Maki

you

Cross Cultural
Youth

f!
1

Ministry ^
exists to

2.(^0
New Year
fore going to the States to study in a Christian College. We were forced to postpone
his studies and ask him to

spread the

It's all about adjust

ments. 1 thank God that this

gospel of Ji
Christ to

setback has not caused a big

division within the teens and

youth of the w by
with

Brings New Challenges

partne
natli

We are finally getting ad

differences

justed to the seasonal

between

churches to

ueiop youth

North America and South Amer

istry

progri

and train yi
leaders.

ica. Even though it's kind of weird to think about July being the middle of winter and going to the beach and sunbathing in February, that is our reality. And
for us, March means back to
school. Most of the Chilean stu dents entered school the first of

step down from his leadership position because of his unwill ingness to follow the direction of the pastors of the church and myself. This has left a large void because Felipe was a big help during his time work ing with us. It has also been very disappointing for me as I
have invested so much time

with the adults and parents who have been supporting our ministry. Now one of my biggest needs is finding an
other Chilean that can work
with me and whom I can train

Missionaries:

and energy in him. That is one of the hardest things about ministry and missions, trusting in people. Sometimes they let you down and some times you let them down.

to eventually take over the youth ministry program at the Metropolitan Church of Christ. Please pray for the ministry this year and that God places someone special in our path to help us be more
effective and so that we can

create a ministry that will be lasting after we leave.

Aaron andAngieAri
Casilla 298-11

March. So we gave them a cou ple of weeks to get settled in

and to recover from the initial shock that their summer vaca

Santiago. Chile
Phone:562-277-681
aarnold/'entelchil

tion was over. On March 18 we

had our first SMP, the initials of our youth group which stands
Adminlsiralors/Otti

for "S^bado Menos Pensado" or

HogerandAnn Toor 9775 Country Club I Piqua.OH 45356

Phone/Fax:g37-778-

"Saturday Least Expected" loosely translated into English.

We had 30 kids and 4 first-time

visitors. We were satisfied, but

ccymr7lts.nei

Board ol Directors: AaronArnotd MalcolniArnold

not terribly excited. We had hoped to start with a big bang, but the month of February was one of the
hardest months that I have had

in youth ministry. Due to some

unfortunate circumstances, our

RogerToon

Chilean piranhas; The boys hanging out in the river

Jelflewellyn

Chilean youth intern, Felipe, is

no longer working with us. He had been working with us for a year and would have been with
us for another six months be

Little Giants Make Big Impact

School Shopping
Look Inside the Young Chilean Mind

page 3
page 2
page 6

When you think ofschool shop

Well in Chile there is a

Insight from Angie School Shopping Chilean Style

ping you probably only think
lot more

choose from: Catholic, evangelical, secular; mixed, all-girls, all-boys;

bilingual (English, German, Italian or French), English intensive; or mis sionary school, and that's not even touching the areas of price or of
size. One of our main concerns in

America.

However, the bottom line for

about pencils and notebooks.

involved than that, especially if you aren't planning on going the tradi
tional public school route. In Chile the public schools as a whole leave

us is that our children receive a good education. There are always posi tives and negatives about every deci
sion one makes. We know that we are the one who will teach values and our faith in God to our children. We also know that we have a much

a lot to be desired. They are gener ally very large and have up to 45
students per class. The facilities l7 well kept because of lack of funds.

(or building) usually are not very |l

I would not say that the quality of _
education is poor, but there is little discipline and focus on values. Most

zie wonted to go there because she liked

the color of the school uniforms..."
choosing a school deals with the great amount of classism here in
Chile. We can afford to send our

d~ aries friends working and living in

other countries.

better situation than many mission-

In the end, we chose a school that is secular, mixed, mid dle priced and small in size. It's
called Little Mozart and has an em

Chileans, if they have the financial means (middle class on up), try to send their children to private
schools. And there are a ton of them.

