Our Dream - A Maranatha Trip

"We were like those who dream, then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing." Psalms 126:1-2

Many an evening as we watched Maranatha Mission Stories on 3ABN we found ourselves saying "We want to go!" Whether it was building schools in India, wells in Mozambique, or churches in South America, we were always filled with a longing to jump in and get involved.

Well, this year our dream became a reality as we applied to be part of a group of volunteers going to Freire, Chile, on the Maranatha Family Christmas Project. The idea of spending the normally stressful, hectic, and (in our country) materialistic holiday season in service to others made this particular project extra appealing.

We were thrilled when our application was accepted and we quickly booked our tickets to Chile. This is the story of our adventure with Maranatha in the beautiful country of Chile!

(Freire is 30 minutes south of Temuco, just click on the map to enlarge it.)

We're off!!!!

"Get out of your country...to a land that I will show you." Gen 12:1

After much packing--including linens, pillows, hard hats, gloves, and trowels--we were on our way. We drove from home on Thursday, Dec 18th, wearing our Maranatha Chile t-shirts, to Atlanta. There we hopped on a big plane at about 6:30 pm for the first leg to Miami.

Upon arriving in Miami we made our way to the another gate for the overnight flight to Santiago, Chile. When we came off an elevator, we saw another family wearing Maranatha Chile t-shirts. I'll always remember one of their girls' excitement at seeing us in our shirts. Madelyn was especially glad to see some girls her age.

(Sleepily waiting in the Miami airport.)

As we waited for our flight we got to know the Kretschmar family better--Joe and Jeannie and their kids Julie (who is at Georgia-Cumberland Academy), Brian, Melissa, and Tori (11 year old triplets). Joe is the son of Juanita Kretschmar, one of the greatest Christians that we've ever met. Of course the kids had no problem at all jumping right into new friendships. Eventually Jim and Ruth Smith, a sweet older couple from Oregon, appeared at our gate. It seems funny how shy we felt toward those whom we now consider family. I plan to make it a priority to not let this happen next time, but rather to consider them family right of the bat.

We managed to sleep some during the overnight flight, which ended up getting in to Santiago an hour late. After dragging through customs it was a relief to walk out of the airport into the bright sunshine and see Dick and Brenda Duerksen there waiting for members of the team. Brenda even cheered when she saw us. It was so sweet! Dick is the host of Maranatha Mission Stories on TV, so we felt like we knew him already.

We boarded two tour buses where most of the group was already waiting for what turned out to be about a 12 hour ride to Freire. It actually gave us a lot of time to get acquainted and get some extra sleep. The kids didn't sleep at all, however. They were far too excited, especially as several more 11 and 12 year old girls joined the group, including Courtney and Kindsey Calvert from Alaska, with their parents John and Sandi.

(It usually looked far more crowded and active in the girls section!)

The country side reminded us of California: arid with cactus, eucalyptus trees, hills, and mountains in the distance with snow, including a couple of volcanoes.

(The Andes Mountains in the distance.)

There was one stop for a bathroom break at a neat row of fruit and souvenir stands. We all enjoyed the opportunity to get out and stretch our legs, use the bathroom, and buy a drink. Although the fruit looked tempting, we didn't buy any. We were scared straight by all of Maranatha's warnings about Montezuma's Revenge (the local water causing gastro-intestinal distress to Northerners).

(Madelyn, not touching the fruit.)

At the rest stop we met a wonderful family from Sweden who were riding in the other bus, Andre and Anette Frank and their kids Joel (11) and Lina (12). There were a lot of eleven and twelve year-olds on this trip.

We stopped to eat supper at the Adventist University where I encountered my first Chilean bathroom. What?!? No toilet seats, one roll of tissue for 3 or 4 stalls, trash cans in the stalls to put the paper in (don't flush it!), no hand towels? I could deal with most of that except for the lack of toilet seats! Fortunately this was not the case with other bathrooms we encountered. Whew! However, we were constantly struggling to remember not to flush the paper.

