Chile: Maranatha Open Team in Quirihue, Chile

I am sitting in the Toronto Airport after spending the last three weeks in Chile with a team of Maranatha volunteers from all over North America, Chile, Peru and Barbados.  My head is still spinning (and not just from the red eye flight from Santiago) as God was so evident that I can safely say that the past three weeks of my life were definitely some of the most spiritually saturated weeks of my life.  I am so thankful that our team leader, David Lopez who invited me to serve as the “Spiritual Director” for the trip, as well as all the over 100 participants who truly blew my socks off (I wear flip-floops whenever possible!) with their never ending spirit of service. 

As Spiritual Director for the trip I organized the two daily worship sessions.  The mornings tended to be shorter as our team was eager to get out and serve the community.  In the evenings my “second-cousin-in-law” Jim from Alaska lead out in worship as I opened the Word.  I am frequently nervous before speaking to groups, but this was especially challenging as these people are absolute saints that love Jesus. 

In addition to serving as Spiritual Director, I was also appointed to work with my good friend Danny in coordinating the Health Fair that was associated with the medical clinic that we were daily putting on.  The Health Fair consisted of several “booths” including one on hyrdotherapy/health, dental hygiene, eye glasses, massage, and prayer/counseling.  It was a tremendous success as we saw over 500 patients in three different areas both in and surrounding Quirihue.  The medical team consisted of 6 nurses, but three of them were actually seeing patients. 

The main thrust of Maranatha is the building project, and in this case we were building a church in Quirihue.  It was so impressive to see the results each day as roughly 40 volunteers were working tirelessly to finishing the building project in a week (which they did).  At the end of the week we had the first worship experience in the church on Sabbath in which the local church preached a powerful sermon about Matthew, a disciple of Jesus.  I had the joyful privilege of baptizing 5 people during the service and it truly was a highlight of the trip for me.  That afternoon there was a ribbon cutting ceremony to celebrate the grand opening of the church. 

Also during this time we were running two VBS programs, one in the morning in Quirihue and one in the more remote village of El Rincon.  I had the privilege of traveling with the VBS team on the last day to El Rincon to see the program in action.  After the service that day, five people were baptized.  It was an awesome experience. 

I could go on and on about the stories of people that I had the distinct privilege of meeting.  We had people of all different denominations (and even an agnostic or two) and I want to tell you all that I thank you for sharing your lives with me.  You are and inspiration.  It was a tremendous privilege for me to serve the team.  I can only hope that this is not my last Maranatha trip!

Blessings to you all!

Matthew Gamble
Toronto Airport en route home…

Posted by matthew gamble on February 23, 2009 at 04:59 AM
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