Last year we began to re

search and were a little bit over

children to a good or even elite school, but many times the environ

phasis on music, dance and art. It fits the personality of our oldest very well and she has enjoyed it so far. Mazie said that she wanted to go there
because she liked the color of the

ment is extremely rich, snobby and

even racist. We found that some of the schools are fuil of blond hair and

whelmed by the amount of choices

that parents have. Here is a mini-list of the different options that one can

uniforms. We like them, too, but we have hope that it will be a good
school for her and for us, as well.

blue eyes in the middle of Latin

i ^

My sweat suit for gym class

And I have ballet once a week

Last year the missions trip to

Bolivia left us with a great nu
most of the credit to the missions

Little Giants Make Big Impact

utes away. It was a huge blessing. But instead of me telling the story, I
would like you to hear it from the
mouth of a Chilean. Elizabeth Fal con was one of the ladies that

There is no doubt that the

cleus of youth to start the year off and we had a great year. We had tremendous growth and I give

presence of God Almighty was with them every day. There was also a great interest to participate in ev erything from the children and youth assistants(from San Carlos).
No less than 300 children was the norm in the classes. There were

trip building a solid base within the youth program. This year I had high expectations for the trip. With a
new name, the "Little Giants" and

worked in the kitchen during our stay in San Carlos, (the following I
translated from an article from their

church newsletter)
"We were hard at work in

a renewed purpose, we were going to stay in Chile and work in two different places. The first stop was going to be San Carlos, about six

h ou ^r s

the kitchen making lunch when we saw some youth burdened with duf fel bags, backpacks, boxes, music equipment and guitars... Each and

songs, Biblical instruction, dramas, mimes, games, crafts and every thing based in God's Word. The work of these youth was not only successful with the children, but also the parents of the neighborhood were invited to daily services, where they could see the
wonders that God

can do.
Without a doubt the

mi

Holy Spirit helped

was going island

ond'sto^

I:

jl

Myouth for

of the thirty

^
. .
Missio Light 2000 "Los Pequehos GIgantes" Little Giants Mission

/ove and service to

Chilo6, a ' very large .

We
G 0 d

ask
' s

about 18 hours south of

blessing on the Little Giants and for

the souls to whom he leads

Santiago. It is one of the least evangelized areas in Chile and very remote. We were going to go and help some missionaries
v/ho have been there for several

every one shined with their gray t-shirt that said "Mission Light 2000
San Carlos", they were the "Little
Giants" who had arrived in San

them to share his Word, as they

know how to do so well, in cities
and countries with need. The church Tree of Life thanks the Little Giants and their leader Aaron Arnold for this time shared which

years working alone. The people there are very traditional, yet nomi nal Catholics; and very closed to the gospel. That was our plan. God
had another. We never made it to Chilo6. The kids had a lot of trouble

Carlos to put on the Vacation Bible

School in the school Tree of Life... "We came to work for

was a wonderful experience and

full of God's love.

raising the money. In the end it all worked out for us to spend more time in the San Carlos area working with a rural church about thirty min

God", were the exact words of the Little Giants and that's the way it was. After a little rest, they went out and walked around the neighbor

That is what I would call a big success in spite of it seeming to be a compromise at the beginning.
God knew that we would need to

hood called the "11th of Septem ber". where they invited the children to participate in wonderful activities.

spend more time with the people of

Little Giants " continued on page 5

fT?fl

Please Pray With Us

I really would ask that you PRAY with us during the fol lowing months. A lot of things are happening and we really
want to follow God's will in all
our decisions. Here are a few

Aaron's knee:

He tore 2

monal problem. We have

been a little worried about her. News funds for future

ligaments in his right knee playing basketball with the youth. The first week of May they did ACL re construction surgery.
A new intern for Aaron: I would like to find a new

projects:

Aaron

has

some ideas for some new

specific things that you can lift up in prayer for us;

Mazie and her new

intern this year, preferably

Chilean, who could take

projects for working with youth in Chile. Please pray that God will provide
the wisdom and funds to

over for me at Metropoli

tan Church of Christ. Sofia's health: and then the She had doctor

school: Pray that it will be the right school for her

and that she will feel com fortable there.

make them a possibility. Chile's new president: Pray that he can lead
Chile where God desires,

a problem with her hip thought she had a hor

that she go.

