Talofa!

As Melissa and I sit here writing this post, we found ourselves walking through the beginning of a rainstorm. Up until now, the weather has been absolutely amazing! I found myself actually getting cold at night in Samoa, which is a huge plus!

I am so proud of this team! We just ended a team devotion, with worship led by Will on guitar, which we have each morning and night. I don’t know if it is the weather, but the team is filling the room with beautiful music! I shared a word out of Deuteronomy, where Moses shares with the Israelites to be strong and courageous. Most of the team members shared some fears they are confronting on this trip so far, and I am very impressed with the openness of the team. I startled Becca, by asking her to spontaneously sharing her testimony. I think the team was heartened by her words, and reminds us that God is truly in the business of changing lives! By the way, as you read this, is God continuing to change your life?

Yesterday, we started off with another wonderful breakfast of eggs, toast, fruit, baked beans, and a hot banana/coconut soup. The women continue to humble us with their incredible acts of service. We loaded up the van and a car, and headed off to Paradise! Literally! We went to Paradise Cove, where a 1950’s movie was filmed. It was a great day of team bonding and playing in the water. We had chicken fights, fun with sea cucumbers and snorkeling. And half the team climbed trees, and opened coconuts for the rest of us. I think Michael has mastered the art of opening coconuts. While we were doing this, Adam found himself in heaven…not because of the view or the ocean, but because 3 local men were filling sandbags and carrying them 100+ feet! Adam helped them for a couple of hours!

We came back to the campus and were immediately greeting by enthusiastic kids. One of the kids pulled Drew aside, and brought out a picture of a last year’s team. We are amazed at how many of the kids remember the names of the returning team members, and how quickly they have memorized all the new team members names! We played games and talked to the people gathered at the field. The team did fun things like Amanda throwing a rugby ball with some boys, Matt getting tackled by a group of kids playing Red Light/Green Light, Jason throwing tennis balls with the little kids, Bethany caught up with the women she has gotten know over the last couple of years, and everyone was having awesome conversations. Rob hung out with the professors as he was brought a Coke and watched everyone bonding with the Malua locals (must be a sign of Rob getting old!).

After everyone cleaned up (the boys were covered in sweat, grass stains and dirt), we had another incredible dinner of homemade fried chicken, rice and fruit! The power spontaneously went out, but since so many were prepared with flashlights in the room, we had an awesome dinner atmosphere by flash light. We almost regretted the lights coming back on! Dinner was followed by Samoan ice cream! Matt, Drew and Molly thoroughly enjoyed repeated helpings!

Our night closed off with a team devotion, and we broke up into our sports camp and kids camp teams. We are all very excited to see how the camps unfold, especially with all the relationships we have had a chance to develop already!

Prayer requests:

· Team health

· Adam – he is feeling a little under the weather

· The kids camp as everyone is preparing for their jobs

· Saturday with the youth group

P.S. Thank you for your prayers on my heath, I am feeling much better!

Talofa!

Greetings from our second full day in Samoa! This is Melissa typing as Rob dictates a blog post. We had a non-eventful flight into Samoa, where we arrived at 5:30am. Everything went smoothly as we received all of our luggage and boxes with no problems. We were greeted by some students with warm hugs and beautiful handmade leis. We took the beautiful drive to the college as the sun was rising. We have new accommodations this year, which are absolutely incredible! Everyone has been enjoying the food. We were greeted by the college, Otele, then we rested and took a tour of the campus.

We took a brief trip downtown to exchange money, and when we got back, the kids greeted us. We played games and sang with them. We have also answered the question "Where's Tony (Wilson)?" at least 50 times!! We washed up for dinner and had a team devotion time, as well as played a get to know you game. Sorry this is short, but we wanted to get this out as fast as we could, and we will get today's activities out to you as soon as we can access a computer! Everyone sends their greetings and our love! More to come!

Today was the big day.

You could see Josh's excitement and nervousness as he stood before the congregation to give his first sermon as their pastor. Although typical Chilean time is always late, Josh was determined to start the church on time. As the band began to play, more and more people entered the church. By the third song, there were about 100 people present. For the first time, the congregation was introduced to a live band, welcome table, greeters, bulletin, and an attendance card. The service time was reduced from 2 1/2 hours to 1 hour and 15 minutes. The great part was that the people used this extra time to fellowship with one another. Josh did a great job preaching and sharing the vision of the new church. He asked us to come up on the stage and we held up the banner that contained all the well wishes from our church. I shared how our two churches are closely tied together even though they are many miles apart.

After church, we were treated to a great lunch at a restaurant by Danica's parents. It was a great meal and a great time for fellowship. We then over to a fellow church member's home to pray for her as she was having health issues. Later that night, we went over to the Phillip's for a Wii party. It was fun watching everyone playing "Just Dance." I did not participate as I am still feeling bad.

Please keep Enrique and I in prayer as we are not feeling well, as well as the other members of the team to keep good health. Tomorrow we are planning on spending the day in Valparaiso before our flight home.

It was a great trip.
We met with over 30 people of the church individually. There is a great core group here and they contain lots of excitement. It was awesome to have Enrique and Norma join us. They did such a excellent job interpreting for us and they have such a great heart for the people of Quilpue. We will share more with you all in detail when we get back.

~Rob

Rob is not feeling well, so this is Josh B writing to you again. The elder's meeting went very well. They all voiced their support for Josh P during this exciting time. Rob got to share how the elder's in our church functioned and the support that they give the church. The dialog was open and heartfelt.

