Greg's Newsletter, October 2012

Blessings from Chile! We are moving towards summer here and excited about the growing warmth and sun that we will get to enjoy over the next 5 months. That also means lots of cool things for our ministry, so please read below to see and hear more about what God is doing in La Serena through Fuego Urbano.

FIRST: The Ministry with the Surfers of La Serena continues to blossom and grow.

Our surfers-bible study continues to meet weekly, and while we are still hindered by the small space in my apartment where we meet, we know that we will soon have more space to invite lots more people. That said: the surfers’ bible study continues to be an awesome time of conversation about life and God, biblical exploration, and a time to connect relationally with all sorts of surfers and young people. I am teaching a series on the ‘Kingdom of God’ and how it is the key to understanding both Jesus and the Bible, and so far it has gone really well. The surfers continue to be extremely open and hungry to hear about God, Jesus, the Bible, etc. so we continue to have great times in the studies. We have also been surfing together quite a bit, as more and more surfers begin to come and find out about what we are doing. I even made two 3-day surf trips this month with a couple of the better surfers from the group, and it was an awesome time of getting to know each other deeper and developing more trust between us. One of the trips was to accompany Tomás (the best surfer in La Serena and one of the best in all of Chile) to a contest that was ‘invite only’ and devoted exclusively to aerials, so those who were invited were the best aerialists in all of Chile. Tomás had stepped out of the world of surf-competition for almost a year and just recently returned to it, but since it is not an easy world to be around as a follower of Jesus, I told him I would be willing to go to support him if he wanted to go back and compete; so we went and it was an awesome time of getting to know each other better and of being able to meet and share some with some of the best young surfers in all of Chile. Please pray God would continue to open the hearts of the surfers (and the skaters, as I continue to skate 1-2 times per week in both skate-parks in order to continue our ongoing relationship with them) up to His love.

SECOND: We are in the process of forming a church-leadership team for Fuego Urbano.

The team includes Pepe and I as co-pastors, along with a group of 4 others who would basically form a group of 6 elders, and then another group of 8-12 people who would serve as our various ministry leaders. Pepe and I have spoken lots about our vision for this and we have already met with the other 4 potential members of the team of elders, where we explained everything and asked them to pray about it and let us know soon. Then we will begin to work on meeting and talking with the various ministry leaders. The point of all this is to form and prepare our church-leadership so that when we launch our worship services in the hotel this January and are finally able to invite lots more people, we will already have a church-leadership team and ministry-structure in place to receive and care for those who come. Please pray God would continue to prepare the hearts of these leaders and that He would send us gifted committed people as well.

THIRD: We did a short day-trip last Sunday to a beach about an hour north with a number of the people from Las Compañías. We wanted to get away and go have fun with those who could come, so we planned it and made a day out of it. The beach we went to was called ‘Chungungo’ and was awesome for us to BBQ, eat, hang out, play bocce-ball, shoot BB-guns, mess around in the water at the beach, and then finish off with a short message from Pepe. Here is a photo of the group who went from the morning when we stopped to take this picture at a nearby fishing port:

FINALLY: 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 (http://greghaugh.blogspot.com) 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 so much for your constant prayers and support!!

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