Establishing our home base

As we progress toward finishing our cabin, life is continually fascinating in this little beach town in central Chile. We wanted to let you know what we have been up to for the past few weeks in our cabin and out in the community.

We have recently been able to purchase a wood burning stove / oven / cooktop. It was quite a project finding the oven, installing the tiles, then installing the stove pipe. The man who helped us is our good friend, Senor Olivares, the same man who built our cabin. He has been eating dinner with us some evenings. It has been wonderful having him as he is very animated, sometimes telling moving personal stories of his history and the history of Chile. He came inside with a chainsaw, started it, and proceeded to cut a large hole in the ceiling  A bit scary, quite funny, but now we are warm and can cook indoors. We are very thankful.

Ephraim made plans for a dining / school table and benches with a 3D modeling program called Blender, and all the family have been working on cutting wood and sanding for weeks now. The big boys just finished wiring our cabin for lights using solar power. We will continue to use candles primarily but it is good to have more light when desired. Gathering wood and picking up garbage continue to be a way of making positive connections with the people here.

I (Jennifer) have been able to interact with some Chilean ladies from the Watchtower. Here is one episode:

The JW's were back today. They brought a young lady who speaks some English. I liked her right away. She explained a little of what the JW's believe. Her English was pretty good. There was one word she didn't know. Can you guess?...What word would I want most to explain to a Jehovah's Witness? That's right.. "gospel." The good news. I got really excited. I felt like she needed desperately to know what I was about to tell her, and I loved her. I talked to her about the truth that we know we have sin and that we are broken. We try many things to fix it. We try doing good, going to the right church, wearing the right clothes, and it makes us feel better but inside we still feel that brokenness, We need someone who is not broken to fix us. God knew this so Jesus came... God with us. She asked if they could come back and I said, "yes".

I want to make sure to not let the conversation degenerate into what her religion teaches. I don't have time for that. I want to know what she personally believes and if she realizes that she has sin and if she wants forgiveness. Help me God, to show her that salvation is a free gift!

Please pray we continue to have many opportunities to love our neighbors with confidence in the strength of Christ.