Dear Pastors, Family, & Friends,
First, my family and I want to thank you for your faithfulness to support and pray for us another year. We are humbled by your generosity and compassion for our family and the work of the Lord. We pray that the Lord will bless you many times over for your sacrificial giving to advance His kingdom.
We are grateful that in 2017 we were able to work in Iglesia Bautista Redentor. We have seen several people saved, baptized, taking discipleship classes, and added to the church. We look forward to continuing to work with the new believers and others that the Lord has sent us to confirm this church in the community of Padre Hurtado here in Santiago.
Also, we are grateful that we were able to visit the states for four months at the end of the year to give a report to supporting churches, present the work in new churches, and spend some time with our families over the holidays.
We are now back in Chile and very excited for what the Lord has for us next. Please continue to pray for us as we follow the Lord.
Also, one of the most excited things that took place this year was an agreement we made, along with other missionaries we are working with, to purchase a building for the Chile Training Center. CTC will be used to assist us and the other missionaries in training men and women for the ministry here in Chile and Lord willing around the world.
It is an incredible story of how God brought this all together and even more incredible how he worked in the hearts of all the owners, over twenty of them, to accept our offer on the property.
The offer included allowing us to pay for the property in payments over a period of nine months without interest, and allowing us to take possession of the building and use it while making the payments without paying rent. Only God could do that.
We are now up against the deadline to make the next payment; which is due Jan.15. The Lord has blessed with an organization that has agreed to match the gifts that are given up to $25,000 in the last ten days leading up to the next payment.
We are almost there. We need approximately $21,000 to complete the next payment, and then we will begin raising the funds for the final payment. This match gift offer could help us not only reach the current goal but give us a great head start on the last payment.
If you would like to make a gift to help with these final payments you can find information on how to do that at: https://250project.com/give/
Just think, if only one hundred churches, organizations, individuals or any combination of the three were to give a $1,000 each we could pay this debt in full to the glory of God.
2017 was a great year. We believe 2018 will be even greater.
THANK YOU again for your investment into our lives and the ministries here in Chile.
In Christ,
The Smitheys
Jamie, Erica, Morgan, Luke, and Meredith