My Visit to Puerto Octay, Chile

This past weekend I was able to travel to a Christian missionary community in Puerto Octay. I was very blessed with the contact with other Anabaptists, and was quite enamered with their church for various reasons. Overall it was like trying on a pair of well fitting shoes; I felt very at home.

I arrived Friday evening and Davids', just in time for supper. Wendells were over for supper as it happened and I was able to get to know them right away. Later, one of the local Pentecostal ministers, Luis (with whom David and Guillermo work) and we had a Spanish singing.

Wendells are newly come down to the community from the States, and are still getting their "sea-legs". I showed Wendell how to spell his name phonetically in Spanish: Hüendl, since the English W sound is so difficult for Spanish speakers to grasp.

Most of Saturday, I helped David with a flat bottomed boat he's working on. They are so close to the lake that I really thought how wonderful it would be to have one of my kayaks close by.

That evening I had supper over at Breneman's. They expressed a lot of interest in Vision for Chile's ministry and it turns out that they themselves are very involved with the local girls home in Osorno. We discussed the need of many of the girls to have a stepping stone from their government supported living arrangements in the orphanages to finding jobs and living arrangements; the government cuts off support when they turn 18. Vision for Chile is working on an arrangement in Santiago for the La Granja girls orphange, via House of Hopw and it seems that some arrangement maybe could be made for the Osorno girls orphanage, by the Puerto Octay colony. This is something to pray about.

Yesterday morning Konrad S led Sunday School and Conrad Goodwin brought the message. The service is held entirely in Spanish including hymn singing. After church, Martins invited me, Kondrad S, Bertha & Guillermo and Radford and Abigail over for dinner. I really enjoyed this time of fellowship. All the food there was good home style "Dutch" cooking which I haven't ever seen down in Chile before. Marla served strawberry pie which was quite a treat.

When I returned to Davids, they were planning a trip out to the beach on Centinela Peninsula. The day was capped by an English singing and supper over at Wendells. Radford and Abigail needed to leave for Santiago and I accompanied them as far as Osorno to catch their bus.