The crewmembers approached people waiting to receive treatment and their relatives outside the hospital. After introducing themselves, they asked if there was anything they could pray for. When people accepted prayer, the crewmembers spoke with them more personally, prayed for their requests and told them about their own faith.

The volunteers met a woman who was looking after her two granddaughters while her daughter was in labour inside the hospital, about to welcome another child into the world. The woman explained that she is not in fact the birth mother and grandmother, but that she had taken on the child her sister abandoned and had brought her up as her own. The volunteers talked about forgiveness and the fact that people can forgive as God forgives them.

Later, the team met another woman who was waiting for her son. He had become bipolar as a consequence of brain surgery. The woman explained that she believes in God and had been meaning to ‘look into it more,’ and start reading the Bible, but she admitted having difficulties finishing things. She nevertheless explained that she felt different this time.

As the crewmembers gave her a Gospel of John, she said, “I want to start reading it. Usually I am not interested in this kind of conversation, but with you it is different.” She added, “Maybe I am waiting for my moment...” to which a volunteer replied, “Maybe your moment is now.” The crewmembers invited the woman to visit the ship, which she did, a few days later.

Idalia Mujica Jaque, a woman from a local church who facilitated the team’s outreach, thanked the crewmembers for their help: “The way you shared the gospel really drew our attention," she said. "We tend to be rather shy. My daughter and I were watching you and said to each other, ‘Look how brave they are!’ This is an important example for us.”

“I want my children to go to an event on the ship so they can be more motivated. Working with your team was a beautiful experience,” Idalia said.

Juan wanted to pass this blessing on to others. A group of Logos Hope volunteers visited his shelter on the outskirts of Antofagasta, to share a message of restoration and peace to a group of men who are experiencing challenging circumstances.

Serena Poobalan (East Asia Pacific) told the men her story: “Everything was in my head but not in my heart. When I began serving on the ship, some of my friends told me their testimonies and told me about the love of Christ in their hearts,” she explained. “I decided that I wanted to know this love too. I prayed about it and God answered. That’s what changed my life,” she said.

“They were shaken by the Holy Spirit,” Serena observed after having told her story. “God was touching them and they were very responsive.”

When the crewmembers asked the homeless men to share their stories, many volunteered to talk about the hurt they had gone through, on the path of drugs, criminality and addiction. Tears were shed as they all concluded that Jesus was their only way to forgiveness and salvation.

Juan shared his own story of being a drug addict for 20 years. After an emotional speech, he told the residents: “God restored my marriage and I decided in faith to serve Him. I believe that the same God who liberated me is in you." Juan encouraged the men to accept Christ's love, saying that God had put men and women from all across the world together on a ship, and brought them to their city. "How could we silence the love of God?” he challenged them.

“You are in the perfect will of God," Juan told the ship's volunteers. "You are a blessing for the church in Chile. Thank you for listening to His voice.”

As they were heading back to Logos Hope, Serena reflected, “Some believe no one cares about them or loves them, but God cares and loves them so much. God knew exactly what the men needed to hear. I learnt that it is more beneficial to listen than to talk. Being listened to heals these wounded people. And speak when God is putting something on your heart!”

I didn’t have a particular reason as to why I signed up for this short-term mission trip; I just had some time left between the courses of my study and I was looking for a good way to spend it. People say that when you’re young you should have the time of your life and travel the world, right? I guess I liked the idea but didn’t know where to start.

What I did know was that I have always loved to be involved in missions. When I was a little girl my parents took me along on outreaches from our church and they encouraged me to use my talents and passions in several kinds of ministries and projects. I am really thankful for the Christians who took the time to disciple me; I could just watch and learn.

Throughout the years I developed a profound desire to become a devoted, ‘24/7 Christian’. I was maybe 11 years old, but I already knew that I did not want to become a ‘Sunday-Morning-Christian’. I wanted to be an everyday, all the time follower of Christ.

I needed to challenge myself in missions, not only because it’s a practical way of carrying out what each Christian is called to do, but also because it is a way to have deep intimacy with God. You learn to trust Him, to simply obey, to get to know His heart. I want my heart to be moved by the same things. I want to cry for the same things. I want to think the same things. I want to have the same plans. I want Him to be leading the mission and me to be His truly involved worker. So, ‘Chile, here we come!’, I thought.

When I was on the 3-week Adventure Team in Chile, I expected the program to be a lot of evangelism out on the street, but it wasn’t focused too much on that. I was surprised and maybe a bit disappointed. There were a lot of useful seminars and workshops about missions and creative evangelism, but I thought: “I’m not here to talk about evangelism. I am here to evangelise, right?”

Nevertheless, I really enjoyed the program and getting to know Christians from the other side of the world. The personal connections I built within the Adventure Team were really awesome and enriching.

Then after we had travelled almost a thousand kilometres to the south and we were serving in another church, I started to realise that I had totally forgotten something so important. How did my 24/7 life as a Christian start? Did I do it all myself? No, it started when there were Christians who inspired me when I was 5 years old, who educated and motivated me, and who showed me their way of serving. By disciplining me, they invested for the long term and multiplied their work and reach.

I started to become aware of the beauty of OM’s approach in evangelism: you encourage, educate and motivate the local Christians about missions and you do maybe one evangelistic outreach on the street together with them. You do it with them, so that when you and your team leave, there will be mobilised Christians left there to take over the work. I never understood the name ‘Operation Mobilisation’ until this OM Chile Adventure Team.

Later we were able to share with small children about being a missionary. They were so interested and they asked very good questions! “What is it like to be a missionary? Is it hard to leave your home and family? Are missionaries poor? Which mission inspired you the most? At what age did your passion for God and missions start to grow?” And then I realized that I was about their age when my passion started to grow. There were some children in the group who wanted to become missionaries themselves.

I hope that God could inspire them through me. I believe that our God is not just someone in a history book, but a God who was, who is, and who is to come. And I really long for the day that everyone knows this.

Last month I had the opportunity to be part of OM Chile's 2016 Adventure Team. In the first week of the short-term trip, OM Chile had us participate in the ministries they have.

One evening, we went to a metro-station with a lot of sandwiches and a thermos filled with tea. We planned to go see the homeless people, give them what we brought, pray for them and share the gospel with them. When we arrived at the metro-station we first started to pray in the group. We prayed for open hearts, for safety and for God’s guidance for the night. And off we went to the area where the homeless people spend their nights.

The first man we came to was sitting on his ‘bed’ by the side of the road. It was just a flattened piece of a cardboard box. We went to him and gave him a cup of tea and a sandwich. The man started to smile. OM Chile's homeless ministry leader, Roel Westerbeek, started to talk to him, and a girl on the team began to translate for me.

Roel started asking him about his life and how long he has lived on the street. During the conversation the man asked about our motivation to sit with him, so we started to introduce ourselves and Roel explained to him about what we were doing there that night. He also started to share the gospel, and the homeless man’s face lit up as he explained that this was the most beautiful moment that he had ever experienced. He nearly started to cry. As the girl kept translating my heart was deeply touched.

During the conversation the street cockroaches surrounded our feet. For the man, they were so normal. He didn't even seem to notice them. This was also something that really touched me. I am so thankful that God blessed me with a house and a soft and warm bed. I couldn't believe this man could be so thankful for this single moment with us. He told the group, with tears in his eyes, that he would never forget that moment.

It hit me just how important it is to share true love with others. True love doesn’t come through a language, because we often speak different ones. True love comes through Jesus. I am able to pray that this man will go to the church Roel recommended and I can pray that there he would surrender his life to Jesus. Before we left he smiled, as we explained to him that God loves him.

Join Salome in prayer for the homeless people living on the streets of Santiago. Pray the OM Chile team and their ministries in various parts of the country.

This October my husband and I decided to join the 2016 OM Chile Adventure Team as a part of a 6-month trip we are making through Latin America. The short-term mission trip with OM Chile has really been a big blessing to us individually and also to our marriage. 

My expectations for this short-term mission trip were: to be encouraged/ pushed to get out of my comfort zone, grow in faith, learn about missions, share testimonies with others, see how God works in other people’s lives, to support and serve local churches and do street evangelism!

This trip really met all of the above expectations and even went far beyond! I’d like to zoom in on one aspect of the program, which to me was really fulfilling and definitely an answer to our prayers.

During these 3 weeks in Chile, besides the several mission activities we did, we also had the opportunity to take a course called Life Direction Seminar (LDS). This course is meant to help you discover who you are, why you are here, and what you do best. I strongly believe that one way to know God’s purpose for your life is to know who you are. We are all made in a very unique way in God’s own image and He gives each of us certain passions, talents and ideas. We must discover them, and then further develop them with God's help.

In the LDS we were challenged to think in very specific and concrete ways about our personality, our values, our beliefs, our behaviour, our spiritual gifts, our mission and vision in life, and how we can use all of these to build God’s kingdom. LDS really helped (sometimes even pushed) me to dig deep; to be specific and write things down in a structured manner. What a blessing to be able to set some time apart do this together with my husband! It gave us a lot of things to reflect on and to pray about; new ideas for the future, like how we can be more involved in our church at home, how we can play our part in missions and encourage other Christians in Belgium to participate in missions too.

My husband and I also got to know each other better. Before we started our 6-month travel we had both been in kind of a dry spiritual season. We have only been married for 10 months now and before as well as after our wedding we had several challenges. Planning our wedding and renovating our house caused quite a lot of stress on the both of us. Travelling is something that we both love to do and that can really connect us, and therefore we thought it would be a good idea to travel for a longer period. We wanted to use this time well to work on our relationship, to build some good foundations for our marriage and to work on our spiritual connection with God and each other. God created open doors for us to go on this 6-month adventure.

During this short-term mission trip in Chile I really enjoyed seeing my husband stepping out of his comfort zone, sharing his testimony, interacting with people, discussing biblical and theological topics with others and praying for people. It gave me a new respect and appreciation for him, and it also helped me to look at our different characters and abilities in a complementary way. God is so good!

