January-February 1999
Dear Praying Friends,
We hope this letter finds you enjoying the blessings of God in this new year. Our family is well, and looking forward to what the Lord has in store for our second year here. We had a good time with our people during the holidays. Several families spent the day with us on Christmas. Please pray for one family for whom it was also a time of turmoil. Nazario, the father of our young friend Ignacio, has had a chronic problem with alcohol. He made a profession of faith in Christ, but has had a strong pattern of drunkenness in his life. Two days before Christmas, Ignacio's mother left the home, taking the younger children with her to live with her father. Ignacio spent the day at our house and was quite upset. We need the Lord's wisdom in how to help and encourage everyone involved. We would like to see this family together, and someday serving the Lord.
We are thankful for the way the Lord continues to work in various ways with different people. One evening, a man named Antonio, with whom we had been witnessing, came to our house with questions about things that are important in life, and seemed to be drawn by the Lord. That evening, we had the privilege of leading Antonio to Christ. Praise the Lord! Since that time, we started a weekly Bible study with his family, and they in turn have brought another lady and her children. Her name is Clara, and we hope that she will soon come to know Christ. Please pray with us as we continue to expand and add depth in our ministry in this new year. With limited language skills, we used our first year here in outreach and developing relationships with the people. We will continue our outreach meetings, and still need much more time to become fluent in Spanish, but we feel it is time to move ahead with one on one discipleship with the people who have trusted Christ. This is a large undertaking for us, but Lord willing, it will not only help the people to grow spiritually, but us as well, with our language skills.
Along with everything else, we continue to work on our building project. Our vision is to establish a mission base, for the purpose of leading people to Christ and training them for the establishment of churches in the area. We feel very strongly, that this must be accomplished by the indigenous believers reaching their own people. Right now, this is a long term goal, but by God's grace, it will someday be a reality. Please pray that God will raise up a national man or men this year, to assume leadership and work with us in this effort. As you know, our family must move and we are building an adobe house, as the first phase of the mission base. We are thankful for the two bedroom house we are renting, but it soon may no longer be available, and is not adequate for the many activities for which we use it. We praise the Lord for each of you who continue to pray and give to further the work here. You have been a tremendous blessing and encouragement! The walls of the new house are now completed. The cement cap for the roof is in place, ready for the roof. The rafters will be made from pine tree trunks, and we plan to make arrangements with a man this week, who can obtain permission to cut the trees and knows how to form the beams. We need the facilities as soon as possible, but still lack about $3000 to get the house under roof. We wish that money was not a factor, so that we could progress quicker, but we know God is keeping the time table, and it is His work.
A couple of other current needs for which we would ask your prayer, involve our children's schooling and our vehicles. We received a real blessing when the school that provides our home school material, took us on as a missions project, providing us with the entire curriculum for Jessica's senior year at a 50% discount. We are making payments, but with the materials ordered for all three children, we still have an outstanding bill of over $500 dollars. Concerning our vehicles, we use two 4X4's to work in the mountains. At this time, both are out of service. The 78 Dodge has a carburetor that needs to be replaced. Our 82 Chevy had to have a broken frame welded, new ball joints and a tie rod end. That was all fixed, when last week the transmission went out while in a remote canyon. These challenges demand priority over other areas of importance. The repairs will be time consuming and expensive.
Thank you, for your prayers. It is a great encouragement to have you as a part of our team. We look forward to sharing with you how God accomplishes a great work this year. God bless you!
Sincerely, For Souls Who Have Not Heard,
The Chambers
