This is a test blog to see if this will work and if I can post pictures.

Team – February 2012

Hello friends! Well, summer is in full swing here in Santiago and that means that our lives have slowed way down. For most of February over half the population of Santiago leaves! This means that parking and driving is much easier and much less crazy. It also means that events at our congregation slow way down as most of our members are out of town. So most of this month’s report will be just about family and what we are doing!

First of all, starting in January our congregation has a tradition of combining all classes (kid, adult and singles) and enjoying breakfast together Sunday mornings before the service. The members (and team!!) look forward to this as Zane Perkins and his family do most of the cooking! The Perkins made excellent pancakes, biscuits and even gravy for the biscuits. So yummy!! This is a big treat for the Chileans as their idea of breakfast is a piece of bread with ham and cheese and of course, coffee. This year when the Perkins family had a really full weekend, the Hatchers took on the breakfast and made a series of breakfast casseroles. It was a lot of work, but even more fun! With the end of February, we again return to our normal class (and breakfast at home) schedule.

This February we had many reasons to celebrate and so we did! First of all, on February 9, 2011, Caleb Aaron Hatcher turned 5 years old!! So hard to believe!!

Birthday Boy!!

Caleb & Aaron in front of Caleb’s birthday door

Caleb requested back in August to go to the beach on his birthday (in February). Unfortunately, most of the people who live in Santiago are at the beach in February! This means that hotels, hostels, camping, etc are FULL and the beaches are PACKED! We decided that we would go to San Alfonso del Mar in Algarrobo, Chile (http://www.sanalfonso.cl/ingles/main.html). It was about an hour drive from our house and we were able to book a “last minute deal” to arrive Sunday afternoon, spend the night and leave Monday afternoon. San Alfonso del Mar boasts the largest swimming pool in the world! It is just in front of the beach that is a little dangerous in that part of Chile with a pretty vicious undertow. The pool is over 1 km in length and is large enough and deep enough to allow two-man sailboats to cruise around! The boys really enjoyed the underwater café with the HUGE aquarium (including sharks and stingrays!) and we ate there twice. Unfortunately, the water was COLD though this was not surprising as most of the ocean and large bodies of water (and this pool is so large that it qualifies as a large body of water) in Chile are COLD. We watched the crew cleaning the pool that had on full wetsuits and should have clued into the temperature of the water. Our boys (especially Aaron) do not like cold water, so we made it into the pool for about 10 minutes before leaving. The rest of our time was spent on the beaches playing in the sand. This was just fine by Caleb and Aaron.

View of the ocean from our room

Aaron on the balcony of our room – He LOVED it!

Pacific Ocean at sunset!!

Caleb on the beach

Caleb building a sand castle

Happy boys on the beach!

For Caleb’s birthday party we went to (surprise, surprise) Chuck-E-Cheese. Caleb invited the boys on the team to his party. They played games and for the first time in our experience at Chuck-E-Cheese, we appreciated all that they had to offer. Penne made Caleb’s favorite chocolate cake and we had pizza for lunch. It was LOTS of fun!!

Caleb & Chuck-E-Cheese

Caleb blowing out his candles

For us, the summer months mean lots of time at the park by our home. We are so blessed to live close to this huge park. Most weekends find us walking the park. First we visit the duck pond and paddle boats and then stop off for a popsicle!

Next we visit the horses. Most of the time we buy carrots at the feria (also by our house!!) with the greens of the carrots still attached. We have found that the horses really like the carrot tops most of all – and they are easy for little hands to feed to the horses!!

We finish our walk of the park at the kids zone and the “jumpy thing” as Caleb calls it. Both boys love the inflatable jumping toys and finally this February, Aaron mastered climbing them as well as sliding down!

This time in the park makes for some very tired little boys (and parents)!!

After the birthday party, Valentine’s Day, and Penne’s birthday, we got down to the primary objective of the summer of 2011 – potty training Aaron!! We started on Monday and had a very rough day. Tuesday was better as we decided to let Aaron go with no shorts or underwear. After lots of juice and showing of the M&M’s, we were finally successful on Tuesday. Wednesday was another rough day, but by Friday Aaron was letting us know when he needed to go potty. By the next week, he was staying dry during naps and even overnight! So, we now officially have no children in diapers!! This was one developmental milestone that did not make Penne sad!

At the end of February, our team had its annual retreat. We use this time together to reconnect after summer and the start planning for the coming year. This year is sure to bring big changes. First of all, our anniversary service planned for the end of March will be done (planning, cleaning, advertising, etc) completely by Chileans! This was the decision of the leadership group that we meet with monthly. Also, please pray for our congregation as we will be concentrating on studying with and educating our members on elders with the idea of recognizing elders in our congregation in March/April 2012. This is a HUGE step in the life of our congregation and we are asking for all your support!

Thank you so much for all the prayers and support of our mission here and the congregation in Providencia. We could not do it without you!

Grace & Peace,

Jeff, Penne, Caleb & Aaron Hatcher
Santiago, Chile
www.idcp.cl
jeff.hatcher84@gmail.com
penne@dallas.net

This is going to be another long post. Sorry about that. Time just seems to FLY these days!!

October was super special as the Providencia congregation hosted the Conferencia Internacional de Damas – the International Women’s Conference. All the congregations in Santiago came together to make this event a wonderful time for over 200 women from all over Chile, Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, Columbia, and United States. Women traveled over 48 hours to get to the conference (which was only 2.5 days long) and then spent at least 48 hours returning home. Many women saved money all year to pay for the trip and others made handicrafts to raise the funds to travel. The Santiago congregations provided all the housing and transportation to the building for the visitors. It was a learning and eye-opening experience for our ladies and we know that we have grown through it.

We even had a baptism of a wonderful Peruvian lady who decided at the conference that she was ready to dedicate her life to Christ. What a blessing for us all!!

The end of October brought with it our annual church family retreat. We had almost 100 people including visitors who participated in a very special time with God. Our retreat was focused on how God wants us to be. We listened to various speakers and then wrote letters to ourselves reflecting on how God wants us to reflect His glory to our family, our friends, our neighbors and everyone else that we encounter along the way. We then walked and talked with 2 other people as we learned from each other. It was a growing time for many and after the retreat, one couple decided that they wanted to study the Bible. Then a couple of weeks later they were baptized as their young children looked on! What a blessing to their young children and to our family here in Chile. We have enjoyed getting to know Gabriel and his wife Delia and look forward to spending much more time with them and their children in the future.