I’d recommend every couple to go on a mission trip together, whether long-term or short-term. Seeking the Lord together and seeing each other grow in faith is really the best way to make a marriage succeed. There are so many challenges in life, and we all have to go through them in one way or another, but if we learn to walk on God’s path, our life may not be storm-free, but it will certainly be storm-proof.

The 3-week OM Adventure Team mission trip to Chile was in many ways a great experience for me. It was the first mission trip I went on in years, and the first mission trip with my wife! I realised when we applied for the program that this trip would be unlike any other. I expected God to move in many different ways in my heart and in my relationship, and He did!

We spent our first five days at the OM Chile base in Santiago, helping the team with their local ministries. Our next stop took us south for a two-week adventure. In the following lines I would like to share some of my experiences during these two blessed weeks.

After some surfing fun in Pichilemu, we arrived in Chillán. Our team-leaders Felipe, Marloes and Jessie lead some workshops about the importance of missions in a local church. The church we worked at has quite a history with OM, because after the earthquake in 2010 it was OM that helped them rebuild their collapsed church building. Together with the other Adventure Team participants we were able to share about the spiritual situation in our countries during a time of prayer at the church. Together we prayed for the challenges in our western countries.

The church members were quite surprised to hear that the countries that once brought the gospel to their nation were now in not-so-good spiritual condition. Later we had a time of prayer for the persecuted Christians and their different struggles and challenges. The great thing to see was that this church was already praying for many of these countries.

As we drove further south we worked with more churches and even had the opportunity to do outreaches to share the good news alongside them. At the end of one of our outreaches I was asked to share part of my testimony in the church. I had shared my testimony many years ago, but through the past seven years I had hardly done this at all. I realised that my testimony was in need of an update because in the last years God had worked in my life in new ways. Sharing a part of my testimony in Chile made me reflect about all the blessings and victories God has given me in the last years. I could only stand in gratitude and awe for this.

The OM Adventure Team spent two wonderful weeks in the south. While I was encouraging others in their faith, I was also being encouraged through the many lovely people I came in contact with. As a team we could share and hear the testimonies of each other; the moments of tribulation and victory by His glory. The importance of praying, giving and going for missions got rooted deeper into my heart during this period. This mission trip, to me, has been a new experience and testimony with our God. Another blessing from the Father to remember and cherish. Thank you God!

Once a month, on a Saturday night, the OM homeless ministry team and I (with about 20 other volunteers) go out to La Vega in Santiago, a huge street market, and put on “The Meal of Love”, a ministry where homeless people are given a formal dinner. It’s one of my favourite parts about my job working with the homeless of Santiago.

This particular Meal of Love was the third one I was involved in. As I look back and compare my Spanish from my first Meal of Love to the last one I can really see how God has answered my prayer of learning the language. The first two and a half months were so difficult. Everything took twice as long because translation was needed and I constantly felt discouraged for not being able to communicate.

The first time I participated in The Meal of Love I needed translation to even understand my boss’ instructions. I knew that I wouldn’t be able to talk to the homeless people so I spent the night walking around La Vega praying for the people from a distance.

The second time I was able to understand all of the instructions, but I really struggled to communicate with the people. My boss challenged me by making me a waitress. I couldn’t speak much, but I was able to serve. At one point a man called me over and asked me to listen to his story and to pray with him. He spoke slowly and used simple words, and I understood that his son and he hadn’t spoken in years. I prayed for him and his son in English before going back and serve food.

This month’s Meal of Love I was working in the kitchen. As I was walking around checking to see if every table had food, I spotted the man that I had prayed with last month. When he saw me he ran to me and hugged me, and could not stop thanking me. “For what?” I asked.

“I’d like you to meet my son,” he replied. He pointed at a man in a suit. “It’s a miracle!” he shouted.

His son came over to me and introduced himself. We began talking and he told me his story. He shared that this was the first time in years that he had spent time with his father. After spending a lot of time with the son and his overjoyed father, they asked if we could all pray together again. This time I was able to pray in Spanish and it was no longer just with a lonely father, but with a united family.

God has the power give me confidence in a foreign language and to put families back together, in the midst of seemingly impossible situations.

It was one of those days you just want to stay in bed. I didn’t sleep well, my nose was running, my throat was hurting and swollen and my eyes were heavy.

I didn’t have the flu; no fever or anything, so there was no real excuse, but I was so exhausted. I spoke to my ministry leader and told him I didn’t feel very well and maybe it would be better to rest a little. Instead he answered, “Why don’t you come to the prayer meeting and afterward you can decide whether you want to come with us to do street evangelism or not.”

I felt a little better as the day went on, and I went to the meeting. I still thought it would be a better decision to stay home, spend some quiet time with God and rest. The problem was that a lot of other girls in the team also didn’t feel very good and so I felt guilty for staying behind; why should I get a special treatment? So in the end I decided to go and to trust in God that he would give me the necessary strength during the program but especially rest afterwards.

It started horribly. As part of the programme we split in groups of three or four people. One person had their eyes blindfolded and was standing with their arms wide open with a sign at their feet, reading: "I trust in you. Would you give me a hug?"

The other people in the group would then go talk to the people that hugged the blindfolded person and ask them why they would hug and trust in a stranger. They would then start explaining that God is the only one we can fully trust.

Theoretically this was the programme, but somehow it just didn’t work out. People were walking away too fast, or soon after the conversation started we didn’t know how to go on and get deeper. I was getting very discouraged and started thinking, “I should have stayed home. What am I doing here? I don’t know what to say, I am afraid, I have no trust in God; what good am I to serve anyone here?! And I’ll come back late and feel even worse and I'm going to be very tired tomorrow.”

My thoughts started to go in a negative circle. But I decided to interrupt that circle and pray that God would step in and help me. Just moments later I saw a young man, standing nearby watching. I felt that I should go and talk to him, so I went and asked him what he was thinking.

He said to me, “From the moment I entered this place and could see your friend with arms wide open from afar I felt Gods presence.”

I was so overwhelmed. God was actually here and He was working! Even though we might not be able to talk to the people, He could touch their hearts anyway. After that conversation I noticed how people’s faces would light up after receiving the hug. Truly, God’s presence was there!

The evening ended with a deep conversation and prayer time with some social work students and a talk with a man who was also on the street to evangelize. We asked if we could pray for him and he opened up his heart and told us about his worries and struggles. I was able to share something of my past to encourage him.

When the team met again for a short debriefing, everybody was happy and energised. They had similar experiences with God and, like me, had completely forgotten about their health issues. God is so great!

One volunteer took a few books and approached a man in his 50s. As the volunteer sat down next to him, the man told him that he had already received a book called “More than a Carpenter” by Josh McDowell, and that he had started reading it.

The man shared that the words he read were so accurate and identifying, that they left him deeply impacted and a little disoriented. The volunteer learnt that the man had heard about God a long time ago and was sure that the volunteer was sent by the Lord to call him once again.

When they talked about God’s love, the man was moved to tears. Together they prayed and thanked God for meeting and for the conversation. Before parting, the two men exchanged names and realised that they had the same first name. Both were surprised and saw it as confirmation that the meeting was not a coincidence but rather guided by God.

When the volunteer shared his experience with the rest of the OM team he expressed deep gratefulness to God for the privilege of being part of God’s plan.

Praise God for speaking through an OM volunteer. Please pray that the man will continue to seek the truth.

Are you interested in sharing God’s love in Chile? Check out OM’s opportunities to serve.

At first, Patrick wasn't interested in the Bible studies that the team members of OM Chile offered in the day centre he attends. Twice a week, the team visits the centre to hold Bible studies with the homeless people there. They noticed that Patrick's life was going in the wrong direction and started to pray for him. Family murders, criminal activities and addiction pulled him further into darkness. But God had a plan.

Eventually, Patrick started attending the Bible studies. In the beginning he was easily distracted and would leave early. Sometimes he disturbed the group by making inappropriate jokes and comments. But eventually he decided to stay.

"I realised that God sees Patrick lost and broken, but saved by His grace," said Marloes Achterveld from the Netherlands, one of the OM team members.

One day Patrick came to Marloes carrying a Bible and a notebook full of English words.

"He told me he wanted to change his life," she said. "He was tired of living like this."

That week, Patrick started classes at a high school for adults. God also put a pastor in his life, who took him to church. There, Patrick prayed for the first time for Jesus to take over his life.

"This was a big surprise and a miracle to me," recalled Marloes. After the conversation with Patrick, she cried tears of happiness and praised God. “All the time we invested and all the prayers offered had not been in vain. God had been watching this boy way before I even met him.”

Answer to prayer

Stories like Patrick's motivate Marloes to serve God in missions. She just finished a missionary training programme with OM in Chile. Before moving to Chile, she had prayed that He would show her how He changes people's lives. Her distractions made her unaware of what God was doing, so she prayed and God answered.

During the training, Marloes saw young teenage girls grow into women of faith. God taught her important lessons about how she should respond to those around her, and how her attitude should be towards her brothers and sisters in Christ.

“He made her realise how big He is, and it made her stand in awe of Him,” Marloes added.

The change she witnessed in Patrick impacted her greatly.

"God is using my limitations to touch other people—to motivate, to encourage, to stimulate them to seek Him," she said. "I don't want to spend my time on things that don't matter in the end. More than once, I've experienced that it's not about my abilities or how I do things. It is God who is working! In my weakness, He can show His power."

"Do you dream sometimes about places beyond places, where you have a sense of belonging, just because it responds to something within you?" asked Marloes, from the Netherlands, who discovered that southern Chile is a place beyond places to her.

"The beauty of this country, displayed in a clear sky, the mountains reigning above the deep blue lakes with a white crown of snow, and the green valleys filled with unknown paths and people... That responds to me."

To her, living in this part of the country is like living in another world.

"In Curarrehue, you need good boots because of the mud, a warm jacket because of the cold," Marloes shared. "Bring your truck, because there are no paved roads. There is no signal. No phone calls, no Internet or even SMS. In this village, you're completely shut down from the world for a while."

