I’ve witnessed many people from my church, Parkway Baptist, go and serve the lord overseas. I never thought that, one day I would be the one to go on an international mission trip. Sure, I’ve been to M-Fuge, a week-long camp designed to give young adults a real-life experience in a brand-new mission field inside the country (Louisville, Philadelphia, Charleston, etc). I’ve always done LiveLove, a weekend long event at my church in the springtime. It is very similar to M-Fuge but instead it is centered more towards our local community near the church.
Traveling 5,000 miles to a country where I can’t speak very fluent at all? No way Jose! However, I will always remember my youth pastor, Mike Camire, and his short but inspiring words for all of the Studentz to hear: “I challenge all of you in this room to go on an international mission trip before you graduate high school.” Of course, he knew that not everyone would have the ability or be called to travel. Despite those words ringing in my ear, I never thought I would be the one to see it through.
It all turned around one fall day. I remember one evening at the church where members could “Taste and See” various foods from different places around the globe that our church had traveled or would travel to in the near future for mission trips sponsored by the International Missions Board. One of the tables was based around the culture in Santiago, Chile. Personally, I knew virtually nothing about Chile as a country besides the fact it was located in South America and near the Andes Mountain chain.
In addition, I was aware that Chile had a pretty good soccer team, winning Copa America in 2015 and 2016. There was even some talks about watching the World Cup in some public places and trying to make conversation with people during watch parties. Hearing this definitely intrigued me. But it’s funny how life works out sometimes though. Both Chile and the United States were eliminated from World Cup contention. So God took that aspect away and said, “Do you still want to go?”
I had briefly talked about my interest in going with my relatives but nothing too in-depth. I asked for maybe a small contribution so I could ultimately decide at a later point if I wanted to go or not. If I had decided not to go, it would’ve went towards paying off my college tuition so either way, it would be used for a worthy cause. However, when my aunt and uncle gifted me the exact price of my trip for a Christmas gift, I knew it was God telling me to go and do his work.
In the second mandatory meeting for the Chile Mission Project, Jeremiah Hutton, one of the team members was sharing his story to the rest of the group. Like me, he was thinking about the World Cup but how he was only thinking about himself in that case and not the real reason of getting excited to share the gospel with others. At the moment, I didn’t feel alone. I could relate to others in the group that may have had similar thoughts as me.
In the end, this trip was bigger than a World Cup. This is literally a life or death situation. If I hadn’t chosen to follow God’s command to Santiago, maybe someone wouldn’t be spending their life in heaven at their life’s end. I may never know. Sometimes an individual is called to just “plant the seed” and hopefully my seeds blossom into a beautiful apple tree.
Next up on the docket is my journey while in Chile! Located up ahead is my day-to-day commentary with the Parkway Baptist Chile Project from June 24th, 2018 to July 3rd, 2018 as I attempt to relapse my experience the best way I can. Enjoy “The Santiago Squad!”
The Santiago Squad
Day 1: June 24th, 2018
It was time for the big show. Primetime. Whatever other label you’d like to put on it. I woke up, loaded up my belongings and headed over to Parkway to be commissioned off. I heard this was one of the first times that a Parkway Mission Team had left in the middle of one of the church services so I thought that was pretty awesome. As we stood in the aisles, many other brothers and sisters in Christ laid a hand on us as we prayed for safe travels and a successful week in Santiago.
After that, we got on the bus and headed towards Baltimore for our first flight. The ride went smoothly as we played card games and got some needed sleep as it would be a long day ahead of us. We had a lot of free time so we were able to get a bite to eat. Some people made good choices during this free time like buying a Quiznos Sub (me). Others did not make wise decisions like Jeremiah ‘stalking’ a girl or Josh eating seafood before a flight...more on that later.
The flight from Baltimore to Atlanta went smoothly. Our flight to Santiago was slated for takeoff at 10:30pm so we had some time to eat at the food court for dinner and camp out before leaving the country.
The flight itself wasn’t the greatest experience I had. I found that between the tight quarters and turbulence on the plane that I wouldn’t get much sleep. When I did fall asleep, I soon awakened to the sights, sounds, and smells of “chunks”...food chunks. I refuse to write about the details but essentially one of our team members puked all over the seat. This moment was later dubbed “Cheeks Blows Chunks,” a nickname derived from J-Cheeks at an M-Fuge camp. We will end this here.
Day 2: June 25th, 2018
I don’t remember getting more than an hour or two of sleep during the plane ride to Santiago. It didn’t really faze me. “You’re still young,” my mom would say. We traversed our way through multiple layers of security at the Comodoro Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport before making it to the the brisk winter in Chile.
