Greg's Jan 2011 Newsletter: La Llama, Vol 5

Blessings from Chile in our first newsletter of 2011! When I look back on 2010 and how I ended up in Chile I am amazed at the journey God has taken me on, and you all are a huge part of that.  I want to thank you all for your love, prayers, and support during 2010, as none of this would be possible without you; and as we are off and running here in 2011 I look forward to a new year of partnership with you.

FIRST: I want to especially thank those of you who gave special year-end financial gifts to Fuego Urbano last month, and to all of you who have given in 2010!! I can not tell you how blessed we were as a result of your year-end gifts and we were able to purchase some crucial items we were still lacking such as: beds, a projector, sound system for worship music, more bibles, and soon Fuego Urbano shirts to give to the kids, along with a few other items. As we are still in the midst of the greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression, I realize that so many of your financial gifts this year have come at great sacrifice to you, and every time I think of it I am humbled and grateful for your belief and passion to support our work and ministry with Fuego Urbano here in Chile.

SECOND: We finally got access to the Multi-purpose room in front of the Skatepark for our Fuego Urbano gatherings, at precisely the hour we were hoping for! The past 2 weeks we’ve had about 30-35 people show up which has been really gratifying because while there tends to be a basic belief in God here (as in most places) and some basic verses people have heard, the young people we attract are almost totally uneducated about God, the Bible, Jesus, etc. So it’s super exciting to get to reach out to so many young people who truly have never heard the Good News of Jesus in any way that made sense to them. It’s also gratifying for us to begin to see the fruits of everything we have been working so hard for, and with the projector and sound system we bought we’re able to use videos and media in our messages and services in ways that are really uncommon here, but dynamic and powerful for communicating the gospel and worshiping God together. We are just now incorporating worship music into our gatherings as well, and talking about what it is and why we do it, so please pray that God would raise of worship leaders and leadership among us all. Here’s a picture of some of us from last Saturday:

Most of us from last Saturday at Fuego Urbano

THIRD: We’ve started a summer sports program called ‘Mas Que Vencedores’ (More Than Conquerors) every Mon, Wed, & Fri at the city’s facilities in front of the skate-park where we teach Basketball, Soccer, and Volleyball but use them to teach and apply biblical truths and principles to the participants’ lives. The city had told us they were going to have their own sports programs so we offered to serve in theirs for free, but it turned out they had nothing planned. So we offered to plan and organize the whole thing for them at no cost to them, and they were thrilled. So now we’re able to run the programs in the style we want to and to share with the kids who participate, as well as invite them all to Fuego Urbano, so it’s an amazing outreach and service to the community. The city-park staff love us because we do all this for free, with the goal of blessing and serving the community, so they go out of their way to help us out with anything we want or need. We're up to about 40-45 kids each day who participate in our programs and we could easily get lots more but with our limited personnel right now, we simply can’t accommodate much more than that. More and more of the kids are also making their way to Fuego Urbano as we get to know and trust one another, so that is also exciting. Here’s a picture of some of us huddling up with some closing thoughts after some intense sand-volleyball from our first week of programs.

'Mas Que Vencedores' Summer Sports Program

FOURTH: Many have inquired about how to give to Fuego Urbano so I thought I’d remind everyone about the 2 ways to support us financially:

1)      Checks may be made out to ‘Fishers of Men Fellowship’ and mailed to:

               Fishers of Men Fellowship

               P.O. Box 9284

               Newport Beach, CA  92658

2)  Online giving from credit card or bank account here on my blog's homepage

Thanks so much for all your continued love, prayers, encouragement, and support in 2011!!

Greg Haugh

Fuego Urbano

Amazing 2011 So Far!!

I hope your 2011 is off to as great a start as ours as I can’t believe how much God has done among us here in the past 2-3 weeks. I’ll explain more in my end of the month newsletter but I just wanted to take a few moments to let you all know a few key developments.

We FINALLY got access to the multi-purpose room in front of the skatepark for our Fuego Urbano meetings that we’ve been hoping and praying for for so long!! I’ll spare all the details, but it wasn’t as easy as it sounds. So far God has really blessed us there and lots of young people are starting to show up!! Two Saturdays ago we had 23 people and this past Saturday we had a BBQ in the park with about 35 people, so God is bringing us more and more young people which is awesome!

Also, the city had told us earlier they were going to have summer sports programs planned so we offered to serve free of charge in their programs to help them and the community. Well it turned out they had nothing planned after all so we offered to plan, organize, and run summer programs for them free of charge, so that’s what we’re doing now. This is the best possible situation because it allows us to have organizational control of the programs, while taking advantage of the great facilities the city has built there. Today was the first day and we had 21 kids show up, which will continue to grow as all the kids in the area find out and as we continue to let people know. The program is called ‘Mas Que Vencedores’ (‘More Than Conquerors’) and allows us to teach values through sports, and at the same time tie these values into our daily lives and relationship with God. We also get to invite every person who participates to join us Saturdays at Fuego Urbano so it’s a perfect tool for outreach to young people. 

There’s lots more going on but those are the crucial details. I’ll write more at the end of the month but I ask that you continue to pray that God would bring more and more young people to Fuego Urbano and to Mas Que Vencedores, as He has been really blessing all our hard work and preparations during this past few months. And to see more photos of everything go to the Fuego Urbano Facebook page if you’re on Facebook, as well as on my personal Facebook photos.

Thanks so much for you prayers and support!! As always, this would be impossible without you!!