Chile

Hola. I think i'm going to print this out and show it to people when they ask me about chile, so I don't have to explain it 800 times. Chile was very cool. It was winter down there so it was kind of cold for the most part at night, but it was barable. The people were absolutely incredible. It really does amaze me how much people who hardly know each other can love each other. We were down there for 8 days and I fell in love with the families. I have to say I think Humberto's family touched me the most. He was legally blind before and with the funding of the mission's supporting churches (i think deer creek) he was able to fix both eyes. And 3 doctors told him his son sammy wouldn't live when he was just a baby, but he did. I could just see God working so strongly in their lives, and they all love God so much; especially Humberto and his wife Carmen. They have a very small house but they are so proud of it, and they show it. That is really cool to me. Some of the workers really touched me too- Luis, Marcelo(sp?), Carlos and Juan. They were all awesome, but Luis especially. Not only is he an actor (for fun) but he's got such a heart for God, he loves God soooo much. He was always singing and smiling and he was so sweet to me and everyone else. I don't know if i've ever met such a nice guy before. There are more stories about him but I'll leave that up to jordan and the guys to tell. As for what we did on the trip: we left from chicago to dallas and from dallas to santiago. We just made our flight because they held the plane for us, so they didn't get our luggage on the plane. We arrived in Chile Saturday morning, and our luggage got there the next day. Sat. we passed out flyers for English Club. Sarah and I went with Gonzo (or Gonza) that guy was one of a kind. He always talked like bevis and butthead and laughed like them, it was funny. Sunday we had church in the morning, and that night we went downtown and saw a really huge pentocost?? church that held somewhere around 4-5000 people i believe; then we saw a shrine thats been there for ever 50 years. Monday was VBS and soccer.Tuesday we went to shop. Mel, mandy, rick, dennis jack and i went to a drug center. The guys there were really nice and they seemed like they were really touched by us being there. They also gave us all candy. Then we went to a fish market and got fish, fish heads and urchens. Wed. we did VBS again and played soccer. Thursday we went to the coast with our "chilean buddies". Went to the pacific- it was really awesome since i'd never seen the ocean before. It was really pretty, and we got to play in it :-p. My Chilean buddy was Nicole, she was really sweet. Josh and Jacki had about the most adorable little girl i've ever seen in my life. We took our kids to McDonald's since most of them never had it, and Josh and jacki read her the entire menu and all she wanted was french fries. Then we had the best ice cream ever and went to see some battleships/harbor. It was illegal to take pictures of them but richard and i did off the bus. Oh well, no one will know. Friday was VBS again. It was really cool hanging out with the kids and getting to know them. The younger kids were cool but the ones I remember the most were Sammy, Natalia, Nicole, Roberto, Sebastian, Jarlyn, Carolina(i think that was her name..) and Jayme of course. These guys were just so sweet and cared about other people so much it amazed me. I mean, they were just really friendly and humble to us, and opened up to us right away even though we were just gringos. Saturday we hung out had a party and left. Onces were cool. I went to Humberto's with mel, mandy, sarah, kelly, amy, & heather; Monica's with mary, matt and caesar; and Nancy's with kelly, candy and amy. Food consisted of bread ham and cheese for every meal. Sometimes we had other things too, like yogurt w/breakfast or meat/soup w/lunch. Food there was really good, we brought some back. MonteCarlo, the store down the street, supplied melanie and I with some AWESOME strawberry jelly and jam cookies. I also brought home some of those chocolate roll cookies.. good.. and mints, tuyo bars and those berry things. In all, Chile was just incredible. I can't even fathom the way God was working through all of us down there- gringos and chileans. God is awesome and I hope someday I can go back, but I'm tired of explaining now. So next person that asks about Chile I'm sending them the link. Chao