The campus was beautiful and expansive, and the supper was very good. We had some really interesting local salads with heart of palm and with lemon wedges for dressing. Lemon and onion are very widely used for flavoring food in Chile.

The girls got us all started singing Christmas carols that evening back on the bus. We're used to Christmas not being very wintery at home in Alabama, but it was even stranger in the summer in Chile.

We arrived at a local school dormitory in Freire around midnight to Steve Yeagley's smiling face. He was the project leader, and he has done about 20 of these trips before. He was ready to help settle us in and saw to our every need. He had even given the big hot water heater an extra burn (they normally just heat it once per day) so that we could take hot showers.

There were several wings of bunk-bed cubicles in the boarding school. These were small three-sided rooms with two bunk beds each. If you climbed on the top bunk, you could look over each cubicle all the way to the bathroom at the end of the hall. We did have a plastic sheet over the door to provide some privacy, but there was no way to talk without being overheard. Those who need their solitude had a tough time on this trip. We were fortunate to be given two rooms, so we did have enough room to spread out our luggage.

Once we made our beds, we were out like a light. We were glad that it was Sabbath so that we could rest the next day! The Sabbath rest never looked so good!

Freire, pronounced "fre-dey"

(A typical house.)

Just a quick post about Freire, Chile. The small city of Freire is right in the middle of Chile, off of Interstate 5, which is Chile's main highway that runs just almost the whole length of the country. It's about 10 hours south of the capital, Santiago, and an hour west of Villarrica, which is the gateway to the beautiful Lake District. Many Mapuche indians live there. They are native people who were never fully conquered by the Spanish-Chilean civilization. The area has a good infrastructure, and is sort of like an older, more colorful southern California.

The temperatures during our stay fluctuated from the low 50's at night and during rain to high 70's on the warmest days. It was always very brisk at 6:30 in the morning when weget our dishes off of the clothes line outside. (We each had our own set which we washed after meals and then hung to dry in a mesh bag.) When it rained, it was cold and gray all day, and we wished for warmer clothes. But otherwise it was clear and sunny, often with a pleasant breeze. A lot of kids got sunburned at least once, despite the frequent warnings.

It was a very safe place, and we walked freely around the town without any trouble. The homes were small and colorful, and all had fences around them--probably to keep out the many local dogs that were as laid back and friendly as the citizens. A lot of wood was used in home construction, and we saw many that were somewhat similar to log cabins. In the front yards there were lots of flowers and in the back often a little garden. It seemed that everybody had at least one rose bush blooming. Each home seemed tidy and well kept outside as well as inside. They typically had running water, TVs, bathrooms, and a wood stove for heating and possibly cooking as well. Inside we saw lots of pictures and mementos on the walls and a well-worn variety of floor and wall coverings and patches. They reminded me of an old rural grandmother's house.

The town was equally as tidy with very little trash--only candy wrappers and Popsicle sticks. There were little stores every few feet, and they all sold ice cream (helado), which we took advantage of a few times. There were several markets (mercados) that sold food, grains, and vegetables. It all looked fresh and appealing, but we were too scared about the bugs in the water to try any.

The water, however, turned out to be pretty safe. We were accidentally served tap water near the end of our trip and suffered no ill effects at all. There were isolated cases of diarrhea in the group (and lots of less than melodious sounds), but nothing that lasted more than a day as far as I know.

The people were polite and friendly, ready to engage us in talk even if we did say, "No hablo espanol." They would just smile, pleased with our efforts and encouraged by our response, and continue to rapidly talk in Spanish, perhaps thinking that NOW we might understand what they were saying. Some would even invite us in to see their homes and sit for a meal. They genuinely wanted our company. This is Maverick, a local boy that came to VBS and hung around outside our dorm door every evening with some other kids.

