars, the unofficial creole council established a junta of six men to govern the country in place of the Audiencia. The junta raised a small army, and after a royalist uprising was violently quashed, the Audiencia disbanded. A congress was then elected by creoles and met for the first time in Santiago in July 1811. But Chile wasn't allowed to exit out of the Spanish empire quite so easily. Early in 1813 the Peruvian viceroy (who, under Spanish rule, was in charge of Chile) began the first of a number of wars intended to reverse Chile's independence. They didn't go according to plan - the Chilean patriots won in early 1818.

The new republic was influenced by the Enlightenment and by the American and French Revolutions. "All Chileans in public life now proclaimed their belief in the rights of man ('natural and imprescriptible rights: equality, liberty, security and property,' as the 1822 constitution put it), in representative government, in the division of powers, in equality before the law, and in republican virtue."2 However, "[g]iven the Chilean social structure, with its small, cohesive upper class and its huge mass of illiterate rural poor, there was bound to be difficulty in introducing the liberal utopia overnight . . . . The electoral laws of the period, and for decades afterward, reflected this fact by confining the franchise to a very narrow segment of the population. The political benefits of independence were thus largely restricted to the upper class. For the great mass of the population the new order brought little in the way of immediate improvement in material circumstances, let alone political influence."3

So began the new country of Chile. Stay tuned for more...


1 S Collier & WF Sater, A History of Chile, 1808-2002 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004 2nd ed), pages 4-8 and 33-34. 
2 Ibid, 40.
3 Ibid, 41-42.

To remember Australia

 

and me...

A beautiful, sad place

This is what pastor Juan Esteban Saravia has to say about Ñuñoa (from here). It makes me think of Hobart.

The suburb of Ñuñoa is a beautiful place, its people are beautiful, but sadly many of them live as slaves. Many live without direction, without a purpose. Many have forgotten that they are people, men and women, created by God in his image. They have forgotten their Creator and don't stop to think - because they are slaves to sin, and Satan directs them for his own purposes. [La comuna de Ñuñoa es un hermoso lugar, su gente es hermosa, pero lamentablemente muchos de ellos viven como esclavos. Muchos viven sin un sentido, sin un propósito. Muchos han olvidado que son personas, hombres y mujeres, creados por Dios a su imagen. Han olvidado a su creador y no lo reflejan, porque son esclavos del pecado, y Satanás los maneja para sus propios propósitos.]

This bit doesn't sound like Hobart :(

In the suburb of Ñuñoa there exists injustice and inequality. There is robbery, violence, scams, drug addiction etc. [En la comuna de Ñuñoa existe la injusticia y la inequidad. Hay robos, violaciones, estafas, drogadicción, etc.] 

In both places the answer is the same.

Jesus can reverse this situation. He can rescue this suburb, he can redeem Ñuñoa. Christ can be the Redeemer of Ñuñoa through his church as it tells the suburb the Good News that Jesus died on a cross to rescue people from death and slavery. [Jesús puede revertir esta situación, Él puede rescatar a la comuna, Él puede redimir Ñuñoa. Cristo puede ser el Redentor de Ñuñoa a través de su Iglesia que le cuenta a la comuna La Buena Noticia de que Él murió en una cruz para rescatar de la muerte y de la esclavitud a cada persona que Él quiera.]

I'm looking forward to playing my part in helping the church mature in faith and understanding so that, if God wills it, Ñuñoa and other places may be greatly blessed.

Parallel world

Santiago is pretty much on the same latitude as Sydney.

And Hobart is on the same latitude as a little Chilean island, Chiloé, which is about a tenth the size of Tasmania. So it's just us two, Argentina and New Zealand before you get to Antarctica.

Thought you might like to know.

Practical theology

Missionary training material often seems to restrict itself to the practical or the psychological - but I've discovered a happy alternative which talks about how the challenges of the missionary life expose what we really believe about God.

Part One is about God's graciousness...

All the normal things from which we gain a sense of worth, success, achievement, competence are stripped away when you move to another culture . . . . You will be unable to do ministry or contribute to church life; . . . . You will feel incompetent to manage ordinary life. (Where do you buy glue? What do you say at a road block? How do you get your washing machine mended?); Your self-justification framework is taken away. Your behaviour will be weird and your productivity will be low.

Part Two is about God's glory...

It is an act of believing the gospel to open up, to be able to say: ‘I’m having a bad day, please pray for me,’ to not feel the need to protect your reputation or project your best.

