CHILE PEPPERS

Congratulations, Jonathan!/Felicitaciones a Jonathan

2008-07-01T06:35:00.000-07:00

Last night Jonathan graduated with Santiago Christian Academy's Class of 2008. We just wanted to take this opportunity to congratulate him on this outstanding accomplishment. If you would like to do the same, just post a comment and he'll make sure to read it. Again, congratulations, Jonathan, on a job well done!

Anoche Jonathan se graduó con el curso de 2008 de la Santiago Christian Academy. Por medio del blog le felicitamos por haber realizado este logro sobresaliente. Si a tí también te gustaría felicitarle, anota un comentario y él lo leerá. ¡De nuevo te felicitamos Jonathan por un trabajo bien hecho!

Our Glory and Our Crown

2008-06-22T07:09:00.000-07:00

Paul tells one of the New Testament churches that they are his "glory" and his "crown". Last weekend we were in Antofagasta and Tocopilla (two of the cities where we worked in northern Chile from 1988-1995). At the pastor's and leader's retreat we took this photo of the pastors that we had the opportunity to train while there. Of the twenty-some churches in that region, twenty are pastored by former students. What a great group of workers they have turned out to be. They are truly our "glory and crown".

The Most Exciting Thing

2008-06-10T13:35:00.001-07:00

The most exciting thing we get to do as pastors is to baptize new believers. There is probably nothing quite like it in all of ministry. This past Sunday we baptized seven people and had a wonderful service with over 100 in attendance. We are pictured here with the other members of our pastoral team, Mike and Dodey Files (to the left of Don in the photo) along with Marisa, Daniela, Rudy, Taminne, Nicolas, Daniel and Catalina (from left to right). What a privilege it has been to work with Mike and Dodey these past seven years and what a blessing to share in the fruits of our labor.

What an honor!

2008-06-06T06:11:00.001-07:00

As we get ready to leave Chile after 24 years of ministry here, the national church has seen fit to honor us on a number of occasions. This past Tuesday we had lunch with the Executive Presbytery at an Argentine steakhouse (excellent) and they presented both Jacquie and I with a plaque for our time of service here. As well, they gave us our new ministry credentials (valid through 2010) and then told us that after that date, we would become honorary liftetime members of the Chilean Assemblies of God. What an honor! We were both pleased and humbled at their kindness, and blessed to be a part of such a great ministerial family like the Chilean A/G. (Later that day, we had supper with all our missionary colleagues and they presented us with some beautiful gifts and we had a wonderful time of fellowship and took a nostalgic trip down memory lane. We have been blessed with not only great co-laborers, but the greatest of friends as well.) (I tried to post a photo of that, but couldn't get it to upload- sorry!)

Wow!

2008-06-02T05:34:00.000-07:00

This past Friday night, Jonathan won the gold medal for the "Outstanding Surprise Performance" award at his high school for the dramatic interpretation of "A Night in Hell". His rendition brought almost everyone in the room to tears and was a powerful performance. We are so proud of him! It's hard to believe he just has three weeks of school left before graduation- where has the time gone??? Congratulations, Jonathan, on a job very well done!

Surprised and Honored

2008-05-15T18:48:00.000-07:00

At the Tennessee District Council in Chattanooga last month, Jacquie and I were surprised and highly honored to receive the World Harvest Award for our years of service in missions. We are so grateful to the District Board for having chosen us for this honor, and even more grateful to the Harvest Master for giving us the privilege to serve Him in Chile during all these years.

A Change of Address

2008-05-07T09:49:00.000-07:00

We are now finishing the fifth year of our fifth term here in

Chile

. As we prepare to return to the States for a short six-month itineration, we wanted to notify you all regarding our new change of address.

As of January 1, 2009, we will be moving to San José, Costa Rica, to begin our new responsibilities as directors of the Missionary Training Center for Language and Cultural Studies (CINCEL) of the Assemblies of God. All new missionaries going to Latin America receive their language training at the school there and we are excited about this new opportunity to TRAIN A NEW GENERATION OF MISSIONARIES and to IMPACT ALL OF LATIN AMERICA as we carry out this task.

Please pray with us during this time of transition that God will give us a smooth adjustment to this new location and that He will provide the funds we need to undertake this new ministry assignment.

