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Two months ago I wasn't quite sure how we were
going to make it to this date - June 23rd because of all
the important things that had to be done between then
and now. But by God's grace, and through your prayers,
here we are at the other end having accomplished for
the most part the things that needed to be done. Thank
you for your prayers!!!
On April 20th I flew to Washington D.C. for a class in my
doctoral program. Then on the following Monday I drove
to Brevard, NC, for a 5-day MTW Latin American
leadership meeting. The weekend of the 27th I flew to
Bradenton, FL, to visit a supporting church. The Monday
after that weekend we began moving into our new
house on Lookout Mountain, and spent the next couple
of weeks trying to get some basic things set up. I also
had to finish the Theology of Missions course I was
teaching at Covenant College, and turn in my final exam
for the class I was taking at George Washington
University. On May 17th we left home for a short visit to
Chile. Since the whole family was going, we decided to
drive to Miami to save money. On the way we stopped in
Orlando to visit our friends Mark and Anne Auffarth.
As you know we will be living in the States for the next
four years while I finish this doctoral program. I will still
be involved in Latin America, but we will be living here
instead of there. By the time my studies are finished,
our youngest will be a senior in high school, so when
we return to Latin America, it will probably be just
Phyllis and myself who will be going. We're not sure if
we will live in Chile, or maybe just live a few months at
a time in different places in Latin America.
In any case, we decided that we needed to do
something with our "stuff" we had stored in Chile at the
beginning of our HMA last June. Four years of storage
would be very expensive and would ruin a lot of it. We
also thought it was important for our children to "say
goodbye" to Chile and their friends who live there, since
they won't be returning to live in Chile again.
During our two weeks in Chile there was not a minute
to spare. While we were in Santiago we stayed with
Rodney and Jana Davila, and with John and Cathy Rug
while in Viña del Mar. We visited with all the
missionaries and with our Chilean friends. We sold,
gave away or shipped our things that were in storage.
We saw how the new church building in Santiago is
virtually finished (the first stage) and is very beautiful.
However, the municipality is still not giving them
permission to occupy it.
We arrived home late on June 5th. On the 10th we left
for my classes at George Washington University. The
family went with me to visit with extended family who
live (or were going to be) in the area. We just arrived
home again yesterday, June 22nd.
Please pray for the following:
1. I am leading a resource team whose job it is to
support our missionaries and national leaders in Latin
America. Please pray for us as we develop and
implement plans. This team is something we have not
had before in Latin America, and we hope it will help us
all be more effective. One of our more immediate tasks
is to help our teams develop training programs for
future Latin American church planters, pastors and
other leaders.
2. Pray that the municipality of Las Condes in Santiago,
Chile, will soon give permission for the Cristo Rey
church to use its new building.
3. Pray that the study involved in my doctoral program
will prove to be useful to Mission to the World as we
look to Christ to use us to facilitate church planting
movements across the globe.
4. Our support account is much better than it has been
in many months. Thank you for your prayers and
support. However, the level of our support is barely
above the minimum. Please continue to pray in this
regard.
5. Pray that during the next few weeks we can get our
household set up and functioning well.
Thanks for your prayers!
Gary Waldecker
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