GREG'S MARCH 2011 NEWSLETTER: LA LLAMA, VOL 7

BLESSINGS FROM CHILE!! Below you’ll find a summary of what we’ve been doing in March with Fuego Urbano, as well as the first of more videos I’ll be posting on my Blog in the future. And thank you so much because your prayers and financial support are what allow us to do everything we do!!

FIRST: Pepe went to Brazil for the last 2 weeks of March to teach at a conference about how to use sports as evangelism, outreach, and service to the community. Six Brazilian churches paid for him to fly out there and teach them, and he says that so far it has gone amazing. We hope to establish partnerships with some of these churches, which would be really exciting.

SECOND: Guillerme is a young Brazilian soccer player who worked with Pepe & Gislaine in the 'Mas Que Vencedores' (MQV) sports programs they ran in the very dangerous ‘favelas’ of Brazil during the years they lived there. He recently came to Chile to try-out for Chilean professional soccer teams and is hopeful he’ll get a chance to play next season, since it hasn’t worked out this season. He wants to stay in Chile and has joined our Fuego Urbano team, helping us with all our sports-programs last summer and now with everything we’re going to do this year. He is paying his own room and board and is now living with us too. Here is a picture of him on the left, with Felipe and Alberto (who is one of the region’s best tennis players) on the right. Please pray that Guillerme will make a professional team here in Chile next season as that would be awesome for him, and open even more doors for Fuego Urbano as well. 

Guillerme, Felipe, Alberto

THIRD: March has been a bit slower program-wise because the kids all go back to school and we needed a bit of a break after our fairly intense summer MQV Sports Programs. As a result, for the month of March we’ve been organizing and hosting soccer games for the community on Tues & Thurs afternoons, while skating in the skatepark with the kids on Wed, Fri, & Sunday afternoons, leaving Sat evening for our Fuego Urbano meetings.  Its been cool to see our core group start to solidify in their faith and in their commitment to God, us, Fuego Urbano, and one another. Please pray that process will continue and that the group would continue to grow in both depth and numbers. Here’s a picture of Pepe teaching a few weeks ago at Fuego Urbano when we finished our MQV Sports Program:

FOURTH: Thanks so much to those of you who gave towards our ‘3 Special Needs’ (see last month’s update) for 1) the trailer to haul Fuego Urbano sound & music equipment, 2) the mini half-pipe, and 3) the beds for Pepe, Gislaine, & Gabriel. We bought the ramp ($300) and assembled it in our backyard (see video below), and it has opened lots of doors among the skaters because they all want to come to our house and skate the ramp. We’re trying to take advantage of it by inviting some of the skaters who are harder to reach and more closed off in general, so please pray God would help us to do just that. As for the beds, we’ve purchased them ($300) but have only covered about half their cost so far, owing another $150 or so. And as for the trailer ($700-$1000), we have no $$ as of yet for it. Therefore I’d like to ask again for you to pray God would provide these for us, and also pray about being part of God’s provision for them if it’s within your ability and desire to do so. I’d also like to add a 4^th item to this list: we really want to buy Fuego Urbano shirts and sweatshirts but haven’t been able to because they would cost about $300-$500 for a bulk order. But these shirts would allow Fuego Urbano to become well known among the community since all the kids who see the designs we have for them want one to wear. We hope to get free publicity by the simple act of having our Fuego Urbano youth wear them, which would help get the word out Fuego Urbano, who we are, and what we do. Also, we have lots more in store for April & beyond, including new sports and community programs so please pray God would draw people to Him through them. And here’s a short video (the first of more to come in the future) of us putting together the mini half-pipe:

SIXTH: As always there are 2 ways you can give financially to Fuego Urbano: 1) Online Payments on my Blog by clicking the 'Donate' button on the right of your screen; 2) Checks made out to ‘Fishers of Men Fellowship’ and sent to: ‘Fishers of Men Fellowship’, PO Box 9284, Newport Beach, CA 92658

Thanks so much for all your continued love, prayers, encouragement, and support!!

Greg Haugh & Jose, Gislaine, and Gabriel Eyzaguirre

GREG'S FEBRUARY 2011 NEWSLETTER: LA LLAMA, VOL 6

Blessings from Chile as we finish up an amazing first summer of ministry in La Serena! Below you’ll find some highlights of what we’ve been doing this Feb, as well as some ministry plans for the next 9 months. I hope you enjoy reading about how your prayers, encouragement, and financial support are impacting the lives of so many young people through Fuego Urbano!!

