Blessings from Chile!! By the time you read this update I’ll be only a few days away from arriving home for 6 weeks, and I hope to see, visit, thank, and share with as many of you as possible. Please read on to find out more about what’s been going on here and what I’ll be doing in the USA.
FIRST: As I mentioned above, I’ll be home from July 29th- Sep 7th and would love to see you. I’ll be hosting a few events which are already scheduled for those of you who would like to come visit, catch up, and hear in person how God has been moving through Fuego Urbano, as well as where He seems to be taking us in 2012 and beyond. The first event will be an informal open-house visiting and sharing time at my parents’ house on Saturday Aug 6th from 1-8pm where people can drop by for as long or short as they’d like (my parents’ address is: 3209 Vermont Ave., Costa Mesa, CA 92626); the second event is scheduled at Christ Presbyterian Church (CPC) in Huntington Beach on Sunday Aug 14th at 9:30 & 11am in rooms 102-103 (CPC is on Magnolia just south of the Magnolia & Adams intersection in HB). If I realize the need for more large-scale sharing events I will schedule them and let everyone know, but as for now these are the two I have on the calendar. However if you would like to meet personally with me to catch up, visit, and hear more personally how God is moving in Chile, and how you might be able to be involved at some level going forward, I would love the chance to visit and share with you in your home or with whatever group, organization, church, youth group, etc. you may want me to meet with. Just email me or notifying me on Facebook and we can set something up. I’ll be at CPC most Sunday mornings and will be teaching at CPC on Sunday Aug 28th at all three services so that will be another opportunity to see all of you from CPC. The final event I have scheduled will be on Saturday, Sep 3rd from 1-8pm at my parents’ house again, but this will be more about visiting and saying good-bye’s just before I return to Chile, as opposed to sharing and presenting more about Fuego Urbano. It will also be an informal open-house time for people to drop by and stay for as long or short as they like. So that’s my summer schedule as of now; I hope to see as many of you as possible when I’m home and hear how you’re all doing as well! And if you’d like to contact me please do so via email or Facebook; I’ll be getting a phone set up shortly after arriving but I don’t have it yet so I don’t know what the number will be.
SECOND: About 65 people participated in the Sports-Evangelism Seminar July 1-3 here in La Serena that Pepe co-led with another local pastor who played soccer professionally and is chaplain to the two professional teams in the area. Here are two photos from the seminar: one from a break-dance workshop and the other from a pilates workshop.
Overall the seminar was a huge success and all who came received theoretical, theological, and practical foundations to develop their own sports ministries and outreaches with their home-churches in their own communities. As shown above, anything from break-dancing to pilates, soccer to skateboarding, surfing to basketball or almost any other sport or recreational activity can be used to share the love of Jesus and serve the needs of the local community, and that was what this seminar was all about: teaching people to do just that with their own churches and communities, much like Fuego Urbano has done in ours. One of our main goals has always been to teach, train, and empower other church leaders in Chile on how to use more effective evangelism, outreach, and service methods, so this was a perfect example of us being able to do just that. From now on this seminar will be offered twice a year here in La Serena so we can train and teach as many churches, pastors, leaders, and young people as possible.
THIRD: The city recently asked Pepe and I to participate in day-long community task force meeting about how to care for the giant park where we run our sports programs, meet as Fuego Urbano, and skate in the skate-park. It was an interesting process but to get to the point: Pepe and I had the best ideas and solutions for all the issues that were raised so they elected us to be the spokespeople for the group, so we presented our ideas in front of the mayor and a bunch of city officials which was pretty funny for me because I’m obviously not Chilean. I told them when they elected me as a spokesperson: “Well I’m not Chilean and don’t have citizenship, but if that’s not a problem, I’m in.” As a result, our reputation and standing in the community has been greatly increased and now even at higher government levels then ever before. The mayor was very grateful when he found out we organize sports programs free of charge to serve the local community, and our programs were mentioned by a number of other people who referred to our work as a model and example of how to effectively serve the community. Please pray God would continue to open doors for us and lead us in the next steps of implementing the community action steps which we put forth.
FOURTH: Guillerme made the Under-18 La Serena soccer team (Guillerme is the Brazilian soccer player who’s been living with us since January) and we’re super excited for him. The Under-18 team feeds directly into La Serena’s pro team which plays in Chile’s first pro division. This would be like playing AA or AAA baseball for a pro-club and being a year or a phone-call away from making it to the big leagues: except here it’s not baseball but soccer. So please pray God would give Guillerme strength and perseverance, and that He would continue to open doors for both Guillerme and Fuego Urbano into the pro ranks of Chilean soccer.
FIFTH: As always there are 3 ways you may give financially to Fuego Urbano. For Automatic Monthly Donations you may sign up for amounts of $25, $50, $100, or $200 per month. Just go to the right side of my Blog (http://greghaugh.blogspot.com) where it says ‘Recurring Donation’ and adjust the monthly amount you would like to give; then click ‘Donate’ and it will take you through the process. One-Time Online Donations are available as well: just click the ‘Donate’ button on my Blog just below where it says ‘1-Time Donation’.’ Or if you prefer Personal Checks you can make them out to ‘Fishers of Men Fellowship’ and mailed to ‘Fishers of Men Fellowship’, PO Box 9284, Newport Beach, CA 92658. If you’d like to support us I’d ask you to please consider a monthly commitment because we have increasing monthly needs and increased monthly support is by far our greatest need at this point, especially with Pepe & Gislaine's coming baby.
Thanks so much for your prayers, love, and support, and I hope to see you real soon!!!
Greg Haugh & Jose, Gislaine, Gabriel, and Soon-To-Be-Born Baby Eyzaguirre
