Our first full day on the field was a great one! We were all very excited and nervous and anxious to get started wit the actual ministry today and work with the kids. We had several translators working with us today: Karen, who has been in Chile for 20+ years working in Valparaiso on the beach with college students and women as an IMB missionary from Kentucky; Camila, an amazing young lady from Santiago with a great personality and a heart to come to America as an exchange student; Jarrett, an MK who has lived in Chile for a good portion of his life (His father works as the head financial guy in the SAM region office); and Clayton, Cliff an Cinthy's younger son who is starting his senior year this year, and has grown up in Uruguay all his life with the exception of the past year.
Our first Bible club is at Betel Baptist Mission in Nunoa, which is pastored by Ruben and his wife Sandra. Nunoa is a middle class area of Santiago, so the children aren't in extreme poverty, but you can also tell that there are differences between the way they grow up and the way an average American child grows up. Betel Baptist Mission is held in an apartment complex in the community room, so we have one large room to work with, one very small kitchen, and an outdoor soccer court (assuming that our group gets to the court before anyone else does to claim it). Every day we lead music, Bible stories, recreation, and crafts. Our first rotation today was a little rough as we figured out what wasn't going to work, but soon things were moving smoothly. We are basing everything we do off of the wordless book (or the color book, using the colors black (sin), red (Jesus' blood), white (forgiveness and cleanness), gold (heaven and God's promises to us), and green (continual growth in God)); so, in crafts they made evangelism bracelets, talking about the different colors and what they remind us of. It's important in South American cultures to emphasize to them that the bracelets have no power, but they simply remind us of what God has already done for us. . . this is because of all the shrines and talismans that the Catholic Church teaches here, which causes a lot of confusion. In Bible study, we taught about heaven, and what it will be like, and used that to lead into discussing sin and how it separates us from God. They also did a great job of teaching the kids Juan 3:16. They played frisbee in recreation, and in music we sang "Yo tengo un amigo que me ama," and "I'm in the Lord's Army," along with "Hay vida in Jesus" for some of the older kids. It was a blessed time, and so great to see the children having fun and hearing about Jesus.
After lunch at Burger King (they really like avocados on their burgers here and they call it 'Italiano' because the avocado, tomatoes, and onions make red, white, and green, just like the Italian flag. . .weird!), we walked to the church in Nunoa. There we met Cristian, who works with the youth and music at the church, and Carmen Gloria, who is the associate pastor at the church and helped organize the VBS there along with Lorena. We did much of the same things here, helping them with their VBS. Thankfully Cristian was there, because the schedule got messed up, and instead of having 30 minutes with the first rotation, we had 55! We ran out of songs that we had prepared very quickly, but thankfully he was able to step in with Carmen Gloria and help us out so much!At night, we had a great time with dinner, having empanadas, a common South American dish (though Cliff says they make them larger here in Chile than anywhere else); there were queso empanadas (exactly what you think they are), Nepolitano ones (pizza like, with ham, cheese, and tomato), and Pino (with beef, tons of onions, and hard-boiled eggs. . . interesting to say the least). Then, we prayed and planned for the next day, praising God for our great first full day of ministry!
