GREG'S FEBRUARY 2012 NEWSLETTER: LA LLAMA

Greetings from the sun and warmth of the Chilean summer in La Serena! As summer here draws to a close over the next 2 weeks, let me fill you in on what we’ve been up to this February.

FIRST: As mentioned in my previous newsletter, we received a YWAM team from LA that was with us from Jan 19^th to Feb 8^th and was a huge blessing. They were 14 young people who helped in our summer sports programs and ministries in tons of different ways. Two of the guys on the team, Shaun & Michael, are incredibly gifted skaters and were able to use their talents to open lots of new doors for us among the skaters of La Serena. They also helped us organize a huge skate-competition and brought really good prizes for the winners so we could do a really awesome event (read more below).  Shaun’s dream is to disciple, train, and send skateboarding missionaries all over the world so we’re already talking about them coming back next Jan-Feb with a team of lots of skaters to hit the skate community even harder next summer; and Shaun’s wife Jessica is a trained dancer so she’ll bring a few girls to help her reach out to the young women by teaching more dance classes. We’re all super excited about how God has brought us together and about continuing to work together in the future.

SECOND: Fuego Urbano organized an awesome regional skate competition where we shared the love of Jesus with everyone there and became much more known among the skaters of La Serena. Most skate competitions here are organized in such a way that the average local skaters never have a fair shot at winning any prizes, so we organized our competition so the local skaters had a fair shot at a bunch of prizes. We had 7 skateboard decks that Shaun’s YWAM team brought from the USA for all the 1^st place winners, and then lots of other clothing items for 2^nd and 3^rd place. Never in any competition around here have there been so many prizes to hand out so all the skaters were super stoked. The competition lasted about 7 hours and there were about 400 people during the day at some point.  As we gathered together at the end to hand out all the prizes for the winners, Shaun shared about how the prizes had all been given as a gift from skaters in the USA who love Jesus and wanted to share that love and gift with the skaters of Chile, and then Michael shared his testimony with the whole skate-park full of people listening to his every word. He then finished up talking about the gospel and inviting people to Fuego Urbano; then we handed out the prizes. It was off the hook and thanks so much to everyone who gave or donated boards, equipment, and clothing to Shaun's YWAM team so they could provide us with awesome prizes for the winners! Here’s a couple pictures below:

A bunch of the local skaters a the Skate Competition Fuego Urbano organized

Local skater William picking out a prize for his 3rd place finish

THIRD: We finished our Summer Sports Programs last week and ended up averaging about 45-75 people per day from 10am-2pm. They went really well all summer but we’re also extremely tired so it’s nice to be able to rest after 15 months straight of sports programs 3-4 days per week.

FOURTH: I’ve been surfing lots and connecting with the surfers as much as possible before summer ends. I’ve already been able to make some key connections so please pray God continues to open the doors among the surfers and beach community. I also got Henry out of the skate-park and taught him how to surf this past week and he loved it. Thanks to all of you who donated or sent boards and wetsuits, and who helped get our 2^nd car because none of this would be possible without all those things.

FIFTH: We have some new and very real financial needs (Do they ever end?) I'd like to share in case you’re able and willing to help. Just after purchasing our 2nd vehicle we had to fix a number of things on it which ended up costing about $400; then just today we had to spend $600 on a new radiator for our 1st car. This comes at a very hard time because we just got a recent and unexpected increase of about $400-$500 in our monthly expenses due to two things: 1^st, Guillerme (the Brazilian soccer player who was trying out for Chilean pro teams and living with us) went back to Brazil suddenly and with almost no prior warning. He decided and 2 days later was back in Brazil. That has means we now have to pay the rent, food, and utilities he was paying. And the 2^nd reason is the monthly cost of gas for the 2^nd car. If you’re able to help with these, there are directions on how to give in the paragraph below, and we would be incredibly grateful as we are once again forced to simply pray and trust in God's provision for us in these matters. 

LASTLY: As always there are 3 ways you may give financially to Fuego Urbano. For Automatic Monthly Online Donations you may sign up for amounts of $25, $50, $100, or $200 per month. Just go to the right side of my Blog where it says ‘Recurring Donation’ and adjust drop-down menu to the amount you’d like to give each month; then click ‘Subscribe’ and it will take you through the process. One-Time Online Donations are available as well: click the ‘Donate’ button on my Blog just below where it says ‘1-Time Donation’ and it will take you through the process. Or if you prefer Personal Checks you can make them out to ‘Fishers of Men Fellowship’ and mail them to: Fishers of Men Fellowship, PO Box 9284, Newport Beach, CA 92658.  And all donations are fully tax-deductible.

Thanks as always for all your prayers and support…we couldn’t do any of this without you!

Greg Haugh & Jose, Gislaine, Gabriel, and Gean-Felipe Eyzaguirre