First: ‘Mas Que Vencedores’ (MQV) was our summer sports program we held each Mon, Wed, & Fri this summer, where kids could learn & participate in Basketball, Soccer, and Volleyball with us at absolutely no cost to them or to the city. It is only because we receive our financial support from YOU, that we are able to offer these programs totally free as a service to the community and to the city, which blows them all away because no one ever does anything down here for free!! But we’re able to (THANKS TO YOU ALL!!), and our MQV program was an amazing success. We had about 110 kids in all, with around 50-65 present on any given day. MQV is designed not only to teach sports, but Biblical values and principles which will help them in sports, life, and their relationship with God. Through MQV we’ve been able to reach out to so many young people, exposing them to Biblical love and truth, as well as apply it to their actual lives and sports. Many of them also want to come to Fuego Urbano because we develop deep relationships with them, and as they know and trust us more, they open up more as well.

'Mas Que Vencedores' time of reflection & prayer

Second: We’ve had around 20-40 people over the past few weeks at our weekly Fuego Urbano meetings. We’ve been slightly hampered due to the skatepark closing for 5 weeks for repairs, and all the skaters leaving to skate in other places, but all in all things are going very well and with the re-opening of the skatepark all the skaters are back as well. And thanks to your giving we now have a projector and sound system for worship lyrics, power-points, videos, worship music, etc. so we’ve been developing more of that and using more dynamic media as it’s been available to us. We’ve been going through a series called ‘Images of Jesus’ where we take the Biblical truth that Jesus is the ‘image of the invisible God’ to allow Jesus to overturn some our misconceived ideas and assumptions about God, and replace them with the images of God revealed in Jesus himself.

Third: Our Ministry Plans for Upcoming School Year from Mar-Dec will include continuing the MQV program on afternoons after kids get out of school, as well as a Skateboarding ministry we’re proposing that would allow us to take a portable half-pipe (skateboard ramp) to local schools in the community and teach the kids how to skate it while they get PE credits for doing so. This would allow us to meet and skate with those who already skate, as well as give us the opportunity to teach those who have never done it. Either way, it gives us great exposure to the young people in their very own schools and we could then share with them and invite them to Fuego Urbano. We’re currently talking with a new director about this program, so please pray God would open the doors for it! Pepe and I are really excited about the outreach potential this could have, and in order to make it happen we’ve purchased a mini half-pipe at a very low cost of $300 (see photo below); we would also need to buy lots of helmets & pads too.

Fourth: We have 3 Special Needs (please read my ‘Mid-February Update’ on my blog) I’d like to ask you to pray about helping us with. First, is a trailer to haul the sound equipment we’ve bought to and from our Fuego Urbano meetings. The trailer will cost around $700-$1000. Second, we’ve bought in faith a mini half-pipe for $300 from a skater and businessman we’ve gotten to know well, and we hope to use this ramp for the Skateboarding ministry I discussed above in the local schools. Third, we need bed frames for Pepe & Gislaine, as well as for their son Gabriel. They’ve been sleeping on mattresses on the floor since November and a couple times we thought we had the beds taken care of but something has always happened to get in the way. The beds would cost about $300 in all. In total, these 3 needs value about $1300-$1600 so please pray about helping us purchase them and if you’d like to read more about them, please read my previous blog post entitled: ‘Greg’s Mid-February 2011 Update: 3 Special Needs’. Below is a picture of the half-pipe we’re buying to use for the skateboard ministry we want to have:

The mini half-pipe we're buying

Fifth: As always there are 2 ways you can give financially to Fuego Urbano: 1) Online Payments here on my Blog; or 2) Checks made out to ‘Fishers of Men Fellowship’ & sent to:

                  Fishers of Men Fellowship

                  PO Box 9284

                  Newport Beach, CA 92658

Thanks so much for all your continued love, prayers, & support!! We simply could not do this without YOU, our prayer warriors and financial supporters!!

 Greg Haugh & Jose, Gislaine, and Gabriel Eyzaguirre

Fuego Urbano

Greg’s Mid-February 2011 Update: 3 Special Needs

Greetings from Chile! 

