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From the Ends of the Earth
Chile Mission News from Jim and Liisa Tino
August 2022
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You are receiving this e-newsletter because you signed up for it at a church or event where the Tinos spoke about their ministry in Chile. (If you don't recall signing up, I can send you a copy of the sign-up sheet with your name on it.) If you no longer wish to receive it, PLEASE DO NOT MARK IT AS SPAM! Simply click "unsubscribe" at the bottom of this e-newsletter. Thank you!
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Like most things, the art of being a missionary requires balancing “learning” with “doing”. A common missionary mistake is to try to start “doing” stuff too soon!
After we arrived in Chile in 2014, we spent our first three years mostly learning. We worked with an experienced missionary couple (from Argentina) and learned what worked, what didn’t and why. Then 5 years ago, in 2017, we struck out on our own to plant a new church in Santiago! That church plant has come a long way in 5 years – in fact, it is now the largest Lutheran congregation in the Confessional Lutheran Church of Chile! Praise God! Here are some other things that have happened in our church, Divina Providencia:
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The Sunday School is growing in number of students and teachers! Liisa started training 3 Sunday School teachers in 2018. Temporary missionary Barbara Brink followed up with excellent instruction in 2021. This year we added another teacher to the group who is also willing to coordinate. Besides the new babies that are being born to our mission church, we also have a new family with children.
Ladies group – from an average of 4 participants in the past to last week’s meeting of 11 women – our women’s group is growing. Belkis, wife of the congregational president Jose, just agreed to be the leader of these dynamic women!
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Evangelism – It is common to see new faces in Sunday worship. We are blessed to have the immigrant housing network to bring people into our church. However, it is even more exciting to hear that many of the new people were invited by members of the congregation. When God changes your life, you naturally want to share the news with others. When you hear that someone is looking for direction, why not tell them about the Hope and meaning Jesus has brought to YOUR life and invite them to come and see!
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Liisa and I recently completed 24 years of missionary service, the last 8 of those years here in Santiago, Chile! One question that we get pretty frequently is, “What’s it like to be a missionary?” Tough question! Each missionary’s situation is different but answering for ourselves, there are some things that are “familiar” and some that are “different”.
Familiar:
- Missionaries are supported by offerings, just like your local pastor. If you think about it that way, every pastor (and missionary) is faith-funded!
- We shop in grocery stores and shopping malls.
- We wear Western-style clothing.
- We have a car (even though it’s 10 years old, it still runs!)
- We lead a church.
Different:
- We have no salary – our income depends on what we receive from our supporters each month.
- We shop in open markets.
- We ride the subway and public transportation (buses).
- Most people we meet have never heard of “Lutheran”, or even “Christian”.
- We do everything in Spanish.
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Another thing that is different is where we live. We don’t own a house or apartment, or even rent one. We rent a room in a house that we share with two other people! We do this to try to live simply and to keep our costs down. Pictured above is the room we live in.
We also travel a lot now that covid restrictions on travel are lifting! The “good news” is that most of our travel is paid by the people who have requested us to go to wherever it is we are going, so the offerings from you, our mission partners, can be used for our ministry. As the director of Global Lutheran Outreach, Jim travels out of Chile at least once a month – all of those trips paid by GLO, or by the Lutheran Church of Chile, or by other national churches. In fact, so far this year “travel” expenses are less than 3% of our total expenses!
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Our newest granddaughter, Kaylee Marie, is now 4 months old! That means I was away from Chile for 4 months…wow! (It also means my poor husband was on his own in Chile trying to keep up with the home chores as well as being pastor and director of GLO!) Balancing my call as a missionary with my call to my family is never easy. I thank the Lord for allowing me to be with family in the USA – as a daughter, a friend, an abueLITA (grandmother), and frequently a “care giver”.
Just like mission work in Chile, my role “back home” had a variety of tasks. It started with the birth of our 5th grandchild Kaylee, caring for and driving the older kids to school and giving their parents - our grown children- a little break. Later it included accompanying our aging parents on doctor visits, cooking, cleaning and just spending time together. While stateside, I sang in a praise team, played organ for worship, taught on-line music students in both the USA and in Chile, and kept GLO communications going. Now that I’m back in Chile, it's interesting to see how God uses the same gifts but in a different context!
Since 1988 when we were first sent to Venezuela, dedicating my time and talents towards a foreign mission has always been in tension with family yearnings. Balancing the responsibilities and desires as a New Hampshire girl with God’s calling to evangelize away from home is a delicate thing. You can imagine how much my heart would like to be “home”! I appreciate your prayers for God’s wisdom concerning the details of the coming year.
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* Continue to pray that God would lead us to the next pastor for “Divine Providence” Lutheran Church in Santiago. We recently extended our fourth pastoral call. Pray that pastor Samuel is led to accept the Call!
* Continue to pray that God would provide us with a permanent “home” for the Santiago congregation. Options continue to appear, but so far nothing has panned out.
* Praise the Lord for the 7 people who recently completed an "Introduction to Christianity" class called Hacia Una Nueva Vida (Towards a New Life). They will soon be confirmed! Pray for Oscar, Orianna, Leo, Carola, Zenaida, Ivan, and Ezekiel to continue to grow in faith.
* Continue to pray for our loved ones experiencing a “winter” in their lives: Liisa’s father Edwin, suffering from cancer; Liisa’s friend Katy, also with cancer; and Jim’s mother Norma., suffering from dementia. Also pray for Jim's father Dennis who is Norma's full-time caregiver.
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* Praise God for the musicians in Santiago that Liisa continues to train - Betsi, Oscar, Elianeth, and Domenico. Pray for their continued growth as we begin to use the new Spanish Lutheran hymnal. Also pray for their CONFIDENCE as this seems to be the area where they are lacking.
* Praise the Lord for new Sunday
School teachers, leaders, and students! Pray for God’s continued blessing on the Children’s ministry.
* Praise God for Belkis, wife of the congregational president, who just agreed to be the leader of our dynamic women's ministry! Pray the Lord's blessings on her leadership of this important ministry.
* Pray for the GLO mission conference in Bolivia this week! Ask the Holy Spirit to stir the hearts of the Bolivian Lutheran Church to become a "missionary sending" church. May God use Jim and Liisa as conference leaders to accomplish His will.
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Our funding is at the lowest it's ever been during our career as missionaries! We'll admit: it's hard to avoid being concerned, and instead, to cling to this promise: “Don’t be anxious about what you will eat… your Heavenly Father knows what you need.” (Mt. 6:32) Our heavenly Father knows what we need. He knows what YOU need, as well! Together, let’s turn to our heavenly Father and trust in His provision!
Or, you can mail a check to:
Global Lutheran Outreach
6709 Ficus Dr.
Miramar, FL 33023
(put "Tino - Chile" on the memo line of the check")
Global Lutheran Outreach is a not-for-profit corporation under section 501 c 3 of the Federal Tax code. Contributions are tax deductible to the fullest extent permitted by the IRS.
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GLOBAL LUTHERAN OUTREACH| www.GlobalLutheranOutreach.com |
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