GREG'S MARCH 2012 NEWSLETTER: LA LLAMA

¡¡Bendiciones desde Chile (‘Blessings from Chile’)!! I hope you’re doing well wherever this finds you and that you’re able take a few minutes to read about what we’ve been up to this March with Fuego Urbano, and the super exciting plans we’re shooting for this coming year.

FIRST: I’ve been surfing tons since my wrist got strong enough, since we got a 2^nd car, and since I finally got a board that surfs well in the waves here (thanks to my good friend Dave Allee who is owner of ‘Almond Surfboards & Designs’ and makes sick boards, so go check them out and buy one). I’ve been trying to take advantage of the end of summer with its warm air and water temps to connect as much as possible with the surfers of La Serena, a group we’ve always wanted to reach but haven’t been able to until now (due to not having a 2^nd car, not having a surfboard that rides good here, and the fact that we’ve been focused on the skaters and young people of Las Compañías and not La Serena’s beach community). Well the time has come to begin to really make a push in to the surfers here, as well as the skaters of La Serena’s beach community and downtown areas, and the thousands of university students who live within 15 minutes walk from the beach. So please read below for more details about how we’re going to do this, and please pray pray pray that God continues to open more and more doors with the surfers as I continue to surf with them, get to know them, and share with them.

SECOND: After 15 months straight of intense sports programs and ministry we finally got some time to rest and reflect a bit this March, and we all agreed that while we’ve been blessed in our first 15 months of ministry, its also time to make some changes in order to reach the broader goals we’ve always had with Fuego Urbano: to reach the skaters, surfers, university students, and young people across the entire city, and not just one part of it. Without going into too much detail: we’ve realized there are some real limitations on our ministry in Las Compañías, and specifically 3 huge demographics we simply can’t reach as long as we’re focused exclusively there. Those 3 demographics are: 1) La Serena’s surfers   2) the skaters of La Serena’s entire beach community and downtown area, as well as Coquimbo (the neighboring city)  3) the thousands of university students who attend the 6 or 7 universities all within a 15 minute walk from the beach. Las Compañías is simply too far away for these people to come to Fuego Urbano and this has always been both a frustration and a limitation of ours, but we’ve prayed lots and have decided to prepare to move the main service of Fuego Urbano right into the heart of La Serena’s beach community and therefore enable us to now reach out to literally thousands of young people all over the city who live so close by.  The reason we’re doing this now is to take advantage of a few new developments which have recently opened up as well: 1) As I mentioned above, I’ve been able to start surfing and reaching out to the surfers, which until very recently was basically impossible due to limitations we had of only having 1 vehicle which we all had to share, of not having a surfboard adequate for the waves here, and of my broken wrist; and 2) A brand new skate-park is opening soon right on the beach in La Serena and will be a massive gathering place for all the skaters of La Serena’s beach community and downtown area, as well as neighboring Coquimbo. Until now the only skatepark in the whole area has been in Las Compañías where we work, which is why we decided to focus there in the first place, but this new skatepark will draw skaters from all over La Serena and even neighboring Coquimbo, allowing us to target it just as we have the skatepark and skaters of Las Compañías. And it will be located about 1.5 miles down the beach from where all the surfers surf and hang out, so that stretch of the city will offer huge ministry opportunities for us which we simply did not have a couple months ago. Here’s a picture of Pepe in front of the skatepark. As you can see its under construction but its right on the beach and will be a huge gathering place for all the skaters of both La Serena and Coquimbo. 

Pepe in front of the new skatepark in construction right on the beach in La Serena

I also want you to know that we will not be abandoning Las Compañías or the people there. We’ll continue to do a weekly mid-week gathering there, after-school sports twice a week during the whole school year, and skate in the skatepark a couple times per week. We’ll even be doing our summer sports programs there next summer like we’ve done the past 2 summers, only scaled down a bit. The difference will be that we won’t be exclusively focused there like we have been until now. We’ve also spoken with our leaders and they’re all on-board and excited for the changes and new opportunities as well. So please pray God would pave the way in providing a large salon, event room, or meeting place at a cheap price so we can launch all this in November.

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.

Thank you so much for all your prayers and support…you make all this possible!

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