Vineyard by the Sea

 chile's naval headquarters, plaza sotomayor - valparaiso

                     

                                                 

Agh Vina Del Mar! There is nothing like leaving a smoggy city and smelling fresh air by the sea, not to mention the wonderful works of sand art we were greeted with! We have been in Vina since Friday and have been staying with a wonderful pioneer couple from the English Congregation. They are native Chileans but have very good English and they both sing English songs very well :). Since we have arrived in Chile we have been hosted and welcomed by a neat array of Jehovah's people. It's so encouraging and heartwarming to see how Jehovah's Organization is truly a worldwide brotherhood. We had been asked while preaching in the states before we moved how we already had so many friends in Chile and how we could possibly not be scared about not ever meeting these people personally before moving to Chile. Of course not being a part of Jehovah's Organization it is difficult for anyone to grasp the concept, but since we left we can truly say it was due to Jehovah's love and the love of his people.

We have been in the ministry a few times so far and have seen quite a diversity in the areas and methods of preaching. Our first day we went to the port of Valparaiso which is the adjacent city to Vina Del Mar and the historical city. This is where we find many tourists from all over the world shopping, taking pictures of the historical buildings, taking boat tours, walking and eating! We were looking for anyone who looked like they spoke English and then approaching them with general chit chat and then we break into the message. A brother said a circuit overseer told them to use the acronym FORM (family, occupation, recreation, message) using this method definitely keeps them from walking away and after talking about life with them they feel obligated to listen. Derek had a chance to talk to a lady for over 20 minutes and she said she had never talked to Jehovah's Witnesses that long before. We had a chance to preach to an interesting mix of people from South Africa, New Zealand, London, France, and the States. Most were very surprised to see Jehovah's Witnesses in Chile too. The next day in service was a night and day difference, we went to an area that was very poor and very heartbreaking to see how many people live in Chile. This preaching was door to door canvasing asking in Spanish if there were any English speaking people living there. What we like about the Vina Del Mar territory vs. the Santiago territory is that Santiago mainly covers just the city which you can imagine being close to 7 million people is a lot; but the Vina territory covers the rest of the country (wherever English speaking people may be) so we will get to see a lot more and have more diversity!

This Saturday we met a group of 32 to go to Algarorobo, a beach town about an hour north. It is a resort community for people who live generally in Santiago to come during the summer months or holidays. Since it was Easter we found many people at their homes, it was a long day of preaching. In our group we found a few that spoke English and were very interested in what we had to say, one lady I found told me she had never talked to Jehovah's Witnesses before and she was very eager to take our literature and learn more. Some in the other groups had similar success! As a side note too we have decided to stay in Vina Del Mar...YAY!

                       algarobo preaching