Marloes was blessed to stay with a family who had, like all the other families in the area, a piece of land for their pigs, ducks, chickens and cows. The animals ran around the house freely. The family also owned puppies, a horse and turkeys. The turkeys they ate during Marloes' stay.

Behind all this beauty, Marloes also found sadness while getting to know the family.

"I found out that their son was actually adopted, because his real mother abandoned him when she went out from the little community to find a job in the city," she shared. "This is what a lot of young people need to do to be able to send their children to school. But in this case, the natural mother of this 18-year-old boy never came back and never contacted him again. This led to great sadness and feelings of loneliness."

The OM team’s ministry started there. "We prayed for the families and for the church," said Marloes. The team opened the Bible and encouraged people with the Word. They had conversations about Christ and His saving grace, and shared their stories of how God had touched their lives.

"We shared a fellowship that goes beyond country borders or culture systems. That was very special," she said.

Together with the families, they invited other members of the community to church. Marloes shared her testimony with various people.

"Every time we visited a family, we asked them how they were doing and what we could pray for," she said. "They all told us about things that they needed: protection for their family, no separation in the family any more, enough food for the wintertime, for the men to stay away from the alcohol and be faithful to their wives."

A ministry like this can also take place in less isolated places on earth, stated Marloes.

"Where does your ministry start? I believe that is in the place where you are today. Can you pray for, or even pray together, with your family or housemates? Why should you not? Can you talk and invite your neighbours today to drink tea? Maybe it´s an opportunity to share about who you are in Christ today."

Marloes challenges Christians to make a difference today, with the people placed on their paths. "You never know what God will work out through you."

Do you long to get out of your comfort zone and experience a totally new culture and people, all while sharing the love of God and growing in your faith? Check out a list of OM’s training programmes here.

About a year ago, my husband Roel and I heard about the opportunity to participate in a training organised by OM's partner organisation, AIDSLink International. This training is about HIV and AIDS, seen from a Christian perspective. Since we already have come to know a lot of people with HIV in our work on the streets, we thought it would be a great opportunity to acquire some more tools and to help others in a more practical way.

Since the training is held outside of Chile and has its accommodation costs, it was a really big challenge to finalise our plans. Still, God has been faithful, and little by little, He provided in the right moments, showing that He wanted us to be part of it.

A year later, we travelled to Johannesburg, South Africa. With others from Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East and Latin and North America - people from different cultures and backgrounds - we did not only learn about HIV and AIDS but also about how to work with affected persons, how to let go of our own prejudices and stigmas and how to educate our community in order to see less lives being affected by this virus.

In the end, this training has been more for us than those we serve. It has been a tool in the hands of God to transform us and make us grow. We have obtained a lot of knowledge, but we have also seen how our own hearts have been confronted with the reality and our own thoughts.

We thank God for this opportunity and to those who have made it possible. We already look forward to take this material to other places!

Pray for AIDSLink International as they continue to train people on HIV and AIDS education, as well as reach out to those affected by HIV and AIDS.

In the centre the people can cook, shower, wash clothes, access the Internet and more. A professional team is also available to help those who want to leave their situation. Agape Santiago was asked to serve as the spiritual support for those who visit the centre.

In June, the Agape team started hosting Bible studies based on material from the Alpha Course. The team tell participants about Jesus, explain how to become a follower of Christ and demonstrate how to live according to His will.

The course has three chapters that talk about the Holy Spirit. Recently, the team divided the three topics over two days. On a Tuesday they discussed the person of the Holy Spirit; on the following Thursday morning they shared about the work of the Holy Spirit, while in the afternoon a pastor talked about how one can be filled with the Holy Spirit.

Miracles

In addition to the normal attendees from the day centre, the Agape team welcomed a few unexpected visitors as well.  

The team had been working with three individuals for years in an area known as La Vega Central. When the team changed their ministry focus from the streets to the day centre, they were afraid that they would lose contact with those living in La Vega Central.

However, their friends from La Vega visited on the Thursday that they were discussing the Holy Spirit, though the team had not specifically invited them to the session.

One person accepted Christ, while another renewed his faith in the Lord. A third surprise visitor went to see the psychologist at the day centre to obtain professional help. The Agape team had previously asked her many times to do this, but she had always refused out of fear of needing to tell about her past. The team saw God work a miracle in her heart.

Between the two days, a total of nine people accepted Christ and many more renewed their commitment to following Jesus. Around 10 people attended church the following Sunday.

Hope and love

When the team completed both sessions, they cried and praised the Lord. For six years, they had aimed to bring hope and love to the community, and now the team recognised that often they had attempted this aim in their own strength. In this case, though, God showed that He is the only one who brings conviction and real hope to the broken hearted.  

Thankfully, the week of Bible study on the Holy Spirit reminded the team that they can do nothing without the Lord, that His is the victory, and that with the Holy Spirit, everything is possible.

Praise God for the miracles He is doing through the OM Chile Agape Team. Please pray for those who came to know Jesus. Pray also for the work of the Agape team, and that they will always seek strength and hope from God for their work.

“This session was on “Why did Jesus die?” and so we were really praying that God would bless the programme and that the participants would understand God’s love for them. We had around 10 participants, which was a great number to have, in comparison to other weeks! While many people were getting involved, there were also a few who people speaking over each other, raising their voices and hindering the conversation from going in the direction we had hoped.Later, we discovered that there was also a lot of underlying tension in the day centre that day due to some previous disagreements.”

“Sitting in the room and watching what was going on, it did not seem as if the session was going to be super successful. Yet, I am thankful that I can say God, indeed, had other plans; higher and better than our plans! We were using the parable of the Prodigal Son as a basis for the conversation. We brought along some Bibles with us and were able to go around in a circle, each reading a verse of the parable. It was so great to see people, many whom did not really know Jesus as their Saviour and Lord, reading His word aloud. It was also in this moment when it seemed to me that the atmosphere of the session seemed to change. In fact, we were only supposed to read until verse 24 but many were very keen to continue to the end of the chapter.”

My story

“I will always remember the captivating comments that followed immediately after we finished reading. From around the room, I could hear:

'This is my story'

'I am exactly like the prodigal son'

'I went for the same reason that he went'

'I am like him just without going back'

The participantys were really touched by the parable and could identify with it quite a bit. No longer was the session just a general chat about God. Through the word of God, many of the participants were personally thinking about their lives. Some began to share their testimonies, challenges and struggles with us. We were able to see even more how hurt they have been by the world and their huge need for the Father. I was sitting next to a woman who shared how she had left home in search of a better life, exactly like that of the prodigal son. She had stolen from her mom many times in order to pay for her drug addiction and was now living on the street with one of her two young children, with a  third on the way.”

“Many others shared their testimonies openly, while others in the room said nothing. It was obvious, however, that many were hugely affected as they silently cried. It was so great in this moment to be able to share with the participants the overwhelming hope found in this parable. There is hope  in God the Father that if we repent, He will forgive us. There is hope in His desire to have a relationship with with them and that they could change their lives as it is and have eternal life with Christ. Becuase of this hope, we were able to pray with many of them at the end.”

Hope

“Reading the story of the prodigal son with this group really placed the power of this parable into perspective for me and reminded me of the power of God’s Word and how incredible His promises are within it. God wants us to be His children, again, despite the terrible things we do and the horrible situations in which we become involved in. He doesn’t just merely re-accept us, although amazing in itself, but He is so excited that He wants to have a party! As I learnt during this recent event, God is the only hope that many homeless people have, yet He is the best hope they could ever ask for. God has a plan for their lives, just as He did to use the ‘Foro Agape’ session for His good.”

“That’s how I ended up carrying a 2 meter high cardboard coffin at 6 o’clock in the evening on a bus across Santiago,” shared training participant Nicolas Philit. “It is not the easiest thing to do but without a doubt it is one of the craziest things I’ve done here in Chile.”

The participants decided to ask people on the street what one thing they would like to bury from their past. This question was written on one side of the coffin, and 2 Corinthians 5:17 was painted in bright yellow letters on the other side: 'Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come The old has gone, the new is here!'

That night they gave people the opportunity to write on a piece of paper something that is still hurting or burdensome from their past and post it into the coffin. “Of course the action was just symbolic,” said Nicolas, “but I believe that when someone accepts Christ, God starts to work in that person and forgiveness and healing can be found for their past”.   

At one point in the evening, after having a few conversations, Nicolas was just standing in the middle of the square looking at the coffin when two young guys approached him and asked: “What's that all about?” He explained it to them and invited them to participate in the activity.

These two boys turned out to be searching for answers about God, life, suffering and looking for a hope in this world. “As I was explaining the Gospel to them, I could see that they were touched by the amazing love that God has towards us,” he said. “They had never before heard about the sacrifice of Jesus and the possibility God offers them to start a new life with Him. They didn’t know that God wanted to be by their side in the difficulties they were facing, nor that God is powerful enough to forgive or heal them, whatever they had put in the coffin.”

When Nicolas invited one of the guys, named Gonzalo, to accept Christ in his life, he replied: “This is a big decision and I am not ready to take it right now.” However Nicolas was able to pray with both of the guys and gave them a John's gospel.

“I will probably never see them again but I can pray that one day they will accept God,” said Nicolas. He is counting on the promise in Isaiah 55:10-11: 'As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.'

Both students and teachers enjoyed these classes, especially as rather than telling the words the team acted them out. As well as this, during the class the team had the chance to explain the message of the songs.

“The first week I was sitting next to a man named Gabriel,” shared Bethany Lyttle from Northern Ireland, one of the students in the training. “His English is quite good, as he has picked up many words through watching films in English. I was able to help him with some English words whilst he taught me Spanish words! Perhaps due to my lack of Spanish, I was unable to fully understand what effect the songs were having on him.”

The following Thursday, the team again used Christian songs to teach English. “I was not sitting by Gabriel this time,” said Bethany. “But he showed us all a poem he had wrote. Using words that he had learnt the first Thursday, he had written a poem about God’s love for us.” Bethany was surprised to discover that Gabriel had really understood the message they had brought the week before. “God was working in his life, more than I could have imagined.”