We exchanged some of our money for Chilean dollars at an exchange rate of about 650:1. It was really odd to go into a market and see ice cream for $1000, a soft drink for $500, or a hat for $10000. We have a few $100 coins left over for souvenirs. After figuring out the conversion, we learned that things were very reasonably priced.

Building a Church and Other Things

"Let them build Me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them." Ex.25:8

Sunday, December 21st, was our first work day at the church site. We all put on our hard hats, gloves, and saftey glasses, grabbed our trowels, and walked the 4 blocks in clear sunny weather. Stepping through the door in the fence we were greeted with the site of a cement foundation, including a platform area, and the steel frame of what was to become the Freire Seventh-day Adventist Church. Terra Cotta bricks, a local building material, lined the edges of the foundation, ready for the first row to be put in.

Steve Yeagley, our project coordinator, and Art Moffit, the construction coordinator, gave us some safety instructions and let us in a prayer. Then the youngest volunteer, Hanna Arnott, helped to lay the "cornerstone." After that, we dove into work with all the enthusiam of novices. (We pitied Art!)

(Steve Yeagley, project leader)

The first day was somewhat chaotic, especially since our group was pretty large and had lots of young kids. We worked extremely hard that first day, some of us hoping that we weren't doing too much damage, and I decided at the end of day one that Dr. Kretschmar would likely be pronouncing me dead by Wednesday.

However as the walls came up things slowed down to an orderly brisk pace for the rest of the week. We all seemed to find our niche after a few days. Luke layed a few bricks, painted (including the top of the roof supports), wired rebar together, and cut bricks.

I was part of the grout team. We went from brick to brick pouring gravelly grount in each large hole that had rebar in it. This got quite challenging when they began laying the wall for the baptistry. We had to not only pour grout in the large holes, but also pour a smoother gravel-free grout in each tiny hole of each brinck for at least 5 or 6 levels of brick. This was to help hold the sideways pressure of the water in the baptistry. Whew! Hard work!

Leah was often seen breaking blocks with a pick as well as smoothing the mortar between the joints. This is done with a special tool called a striker, and it gives the wall a it s finished look.

Madelyn sifted dirt, mixed morter, swept the floor, and helped lay bricks. She also took the camera around one day and took a lot of "record shots" of the work. Many of the pictures in the slideshow are hers.

As the week went on the girls got invloved in other areas. Leah joined the medical team and rode with them to several outpost medical clinics to provide health care to areas that normally got a doctor only once a month. She also helped at a clinic the Maranatha medical team set up in Freire. "The kids were SO cute!" said Leah. She enojoyed entertaining them, handing out gift bags, taking pictures, and trying to be helpful in general.

Madelyn got very involved in the Vacation Bible School that was held in the afternoons. The pack of mostly eleven year old girls did Bible skits and helped with crafts and games. She really enjoyed this and it gave the kids a great opportunity to interact with kids in the neighborhood. Because the VBS was held close to our dorms, it wasn't long before the local children figured out where we were and began coming by to play out front. This attracted more children and soon there was a happy conglomeration of kids having a great time playing soccer, biking, and learning new languages.

(Madelyn teaching English)

Luke remained at the work site every day working hard to try to get the job done before Sabbath. He was very stiff and sore each day, and much in need of back rubs.

I got involved in some community service projects, one of which was rather unusual. In Freire and many other areas they paint the bottom of the tree trunks with a white mix of lye, glue, and water. So when Steve asked the mayor what else our group could do in the community, he said, "Repaint the trees!" I helped lead a group of adults and eighteen kids in doing that on two days, and it really made a difference. The work was surprisingly hard, and Madelyn was a real trooper, pluggin away even when other kids had stopped to play.

(Newly painted trees on the main boulevard)

I asked Dick if he had any idea why they painted the trees and he told me some story he'd heard involving rats in trees and poison. If you make up a story of your own, you might be just as close to the real answer.

