Team Leaders In Talca

I got up early this morning to catch the train to Talca. We needed to be at Tulipanes restaurant in downtown Talca by 11:30 for a meeting with the ministry team leaders in Chile. There were 6 of us traveling from Santiago, Doug, Kurt, Christian, Clint, Maggie and me. Maria Jose and Veronica from Concepcion met us in Talca. This is our second meeting this semester with all the team leaders in Chile.
These have been important and productive times as we establish and grow the ministry. We are establishing a plan for national events (summer projects and conferences), adapting a discipleship curriculum for Chile and other resources essential to growing a healthy ministry where students are involved in spiritual multiplication.

Rolando

Today on my way home from church I decided to take the bus to Plaza de Armas. There are some international call centers there that are half price. Plaza de Armas is the main plaza in Santiago, surrounded old buildings that are now museums, the old post office, cathedral etc. It has also become the place where "evangelical" pastors and a few of their faithful go to shout at people. As I walked across the plaza on my way home I saw a guy reading some of their literature. I sat down next to him and asked him what he thought. Turns out he had just learned that his wife is cheating on him and... We talked for about an hour. Mostly about how we can love and forgive even when it is hard. And how God loves us and forgives us. Rolando responded the gospel of grace. He told me, "I've always believed God exists but I have never put Him first in my life. I am going to put God first. I feel a great relief." He leaves for Peru tomorrow.

Dario

Yesterday I met with a student who had come to a couple of our weekly meetings. In fact we showed a short interview with Dario at our meeting two weeks ago about self esteem. His honesty answering the questions was refreshing.
Dario is a classmate of several students that we have been getting to know. I think two of them have also trusted Christ and started follow-up Bible studies with Adriana, one of our Mexican STINTers.
When someone comes to our meeting we try to meet with them the next week and get to know them a little more. Dario and I talked for about an hour. We talked about how trust is so important for good relationships with friends, family and God. He indicated that he was about 60% confident that God would accept him. As we talked through the "Would You Like to Know God Personally" booklet Dario understood that God is completely trustworthy. And he placed his faith in Jesus Christ. It is a great joy to be part of God's working salvation in people's lives! What an awesome adventure Dario has ahead of him.

Against the Staus Quo2

This week I was inviting students to our weekly meeting when a student said (I think hoping that I wouldn't hear or understand) "these will brainwash you". His friend (I think hoping to make up for his friends blatant prejudice) asked me, "are you a religious group?" This is probably the most frequent question I get from students and administration. Given what we do on campus and how we have consistently presented ourselves this question can only be based in prejudice.
Today a student told me with a straight face that he has no personal conflicts. I wanted to ask him if he had ever told a lie! Another told me in his own way all truth (especially religious) is relative and that anyone who would try to persuade otherwise is not tolerant.
These prejudices, indifference, spiritual blindness and close-mindedness we see among students are difficult to deal with. "The world is unprincipled. It's dog-eat-dog out there! The world doesn't fight fair. But we don't live or fight our battles that way--never have and never will. The tools of our trade aren't for marketing or manipulation, but they are for demolishing that entire massively corrupt culture. We use our powerful God-tools for smashing warped philosophies, tearing down barriers erected against the truth of God, fitting every loose thought and emotion and impulse into the structure of life shaped by Christ." (2 Corinthians 10:3-5)

Against the Status Quo

A few weeks ago I started a project to help improve the gym at USACH. This week I met again with the assistant athletic director and another person in the athletics department. This time I got more help than my first visit. Juanita was the person I really needed to meet. She knows about donations, an existing process to expand the gym that lacks funding and other politics of the university. Next week I will meet with her again to get the information I need. As I was waiting at the reception desk to meet the assistant athletic director the tennis coach talked with the secretary about his perspectives on spirituality and salvation. He hopes that his good life will help him earn his way into heaven. Maybe I will get to talk to him one day on campus. It is those instances that I am looking for as I serve students and the university. Pray that He would give us opportunities to share the gospel!

Vader Trap

Turns out those limits they put in elevators are good to follow. We were getting along so well at our staff conference that we decided we would stick together, all 13 of us on an elevator built for 8 people. Well, the doors closed and that was about it. So there we sat for a few minutes pressing the alarm button, and taking a few pictures. We didn't make it to the next meeting on time. I think the trap door on top only exists in the movies.

Expanding

September 21-24th all the Crusade staff in Chile gathered for our national staff conference. Just a little over one year ago there were 5 staff in Chile. There were 26 at the conference. This is a big answer to prayer. We are excited about what the Lord of the harvest has planned for us!

September Was Wacky

September has been a different kinda’ month. We had to cancel our weekly meeting on the 7th due to riots on campus. This was the beginning of our first week off campus. Friday the 8th was our first official student leadership meeting of the semester. The 9th we went to a concert featuring popular Chilean bands. The concert was put on by the Federación de Estudiantes of USACH to support the growing movement for reform of public education in Chile. The anniversary of the military coup, 11th of September, was another day of violence. Strange how people protest the violent deaths of many innocent people with more violence. We had a party for students at my place on the 14th. It was cool because students brought their friends and we got to connect with others that we hadn’t seen for a while.
The second week was all about independence celebrations. Our team has three Mexican’s. Mexico celebrates independence at midnight on the 16th. In Chile there the 18th is a holiday. The major city parks turn into festivals that they call “fondas”. There was lots of traditional Chilean food (empanadas, kabobs, sausage, mote, chichi) and musica andina. The national dance here is called the cueca, which is supposed to mimic a rooster chasing a hen. That being said it isn’t as strange as it might sound. When well done it is pretty cool. On the 20th we finally got back on campus. The 21st-24th we had our national staff conference, 26 staff! It was a good time of alignment and develop. The best part was building deeper friendships with the other staff. The 28th we had our second weekly meeting of the month, about life priorities and time management. And Finally on the 29th our second meeting with new student leaders.
What made September wacky? The main thing was that we weren't on campus. I think I expected that not being on campus and having two vacation days was going to be restful. But now that I look back, it was a full month.