Chile News - January 10, 2008
posted in Missions, South America |Grant Family 2007
Happy 2008! Thank you to so many that sent us Christmas cards this year. We love getting them! If you still had hope that your card from us was in the mail, you should now give up on that. It didn’t happen this year. Sorry! This will have to count!
It is hard for us to believe that we are living in Santiago, Chile in 2008; it seems like just yesterday that it was 1999, and we were arriving here. In March we will begin our 9th year of living and working in Santiago, and the Providencia congregation will be celebrating its 8th year. As I reflect on 2007 as with any year, there were good and bad moments. The year started out with one of the greatest struggles that we had faced in our personal ministry and ended with the same individuals involved in those difficult circumstances showing more Christian maturity and commitment than ever before.
To be honest the Providencia congregation did not experience much numerical growth in 2007, but for the first time since the church began, there were a number of young couples having children. Five new babies were born to church members in the last four months of 2007, with one of them being born on Dec. 31. The new births are a good indicator of the fact that we are getting a nucleus of young married couples. It also bodes well for the future of the children’s ministry, youth group etc. I guess the missionaries have shown them a good example over the years; Julie and I have definitely done our part!
Our church has been in a difficult transition over the past few years as we have gone from a congregation consisting primarily of singles, widows and separated individuals to a church with a majority of married couples and more recently as mentioned above, married couples with children. We still have a good group of single individuals and older widows, but the make-up of our congregation has shifted to a congregation of primarily married couples and families. Our Marriage Encounter ministry plays a large part in this, but it is also reflective of our new focus on discipling.
Our focus on discipling this year has been the biggest change for the mission team and the church. We identified the need to more purposely disciple Chilean Christians in March at a planning day and have moved forward from there. To be honest we really did not know what we were doing in the beginning, but the Lord was gracious enough to have patience with us in the process. The truth is that we went to the staff planning day to talk about what was wrong with the Providencia congregation, and we discovered that the problems were with the mission team. We were not being the Christian disciples that we needed to be and therefore how could we expect the Chilean Christians to be any different. We began a discipling process among the missionaries that included a reading plan, memorization and accountability, and then began to do the same with the men and women we were working with.
We still do not claim to be experts on the subject, but the basic idea of discipling our church members is that they can learn to feed themselves spiritually and then learn to teach others how to do the same. The old adage, “you can give a man a fish and feed him for a day or you can teach a man to fish and feed him for a lifetime” is our basic theme for discipling. We want to encourage Chilean Christians to not just take the name of a Christian as a title, but to truly understand what it means to live as a Christ follower.
We started this process in March, but we are just now beginning to see some of the fruit of it over the last few months. The results may not be obvious to all, but it incorporates everything from arriving on time for Sunday morning worship to learning all of the books of the Bible from memory. One of the things we do know about discipling is that we are making a long-term investment in our Chilean brothers and sisters and have to be patient with the process and trust that God is going to provide the growth. One of the unanticipated results of discipling for us is that it has caused us to much bolder in talking about God and in giving advice to those who are seeking direction.
If you have any additional questions about what we are doing or if you want to share any of your own experience with discipling, please write us. We are gathering all the books and practical experiences that we can on the subject.
We appreciate the prayers and encouragement for our family and our work. God and our family and friends continue to amaze us with the generosity and love that has been expressed to us over the years. One of the best things about being here over the last 9 years is the fact that we are the recipients of so many prayers and words of encouragement. We feel very honored and blessed to be serving alongside each and every one of you in God’s Kingdom. We pray that God will richly bless you in 2008.
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 glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.
–Ephesians 3:20-21
In Him,
Kelley, Julie, Duncan, Abby, Victoria and Konner Grant
Santa Magdalena Sofia 577
Las Condes
Santiago, Chile
Phone: 011-562-247-5715