Chile 2006

In January 2006 Neil Short, David Orritt and Richard Gedge visited Chile .The first 10 days were spent helping to decorate a newly refurbished Church at Atchupias in Viña del Mar. The church had recently been converted to provide living accommodation for the Pastor and his family to live on site. During the second half of the trip our link missionary Terry Barratt took us to the south of Chile to visit the Pehuenche people who are the indiginous indian tribe who live high up in this part of the Andes. There are four Christian congregations spread over the very steep terrain. One of their Chapels , at a place called Pitril , was in very poor condition and in danger of falling down the hillside.

In the hope that God would somehow meet their need for a new chapel they had already prepared a level site by digging into a steep hillside.

St John's Church decided to send £10,000 to enable the congregation to build their new Church. Terry will also use this building as a venue for leadership Bible training. The new Church was dedicated on the 28th January 2007 by Bishop Abelino who works in the south of Chile and visited St. Johns in 2004. Many of the Pehuenche people live in very poor quality homes which lack basic services. We were also able made a loan of £10,000 which would enable them to raise further grants to build new homes as part of a Habitat for Humanity project. see: http://www.habitat.org/intl/lac/45.aspx

A Powerpoint from Chile is available here with more information and pictures.

Click here to see what happened in 2003 in Chile.