llegamos bien

Hello all my dears,
Each girl from the Chile team arrived safely home on 1 July 2008. Thank you so much for your prayers; God kept us safe and did a lot of good work in each experience we had. If there is anything I have learned, it is how much stronger his love is for us than vice versa. Though we have our agendas, his master plan always follows through no matter what.

As the co-leader of this team, I had many concerns and uncertainties of how this trip would play out. It's interesting to see how we have our human ideas of what life should be like and the different qualifications people should have in order to do great things. It has been a humbling experience to see how God often chooses the weakest of the weak to do great things. Prior to the trip, there were many outside opinions as to why many of the girls on this team should not have gone. That was discouraging, but by God's strength we were able to do what he has called us to do. "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the LORD. "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts." -Isaiah 55:8-9.

In a country where feelings mean so much to people, I didn't feel God the entire time I was in Chile. That made life hard to praise and worship God, but we are to live by faith...not by sight.
"We were crushed and completely overwhelmed, and we thought we would never live through it. In fact, we expected to die. But as a result, we learned not to rely on ourselves, but on God who can raise the dead. And he did deliver us from mortal danger. And we are confident that he will continue to deliver us.(Our God is a strong tower, a shield, and a fortress) He will rescue us because you are helping by praying for us. As a result, many will give thanks to God because so many people's prayers for our safety have been answered (or in our case, will be answered)" --2 Corinthians 18b-11
Pay close attention to the part where it says, "He will rescue us because you are helping by praying for us." Honestly, there were times where I didn't even have the strength to pray with full honesty. Thank you for co-laboring with my team and I as we (you and us together) spread the word of God to others. We could not have done this without God using you.

First, I must thank God for all he has done, for He has been our strength. And second, I would like to thank you for helping us do His will. It's good to be back home.

In Christ,
Raquel

Hola,
¿Como estan? Thank you for your prayers. One thing I personally have been learning is how God is always strong and in control despite whatever we do. His love for us is so much stronger than our human love. It is almost embarassing to have been given the large amout of love he does to us.

Thanks for all your prayers. We need them bastante (a lot).

In Christ,
Rachel

Above is Yuli and Justina at the first school they taught at with some of the students.
Above is Rachel with some of the children at her first school.
Above is Rachel, Brenda and Kristina with some students!

The team!

This picture was taken shortly after we arrived in Temuco Chile. Left to right top: Yuli, Brenda, Pastor Rafael; bottom: Tom Orme, the pastors wife Ruth, Justina, Kristina and Rachel.

Pastor and his wife has practically adopted us! They are wonderful people. They are in charge of the schools we have been ministering at. Tom Orme is the director of Vision for Chile, the program we are ministering in!

On The Home Strech!!

So we are almost done with our ministry here in Chile, only 10 more days. We are all anxious to see our fams but we also know that it will be incredibly difficult to say goodbye to this amazing country and all the relationships that we have built here :( As an update on the last post: we have been ministering at our new schools for about 10 days now and although we miss our other kids and teachers very much we have setteled into our new schools very well. Changing schools was extremely difficult for us as a team but God used our pain to bring us closer together and closer to Him. As 1 Thess 5:18 says, "Give thanks in all circumstances for this is Gods will concerning you in Christ Jesus." As a team we want to "GRACIS" to those who are praying for us and we ask that you would continue to pray for our last days here, that we would finish strong and get back safely.

A week full of emotions

HI EVERYONE!

This last week was one of the toughest weeks for the team. In the middle of the week we had to say good bye to our schools and start working with two new schools...it was very hard to say good bye to our schools because we felt like that was our home..... It has been diffuclt adjusting to our new schools...because we are still very sad for leaving our kids behind... But it was been such a reward and privilage to have worked with them.

We have two more weeks left and we are praying to finish strong.... WE MISS OUR OTHER SCHOOLS :(. but we know that God has already used us tremendously.

Thank you to everyone for your prayes..

UP DATE

We are really enjoying working with our kids, although it is very difficult at times. Justina and I (Yuliana) are working with 90 percent mapuche kids (indian kids). We teach them Engish in the afternoons and during the day we help and encourage the teachers because it is a very difficult job to work with them.

We mostly work with the teacher who teaches special ed students and the younger kids. We see that these teachers really love having us and appreciate us comming to teach their kids.

Unfourtantly for the last two days we have not been able to go out to the schools because gas prices protest has been going on and no taxis and buses will drive. So, in order for us not to in danger our lifes our ministry host said it would be better to stay.

We hope to go tomorrow and come back safely.