The latest from Iglesia Ñuñoa

Here's what's been happening here at Iglesia Cristo Redentor:

Grupos en casa
I'm part of a lovely little home Bible study group, led by a British guy and his Chilean wife. It's a bit full-on, as any listening-and-speaking situation is, but I've been made to feel very welcome and part of the gang. Home groups are a new thing for my church here - for any church in Chile - but I gather that my brothers and sisters are pumped for them. I know I'm looking forward to getting to know these guys and growing with them as we learn from God's Word.

Entrenamiento para los grupos en casa
I was delighted to be asked to attend training for current/future home group leaders. Juan Esteban is taking us through a Spanish translation of Colin Marshall's Growth Groups (Grupos de Crecimiento), and it's such a joy to see this wise and common sense approach to understanding and teaching the Bible enjoy equal relevence in a foreign culture (with a little added local illustration - eg inductive Bible studies are like preparing and presenting una cena para tus amigos - a meal for your friends). This was the first time that many of the leaders had heard about things like working out the ideas and main point of a Bible passage. I'm really looking forward to helping the women of my church get the hang of all this.

Semana Santa
We put on some special things for Easter (photos here). On Good Friday eve, folks from the various home groups went to the house of Juan Esteban and his family for a meal. We learned about the significance of the Passover meal shared by Jesus and his disciples shortly before Jesus' death. We also did lots of sitting around chatting and getting to know each other - as, once again, it seems that there are a lot of people who are new to the church (and to Christianity?). It turned out that three of us women are mad keen for salsa, so hopefully we'll go out together sometime :).

We had a service on Friday morning, 'Reflections at the foot of the cross' ('Meditación a los pies de la cruz'), but I was getting sick so I didn't take much in. Thanks to God, I was better by Sunday morning, when we had a very special celebratory service with lots of heartfelt singing and a wonderful sermon. It looked like lots of people had brought friends and family along. Afterwards we shared a great big lunch together. Well sort of - I assumed that everyone would bring something to share, so just brought chips and dip. It turned out that the custom here is for everyone to bring their own meal - which they end up sharing much of with the people around. So I asked another missionary if she had some food to spare and fortunately she did. It was so beautiful looking down the table and seeing this big family of God. The only downer was that there was no chocolate anywhere.