The next day we started our morning by going to the open market. It was cold and raining, but the market was covered. It was a huge farmer's market. Vegetables and fruit were piled high. Everything at the market was organic. The food was beautiful and inexpensive compared to home. It was a fun experience. After that, we went to the home where Enrique and Norma are staying. Their family prepared a fantastic lunch for us. It was an amazing meal with an avocado and crab salad, a seafood soup, and salmon with potatoes and peas. After we ate, we all gathered around and sang karaoke with the family. We left there completely stuffed to a dinner celebrating the 18th anniversary of the church. The gym was full with church members and their families for the celebration. This was the night that the elder's officially introduced Josh as the pastor and prayed over him. It was so cold inside the building, but that did not stop the significance of the evening.

~Josh B

Hola from Chile!

This is Josh B. Rob asked me to write this blog because he wanted you to hear about our trip to the Limache prison from the perspective of a person who had never been. To be honest, when I saw the itinerary of the trip, I was not exactly looking forward to a prison visit. I have never visited a prison in the US and to visit one in a foreign country was intimidating to say the least.

We had to be at the prison early in the morning.
Josh P, Rob, Enrique and I picked up Pastor Tito on the way to the prison. Pastor Tito has a ministry with the prisons in the area, sharing Christ with those incarcerated. This morning was cold and cloudy. However, as soon as we finished the entering process with the guards and were let into the prison, the coldness was contrasted by a warm greeting from the prisoners. We were led into a cell block that contained beds stacked to the ceiling in a tiny space. There had to be at least 20. The thing that made this cell block unique, was the fact that it only contained Christian men.

Upon entering, we were greeted by more men with handshakes and hugs. After everyone found a place to sit, two of the prisoners led us in a couple worship songs. It is hard to describe the passion that I could see on some of the men´s faces as the sung. After singing, Rob and Josh P presented a message separately to the men. As they were talking, you could see the emotion on the faces of the men. Some men were in tears. Enrique and I had an opportunity to share with the men some encouragement. We sang another song and then Rob asked if some of the men would like to share their stories. As they did it was very touching. One of the men had just given his life to Christ two weeks ago. It is amazing that the love of Christ can reach anywhere to touch the lives of others, even in a small prison in Chile.

In retrospect, it is easy to say that we went to the prison and encouraged the men on that cell block. However, it would be short sighted to say that they did not have an effect on us as well. Specifically, that a church service can be held in cell block and that Christian encouragement goes beyond social status, beyond language, and beyond borders.

After we left the prison, we went to Luis and Sara´s home. This is the elder´s home where I have been staying. We had an amazing meal of homemade soup and empanadas de carne. When we were done with lunch we had our very first siesta and got some much needed rest. We are now preparing for our meeting with the church elders. Josh P is calling this one of the most important meetings of the week. I know that God will guide this meeting and the church leadership.

Josh B

The Executive meeting went well Wednesday night. There is a good spirit among the leaders, and there was a shared vision of the structure of the new church.

Thursday morning we woke up to sunshine for the first time since we have been here. It was a beautiful, but brisk day. We started our day at Los Pinos where a youth retreat was being held. The worship was awesome. I talked about Elijah with the youth. Josh Borkin and I played soccer with some of the kids. We also enjoyed pizza made with hot dogs, bologna, olives, cheese and ketchup. We left there to go to the ladies bible study. This is a group of older women who gather, pray for the church and study the bible. Norma did a great job sharing with the ladies. The same ladies were asked to be in charge of greeting others at the service on Sunday.

Josh Borkin, Enrique, Norma and I spent some time downtown walking around with the people of the city. Josh and I went to a local bakery by ourselves, ordered in Spanish, and actually got what we ordered! After that, we met with the staff about the service on Sunday. We talked about the worship, the order of the service and the duration of the event. Later we met with the college group. I talked about the core values of discipleship. We also had some great conversations with the college age kids. Josh Phillips and I ended the day with another churrasco. Muy bien!

Enrique and Norma are doing great. They have a great family that loves to cook for them. Josh and I are challenged with understanding Spanish, but we are making great strides in comprehending conversations without translation. In addition to the team, please keep Josh Phillips in prayer with all the pressures, stress and everything that is going on with the service on Sunday. To add to everything, his grandfather is very ill.

~Rob

Today was a great day, despite the cold weather. I am staying with Josh and Danica. Josh, Enrique and Norma are staying at different elder's homes. We are enjoying the local people and the food, especially the churrascos and chorrillana. After lunch we visited the church to see the space and determine the layout for the service. Without any heat, it was very cold inside. It is amazing that this does not stop people from gathering and worshiping God.

We are beginning to meet a lot of the people that will be involved in the church and supporting Josh on his new journey. First we met with Patty and Carolina. They are in charge of all the visual communication for the new church. We got to see the videos and bulletins in progress for Sunday. Next we met with Nancy, the lady who will be starting Celebrate Recovery in Chile. It was a great meeting. She is very enthusiastic, and it is encouraging to see that in the people here. Later we met with Maxi. Maxi is Josh's assistant, and his wife just recently passed away. It was an emotional but uplifting talk. In a half hour we will be meeting with the Executive team of the new church. We are looking forward to this meeting, as it will set the stage for the leadership and structure of the church.

~Rob

We arrived safely in Chile after 16 hours of flight with lay over. Thank you Lord!

The Phillips are doing well despite the cold 46 degrees farenheit. Today we ate lunch dowtown Quilpue in an establishment called Tacora. They had several gluten-free meal choices. We were able to enjoy the rainy view from our table and felt the cold chilly air as we stepped out to the exchange rate place. The men (Rob, Joshua, Josh and Enrique) are on our way to Vina del Mar for the evening to pay for our sound system for Sunday service.

~Rob