Santiago Church Plant
Deans Back in U.S.
September 2008
We have moved back to the U.S. but the work in Santiago is by no means
over! Denise and I decided that we needed to seek release from the
work in Santiago and be back in the United States for a number of
reasons. One reason was the health of our son, Pierce. We've been
back since April and Pierce has only gotten obstructive bronchitis one
time and the episode only lasted a day and a half! Denise desired to
be closer to her parents to facilitate seeing them more often since her
mother's health is slowly and steadily declining. I'm glad to report
that she has been able to see her parents on three different occasions
in the last five months. Lastly, we have felt for quite a while that
the church in Santiago needed us to go. None of the members would ever
say that, they would not think that our absence is to their benefit.
But that is exactly what they needed and still need. Denise, our
sponsoring church, the missionaries still in Santiago and I all believe
very firmly that for the Santiago congregation to truly flourish, the
physical presence of the missionaries needs to diminish and finally
disappear.
This does not mean that we will ever withdraw our love, support and
assistance to them, however, the Providencia congregation will never
grow to maturity in Christ until they spread their own wings and fly,
so to speak. Our philosophy has always been that we would work
ourselves out of a job and we will hold true to that ideal until it is
accomplished. Our "phase-out" is one of many more that needs to happen
in the near future for the church plant to be complete. The current
missionaries are working diligently to come up with a plan for the
remaining workers to phase-out.
We have
settled in Midland, Texas where Mark plans to accept a job as Golf
Course Road's church plant coordinator in hopes to plant 37 faith
communities in the cities with a population of 2000 or more within a
100 mile radius of Midland. Denise is currently working towards
renewing her nursing license and should be able to start practicing
again by January. The kids are now back in school and loving it! We
try to maintain as much contact as possible with our church members and
the missionaries and plan on going back for a visit in March of 2009.
Returning to the United States has not been easy, on the contrary
it has been extremely painful and difficult. Fortunately, we were
prepared for what to expect long before actually arriving in the U.S.
which has made the transition slightly easier. Thanks to the excellent research by Dr. Clyde Austin and many others we have been spared many of the hardships experienced by missionaries who thought that coming back to the U.S. would be a breeze. At times, our families and friends do not understand how we feel. We do not even understand how we feel at times which makes the process that much more confusing and difficult. However, with the help of the Holy Spirit and the support of our friends and families, we will pull through this tumultuous time and our wounds will indeed heal. If you would like to contact us personally or know more about what is going on in Santiago please write us at chiledeans@gmail.com or go to the Santiago church's Spanish website at www.idcp.cl
We would love to hear from you! Have a blessed day!
Mark, Denise and kiddos