It made her think of the verse in Ephesians 3:20-21: Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever! Amen.

Bethany concluded: “Praise be to God that He does more than we could ever imagine!"

Each child has his or her individual battle, individual story and reasons for giving up or pressing onwards. This is why it’s important for us to share the Word of God. We believe that His Word will contradict the lies and destroy strongholds in their lives.

Recently it’s been exciting for us to see the enthusiasm of the children and their participation. Each child has been receiving revelations from God, memorising stories or verses and learning how to be more vulnerable with God through prayer.

On the other hand, sharing with these children doesn’t come without difficulties, struggles and spiritual warfare. During the past few months vital staff members have been diagnosed with serious medical issues and the ministry teams have been faced with challenging situations. We have been learning what it means to be flexible and to wait on God, but more importantly we’ve been challenged to pray even more for the homes and children.

Please join OM Chile in prayer for the ministry and the struggles and spiritual challenges in the home. Pray for strength as a ministry and for protection over the children and home. 

"Yes, ask me."

"From here, how do I arrive in hell?”

For some, this is a very direct question and a bit shocking, but it’s also an easy question to respond to.

Every Wednesday, the OM Chile evangelism group goes to the streets to share about Jesus in creative ways. They aim to use art and alternative forms to attract people’s attention and initiate good conversations so that they can present Christ to them and pray for them. 

But this week was different, as the team didn't have anything special planned except for a few questions. They went to the centre of Santiago with backpacks and maps to appear like they were people looking for a location and stopped people to ask for their help.

When the strangers agreed to help, the team asked them questions such as, "How can I find peace?" and "How can I find happiness?" and "How can I find hell?”

Each one of these abstract questions allowed team members to share the plan of salvation.

“I asked many times how could I arrive in hell, and immediately the people would respond, ‘Through doing bad things,’ and when I asked them how could I arrive in heaven, the people responded, ‘This is a little bit more difficult.’ It was a marvellous opportunity to start a conversation about Jesus,” said Natalie, a Chilean participant of OM Chile’s Intensive Mission Training.

During the outreach, Natalie started a conversation with a woman who told her that she didn’t like Christians, and liked Christianity even less. However, she still engaged in a conversation about heaven, God, the Church and Jesus.

“I could see a change in her face,” Natalie said. “She was no longer angry with me for being a Christian, but the contrary. She smiled and asked me, ‘So what you want to tell me is that it’s Jesus who can take me to Heaven – we can’t do it ourselves?’”

Natalie presented the truth of salvation. The woman recognised they were both sinners and guilty before God.

“When I finished the conversation, she hugged me and thanked me because now she could go home calmer. My prayer is that one day she will know the true Jesus,” said Natalie.

“Only through Jesus Christ can we arrive in heaven. We need to tell the world that there are many paths to hell but only one to heaven, and that this path has been opened for us.”

“Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.” - Acts 4:12 (NIV)

When the OM Chile team heard about the fire in Valparaíso, they responded quickly. They began calling contacts in Valparaíso to offer their help and opened the OM base to receive donations of food and other necessities. The next day, an OM Chile team of seven went to offer their help, investigate the situation and make contacts with local churches.

On the first morning working with Instituto Satalite, a local church, they drove towards the affected area. However, as all the roads up to the hills were closed, the team had no other option but to climb up the hill carrying as much as possible. Nothing could have prepared them to see the destruction that lay ahead. They distributed bags of basic provisions and donated many bags to a church in the centre of the area.

Arriving on the scene would probably be best described as stepping into a real-time disaster movie: Many houses were burned literally to the ground, the military and police were everywhere and trucks were busy carrying off the rubble. As reported, the fire had spread quickly and easily due to the weather conditions and density and construction of the houses (mainly wood and metal). Since this was the poorest area of the city, the people who had almost nothing before the fire now have literally nothing.

Thousands of volunteers travelled to the city to help in whatever ways possible, whether it was piling metal by the side of the road, putting the rubble into bags, taking care of the children or handing out food.

In the afternoon, the team worked with a different church, Iglesia Ministerio de Fe. Together, the team carried food up the hill for the builders and stayed to help demolish the remains of a house. The following day, the team donated many things to Union Church. This church is helping a street of people (about 90 families) by not only providing immediate help but also long-term help through the re-building of houses.

OM Chile have made contacts with a few local churches that are already heavily involved in the relief effort and have a clear vision of how to help the victims of the fire in their long-term restoration process.

Currently, the team is investigating options in where and how to help. The desire is to work through a small number of local churches who have the inside contacts and knowledge to provide relevant help where it is needed. OM Chile wants to encourage the churches to be the frontline and is looking at ways OM can supply financial and practical support for the churches’ long-term projects, primarily in reconstruction of family homes for those who have lost everything.

Please pray for the victims of the fire, the long-term rebuilding process, the Chilean government and wisdom for Chilean churches as they plan projects to help the city. Also, please pray for those continuing to recover from the earthquakes in the north of Chile.

The day we did the flash mob was definitely an unforgettable day! From the first moment of singing, a young man approached and sat on the floor to listen. After finishing the song, I sat next to him to talk. His life had been very difficult, from having two of his children in a children's home to seeing his marriage destroyed.

But I summarised everything with one necessity, and he knew it very well. My friend received Christ in prison and he knew the significance of a relationship with God. He knew many concepts and commandments of the Bible, but he recognised that he didn't follow them. He understood that without God he was nothing, but still he was not ready to renew his step of faith.

However, there are moments where we need to decide. The man made a decision because he knew that in this moment God was speaking to his heart. He recognised how God is the Saviour of his life, and he gave his life completely to Him.

Living in another culture and being pretty busy all the time screams out for only one thing: the desire to be in God's presence and spend time in prayer. This is the only thing that keeps me going: spending time with my Father in Heaven.

So, every morning I sit in front of our house and I have my time with God. Every morning a women passes by the house with her daughter.

One morning they called me over. As I stood up and walked towards them I saw them looking at me in an unusual way. She asked me if I was all right.

“Well of course I am,” I replied. Then the daughter said, “We thought that you were crazy.”

I had to laugh and explained to them that I love to spend time with God, and that I was praying. This made more sense to them, but they still thought that I was weird.

Since that day, I have been praying that the Holy Spirit will minister in her heart and make her hungry for God. After a few days God spoke to me. He said that I had to tell her that she is precious in God's eyes, and that He loves her.

The following days I saw her passing by, but each time I was too late to react. She was already gone, but I knew that I had to say these words to her. To be honest, I was walking a little bit away from it.

Then one morning she called me over again. As I stood up I said, “Yes, Lord I will tell her now.” I could never have imagined what she would say to me. She apologised for saying that I was crazy. I thanked her and said in my broken Spanish, “You know, you are so precious in God's eyes, and He loves you very much. Don't ever forget that!” She looked at me, thanked me and walked away. I was a bit shocked, but I felt OK.

Walking back to the front of the house, I thought to myself, God, I know that this was from you. I didn't do what you told me, so you brought her to the porch, so that I could tell her anyway.

This is what I love about God: the way He creates meetings for us to share His love. I feel privileged to pray for this woman and to have the opportunity to talk to her over time.

As part of OM Chile’s Intensive Missions Training, every Tuesday night we visit La Vega Central in Chile’s capital, Santiago, in search of homeless people with whom we can share the gospel.

We give each a sandwich and a cup of tea. Through this, we are able to get closer to them to learn more about their lives, their problems and concerns. Together we end in prayer and singing, many times standing next to the fires they light to fight the cold nights.

The first night I visited La Vega I didn't know what I was going to find. I had worked with the homeless before in my city, Temuco. Therefore, I imagined the situation would be similar: that we would meet people who were drunk or on drugs, who we would pick up and bring to a hostel so they wouldn't spend the night outside, in danger of dying.

But to my surprise a man walked up to me who was perfectly sober, wearing a jacket, carrying a briefcase in one hand and a few bags in the other.

The first night we talked of trivial things, we took a picture and he asked me to print it for him and bring it the following week, so that he could keep it as a memory.

The second week he told me that our presence in the place was very important, and that every Tuesday he would be looking forward to waiting for us there.

The third week I decided to establish more of a relationship with him. While we were sitting on the sidewalk talking about the Bible verse we had brought that week, I realised I could teach him what the Bible tells us paradise will be like. So I asked him his thought on this.  

To my surprise, he had already read the verse, and he explained convincingly what would happen, as it says in Revelation 7:

“After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice: ‘Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb’” (vv. 9-10; NIV).

For a moment, we left what was happening around us in this place, and we had a small vision of what this day would be like, when the presence of God descends on the earth.

In heaven, it won’t matter what brand of shoes we wear, our generation or our age. This day we will not know sicknesses or worries. The only thing that will matter will be to enjoy the presence of God.

Members of OM Chile's IMT visit a children’s home with kids from broken families twice a week. "As I have never been involved in children ministries, this has proven to be a big challenge for me," admitted Jen. "Due to various problems relating to their family backgrounds, these children tend to have a very low self-esteem. When they are greeted, instead of saying ‘Hola’ [Hello], they usually say phrases such as, ‘How ugly you are’, just to see how you respond."

At a recent children's camp, Jen was encouraged by the impact the camp's theme song had on a few of the children present.

"The theme song of the children's camp was entitled ‘Your Name Will Change’," said Jen. "It says that even though we may have a not-so-glorious past, God will give us a new life and a new name when we meet Him.

"As we sang the theme song, I noticed the wilful girl next to me covering her face with her hands, not willing to face her own emotions and God’s love. At that moment I had an awakening. Not only did I come to understand the attitude of these children, [but] I also received an important reminder from God.

"Very often we are just like these children. We feel that we do not deserve God’s love, but God has already called us His children. Even parents on earth love their children—how much more our Father in heaven loves us!

"It is my hope that these children would accept God’s love and grow healthily in Him. Moreover, Chile has a rich Catholic culture—most people who have heard the gospel would claim to be a believer, yet [few] live out their faith in their lives. Please pray for Chile’s spiritual atmosphere."

