My, oh my, time does fly! It seems like yesterday that we sent our previous entry, and it's been almost five months already. Much has happened since and we'd like to update you on our whereabouts in this neck of the woods.
In April, after we sent our entry, we went to Santiago for Mayra to participate as guest preacher in a Women's Evangelistic Campaign. The church where the service was held was full and many women committed to taking their role in evangelism and discipleship more seriously. A man in the audience accepted the Lord. There was a feast in heaven as in La Florida for this soul who made a commitment for Christ as His savior.
In May we had an evaluation process of the 10 years of relationship between ABC-BIM and Mision Chilena. José Norat, our Area Director, Julia Batista from Puerto Rico and Gustavo Parajon from Nicaragua, came for a weekend of meetings with representatives of Mision Chilena. Overall, the work of the Institute and the different areas of ministry that the team of missionaries have worked on during these ten years of relationship has contributed to the growth of Mision Chilena and we as missionaries have also learned and grown during this time.
May was a bittersweet month for us for we had the good time of the evaluation and time for all as a team to go out on a mini-retreat in the country side, and then the sad time to live with a friend and her family the loss of their baby. It was bittersweet to be able to accompany them in their grief and help care their older child, and at the same time relive our own experience of miscarriage a year earlier.
At the end of May we accompanied 10 women of Mision Chilena to a Baptist Women's Conference in La Serena, almost 11 hrs northwest of Chillán. The president and treasurer of Mision Chilena's Women's Convention came with us in the car and we had a great time together. We were able to attend a workshop on Post-Abortion Syndrome and though it was based on induced abortion, the symptoms are very similar to those of spontaneous abortion (miscarriage).
Also in May, two mother-to-mother (M2M) breastfeeding monthly support groups were established in Cerro Verde and San Carlos. Both meetings have been well attended and many mothers and their babies and children are learning some of the benefits of breastfeeding for them as a mother-child unit, and for the family as a whole.
June was the end of our first semester so we had finals, term papers, and final presentations. In the Liturgy class they presented different services and the one on Pentecost was really powerful and a blessing to all. We had Rev. Gordon Braun, Jr. visit us and give two special classes to the students. At the end of the month Cristina, one of our students, left for a missionary short-term trip to Brazil. Cristina's call is to be a missionary and this was her first time outside of Chile.
July was dedicated to the translation of Our Stories of Miscarriage: Healing with Words. We also had preaching engagements in four different occasions: Carlos in Los Angeles and Cerro Verde, and Mayra in San Carlos and Cerro Verde. A year after we lost our baby, our new doctor explained to us the cytogenetics report that said that our baby was a girl... Minin Rut. On July 27th we celebrated 14 years of the day we met in Colombia.
August marked Alberto's 6th birthday on the 3rd and we celebrated it being together in Santiago at the wedding of Luis and Valeria, friends from the church we were a part of while leaving in Santiago. We were their witnesses, what an honor! Then, back home, we had Alberto's birthday cake and singing, and started his home schooled First Grade.
Since we are in opposite seasons in the south, we're also in opposite semesters; so in August we started our second semester at the end of the winter season. Carlos taught a three-weeks intensive course on New Testament Introduction in Chillán's branch, a one-week module on Bible Introduction for a new Institute branch in San Carlos, and the regular bi-monthly class on Apocalyptic Literature in Chillán's branch. Mayra led a service in San Carlos, taught her regular bi-monthly class on Fines Arts in the Church in Chillán's branch, and finished the translation of the book.
From August 25-31 we went to Perú for some training workshops on M2M breastfeeding support. It was a very intense week, with an opportunity to meet many we had known via emails and to learn through the workshops for the ministry Mayra carries out about breastfeeding women and their children in the Chilean community. Before we left to Perú, Mayra sent the manuscript of the translation of the book to the editors in the States. It should be published by June 2003.
September is anniversaries month. Our thirteenth wedding anniversary was on the 3rd, Carolina's third birthday was on the 11th, our second anniversary of arriving in Chile is on the 13th, our church's second anniversary is on the 16th, and Chile celebrates their Fiestas Patrias on the 18th. We'll have our two current M2M groups and a new one will be established in Temuco, we'll have our regular classes at the Institute, preaching engagements, and all the extras that always come our way.
Activities coming up: October—Catedra Ismael Neveu (11-13) with Rev. Carlos Dario Peralta lecturing on Evangelistic Preaching, November—Ordination of Victor Aguilar (9) one of our Institute graduates and current professor at the Santiago branch and pastor of Iglesia Bautista El Redentor, December—Graduation of Lucila Alvarez and Cristina Provoste (7) one with pastoral call and the other with missionary call; two fine ladies that love and serve the Lord.
As you think of us, what the Lord has allowed us to do these last months and what lies ahead, please continue to remember us in your prayers, with your notes of encouragement (snail and/or email), and through your gifts of love. The World Mission Offering provides you with an opportunity to support missionaries all over the world representing the American Baptist Churches and International Ministries in so many different parts of the world and many different ways of ministry. Continue to partner with us in this endeavor.
- Continue to pray for our church Comunidad Bautista Nueva Esperanza de San Carlos, our pastoral family Rolando, Evangelina, Bastid Arlet, and baby-to-be-born-by-December-31st, and our brothers and sisters.
- Also pray for the Primera Iglesia Bautista de Ponce (Puerto Rico) and Demarest Baptist Church (New Jersey) who are being sister-churches to Nueva Esperanza.
- Continue to pray for our neighbors Manuel and Ellie who continue to seek (unsuccessfully thus far) to have a baby, and Viviana whom we haven't seen during the winter season. Hopefully when the harvest season returns, we'll see her again.
- Continue to pray for our fellow workers, the Heneises and the Bolicks, their families, and ministries.
- Continue to pray for the Instituto Teologico Bautista and the Convencion de Iglesias Bautistas de la Mision Chilena.
- Please continue to pray for us as a family, our growth and our daily life in Chile.
You are as much a part of this adventure as we are and without God's hand on us and your faithfulness we couldn't do it. Thanks for sharing with us in this journey.
With love and prayers,
Carlos, Mayra, Alberto, and Carolina Bonilla