Dear Family and Friends,

I never read the book How to Win Friends and Influence People, but one way we do it is by making brownies.

I thought I had a sweet tooth, but it pales in comparison to many of our Chilean friends who have no shame in their love of sweets. Here we have a mix of traditional Chilean and German recipes that have been handed down for generations and gorgeous-looking, whipped cream topped cakes and pastries that appear much better than they taste. US American-style fudgy brownies have stormed the scene in Osorno in all our circles of influence - at church, at the school, at the gym, with the neighbors - anywhere we have wanted to show kindness and open up doors to build relationships. Around home we are beginning to refer to them as "Turkish delight" based on their effect on Edmond in the movie "The Chronicles of Narnia". Many who eat them seem to fall "under our power" and look for any excuse for us to make them. This has led to several brownie workshops on my part. Stacey got tired of her classmates AND TEACHERS begging, bugging and bribing her for brownies. She decided to capitalize on their greed and is now racking up a nice little profit selling them at school! When her math teacher confiscates calculators and other prohibited items in class, he requires a payment in brownies returning the item of interest. This supplements her wallet, her education with learning about "microenterprise" ;) and has led to the coining of new words and phrases such as "brownívoro" and "traficante de brownies".

How should "the church" deal with homosexuality? This was the topic that first drew us in to monthly ecumenical meetings with area Christian leaders that deal with current issues and the church. It was there that we met one of our province's 40 Catholic priests (Father Julio) and the bishop of Osorno (Monseñor René Rebolledo). Thus far we (the two Catholics and a group of about 10 Protestant pastors and leaders) have been amazingly unified in our interpretations of the biblical responses to the current issues we have discussed. And recently, we were all invited to attend a dinner at the home of the bishop in honor of Chile's "Fiestas Patrias" (independence day celebrations), which we enjoyed very much. I took him brownies ;) of course!!

While sharing dinner with the bishop, I requested a meeting with him and Father Julio to inform them of a community-wide evangelistic Bible study I plan to launch next year along with a group of women from the Presbyterian, Lutheran and Catholic churches. I have the backing of our pastor Alex, Greg and the Lutheran pastor, and I would like for the Catholic leaders to at least be in the know as to what it is about. Hopefully they will understand that if any Catholic/Protestant questions arise, I will try to deal with them lightly if in a group setting, with a little more detail if dealing with them in private, and will be encouraging people to study all relevant Scripture passages for themselves and talk with their own pastors, priests, authority figures, etc. to fully understand their own church's stance on the issue. Our Bible study will be primarily targeting people who have no church affiliation, however with Chile having a Catholic heritage, we often meet people who identify themselves as "Catholic", but on their own terms. We would appreciate your prayers for the meeting with the bishop and for this future evangelistic Bible study.

Ministry that involves people always has its ups and downs, but the Lord has graciously given us a few people in our lives, both men and women, young and old, new to the faith and even those who have walked with God for many years, who are being challenged and are showing signs of growth and an increased desire to walk the walk and not just talk the talk.

As always, thank you for being a wonderful team of supporters - we treasure you!

Much love in Jesus,

Marilyn for the Senters

Mailing address: Casilla 33-0, Osorno, Chile
Phone: 011-56-64-217-567
Web sites: www.mtwla.org/people/gsenter.htm
www.freewebs.com/senters4chile/index.htm

Contributions should be sent to:
Mission to the World
P.O. Box 116284
Atlanta, GA 30368-6284
(include account # 016869)

October 3, 2007