Bethany | Commercial Real Estate

Almost 30 years ago my parents moved their young family oversees to help support pastors starting churches. They moved half way across the world and found themselves without a pastor to support. The church in this area was almost nowhere to be found. Rituals replaced relationships and the need for pastors was huge. So Mom and Dad decided to do what they said they wouldn’t do, they started a church. It was just our family at first. Felt kinda silly if I’m being honest. Just the five of us in our living room. “Why move across the world for this?” We wondered. Then, as we built relationships, the church began to grow. It was slow at first. It was also hard and lonely. But Dad was bent on building something that would train leaders and would grow without him. He always said our job was to work ourselves out of a job. The goal was to leave the leadership in the hands of the people there as quickly as possible. My parents had to move back to the States rather suddenly a few years ago after my Mom suffered a major stroke during a serious illness. The church was strong and Dad spent years discipline and training leaders. Yet, it was still sudden. We wondered, Would the church continue growing without them or begin to dwindle? Recently I decided to go back home to Northern Chile with my 3 kids to see how the church my parents started in our living room was doing. And look what I found! It’s a church of well over 500 but that’s not the impressive part. The church has planted 11 other churches, runs two children’s homes, a rehab center, a seminary training hundreds of pastors, and sends people all over the world to work in ministry. It’s been a rock in the community during earthquakes, tidal waves and civil unrest. I was able to return home and tell Dad, “Dad, your church sends their greetings”

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