 

Another couple who was visiting at the retreat is also in a Bible study with some of our Chilean couples and we ask you to join us in praying for them and the progress that God is making in their hearts. We are looking forward to showing you their picture as they take on our Lord in baptism very soon!

Just before the retreat, our family celebrated Aaron’s 2^nd Happy Day. It just seems like yesterday that this sweet cheeked doll joined our family. God has blessed us all with his presence in our family. He truly completed our family and we thank God for Aaron every day! (Now if we can just get him potty trained!!)

We celebrated by going to the Buin Zoo and looking at the “aminals” as Aaron calls them. Everything started great until we stopped at the pelican exhibit. The exhibits at Buin Zoo are different in that they are very close to the people. The pelicans are just right there with a short fence surrounding their pond. When we stopped by workers were cleaning part of the exhibit and so the pelicans were all together and close to the fence. This apparently stressed them a little and Aaron’s squealing just pushed one of them over the top. As Aaron delightedly turned to show us the “bwids” one pelican pecked him on the back of the shoulder. This startled Aaron and he turned to see what was going on only to find himself nose to beak with an angry pelican. The pelican squawked and Aaron screamed and the picture below is the result!

We had other great memories including the bonding time Aaron spent with one llama. He would not touch the others, but boy he loved on this one!

In November after celebrating the baptism of Gabriel and Delia, our team started focusing on the five couples that we and the church have identified as leaders. We spend the first Saturday of every month with these couples studying God’s word primarily and also introducing them to some of the struggles and decisions that are put to the missionaries every week. We have realized that 2013 (when the Emery’s will be leaving the field) and 2014 when we will be leaving the field are a lot closer than we think. Please pray with us as we work with our congregation to identify elders and then deacons to lead the Providencia congregation. We are feeling led to identify these leaders in 2012 so that we can all walk together as the missionaries phase out. As a team we have prayed and fasted (and continue to pray and fast) as we move down this path that we believe God wants us to travel.

At the end of November we celebrated Thanksgiving as a team. It was a little bittersweet as we missed the Grant family and especially Julie’s yummy cornbread dressing, but Holly Emery came through and made some super yummy dressing of her own! It was a smaller group than we have had in the past, but we had fun and invited Narda Davis and her family along with Nathan Young, expats who live here in Santiago to join with us. It was pretty fun to let the kids swim while we adults talked and also to enjoy homemade ice cream (THANKS PERKINS FAMILY!!) for Thanksgiving.

December brought with it the rush that is the holiday season. This year was the first time that both boys looked forward to Christmas. It was lots of fun to hear Aaron exclaim “MICUS!!” (his version of Merry Christmas) every time he saw any kind of Christmas decoration. They enjoyed seeing Santa at the mall and at the grocery store. Caleb checked both Santas’ beards and declared that they were “Real” Santa’s helpers because both had real beards. We had our biannual Christmas party for our members that do not have families to celebrate with on Christmas. It was super yummy and I think that everyone enjoyed the meal but most of all enjoyed the fellowship.

We celebrated Christmas Eve and Christmas morning with our dear friend Rebeca Bustos. She is 89 and is all alone except for her church family. We enjoyed having her and believe that she enjoyed spending time with us. She said that it was extra special to get to spend Christmas with kids and I have to agree. Having kids around adds something to Christmas morning that is extra special. That evening, we all enjoyed fish tacos at the Perkins house and once again swam and ate homemade ice cream.

After Christmas, the Hatcher family prepared to go the South American Missionary Conference in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. Due to the expense of traveling with a family of four in the high season in Brazil, we opted to take various discount airlines to get there. What an adventure it was!! We left our house in Santiago at 5:30am to catch our first flight. We arrived (after 4 stops) in Belo Horizonte at midnight and finally arrived at the conference site just after 1:00am. The boys were troopers and really did well considering Aaron’s new found motion sickness that is not confined to cars anymore L. We spent a wonderful week with Randy and Rhonda Lowry from David Lipscomb University who spoke to us on conflict resolution and spiritual disciplines. It was a special time and we will take the lessons learned there and use them for many years to come! We left Saturday at 3:30am to return to Chile and made it to our house at 1:18am Sunday morning with 2 sick kids in tow. FUN!!

We had the pleasure of welcoming the new mission team for Conception, Chile. I don’t have a picture of them right now, but please pray for them as they start the language training and begin the work of the Lord in another city here in Chile. Arriving shortly thereafter was Guto, a brother in Christ from Brazil. He just wanted to visit Chile and be a blessing to the young people here. He certainly did that as he spent lots of time with our young people enjoying various concerts and Chilean BBQs. Then a special group of 11 people, 8 students and 3 supervisors/professors from David Lipscomb University arrived to spend 90+ days in Chile on their first study abroad semester in South America! We are so blessed with all these visitors and workers!

We are looking forward to a wonderful 2011!! We would not be here if it wasn’t for the love, support and prayers of friends like you. Thank you for your continual support and uplifting of the work here in Chile. We are so blessed to have you all in our lives!

Grace & Peace,
Jeff, Penne, Caleb & Aaron Hatcher
Jeff.Hatcher84@gmail.com
Santiago, Chile

It has been too long and I am sorry for that. So much is happening that I kept thinking that I would wait just a little longer so that I could get it all in. Well, enough is enough!! So, here it is…

June was a fun month for the Hatcher family. We went on our first family vacation to Texas. It was the boys first time to experience a Texas summer and Penne’s first Texas summer in 7 years!! Jeff had visited a few times during the summer but this time was the first in a long time that was just for family, friend and fun. We were in Texas for 17 days covering 3 weekends. Our first weekend and week was spent in Arlington with Penne’s family. We swam, played, visited shopped and then played some more. We then travelled to Rowlett to spent time with Jeff’s parents. We were able to do some good visiting with Fran and Steve and celebrate Fran’s 83^rd birthday! Then we left to go on our “around Texas” trip. We travelled to College Station Saturday and visited with Bob & Myrt Davidson. We worshipped on Sunday at the College Station Church of Christ and we amazed to see so many friends that were still there or had moved back to College Station. It was a real blessing to worship with them all and we were reminded again at the incredible love of God’s family! We left Sunday afternoon for Houston to visit the Miranda family and worship with the Northwest Church of Christ that evening. Again, we had so much fun and were loved on by so many people. It was just wonderful. Then we went to the Woodlands to visit the Hammit family, Penne’s sister and her family. Again, we played, ate, swam and played some more.

From there we travelled to Austin to meet up with Jennifer Cook who took some fantastic pictures of our boys. (Look her up – she is great!!) We ate dinner at Chuy’s with Jennifer and then left for San Antonio and Sea World!!