Christmas dawned as another work day with a few special treats. Madelyn went out with a group on special assignment to take pictures of the people of Freire. Then they brought these back to Dick to be printed and put in little black matte frames. The next day the kids went in search of those same people to give them their pictures. I think this had one of the biggest impacts in getting to know the people there in a very special way. Leah went out with the medical team, and I did laundary and then went to the work site to join Luke. That evening the Maranatha cooks created a lovely Christmas Banquet!

(Our dining hall, decorated for Christmas)

After supper we divided into three caroling groups and went in different directions to sing to the residents of Friere in both English and Spanish (sort of). Some really enjoyed it and came out to meet us and have their pictures taken. Others shut the door when they saw us coming, but we really had a good time. It was a memorable way to spend Christmas!

By Friday a little after lunch time we were nearly finished with the church! With all the teamork, the expertise of a few of the volunteers, and maybe a few angels, the project was well ahead of schedule. All that remained was to get as much of the roof on as possible before Sabbath (which was done by some of the local Maranatha guys helping at the work site) and to clean up and hose down the church in preparation for the first worship service the next day.

Here's a slide show of the work site.

The Freire project had a special significance for the Deurksen family. Dick's parents, Victor and Arlene, decided that for Victor's ninetieth birthday they wanted to provide materials for a church, and this was it. Normally Dick and Brenda just spend a few days at each project, but they (and some other family members) were there for the duration on this trip. Although Victor and Arlene couldn't be there on the trip, they were in our thoughts as we worked on the project.

(Thanks, Victor and Arlene!)

Sabbath in a new church!!!

"I was glad when they said to me, 'Let us go into the house of the LORD.'" Psalms 122:1

Once again Sabbath was rainy and cold. I think God only allowed it to rain on Sabbaths so that the work would not get delayed by rain. The cold dreary weather didn't dampen our spirits, since we were going to worship for the first time in the new Freire Seventh-day Adventist church that we had helped build!

Many Freire residents had been invited, including VBS children, our van drivers, the head of the local medical service, people whom we had photographed, and just friends that we had made in the community. The church was "decorated" to keep out the rain, since the roof was only finished to just past the back of the platform. We gathered at about 9:30 for singing and special music. I (Rose) sang a song in Spanish, and as I stood up front, I could look out the front door frame and see two taxi drivers in their yellow hats peeking over the fence to watch. It was my favorite "picture" moment of the whole trip, but I didn't have the camera!

We then broke--or should I say shifted--into Sabbath School classes, and then came a program by the VBS children and more special music. One in particular really touched our hearts: Reuben Sanchez, a local member who has recently graduated with an engineering degree, sang "Thank you for giving to the Lord" in Spanish. For those of use who knew the words in English, it brought tears to our eyes. Dick Duerksen then had the sermon, with Danny doing a dynamic translation job, challenging and encouraging the members to reach their community. After the sermon, Israel, an elderly local member, played a couple of hymns on his big harmonica.

We dismissed from church a little chilled but warm in our hearts. People lingered for quite a while after the service. It was hard to leave. Even though we couldn't really converse, it was wonderful to give the local members a hug and say, "Feliz Sabado!" I think that for a lot of us that was the first time we really felt a strong connection with the local church people, as opposed to just the local church building.

The remainder of the Sabbath was mostly resting in preparation for a very special Sunday. Luke took the girls for a walk in the drizzling rain with the Kretschmars and had a neat encounter with Carmello, a local old guy. And before supper, he took the challenge of entertaining the restless teens with Bible pictionary. They weren't worn out!

It didn't get dark in Freire until after 9 pm, so after Sabbath evening worship, we all just crashed.