This July, the team invited guests to share from their lives and experiences. The first guest was a Chilean woman who is a professional actor. With her daughter, her full-time ministry is to reach people for Christ through drama, as well as train and disciple Christian artists. During breakfast, she performed a play called “Ruth the Moabite”.

“It was very nice to hear how she encouraged the visitors to give our best to God,” commented an OM Chile team member, “using the gifts that He has given us”.

Claudio, a 27-year-old Chilean, shared about his experiences as a missionary. He has served for four years on board Logos Hope. He shared that many times a person can have certain expectations, but that the ways of God are often different.

“We are very glad to be able to share with many of the participants during these breakfasts,” said an OM Chile team member. “They have resulted in several new invitations for church visits.”

The first Intensive Missions Training/ Entrenamiento Misionero Intensivo (IMT/EMI ) wrapped up at the end of June. Training coordinator Whitney Guthrie is grateful for five months of mixed languages, cultures and experiences. “It was truly wonderful,” she said. “I praise God for the experience of leading the group of six Chileans and three foreigners who participated.”

Combining the trainings brought some unique challenges with it. “We instituted half-days of speaking in English and the other half in Spanish, in order to further everyone’s language skills,” explained Whitney. “The Chileans had the challenge of sharing devotionals in English and the foreigners needed to speak Spanish within all of OM Chile’s ministries.”

One important aspect of the training, as well, is the experience of living with a family from another culture for a week, speaking in another language and experiencing in-depth the similarities and differences found in another culture.

“In previous years we’ve had a wide base of Christian Chilean families willing to host our foreign participants,” recalled the training coordinator. “This year, however, we had the first-time challenge of finding international families to host our Chilean participants. We saw God’s hand entirely at work in supplying families for each person of the training.”

Whitney is happy with the way this first combined training turned out. “I’m so grateful to the Lord for allowing me to experience alongside the students this experience of the first combined training. The months together were deeply enriched for the mix of languages, experiences and cultures we had together.”

The participants and leaders were blessed through the visitors who came to teach in the training, she said. “But also through the ministries that challenged and impacted everyone, through time together in deep discussions and light-hearted fun, and above all through the presence of the Holy Spirit, guiding and caring for each person in his or her own personal walk with Him.”

Praise God for the experience of the first IMT/EMI, and praise Him for the second that will begin in September. For more information about joining the Intensive Missions Training in Chile, visit OM’s website here.

“Together with the leader of another missionary organisation, we travelled more than 4,000 kilometres visiting numerous of churches, youth groups, radio stations, and taking advantage of all the opportunities God put in our path,” he shared. “We stayed two to four days in every place, and by God’s grace we were able to contact and get to know many pastors and people interested in missions, resulting in several church invitations to provide them with mission training.”

One of OM Chile’s main objectives is to motivate the Chilean churches for missions. Chile is a “Christian” country, with about 15 per cent of the 17 million inhabitants being evangelical Christians. Chileans are passionate about their faith in Jesus, and OM sees huge potential to send Chileans into missions.

“Many churches still lack vision and knowledge regarding missions,” said Rob. “But it is great to see how God is opening doors and is working in the hearts and minds of many Chilean believers.”

During the trip, God also faithfully provided food and places to stay. “We experienced a lot of love through Chilean brothers and sisters,” Rob said. “For Chileans, it is special that a foreigner visits them, having left his family and loved ones to be able to do so. Some people told me they had been praying for a long time for a missionary organisation to come and visit their church and share about missions. I was greatly encouraged to hear that God is using OM Chile as an answer to such a prayer.”

Please pray for the Chilean Church and OM Chile. Pray that God will raise up more Chilean workers to send out to His harvest, and that He will help OM Chile to complete their part in this.

The evening drew to an end with an open time of asking questions about how to develop missions in OM Chile and internationally. This discussion led to testimonies that invited reflection on the enormous need for people in the world to know the Saviour, Jesus Christ. It was a special day and a big step for OM Chile.

Strengthening ties is crucial for OM Chile’s relationship with the local church and is a constant prayer for the team. They pray they can be a blessing to the local church and share their desire to support churches in the Great Commission. It is for that reason that the members of the team glorify God and believe that the evening was a first step in serving the national church more effectively. 

OM Chile’s homeless ministry, Agape, recently put on an event in the street for their homeless friends. They advertised it among the people living on the street every time the ministry went out, calling it “an afternoon of film”, where they would have a barbecue and watch a film.

Priscila Turra, one of the volunteers in the Agape team, had felt in her heart the desire to donate money from her salary to do an event for the people. The leaders of Agape ministry, OMers Roel Westerbeek and his wife Natalia Jiménez, along with the rest of their team, then planned and organised the afternoon’s activities. They bought food for a barbecue, borrowed chairs and figured out how to power speakers and a projector on the street.

Two days before the event, part of the team met to pray together. They asked for God’s blessing over the event, for His protection and that His will would be accomplished. The day of the event, they got together early to prepare the meat for the barbecue. They headed to the street with all of their materials in tow and began setting up. There were many homeless people gathered, excited to watch the movie and have a barbecue afterwards.

Things were going well and the programme was about to begin when suddenly those around the projector heard a loud “pop”; the projector had received an extra surge of current. That surge killed the projector and the team of Agape ministry was stuck. What were they going to do? The movie was now out – the projector was dead. There were 100 homeless people around waiting for a programme. The team needed to come up with a new plan, fast.

They came together and prayed. "We knew the enemy was trying to ruin our plans,” shared Roel. “He didn’t want the people to hear of the freedom found in a life with Christ.” They didn’t allow a broken projector to stop them, though. They quickly created an alternate programme. They sang songs and a few people from the team gave their testimonies. Some of the OMers present knew dramas and had acted together in the past, so they quickly reminded themselves of their roles and presented the skits and dramas to the people. Natalia shared the gospel with those present and the ministry team members prayed with those who wanted it.

The barbecue was a success and, as the event wound down, the team reflected on the day. Although their original plan didn’t work as expected, God’s faithfulness was clearly seen in every aspect of the event. The team praised the Lord for His hand at work in the hearts of the people who attended the event and prayed for His love and mercy in their lives. 

The first week of May marked the official beginning of OM Chile’s sports ministry. Football is the most popular sport in Chile, so it was the natural avenue to follow for starting a sports ministry. Tjaard had a football field reserved and a large group of interested Chileans ready to play.

When he called to confirm the reservation, he learnt the bad news: they had lost their time slot for the field, and there was no other opening. Because the sports ministry was so new, they had no budget to work with, so Tjaard called his Chilean contact to see what they could do. In the phone call he learnt that many of the guys planning to play that night were not able to come.

Tjaard hung up the phone and looked at the situation before him: With only a few hours until the OM Chile sports ministry was scheduled to begin with its first football game, there was no field, no money and almost no people. What was he going to do?

Tjaard began praying and asked the OM Chile team to pray. He went for a walk to a nearby park, hoping for guidance and clarity. He sat with Bible in hand, praying for the venture before him. As he looked around he felt a peace steal over him. God was in control and had the perfect plan, even if Tjaard could not see it.

He returned to the public football field that evening with the Chilean guys who showed up. The field was unoccupied so they began playing. Soon after, some local guys arrived wanting to play, so they were invited into the game. That evening, many conversations and jokes were shared with the local guys. It turns out they play regularly at that field and they made the invitation to play together often.

“I had no idea how things were going to work out,” shared Tjaard, “but God obviously did. He really blessed the sports ministry that night, and I pray that He continues to do so as we go forward with this new ministry for OM Chile.”

The participants in OM Chile’s Intensive Training programme recently returned from travelling in the south of Chile for two weeks. They worked with two churches did adventure activities like climbing a volcano, white water rafting, mountain biking and horseback riding. They had spent a lot of time in class and participating in OM Chile’s ministries in Santiago, so they enjoyed putting into practice what they learnt during the programme.

The team first went to the town of Talcahuano, where they worked a small church of about 40 members. The participants quickly learnt that flexibility would be key as they went to the main plaza to do a programme to share the gospel, only to find it closed for construction. Instead, they shared on a street corner downtown, passing out invitations to the church, doing a clown sketch amongst the passersby and singing worship songs.

The group's next open-air programme in the town happened as the rain came down and the sound system wouldn’t play the music for their drama. Again, flexibility was key, but God worked even through the rain. People living around the plaza stood in their doorways observing, and the team had good conversations with people afterwards.

The group then travelled to the city of Valdivia to work with a church. When they split the group to go to two different locations, it was understood that one group would work with children and the other group with older adults. When the group working with adults arrived at their location, however, they found only young children! Having given all of their resources for children’s ministry to the other group, the participants and their coordinator improvised a programme on the spot. Short-handed and lacking supplies, they got creative and presented three short dramas, gave a message and shared a testimony. At the end of the programme, they prayed with each child individually.

“As one of the coordinators of the training and leader of the art ministry, it was exciting for me to see the group perform dramas, share their testimonies, encourage youth, converse with onlookers and adapt in the moment to whatever was needed,” shares OMer Whitney Guthrie. “The nine-month training is intense and asks a lot of the participants, and it was wonderful to see them pushing themselves and thriving as they served the Lord in real and tangible ways in the south.”

Members of the team, including the participants in OM Chile's Intensive Training, recently returned from a 10-day youth camp hosted by a church in Santiago. The OMers, along with 110 Chilean young adults, spent the week worshipping the Lord, diving deeper into His Word and sharing the gospel in a small town nearby.

The days of sharing blessed the team as they worked alongside the other youth to reach the people. Setting up in the parking lot of the only supermarket in town, they offered free services—massages, blood pressure checks, haircuts, face painting, hugs and prayer—to people passing by. The Intensive Training group also presented clown dramas for children and more profound dramas for adults that conveyed messages of freedom and love found in a relationship with Jesus Christ.