Back in December we had gone to Sea World with just Caleb. This time we decided that Aaron was ready to go, too. (That and he was still young enough to get in for free!!) We had a wonderful time and even got to eat dinner one night at the Rainforest Café on the Riverwalk. The boys LOVED it even though they were totally beat after a long day at Sea World.

We wore matching Chilean flag shirts and everyone thought they were Texas flag shirts!

We left San Antonio and travelled to Waco on our way back to Arlington. In Waco, Penne was able to meet up with her dear friend from high school, Ruth Boardman-Alexander and meet her family. It is so amazing how God works! Ruth and her husband John adopted a baby from Central America who is now a young teenager. It was so special to her and to our boys to spend time together knowing that God had built our families in such a special way. After a brief visit, we travelled on to Arlington to spend Father’s Day with Penne’s father, John David Patterson. We also got to see Penne’s aunts, uncles and cousins at a wonderful BBQ lunch in Saginaw. We left Texas Sunday night and arrived in Chile very tired Monday morning. The trip was great, but leaving the warmth of Texas to return to the cold winter of Santiago was hard on us all.

While we were in Texas, Alejandro Monsalves was baptized! Unfortunately, we have no pictures of his baptism as the Emery family was the only missionary family in town at the time and did not have their camera with them. Still, we are so thankful for this special young man who is finding his home with our congregation. Jeff, David (a young married man) and Alejandro are currently involved in a discipleship study. Please pray for Alejandro as he negotiates his life without the support of blood family. We are praying over him and for him as he is beginning this new life with our church family and learning about the support of God and his workers here on earth. Let’s Start Talking (LST) group arrived from Allen, Texas also while we were in Texas. This group included Ryan Newhouse, his wife Claudia, Shevon and Jared. We had a great group of readers who were mostly new to LST this year thanks to some creative advertizing by many of the youth of our congregation!

LST lasted through July 4^th when our congregation had a special party for all the “gringos” in the church. We enjoyed a great BBQ and a wonderful time of fellowship with everyone. It was a great way for our family to get plugged back into the congregation after our trip. After the Allen LST group left, we had a LST team from Pepperdine University come for the month of July. Corey Howard and Linda Nyandamu are special college students who raised funds to spend their month of vacation working with the people of Santiago reading the Bible in English. We enjoyed this team so much as their youthful enthusiasm was catching (and we need all the help we can get in that area!!) Nany was baptized in July. She studied for a long time with Holly Emery and decided it was time to put on Christ in baptism! Praise God!!

August started with big changes in the Hatcher house. Caleb started school at the big kids’ school. Caleb enrolled in Santiage Christian Academy for Pre-K. He goes every day from 8:45am to 3:15pm and is loving every minute of it!! We are thrilled that his class consists of a total of 6 kids and love his teacher Mrs. Russell. Aaron is going to jardin (preschool) every morning from 8:30 to 12:30pm. He is learning lots of Spanish and in fact speaks more Spanish than English. This gives Penne more time in the morning to get things done. She is also able to participate in various activities in the morning. We also celebrated Caleb’s 4^th Happy Day (the day he was given to us – August 10), our 7^th anniversary (Aug 16^th), Aaron’s 2^nd birthday (August 20) and Jeff’s 48^th birthday (August 21)!

It is a month for celebrating and we also were able to celebrate baptism in August again without pictures as Jeanne Contreras was baptized on a weekday! Still, we rejoice with her as she starts this new life in Christ!

September started with our congregation’s 10^th Marriage Encounter. It was as always a lot of work, but the benefits for the couples that participate far outweigh whatever work we do. Now those couples are starting the growth group portion of Marriage Encounter and this is where we ask for your prayers. The Growth Groups are an extension of the Marriage Encounter experience and begin to really get into how to be a Christian man, woman, husband, wife and family. It is here that many couples begin asking about additional Bible study and start thinking about what it means to be a Christian. We are praying over these couples as they begin this journey. Please pray with us!

Also in September, on September 18^th to be precise, Chile celebrated their Bicentennial Independence Day! A National holiday was declared for Friday, September 17^th through Monday, the 20^th. Pretty much everything shut down so that the whole country could celebrate. The Hatchers also celebrated with their two Chilean children! We went as is our custom to the large park near our house. We went Thursday afternoon, all day Friday and again Saturday until around 2:00pm. We enjoyed seeing the Chilean rodeo where the objective is to push a cow into a barrier 3 times. That is the ONLY event and the rodeo lasts a LONG time. The boys really enjoyed it and Aaron got a real kick out of being so close to the action. We saw the dancing horses which Caleb loves every year (and yes, it is the same show every year!!). This year we saw a parachute exhibition by the Chilean Special Forces and by the Chilean Army. The boys were fascinated by it all. The boys also experienced their first ever fireworks show. Unfortunately, they were not that excited about it all. It was too loud and probably too late also!

We just returned from a team retreat where our team, us, Scott & Holly Emery and their kids and Zane & Tae Perkins and their kids were able to reconnect as a team after a June, July and August where we were all scattered. It was a special time for us and for the kids as well.

Coming up in October, our congregation is hosting the International Women’s conference (for all of Spanish speaking South America) and enjoying the fellowship and study that comes with our annual churchwide retreat. Please be in prayer for these activities and also for our continuing discipleship studies with various members and couples who we as a team are targeting for future leadership roles.

Thank you so much for your continued prayers and support! We are so blessed to be supported by you all in this work here in Chile!

Grace & Peace

Jeff, Penne, Caleb & Aaron Hatcher

 

 

Hello to you all! Well, this month just flew by! Unfortunately for us, winter is now here and that means it is cold here in Santiago. Quite an adjustment for Caleb who after we returned to Santiago in January (and the hottest part of summer) from Texas where it was cold, has agreed to wear clothes only when visitors come and when we are out of the house – not out of the yard. This meant that as soon as he came home from school, he would strip down to his underwear and that was it. Now, he is again wearing clothes, but we do not have too many pictures of Caleb from the summer as he was pretty much naked for most of it!

We are all well here!! This is major news in that we could not shake the allergies that came with autumn. Hopefully now that we are in winter and whatever it is that we are all allergic to has gone dormant we can stay well. The boys are still doing inhalers twice a day for the next week, but it is more preventative than anything else.

Fun in the park with the boys!

