Veteran’s Day

To those who have served and those who continue to serve, the Abegg Family thanks you from the bottom of our hearts. You have and do live out Christ’s command:

“Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.” John 15:12

Thank you!

-Kevin, Claudia, Jeremy and Nicholas

CHILE RELIEF PROJECT

On February 27, an 8.8 earthquake (the 5^th largest in recorded world history) hit off the coast of Chile destroying structures and creating tsunamis that swept away entire villages. Second and third quakes measuring 6.7 and 6.0 hit only minutes later. Over the next month and even now aftershocks continue to rattle lives and threaten buildings. The death toll is just under 800, yet nearly 80% of the countries population has been affected, and hundreds of thousands remain homeless as the Southern Hemisphere’s winter approaches.

Chile’s central regions were hardest hit, including Claudia’s hometown of Rancagua. We have been in contact with the leadership (Pastor Juan, Pastor Roberto and others) of Renuevo, our church in Rancagua, monitoring their progress and considering ways to assist them as they seek to assist those in the surrounding communities and rural areas that have yet to receive aid.

As the weather gets colder and rain arrives the most urgent needs are:

• Prefabricated Emergency Homes: In the 6^th region alone there is an urgent need for 20,000 emergency homes which allows a homeless family to remain near work, property and their support systems as opposed abandoning all they have to seek winter shelter. Each of these insulated, heated, emergency homes has a cost of $1000.00. Renuevo hopes to purchase a minimum of 10 for immediate delivery and construction.
• Emergency Food: With the destruction of homes and businesses, thousands have lost the means to support themselves. Renuevo is distributing boxes of non-perishable food costing $5.00 per box. They hope to provide between 100 to 200 units immediately and then assess further need in the outlying areas.
• Blankets: Basic, cheap ($5.00 each) and easy means to provide immediate warmth and comfort from the cold. They hope to distribute 200 immediately and then assess further need.

Latin America Mission is partnering with Renuevo in order to meet these immediate needs. Over the years many of friends and supporters have traveled to Chile in order to work alongside Renuevo or receive from their amazing hospitality. Please consider assisting this church in caring for the immediate needs around them and communicating Christ’s love in both word and deed.

If you would like more information on this project don’t hesitate to contact us at Latin America Mission (1800-275-8410) or via e-mail.

To make an online donation toward the Chile relief project please visit the LAM donations page, enter the amount you desire to give in the “LAM General Fund” section and indicate “Chile Relief Project” in the notes section. Your donation will be credited to the proper account and you will receive a tax deductible receipt.

If you prefer to mail in a donation please make checks payable to “Latin America Mission” and indicate “Chile Relief Project” on a separate piece of paper (not in the memo section) in order to have it properly credited. Mail your donation to:

Latin America Mission - Chile Relief

PO Box 52-7900

Miami, Fl 33152-7900

You will receive a tax deductible receipt.

Map of world's biggest quakes

This last quake in Chile recorded as #5 in history.
The #1 world's largest quake was also in chile.
Check out CNN's map of the top 10 largest quakes on record.

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Claudia in CostaRica & Daddy hanging with the Boys

As you may know from earlier reports, Claudia flew to Costa Rica on Sunday and started a week of intensive work on her teeth yesterday. The original plan was for four crowns in three days and return on Thursday. It became apparent yesterday that that’s not going to be the case as they began a root canal but quickly decided to refer her to a specialist starting tomorrow to complete it. Thankfully the crowns have diminished by one, but with the delay due to the root canal the earliest it appears she will be able to fly back would be Saturday. One problem, there are no Spirit Air flights on weekends! So now we’re looking at a possible Monday return. Thankfully she is staying with two wonderful LAM missionaries and has made various other friends (including a Chilean neighbor who made her cheese empanadas on Monday!) Please keep her in your prayers as this is a painful process but one we hope will take care of various problems for years to come.

As for daddy and the boys, I am using up various flex days to be home with them, but it may come to some juggling by weeks end or Monday if it gets pushed that far out. The first 2 ½ days have gone well. Monday they got to celebrate a friend’s birthday party at Chuck E. Cheeses and I was at the office. They had a blast although it may take the birthday parents a little longer to recover. I’m familiarizing myself with the week-day meals, chores, home school, piano lessons, etc routine which I helped Claudia put together on paper, but had never actually walked it through prior to this. All I can say is that my wife is a saint (and I want her back!). Jeremy, Nicholas and I are enjoying the time together and they ask me each morning if it’s “church day” because weekends are the only time I’m home two days in a row.

