First post of actually being in Chile!!!! So far we’ve been treading on Chilean soil for a total of 10 days or so and tons of awesome stuff has happened in that time. So as Frauline Maria would say, ‘Let’s start at the very beginning’ because, as everyone knows, it’s a very good place to start. We left Columbus airport in high spirits which were to last during the whole 22-hour trip to Puerto Montt, despite baggage sizing and weighing stations and a reciprocity fee station where bills in crisp, mint condition were only accepted and we had to pool our bills to cover everyone completely. Nevertheless, G-d was faithful as always and we (as well as our luggage) arrived safe and sound in the Puerto Montt airport. I’ll admit, the others and I felt a temporary rush of excitement just before we touched down at our final destination, because as far as we could tell from the airplane windows, we were going to land in an open grassy field! After we de-planed and retrieved our luggage, we stepped out onto the front platform of the airport to see Puerto Montt’s two resident volcanoes, Osorno and Calvuco.
Their majestic snow-capped peaks towered above the South American scrub forests and I had to stop walking to close my eyes and inhale deeply, drinking it all in. I was in Chile.
We piled into two small cars bound for P-stor/Outreach Coordinator Eduardo’s house in Alerce, which is actually a smaller subdivision/mini-town on the outskirts of Puerto Montt. We arrived and were introduced to Eduardo’s family, which consisted of his wife Juanita and their three children; Ignacio (14 years, also called Nacho), Elisabeth (7 years), and Josue (4 years).
That was Wednesday.
On Friday, we left for the nearby (ish) island of Chiloé where we would spend the night before attending an all-night pr-yer and w-rship vigil the following evening on another smaller island in the archipelago called Voigüe. From Puerto Montt to the house where we ended up spending the night, we took one charter bus, two smaller, bumpier buses that were more common to everyday travel, a barge/car carrier thing that ferried us across the channel between Puerto Montt and Chiloé, and our own two feet, which were used to hike through the island’s forests on a muddy path that wound up and down hills and in between sheep pastures. After spending the night and enjoying the warmth of our sleeping bags for a few precious hours, we ate a delicious meal of chicken, rice, and potatoes and packed up our things once again and left for Voigüe. We walked through more dense forest “No worry, it is short-cut” to the beach where we caught a tugboat-thingy to the island.
Once there, we hung around and ate dinner until 10pm, when the whole shebang began. Basically, from 10pm to 6am, there was simply a time of continuous pr-ying, w-rshipping, and pr-aching with a half-hour snack break at around 3am. The team got up onstage and played 3 w-rship songs early on, which was a good thing if we were to do it at all, because by the time 2:30 rolled around, all of us were dead- tired. The constant sound of people talking and singing was the only thing keeping us awake. Add that to the fact that none of us had showered in the past two days or more, and you’ve got yourself a recipe for one cranky, filthy, tired batch of white Americans (despite the fact that the following morning was my birthday). In retrospect, each of us regretted our attitudes that night, but we came to acknowledge it as a lesson in patience and tolerance. Immediately following the s-rvice, we packed up and boarded the tugboat once again to return to Puerto Montt.
We got back from that on Sunday, and just kinda chilled out for Monday, besides buying mattresses for the girls’ house. On Tuesday, we split up in two groups (the girls with Juanita, Jeff and I with Eduardo) and made our rounds with visiting the families of Fe y Esperanza, the subdivision in which we lived.
The brothers and sisters of the ch-rch would invite us into their homes and talk with Ed. about their lives and the condition of their sp-ritual health. He would then give them a miniature dev-tional and pr-y with them. It took quite a while- we covered two families in the space of three hours. Even so, it was such a good feeling to actually be doing what we came here for- to min-ster to people and do G-d’s work, even if it meant for now tagging along with Eduardo and not hardly saying a word. This month, it’ll be our job more than anything to simply sit and observe.
The next day, six of us piled in a 4.5’ x 4.5’ x 4.5’ space in the back of a car headed for Concepción (8 hours away), where we were to hear Eduardo speak at a marriage seminar.
The Seminar wasn’t bad by itself but the trip itself was interesting to say the least. The tight situation made for many sleeping limbs and less than comfortable conditions, but once again G-d taught us a lesson in patience. During the trip, we stopped at a black volcanic sand beach, which was absolutely beautiful, and a waterfall by the name of Salto del Laja, which would drench you if you got within 100 feet of the waterfall itself, due to all of the spray coming from the rocks.
Yesterday afternoon we returned from Concepción very tired, but this morning’s sleep-in session very easily fixed that.
So there you are, the 4-1-1 on the past 10 days or so, in a nutshell. Hope you enjoyed it, and we hope you stay tuned for the next installment of my blog!
Que Di-s les bendiga!
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