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David, Rosemary, Charissa and Gregory

THE
Vol. XII

FISH

FAMILY
No. 1

July 1988

Leadership Training for Chileans

FLET Studies

We are now underway with our leadership training for this year. We operate our own Extension Seminary under the auspices of FLET (Latin American Faculty of Theological Studies),
an international and inter-denominational minis

who are involved in ministry, and need help in their preparation. Pray that God would multiply the benefits from the program, transforming them into ministry opportunities.
Centro BETANIA

try based in Miami. Florida. Basically that means we use literature and study guides published by their ministry, and pay a small administration fee for participating in their program. We began par ticipating in their advanced level in 1983, and have some graduates now. Several others had started into the program but need to finish. During 1987 we had virtually no students at the advanced level, as Phil Casey left Chile in April (school year begins in March), and we did not arrive from furlough until July. This year, how ever, we have several previous students reenrolled in the program, and I have 12 new students, which has been exciting for me. I am the only teacher at present, and so I have the burden of responsibility for watching the program work well; but also receive the benefit of seeing student responses to the material. We finished the first module of the year (of five modules), and have just begun on the second.
For this second module we have inherited some

Our co-workers on the coast (Steve Bond,

Roger Yount and Dan Dix) are working to kick off

other students from other backgrounds as well. My two groups at this time are studying Hermeneutics and Early Church History. Please keep our Extension Seminary students in your prayers. The program is meeting needs of some

Missionaries to ChileStanding; Pam Bond, Sue Watkins. Roger Yount. Cindy Shead. Mark Cavenee. Regina Cavenee. Becky Yount. Rose Fish, David Fish. Kneeling; David Watkins. Ralph Shead. Nellie Watkins,
Phil Watkins, Steve Bond. Recently arrived; Dan and Tammie Dix. Not pictured: Jeff and Kathy Phillips.

Saturday morning FLET study group, taking weekly

quiz.

begun a church there as well. Because of their previous contact with Colegio Biblico, encouragement by Harland Cary and other friends and supporters, the Watkins brothers have launched a project to begin a fullfledged Bible College in Chile. David Watkins will be going to the NACC in Cincinnati in order to promote the project. The elders of his sponsor ing church in Greenwood, Indiana are behind him in the project, though they cannot finance the entire thing. Last month we went out to see the piece of property they hope to purchase for the school. Their projection for the cost in buy ing, developing and beginning the school is about $200,000. Their vision is large, hoping to pull students from other Spanish-speaking
countries as well. In addition to providing a

a leadership training program for the churches with which they work. On our previous term, I
travelled to the coast once a week to teach more

basic leadership training classes. I received a blessing from those travels, as I am certain the
churches did as well. The area churches have re

cently purchased a property for Leadership Training and Retreat Center, and will be kicking off their first courses later this year. They have
named their center "Centro BETANIA"

theological education, the school would also be a place where a trade could be learned. Since the economy of Latin American countries is un stable, a church-planter that has a trade can be self-supporting, instead of depending on support from the church. Current plans call for agricul tural training, a welding shop, mechanics shop,
and other trade studies.

(BETHANY Center), and have asked me to teach a New Testament Survey course later this year. It will meet on Saturdays during October and No vember, and will no doubt give meopportunity to meet with some people that I had the privilege to teach in years past, as well as others who have come to the Lord in the intervening years. Their future goal is to use the Study Center as an in tensive training center for church-planting teams, which can be sent to cities in Chile where we have no churches, plant a church there, and continue the job in another area. A Full-Fledged BIBLE COLLEGE After Chile's last major earthquake in March
1985, Phil Watkins came to Chile to work under

Since so much of my ministry up until now has been focused on leadership training, should this project become a reality, I would no doubt help in the teaching, at least on a part-time basis. We are praying that the Lord will open the right doors to transform this vision into reality, for His glory. Join us and our co-workers in prayer.

CERRILLOS CHURCH
UPDATE

the auspices of IDES. Phil is an MK (son of Mr. &

Mrs. Herb Watkins, missionaries to Colegio Biblico and Mexico). Phil is married to a Chilean woman who went to study at Colegio Biblico in Texas back in the early 1970's. Upon arrival in Chile, under the direction of IDES and Harland Cary, Phil and Nellie Watkins settled in San Pedro de Melipilla (about an hour and a half's drive from Santiago) to rebuild homes destroyed by the earthquake. About a year ago, Phil's brother, David, came to work with him. In the intervening time, Phil had begun a church in San Pedro de Melipilla. David settled down in Melipilla (about 20 miles from Phil), and has

Since returning to Chile about ten months ago, a large portion of our work has been with the Cerrillos church, which had its first Sunday meeting ever the Sunday before we left for fur lough In the U.S. in May of 1986. The Maipu church (geographically close) sent men to lead services and preach during our absence. It may have been premature to start Sunday services right before leaving for the States, but we felt that it was necessary to maintain some sort of continuity during our absence. When we returned from our furlough in the U.S. there was still a handful of people who were participating in the church and anxious for our return. Upon getting settled in we began to work in earnest in
the Cerrillos church.

purchase a lot or building, on which to locate

permanently. We anticipate a need of about

Older children in VBS class. Cerrillos: February 1988.

