the life of a missionary family

I spent the last four days with a missionary family in Temuco who have served in Chile with SIM for 20 years or so. They first worked with Wycliffe working with the natives (like Native Americans) of the land. The native people of this area are called the Mapuche and they live lives that look very similar to the North American native americans. They are generally poor, living on reservations, and unfortunatly their culture and language is dying out. This family has really invested their whole lives to helping these people and sharing the Gospel with them. Their daughter is in the country for a few months and is my age so we spent a good amount of time talking and hanging out. She brought me to her college age group at her church and it was so similar to what I went to when I was at Poly that it didn{t matter that it was in Spanish, I loved it. At one point the MCs called up all the visiters and first timers. I pretended like I didn{t understand and lowered my head. Unfortunatly, I am a social person and I had already met so many of the people, that they all started cahnting for the Gringa to go up. So finally I gave in and made my way for the front. They handed all of the visitors a paper with a different part hylighted and we were supposed to read through this paper each taking our own turn, for the whole group. Now, in general I am not shy about speaking in public, but reading in another language!?! But it turned out I only had to read a few words so I went ahead adn when it came my turn to read, everyone cheered for me. It was a comical moment indeed. Everyone came up to me afterward and gave me a kiss on my cheek. It was such a blessing to be in fellowship.

I also met another woman who has committed for a few years with her family to work in missions here in Chile and she invited me over to have lunch with her family. I cannot even tell you how much this woman reminds me of myself. The more we talked the more we realized that we had very similar backgrounds and when we found out that the other person loved books and theological conversations, the fun began. I wish I was living down here so I could be discipled by her, but I am thankful just for the few hours I got to spend with her.

I am now in a town called Pucon. It is the Chilean Lake Tahoe. There are little log cabins lining the beatiful lake and an actually live volcano rising above the little town. I have not decided if I want to break down and do a touristy thing while I am here. We shall see, we shall see.