Now for the work here in Santiago! We had a great start to the month with our twice yearly Marriage Encounter. For the first time, we had too many couples and had to start a waiting list. Even with the waiting list, we still had couples who are waiting until September to experience the weekend. Praise God!! We had a wonderful follow-up meeting where the couples were divided into small groups for additional study. There are 4 groups and only one of those follow-up groups is being led by a missionary couple. The other 3 are being led by Chileans! We are praying for a number of the couples who are starting the small groups and who have expressed an interest in studying the Bible and/or attending church. Please pray with us for this outreach opportunity!

We were blessed to have Kelley and Julie Grant back visiting us during the Marriage Encounter weekend. It was wonderful to get to spend some time with them and for the rest of the congregation to get to spend time with them also. The only problem? The kids had to stay at home! Next time, we want to see Duncan, Abby, Victoria and Konner, too!

After Marriage Encounter, we invited 5 of our discipleship couples to have a special lunch with the missionary families. We needed to remind them that in three years, we, the missionaries, will be handing things over to the Chilean members. The Hatchers and the Perkins will be here for another year and 3 years respectively, but we will be under Chilean leadership and will be here to help with the transition. The missionary families have been reading and discussing the book “Simple Church”. One of the things that resonated with us was that the leadership (now “us”) needs to remind the church of processes and goals often. In fact the book says that when the leadership is getting tired of saying it, the congregation is just starting to get it! This hit us as we, the team, speak of our plans, but we have not been speaking enough to the congregation. This was our first step in reminding them until they get it! Please pray for us and the congregation as we enter into this challenging time of transition.

During the lunch, we challenged the 5 couples to discuss without the team, what they needed from us and each other as this time of transition approaches. They decided to get together as a group on the first Saturday of each month to study the Bible together! Praise God!! Please pray for these couples. We are in prayer for them as they are showing themselves to be leaders and in some cases potential elders of the congregation here.

Next, this past Sunday, we celebrated the 10^th anniversary of the congregation here in Santiago. Our actual anniversary was in March, but after the earthquake and the continuing aftershocks, we decided to postpone the celebration until May. The Harding Chorus was planning on visiting us and singing for us and we decided that would be a perfect accompaniment to an anniversary service. It rained and rained literally all day Friday and most of the day Saturday, but Sunday was clear and sunny! It was perfect. We had a large number of visitors other than the folks from Harding and the building including the balcony was full! What an incredible time of worship we had! Jeff led the congregation in singing and it was wonderful! Zane Perkins made a video presentation of the past 10 years of the life of this congregation and then challenged the congregation with the question “What next?” He used the Matthew 14 text of Peter walking on water. It was a great sermon and great challenge for our congregation.

After the service, we had a cocktail provided by one of our members who is a caterer, Adela. She made wonderful pizzaetas, empanadas and cookies. She also made two large cakes that the Chileans LOVE! Almost everyone stayed and ate with us as the Harding Chorus got ready to sing. 34 students came down to South America and this was their last stop before heading back home to the US. The church was full as they sang and Jeff even had someone from the park who came in to listen ask about the incredible ability of these students and comment on the beauty of acapella singing. They sang songs in Portuguese, Spanish and English.

Now our family is preparing for a two week vacation in the United States! We are thrilled as it will be the first time that we have been in Texas in the summer in 7 years. Some of you may wonder why that is a good thing. Really, until you have experienced Chilean winters with no central heat, you can’t fully understand!

We thank you all for your continued support and prayers!

Grace & Peace,
Jeff, Penne, Caleb & Aaron Hatcher
Santiago, Chile

Well, sorry this is a little late! We have been so busy and add to that sickness which seems to come with every fall in Santiago and we are running behind! As of March, Aaron started attending “jardin” with Caleb two mornings a week. This has been great for the whole family. It is great to hear about Caleb being protective of his brother at school because we are NOT seeing that at home! Yes, we have entered the terrible twos with Aaron (though he won’t be two until August) and the ensuing arguments between brothers over every. single. toy. In our house is a little trying at times and definitely loud. Still, we wouldn’t trade it for the world as these two boys are the joys of our lives! We LOVE being parents to these two!!

Back to the report…March started with Jeff headed down south to deliver over two tons of food and supplies to the people affected by the earthquake. It was moving to see these people who are still so scared as they humbly accept the boxes of food, personal hygiene items, and kitchenware. For the most part, they are living in tents as the aftershocks are still continuing. They have had some officials who have come by to certify their homes, apartments and work places livable or not. Still, even for those whose homes are livable, the fear is overwhelming as the strong aftershocks continue. Please pray for these people and their peace of mind as much for their personal comfort as autumn and the rains are now here in full force. Chile has responded with lots of people volunteering, but the need now is for building and this takes time. Thanks to the generous donations of many of you, we have been able to help with the building needs of many of our brothers and sisters in the south. Still, there is a limit to people qualified to do the work and this has slowed things down. Jeff went down on this first trip with Scott Emery and Claudio Zalaquett from our congregation as well as 4 leaders from congregacion Los Nogales also here in Santiago. It was an impactful trip for all and another trip was quickly planned as our congregation had received many clothes, shoes, blankets, bedding and more, that just was not able to fit in the trucks and cars on the first trip.

 

After Jeff returned from his trip, Penne left on hers. She went along with Tamara Perkins and Holly Emery to Paraguay for Come Before Winter. Come Before Winter is a wonderful ministry based in Texas for English speaking women missionaries all over the world. This was Penne’s 2^nd Come Before Winter and it was (like the 1^st one) WONDERFUL! We worshipped in English, Spanish and Portuguese as women from Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina, Chile, and Ecuador came together. We were led in worship by an incredible group of women from Texas, New Mexico and Oklahoma. We studied in great depth Psalms 103. In studying, worshipping and fellowshipping we all drew closer to God! It is hard to find the words to describe this special week and all that I can think of seem inadequate. Incredible. Amazing. These just don’t do it as the time with God and other women struggling as you struggle is invaluable. Please visit their website (www.comebeforewinter.org) for a better description of this ministry! Also, for Penne getting away to Paraguay gave her the peace to sleep through the night for the first time since the earthquake. It was restful and quiet and just what she needed. What a blessing!!

Jeff stayed with the boys by himself in Santiago. They had fun but they were all ready for Mommy to come home at the end of the week and so was Mommy!

Easter was next on our agenda and Jeff organized our congregations Good Friday worship time. We had a good turnout (but Penne forgot the camera!) as the building was open to all who wanted to worship, pray, meditate on the incredible sacrifice of our Savior. This country expects a time of worship on Friday before Easter and we have in the past had a variety of activities. This time of quiet contemplation and pray has been a great way provide a special time and help our members remember that this time of remembering, worshipping, praying and meditating should be our DAILY activity and not a yearly or even weekly one.