$10,000 In order to buy a property for the church's needs. Our attendance varies widely, depending on many factors. For the last three months or so, I have felt pressure of putting on a "one-man-circus." I have led the worship, played the musical Instruments, preached the sermons, led in prayer, given communion meditations, etc. During all that time. I was looking to one brother as a possible help in the ministry, but he proved himself to be one upon whom I could not depend. That whole syndrome has been a little depressing, as my vision of mission work is not to tie myself down permanently in the Cerrillos

welder by profession, and a man who enjoyed life. His wife. Raquel, began attending a small Bible study shortly before we went to the U.S. She was coming under conviction, I could tell,
but did not make a commitment to follow Christ

weak, unsure of himself, and still doing mari juana. I met him on the street. We were en couraging the ladies' group to Invite friends and neighbors to our service. Raquel (Luis' wife) had a burden for Jorge, and was to speak to him.
Rose and I met with the ladies, drew up a list of

before we left. She spoke of it in the future tense;

"When David and Rose come back " We were
in the U.S. when we heard that she had been

One of the frustrations in building up a church is lack of time to dedicate exclusively to that work. Since my ministry in Chile goes far beyond
the local church, It has been difficult at times to
devote as much time to the new church as it

church, but rather to work there at this opening

stage, and find Chilean leadership for the church. Just how to get from point A to point B is diffi cult, however, especially when the church seemed to be depending on me for EVERY
THING. It is time to change that.

baptized, and we were thrilled. Last August, about a month after we returned from furlough, we attended a big meeting at the Malpu church. We Invited Luis to go along. I didn't know him very well at the time, and noted that beseemed to feel uncomfortable, as If he were "out-of-place." The celebration was nice, and because family members of people from Cerrillos {who live in Malpu) were to be baptized following the Sunday services, we cancelled our Sunday services, in order to attend the services at f^aipu. Bob
Moorehead, from Overtake Church In Kirkland,

names, prayed, divided up by twos to go out and visit people. Rose went with one lady and I went with another, Though Jorge was not on our list (I had never met him), while Maria and I were walking down the street, Jorge came by. Maria said, "There's Jorge. Let's invite him!" So we called to him, and went to talk to him. He was

higher than a kite. Most of the time I tend to think

it is a waste of time to talk to drunks or dopers when they are high. Yet that day in the street, Ifelt a need to speak to Jorge. He responded In a typical fashion for a doper; by laughing and saying, "I'm really not here. I'm on another planet right now." I told him, among other things, that
Jesus loved him, and could reach out to him on

deserves. As president of the mission corpora tion, I have important meetings to attend, trips to make, seminars to lead, etc., which take me away
from "full-time" work with the new church. We

have worked hard to build up the body there, and the Lord has blessed. Ten months ago when the
smoke cleared from the excitement of our return,

Washington, was the visiting preacher (Overlake had financed much of Maipu's building). Because Jeff Phillips had laryngitis, I was asked to translate for Bob Morehead. The message touched Luis right where he was sitting. He was moved, and responded to the Invitation. I was
thrilled, as we were in need of men with a solid

any planet where he might happen to be. Jorge showed up for our service the next Sunday, and probably for a space of two or three months,
never missed another service. Because of his

condition, he was really kind of spaced-out, yet

there was not much stability or permanence in the work at Cerrillos. Yet the perspective today looks much brighter than at that time. The Lord
has been at work there. We have seen His hand at

commitment to Christ. 1 began to visit Luis in his home, to teach him from the Scriptures Christ's

way. Because of a personal stigma, he wanted to

put off baptism "until he was more ready." Yet during the weeks to follow, he was a different man, and his family members began to notice a

work, yet, we would like for the progress to be

more and more evident. It has been a frustration

to have placed much trust and confidence in brethren, only to see them faiL

change in him. We came up to the Christmas

Church service in Cerrillos.

