Youth Camp NEWS

Dear everybody,

Here is our brochure for our youth camp 2010. Pray with us that a good number of church kids as well as unsaved kids would attend and hear God's Word preached. The dates for the camp are February 8th through the 13th.

Liz

A New Family Picture

Dear everybody,

So today we just decided to DO IT. Do what? Get that dreaded family picture taken. We have been planning on doing this for a while now, but it never seems to be the right timing. Either one of the kids fell and has a huge scrape accross their face, or at least one of them is not in a smiling mood.

After church today, while we were all still looking put together and clean, we set up the camera and got that chore taken care of. I hope you like the result.

Liz

PS: We changed the color to black and white because we needed it that way for a mission annual report.

Dear everybody,

So it's been a month since I have posted on this blog of ours. I wish I had an excuse but I don't. If I were to claim some reasons for not writing, here would be some of them:

1) Our busy time has begun: We are hosting churches over the weekends while finishing up the last few projects on our "to-do" list before the summer rush starts in January.

2) I am half way through my pregnancy: which means I am either overly tired or trying to catch up on some rest. I have been enjoying a pregnancy where my kids are older and a little more independent. They have helped around the house but still there are many needs that only Mom can meet.

3) Teaching end of the year Bible studies: my ladies Bible study in Lican ended and thanks to God's working in hearts, it ended well. I am so pleased to have been His instrument in teaching these past few months. It took many hours of preparation and studying the Bible in Spanish! Not only did I teach the Lican Bible study but also the end of year retreat for the Liquine ladies. I don't know what is more nerve racking: teaching a group of ladies you have gotten to know over the course of a few months and think you should be doing better in Spanish or teaching a group of new ladies who don't know anything about you! But God is faithful and present in time of need. The words flowed and when they didn't, the ladies helped out! It was a blessing.

4) Work on camp and feeding extra people: Because we are attempting to finish projects, we have asked for more help. Victor and his son, Dan, have come to help. They are renovating a house that their family will live in during the summer on camp. While they worked on their kitchen, I fixed lunch and dinner for them. The last three months we have had very few days with just 5 people at the dinner table.

I could give many more reasons that would equaly fill you in on my lack of time lately to write but I did want to apologize to those who do follow the blog regularly.

Thank you for your prayers and interest in our family and ministry. We rely on every one of them!

Liz

A Camp Ministry Opportunity

Dear everybody,

At the beginning of the month of October, we received a phone call from one of our national pastors from the north of Chile. For a number of years, Pastor Guillermo Soto had pastored the Villarrica Bible Church located about 20 minutes from Camp Lican Ray, a church we attended for a year while living in Villarrica. His purpose for calling was to rent the camp for 5 days and bring a school group down from the town of Vallenar in north where he is currently pastoring. His son just graduated from a public high school and his class needed a place to go on their senior trip.

We were thrilled to welcome this school group of 40 to the camp on November 13th. Some of the teens attend the Bible Church in Vallenar but the majority were unsaved. They came with some parents who helped with food preparation and crowd control.

Each morning, Pastor Guillermo gave a devotional from God's Word. He also had the opportunity to pray before each meal and spend one-on-one time with each teen.

They LOVED camp!

The city they are from is 24 hours north and is located in a desert part of Chile, where everything is dry and dusty. What a shock it was for these teens to see our beautiful green and lush camp! They enjoyed the view of the lake and even took a brave dip in its cold waters during their stay. Most did not want to go home after their five days in the south.

What was most exciting about their time with us? A young teenage girl accepted the Lord as her savior! In addition, each teen accepted a Gospel of John Bible track. We were also able to give a Bible to the young lady. Seeing this, another teenage boy asked if we might have an extra one for him. He had been reading the pastor's Bible during the five days on camp but didn't have a Bible of his own! Of course we jumped at the chance to give him a Bible also.

Our new sister in Christ, Valesca is seated second from the right, next to Micah.

As they left we started praying that God's Word would change lives, that these teens would take the time to read the gospel tracks and reflect on their condition before an Almighty and Holy God, and make a decision. We are looking forward to staying in contact with Pastor Soto and asking him in the next few months if there was any more fruit from the ministry of the camp here in Lican Ray.

Liz

An Updated Family Picture

Dear Everybody,

Have you forgotten what we look like? This is an attempt at getting a new family picture taken on a Sunday morning a few weeks ago. We are hoping to try again soon and maybe getting a new prayer card made and sent out to you.

Dan and Elizabeth

Micah (7yrs. old), Morgan (3yrs old) and Matthias (5yrs old)

Thanks again for your prayers for our family. We depend on the work of God in our personal lives and also on His working in our ministry here in Chile.

You are an integral part of our ministry through your prayers. Thank you!

Liz

It's been too long!!!!

Dear everybody,

Posting on the blog is so easy and I don't really have any good excuse for not having written. So, my apologies for the great lapse of time between posts for all of you who faithfuly come on the blog. Thanks for not giving up on us! We do appreciate your prayers.

Our biggest news as of late is not concerning camp. It isn't about Chile or Lican Ray either.

It really is important to us though as a family and that is that we will be welcoming a new member of the family in May 2010.

YES! I am expecting again. I have just finished my third month of pregnancy and I am feeling ok. Some of you might know this and some of you might not, but I was very sick during my other three pregnancies. We are thankful that this one has been milder. I do covet your prayers concerning my health and the baby's for the remaining 6 months. We will be extremely busy with camps and ministry responsibilities for the summer, but are so excited about this new gift from God.

Liz

The Makings of a Greenhouse

Dear everybody,

Dan loves to plant... anything really, but especially things that later he can harvest and eat! We have miscellaneous pots in the house right now with herbs and flowers that he likes to grow from seed. He keep many different seeds from fruit he eats, or from plants he has liked along the road. So the idea came to transfer these plants growing out of yogurt containers on my window sill to a greenhouse where Dan can grow vegetables of all kinds for our eating pleasure.


The kids of course took a liking to the idea. Dan let them each pick one packet of seeds to plant indoors first. Morgan picked out the yummy cherry tomatoes. Peanut's mouth watered just thinking about his watermelon seeds producing and Micah picked out the green pepper packet... must have liked the picture on the front... So they planted their seeds and had a blast doing it.


But then the work started for Dan. He had to get the backyard ready first. There were trees to remove to make room for some sunlight and then some stumps to take out.


Then, Dan plowed the soil up with a pick, throwing out any unwanted roots. He set up a sturdy 2x4 base and then used PVC for the rest of the frame.


I helped him on the stickier part of getting the plastic up and over the frame and tacking it down.


This evening, Matthias and Dan planted the first few rows of radishes. Peanut just sat himself down in the dirt afterward just waiting for these radishes to pop right out, ready to eat... What a disappointment to find out he would have to wait a little while longer!

Tomorrow, the rest of the seeds get planted. And then my job will begin.... WEEDING!!!!

Liz