Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight. Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and shun evil. This will bring health to your body and nourishment to your bones. Honor the Lord with your wealth, with the firstfruits of all your crops; then your barns will be filled to overflowing, and your vats will brim over with new wine. –Proverbs 3: 5-10
What a great proverb of trust in God’s faithfulness and of our faithful commitment back to him. From the minutest of details to the largest, most significant single act or event, we go to the Lord and trust in him, honoring him with “the firstfruits” our resources, our time, and energy.
—How good it has been to be an active support for Millarai and “Mama” Gilda. Milla is spending the next two weeks with us so that Gilda could return to her home and job in northern Chile. She must work at least two weeks each month to keep her job. Her other two young children (including Milla’s twin sister Ana Catalina) live with relatives while she is here in Santiago. Milla is scheduled to begin three weeks of chemo treatments soon. During that time we pray that she’ll be able to leave the hospital for a couple days at a time. She was diagnosed with bone cancer in September, 2013, and now weighs 66 pounds. We rejoice that both her appetite and spirit are great! She had surgery in May to remove the tumor on her knee. When Milla was in intensive care, the hospital didn’t think Milla would recover, but God healed her! She recently submitted her dream to go to Easter Island with the Chilean “Make a Wish” foundation. We know that—medically–her prognosis is not good, but we also know that God has the final word. We also continue to seek more blood donors—the blood bank asked for 97 units. May June be a month in which God “IS FLOODED” with prayers on her behalf! Every small daily blessing and victory in her and in Gilda’s lives are so worth it.
—Thank you too for your ongoing prayers concerning the finalization of the new Foundation for continuing our work with abandoned children. The exact timing of that approval and even our repeated attempts to be in contact with the attorney are totally in God’s able hands. In the meantime, good progress continues to be made on physical work on our mission property houses. The main bathrooms of all four houses have been redone with permanent bath/shower assemblies (thanks, Manteno church!) as we also continue in the sanding and re-varnishing of all 2nd floor exterior wood of the buildings. We do expect to be able to finish this month the interior painting, etc. of house #3. Lastly, we continue to meet as the board of the Foundation to arrive at the best decisions possible—principally with regard to the director position.
—Please keep praying for a house for us to live in to become available not far from our work.
—We have also asked for prayer concerning land in middle Chile to develop as a camp/teaching site for children and others. Jack, with two others, made another trip to the property planning on being donated by a Christian couple for that purpose. Good progress has been made regarding important steps needing to take place.
This photo “speaks” of the possibilities and of our need to trust in the Lord. It depicts Domingo, the property owner, pointing out some of those good possibilities. The land covers roughly 20 acres.
—Emily, a 3rd year college student, arrives this first week of June to spend two months with us. Please pray that her time in Chile would glorify God and that her and his purposes for that time would be achieved. We’re excited to have her with us. In the meantime, we continue to give God thanks for Jeff’s time in Chile. He has completed four and one half months of six as a volunteer intern and we appreciate the ways in which he has benefitted us and our work.
Praising, praying, and fasting in our “Trust in me with all your heart” God,
Misión Chile 