Last month we received two new members by transfer. They are both eager to serve the Lord, and have already been a blessing. Pedro Escobar
and his wife, Elisabeth, have both worked as Sun

day School teachers in the past. Pedro has led two Sunday worship services for us, which has been a big blessing. He has done very well at It. This month we are having special mid-week studies on Worship, designed to help fairly young Christian men assume responsibilities
Younger children in VBS class. Cerrillos; February
1988.

within the life of the church. When we have a

In order to grow, it was necessary to find a

larger meeting place. The month of January was

spent in renting and fixing up a new meeting place. It is not ideal, but is much better than our previous place. Ideally, at least in that socio economic level, it Is important eventually to

guest speaker, I lead the worship service, and in the off weeks, when I preach, we are having Chilean men lead the worship service. Pedro Escobar has experience, but we are preparing
two more men to lead as well. I would like to tell

you a bit about them.

Luis Rodriguez was a man's man. He Is a

season, and Luis still had not been baptized. He just wasn't quite ready, he said. Just before New Year's Eve, 1 spoke to him again, basically to say. "You know that you really need to make this commitment, don't you?" He responded affirma tively, so we arranged for his baptism on Decem ber 30, 1987. Since then he has had his ups-anddowns, but his life is changed. As I write these lines, he will lead in worship next Sunday. Jorge Lagos is a young man of about 26 years. When he was 16 or 17, he went on a trip to the beach with others from his high school class. It was there that he was offered marijuana for the first time. And it was there that he had a bad trip. Even though he promised himself that he would never touch it again, he did. And he was hooked! The next nine years of his life, Jorge was to be come a slave to drugs, fvlessing around with drugs really messed up his life. He burned his brains, lost jobs, lost a girlfriend, lost sense of worth, and ended up in the psychiatric hospital. When I met him, he was on anti-depressants,

the Lord in his mercy was calling him, I'm sure. I began to meet with him, and get to know him. Perhaps because of his deep need for the Lord, Jorge did not have the same qualms about making a commitment and being baptized. Jorge was baptized before Luis. Yet Jorge was burled with Christ in baptism, and his new life had begun. I did not know at the time, but he was still smoking pot. Soon after that, he came under con viction. and confessed it to me. The Lord enabled him to drop the drug habit. He floated along for
months, was constant In attandance, but some

thing was wrong. In the last few months, he has

come under the conviction of the Word. He has read Genesis to Joshua in the last five or six

weeks, and Is planning on reading the entire Bible through. Sunday he sang a solo which he
had written himself, and In three weeks will conduct the service for the first time. We put it on the calendar for the month, and when he saw It,

he responded, "It must be some other Jorge." Yet I have seen growth In him recently, and want to coach him on to greater maturity and stability.
I don't know at this time if the Lord may use some of these to get us from Point A (total de pendence on David Fish) to Point B (a national church that functions without dependence on the missionary). It Is now that I need to teach, lead, and If necessary, push others to the fore-

front. Perhaps at some other time it may be the Lord's will to bring someone from another of our
churches to minister at Cerrillos. I don't know.

purpose was to promote third world churches to see their own responsibility in world evangelism. During our furlough I was convicted by the Lord
that our own Chilean Churches need to have a

BITS AND PIECES

I continue to lead the Ministers' Council in

Please help us to pray. We have a burden for other areas (and other people groups) of Santiago that still don't have churches. My per sonal way of thinking is swinging away from doing it myself, to becoming a catalyst that facilitates a Chilean leader's doing it. In February we had a Summer Vacation Bible School, which was very well attended. We have had periodic visitors from some of the families of children who participated. Since there is no real commitment to the Lord on their part, however, their attendance is sporadic. Since school started in March, we have continued a Saturday Bible School. It has not worked really well. I have
not been able to work at all with it, as I have had

greater mission awareness. It's sad to have to admit that we have preached "Mission Messages" when we have been in the U.S. on furlough, forgetting that the churches we founded here also have a responsibility in ful

Santiago. I have seen positive steps toward a greater unity recently. We meet two times per month, one meeting business-oriented, and the other meeting strictly for joint worship. One of my goals has been to unite the group more and
more. It has been a joy to see that happen. That is

We were able to pay off the loans on the house, and move into another one, which has proved to be a blessing. Because of the strange things happening with the dollar exchange rate, were
we to sell this month, instead of when we did, we

filling the Great Commission. Upon hearing of

COMIBAM, I wanted to attend, and also to take
some Chileans as well. From the Christian Churches/Churches of Christ in Chile we took a

FLET classes at the same time. This next Sunday we will move the Bible School class to Sunday afternoon, two hours before our regular Sunday worship service. We believe it will work much better. I will be able to concentrate on my FLET

delegation of six: co-worker Roger Yount, myself, two Chileans from Santiago, and two Chileans from the 5th Region (where Roger works). It was a great convention. One of the blessings on the side was a visit that I made to CMF missionaries working in Brazil. On the Sun day before the convention started, I visited a church started by CMF missionaries in Campinas

