You may be asking WHY
would I title this like I did and then show you a picture of people standing in
the ocean??? Settle down and let me
tell you a story that has been in the making for about 21 years. Today I saw God complete a promise He made to
me in 1997....The two people on the far
left..I don't know them....but the next one I DO....his name is Jose Luis
Cortes...then the other dude going from left to right I don't know either...but
then the guy on the end is a beloved friend of mine, by the name of Patricio
Oliva...he is the President and co-founder of the Chilean Mission Agency here in
Chile by the name of ADELPHOS. Adelphos in Greek means, "brother"
So I knew WHERE they were logistically...but when I read the
caption under the picture that said, "Our firsts baptism in
Antofagasta" I literally FROZE.... Leaving Antofagasta, Chile in 1997 for me was VERY DIFFICULT. I loved the
place so much ( I even dream sometime of going back) Bill and I had only been
there for 3.75 years and were just beginning a church plant. Bill was well
known on the local TV channel "Telefam" as he had a short devotional
(10 min) every night called "Reflections"....I thought this is where
we would retire. The name of the city is
pronounced "ant to fah gahsta" and it is 830 miles north of the
capitol city of Santiago, Chile.
Ok...so one of the reasons why our family moved to the
desert north (Antofagasta) is because the year before our good friends, Jose
Luis Cortes and his wife Pollyanna Morales (the women here don't take their
husband's last name when they get married) had just moved up there too. More
background...he was led to the Lord by one of our other ABWE missionary
families here and he fell in love with Pollyanna....Pollyanna is the eldest
daughter of the VERY FIRST CHILEAN FAMILY to leave Chile as missionaries to go
to Mexico City with ADELPHOS.
So it was either return to the USA at that point in our
lives or head north....and we headed north TO WORK WITH JOSE LUIS AND POLLYANNA.
He is an AWESOME Lawyer by profession btw, and she has a heart and a passion
for souls....BUT we discovered that even though we loved God and we loved each
other as families things just didn't seem to be going smoothly in our "team". Of course we were all younger then and I
think we all wanted to be "chiefs" and not "indians" if you
get my drift. We made the decision to
continue our work without them..never knowing what was around the corner.....
Our son, Will, was 12 years old when we moved from Santiago some
800 and "something" miles north to the desert and he was leaving all he
knew and loved. He kept quiet, but inside he was in major turmoil. Once we got
to Antofagasta he became very depressed and talked about "Maybe God just
ought to take me out of here, because
I'm a hindrance to the ministry here"....he never would go into detail,
but I knew he wasn't happy. Since then I have read that at that age in a
child's life it is not a good idea to move...hind sight is 20/20. I tried
everything with him...I learned how to fish from the rocks on the ocean so that
we could go fishing as much as he wanted...we only lived 1/2 block from the
ocean. We went into business together with "Dooley's Donuts" I made
them and he delivered them. I sent him back to the states for a month with my
parents in Texas....It was a rough time...
When he turned 16 knowing that one of the things we had made
a part of our lives was that if we needed to have a family "pow wow"
we would say, "ok...time for the family to take a walk on the beach and talk. So this one particular night
he said,"Dad, Mom...I need to have a pow wow with you both on the
beach" Bill and I went and we sat
down on a bench, while Will sat in the sand in front of us and we listened to
him and he began to sob. He said,
"I HATE Chileans and I HATE CHILE...PLEASE TAKE ME BACK TO THE STATES!" You can imagine our surprise at that since he
had been in Chile since he was 2.5 years old.
We were literally blown away. Our Pastor, stateside, at that time had
only been at our sending church for maybe 6 months??? But we called him anyway to ask for counsel
as well as both of the Chilean Pastors that we worked with here in Chile...it was
unanimous...they all said, "Your family is much more important than
Chile...take that boy to the states!!.
Oh and we had just began an English Speaking Ministry in Antofagasta as
well....long story short...we came back to the USA.
Ok..so fast forward from there...when we had to make
that tough decision I thought we were returning home so that Will could finish
High School and get some professional help for his depression. Just knowing that before long we would be
back in our beloved Chile. However let
me make it VERY CLEAR HERE...I WAS ANGRY AT GOD AND DID NOT WANT TO BE IN THE
STATES.
About a month after we arrived I was at church, Heritage,
and pouting on the inside of course and I honestly don't know if Pastor Boulet
was preaching from this particular passage or not...
but I do know that I was
WHINING Big time to God for taking us
away from Antofagasta and my heart was breaking for the people we had left
"high and dry" WHEN THIS PASSAGE STOPPED ME IN MY TRACKS...
HEBREWS 6:10-12
He told me that the work wasn't ours to begin with and this
showed me that HE would continue the work and not forget what we had done. I
just happened to notice today what it says in Bold Print underneath, "The
CERTAINTLY of God's Promise" Today in picture form...I saw the baptism of
the new work that Jose Luis and Pollyanna have started, partnering with ADELPHOS!!!
AND Jose Luis has been studying by distance learning at a
Seminary, even though he continue to practice as a lawyer, but in December he
graduates from Seminary and the plan is in March of 2017 he will become an ordained minister.
THE PASTOR OF THE WORK IN ANTOFAGASTA.
My heart soared.....what an AWESOME God we have....some of my deceased
husband's ashes were scattered in this VERY OCEAN. All in all....
THE WORD OF GOD IS TRUE.....I BELIEVE
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