Part Three is about God's greatness...

[T]here will be many things that are left undone; many suffering people unhelped; many lost people who do not hear the gospel.
That can be difficult to live with. The danger is that it will drive you to over work, over stress, over worry. Or you will push those emotions onto other people – making them feel guilty that they are not doing enough.

Part Four is about God's goodness...

Delight in the city. Be 100 percent there 100 percent of the time.

H/T Rod

Support

Dear reader, if you would like to support me financially in my missionary work, then I would be very glad of that, especially as this is just what I'm waiting on before I can head off. Write to fiona.lockett@sim.org or facebook message me and I can send you out a snazzy brochure.

If you would prefer to join in my work through prayer then get in touch with me and I'll put you on the email list for my (monthly, brief) news & prayer letter. Or you can just pray about stuff you read here.

And if you'd like to write and encourage me, then please leave comments on this blog or write to the email address above.

Big thanks for your big heart, and to God for his.

Everyday Christians

• People feel like they have to choose between being a student/professional worker and being a Christian - so they decide that Christianity will have to fit in with the rest of their life. Church attendence is seen as optional.
• People don't know about the storyline or major ideas of the Bible. They don't know where they fit in with it all. This is true even for people who have been Christians for many years.
  
• People know that they should do 'devotionals', but no-one tells them what exactly they're supposed to do. 
• Many Christians have only been Christians for five years and haven't seen any good models of how to live as a Christian.
• Australians could learn from the Chilean practice of including a Bible verse for every occasion. Unfortunately, these nice-sounding verses have often been completely taken out of context and misapplied.
• People are accustomed to passively receiving from missionaries. They think that missionaries are unattainably perfect and don't realise that they need friends and have stuff to learn. They don't realise that they could send Chilean missionaries to other countries.
• The excellent Bible college, Centro de Estudios Pastorales, has only been around for a few years.

A big thanks to my new-found Chilean friends (and missionaries) for teaching me so much!

Everyday life

• The underground train system is easy-to-use, quick, reliable and extensive. The buses are a different story - when they reach a stop, they just slow down and you have to jump on quick. 
• In some ways Chile is just as developed as Australia, but in other ways it's more like a developing country. There's certainly not the smooth-running, efficient systems and bureaucracy we have in Australia. 
• You can't wear necklaces or dangly earrings in public and you have to sling your handbag across your body, or they will be stolen by thieves. 
• Men are both gentlemenly and charming/sleazy. They will make flattering comments as they pass you in the street. They aren't necessarily to be trusted.
• Chileans don't say "please" and "thank you" all the time, like Australians do.
• Whenever you meet a group of people, you greet and farewell each person with a (air) kiss on the cheek.
• 70% of uni students are the first person in their family to have attended university, so it's a great honour. Uni fees take up a massive proportion of a worker's income, so uni students are under a lot of pressure. 
• The education system is inequitable. You would only send your child to a state school if you couldn't afford private education. Even the best schools only teach by rote.
• 'Middle class' in Australia = 'upper class' in Chile. 'Middle class' in Chile = 'working class' here.
• You can't get fresh milk, nice milk chocolate or coffee. You can get great dark chocolate, icecream, fruit juices and Vegemite. You can also get gorgeous fresh produce from local markets, but only the poor shop there - the rich eat packaged food. 
• Clothes aren't as well made as they are in Australia, and they wear out a lot quicker.
• Chileans love bread. Batches are baked throughout the day in the local supermarket and people line up for warm, just-cooked loaves. Mmm

Pinochet

While I was growing up in an Australia of peace and prosperity, the nation of Chile was undergoing a very different time. We'll start back in 1970 when Salvador Allende became the world's first (and only?) democratically elected socialist president. He quickly introduced a number of extreme, and controversial, left-wing measures - the nationalisation of major industries, the redistribution of land, raising of the minimum wage and increased social spending. By 1972 inflation had soared, basic commodities were no longer freely available, the government announced its intention to default on international debts - and the international price for copper (Chile's most important export) had plummeted.1 The resulting unrest climaxed on September 11 1973 when the right-wing army commander, Augusto Pinochet, toppled the government in a violent coup (during which Allende killed himself).

