March Update

To our dear friends and family,

I cannot believe that tomorrow is April 6th…where has the time gone?  We are so grateful for all of the encouraging words we have received over the past month and for all of the prayers that have been lifted up for our family and for the Chilean people.  Words truly cannot express how grateful we are to all of you.

Last week, things got a bit overwhelming for me.  My days had become a fairly constant routine and I was tired.  On the 24th, as I walked to language, I found it really difficult to think about anything positive and then God placed this verse in my mind, “Robin can do ALL things through Christ who strengthens her.” I repeated that verse over and over in my mind for the whole forty minute walk to class…and have continued to repeat it when those feelings begin to creep in to my heart and mind. Late last week, we received a newsletter from a dear friend who is going through a far more challenging time in her life than I, and I was gently reminded again of something I had once spoken about with a dear Ugandan friend during our first term overseas.

Stella was our housemaid, a non-believer, but a seeker.  One day she came to me telling me she wanted to accept Christ as her personal Lord and Savior.  I asked what that meant to her and her last statement was, “I want to become a Christian because then my life will be easy.”  At that moment, I realized we needed to have a very long discussion about exactly what it means to be His child.

Last week, my friend wrote these words to explain what God is teaching her…, “It’s gonna cost you,”  Our lives in Christ are not going to be easy at all.  Each day, we make countless decisions; all which cost us something.  Every decision is made for Him, or against Him. When I choose to remain in a grumpy mood and don’t take every thought and action captive to Him, it will cost me both in my intimacy with the Lord and in my relationships with my family.

Isaiah 53:5 says, “But He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, and by his wounds we are healed.”  This whole chapter deals with what Christ has done for us.  It cost Him EVERYTHING.  I thank my friend for bringing this to my mind…it’s an awesome reminder.  Am I content to live my life for myself…thinking I am actually living it for Him or am I willing to sacrifice my life for Him regardless of the earthly cost?

Last month we sent out the following prayer requests…we’d like to update you on their progress.

1.Pray…pray for wisdom for all believers in Chile to know where and how we can be involved in meeting the needs of those around us. Pray that we can be bold in our witness and bring many to a saving faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.

We were able to go and help clean a community center with several of our fellow missionaries here in an area where the apartments are still standing, but the insides are destroyed.  There is a small church that meets in the community center. What a huge blessing it was to be a part of that effort.

Fear is huge here right now, but we are able to show His love just by listening and offering an encouraging word.

2.A HUGE blessing and answer to prayer in all of this is something that is happening in the apartment buildings where our people live. Apartment living lends itself to creating distance in relationships to those who are in close proximity every day. For this reason it has been very difficult for our people to meet their neighbors in their apartment buildings. The earthquake has changed everything and there is a moment in time for building relationships. Pray that our people would take every opportunity to build those relationships in this time of need and insecurity. Pray that they would be His love to those around them.

Here are some examples of how doors are being opened.

Well, Robin for us, you know that we literally do not see the same people twice in a month!

Chileans work late hours – long hours.  And for some strange reason being neighbors in a high-rise doesn’t qualify as good enough reason to become friends.

The two things that have given us something to talk to our neighbors about – our puppy and the earthquake.

In my limited Spanish, I can ask if their home and family are okay. And most of the time they are willing to tell me all about it.

We share the 16th floor with one other apartment.  Several days after the earthquake we saw our neighbors in the hall and talked for ten minutes. In the 9 months we have lived in this building, it is only the third time I have seen Lela.
We got our car out of the building parking deck and parked it on the street after the earthquake. We sat in it waiting for the sun to come up.  Leonardo lives in a house near our high-rise and he saw our car parked in front of his house. He came out several times that, morning to check on us and offered us his bathroom, his coffee and his home to rest.

The week after the earthquake I had a car wreck at the entrance to our parking deck.  Many, many neighbors in my building came out to offer help.  Victor and Katarina speak English well and they helped us talk to the Carabineros and even went to the police station with us to file a report.

The commonality of human need and suffering has opened doors of communication. My neighbor Cecilia now waits for me when she sees me walking my dog so we can talk.
This weekend, we are baking goodies for Victor and Katarina and Leonard as a thank you for their assistance. We will also give them a copy of “the Hope”. We pray that this DVD will give us more opportunities to talk about “la paz a Dios” that we have testified about since the earthquake.

Donna

For us on our floor, I had met my neighbor across the hall and we had talked a few times.  The night of the quake when we were stuck in our apartment All of our neighbors were at our door trying to help us get out by kicking the door down and even though the other neighbors didn’t even know us they were all there together.  They all wanted to walk down together to make sure that we were all able to get out.  Since then there is a bond that wasn’t there before.  We’ve been invited to our neighbors house a couple of times.  I’ve taken bread and brownies keeping the relationships going.  

Lisa

Prior to the earthquake, we would go up on the elevator to our apartment on 16th floor and would often just share greetings and small talk.  The Chileans tend to be very reserved and it can be difficult to just strike up a conversation.  However, since the earthquake many times our neighbors begin the conversation by mentioning the effects of the earthquake and showing real concern for us as foreigners. This has opened the door for us to form more meaningful relationships with our neighbors.  It seems that since we share a similar experience, bonds have been formed.  

Evelyn

3.Probably the most efficient and most helpful way for you to offer assistance is by donating to Baptist Global Response (BGR). A team is coming from the States to evaluate and assess so they can know what ways are best to use the monies given. BGR is the IMB’s human needs arm and does an excellent job to meet the needs of those that are hurting. For more information on how BGR will be involved here in Chile go to gobgr.org.

This is a message written by Charles and Karen Clark: "First of all, thank you for all your prayers, emails, phone calls and donations.  We certainly feel your "partnership", love and concern for us during these days!  I want to refer you to this link http://www.imb.org/main/news/details.asp?StoryID=8475&LanguageID=1709#  for some news from the front lines.  Charles continues to be in the south working with volunteers in the most affected areas.  We have two projects underway in addition to meeting emergency needs of food, water, and hygiene items.  One project is for mass food preparation and distribution in several towns/municipalities.  Thousands of meals a day will be prepared and distributed.  Our US volunteers are working hand in hand with Chilean nationals to get this job done.  Also, there is a project for building temporary shelters for families whose homes were severely damaged or collapsed completely.   These two projects are being funded directly by Baptist Global Response, an arm of the International Mission Board.  In addition to the BGR teams of volunteers, we are expecting many others to come and help.  The idea is for churches in the US to adopt a city and come and help, working with Chileans and local Baptist churches.  There is an incredible opportunity not only to serve in a tangible way, but to share the hope that we have in Christ."

One of our churches that have adopted us as missionaries gave us some money to use here in our ministry and we have been fortunate enough to give the money to Charles and Karen to purchase school supplies for children in an area close to the epicenter. They will begin school at the end of this month. We hope to have pictures to share with you  soon.

4.Pray for all of our hearts and minds…that we can rest in His peace and that He will heal all of our hidden places of fear, anxiety, pain, etc….

Please continue to lift this up to the Father for all of us here…and in so many places in the world…this is just a crazy time!

5. Two added prayer request this month…language learning and that God would lead us to a church home for our family.

We can’t thank you enough for your continued prayers for us and for Chile.

The Stows