GREG'S JANUARY 2012 NEWSLETTER: LA LLAMA

“Today I met new people and a new world…the strangest thing is that I liked it…” These are the exact translated words from the Facebook status of one of the local skaters (Francisco) who came to his first Fuego Urbano meeting last Saturday after a year of us skating and spending time with him in the skatepark. Francisco’s favorite shirt has a huge marijuana leaf on it that says ‘Addicted’ and the first time I saw him I knew I’d like him but also knew he’d be tough to break through to; but after a year of spending time with him skating and talking, and after meeting and skating with some of the skaters from our visiting YWAM missions team, he came to our Fuego Urbano service last Saturday and left those thoughts on his Facebook status that night. Please join us in prayer for Francisco and the other skaters and young people like him who we’re constantly reaching out to, and read below to hear more about all God is doing through Fuego Urbano this January.

FIRST: Our summer sports, arts, and music programs are cranking along and we have about 45-75 people who participate on any given day. The programs run Tues., Thurs., Fri., from 10am-2pm and include basketball, futsal, soccer, volleyball, guitar, singing, and dance/drama classes, all of which we offer to the community free of charge in order to serve them and share our faith with all who come. We also began our skateboarding workshops/classes on Saturdays from 10am-noon and lots of people have started coming to that too. Here’s a picture of Henry and I closing the skateboard classes in one of the bowls, where we always end with a short biblical reflection, apply it to our lives, pray, and then invite all the people to Fuego Urbano. Henry is one of the most committed young people we have and is the best local skater in the bowls of the skatepark, and he and I are partnered to grow and develop the skating ministry of Fuego Urbano and reach the skaters of La Serena, so please pray for us as we move forward.

SECOND: We’ve received 2 missions teams this summer who’ve both been HUGE blessing to us. The first was a team of 12 Brazilians who came for 3 weeks in Dec-Jan, and the second from a YWAM base in LA that is here now and has been an incredible blessing among the skaters and young people. They’ll be with us until Feb 8^th and we’re trying to take advantage of the incredible skaters in their group to really reach the skaters here in force over the next couple weeks. We’ll also be hosting a big skate competition with their help, so please pray all goes well and that through this competition tons of the skaters and young people find out about Fuego Urbano. And thanks so much to all of you who offered your own resources and prayers to this team in order to get them much of the boards and equipment they’ve brought down to us…we’re so thankful for all you’ve done.

THIRD: We bought a 2^nd car and are SO grateful to all who gave and made that possible! Having it has already made such a huge difference that I don’t know how we ever made it so long with only one!! We still owe, however, between $600-$700 to pay for it completely so if you feel led to help with that, that would be a huge blessing and directions for how to give can be found in the final paragraph below.

FOURTH: CIMA is a Christian missions and evangelism conference held in different countries of South America each year, and this year it’s in the neighboring city of Coquimbo. Our ministry partners in Sinergia are in charge of organizing the event and asked Pepe and I to each teach different workshops, so Pepe is teaching ‘Sports-Evangelism’ and I taught ‘Surf Culture’…anyway, there are over 600 young Latin Americans here for the whole week to be challenged in their faith, and learn how to reach the world around us for Jesus. Its been a great experience being linked with the conference, and it will serve as the basic model for an annual Sinergia event we want to host here in La Serena each year. Here’s a picture of some of the people from the first night of the event:

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 (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 all your prayers, love, and support…we couldn’t do any of this without you,

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