 

After Easter, our congregation started preparing for three big activities. First, the next trip down south to deliver more food supplies along with the clothes, shoes, blankets and coats was scheduled. This time the trip was made up of 19 of our members and Scott Emery and his family who left on a Friday afternoon and returned Monday night. It was and is moving to hear them speak of what they saw and the people that touched them. We are in prayer for the people who are still suffering and struggling to find their way. Most are still in tents and have no jobs. Most industry is still struggling to recover and the whole situation is overwhelming. Still, we know that this is a time for us to show God and His love to all the people who are suffering. We are praying for other opportunities to send more members south to show God’s love to them in this time of difficulty. (We are working on posting a video of the trip south. We will update this blog when it is ready! Thanks!!)

On the same weekend as the trip south, our congregation hosted a training seminar for New Life Behavior. This is a series of studies, a curriculum actually, designed to help people change their lives using the Bible and the Good News. It was originally designed for the prison population, but has been adapted to fit all people looking to change their behavior and find a new way to live. The studies have been translated into Spanish and we were blessed to have a young couple from Ecuador via Austin come and do the training. Rachel and Vinicio did a fantastic job! We had members from our congregation as well as three other congregations who came to our building to learn how to use this wonderful resource. We look forward to using these studies especially with our small groups after Marriage Encounter.

In April we began preparing for our next Marriage Encounter weekend in May. It is a special time for our congregation as we come together to provide this special weekend retreat for family and friends. We use this retreat as a outreach to the community and as an inroad to inviting people to come to know Christ and experience what He can do in their lives.

On a personal note, if you have followed our reports you have probably seen pictures of a sweet lady named Maria Canto. Maria and her daughter Ana Luisa Silva have been an important part of our lives and our family’s ministry. Maria was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in April after struggling with some neurological issues since December. Five years ago, Maria was diagnosed with breast cancer and at 76 with an incredible faith in God and His power she successfully beat the cancer. Now, with this latest diagnosis, her faith is once again being tested. Please pray for Maria and her daughter. They are all that is left of their family and this struggle especially for Ana Luisa is so hard.

We are so thankful for your prayers and support. We are here because of you and for you and we are so grateful for this opportunity. We love you!

Grace & Peace,

Jeff, Penne, Caleb and Aaron Hatcher
Santiago, Chile
jeff.hatcher84@gmail.com
www.idcp.cl

Friends & Family,

Well, it has been an interesting month that certainly ended in a way we could never imagine and pray never happens again. We will start with the earthquake that happened on February 27, 2010 at 3:34am. It was a so scary and we did everything wrong! Of course, the fear was so great, you just go or at least I do. Jeff was much more level headed and calm. I woke up first which you may not know but is something of a miracle as I have been known to sleep through a variety of alarms. Honestly, at first it was not such a big deal. We regularly get tremors or small earthquakes that shake the house. Earlier in the month, we had been shaken during the day with the strongest tremor we had felt while living in the house. (The apartment on the 10^th floor was designed to move with the tremors and boy, did we! I was SO glad to not be there when this all happened!) I decided to go to the bathroom and the tremor increased and the windows started to shake and make noise. I was barely able to stand still and that is when I got scared. I yelled to wake up Jeff and told him to get Aaron while I got Caleb. My plan was to get out of the house, the absolutely wrong thing to do, but I was getting out with my children, period. Our house is two story and we all sleep upstairs. This meant that we had to get down the stairs to get out. I was carrying Caleb and started down the stairs. I fell at least twice breaking my little toe, but Caleb did not get hurt at all, in fact he tells me that he does not remember going down the stairs at all. Jeff carrying Aaron came down calmly and did not fall at all. We left through the back door to the sounds of glass breaking and it was then that I realized none of us had any shoes on. In fact Caleb was wearing only his underwear and a scarf around his neck (Don’t ask!!). Jeff did have on his robe and Aaron and I were in pajamas. We stood on our back patio and Jeff starting praying out loud. Aaron was clinging to Jeff like a koala bear with both arms wrapped around his neck. Caleb was standing with me shaking, not from the cold, but from fear. It was the shakes that take over your whole body, stop and then start again. I was crying. It seemed like seconds after it was over we decided to go to the front of the house and listen to the car radio. Somehow Jeff had his keys – neither of us remembers how or when he got them – and we heard the grim news about the huge earthquake that had hit. At that point there was no additional information as to the size or location.

I happened to look over and see Caleb lying on the back seat of the car curled in a ball and realized that now he WAS cold. We decided to go back in the house and get dressed. I declared that everyone must wear their tennis shoes. This seemed important to me at the time and I can only imagine that I thought that we would need them for walking or running. So we all went in the house, got dressed with our tennis shoes (even Aaron) and returned to the car. The crazy thing was that Jeff asked me what time it was and I thought that it was about 4:00am. By the time we got in the car the second time, it was almost 5:00am. It was then that we heard the size of the earthquake and began hearing reports as to the damage in Santiago. We heard of a collapsed bridge and overpass near our dear friends Laurindo and Charlene. People were calling in with reports of houses, apartments and offices collapsed. The reports of the most damage were in comunas far from ours, on the opposite side of town. Our neighbors were all fine. Our teammates were all OK. We were even able to call some members of our congregation and they were scared, but OK. None of us had power, but we all had at least one landline phone that did work. Cell phones did not work at all. The network was either down or totally swamped with calls. Jeff got our flashlights which miraculously had batteries that worked and we checked the damage. It was minor. We lost a couple of decorative items, two glasses, and a pepper mill. I tried to get the boys to sleep downstairs in our guest room. Aaron was NOT having it and Caleb was so scared. He wanted to hold my hand which greatly limited my ability to deal with Aaron. Finally, I asked Jeff to take Aaron upstairs to his crib. Jeff stayed upstairs with Aaron while Caleb and I tried to sleep downstairs. It was impossible as the aftershocks just kept coming. We were so on edge! Finally, Caleb and I went upstairs to our bed and the three of us tried to sleep. We had more success and dozed for about 30 minutes to an hour.