(in the state of Sao Paulo). At the convention it

self, I saw Brazilian missionary Earl Haubner,

not to say that we have no problems. One of the legal problems facing us is what to do for the church in Puerto Octay (600 miles south of Santiago, but a church within our fellowship). Their property, right on the edge of Lake Llanquihue (largest natural lake in Chile) is to be expropriated for a Municipal Yacht Club. The congregation has no legal document to show that the property is theirs (evidently it was purchased back in the 1960's with no more than a handwritten receipt which has no legal validity.) To make matters worse, the property where the
church sits actually is part of the lake! It had been

classes on Saturday, and help develop a Sunday

School program for the older children. Pedro Escobar will be working with us in the Sunday
School.

and spent several hours visiting with him.

The San Joaquin church here in Santiago named May 1988 as "The Month of World Mis sion." Everything they did during May was re lated to World Missions, to create a greater awareness among the congregation. Their preacher, Jano Castro, was one of the Chileans that attended COMIBAM in Brazil. I had pur chased video tapes of the main sessions in Brazil, so each Saturday I went to San Joaquin to share a message on video tape. I also shared about our own experiences in adapting to another culture (we normally don't talk about those things here in Chile, though we speak a lot about it when we are on furlough in the U.S.). Rose also went to speak at their ladies meeting for one day to speak about women missionaries. San Joaquin's "Month of World Mission" was a success. I personally know of a couple of families there that would like to
become "cross-cultural missionaries." In a recent seminar I led in another church, I ran

filled in prior to the "purchase," but because it is supposedly under water, legally belongs to the government. Lawyers in Santiago and in Puerto
Varas will unravel that one for us. Because of my position as president, weight for that falls to me.

would not even have been able to pay off the loans. The Lord was watching over us, allowing us to sell when we did. I only put one ad in the paper, which was sufficient to find the right buyer. PTL! As we were planning to move, but awaiting the final closing, our home in Maipu was burglarized. Among the things that were stolen were assorted jewelry, some luggage, clothing (some of it brand-new, never worn), our 35 mm camera (we miss that), and our video equipment (portable VCR with Video Camera and all its accessories). We were just preparing to make a Video Tape of the work we are doing, to send back to churches in the U.S. Items stolen amounted to over $2,000 in worth. Detectives have been working on the
case, but so far haven't found the thieves or the

During the month of July, we will have an intern

with us. Melissa Smith will be a senior at Cin

Anyone want to come take my place?

We moved in March, from Maipu where we

stolen items. I had insurance on things in my office, but not on things in the house, so we could not recover any of our loss. In our current house we have a burglar alarm, and next month when my insurance policy expires, the policy will be
extended to cover home and office.

cinnati Bible College. She is a PK, daughter of Mr. & Mrs. Kenton Smith of Knightstown,
Indiana. She is also the niece of Rose's sister,

lived for ten years, to La Reina, which is much

closer to our kids' school. The Lord really blessed

us by allowing us to sell the house where we lived

for five years (which belonged almost entirely to
a bank in Missouri and a bank here in Santiago).

Jennie Smith. We are looking forward to her

coming. She has gone through a pre-field orientation program under the auspices of TEAM Expansion, and is at the Spanish Language In stitute in San Jose, Costa Rica (where we studied Spanish twelve years ago) right now. While
Melissa is with us she will be immersed in Chilean

Thanks for your interest in us and in our work. Please keep us in your prayers always, asking the Lord to open doors for His glory in this far land. God bless you all.

Before you move, please send the mailing label below, along witha copy of your new address to:
MISSION SERVICES ASSOCIATION. P.O. Box 2427, Knoxville. TN 37901-2427
<0 0)

Mission Services PO Box 2427

Non Profit Org. U.S. Postage

PAID Knoxviile. TN 37901-2427 Permit *374

culture, and will help in teaching the ladies, Bible school, etc. Being with us for just a month, her main contribution will no doubt be by presence. We are certain that she will have a positive impact
on people in Cerrillos, and at the same time will
learn from them more about what cross-cultural

Knoxviile, TN 37901-2427
ADDRESS CORRECTION REQUESTED

in o

across another young lady who definitely desires

to be used of God in mission work. This reality which we are seeing develop echos the words of the director and key-note speaker for COMIBAM '87, "In 1916, Latin America was declared a MIS SIONARY FIELD. In 1987, Latin America has become a MISSIONARY FORCE!" Amen, may it
so be!

work is all about. At the end of her stay in Chile,

we also plan a trip to visit churches in the South, and to help encourage them.

COMIBAM TRIP
In November of last year I attended COMIBAM
'87 in Sao Paulo, Brazil. COMIBAM stands for

Ibero-American

Missionary

Conference.

Its