Throughout the week of the camp, the youth practiced a song to present something extra special during the activities. With it all planned and practiced, they headed in to the supermarket where they performed a flash mob. Some of the youth dressed as staff workers and stocked shelves, some hid in offices and many others posed as shoppers. 

As the song started over the store’s loud system, a few of the boys started singing at the top of their lungs. More guys joined as the song progressed, and the girls joined in halfway through. The group moved slowly together to the centre of the store, where they joined their voices in worship. With the attention that was drawn by the flash mob, the group invited people to experience the activities offered outside and to hear the message of love found in Jesus Christ.

The youth camp blessed all involved. The time of fellowship at the camp brought the youth closer together and closer to the Lord, and through the outreach days people accepted Jesus Christ as their Saviour.

This year the teams set out for the homes loaded down with four mattresses, meters of plastic, soap, snacks, drinks and movies. They spent most of the day outside with the children. They wrapped the mattresses in the heavy plastic and connected them at the ends to make a slide. Then they poured soap on them and let the kids throw themselves down the slide as water sprayed them. The team members also participated, which the children loved. There was not a dry person in sight.

OM Chile's newly-formed theatre group, a mix of people from OM Chile and local volunteers, created a drama to share with the kids. The story spoke of two toys that woke up under the Christmas tree on Christmas Eve and wondered about the little boy they saw lying in a manger. They travelled around the world searching for the answer, asking toys in Asia, United States and Israel what they knew about the little baby. They found their answer in Israel when a toy shared the story of Jesus' birth and explained that He is the reason we celebrate Christmas. The children of the homes enjoyed watching the drama and asked questions afterwards.

The afternoon continued into early evening as everyone ate pizza and moved inside to watch a movie. Many of the boys and girls fell asleep during the film, tired from the day on the water slide. They snuggled against the OM Chile team members and closed their eyes, an indication of the trust growing between the children and the team.

The children and team alike had a wonderful day, sharing gifts and laughter, time and love, and most importantly, the reason for Christmas.

It was a Friday evening and the participants of OM Chile's Agape homeless ministry were meeting at the OM house to eat together and prepare bread and tea for the homeless. Like every Friday, they made their way to Santiago’s Plaza de Armas and towards the area where they normally find their homeless friends, Diego, Colo-Colo and Luis.

That Friday night, however, they couldn’t find the men. They asked a homeless woman if she had any information about the guys. She told them that in the past few days, Diego had been drinking a lot of pisco, a Chilean drink, and it was too much for his body. They took him to the hospital, but there he died. The leaders of the ministry went to the hospital to confirm the story, which sadly was true.

“For me, this has been the hardest night of my life so far,” confessed Lukas, a participant of OM Chile’s Intensive Training programme. “Since the beginning of my time in the homeless ministry, Diego had been special to me. We somehow became friends as the weeks turned into months, and I remember one time giving him one of my hot dogs and a Coke.”

Lukas shared that every time he was with Diego, asked him how he was and prayed with him, Diego cried. “I believe that he was really unhappy about his situation and ashamed for me to see him how he was,” said Lukas.

Two weeks earlier, Diego had told Lukas that he was tired of living. Lukas took this seriously and asked Diego if he had accepted Jesus Christ as his Saviour and God, adding that Jesus is the only one who could save his life. Diego told Lukas that he believed.

“I prayed with him that night," shared Lukas, "and have the belief and hope that one day I will see my friend Diego again in heaven.”

The young boy did not come over to greet the OMers when they arrived at the children’s home in Santiago, Chile, where he lives. He didn’t participate in the programme the OMers put on. Instead, he stayed in the corner of the yard all afternoon, digging in the dirt.

After their programme, one of the OM team members, Whitney Guthrie, went over to see what the young boy was working on so earnestly. She bent down next to him and saw a small pile of worms next to his foot, the results of his toil. 

"¿Qué haces?" she asked. What are you doing?

"Venga, Tía,” he responded. Come, Aunt. He led Whitney over to an enclosure in the yard where two chickens scratched in the dirt. He sat down in the dirt and held out a worm towards one of the chickens, smiling as it stretched its neck out to snatch the worm.

Whitney watched as the little boy, one by one, fed his painstakingly-gathered worms to the chickens. At one point, he pulled one of the chickens into his lap to let her eat straight from the pile of worms in his hand. When she had gobbled them, he gently and quietly talked to her.

“Here, let me clean your beak off,” he murmured. “You’ve got mud on it.” He lifted the hem of his t-shirt and wiped at the chicken’s face, the hen remarkably calm throughout his ministrations.

As the boy put the chicken down and left the enclosure, Witney called him over and knelt down in front of him. “You know, I love watching you with animals," she said. "You really like them, don’t you?”

“Yeah, they’re great,” he replied simply.

“I’ve seen you with the dog of the home, too, and you’re very gentle and loving,” Whitney said to him. “I want you to know that I love seeing that side of you. You have a great heart. I love you a lot. You know that, right?” she asked.

“Yeah, I know, Tia,” he answered. “I love you, too.” He grinned at Whitney, gave her a big hug and ran off.

The boy, Luis*, is 13 years old and has been in different children’s homes since he was a baby, along with his older brothers. He has experienced so much insecurity and rejection in his young life that he now has difficulty connecting with other people, preferring the company of animals over that of the other boys at the home. Please pray for this young boy’s heart, so loving and already so scarred.

*Name changed

How do you connect with your new neighbours? OM Chile thought of something creative as they moved into their new ministry base in the country's capital, Santiago, three months ago. The participants of OM Chile’s Intensive Training programme discussed how they could introduce OM Chile to the area and begin ministry to the neighbours.

An idea formed to utilise the front gate. The group took the measurements of the gate and then created a painting declaring God’s love in different languages. When the painting was dry, they cut it into strips.

The idea was to glue the painting to the side of the iron posts of the gate. Viewing the gate from straight ahead, the painting wouldn’t be visible, but for those walking along the sidewalk or passing by in a car, the painting would suddenly appear as they drew closer.

The participants prayed that OM Chile’s front gate would impact people’s lives. They prayed that, through the painting, conversations would start with neighbours and passersby—conversations that would allow them to explain about OM Chile and God’s love for each person.

The first painting was a great success. It was a trial to see if the painting would display well on the gate, the glue would hold and the painting would stay up. It worked! Since the painting has been in place, God has answered the participants’ prayers—people walking by have stopped to look at it and talk with the team. Currently the gate says: “Jesus sets you free”.

Please pray that the front gate will be a continuing ministry in the neighbourhood and that people will be impacted, both by the message of the painting and through conversation and prayer with the OM team.

OM Chile’s Intensive Training participants shared the gospel recently one morning in a plaza near the OM base in Santiago. Plaza Ñuñoa is large and busy with a lot of foot traffic and bus stops.

The group planned to connect with people about God. Two guys in the group would give out free hugs. Two girls would use a box with words printed on the side that read: “The most precious thing in the world…inside.” Others would lay a large paper cross on the sidewalk and invite people to use paint and crayons to express their thoughts about God.  

Each team member would give out paper flowers with a Bible verse, Matthew 11:28, attached which read, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest,” (NIV).

With plans made and preparations complete, the team prayed over the physical location and for the people God would put in their path. With everything ready, the Intensive Training group made their way to Plaza Ñuñoa.

Upon arrival at 10:00 in the morning, the team met with a steady stream of people. The group circled together and prayed for opportunities to speak to people. Then they set out to engage with the passersby.  

The two guys held signs that read “Abrazos Gratis” (Free Hugs) and gave hugs to grandmothers, construction workers, businessmen and children alike. At one point, one of them hugged a follower of Hare Krishna, told him that God loved him and handed him a flower with a Bible verse.

At the big box, those who peered inside to discover the most precious thing in the world burst into smiles and laughter when they saw their own reflection shining back at them from a mirror. They heard that they are precious to God.

The paper cross on the ground became a place of in-depth conversation and prayer with people. As passersby stopped and took the time to write or paint their thoughts about God, the participants asked questions and spoke honestly about the Lord.

The team saw God’s hand work in people’s hearts that day. Through something as simple as a paper flower or a free hug, God advanced His kingdom in Santiago.

Although big changes can be disorienting, sometimes it’s often the smaller details of daily life that have the strongest impact. Nienke Pieksma, a participant from the Netherlands, has experienced culture shock during her daily bus rides.

“Bus rides in the Netherlands are very quiet trips,” Nienke shared. “Just a few days before I left the Netherlands for Chile, I was sitting in the bus and there was a woman on her cell phone speaking very loudly. At the beginning the bus driver let her carry on with the conversation, but when he realised it wasn’t going to be a quick call he got on the microphone. The bus driver announced through the bus, ‘Phone calls on the bus are not allowed. Please stop your conversation.’”

After the quiet of the buses in the Netherlands, Nienke was surprised by the activity of fellow passengers on the city buses in Santiago. Her leaders had told her to expect people singing and making music on the bus, and Nienke pictured them doing it quietly. She quickly learnt that this is not the case.

“There is always something happening in the bus!” she exclaimed. “I have seen people acting, dancing, rapping and playing many different instruments. There have been people selling Band-Aids, ice cream, puzzles and tissues.”

Nienke realised that her experiences on the bus are great examples of daily life in Chile. She’s noticed that people support each other however they can, even if it just means buying an ice cream or tipping a musician.

Though the culture in Chile is very different from the culture in the Netherlands, she says it’s growing on her: “It’s often surprising, always changing, but I am finding that I quite enjoy these noisy rides.”

Over the last year, it had become increasingly clear to Field Leader Carlos Correa that with the blessing of new members and ministries, the team had outgrown its space. They were spread around the country's capital, Santiago, in an office in one location and two apartments and a house in other locations. So Carlos began looking to finding a new property for the OM base.

In May of this year, Carlos and his wife, Rita, attended leadership training in England. There they met Nathan, another attendee who had grown up in Chile and was part of Christian Missionary Alliance (CMA). While chatting, OM Chile’s need for a new base came up. Nathan shared that CMA would be leaving Chile, and their house was for sale. Feeling God’s hand at work, Carlos and Rita began praying about the house.

