ENTERING 2013 with PRAISE, PRAYER, & THANKS!

Jack’s & Janine’s January 2013 Chile Prayer Letter

 We wish you a deeply rewarding, connected, and blessed Jesus-centered & led 2013!!  Only God knows 2013 completely, but what a joy and how satisfying that we can all be part of it together—praising and recognizing him and lifting our prayers to him.  Psalms 19 and 100 describe him and us, as Christians, so well.  May we all make top use of praise and prayer with one another this new year!  From our family to you, we wish you God’s blessings as we all go forward in family with him.  From left to right, top row:  Jack, Janine, and Julian.  Front row:  Joshua, Jonathan, Bella, & Christina Swanson;  Selah, Rob, Jordan Boldt, & new baby Eden and Ruyun, a high school student from China who lives with them.  Jayme & Malia are currently doing medical mission work in Ghana, Africa until July.  (Single-click on the photo to make it larger; then click on the “back” arrow at the top left corner of the screen to return it to normal size)

This will be our first Prayer Letter made solely available on our Chile Mission website via the link provided in our E-mail instead of being sent as an attachment.  It is easily accessible and you can leave comments and responses to our postings by clicking on Leave a Comment.  Janine needed to fly back to Chile January 3rd and I (Jack) fly on the 15th, after visiting our supporting church in Florida.  As we return to Chile there is much to look forward to and pray about.  Here are our specific petitions for January:

The children’s work

• Concentrating with Fabiola on the most crucial areas to focus on, as she prepares to leave her work with us at the end of the month.
• Search for a second Christian Chile couple to be house parents.  (We have a new contact to work through, who knows several churches and will help us search and connect.)
• Search for other daytime and nighttime staff to help with the children.
• Seek direct working relationship with SENAME (Chile’s organization over children’s works).
• Summertime opportunities for the children (5-day camps and other outings).

Swanson return needs

• Need to find house to rent. (Upon leaving for our 8-month furlough in the States, we moved out of the house we were renting and stored our furniture at the mission property.)
• Our former van was sold in May and the funds were used over time to help cover Chile expenses during our absence.  We thus seek roughly $10,000 to purchase a used, good-condition van—ideal in our work.  Financial help toward this need can be sent to ChileMission   P.O. Box 60132   San Angelo, TX 76906   (with vehicle written on the check’s memo line)

Re-connecting to other important parts of our work

• The church.  Helping plan any summertime retreats to fellowship, give thanks and pray together, and look ahead at this year of 2013.
• First trip to Penco (earthquake zone work).  We hope to plan a 3-day VBS trip there to work with the area children and re-connect to important relationships and go forward in 2013.
• Prepare to receive a couple arriving in January for a short visit to further evaluate coming back to Chile to work with us and also receive a university student interested in possibly doing an internship with us later this year or the next.

Again, we so value your prayer support!

Praising, praying, and fasting with you in a 2013 Father, Son, & Holy Spirit,