April Prayer Letter

Fall Retreat

All the students and staff at the fall retreat

It’s beginning to get cooler here as fall comes to Chile. Last weekend was the first annual Santiago fall retreat. I was on the planning committee for it, along with 2 other of my American team members. As you can imagine, it was a bit of a challenge at times trying to not only organize a retreat, but in a foreign language in a foreign country! God blessed us greatly and we had about 45 students come— many of them who weren’t Christians. Mario Bloise, the international director of Campus Crusade in Latin America, spoke on leadership that changes lives and used some examples from the life of Christ. The students really enjoyed it, as did the staff, and it was great to have some more time to hang out with students outside of the university setting. Here in Chile, it doesn’t work very well to have an outright Christian retreat. A few Christians would come, but the vast majority of our students involved with Vida Estudiantil here are seekers, many of whom we’ve shared the gospel with, but who aren’t ready to make a decision for Christ. We continue to develop relationships with them and love them, while trying to live out the gospel with our lives.

I was very encouraged that my friend Camila came to this retreat. Camila is a 3rd year student studying Biochemistry who has been coming every week to our English clubs. She’s a very sweet girl who is very good at English! At the retreat, we were able to share with her about Christ. She listened intently while we talked, but was very hesitant to share about what she believed. I also found out she was at our English clubs 2 years ago when I was here on summer project. I believe God has big things planned for her. Continue to keep Camila in your prayers that she would continue being more and more open with us and that she would have a relationship with Christ.

We had our first weekly meeting called Punto de Partida 2 weeks ago. We had about 25 students there, which is a huge praise! Christian, a Chilean staff member, spoke about dating in Chilean culture. We’ll be having one meeting each month.

Chile Facts

*There are about 537 Chilean pesos to $1.00 American dollar. However, this fluctuates daily.

Camila and Holly, one of my teammates Summer Project

On May 22, fourteen college students will be arriving from the U.S. for a 6 week summer project here in Santiago. I’ll be co-leading this project along with Nathan, a senior at KU. More than likely, we will be starting ministries at 2 different campuses this summer, based on the investigating we did at campuses earlier this semester. I’m really looking forward to this new stage of ministry. I will be discipling some of the girls that come, as well as just helping give leadership to the project. This does mean that I will no longer be working in Barrio Republica with my Stint team. It makes me a bit sad to leave them and the ministry that we have started there, but I know God is calling me to lead this project, and I am excited about it too. Our theme for the summer is ‘Crash’. A herd of rhinos is called a ‘crash’ because they can only see 30 feet in front of them, yet they run full speed ahead, risking a crash. We want to step out in faith and move boldly ahead, even though none of us really know what we are doing. We’re trusting the Lord for great things this summer.

Prayer Requests

· Camila– that she would come to know the Lord

· For the summer project– for unity and god to work

· For the students going to Korea –for encouragement and to trust God to provide the $2500 for the plane ticket

· For wisdom on dividing my time between the project and my team and roommates

· Praise for how God has worked this semester and all the students he has given us

Have a great summer— it’s been great partnering with you this year. Thank you for everything! In His love and grace,

Julie Sorensen