Pinochet was in power for nearly 17 years. During this time at least 3200 people were murdered or disappeared and 27 000 tortured. The 2003 National Commission on Political Imprisonment and Torture found that two thirds of tortures happened in the three months following the coup and that the victims were largely innocent civilians. "The physical trauma had taken a heavy psychological toll on many torture victims, leaving them humilitated, depressed and often unable to keep a job or sustain close relationships."2

Today, people's perception of Pinochet's regime varies enormously. An author writing about a town with the highest recorded number of disappearances/killings tells of, "A hairdresser whose father had disappeared when she was two years old [who] said her earliest memory was of her mother leaving her and her siblings home alone to search for him. At the salon where she works, many of the customers are still very vocal about their admiration for Pinochet."3 And in the same town, "A teacher at the local high school told me most of his students had no idea about what had happened in their town in wake of the 1973 military coup, though occasionally some ask him about life during the regime."4 The director of a Chilean polling organisation also observed that, although Santiago remains Latin America's safest capital, "fear of crime in present-day Chile [is] higher than fear of the military had been under Pinochet. 'If you kept your head down you could avoid trouble with the military.'"5

During Pinochet's reign, some structures of civil society were abolished (congress, the presidency, freedom of speech) or used to serve Pinochet's ends (the media, the judiciary - which retained its powers yet failed to take any action in regard to human rights abuses). Yet despite this, Pinochet did operate within the boundaries prescribed by his 1980 constitution. Indeed, his reign ended peacefully after a 1988 nationwide plebisite on whether his presidency should continue for another eight-year term. Pinochet's opponents formed a sixteen-party Comando del No coalition which began by urging people to sign onto the electoral roll (the earlier version of which was destroyed in the coup). Over 90% of Chileans obliged. Pinochet also permitted various measures which ensured a fair voting process. And, unlike the previous (corrupt) plebisites, the "no" vote won the day. Initially, Pinochet threatened privately to maintain his rule by force, but he later allowed elections to take place and handed over power to a new, left-wing president.

This mixture of autocracy and democracy is intriguing enough, but the complex situation continued. Despite losing the presidency, Pinochet remained army commander for the next ten years. This meant that "democratic leaders had to engage in an elaborate and prolonged bargaining process with the former dictator and his supporters . . . . Though it was never clear whether the army's officer corps and soldiers would support another coup, Pinochet often implied he might take such a course if the situation warranted."6 During this time he also "managed to dodge a series of judicial investigations into some of the worst crimes of his regimes as well as an inquiry into an illicit fortune he had built up during his rule and hidden in bank accounts abroad."7 Pinochet died in Chile in 2006, during the government of Michelle Bachelet, the fourth democratically elected president since his regime.



1 Above information obtained from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salvador_Allende
2 MH Spooner, The General's Slow Retreat: Chile After Pinochet (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2011), 193. All unacknowledged information is from this source.
3 Ibid, 8.
4 Ibid, 7.
5 Ibid, 5.
6 Ibid, 3.
7 Ibid, 3.

You who are Gentiles by birth

One of my absolutely favourite Bible passages is Ephesians 2:11-13:

Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth . . . remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 

It never fails to strike a chord; I don't know exactly why. I do know that it absolutely amazes me that I, a Gentile woman who has only ever met one, non-practising Jew, who used to wander around life doing as I pleased without reference to any sort of god, who was so much without hope and without God in the world that I didn't even recognise it, that I have been adopted into this ancient religion and on equal footing with Jewish believers. I was once far away and have now been brought near.

And this is what I want for the people of Chile. I'm not trying to Bible bash them or destroy their culture - I want them to be brought near, just like I was. I want them to experience this magnificent kindness show to those who are not Jews, who would otherwise have no citizenship in Israel and no part in the covenants of the promise.

Chile

Ok so a couple of posts ago I said that "People value harmonious relationships over being honest about and working through issues. It is loving to endure". I've since found out that, while this may be true for some Latin American countries, it's not true of Chile. Chileans are passionate and opinionated and happy to share their views. I've been advised not to talk about politics or controversial religious topics...

Here's some other things I've found out:

Religion

• Catholics are nominal and there is widespread involvement in witchcraft, of one sort or another, as people turn to whatever might aid them in life. Yet for all this, Catholicism runs deep in people's hearts.
• The Pentecostal church has thrived, especially among the working class. The ugly 'prosperity gospel' is everywhere found.
  
• The Anglican denomination is seen as being very similar to the Catholic church (except there's no Mary and saints and the priests can marry), and as a church for the rich. Yet there is a lot of good, Gospel stuff happening in the denomination.
• There is poor understanding and application of, and even belief in the relevance of, the Bible amongst pastors and congregations. This is especially true of the working class Pentecostal churches where not many pastors have not been well educated.
• People dislike Pentecostal churches because they see through the prosperity gospel, and because of scandals where pastors have made off with lots of money. Rich people don't want to become Evangelical Christians because they think they would have to drop a social class to associate with working class Pentecostals.

