El Oasis Chile

Greetings from Santiago, Chile! We have had a very busy and exciting past couple of weeks getting a new team here and ready for the start of the semester. Our first big activity with students was a workday a couple of Saturdays ago in order to fix up the house and get it squeaky clean for the first Bible Study. About 15 students showed up and enjoyed painting, washing down walls, and eating a free lunch. The next activity was that following Thursday, a cookout intended for fellowship and a chance for newcomers to get inside El Oasis and enjoy its fun yet relaxed atmosphere. We had so many people that we had to rewash dishes in order to provide for everyone!

For the past two weeks and the next we planned a number of extra activities so that we could get to know the students better and vice versa. We had game night, movie and a sundae night, a special lunch on Friday and a day of sports on Saturday. They all had a great turnout and a number of newcomers came as well.

And finally, our first Bible Study was Thursday, March 15. Our series for the next four weeks is “New Beginnings”: the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, the new life we are able to have because of His death and resurrection, and the beginning of the church after Christ’s ascension. Mark Jackson gave the first talk on Jesus’ first miracle of turning water into wine. The night went off very well (especially since it was the first Bible Study done by our team) and we were encouraged by the number of people who showed up, about 75 in total.

We have our devotional dinners and leadership groups starting this week and we are so excited to see what the rest of the semester brings!

Flamenco Futbol

Hello from Salamanca!

We have about 50 of us signed up to spend the weekend together where David and Araceli, a young Christian Spanish couple, will be sharing with us about relationships and God's perspective on the subject. We are really excited about having the two of them share with us, and about our students having the chance to hear what they have to say - especially for a couple of our students in particular who have recently ended tough dating relationships; we are praying that this weekend can be a really powerful time for them to get an idea of how God can and should impact and be at the center of every area of our lives.

We'll also be having our 2nd annual Flamingo Soccer ("Flamenco Futbol") game, where the guys will compete against the girls...but the guys have to be on one foot the entire time. It was a blast last year as the girls won, and the guys are excited about the chance to get some revenge this year.

Please pray with us throughout the weekend that God would continue to work among the ministry here...that we would all have fun and the community here would continue to grow; and more than anything, that all of these students who come this weekend would really think about what role Christ can/does play in their lives, and that they would draw closer to understanding and pursuing a relationship with Him.

Jeremy Lawler
Salamanca, Spain