OK, I’ve got to hit the sack before I fall asleep on the keyboard. Please continue praying for Chile, for Claudia’s dental work and for the boys and I as we try to make it through this week without mommy’s amazing care for each of us.

God bless!

Chile Quake updates

I just got off the phone with "Obispo Sanchez" of the Free Methodist Church in Chile. He reported to me on many of their buildings having been destroyed and "entire costal towns swept away" by the resulting tidal waves from Saturday's Earth Quake. Despite the suffering he did aproach this with a faith filled humor in telling me: "We have been raising funds to rebuild one of our churches and were about half way to our goal before the quake. But the Lord must want us to do it faster, because He decided to tear the old building down ahead of our schedule!".

I also received an very brief e-mail from our home church in Rancagua, Renuevo. They report that "various families have lost their homes" but thankfully they did not report any loss of life. Please keep Chile, the pastors and the churches in your prayers. Pray for faith and strength for the pastors as they care for their congregations and pray for that same faith and strength for the congregations as they seek to express the Lord's love to the surrounding community.

Sunami Story & Photo Montage

Sunami washes away surifing resort in Pichilemu (Where Claudia and I served and have many friends).

A quick update on the Abeggs.

Claudia to Costa Rica and Kevin as Mr. Mom (pray for the kids!)
This coming Sunday Claudia will be flying to Costa Rica for some “Dental Tourism”. She will be in San Jose through Thursday in order to get four crowns as well as some other work. Some have asked “Why Costa Rica?”. The answer is that even though we have to pay for airlines, room and board, we will still come out minimally $2000. ahead instead of having the work done here in the States. That’s $2000 we don’t have to come up with or can be used in other ways. Thankfully LAM has numerous missionaries, ministry partners and friends there to help if needed, and she may even be able to meet up with a short term team from Walnut Creek Presbyterian Church on Sunday before she’s had her work done. Please keep her in your prayers as daddy and the boys won’t be there to comfort and care for her in the evenings. Also keep Kevin, Jeremy and Nicholas in your prayers as we’ll be having a guy’s week on our own. Daddy will be attempting to fill mommy’s amazing role of home school teacher, primary guidance councilor and overall house manager.

Rotating Jobs at Latin America Mission
This week in between responding to calls/emails from missionaries and various Chilean pastors or ministries realing from the EQ, I’m also in the process of slowly moving offices. As you know my primary job at the LAM “Cuba desk” has been expanded to the "Ministries Department" and got a jump start with my Tijuana trip last month. Since then my inbox has exploded with correspondence from LAM missionaries and our ministry partners. My primary responsibility at this point is to maintain and develop the depth LAM’s relationships with our partner ministries. A few weeks ago (prior to the Chile EQ blogs) I included a couple of entries on some of these ministries and will continue to do so in the future in the hopes of sharing some of the international (and eternal) good news you don’t usually get to hear on your evening news.

That’s probably one of the things I like best about my current position. I get a spectacular vantage point for what God is doing throughout Latin America through Latin ministries in general and missionaries associated with the LAM. God is doing some exciting things especially in the area of equipping Latinos for ministry both in their own countries as well as abroad. LAM is involved with numerous seminaries, Bible schools and training programs throughout Central and South America as well as entire international denominations that take very seriously the need to have well equipped pastors, teachers and trainers in order to have well equipped healthy churches ministering to entire populations in need of the Gospel. Please keep these ministries in your prayers, and I personally ask for your prayers to manage well the responsibilities and quantity of work the Lord has placed before me.

As you know, this is a “temporary assignment” until we find the right person to fill this position. Similar to when LAM was seeking a new president and the Lord finally brought Steve Johnson to us, I ask you to be praying for the Lord to bring the right person to fill this position. In the mean time I ask for your prayers as I survey the Ministries department, consider changes with the LAM guidance team and seek the Lord for how He would have us position this branch of the ministry for the future. Once the Lord does provide the right person for this I will be able to step back into the role I had for a few weeks of developing the North American Ministries (NAM) department of LAM, something that is very close to my heart as well.

In the midst of what I could perceive as a detour on the road to the NAM work I desire to do, I see the Lord once again educating me. The NAM responsibilities will essentially be as a “match maker” or in essence “marriage counselor” assisting the North American churches to develop and deepen their relationships with their missionaries as well as the ministry partners they are working with in the field. How better to get to know the ins and outs of this than to first do similar work between these very missionaries and their Latin ministry partners? I may be slow, but I’m starting to expect the Lord to prepare me for what only He knows comes next!

What an amazing God we serve!

What an amazing adventure He has us all on!

Thank you for your partnership with us and your willingness to be used by Him both internationally and the daily ways He uses you to accomplish His purposes in this World.

God bless!