Dear Pastors & Praying Friends,
Thank you for your prayers and continued support. Below is an update on things that took place in August and September:
August: I was invited to preach the evening service at a church plant in the 5th region of Chile, which is near the coast about an hour west of where we are with the aid of fellow missionary Jason Holt interpreting. After the service that night two girls and one woman made a profession of faith in Christ. This was a church plant started by Jason Holt and is now being led by a young national pastor and his wife.
The third Sunday in August after our morning services we had a special activity for children in the Pudahuel community. We had several visitors attend to take part of this activity and several people made professions of faith in Christ.
We closed out August with a special Saturday night meeting for our married couples. We had a great time and enjoyed the time of fellowship and encouragement.
September: Things were a little shaky in September; literally. Approximately three hours north of us was the epicenter of a 8.3 magnitude earthquake. We felt the earthquake, but we did not suffer any loss, other than sleep, and were not injured in any way. We praise the Lord for his protection during this event. Please pray for those in the cities north of us who were impacted the most. Although, there were deaths and property damage, it wasn’t as bad as it could have been with such a large quake. It was the largest in the world so far this year.
Also, We were able to celebrate Chile’s Independence day on September 18th. I loved the patriotism that was displayed not only on this day but really the whole month of September, and was encouraged to see how the chileans love each other and their country. It made us love the country and people even more.
Praises:
For the professions of faith that were made
For protection during the earthquake
For the funds that were raised to purchase the building for Life Baptist Church. (special note here; although there were several churches and individuals that gave to make this possible we were humbled that our home church, Cherry Grove Baptist, gave $5,000.00. Thank you to everyone and every church that gave. Words can not express our gratitude for your generosity to make this happen.
For completing book one of language school
Prayer Requests:
For the Lord to continue to help Erica and I learn the language
For more opportunities to share the gospel (with the language limits this is hard for us, but we try to do the best we can and at least invite people to church.
For funds to replace items that were taken from the church during the robbery in July
For the continued growth of the new believers
For the upcoming baptism that will be held this month.
In Christ,
Jamie, Erica, Morgan, Luke, and Meredith Smithey