Monday June 12, 2006

Update…

Hola,
Last weekend was definitely the best few days I have had in Santiago. The 4 other interns and I traveled with 6 Chileans to the mountains right outside of Santiago for a short weekend retreat. After we arrived and got settled, we had a devotional lead by one of our guys named Claudio who talked about the importance of prayer in our lives. After we ate lunch and played some games, a guy named Sebastian came out and gave his testimony. Sebastian is just an absolutely fascinating person. He’s about 32 and has only been a Christian for about 5 months, but he is a person that truly understands the grace of God. I don’t know if he would appreciate it if I put his life story on the website so I’m not going to go into great detail, but he basically has lead a very destructive lifestyle and has suffered the consequences of those sins. In the past 6 months he has made a complete turnaround. It was really awesome to watch the reactions of the university students as Sebastian gave his testimony.
After this, we had dinner and then split up into two groups of guys and girls and had “gender time.” I don’t know what the girls did, but John and I (mostly John) talked about the idea of confessing your sins to one another and holding each other accountable. It really surprised me that the Chileans, even the Christians, had never thought of or had this idea presented to them, but they did respond to it very strongly and seemed to understand how important it is.
The next morning, Sunday, we ate breakfast, had a time of worship, and shared communion. Then we just spent some time hanging out and enjoying the view of the mountains, and then we headed home. I obviously wanted everyone to grow in their relationship with God, but what I hoped most for this weekend was that the Chileans would grow closer to each other. It’s so important that they have a strong connection to each other and not just to the interns. If they don’t, they will most likely not stick around once the intern that they felt closest to leaves. It was so awesome to be able to stand back and watch the Chileans grow close together. Over and over again, I heard people say that they barely knew someone before they came and now they felt a lot closer to that person. Like I said, it definitely was the best weekend I have had in Santiago.
Among other things, we have a group coming from First Colony Church of Christ on the 16th. The group mainly consists of seniors who have just graduated from high school. They are going to offer English classes and an “English retreat.” I don’t have all the details of what we are doing with them, but I am told that the two weeks they are here will be very busy. Please pray that they will be able to effectively help us meet new contacts for our university group. Also, the two kids that John and I studied with are supposed to get baptized in June, and there are only two Sundays left in June so hopefully it will be soon. I’m really excited for those two guys. They are just awesome kids and I have really enjoyed my time with them.