When they returned to Chile, Carlos contacted CMA about the possibility of OM Chile buying their house. After seeing the base, it was clear that it would serve the team wonderfully; it was in a good neighbourhood, was large enough to accommodate everyone and even had space to serve and grow the ministry.

Months passed and the conversations continued. "We remained faithful in prayer," says Carlos. "Throughout the talks, the quotes, the lawyers, and other possible buyers, we felt a peace about the house, knowing that if this was God’s next step for OM Chile, we would have it."

It turned out that it was God’s plan for the team. CMA and OM Chile signed the contract for the property and the team moved in on 27 August.

The lawyers who worked on the contract were astounded when the two parties agreed that OM Chile would initially pay only 10 per cent of the total cost of the house.

That was the beautiful part of two Christian groups working together and knowing that this was God’s next step for their organisations.

"That was the beautiful part of two Christian groups working together and knowing that this was God’s next step for their organisations," says Carlos.

OM Chile must pay off the house in five years; the first of the payments is due in January. "It is a very large undertaking, but we are resting in the faithfulness of our heavenly Father," shares Carlos. "He has blessed us with this house, and He will provide for our needs. Our Lord is a faithful and loving Father. Let His name be praised!"

Every year, OM Chile welcomes young foreigners who are interested in missions to its nine-month intensive training course. This year’s group arrived on 4 September.

In the span of a week, not only did the team move the contents of the OM office, apartments and house into OM Chile’s new home, but they also prepared the new base for the arrival of the training participants. In the meantime, they continued their work in two children’s homes, with the homeless and with the skateboard ministry. "It’s an understatement to say that we’ve been busy," says Carlos.

OM Chile has been in its new home for almost a month now and already sees God’s blessing in the property. "It has been an incredible experience to see God’s hand at work in OM Chile’s new home base," says Carlos.

We are able to be together, praying and having devotions together, eating together, working and playing together. It is uniting us more as a team each day as we support each other.

"Even with all of the chaos of the past month, God has been faithful and has brought us to a property that already feels like home. We are able to be together, praying and having devotions together, eating together, working and playing together. It is uniting us more as a team each day as we support each other."

To learn more about OM Chile’s short-term opportunities, click here. To learn about OM Chile’s longer-term opportunities, click here. For OM Chile’s website, visit www.omchile.cl.

OMer Aline Correa shares about a woman who has stayed in her heart since praying for her on the streets of Santiago.  

"She passed by us, carrying a plastic bag wrapped around a bottle. We were on the corner of a street huddled together, praying for the night and for our friends on the street.

“She could have continued on but she stopped, perhaps curious about what we were doing on that corner. The Spanish flowed back and forth very quickly between the woman and one of the guys in the group. The woman had obviously been drinking but she was very affectionate, kissing the guy's hand, telling him what a blessing he was.

“She shared that she had been a part of church. Now she was pregnant. She patted her stomach, looking sad. The guy asked if we could pray for her. She agreed and went to the middle of our circle. There she started praying herself, asking God to forgive her for her sins and to show mercy in her life.

“When she was done, my friends started to pray for her. I had my hand on her shoulder and she grabbed it, holding my hand and kissing it, crying. She crouched down as the alcohol started to take effect on her, and some of us crouched down with her.

I felt a deep, profound love for this stranger, and at the same time I kept hoping that a miracle would happen—that in that moment, whatever hurt or disappointment she was feeling would fade away.

“I felt a deep, profound love for this stranger, and at the same time I kept hoping that a miracle would happen—that in that moment, whatever hurt or disappointment she was feeling would fade away. After we finished praying, one of the leaders gently told her that she shouldn’t be drinking, because of her baby. She gave excuses, obviously embarrassed. We asked for her name, which she told us. After a while she left on her way, supposedly to give her friend the bottle of alcohol she had bought.

“Ever since that night, I haven’t forgotten her name. I know the Lord says that if we call upon Him in our anguish, He will set us free. I pray that the step this dear lady took that night may lead her to find freedom in Christ.”

Whitney Guthrie, an OM Chile team member, visits two children’s homes each week to invest in the lives of the kids. Here she shares about her experiences, love for the children and why she prays.

One of the most powerful, wonderful, and incredibly heavy ministries I am honoured to be a part of is OM Chile’s children’s ministry. We in the children’s ministry have been working hard to create a Prayer Parent project that will ultimately result in each child from the two children’s homes having someone caring for him or her through prayer. Friends, family members, church members, supporters: anyone who feels the Lord leading them to be a part of this may be a “parent”.

As we worked to accumulate the information for the project—explaining about children’s homes in Chile, the specific children’s home to which the child is connected, what life is like for some of these children, and specifics about the child’s life, history, and prayer requests for the child—it has been a heavy undertaking. The heaviness comes in learning more about my boys, learning about their pasts, their hurts, the reasons why they’ve ended up in the children’s home. Blissful ignorance is gone and my heart hurts for the amount of life these young, sweet, beautiful boys have already lived.

The most powerful tool I have in working with and caring for my boys is prayer. Before we go to the children’s homes, we pray. We pray for God to bless the day and the experience with the children. We pray for each child individually. We pray for the staff people at the homes. When we arrive, we stand outside and before entering we ask God to be over the time and over the home, that He will reclaim the space as His. When we leave the home, we praise God for the experience, whether wonderful or difficult, and pray that it made an impact. When I am at home, I have photos of all of my boys so I can pray for them.

What I have experienced in this ministry, with these boys and girls, is that if I try to accomplish anything in my own power, I am just knocking my head against a wall. We bathe this in prayer not because of pride, but because we’re humbly acknowledging that we can’t do it; He can. These children have had their innocence ripped away from them; many have experienced evil. They struggle to accept the love and healing that the Lord offers each of them. Who am I in that fight? What can I possibly do in my own power?

This is why I pray. Will you join me?

Please join us in prayer for the children:

 “We Pray For Children” by Ina J Hughs

We pray for children
Who sneak popsicles before supper,
Who erase holes in math workbooks,
Who can never find their shoes.

And we pray for those
Who stare at photographers from behind barbed wire,
Who can't bound down the street in a new pair of sneakers,
Who never "counted potatoes,"
Who are born in places we wouldn't be caught dead,
Who never go to the circus,
Who live in an X-rated world.

We pray for children
Who bring us sticky kisses and fistfuls of dandelions,
Who hug us in a hurry and forget their lunch money.
And we pray for those
Who never get dessert,
Who have no safe blanket to drag behind them,
Who watch their parents watch them die,
Who can't find any bread to steal,
Who don't have any rooms to clean up,
Whose pictures aren't on anybody's dresser,
Whose monsters are real.

We pray for children
Who spend all their allowance before Tuesday,
Who throw tantrums in the grocery store and pick at their food,
Who like ghost stories,
Who shove dirty clothes under the bed and never rinse out the tub,
Who get visits from the tooth fairy,
Who don't like to be kissed in front of the carpool,
Who squirm in church or temple and scream in the phone,
Whose tears we sometimes laugh at and whose smiles can make us cry.

And we pray for those
Whose nightmares come in the daytime,
Who will eat anything,
Who have never seen a dentist,
Who aren't spoiled by anybody,
Who go to bed hungry and cry themselves to sleep,
Who live and move, but have no being.

We pray for children who want to be carried and for those who must,
For those we never give up on and for those who don't get a second chance.
For those we smother ... and for those who will grab the hand of anybody kind enough to offer it.

The team asked why he believed in God 50 per cent, and they asked if he had prayed to God before. He said that he had tried praying before but that God didn’t answer his prayer. He then told the team that the one thing he wanted was to be back with his family, or at least to have someone visit him. He never received visitors and was very lonely. He missed his mom.

The boy lives in one of the two children's homes in Chile's capital where the OM team minister. The team invest in the lives of the children living there. Some of the children are orphans, some were abandoned, and many were removed from their families because of the situation at home.

A simple prayer

During a children’s programme a few weeks ago, the team talked with this boy after performing a drama about God’s love. “He’s a quiet, often-sullen boy who came to the children’s home six months ago,” says Whitney Guthrie, an OM Chile team member. "When he arrived he was a very angry young man who fought with anyone who crossed him and was uncomfortable with receiving or showing affection. Over the months he has warmed up to us but is still very reserved."

It was a short, simple prayer, but it was a plea from this boy’s heart to take away his loneliness and to reconnect him to his family.

It was hard for the team members to keep back tears as they listened to the boy share about his faith in God in a low voice, with his head down. "We asked him if we could pray with him and if he would like to try praying again," says Whitney. "It was a short, simple prayer, but it was a plea from this boy’s heart to take away his loneliness and to reconnect him to his family. When he finished, we told him we would pray specifically for his prayer request every day. He was really surprised by that, but we told him he’s important to us and we want to pray for God to fulfil the desires of his heart."

God’s answer

Children have been on holiday from school over the last few weeks in Chile. The team still goes to the children’s home twice a week, but fewer boys are there as many have gone to spend time with their families or godparents.

The team asked for an update on the children who were away, including the boy with whom they had prayed. "It was such wonderful news to hear that the reason we hadn’t seen him wasn't because he was on vacation, but because he had gone home,” said Whitney. “Praise God! His home situation had improved enough that he could be reunited with his parents and siblings. The children’s home will still monitor the family, but he is back home."

The OM team is encouraged by this amazing answer to prayer. "We are praying now that this boy will remember our conversation and see just how faithful and loving his Heavenly Father is," says Whitney. "We are praying that, through this experience, his 50 per cent might look a little different now."

Sometimes OM workers struggle to raise enough support to fund their work in missions. Sometimes, support raised at the beginning drops off. One woman serving with OM Chile has experienced this. After raising her support, leaving the Netherlands and being on the field for a few months, she found that the money coming in each month for her dropped dramatically. She prayed, the team in Chile prayed, and her core group of strong supporters back home prayed.