Society

• Chilean society is tainted by lust for people and possessions. Unfaithfulness and teenage pregnancies are rife.
• There is a definite rich/poor divide.
• Chileans are fiercly patriotic, yet they also long to be like the US and to relocate to a more prosperous country.
• Relationships with people are prized above completion of tasks.
• No-one seems to talk about Pinochet.

Prayer

• Please pray that I will be gracious, gentle and patient when I'm speaking with Catholics (a critical attitude will only serve to get their backs up and turn me bitter), and that I will have the discernment to judge if people (read: men) are trustworthy or not.

P.S. I hope I haven't made Chile sound like an awful country when actually it's a prosperous, spectacular country full of warm, vivacious people. My friends who were there recently said that even the security guards are friendly and obliging!

Fotos de Ñuñoa

Credits no 1: Claudio.Núñez; no 2: vivianapastor; no 3: MarceloKristopher ✈

La cultura chilena/latina

• People go to the doctor about everything. They believe that all sorts of illnesses stem from being cold.
• Catholic people - even those who are no longer connected to the church - know that God can work powerfully, and will pray to him in desperate times.
• Younger people are attracted to the new 'spirituality' that's come on the scene in the last five years - that of reiki, yoga and Eastern religions.
• People will happily talk about religion or go to church with you.
• Catholic people rely on their baptism as children and their attendance at Mass to be acceptable to God, and have no knowledge of an daily, personal relationship with Jesus.
• People value harmonious relationships over being honest about and working through issues. It is loving to endure.
  

Conflicto educacional

For the last twenty years, Chile has been a relatively stable - and prosperous - country. But this week has seen massive and sometimes violent student demonstrations in Santiago. This article explains why. The pastor of Ñuñoa church has asked for prayer for the leaders of Chile and the student movement, and for a just and wise solution.

Video of Iglesia Cristo Redentor

Here's a video that Christ the Redeemer church produced to celebrate their one-year anniversary last Sunday. The first few seconds have Pastor Juan Esteban Saravia talking about how, several years ago, God gave him and fellow leader Felipe the desire to plant a new church and how they became interested in the suburb of Ñuñoa. Then there are lots of photos! (And at 1'32'' something that made me very glad.)

Video Aniversario Iglesia Anglicana Cristo Redentor from iglesianunoa on Vimeo.

Prayer requests

One of the delightful things about knowing where I'm going is that I've been able to practice my Spanish by reading the church's website. And guess what I found - a list of prayer requests! So, if you wouldn't mind, could you please join me in praying for:

• the church of Ñuñoa to grow in faith and numbers [por la iglesia de Ñuñoa, crecer en fe y en número]

• Juan Esteban (the pastor) and his family, and for his pastoral work in the church [por Juan Esteban y su Familia, y su trabajo pastoral en la iglesia]

• God to bless and strengthen the marriages in the church [para que Dios bendiga y fortalezca los matrimonios de la iglesia]

• God to give people courage and passion so they can preach the Gospel to friends at university, at work and also to their relatives [para que Dios de valor y pasión para predicar el evangelio a compañeros de Universidad, en el trabajo también a nuestros familiares]
  

La gente y el país

Here are a couple of interesting articles about the Chilean people and country from the Servicio Nacional de Turismo. (Yes, you can sometimes add "o" onto the end of English words to get the Spanish ;).)

Destination ✓

I'm very happy to say that SIM has accepted me and that I, in turn, have accepted a position with them. It all came together last week, in God's good timing. I still don't know when I'll be heading off though - that date is dependent on getting a few other things done first.

I went into this whole process happy to go wherever I was needed in Latin America. I did decide I should be in a city, the bigger the better, but I was open to going to a smaller city too. I was happy to live somewhere polluted, but wasn't sure how I would cope in a place that rarely saw the sun or blue sky (eg Lima - because of pollution). My secret wish was to live in Santiago, the capital of Chile, because it looked like a really lovely city. It's big, has cultural activities, is surrounded by mountains and fairly close to the sea. Basically, it's Hobart on speed.

So it wasn't any trouble for me to express my interest in a vague position that came up in Chile in November last year. I didn't hear back about it for months and, when I did, the details were pretty sketchy. So I've been finding out a bit more about it... and what I've found is good!

