San Andrés Arica

In the end of March we finally received our building permission from the municipal office!!!! Praise the Lord after 2 years. Within this time we have prayed a lot and our patience has been stretched quite a bit. Thank you for your prayers. Around the same time in March we had a visit from John Sutton our general secretary for SAMS, who we also consider our friend and father figure. He shared and gave us the up to date of all the changes that are taking place for us in SAMS, the comings and goings of mission partners, the pray needs and informed us about the many blessings that are also happening. John shared the Sunday message and we were able to celebrate communion, which was a blessing to all. After the service we had lunch together at the church and John got to share with the congregation, who were really encouraged,

April was the month to start the round up and begin the normal activities of the life of the church. I was invited to start with two other female pastors a " pastoras " prayer group, where all the pastors wives from Arica are invited to get together each week, to pray for the needs of our city. This ministry started because the MAYOR of Arica asked for it!!!! Can you believe it? We were also invited to be a part of a small team of selected pastors to go and pray for the mayor on his birthday, The Lord does open doors in high places.
From March we continued with the normal church ministries, prayer mornings, bible studies, marriage counseling and now pre-marriage counseling and of course my ladies group.

May was the month to start the year of the visitors. The Lord has really encouraged us as a congregation with visitors from different congregations and countries. We had a team of missionaries from Brazil who shared and encouraged us in the word. A small team of YWAM soon followed for a few days to help in a practical way cleaning the church and sharing. Then a Chilean missionary pastor came and shared one Sunday, MMMM it looks like we will have a missionary focused church!!!! The next visitor was from an American man who is interested in moving to Arica, who wants to help us as a church, supplying Bible tracks. He blessed David and I personally by taking us out to a very expensive restaurant (which after living in Arica for 9 years have never been to).We were very blessed to be able to get to know Burt. God does bring people into our lives for a reason.

I have a new ministry that we have prayed for years, a ladies English speaking group. Mila, an American lady, who is my friend and I, get together with Chilean English teachers. It’s a time of chatting and for them to practice their English. In the group there is a lady from Germany and a lady from India. The group is growing and I am hoping to be able to bring a "thought of the day” by the way this is not a Christian group and very diverse in their beliefs. Please pray for me!!!

June brought us a whole lot of very cold weather. We were blessed once again by a team of YWAM, Youth With A Mission. They helped in many ways from practical cleaning, painting and evangelism. This time we used the team to visit church members in their homes, a more personal disciplining and bible studies. This ministry was a great encouragement to all who had the YWAM team over to their homes.

Even though we looked like Antarctic discoverers with hats, gloves, thick jackets and boots, we still met for our Wednesday night bible studies, where we had a nice university student come along. I mention this as our church is very near the university and we are praying that we will be able to get into the uni with the Alpha course and with the hope that David could be the student’s pastor.

July came in with even colder weather, and it dropped down well below 8 degrees, at night. At some of our evening meetings we looked like a Mapuchi, wearing blankets around us to keep us warm. I honestly don’t know if it was the blankets, the laughing, or the Holy Spirit that kept us warm, but we survived.

We were extremely blessed by the White family, Andy Lesley Elisabeth George and Philip. They came to Arica all the way from Holy Trinity Formby to help us in any way they could in the church. Andy preached in the Sunday morning service and Lesley shared on our Wednesday evening service. They also blessed us with painting the inside of the church, the children also worked very hard. Andy was also able to install more lighting which was needed and greatly appreciated. The Whites also gave us as a church a donation from Holy Trinity Formby where we were able to buy all the paint and light fittings needed. We also bought a projector that we needed for the Alpha course. We thank you Holy Trinity Formby for your gift.

This month also brought us a bit of a shock financially, our friend architect who offered to be our architect for "almost nothing" the price of an egg, as we say here in Arica, is asking us for almost 900.00 English pounds!! We all had a price in mind of 300 00 pounds. We are very disturbed by this and at this point are asking him for a break down in his prices. Above all we don’t want to lose his friendship and the years of sharing the Lord with him. Please pray with us it’s a very delicate situation.

Up to now we have still not started to build, we are now waiting for a few quotes from builders. What we are hoping, with the finances we have in hand, to at least build the front of the church and have a roof, Since starting this newsletter we have received donations towards our building fund, Thank you, !!

PRAYER NEEDS.
1) The visit of our bishop Tito Zavala.
We have 2 candidates for confirmation,

2 ) The 1 September we will start the Alpha course. We have had to postpone it twice because of the cold. We can’t meet at the church after six pm because it has been too cold.

3 ) The marriage bible study that we will start this week

4 ) The new house group starting tonight.

5 ) The ladies groups, the pastoras, the English group, the neighbors counseling
group.

6 ) The situation with the architect.

7 ) The preparation for our deputation this December.

8 ) For our intersession group on Wednesday mornings, which is developing very well
and is growing.

9 )For our ministry to the people who have house fires, for Gladys Villeagas
to develop this ministry.

10 ) Our health, the boys in school, for good Christian friends, and the continuation of our ministry in sharing the gospel.

11 ) Start to build La casa del Señor.( the Lords house.)

12 ) The change in our mission SAMS, for the finances that we still need to raise, we are at present around 16 % out of the 100% needed for our personal ministry here in Arica. Thank you to the people who have already responded to our need in our last letter, to support us on a monthly basis, as part of our ministry here in Arica. This has been a tremendous encouragement to us and, at the same time, a wonderful confirmation that the Lord would still have us here in Arica.

Thank you to you all, for the prayer, encouragement, and financial support you give to us.
We know that without you we would not be able to advance the kingdom of God here in Arica.

All personal financial support can go through SAMS financial department with a note attached for David and Jean Hucker, for the building project you can send the cheques same way, but stated for the building project San Andres Arica,

davidhucker@gmail.com
ginahucker@gmail.com