We are doing well here as our first summer of ministry is coming to a close, however there are 3 special needs I would like to share with you. Many of you frequently tell me to let you know of our needs so you can help, and so in that spirit I’d like to share with you the following 3 needs and ask you all to pray about how you might be able to help us, or at least pray that God would open the doors for us regarding these:

Need #1: Trailer 

With your generous giving we have bought a sound system for Fuego Urbano complete with speakers, microphones, etc. The problem is that due to our car always being full the speakers don’t fit inside, so we need to purchase a trailer to haul the sounds system and worship instruments to and from our Fuego Urbano meetings. Until we have the trailer, we can’t use the speakers or amplify any of our worship, which we really need to do now that more people are coming to Fuego Urbano. The trailer costs around $700-$1000.

Need #2: Mini Half-Pipe

As many of you know skateboarding is incredibly popular here and our main outreach has been to the young skaters of La Serena. This summer a guy built a small mini half-pipe (see the picture below) right across from the beach and started charging people to skate it. Tons of kids skate it each day but he has to get rid of it next week because summer here is ending. I’ve gotten to know him from skating there and he loves the vision of Fuego Urbano, and told me he’d like to sell it to us to use for ministry rather than sell it to someone else. He told us to give him a price, but after talking with him I’m pretty sure we wouldn’t be able to buy it for less than $200 US dollars, with $300 being the high end. After talking about it we realized we could use the ramp for ministry in so many different ways to reach kids, invite them to the house, take it around to schools for demos and classes, etc. that we decided we’re going to buy it in faith that God will provide the money for it through you all, our wonderful supporters. The ramp would open up so many incredible doors for us outside the skatepark itself, as we are already designing a program that would entail us taking the ramp to all the local schools and teaching the kids to skate right there in their own schools as part of their own P.E. classes. Talk about amazing outreach opportunities!! Therefore, I ask that you please pray and see if you might be part of God’s provision for this amazing ministry tool. Here’s a picture of the ramp from this summer:

Need #3: Beds

We all bought mattresses to sleep on a few months ago when we moved into this new house but Pepe & Gislaine, along with their son Gabriel, have not been able to get bed frames due to a few different circumstances. A few times we thought we had them ready to go but things have fallen through each time. As a result, they continue to sleep on mattresses laid down on the floor. We hope to buy them bed frames as soon as we can so they don’t have to lay down mattresses on the floor any longer and can sleep better at night. The beds will cost about $300.

The grand total for these 3 Needs is roughly $1200-$1600 US dollars, and I hope you will pray about how you might be able to help towards them. I know so many of you give and continue to give and I’m so grateful, but I also ask that you pray to see if you might be able to give above and beyond normal giving for these items, which would allow us to do the ministry we really want to be able to do here in La Serena. If not, thanks so much for your constant support and encouragement, and I ask that you pray God would open the doors for us regarding these items.

As always there are 2 ways you can give financially to Fuego Urbano: 1) Online payments here on my Blog; or  2) Checks made out to ‘Fishers of Men Fellowship’ and sent to:

Fishers of Men Fellowship

PO Box 9284

Newport Beach, CA 92658

Thanks so much and I pray God’s blessings for you this February!

Greg Haugh

Jose, Gislaine, Gabriel Eyzaguirre

Greg's Jan 2011 Newsletter: La Llama, Vol 5

Blessings from Chile in our first newsletter of 2011! When I look back on 2010 and how I ended up in Chile I am amazed at the journey God has taken me on, and you all are a huge part of that.  I want to thank you all for your love, prayers, and support during 2010, as none of this would be possible without you; and as we are off and running here in 2011 I look forward to a new year of partnership with you.

FIRST: I want to especially thank those of you who gave special year-end financial gifts to Fuego Urbano last month, and to all of you who have given in 2010!! I can not tell you how blessed we were as a result of your year-end gifts and we were able to purchase some crucial items we were still lacking such as: beds, a projector, sound system for worship music, more bibles, and soon Fuego Urbano shirts to give to the kids, along with a few other items. As we are still in the midst of the greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression, I realize that so many of your financial gifts this year have come at great sacrifice to you, and every time I think of it I am humbled and grateful for your belief and passion to support our work and ministry with Fuego Urbano here in Chile.

