Retreating & Serving

Hola de Santiago! It has been a busy past few weeks. I arrived in Santiago exactly 3 weeks ago, and have been busy getting the hang of things around El Oasis, as well as working on improving my Spanish. I'm glad to finally be here, and to finish out the semester with the rest of my teammates!

The second weekend in June , we took around 50 students and traveled by bus about 2 hours from Santiago, to a retreat center at El Tabo (the beach). On Friday night, we had dinner and played some games with the students. On Saturday, we had great weather - sunny and warm! We were able to go to the beach and play some football, as well as just hang out with students. We had a "fogata falsa" (false campfire) inside on Saturday night, complete with acoustic music and smores! We also had a time for the students to come up with sketches related to the theme for the weekend, "Transformation", and gave out prizes for the best actors and best sketch. We were blessed to have Doug & Shelly Kallestad as our guest speakers for the weekend. The Kallestads have been planting churches in Chile for 18 years, and they did an incredible job challenging the students to seek transformation through Christ, and to be a part of transforming their communities and the world!

During the month of June, our focus has been on service. For the past couple of weeks, students have been bringing in blankets, clothes, and food. Last weekend, we had the opportunity to go throughout the city and distribute what we had collected to people living on the streets. We were able to talk with several of them, and this was a great chance to serve our community alongside some of our students. In addition, several of our students and team members are going on a 10-day trip in July to southern Chile to help build houses (similar to Habitat for Humanity). This is a great opportunity to get to know some of our students better, and to help build hope and a home for those who have nowhere to go.

Please be in prayer for our team and for El Oasis as we close out the semester! Also be in prayer for Heather, as she prepares to return to the U.S. in a few short weeks. She has been a wonderful help to our team, and we will miss her!