'Look Inside" continuedfrom page 6

ques.

feel better and I don't

music, games, etc. Usually it's the older youth up to the mid 20's.

Sergio: I would have to repeat that

it's relative. It depends on the
church and the leader, if it's catholic

or evangelical. Usually an evangeli cal is better. However the evangeli

cal one is much more serious and

is almost exactly like a church ser vice but for youth, like with preach ing. What do Chilean youth do for
fun?

Sergio: Depends if the teen is a Christian or not and if he is big into parties. Normally the majority go to parties (all night long), discoteques, pubs, concerts and those kinds of things. If they don't like that kind of stuff they hang out in the malls. It also depends on your economic status. Lots of teens get together to
play sports, too. How has participating in the

concentrate on my own problems. Also, most of my friends are in the

youth group. It has helped me to

learn to be a leader with them.

youth program in our church af

fected you?

Sergio: It's not like it affects you so much, you still go on being a teenager. But instead of just being with my friends, I am working for them and their well being. You dedi cate your time to them and then they like youth group and keep coming and then bring their friends. That's my way of serving God and

Jordan: Malls, get together in the parks to smoke, drink or even do drugs.scouts; watch TV and listen to music: go to parties and discote-

Jordan: It gives me stuff to do in my free time. Helps me with my relationship with God. When I work in the youth group, helping others. I

giving him glory and honor. Also, it's helped me to develop my abili
ties with music and I love it.

Ch
o
i _

"Little Giants" continuedfrom page 3

San Carlos and that we did.

a p

We have some big plans for next year. I just returned from a short 5-day trip to Buenos Aires,

^1

-1

Argentina, There are some inviting possibilities to take a group there next year. We would be working more with youth, helping them to kickoff a new youth program and youth center that they are starting In the center of the town where they
work. However since the mission

8P
j
r i.

program is growing so much, it will be necessary to make available two mission opportunities. The plan is to do one week long trip close to Santiago. It would be the first step for those wtio have never partici pated before in missions. It would be more like a work project. The other trip would be to Buenos Aires, which would be a smaller group of more mature and experienced youth. That's the plan, but we have put it all in God's hands. He'll let us
know what he wants us to do and

we'll just follow his lead. See more pictures on page 4.

Cross Culiurdl Youih Minisiry

9775 Country Club Roiid Piqua, OH 45356

Mission Services Assn. Horizons

7525 Hodges Ferry Road

Knoxville. TN 37920

Look Inside The Young Chilean Mind

Here is an interview that I did with

two of the kids in my youth group, Jordan Swanson Is the daughter of missionaries in Santiago,Chile. She is 16 years old and a sopho more in high school. She is one of my leaders in the youth program and enjoys cheerleading and mod eling as hobbies. Sergio Diaz is the son of one of the pastors in our church. He is 15 years old and a freshman in high school. He plays drums and bongos for the worship service and the youth group and loves to chat on the internet. They give us a look inside the young
Chilean mind:

Jordan: SCHOOL! Pressure to get good grades, acceptance from

classmates. At home it would be

Sergio: It's very difficult for a Chris tian or a person who thinks differ ently because this country is influ enced by the masses. They are a strong force and it's very difficult to go against that force.
Is it difficult to be a
teen in Chile?

not having good relationships with your parents. Sergio: Getting past the political problems of the past. Developing your own identity in a country so traditional. Being different. Not falling Into drugs. What is the atmosphere like in the high schools? Jordan: You don't usually know your classmates very well. And the "popular kids" don't stand out so much like in the States. And you really don't know who the Chris
tians are because there are no

Christian

Jordan: Yes, because lots of times

the churches don't have anything

for the youth.

Sergio: It's relative, depends on the person. If you look for a good environment where you can hang
out. it will be easier, but it's still

tough. What's the youth program like in

a normal church in Chile?

Jordan: Usually It's like a Bible Study with no emphasis on youth

"Look Inside" continued on page 5

What are the biggest challenges that a Chilean youth faces?

Christian groups in the schools.