“Beloved, it is a faithful thing you do in all your efforts for these brothers, strangers as they are, who testified to your love before the church. You will do well to send them on their journey in a manner worthy of God. For they have gone out for the sake of the name, accepting nothing from the Gentiles. Therefore we ought to support people like these, that we may be fellow workers for the truth.” 3 John 5-8.

Dear friends,

Ellelein writes…I am sitting down at the kitchen

of our little home in England. It is sunny and lots of birds have gathered around the feeder. I marvel at God’s generosity towards us in these many months that we have been here.

Our hosts, the owners of the farm where the cottage is located, have made us feel very welcome here. Cheryl, our lovely neighbour, has also been such a blessing to us. A really loving and caring woman who has provided much love for all of us, in particular the kids who enjoy

going with her to feed cattle, swans and just play with her very big dog. So all in all I am sitting down here and thinking I am very grateful indeed.

Over the past few months, we have also had the joy of visiting you and to talk about Chile. We have been invited to talk about our projects and to share what is going on in our lives. You have prayed for us, encouraged us and shared your wisdom about the new projects we want to get involved with. These visits have reassured us of your commitment to us and also of the partnership we have with you. The children want to make a special mention of a house full of ex-missionaries, where magic tricks were taught and where more than three languages were spoken. Another thing was the scientific experiments done… on them!

We are so happy to have visited your churches and we got quite a few ideas! We also visited some friends who support us individually

DANIEL AND ELLELEIN KIRK LINK LETTER NO.10 | JULY 2016

Hello from Chile!

CHURCHMISSIONSOCIETY.ORG/KIRK

Name: Daniel and Ellelein Kirk

Location: Valparaíso, Chile

Our Role: Church planting in Valparaíso, the largest port city in Chile.

Our Call: Our call to Chile is to support the Church through church planting, training lay leaders, teaching, preaching and running youth groups.

Top: David and Joshua

Bottom: Collage church in Chile - coffee after the service

CHURCHMISSIONSOCIETY.ORG/KIRK

and also new people who kindly decided to join this adventure. I am sure they will not be disappointed as they are indeed following God’s call to preach the good news to the ends of the earth. We still need a wee bit more to cover all our costs so if you fancy raising your support a bit or want to start supporting us regularly, please get in touch with us or with Church Mission Society.

Apart from travelling around the country on deputation, God blessed us with the opportunity to attend two family weddings. One in Sicily, where Daniel’s cousins had an amazing wedding joined by people from 40 different countries. The second one was here in Lechlade, where I had the honour of being a bridesmaid to Nicky, Dan’s sister.

I also finished the second module of the counselling course I am doing with the Christian Counselling & Educational Foundation (CCEF). The course was called Helpful Relationships. Following on from the first course by David Powlison, Edward Welch helped us to apply the basic and growing understanding of biblical truths, both with ourselves but also in everyday relationships. We were given case studies, lectures and group discussions to help us grow in our ability to listen well, know people, interpret another person’s

story from a biblical perspective, and offer biblically-based truths that will motivate others in their growth in Christ. I must say that although I

have finished the course, I am still very much challenged by what I learnt and even more challenged to think about it and apply it to daily life.

I also attended a conference at All Souls on addictions, also organised by CCEF. If you are interested in finding out more about the events they do, please visit their website. They are all Bible based and truly practical. www.biblicalcounselling.org.uk

During our absence in Chile, Dan kept attending as many pastoral meetings as he could by Skype. The church leaders did a great job and we all rejoiced at the news that the petition of a curate for our church was finally granted by the bishop. Claudio and Maca with the two little ones, Amanda and Daniel, are indeed a great addition to our church.

The children are doing great at school and enjoying all the summer activities. Although we miss Daniel very much, we are very happy to have been able to stay for an extra two months. Some of you know of the difficulties David had in his school last year, and so this year as we go back we will try homeschooling. He is already excited at the prospect of learning Latin! We shall see how it goes and it would be great if you can pray for us in this new venture. As for Josh, he will be going back to finish year 3… again! … after having finished it here in the UK. So do pray for him too, so that it might not be a boring task for him.

Although the children have always been able to adapt pretty quickly, there is this sense of not belonging imprinted in their hearts. To a certain extend this is good, as we only belong to Christ, but on the other hand it shows in the difficult process of adaptation when we go from one place to another. Josh

“You have prayed for us, encouraged us and shared your wisdom about the new projects we want to get involved with. These visits have reassured us of your commitment to us and also of the partnership we have with you.”

Top left: Claudio (curate), Maca (his wife) and children

Top right: At the wedding of Daniel’s sister

DANIEL AND ELLELEIN KIRK LINK LETTER NO.10 | JULY 2016

has written in his prayer journal that he needs courage to adapt from one country to country, and David is asking that he does not stick out so much as a foreigner. Please pray for them.

Dan writes…I have been back now in Chile

for a month. It has been good to get back to IPA which is in a healthy state although there is a lot of consolidation to do before pushing on in mission in Valpo. Claudio and Maca have made an immediate impact and are already much loved by the congregation. They are helping us move forward on starting a big social project, perhaps starting a children’s home in Valparaíso. Maca and Evelyn (who is in charge of our Sunday school) have started a group which visit a child’s home in Viña three times a week. As well as helping the children in real need there, they hope to gain experience which we can use in Valpo.

A couple of missional communities in Valpo have closed down for different reasons and we would like to strengthen the leadership of our groups, especially in their personal walk with God so that we can have a big evangelistic push next term. I’d like to make some changes in our pastoral team, especially to give Francisco a break after he headed up the church in our absence.

Spotlight: Francisco came from a nominal Catholic background. His father Manuel was a newspaper photographer who now dedicates his time to running chess tournaments and a chess club. His mother has dedicated herself to the home and they have a very close family. Francisco became a Christian whilst at university where he met Christians who shared their love of Christ with him.

Since then he has been committed to his local church and grown in leadership, eventually heading up the national Anglican youth movement. He was an important part of our church planting team and although he didn’t particularly like Valparaiso he was so committed to the mission that he bought a house here. He teaches biology and environmental science in a couple of universities in the city and has become one of the best teachers and preachers in IPA. Please give thanks to God for his faithfulness in Franciso’s life and Franscisco’s faithfulness in serving the church. Please pray that he might have a good break next term and that God will continue to use him in Kingdom work afterwards.

Thank you very much for your support and prayers. Hugs and blessings.

With our love in Christ

Daniel and Ellelein

You can give online to Daniel and Ellelein at: churchmissionsociety.org/kirk

Contact details: elleleinkirk@gmail.com skype: dandekirk

WE WOULD LOVE YOU TO PRAY FOR US AS A FAMILY

Please take time to pray for us as we continue to put our call into action

Pray for wisdom, guidance and strength for us and that we may be continually encouraged and inspired by the gospel of Christ.

Pray for us as a family, for spiritual refreshment and for friendship and encouragement.

Pray for the next stage in consolidating the church and the plans to plant two more churches.

Pray for the Anglican Diocese of Chile with its plans to move towards a province and its Visión 2020 of planting new churches.

Above: Francisco Aguirre