A Sunday of service and a Maranatha Wedding

"Therefore go into the highways, and as many as you find, invite to the wedding." Matt. 22:9

Sunday dawned bright and cool as usual. This had been planned as a work day, and since we had mostly finished the church project we divided into groups with many different purposes. The medical team--Leah included--went to a rural outpost to see patients, other volunteers went in search of locals who had not yet received their framed photographs, a few returned to the work site to finish the church roof and scrub the walls, a group of ladies spent the morning preparing for the wedding scheduled for 6 pm, and two van loads of Maranatha volunteers (Luke, myself, and Madelyn included) descended on the quiet little Seventh-day Adventist church of Milla Flores to help them repaint the outside of the church. The vans didn't show up quite as scheduled to ferry both us and the medical team, so we had a lesson in Chilean van-cramming.

One of Luke's favorite parts of our whole trip was the ferry ride on the way to the Milla Flores church. A bouncy, ride down a dirt road to the crystal clear, fast flowing river... honking the horn to rouse the ferry man from his house on the other side... a leisurely wait in the sunshine taking pictures with friends... a colorful ferry boat propelled only by the current... a friendly, inquisitive pack of ferry dogs... It was memorable! There are some pictures of it in the slide show below.

As we arrived at the quaint little church out in the country, the members were already hard at work scraping and washing the sides in preparation for painting. This church had applied for a Maranatha church, but the project was granted to Freire instead, so we were here to show them our love and support by helping with an exterior face lift.

(Church members already at work)

We all pitched in painting while balancing on very homemade scaffolding and ladders, enjoying the quiet beauty of the countryside with its oat fields and forests. Meanwhile the ladies of the church worked over some tiny old gas and wood stoves in the fellowship/Sabbath School building to provide us a delicious homemade meal including wonderful empanadas sopapias!! It might have been the best meal that we had on the entire trip. If you would like to donate to their local church building project see the information in the side bar.

Milla Flores Church outing.

Upon returning to the school dorm there was some last-minute flower arranging and decorating prior to getting cleaned up and heading to our newly built church for a very special Maranatha wedding.

(Leah doing one more thing that she loves.)

The bride and groom were two of the volunteers in our group, Joanna Zelaney and Andre Boruck of British Columbia, Canada. They came to Chile expecting to get married before they returned home, and they decided to share the event with their new Maranatha family. Joanna was able to find a wedding gown in Temuco, a bigger city just up the interstate, although she had quite an adventure getting there and back and finding it without speaking Spanish. Several of the ladies in the group had taken the job of purchasing lots of flowers and some other local items and decorating the church. There were far more volunteers than were needed for special music, and the wedding had the highest ratio of photographers to guests that I've ever seen.

While walking to the wedding, Luke saw some teenage girls gawking at the bride who was also on her way to the church. He managed to invite them to the wedding, and they showed up!

(The church was beautiful.)

(The groom was dashing and the bride lovely.)

(Duet: "The Prayer")

The singing was stupendous! Christina Liem (a senior voice major at Southern Adventist University) and Reuben Sanchez (a local Adventist musician) sang "The Prayer" to a spell-bound audience. Goose bumps! It almost made me want to get married again just to have them sing!

(The getaway vehicle.)

Afterwards the bride and groom were wisked back to the dorm for the reception sitting on a piano bench atop a toilet paper-festooned horse-drawn wagon. It certainly was a wedding to remember, and I'm sure it will be the talk of Freire for some time to come.

Pucon and Villarrica

"And He said to them, 'Come aside by yourselves....and rest a while.'" Mark 6:31

Monday morning saw us packing up and loading our luggage onto a couple more tour buses. The group milled around while the drivers tried to figure out how the were going to get all this American, Canadian, and Swedish luggage onto the buses. One was smaller and didn't have much luggage space, so we were really packed in.

While we were waiting, many Chilean neighbors came out to give kisses and hugs to many of our group. It was touching! Many children came by also to say goodbye. As we drove away others stepped out of their homes to wave. I felt so sad at leaving them, looking back at the school it seemed too empty and quiet. We'd descended on this little street for 10 days, and I knew from our neighbors' responses that we would be missed.

