September/October 2008

Dear Friends and Family,

So it has been a few months since our last letter. As most of your know Daniel started working in August and school started for me towards the end of August, so we have been getting used to our new schedules and time apart.

First of all I hope and pray that this letter finds you all well. You guys are heading into winter and we are heading into summer, isn't that just so weird. I hope this season doesn’t bring too many colds your way.

Chile is beautiful. There are still many unknowns for me, and I just try to stay on the safe side all the time Daniel wouldn’t have it any other way. In September God blessed us with a little Scotty Dog puppy; his name is Phillip or Poopies. We are in love with him even though he gets into everything, eats everything, and cries for everything. He just turned five months yesterday and is getting bigger and bigger. Also about two weeks ago God blessed us with living room furniture! We can now watch TV or just relax on the couch instead of the dining chairs. Truly we are very blessed and happy.

About two weeks ago we had quite the scare. On Thursday (2 weeks ago) Daniel had to go to the emergency room due to bad stomach pain and a fever. We got to the hospital around 8:00am and didn’t get home that night until about 9:00pm. They put him on an IV because he was dehydrated while they checked out his blood and urine and found an infection. He was then sent to another hospital in ambulance to see a surgeon because they thought he had appendicitis. I went along with him in the ambulance completely freaked, they weren’t driving with the siren or anything because Daniel was stable. Thank goodness because that would have been worse. After hours and hours of waiting for the one surgeon in the whole hospital to see Daniel we find out it was just an intestinal infection. This was after all the nurses had told me they were going to hospitalize him and start the operation as soon as possible. I am sure that God heard me. Daniel had just one day to rest up and was off to work that Saturday.

I am going to take some time and open up to you about some challenges Daniel and I are having. We have been having some spiritual challenges since about September or so. Truly what we need is to hear His voice to give us some direction. Since September so many new ideas and plans have formed in our hearts. What Daniel is going to study, should we really be in Chile, let’s go back to Mazatlan, when will God allow us to start His ministry, why are we stuck, where are we going, who are we hearing, where does God want us to be? We have so many questions like I am sure many of you have had at some point or another in your walk with Christ. I know marriage isn't easy, starting is never easy, being obedient does not come to us easily, but sometimes we just look for the easy way out of things. Personally for me it has been hard having Daniel working so much. He leaves at 9:30am and gets home now after 10:00pm. He has two Sundays a month off, and it’s hard for the both of us. Daniel is personally struggling with our church situation. The pastors are his aunt and uncle, and the church is full of family. I think we all know a little bit about the difficulties or pressures working with family brings. In a nutshell that is where we are at this point. We would really appreciate your prayers and encouragements!

Now for some new stuff. Next Saturday, November 15th I will be starting English classes. This is apart from Uriel, there is a church nearby that was formed out of the church we are going to that is focused on doing community outreaches and social work. They have asked me to teach them English. If this is something I plan on doing in the future I need all the practice I can get, so I said yes. There are people that will be attending that do not know Jesus Christ, and the class will have a Christian foundation. I will let you know how it goes. This month Daniel and I are dedicated to getting through the legal hoops here in Chile to make the Uriel organization legal here. We need 16 board local board members and a written statement of our vision. In October Daniel had a great meeting with a woman in charge of these things, and she loved everything Uriel wants to accomplish here and told us she would arrange a meeting with the mayor once we have our board members. Why a meeting with the Mayor? Well the Mayor has many pieces of property to give away or loan to causes he sees fit. If he likes Uriel´s plans it is very possible that starting December/January Uriel would have a place to start ministry. We hope to send you more news about this next month.

God bless you a million times more than He has blessed me!
Daniel and Michal.