SECOND: We finally got access to the Multi-purpose room in front of the Skatepark for our Fuego Urbano gatherings, at precisely the hour we were hoping for! The past 2 weeks we’ve had about 30-35 people show up which has been really gratifying because while there tends to be a basic belief in God here (as in most places) and some basic verses people have heard, the young people we attract are almost totally uneducated about God, the Bible, Jesus, etc. So it’s super exciting to get to reach out to so many young people who truly have never heard the Good News of Jesus in any way that made sense to them. It’s also gratifying for us to begin to see the fruits of everything we have been working so hard for, and with the projector and sound system we bought we’re able to use videos and media in our messages and services in ways that are really uncommon here, but dynamic and powerful for communicating the gospel and worshiping God together. We are just now incorporating worship music into our gatherings as well, and talking about what it is and why we do it, so please pray that God would raise of worship leaders and leadership among us all. Here’s a picture of some of us from last Saturday:

Most of us from last Saturday at Fuego Urbano

THIRD: We’ve started a summer sports program called ‘Mas Que Vencedores’ (More Than Conquerors) every Mon, Wed, & Fri at the city’s facilities in front of the skate-park where we teach Basketball, Soccer, and Volleyball but use them to teach and apply biblical truths and principles to the participants’ lives. The city had told us they were going to have their own sports programs so we offered to serve in theirs for free, but it turned out they had nothing planned. So we offered to plan and organize the whole thing for them at no cost to them, and they were thrilled. So now we’re able to run the programs in the style we want to and to share with the kids who participate, as well as invite them all to Fuego Urbano, so it’s an amazing outreach and service to the community. The city-park staff love us because we do all this for free, with the goal of blessing and serving the community, so they go out of their way to help us out with anything we want or need. We're up to about 40-45 kids each day who participate in our programs and we could easily get lots more but with our limited personnel right now, we simply can’t accommodate much more than that. More and more of the kids are also making their way to Fuego Urbano as we get to know and trust one another, so that is also exciting. Here’s a picture of some of us huddling up with some closing thoughts after some intense sand-volleyball from our first week of programs.

'Mas Que Vencedores' Summer Sports Program

FOURTH: Many have inquired about how to give to Fuego Urbano so I thought I’d remind everyone about the 2 ways to support us financially:

1)      Checks may be made out to ‘Fishers of Men Fellowship’ and mailed to:

               Fishers of Men Fellowship

               P.O. Box 9284

               Newport Beach, CA  92658

2)  Online giving from credit card or bank account here on my blog's homepage

Thanks so much for all your continued love, prayers, encouragement, and support in 2011!!

Greg Haugh

Fuego Urbano

Amazing 2011 So Far!!

I hope your 2011 is off to as great a start as ours as I can’t believe how much God has done among us here in the past 2-3 weeks. I’ll explain more in my end of the month newsletter but I just wanted to take a few moments to let you all know a few key developments.

We FINALLY got access to the multi-purpose room in front of the skatepark for our Fuego Urbano meetings that we’ve been hoping and praying for for so long!! I’ll spare all the details, but it wasn’t as easy as it sounds. So far God has really blessed us there and lots of young people are starting to show up!! Two Saturdays ago we had 23 people and this past Saturday we had a BBQ in the park with about 35 people, so God is bringing us more and more young people which is awesome!

Also, the city had told us earlier they were going to have summer sports programs planned so we offered to serve free of charge in their programs to help them and the community. Well it turned out they had nothing planned after all so we offered to plan, organize, and run summer programs for them free of charge, so that’s what we’re doing now. This is the best possible situation because it allows us to have organizational control of the programs, while taking advantage of the great facilities the city has built there. Today was the first day and we had 21 kids show up, which will continue to grow as all the kids in the area find out and as we continue to let people know. The program is called ‘Mas Que Vencedores’ (‘More Than Conquerors’) and allows us to teach values through sports, and at the same time tie these values into our daily lives and relationship with God. We also get to invite every person who participates to join us Saturdays at Fuego Urbano so it’s a perfect tool for outreach to young people. 

There’s lots more going on but those are the crucial details. I’ll write more at the end of the month but I ask that you continue to pray that God would bring more and more young people to Fuego Urbano and to Mas Que Vencedores, as He has been really blessing all our hard work and preparations during this past few months. And to see more photos of everything go to the Fuego Urbano Facebook page if you’re on Facebook, as well as on my personal Facebook photos.

Thanks so much for you prayers and support!! As always, this would be impossible without you!!

Greg's Dec 2010 Newsletter: La Llama, Vol 4

La Llama (The Flame): December 2010

Merry Late-Christmas & Happy 2011 from Chile!!! I hope you got our Fuego Urbano Christmas Card via email or my blog last week, and that you were able to enjoy the true gift of Jesus with your loved ones this Christmas. So much has happened lately so I’ll do my best to sum it all up for you.