We headed over to the church for a group photo. Dick took the photo and we trust we will receive it when he has a break in his busy schedule. Some children followed the bus to the church to say goodbye again. Eduardo, Miguel, and a group of local workers were busy on other areas of the church. It was actually comforting to have people there working. It seemed less like we were abandoned them.

From there we rode about 2 hours to Pucon--the gateway city to the Lakes Region, a beautiful area that draws tourists from all over. It would have been a bit quicker, but our bus had a blow-out, so we got a chance to step out and watch Chilean tire changing. They were quite fast, probably because of all the Northern Hemispherians hovering around to watch.

(The inner tire was shredded. Good thing there were two per side.)

We made it to Pucon, where we disembarked. The weather was perfect. The mountains were beautiful, with the volcano Villarica hovering over the town, as well as crystal clear brooks, rivers, and lakes. It reminded me in many ways of western Montana where I grew up, although most of the trees in Chile were hardwood.

(Villarica from the bus.)

Several people went shopping, while we went for a "Canopy Tour". This was a series of zip lines strung up in the tree canopy in sections. We were harnessed in and flew over the land. You hold on to the line with special padded gloves so you can stop yourself at the end. It was amazing that on some of the lines I had more problems keeping going than stopping. Too cautious, I guess.

(Starting off on the training zip line.)

The final zip line was the fastest and longest (over 1,000 yards), but hey if Phyllis could do it at age somewhere-around-70, we could too! (For those of you who would like to see Phyllis zooming in for a landing, you can view it at the end of this post.) The only down side was the bus ride out to the little "resort" and all the waiting around for our large group.

(Leah on the longest zip line)

For our Tuesday excursion we chose to go horseback riding rather than go whitewater rafting or hike up the volcano to the top. There was quite a bit of discussion about this, but we decided to choose one excursion and stay together as a family. It was another bus ride out to the same place as yesterday. We saddled up and headed down a countray road for about a two hour ride. The scenery was beautiful and we could view two of the four volcanos mentioned in the brochure. We noticed that liability doesn't seem to be an issue here, as there were no helmets, and there were several loose girth straps. Jim came off his horse when his girth was loose, but he was okay. Fortunately I spotted Leah's loose girth before she took a tumble.

(Leah on Blondie with Villarica volcano in the background.)

We got a good look at rural living, lots of livestock, and quaint old houses. One time we passed a cow that had gotten out of it's pasture and was watching us with disinterest, and another time a pig that looked just like Babe bolted down the road toward us, weaving in and out between the riders. My horse didn't notice the goings on until the pig was right under it's feet at which point it hopped straight up with all four feet off the ground in surprise! The guide and I laughed, but I'm glad that I'm an experienced rider because there was potential to end up in the dust. Speaking of dust, we were quite coated by the time we returned to the lodge to wait (again) for the tour bus.

That evening we all climbed aboard two pontoon boats for a ride about Lago Caburgua, the large lake in front of the camp. One was big double decker and the upper deck looked homemade. It had a 50 horsepower motor--can you say "put, put, put"? We had an enjoyable time, though. The view of Villarica from the lake was fabulous!

(The big homemade pontoon boat.)

(Villarica behind the "normal" pontoon boat)

By the time we got back to disembark it was after dark and we were all quite chilled! Several of the kids were still lightly dressed from swimming in the lake just before the boat ride. They were regretting it!

Wednesday we were treated to an afternoon at Temas de Huife, a hot springs resort. It was very pretty with several pools of varying temperature and a clear cold river running by.

(The main Huife lodge)

(The river and the Rogers)

Several people went on zip lines at Huife, but we stuck to the pools. We especially enjoyed the covered hydrotherapy pool that had waterfalls, bubble jets, etc, to sooth weary muscles. It was worth wearing the clear shower caps that were "necesario."

(I relax just looking at it again)

We were served our last supper at the lodge, and then rode the buses back to the camp to round out the evening with our last worship together and a slide show. The Lord treated us to a gourgeous sunset before we started the challenge of packing up to head to Santiago the next day.

