Monday, December 19, 2005

BACK FROM CHILE !!!- PREVIEW

Well, I am back in the states. I want to thank all those that were praying for me while away in Chile for two weeks. I had a tremendous time. The Lord really blessed and allowed us to get quite a bit of work done. There is still so much to do. I am writing this post as a preview to the other excerpts I will be posting about my trip to Chile. I will be posting several pics of my trip to Chile as well as three poems that I wrote while over there based on my trip. To those who are wondering what my trip was for and what we did, I will share that now.
There are about four Christian camps that are in Chile right now that are overseen by a Mission board. They are all in quite bad shape. What I mean by that is, there is land and beautiful scenery, but no concept of what real a camp program is. The buildings are a worst for wear and I mean you would not want to live in them for any length of time. The purpose of our trip was to focus on one camp specifically named "Camp Pirque". It has been around for at least 15 years or so. Looking at it you would wonder how a camp could be there. As I heard a lot on this trip, "It has a lot of POTENTIAL!" There are several other work teams scheduled right now to head over to Chile in the next few months. Our work team began the wonderful task of building the 300 concrete posts needed to help fence in the 15-20 acres of land the camp sits on. In the pics I will be posting, you will see the many beautiful mountains that surround the camp. Breathtaking!! We worked some pretty long days since it does not get dark in Chile right now till around 9:30 to 10:00 at night. It is there summer right now.
The Chilean Christians were very kind and hospitable. I got to work closely with two men named Pedro (70yrs old-retired pastor) and Hermon(30 yrs old-spoke a little english). My time spent with them was great. We spent everyday mixing, pouring, and wheel burrowing concrete. During those days they quizzed me and taught me many spanish words and phrases. After a while I think they actually thought I was Chilean....well, maybe not. It was truly hard to say goodbye to them at the end of our two weeks.
Two of the highlights of my trip I would like to share before closing are: 1. Being able to sit in a worship service that was completely in Spanish, and 2. To hear fellow Christians pray in a different language and know that the same God I pray to in English hears them. These two highlights are the basis of one of the poems I will be posting entitled "Common Ground".
I would like to thank you all who visit my blog page. I hope and pray that the things you see and read in some way encourage you or provoke you to think. We serve an amazing God! May the Lord bless and keep you as you continue to follow and seek Him daily. If you have never been on a Mission trip, I would encourage you to go. It is a great opportunity to see things in a different perspective and to see how other brothers and sisters in Christ serve and worship the Lord. Take care and have a Merry Christmas and a wonderful New Year in the Lord!

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