A bit of a break

We write from the beautiful Sydney Northern Beaches where we have been house sitting since Wednesday. It has been a very refreshing time. We have enjoyed of plenty of space (Estela loves to roll over as far away as possible), a nice beach and plenty of opportunities to share with friends from our former church St. Faith’s, Narrabeen. We praise God for this great time!

Las niñas (the girls)

We praise God that Estela is 7 months old!, sleeping well, eating all her food (she has two Weet Bixs for breaky while Rocío struggles to finish one!) and seating up!

Praise God that Rocio seems to be fully recovered of her gastro. Please pray she may recover the weight she has lost.

Dagmar has been able to sleep more and Pato is very happy to see all his girls going so well. Thanks for your prayers and support regarding Estela.

Iglesia San Pedro

This is the church we'll be serving in when we will go back to Chile and from where we hope to launch a church plant. We praise God for the recent 19 people who got confirmed!

Visiting St. Faith’s, Narrabeen (http://www.stfaiths.org.au)

This coming weekend, we will be sharing with the five congregations at St. Faith’s. We were serving at St. Faith’s in 2003-4 when Pato was a student minister there. This is one of our link churches. Please pray that Pato may preach in a clear, loving and relevant way about God’s heart for reaching the nations with the good news of salvation in Christ alone.

A follow up of last week’s “weekly” prayer points

1) Praise God Pato was able to send to the organizers of the conference the tittles and passages for the three Bible talks he is delivering. Please pray for the writing of the talks.

2) Regarding the question, Do you reckon Pato, considering his “gastro situation”, spoke as a good Australian preacher (i.e. keeping himself in the assigned time) or did he go a little bit longer in every single service in a more kind of South American style? … I guess it did not generate much debate because everyone thought Pato did go a little bit longer … and he did!

Much love,

Pato and his girls

Did you miss us last week?

You may have missed our “weekly” prayer points last week. There you go! They are really kind of “weekly”, you know South American style of “weekly” … and not really weekly-weekly. Last week we enjoyed of a lovely time in Melbourne saying good bye to friends over there. It was a relaxing time (as far as it gets when you travel with two beautiful little girls). We praise God for the great friends he has blessed us with!

In our last “weekly” prayer points ...

Why did Dagmar write on the congratulation note that was on our place’s front door waiting for Pato to come back of his last exam: “you have done more than 5 years of study”? We had several answers, same of them referred to the fact that a MA normally takes two years, but Pato did it in one (… so theoretically he has done more than 5 years worth of study) and others mention that Pato has been studying so long (ref to his previous degree in Engineering). The answer? Dagmar was referring to the bonus of getting two beautiful daughters! Praise be to the Father for the abundant new life He has given us in His Son by the power of the Spirit!

Las niñas (the girls)

We praise God that Estela is 7 months old!, sleeping well, eating all her food (she has two Wheat Bixs for breaky while Rocío struggles to finish one!) Dagmar has been able to sleep more and Pato is very happy to see all his girls going so well. Thanks for your prayers and support regarding Estela. Today (Tuesday) both of them got immunisation shoots. Please pray they may not have problems with them.

The Lord our God is a powerful and merciful God

Last Sunday Pato visited St. Mark’s, West Wollongong. It was a great opportunity to see God’s faithfulness and power in action because of the circumstances that preceded this visit. That very Sunday morning we had to go to Emergency because Rocio got a nasty gastro which was bothering her for some days (no ugly details, you know what gastros are like). She couldn’t sleep on Saturday night. We were concerned about her getting dehydrated. We went to Emergency and went back at 4 am. Our plan of going all the family to share with the saints at St. Mark’s was over. Pato had to wake up at 5.30 to be able to be on time in Wollongong for speaking and preaching at the 8 am service, then at the 10 am, have lunch and spend the afternoon sharing with people. Finally, the 7 pm service, which included a couple of great opportunities to chat, to encourage and to pray for some people after the service until well passed 9 pm. He arrived back to Sydney about 11 pm. It was a great day! We cannot but praise God for his amazing love and care for us (Pato got the gastro as well, so he was very please God kept provided plenty of nice toilets for him all day long). Paul writes about this very clearly:

But the Lord said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me (2 Cor 12.9)

CMS South Australia Summer Conference in Adelaide.

One of the goals for this week for Pato is to send to the organizers of the conference the tittles and descriptions of the three Bible talks he is delivering. Pato will also be giving a couple of talks on the partnership between the Anglican Church of Chile and CMS. Please, pray for Pato to be directed by God’s Spirit to do it properly.

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QUESTION FOR THE WEEK (Related to the Wollongong visit):

Do you reckon Pato, considering his “gastro situation”, spoke as a good Australian preacher (i.e. keeping himself in the assigned time) or did he go a little bit longer in every single service in a more kind of South American style? Have five years in Australia changed the old good Pato’s preaching habits?

Remember that you can leave your answer in the blog page by clicking “comments”, just below this paragraph.