God doesn’t stop moving!

From Global Lutheran Outreach missionaries James and Liisa Tino (Serving in Santiago, Chile)

Moveable Chapel Project

A moveable chapel? Well… the Old Testament nation of Israel had a moveable chapel called a “tabernacle” that they carried with them in their desert wanderings. We don’t plan to be wandering Santiago from week to week, HOWEVER, since our ministry location is rented, we don’t know how long we will be here! We don’t want to build something and then – if we have to move – lose our investment. Thus, a moveable chapel!

Our first step was to build a solid floor, like a cement patio. (That part isn’t moveable!) The floor cost about $800 and used up all of our funds. Walls, a roof, and electrical will cost about another $4,000. For now, we are worshipping under canopies (see next article) as we wait for the Lord’s provision, and we know that He will provide! Providing a space for worship is an important part of our ministry to immigrants. If you would like to contribute to the chapel, click here to make a donation to the Santiago Immigrant Ministry project!

Hail causes damage

Due to covid-19 restrictions, we have to hold worship services outdoors for now. With our new cement patio, we bought some canopies and were all set! Until a freak summer hailstorm, that is. It was disappointing to have our canopies ruined after just two weeks of outdoor services on our new floor! True, they were not high-quality canopies, but they cost us about $50 each. And the hail was big!

Medicine for Venezuela project blesses thousands!

The country of Venezuela – where we served as missionaries for 13 years – continues going from bad to worse. Wages are now two dollars per MONTH. For the past three years, we have been supporting our Venezuelan brothers and sisters by sending life-sustaining and (in some cases) life-saving medicine from Chile. A typical shipment serves about 1000 patients with a month or more supply of their medications.

Medicines are distributed through the network of 21 Lutheran congregations in Venezuela. Since many of our members in Santiago are Venezuelan immigrants, this project is near and dear to our hearts. Unfortunately, this may have been our last shipment as funding for the project has been exhausted. Each shipment costs about $10,000, or about $10 per patient. To learn more about this project, click here.

 

Furlough Plans now being made! Can we visit you?

YES! It’s time! Since covid-19 frustrated our plans to visit our mission partners this past Fall, we have rescheduled. We are well aware that for many churches, the Sunday morning dynamics have changed dramatically. Still, we would LOVE to visit your church, if possible, to share the news of God’s mission in Chile!

This year, in addition to visiting congregations, we would also like to emphasize visiting with small groups. This could be a home Bible study group, a mid-week congregational Bible study, or other group. If you are interested in scheduling a visit for a group or for your congregation, please email Jim directly: revtino@hotmail.com

Here is the tentative schedule of where we will be, and when:

MICHIGAN: March 27 – April 20 (Sundays available: March 28, April 11 and 18).

ARIZONA/CALIFORNIA: April 21 – May 10 (Sundays available: April 25, May 2 and 9).

FLORIDA: May 11 – June 7 (Sundays available: May 9 and 23, June 6).

NEW ENGLAND: June 7 – June 21 (Sundays available: June 13, and 20).

To learn more about James and Liisa Tino, click here to read their latest newsletter!

The Newest Little Stoltenow

From Global Lutheran Outreach missionaries Joe and Viya Stoltenow (Serving in Cambodia):

We’re pregnant!!! I mean… Viya is, obviously. We are incredibly excited to announce that we will be having a baby girl in May and we couldn’t be more thankful to God for this precious gift! It has always been Viya’s dream to have a baby girl and to be able to do her hair and pick out her clothes and bows(of which we have already bought many haha). Raymond isn’t quite sure about all of this just yet but he has already given his baby sister some kisses and even sings to mommies belly sometimes. We can’t wait to meet our baby girl and for Raymond and her to grow up together as siblings.

Our trip to the US has been amazing and even though we haven’t done much, we’ve still loved the time we’ve had with my parents. Christmas was so much fun and Viya and I loved to see Ray’s face light up as he opened his presents.

In other news, we have had to extend our trip to the US by another month as we are working on getting Raymond’s Social Security Card(turns out those are important).

Ray of Hope Update

One of the biggest questions we get asked while in the US is “Who’s running Ray of Hope while you’re here?”, and it’s one of my favorite answers to give as it ultimately leads into our main objective as missionaries. While Viya, Ray, and I are visiting the US, Ray of Hope is run by Viya’s younger sister Vimol.

We are working with and training Vimol to eventually take over as Ministry Director of Ray of Hope and believe me, she was born for it. Everyday she shows the kids the love of Jesus Christ with her words and actions and if you ever got to meet her in person you’d know that Christ is truly at the center of everything she does. We are incredibly proud of her and the hard work she has done for this ministry and the street kids.

We are also working on hiring new staff at Ray of Hope. With our students being in so many different grade levels we want to have more teachers at our center so that each student gets more individual tutoring. It will also help to give Vimol some additional leadership experience by having some non-family staff to supervise. As of right now the kids are back in school full time, but as new Covid cases in Cambodia are continuing to be more and more sporadic we are prepared to have zoom classes recommence at anytime. But for now the kids are happy to be back in school and off their computers.

Student Spotlight

Bong Bproh (Khmer for “Big Brother)

This newsletter we are very excited to introduce you to Bong Bproh, or “Big Brother”. Bong is eleven years old and is currently in the seventh grade. He has been a student with us for the last three years and actually transferred to Ray of Hope from our friends at Crossing Cambodia, a similar Christian street kids ministry here in Battambang. Bong was already in Crossing Cambodia’s program but they were already at capacity after enrolling new students all summer. So we enrolled his sister and since we both use the same school Crossing Cambodia and Ray of Hope came to the agreement that we would take Bong so as to keep the siblings together.

Bong’s parents are currently working/living in Thailand so Bong lives with his grandmother in the same village as Joe and Viya. His grandmother is nearing seventy years old and isn’t able to support herself on her own. Fortunately her children are able to send small amounts of money to her and she is able to get by with food but the real saving grace is that one of our neighbors has an extra house in our village that they let them stay in rent free.

He is polite, gentle, and he loves to learn about Jesus and the Bible. His favorite Bible story is Noah’s Ark and he recently played the part of King Herod’s guard in our annual Christmas pageant, along with preforming in some song and dance routines. Bong is a great student and a better kid. And I know we say this about every student but we truly can’t wait to see what God has in store for him.

To learn more about Joe and Viya Stoltenow’s, click here to read their latest newsletter!