First: We’re still waiting to hear back from the city about using their facilities for our Fuego Urbano meetings. The room and facilities we have asked to use are right in front of the skate-park in Las Compañías, the part of La Serena we’re now focusing on, but it has not been easy to get city approval to begin meeting there. All government workers across Chile went on strike for 3 weeks right when we began the application process, which meant we simply had to wait until the strike ended to process our application. The strike is now over and we’re waiting to hear back from the city about our application, so Please PRAY PRAY PRAY that they would approve us as this would be an ideal situation. We would be able to have our Fuego Urbano meetings right in front of the skatepark in an amazing room that would give us lots of options and opportunities.

Second: We’ve adjusted our summer sports-ministry plans to try to better serve the Municipality & the community of Las Compañías. We’ve been planning on running our own summer-sports ministry all along but have now offered our services to the City Programs instead. The city built the skatepark and the surrounding facilities with the goals of hosting their own summer sports & recreation programs; they are planning on doing something very similar to what we wanted to do, except they are doing it without the spiritual connection we would have included. After discussion and prayer, we’ve decided the best way to bless and serve the Municipality we’re trying to get approval from, as well as the community we’re hoping to reach out to and get to know, is to offer our services free of charge to the Municipality programs. This would avoid any unwanted competition between the programs, and allow us to serve in unity and cooperation with the Municipality and hopefully, open more doors for us there as well. So that is what we have done. 

                    Gabriel with some of the younger kids at the skate-park

They have already planned some programs like soccer, basketball, and drama classes, which we’ve offered to help with at no charge; but there are other activities we could offer for them that they have no way of providing, such as: Swim Lessons (they have a pool and want to have swim lessons but don’t have anyone to teach), English classes/workshops, Portuguese classes/workshops, Guitar, Baseball, American Football (Passing & Flag Football), and even Surfing if we had the necessary equipment. Granted that we’ve offered to do this for FREE, we’re hopeful they’ll want to partner together. Please PRAY they do, as this would be an amazing way for us to reach out to and get to know the whole community. In 3^rd world countries where there are more basic needs and fewer resources, it is extremely rare for people to offer something for free, with no strings attached, as we have done for these programs. So please pray God would open their hearts to allow us to serve them and the community in this way, and that they’d see the love and heart of Jesus in us!!!

 A night out & messing around with some of the ‘fellas’

 

Third: Our First Fuego Urbano meeting in Las Compañías will be on Jan 1 in the open air right in front of the skatepark itself, so please pray God would open peoples’ hearts to Him and us. We’ve developed so many great relationships with so many of the young people in the community of Las Compañías around the skatepark, that we’ve decided to not wait any longer for Municipal approval to the facilities we’ve asked for to begin our meetings up there; instead we’re going to begin next Saturday in the open air at the park right in front of the skatepark, and we’ll gather there each Saturday until our approval goes through or we hear something else. Please pray God would open the doors for people to come and stir peoples’ hearts to want to come hear more about Him, and that God would give us opportunities all week to invite people and let them know.

Fourth & Finally: As the end of 2010 approaches I want to thank you all for your love, encouragement, prayers, and support! This story we’re writing together in Chile would be impossible without the key roles each of you have chosen to play, and I want you to know how appreciative and grateful I am for each of you, and how excited I am to see what chapters we write together in 2011!!

Thanks so much and I wish you a very very blessed and joyful 2011,

Greg Haugh

Fuego Urbano

Merry Christmas From Chile!!

To All Our Fuego Urbano Supporters & Followers,

We just wanted to take this time to wish you and your loved ones a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Years from Chile! Pepe, Gislaine, Gabriel, and I are so grateful for all your prayers, encouragement, and support in our efforts with Fuego Urbano to reach the younger generations of Chile with the love of Jesus, and we know that without your support this simply would not be possible. So THANK YOU!!

It is also our hope and prayer that YOU will be able to rest in that love this Christmas season, even in the midst of all the parties, gatherings, events, shopping, and craziness that is the Christmas season. Below you can see us in our new 'Fuego Urbano' sweatshirts with our mini-sized Christmas tree, as we will be celebrating here too even though it's summer here and so has a much different feel to the USA.

 Thanks for all your prayers & support and we wish you all a very FELIZ NAVIDAD!!
Greg, Pepe, Gislaine, & Gabriel