We got up when the sun came up. I finally went to the bathroom. The whole bathroom was wet. I was afraid that the pipes had burst, but quickly realized that there was no water in the toilet. All the water had sloshed out of the toilet! I started to cry again. It was a miracle that nothing happened to us or the house. We decided to try to go to the church building to see if it was damaged and if it had power. (We knew that if we did not call family quickly, they would panic and we could not call from our house which by that time had lost telephone as well as electricity and internet.) I packed a bag for the boys with juice and treats and we started not knowing how long it would take us to get there. Every Tuesday and Saturday, two blocks from our house is a feria – an open air fruit, vegetable, meat, fish market. As we turned onto the main road, we realized that the feria was open and functioning. We continued to the church building and only found two traffic lights that did not work in the whole trip. Very few cars were on the road, so we made it there in record time! The church building was in great shape with NOTHING broken. All the drawers were open, but that was it. They had electricity and phone, but no internet. We decided to call our families and assure them that we were fine. It was 9:30am Santiago time which is 6:30am Texas time. We spoke quickly because we did not know if the connection was stable and would last, but we were able to assure our families that we were OK. When we left, we saw lots of cars at gas stations waiting to fill up. Looking at our gas gauge, we decided to fill up, too. Thankfully, we were able to fill up. Later in the day, they were restricting people to only $10 worth of gas. (Here that is about 2 gallons.) We went home and had peanut butter and jelly sandwiches not knowing at the time how many of those we would be eating over the next week!

Sunday we got up and still had no power. (We never lost water or gas which we use for our hot water and stove/oven.) We left for church wondering if anyone would be there. Surprisingly there were a good number of people at service, a great number considering that it was February and most of our members are away on vacation. Everyone was scared and shaken, but physically unharmed. The kids were all clingy and our family decided we would just stay together. Every time a replica (aftershock) would hit, we would all get quiet and our hearts would race. Jeff said he wasn’t ever able to tell how long the aftershocks really lasted because our hearts were racing and we were shaking with fear. That was another weird aftereffect of the earthquake and aftershocks. When they are over, we couldn’t walk straight for a little while. It felt like we were constantly riding a wave and not able to get our balance right.

That afternoon, we took things out of the freezer and took them to the church’s freezer so that we would have something to eat. After that we ate lunch and dinner at the church building until our power came back on Thursday. It seems surreal now. Really where we were nothing was damaged. We were not able to see the news reports that you in the states were seeing until Thursday. They were horrible. We knew that people in the south were really suffering, but did not imagine that it was that bad. The biggest impact here was that school was delayed starting for a week, but the people in the south have lost so much. Our congregation is preparing to be a centro de acopia (collection site) for non perishable food and personal items. It is heartening to see how Chile has come together to help those in the south. This is a proud country and while there was some looting, in general, people really want to help and are helping.

Someone asked if I took any pictures and I didn’t. I did take my camera with me when we went to the church building on Saturday, but never took it out of my pocket. I was too stunned by how normal everything looked. I am still amazed that so many traffic lights worked while the majority of people did not have power! (This country and city in particular are not known for good traffic plans!) Praise God for keeping us all safe, all our members safe and even our members’ extended families safe! Thank you, Lord!!

Now for the beginning of February…Since this is already so long, I will keep it short. Sunday mornings during the summer (December through February) the Perkins family made everyone breakfast and we had Sunday morning class together. It was a wonderful time of fellowship, not to mention good breakfasts as the Perkins family can cook! Not only did we have pancakes, biscuits and breakfast tacos, but we had the wonderful fruit that is so good here. (I bought a 2.2lb bag of fresh blackberries for just under $1.00 while the strawberries and raspberries can be bought on every street corner while you are waiting at traffic lights!)

We celebrated Caleb’s 4^th birthday on February 9 with a visit to Chuck-n-Cheese (That is how they say it here!) and a chocolate cake. He had a blast and for the first time, so did Aaron! He also got his bicycle that Santa promised him for Christmas.

We also celebrated my birthday, but I am not going to tell you how old I am!

We were blessed with a visit from Vince Miranda, from Houston. He was in Chile on business, but agreed to stay with us and hang out as business allowed. It was a ton of fun to have him and the congregation was blessed to have Vince teach class Sunday morning and also give the Lord’s Supper talk during service. We enjoyed taking Vince to eat at some of our favorite places and introducing him to Las Vacas Gordas (The Fat Cows) and their machas a la parmesano (Razor clams in parmesan cheese sauce). So good!! It would only have been better if Vince’s family had been able to come with him! We missed you Aunt Ginney, Abby, Alex and Anthony! From Caleb – You look like a little old lady! (This is Caleb’s newest “saying” which he thankfully says only in English so most people here do not really understand what he is saying!!)

Thank you all for your prayers and emails during the earthquake. We are so blessed to have you all in our lives and while we appreciated it before, going through that experience has reminded us again how special you all are! We love you!

Grace & Peace,

Jeff, Penne, Caleb and Aaron Hatcher
Santiago, Chile

 

Friends & Family,

We started December in Rowlett and Garland with Jeff’s family and our family at Saturn Road Church of Christ. We were able to spend a lot of time with Fran, Jeff’s mother as she continues to improve. She is currently in the Lake Pointe Care Center in Rowlett and is doing great! Praise God!! Thank you SO much for all your prayers during her illness.

We were able to spend lots of quality time with friends, old and new from Saturn Road Church of Christ in Garland. It is such a blessing for our family and for us individually to be with each of you. We come on furlough needing the love, care and interest you show in the work here in Santiago. We know it is part of God’s blessing that Saturn Road chose us to support. We thank God daily for your support, not just the financial support, but the emotional and spiritual support. Our family and the work here are blessed to be a part of the family at Saturn Road.

We spent Christmas Eve day with Jeff’s family.

Then we went to Arlington for Christmas Eve and Christmas morning. We had told Santa Claus that the boys would be in Arlington. It was a wonderful time for us all and we were all blessed by a white Christmas that we will never forget!

 

As part of Caleb’s Christmas, we went to Sea World in San Antonio Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday after Christmas. We left Aaron with Matt & Paige Hammit and John Patrick, Jackson and Hayden in The Woodlands (Penne’s sister and her family). We had fun on Monday when the weather was nice. The crowd was not too bad and we made it in to see the Shamu Show. Tuesday was a different story! As proof, we offer the photo below. Yes, it was cold and rainy and the park was REALLY that empty. We were blessed to spend a long time feeding the dolphins as NO ONE else was there!! We did get to see the sea lion show with a few other brave souls, but the Elmo show literally froze and had to be stopped. Wednesday was much better, though still cool. We were able to see the Elmo show in its entirety and the Sea Lion show again. We also fed the sea lions and the birds. Caleb LOVED the roller coaster for kids and we rode it repeatedly (there was hardly any line). All in all, we had a wonderful time!

