Welcome to Pichilemu!

Hello, there, readers!

This first post is meant to be a quick introduction to Pichilemu, Chile and also an overview of what the ten of us have been doing here for the past ten days. Ready? Here we go!

Pichilemu is a little beach town southwest of Chile's capital, Santiago. When I say little, I really mean it, too- there's one hospital, one community pool, one private school and just a few public ones... Basically, it's a great set up for a group of people to show up and make a big impact. Pichilemu is probably best characterized by its surf/skate culture. There's a ton of need here, which means tons of oportunities to be Jesus to the people of Pichilemu! Mitch Anderson is an incredible man of God who pioneered a YWAM location here, right at the top of a hill overlooking the city. His vision was not for a YWAM bubble here, but for a bridging between the culture of the city and the Kingdom culture of YWAM. With basically no experience, but with a lot of heart and heaps of faith, Mitch built Pura Vida, more commonly known as "la piscina" (the pool). Pura Vida (which translates to "Pure Life") is a community center that features a cyber cafe, weekly dance classes, a work out room, and (of course) the famous Olympic-sized pool. It's right on the edge of the imaginary border between YWAM and the city. Christian Surfers is just one of the ministries hosted out of this incredible place- kids from the neighborhood come on Tuesday and Thursday evenings to hear the word of the Lord and hang out with each other. The best part is, everyone in Pichilemu knows 'the pool'.

Why did I just spiel on about Mitch and YWAM and community and all that? Because, my friends Mitch's ministry and vision have become our ministry and vision for these upcoming four-ish weeks. Before I get too much into that, though, I want to take a second to recognize and introduce our wonderful family:

Jonny and Nina are our noble and fearless leaders. Both of them are from Long Beach, California, USA. I'm not allowed to say how old they are- just know this: they're young enough to be relatable but old enough to be trusted with your children's lives. We really wouldn't be the same without them. Jonny and Nina have an absolutely ADORABLE son named Jackson- he's exactly nine months old today! Woohoo! He's really a joy to have around; he's definitely brightened up a lot of not-so-good days.

Dani is our other leader. She's from Ecuador and has been invaluable here in Chile with her ability to speak both English and Spanish fluently. She's a fantastic young woman of God with a seriously compassionate heart.

Luke is a young lad of 18 from the land down under... Sydney, AUSTRALIA!
19-year-old Ryan is from Southern California, USA.
Pat is also 19; he's from Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
Isaac is 22 from the beautiful city of Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA.

Elisabeth is 20 and from the happiest country on Earth- Denmark!
Sarang, AKA Love, is also 20 and lives in San Francisco, California, USA.
Then there's me, little Ashley, author of this account. I'm 18 and I'm from a little town just north of Portland, Oregon, USA.

Alright, now on to the good stuff!

We're from the YWAM base in Los Angeles- our school started April first, and we've made tons of progress since then. (If you want to know more about that, check out our individual blogs- the links are in the sidebar) We've been here at the Pichilemu base for ten days working with a variety of people, being God's hands and feet left and right.

We're living in the YWAM community, so we do meal preparations and other typical things, but we're also working on a few other things as well: we're helping to build a house for Mitch's son and daughter-in-law and putting together some new lane-lines for the pool here. We also hang around Pura Vida a lot and participate in a lot of their activities, mostly with local kids and youth. We love spending time with the teenagers who come to Christian Surfers- a lot of them hang out at the local skate park as well, so that's been a really fun and familiar ministry opportunity for us whenever we have free time.

We go to the local hospital and help out the Doctors and nurses who are hard at work keeping the citizens of Pichilemu well and whole. We do a lot of cleaning there, especially windows! Apparently though, we've made a big impact: baby Jackson hasn't been fairing so well, and the other night, Jonny and Nina decided to take him to the hospital (remember, there's only one hospital in Pichilemu). First miracle: they forgot their passports, but the man behind the desk let them in anyway, leaving just their names and ages. Second miracle: the doctor who was helping Jackson is the same doctor that Pat helps every week. He was super nice, even trying to speak English so that Nina could understand what was going on. (Don't worry- Dani was there, too, so Nina ended up understanding anyway) Miracle number three: they were getting ready to leave, prescriptions and all (Jackson's doing fine, don't worry. If you really want to know, he has an eye infection and Bronchitis, but it isn't even bad. He's still pretty much his happy self.), when they realized they hadn't paid yet! Dani quickly went back inside to find out how much they owed, but was met with quick opposition.  They said, "You are the people from the pool who come and help us; you don't need to pay anything." We found out later that trips to the emergency room aren't cheap either, so really praise the Lord for that!

We help out these two ladies: (I have no idea how to spell their names) Aidea and Enadina. We basically just go love on them and help them in whatever ways we can.

We also go to the old folk's home and do some stuff there, like entertaining them and doing practical work as well.

Basically, we are always always always busy here.

Whew, that was a LOT of words. Sorry for the essay, y'all. Hopefully there will be more praise reports and less wordiness in the next posts. Expect something about once a week. Lots of love! Feel free to pray for us and the people we're touching here.

-Ash