Her supporters came up with an idea to raise money that was both creative and fun—a duck race! They rented little rubber ducks, approached businesses about donating prizes, and went house to house through two villages and in churches to ‘sell’ the ducks. Each person who ‘bought’ a duck showed up the day of the race, hoping to see their duck cross the finish line first. All along a small canal, people lined up to watch almost 1,000 sponsored ducks drop into the water and make their way to the finish line. Not only did participants have fun, but they learned about the purpose of the race, the ministry of OM and the work being done in Chile.   

Praise God for providing creativity and 1,000 rubber ducks to cover the gap in the OM worker’s support. Pray that God would provide financially for all OM workers in Latin America.

From September 2010 to June 2011, the participants learned to live and work successfully as part of a multi-cultural team. They took a number of courses in which they read the entire Bible, memorised verses, studied a new language, and learned to skateboard, juggle, sing, act and how to share the Gospel effectively. They also worked with the homeless and in children’s homes.    

“I’ve learnt a lot about how to rest in God’s strength and not my own,” says Tanya from the UK. “Sometimes God allows us to lose our own strength so we have no choice but to rely on His.”

When the participants returned to their countries in June, they were different individuals than when they had arrived. Strength and confidence replaced their nervousness and uncertainty. They were a group of people who had a good grasp of the Spanish language, survived and thrived in a foreign culture, completed every task during training—no matter how intense—and steeped themselves in the Word of God.

“I’ve learnt a lot about how to rest in God’s strength and not my own,” says Tanya from the UK. “Sometimes God allows us to lose our own strength so we have no choice but to rely on His.”

Creatively sharing Christ

During one particular outreach, participants creatively shared about Christ with people in Santiago’s largest plaza, the Plaza de Armas. “We boarded the metro heading to Plaza de Armas loaded down with chairs, mirrors, an easel, a frame, a huge box, candies and more,” says one participant. “We made quite an impression on the other passengers.”

Upon arriving at the plaza, the participants prayed together and then split into groups. Two team members set up a couple folding chairs and put out a sign: “Free Massages”. Quickly, people took them up on their offer. The team had conversations with people and gave them a bag of candy with a Bible verse inside. Two other participants propped up an easel and frame in a crowded area. While one guy painted a message, the other girl shared about Jesus’ love and death on the cross.

Another group of three participants set up in front of the cathedral on the plaza. One girl sat on a chair and the others placed a huge box over her, hiding her inside. A small door had been cut in the front of the box, and on all sides the team had written: “The most precious thing in the world...inside.”

The box drew attention and a crowd quickly formed. People of all ages stepped into line to open the little door and look inside. As they looked, they saw themselves—the girl inside held a mirror. As people stepped back from the box, the other participants told them they are precious in God’s eyes and gave them a bag of candies with a Bible verse.  

As they blessed others with God’s message of love, they found that they were blessed in return.

In the span of a few hours, the participants talked and prayed with many people. On other occasions, they shared about God with children, the homeless, in churches, in plazas, in camps and on city buses. As they blessed others with God’s message of love, they found that they were blessed in return.

Different people

Throughout the training, the participants experienced deep friendships and learned much about themselves and God. “These nine months have been as intensive as the name says,” recalls Niklas from Germany. “There were intensive moments in the ministries, intensive moments with Chileans, intensive moments within the team and most of all intensive moments with God.”

Nine months may not seem like a long time, but the participants learned that God can do a lot in a short amount of time.  

“During this Intensive Training I have gotten to taste in a stronger way what it means to follow Jesus Christ,” says Kaisu from Finland. “I have experienced how God allows us to grow through the tasks and challenges He gives us, and even when we fail, He in His great mercy helps us to get up and on the way again.”

A group of about 75 people from different churches joined together in the largest plaza in Chile’s capital, Santiago, on a recent Friday evening. A few minutes before 19:00, the participants melted into the crowd. At exactly three minutes to 19:00, passersby suddenly noticed a large square of people frozen in place. As the bells of the cathedral rang out the hour, one girl in a corner of the square became unfrozen. She began to sing at the top of her lungs a song by the Christian group Hillsong, called “Only Jesus”, or in Spanish, “Solo Cristo”.

As the two people standing on each side of her heard her sing, they also moved and joined her in song. Their neighbours in turn did the same. Slowly the song made its way around the large square of people until everyone was singing at full volume and praising God.

At the final chorus, everyone raised their hands to the Lord. When the song ended, the participants in the flash mob separated to talk with people in the plaza, pray with them and invite them to their churches. Praise God that many people were touched by the message they heard that evening. Please pray that many will visit the churches and accept Jesus into their lives.

They were told to empty their pockets, put down their bags, and move into two assigned groups. At that point the leader told them they would be walking out the door and not returning until 8pm. They were to spend the day praying for God to guide them in how they could serve Him. They were rather surprised.

They headed out, no money, no water, with nothing, and got in their groups to pray. They weren’t to go anywhere without feeling the Lord first leading them. One group started walking, destination unknown, until they walked past a nursing home. They stopped in to ask if they could serve them in some way. They were told they could come another day.

Disappointed and getting hungry, they started walking again. When they looked down, they saw a still-packaged cookie. One of the guys had been looking for money on the ground all day, sure God would provide that way, and instead they found a cookie. Yes, they ate it.

Both groups had the epiphany that, though they should ask God how to serve, they were actually looking for God to serve them. Walking around with nothing, though, made them aware of how blessed they already were, and they should be aware to serve where they can.

To spend an entire day in anticipation of God doing or showing something made them view normal experiences in a completely different way. If before they ignored or turned down people asking for money, that day it was with excitement that they saw people approach them because it was an opportunity to talk with them and pray for God to lead the conversation. How different would our approach to daily life be if we awoke each day with the expectation that God will do something amazing today?

After a successful season of ´Generation X´ – as these meetings are called – the team decided to carry on with the activities for teenage boys living in the home. On 30 March, the workshop started with eight teens, of which several were first-time participants.

“It is miraculous to see the work that God has done with these boys in the past year,” says Fabian Tobar, OM Chile team member. “Even in the few weeks of workshop this year, we’ve seen changes in some of the boys’ lives. They are motivated and happy to be a part of this workshop. They always come up with new ideas on what to do during the year and reward us with hugs and smiles.”

Not for kids

OM Chile has been working in two different children’s homes in the country’s capital, Santiago. One of these, Sión, is a home for boys. Even though the team members already offered programmes for these boys, they saw the need for organising something in particular for the teens. “The older boys weren’t coming to our programmes,” says Fabian. “That was understandable, since these activities are focused on kids. So we tried to think of something so these boys would have their own space. In the Generation X meetings, they can get to know the gospel from the perspective of their own age.”

The setting is very informal, he says. “We share about things that interest them—social themes, but always from a Christian point of view.” Every Wednesday, the group comes together for about an hour and a half. They talk about all sorts of life issues: friendship, family, sexuality, intelligence types, forgiveness – anything. The central theme changes every month.

Camping experience

“But we also have time for leisure,” says Fabian. In the first weekend of April, the OM team took the boys camping in Cajón de Maipu, a bit outside of Santiago. A weekend like this is not just a lot of fun, but also a good way to connect to the boys, he says.

“For some of them, it was their first time camping. We had a great time. We had good conversations, sang together and had a time of reflection around the Word of God.” It was a good opportunity for the team members to get to know the boys in a different context. “We had conversations that we wouldn’t have been able to have in the home.” Moreover, the teens could see the team members living as Christians in their daily lives.

The team is very happy with the response of the boys. Last year, several of them gave their lives to Jesus. “It is interesting and exciting to see how they are open to receive more from God,” says Fabian. “We invite you to pray for our gatherings and also for the discipleship that we started with the boys who’ve accepted Christ. Please pray that the Lord may continue to work in their hearts.”

This year, participants revisited Chillan to join members of the church on a weekend outreach. For more than three days, they shared God’s love with the citizens of the town. Activities took place in the rebuilt church and surrounding neighbourhood.

Participants and church members walked through the neighbouring streets singing and clapping to invite people to join them in an open-air programme. After a time of worship, the group performed a drama and someone shared a message. The evening ended with a call to anyone who wished to accept Jesus. “It was an amazing and humbling experience to stand there, praying for and witnessing people joining the family of Christ,” recalled one participant.

Praise God for participants’ experience at the OM Chile Intensive Training programme. Please pray that many more people in Chillan will come to know Jesus as their Saviour.

‘I’m 21 years old’, Diego says. ‘And I’ve been skating for seven years now. I’ve got lots of friends among the skaters. I’m one of the best skaters of my group in Santiago. Before, I used to enjoy that status very much. I thought that this was all that I needed. Every once in a while, there was pain and sadness as well. Depressive thoughts were a part of my daily life. Sometimes, these thoughts were very heavy. At that times, I used to cut myself with a knife. I drank a lot, used marihuana and went from one party to the other. Inside, I felt empty. It was my dream to be a sponsored skateboarder and to win a lot of competitions. But this only strengthened the last letters of my name: (Di)Ego!’

One day, during the skating, he met Yerko. ‘We became friends. His passion and motivation for life intrigued me. He kept on inviting me to come to the mini-ramp. We bought something to eat and drink together and invited more friends. It was great. I loved meeting more people from different countries. We had a lot of fun together. But most of all, I met Jesus. Yerko helped me to get out of the gutter. I can say now that, through Yerko, God reached out to me. God showed me His love through Yerko, in a way that I understood the best. It was this love and acceptance, that my heart had been longing for so long. I really understand now what it is to live my life with Jesus. It’s nothing to be ashamed of. Everything has been created by God and for God. So when I say that I’m a skater, it means that I’m skating for Him. On October 17th 2009, I accepted Jesus as my Saviour. I know now, that I’ll never be alone again.’

A little while later, skaters Pinky and Feliciano also gave their lives to Jesus. They attend OM Chile’s Bible studies and recently, Pinky got baptised. ‘It isn’t easy to be a Christian in the world of the skaters’, he testified in church. ‘But I made my choice: I want to live for Jesus.’ Praise God for these Christian skaters in Santiago and pray that many more skaters will be reached with the gospel through this ministry.