After Sea World, we picked up Aaron and went to visit Vince & Ginney Miranda, Abby, Alex and Anthony and the Northwest Church of Christ in Houston. Jeff and Vince have a tradition of cooking together on New Year’s Eve. The rest of us get to benefit from this great tradition! Additionally, Vince made paella on New Year’s Day! Yum yum!!

Jeff taught Sunday school in English, preached Sunday morning in Spanish and then spoke to the congregation Sunday evening in English. We enjoyed visiting with our friends and family at Northwest and have been blessed to have our working fund supported by them. In case you did not know, Northwest is the congregation where Jeff was converted and baptized. They have had a special place in our hearts for a very long time and we so enjoy catching up and being loved on by this special congregation. Penne was able to spend the day with Cari (Lowe) Curtis in Houston. It is such a blessing to have a special friend like Cari. She and Penne have been friends for 40 years! Yes, we are getting old!

January was spent in Arlington with Penne’s family and the North Davis Church of Christ. Penne grew up at Randall Mill Church of Christ which later moved to their new location on North Davis St. It is also the congregation where we were married. So many memories for Penne and so many friends, old and new. We were blessed to witness the rededication of John David Patterson as an elder at North Davis and see even more friends. A wonderful afternoon was spent with Penne’s parents, John David and Brenda, Kenneth and Carolyn Greene, Leslie Fry, Sid and Jeanetta Allen, Julie and Joel Singleton, Irene Aldriedge, and Kent and Shirley Bolding telling everyone about the work in Santiago and also catching up with dear friends.

We also spent a lovely evening with friends from the old neighborhood. It was wonderful to introduce our children to Ron Lowe (Pat was in Houston with Cari – we missed you!), Brian and Cathy Dietz, Greg and Martha Smith, and Jim and Ella Anderson and to spend time with them all. We only wish we had more time to spend with even more people! (More on that later!!)

As our time in Texas came to an end, we received some difficult news about Penne’s father, John David Patterson. The prostate cancer that he has been battling since 2003 has resurfaced in his hip area. Please pray that the treatments that he will start in February will be effective in controlling this cancer! We all love him and need him so much!

Now that Caleb & Aaron are able to travel to the US, we have decided to go on a family vacation to Texas in June. We will be there for 2 weeks and hope to see everyone who we did not get to see on this trip.

Thank you all for your love and support of our family and our work here in Santiago. We know that God has plan for us here and that you are all a part of it! We are so blessed to have your prayers, your love and support!

Grace & Peace,

Jeff, Penne, Caleb & Aaron Hatcher
Santiago, Chile

Family & Friends,

First an apology.  I wrote a report for December/January and then totally forgot about it!  Of course I remembered it just after the earthquake when I could do nothing about it!  Then, again, things got crazy.  The December – February report is on its way, but FIRST a much more important report.   Jeff is on his way to the south where the worst of the earthquake damage occurred.  He will be visiting Concepcion and Chillan along with a number of smaller villages and towns distributing the supplies that our congregation collected and donated.  He will also be assessing the needs of the church members who have lost everything to begin the process of handing over the funds that you in the states have so generously donated.  If you or your congregations would like to donated funds for members of the southern Chile congregations who have lost everything in the earthquake, please send checks to

Saturn Road Church of Christ
c/o Robbie Chalk
3030 Saturn Rd.
Garland, TX 75041

 Please indicate with your checks that the money is for the Chile Relief Fund.

We are all so proud of our congregation and our neighbors for their generous donations.  We became a Centro de Acopio (collection/drop off site) only late last week.  Fliers and signs were made and passed out to our neighbors and phone calls and announcements made to the congregation. 

 Tuesday morning at 4:00am Jeff, Scott Emery, and Claudio Zalaquett from our congregation and Luis Zepeda, Helmer Rosario, and two others from the congregation Los Nogales left Santiago for the south.  They left in our car and a large “people mover” that was stuffed with all the donations that had been collected from our members and neighbors.  Here is a small sample of what we will be distributing.

Jeff, Claudio, Luis and Helmer packed the van while Caleb helped!

   

Then Caleb took over as photographer while Aaron screamed!

Please pray for their safety and their trip. Also pray for Penne, Caleb & Aaron, Holly Emery, Savannah and Haydn, Janina and Elias Zepeda, and Myra and Javier Rosario who are left at home with likely no communication until the men return.

An update on the trip will be coming as soon as they return!

Jeff, Penne, Caleb & Aaron Hatcher
Santiago, Chile

Santiago, Chile

October – November 2009

Hello to everyone!!  Well, we are a little behind on this report, so we will have two months in one report.  Also, this report is a little picture “light” as the plan was to get the October report out before we left on furlough, but did not.  Most of our pictures are still in Santiago!  October was busy with lots of meetings and studies.  We led a small group for our follow-up to Marriage Encounter and really enjoyed getting to know three other couples even better. 

 We were pushing our small group to meet as much as possible so that we could finish the studies before leaving for the United States in mid-November!  Yes, we received Aaron’s papers and with the help of Julio Sandoval, one of our members, we were able to get his national ID, Chilean passport and visa to the US in record time, literally.  We got the ID and passport in 3 days and within a week we had the visa and were ready to travel.  Thank you, Lord!!

 We are also continuing with our study with Carola and Alejandro.  We enjoy a close friendship with this couple and that has only deepened as we study God’s word together.  Carola agreed that she needs to be baptized!  Praise God!!  But, as she has a few things to straighten out in her life, she is choosing to wait until those issues have been addressed.  We are continuing to pray for her and her decision.  We pray that she is able to work on these issues with God’s help and will be ready to be baptized when we return from furlough.  Please be in prayer for this couple.

 Jeff is also continuing an evangelistic study with Juan Andres Muñoz.  The study was put on hold temporarily while he was in the process of changing jobs, but it is now back to it’s normal weekly schedule.  If you remember, Juan Andres is the self-proclaimed agnostic whose wife is a very committed Christian and strong member of our congregation.  In studying the Gospel of John, Jeff can see that this “agnostic” is being transformed into a believer.  Please keep him in your prayers as the study resumes after we get back from furlough.

 Jeff continues with the English Café, the follow-up meetings from the LST (Let’s Start Talking) efforts this past June – August.  The wonderful thing is that he was able to turn over this program to Chilean members who are continuing the Café now that we are on furlough.