Surprise! Surprise! Surprise!

2008-03-06T09:07:00.000-08:00

On Saturday, February 23rd, Jacquie and Jonathan surprised Don with a birthday party to celebrate 55 years of life. With a whole new group of friends from Costa Rica, they celebrated with blackened chicken pasta and chocolate cake with chocolate icing (Don's favorite).

Grad school blues...

2008-02-29T12:23:00.000-08:00

This is a photo of our class at the Assemblies of God Theological Seminary extension class here in Costa Rica. Pictured here are Dr. DeLonn Rance, AGTS professor, Don, Parker Dickerson, missionary to Costa Rica, Kirk Jones, missionary to Panama, and Ryan Jordan, missionary to Colombia. This finishes our study time in C.R. and Don heads back to Santiago next Wednesday. Thanks for all your prayers for us during this time of intensive study.

Team Chile!

2008-02-23T12:20:00.001-08:00

Here we are on our last day of class in Costa Rica. This photo was taken at the Irazú volcano on a field trip that we took with all of the students. Pictured here are Josh and Mayra Renfro, Jacquie and Don, and Charla and Aaron Lee. The Renfro's and the Lee's will be the newest Assemblies of God missionaries to Chile, and we've had the blessing of getting to know them over the past six weeks. We know they are going to be a tremendous blessing as they labor there!
Jacquie and Jonathan fly back to Santiago tomorrow, and Don will head back on March 5th, after finishing another class that will move him further along towards his master's degree.

Jonny on the job!

2008-02-05T18:20:00.001-08:00

Jonathan is spending his summer in Costa Rica on the job. He is pictured here with missionary Freddy Cooper and Rudy, a Costa Rican who works at the language school. Jonathan is helping with some remodeling projects at the language school and will be involved with two MAPS teams in the construction of the new dorm at the language school. He is also working on the weekends with Parker Dickerson, another missionary here, and is helping him in a new church planting effort.

Compañeros de Estudio

2008-01-28T16:26:00.001-08:00

These are our "compañeros de estudio" (our fellow classmates). From left to right they are: LeDawn Rance, who will be going to the Dominican Republic; Kim Sobey, who will be going to Nicaragua; Betsy Elliott, who will be going to Peru; Jacquie and I; Luis Solano, our grammar teacher; Josh and Mayra Renfro, who will be going to Chile. They are a terrific group and we are having a great time learning together with them. It's very exciting to be studying alongside a new generation of missionaries that have such a passion to reach their generation with the Gospel!

Studying Spanish in San José

2008-01-24T18:49:00.001-08:00

Well, we are here studying Spanish in beautiful San José, Costa Rica. The altitude (almost 4000 feet) has us dragging at times, but the challenge of doing a refresher course in Spanish (after waiting 24 years to do so) has us extremely motivated. We have classes in grammar, conversation, literature and translation. It is stretching us, but we are LOVING it! We will be here until the end of February and will then be returning to Santiago to resume our ministry (and hopefully be speaking much better Español).

A Week Past PK Camp

2008-01-17T18:27:00.001-08:00

Wow! We are now a week or so past PK Camp and what an amazing time it was. There were PKs in attendance from as far north as Arica (north of the Tropic of Capricorn) and as far south as Puerto Williams (the southermost town in Chile). Our daughter, Sara, and her husband, Daniel, were the guest speakers, and they did a terrific job. 77 PKs attended the retreat and it was a time of God's outpouring upon them. It was a great way for them to kick of the summer (it's summertime here in Chile) and a great way to start 2008!

Preachin' at the Bakery

2007-12-31T04:43:00.001-08:00

Most of you who have visited us here in Chile have had the opportunity to go with us to the remodeled bakery (also known as Pastor Carlos' church, or Cathedral of Praise). We had the opportunity to minister there last night. Above photo, Daniel preaching and Don translating.

A Cartledge Family Christmas

2007-12-29T09:20:00.000-08:00

We are enjoying having our daughter, Sara, and her husband, Daniel, with us for the holiday season. They arrived in Santiago on Christmas morning and we had a great Christmas together with them and Bob and Michelle Perez, the newest AG missionaries here in Chile. Our prayers are that you all have a lovely holiday season and a blessed New Year.