The position is with Iglesia Cristo Redentor Ñuñoa (roughly, Church of the Redeeming Christ, Ñuñoa - a suburb of Santiago). I won't have any particular responsibilites during the first year - I'll just be listening and learning. And I won't necessarily stay at the church after that - where I end up will depend on my gifts and desires. I've been told great things about the church and its pastor, Juan Esteban Saravia. It has good Bible teaching, which is a bit of a rarity in Chile. The pastor's a lovely, godly guy. It's an Anglican church, began just under a year ago. It meets in a community hall and has grown so much they're looking for somewhere else to meet. The suburb it meets in is middle class, with leafy streets, lots of shops and houses with security. The pastor has offered for me to live with his family.

I'm very happy to be starting off in a good situation. I'm open to being 'a hero' later on, but I think it makes a lot of sense to begin surrounded by good people, and especially by good Bible teaching. There's good things happening in the Anglican denomination in Chile - there's a good Bible college with a few Aussie CMS guys acting as lecturers, and there's some good up-and-coming pastors like Juan Esteban Saravia. There's a chance that I'll be the first 'Women's Worker' in the city/country so I hope to play some part in the church's growing to maturity. And, on top of all this, my love of culture and nature won't go unfulfilled! God is so kind.

from here

from here

from here

My 'missionary philosophy'

My church has done a wonderful job of training up local leaders and investing sustained and creative energy into local evangelism, but we're only just getting going on the world scene. This means that I'm in the privileged position of being Crossroads' first and only missionary (so far!). We haven't inherited a backlog of missionaries who need to be managed and supported somehow: we just have me. This has given me the freedom to play with how things should look. Three things make up my 'local church-global mission' philosophy:

1. World mission should be part of the ordinary church life, because it is a command given to all (eg Mt 28:18-20). I'm keen to see it spoken about in ordinary Sunday sermons and weekly Bible studies; for most church partners to be involved in one way or another (prayer, encouragement or financial support); and for the missionary's ministry to be lumped in with other ministries that church members are involved in (for example, at Crossroads we have people doing uni and international student ministry and running a hostel for spiritual retreat). I'm not so keen on special world mission talks, committees, prayer groups and events because I think they give the impression that world mission is a niche interest.
   
2. World mission should be done with excellence, as if working for the Lord (Col 3:23-24). In spite of what I said above, I do recognise that there are some unique things about missionary work that require special handling. Because of this, I have got together an 'Advocacy Team' (aka 'Team Fiona') whose main role is to keep me on everyone's radar once I'm out of sight, as well as providing me with any special assistance or prayer. The 'Chief Advocate' who heads up that team is someone who I keep in close contact with and who is able to advocate for me and liase with supporters and missionary organisations. Part of Kate's role is to keep an eye on whether Crossroads is doing a good job, and part of Crossroads' role is to review my ministry and that of my Advocacy Team, as happens with other church roles.
   
3. World mission should be done with mutual respect and dependence. Obviously I'm hoping that I and my church will be able to help my Latin American church, but there is also assistance that they can provide to us. They can pray for us and teach us things just as we pray for and teach them, and we can get to know and perhaps even meet one another.

What do you think? Any suggestions?

You're a stubborn little thing aren't you

There's a good chance I'll end up in Chile. Here's a great video of some Chileans who are involved with the Anglican Bible college in the capital, Santiago. They begin by talking about life as a Christian in Chile and about cultural differences with Australia. From 6'30'' they talk about the Bible college.

Oh and September/October is looking more likely for when I'll be getting on that plane :) I'll let you know more as 'news comes to hand'. Now, didn't I say something about going away?

Christians in Chile from CMS NSW on Vimeo.

You ain't welcome

In case you've popped back to see if there's any news - there ain't none. But don't worry, I'll be sure to let you know once there is. For now, I'm busy learning Spanish, reading books about spiritual warfare and Latin American religion and culture, and working for my church. I've just got one more doctor's appointment to go before I finish my application - which has proved to be a long-winded process. Things will hot up again once I know where I'm going - there'll be finances to sort out, pamphlets to write, churches to visit, visas to get etc etc. But for now, if you wouldn't mind, I'd appreciate prayer that I'll:

• end up in a place (and working with people) where I can function well;
• be gracious and at peace throughout this time of waiting and negotiation;
  
• be passionate about the wellbeing of people in Latin America.