 This past year has been pivotal in the lives of us, the missionaries, and most of all in the lives of our members.  We have been purposeful in turning over many duties to members to take over, take on, and run with.  This is only possible because of the year long effort of growing together as disciples of Christ.  Yes, growing together.  We made a point of studying together in our weekly commitments.  This means that for our small group, we all took turns leading.  We made it very clear that this study was for us and for them, that we were in this study together and that we needed it as much as they did.  We all found that being transparent was at times difficult, but with prayer and additional study, everyone agreed that this was so important and really made a difference.  Every week, hearing each others feelings and how God was speaking to each of us as we needed it, was eye opening on every level.  We learned so much from each other and the friendships that were built on the firm foundation of God’s word will last forever.  This study has changed the whole attitude and atmosphere of our congregation and we are looking forward to even more changes as the next year and next set of discipleship studies begin.

 One great example is something that we as the leaders of the Hospitality Committee witnessed in October.  I hope that you remember the baptism in September of Marcelo and Sonja, a young couple from Marriage Encounter.  

Marcelo & Sonia

In early October, a young man came to visit one Sunday morning.  He came in a little late and tried to sit in the back.  During the announcements, Zane introduced this young man as a visitor.  Marcelo promptly got up from his seat and went to the young man and asked him to sit with his family close to the front of the auditorium.  Now Marcelo did not put him on the end of the row.  Marcelo moved over and put the visitor between him and his wife, within his family.  It brought tears to our eyes to see this young Christian taking on this role and inviting this visitor to be a part of our Christian family. 

Penne had the opportunity to speak to Marcelo about this during our church retreat at the end of October.  She thanked Marcelo for being such a good example to her and to the rest of the church.  Marcelo confided that he had asked this young man to come on the retreat going so far as to offer to pay for him to attend.  The young man was unable to attend due to work, but was thankful.  What a wonderful testimony to God’s presence in the life of Marcelo and Sonja!

In mid October, Carolina was baptized!  Her husband Claudio baptized her.  Claudio had been baptized when he lived in Mexico.  He is the younger brother of one of our members and part of our discipleship study, Francisco Lerma.  Last New Year’s Eve, Claudio invited his brother to go to a heavy metal concert.  For the first time, Francisco declined explaining that he was becoming a disciple of Christ and felt that his going to this concert would not be a good example to his family or other members of our congregation.  This really had an impact on Claudio.  He saw his brother living his faith, not just talking about it.  That next Sunday after New Year’s Eve, Claudio, his wife Carolina, their daughter and son started attending services with our congregation.  They participated in Marriage Encounter and Claudio was restored in his relationship to God.  They then studied with Kelley Grant where Carolina decided to commit her life to God.  She was 8 ½ months pregnant when she was baptized!  Baby Martina was born 12 days later!!

Claudio, Carolina, Francisco, & Kelley

Claudio & Carolina

As mentioned earlier, October ended with our annual church retreat.  This year we had 120 people to attend and we all enjoyed the study on discipleship, the fellowship and the weather – oh, and the food!  Scott and Holly Emery’s small group were responsible for the planning and Scott, Holly, Patricio, Alicia, Diana and Christian did a fantastic job.  While on the retreat, Brenda decided to put on Christ in baptism!  She had been studying with Any Hernandez, one of our long time members.  Brenda’s daughter was there to witness her baptism and is now interested in studying as well!

November started with our family and team saying good-bye to the Grant family.  Kelley and Julie, their kids Duncan, Abby, Victoria and Konnor have been such an integral part of our team and our work here in Santiago.  It is hard to think of them leaving!  They are leaving so that Kelley can become the director of Continent of Great Cities, the organization that recruited and trained our team!  We are all excited to see how God uses Kelley and Julie as they start this new chapter in their lives, but we are sad that they will not be here with us!  Please pray for their transition, especially for the children.  Duncan was 18 months old when the Grants moved to Santiago and all the other children were born in Chile.  For them, this is not a move “home” or “back to the US”.  It is just a move and those are always challenging.

Kelley & Julie Grant

Team Children - Feb 2009

We left Santiago in mid November to start our furlough.  We were able to spend a wonderful Thanksgiving with Penne’s family in Arlington.  Her brother, Jason and his family came from Tennessee.  Her sister Paige Hammit and her family came from Houston.  Her aunt Linda Purdy and her family came from Amarillo along with her cousins Dell Purdy and his family and Sid Sexton and her family.  Her uncle Jim Patterson and his wife came from Florida.  Also there were the many family members from the Ft. Worth area!  Aunts Faye Humphus, Dink Autry and Ruby Reed all came with uncle Athol Edmondson also.  Cousins Karen Oney and her family, Kim Bounds and her family and Andy Humphus all from the Ft Worth area came.  It was a BIG crowd  (over 40 people) with 13 children, the oldest of which was 11!

The only ones missing were Jeff’s parents, Steve and Fran Hatcher.  Fran continues to struggle with her health.  She is currently in a rehab facility (Senior Care at Lake Pointe) in Rowlett, Texas.  She is improving, but has a long way to go.  Currently, she has a GI tube for nourishment and is still unable to talk or swallow.  While she has good days and bad days, she is getting stronger and we are praying and asking you to pray for her as she struggles to speak and eat.

For the month of December, we are in Rowlett and are worshiping with the Saturn Road Church of Christ in Garland.  We are so blessed to have this congregation as our principle supporters.  They have been and continue to be a great source of emotional and spiritual support for our family and our mission in Santiago.  We thank God for them daily!

We will end December with a short trip to San Antonio to Sea World for Caleb’s early 4^th birthday celebration.  We will then ring in the new year in Houston with good friends Vince and Ginney Miranda, their children and the extended Miranda family.  Jeff will be preaching at Northwest Church of Christ in Houston, Sunday, January 3.  Northwest is the congregation where Jeff was introduced to Christ and was baptized.  He is quick to tell the wonderful story of how after his baptism he felt a need to tell others about what Christ did for him.  How wonderful that this loving congregation is able to help us tell Chileans about what Christ does for us and can do for them.  What a wonderful blessing they are to us!

The rest of January, our family will be based in Arlington, Texas with John David and Brenda Patterson.  We will be visiting with the North Davis Church of Christ where Penne grew up!  They also help support our mission efforts!  What a blessing for Penne especially to know that the congregation where she spent so many of her formative years and learned so much about Christ is supporting her family.  Again we say, Praise God and Thank you!

If you are in the area or even if you are not and want to meet up with our family PLEASE call us!  We can be reached via cell phone at 214-676-6009.  We would love to see all of you if possible!

Thank you again for all your love, support and prayers.  We know that we are blessed and we thank God for you all!

Happy Holidays!!

Jeff, Penne, Caleb and Aaron Hatcher