(Sunset at Lago Caburgua)

Here's Phylis!

Heading Back Home

"Return to you own house, and tell what great things God has done for you." Luke 8:39

We were up at 4:15 am, woken by Art Moffit's call that the pickup was running to carry our luggage down to the buses. We had intended to ring in the New Year by getting up after midnight and hiking down to the lake shore to look at the beautiful Chilean night sky with Orion upside down. (The stars are so bright there!) However we didn't get to bed till 11:45pm and were frequently awakened during the night by the sound of Chilean party music, so we settled for stepping out on the porch and viewing the stars at 4:30am.

After a quick 5:00 am breakfast and making sure we had our lunch and supper bags (and the girls) we hopped on the buses for the 12 hour ride back to Santiago. A special thanks to Steve for getting a newer, larger bus to replace the small dilapidated one that we were in. We spent the time resting, eating, visiting, and trying to survive the exhaust fumes from the bus in front of us.

We got to the airport by 5:45 pm and stumbled off in search of our 7 bags, hoping they had all arrived with us since they were dispersed among both buses and had to go through two bus swaps and a follow-up pickup truck. With that accomplished we said goodbyes which would be repeated again as we encountered each other at the terminals, in restaurants, bathrooms, or gift shops. We had hoped to check our luggage and see some of Santiago since our flight didn't leave until 11:00 pm, but we didn't get checked in until after 8:00 pm, so we just stuck around.

(Too much stuff!)

(Leah with the teen crew.)

We boarded our plane on time for the flight to Dallas, and we managed to sleep, but my seat hurt from all the sitting, and I was glad to get off in Dallas. After making it through customs ("Howdy, y'all!") I headed to the bathroom, and what a gorgeous bathroom! It was large, relatively clean, modern, and I could flush the paper! We ate breakfast and waited to board the 11:00 am flight to Atlanta. The multiple TV screens blared Fox News, things were noisy and flashy. It seemed too busy.

Upon arriving in Atlanta we once more gathered that luggage (have I mentioned that we packed too much?) and got to our van for the three hour drive home. It was cool and rainy--very unlike what we had come from in Chile. Unloading the car and ourselves, we stumbled back in the house thankful that once again we had Sabbath to rest. And thankful that God had seen us safely through.

Final Thoughts

It's been a great experience for our family to spend the holiday in service.

Would we do it again? Absolutely! We encourage everyone to consider taking a Maranatha Trip, whether over the holidays or at another time during the year. The impact you can have on the local congragation receiving the church--as well as on the people of the surrounding community--will change you.

Thanks again to all the people who have prayed for us. If you'd like to see some better pictures than ours, go to the Maranatha Volunteers link on the side bar and look for the Christmas Family Project blog that Dick Duerksen started while on the trip. You'll have to install Microsoft Silverlight to view his (amazing) pictures.

Many of you have asked if there will be a Maranatha Mission Stories episode about our trip. I have no doubt that there will, so we'll try to let you know when it's running so you can watch it on 3ABN or online at the Maranatha website. I encourage you to watch a few episodes of Maranatha Mission Stories on their site. They will inspire you as they did us with a desire to get involved.

Congratulations! You made it all the way to the end. I hope that you enjoyed out blog.

May God bless you in this new year as you find new way to serve Him!

The Rogers family

Special Thanks!!! to Maranatha for taking such good care of all of us, from meeting us at the airport in Santiago, seeing to our every need, great meals, wonderful excursions, and getting us safely off to home.  I doubt there is any missions ministry out there that is so conciensious about making sure a mission trip is a possitive experience all the way around.

Maranatha Trip Album

We hope that you enjoy these pictures of the trip. They're not exhaustive, but they may be exhausting! Many pictures included in the posts are not in this slide show so if you haven't read the posts and seen the pictures and videos, you've missed out.