While everyone is soaking up rays back in the States, here we are, wearing coats and knit caps and in a foreign country. When I stepped outside, I had temporarily forgotten it was winter so when I took my first breath of South American outdoor air, I kinda surprised myself. “Ahhh...good ol’ winter,” I said. I’m one of the few people I know that prefers the winter to summer.
The group waited in the front of the airport until we met up with Kellie Frealy for the first time. We loaded up the buses and headed towards our apartment in Downtown Santiago. On the highway, we were able to catch a glimpse of the Gran Torre Santiago (Great Santiago Tower). It is known as the tallest structure in South America which I thought was pretty impressive.
The bus maneuvered through the downtown area until we reached our apartments. We had about a half hour before we headed into the city for our first interaction with the locals. We walked about a mile or so to a local grocery store called Ekono. It is basically like Chile’s subdivision version of Walmart. The entire group stood around as natives just stared at us like, “What are these Gringos doing?” Speaking of “gringos,” we were called that term every five minutes it seemed like. In the bus, in the schools, on the street...Gringo, gringo, gringo is all you would hear. Sometimes it can be used as a derogatory term depending on the context but most of the time, it is a playful term.
Later in the day, we also got to experience riding the Metro in Santiago for the first time. I had rode a Metro hundreds of times, predominantly in Washington D.C. for baseball games or walks around the city. However, as is anything in a foreign country, it is slightly different. “Find your ‘Beep Buddy’,” said Pastor Mike. Everyone had to share a Bip! Card with another team member. These cards could be used on the bus or metro and we definitely squeezed out every penny of them.
The last thing we did for the day was travel to the missionary team’s house that we were working with, the Frealy’s. We traveled there via Metro, which was a common occurrence during the week. Following our arrival, we went over the week’s preliminary schedule. We had dinner of spaghetti and bread before we were broken up into three separate groups. I was kinda off guard because I was unaware that the entire group was not going to be together for the entire week. In hindsight, it made perfect sense. We needed to disperse out and be able to reach as many individuals as possible.
I was placed into the school/children group with Parker Costley, Emma Elder, Kristy Basic, Donnie Taylor, Kaci Parrish, and our translators Cliff and Jethro. Cliff was an older gentleman from Uruguay and Jethro was a day older than me and had basically mastered English in two and a half years. A certain someone...Emma...was starstruck with Jethro but I’ll leave it at that. The stage was set for an awesome week.
Day 3: June 26th, 2018
Our first full day during this mission project was one for the memory books. Our translator, Cliff, took us from our apartments and drove through the hustle and bustle of the city. Personally, I was surprised how people weren’t in accidents every ten seconds. American traffic can be brutal at times but this seemed like another level for some reason. Cliff’s response: “Try driving in Peru.”
My group traveled to Iglesia Bautista Recoleta in Recoleta, Chile, our HQ for the week. Our mission field would lie at Escuela Basica Santo Domingo, a school around a quarter mile down the road from the church. Pastor Daniel, Cliff, and our group introduced ourselves to some of the front office in the school and we were given a few options throughout the school including an English class, music class, art class, and a physical education class. I spent most of my time with the children in PE. The first day was pretty interesting to say the least. See, even though I took five years of classroom Spanish, I quickly found out that “Buenos Dias” and “Hola” wasn’t going to be enough.
I learned a lot while being at the school on the initial day. First off, many Chileans don’t know any English at all. It should come as little surprise as many Americans are the same way in respects to other languages. I probably knew more Spanish than the PE teacher knew English which is...sad to say the least. And sad is an understatement.
Secondly, it is crazy how the children look up to us as heroes just because we are from the United States. The most common questions I got besides what my name is was “Do you play Fortnite?” All the questions in the world and they care about a popular video game and its viral dances....wild!
The last thing I learned is that you can get away with not saying much and instead, paying attention to body language and key terms. I knew a decent amount of Spanish but Chilean dialect is different from textbook Spanish which makes communication that much harder. I was able to pick up on some contextual things just by being observant and absorbing as much as I could. Sometimes it felt hopeless but other times, I felt I was getting a good grasp on the language.
After we left the school, we concluded the day with “Once” at the church which is basically Chile’s version of tea and crumpets. The hosts would serve tea or coffee with a light snack like some type of bread or sweets. We had various light meals every day in replacement of dinner while in Chile. If you didn’t eat a hardy lunch, you would be in for a long day.
At our church, they provided Coca-Cola, banana bread, and pork sandwiches on the first day. We were assuming the Cola was there to appeal to the “Gringos” in the room. After meeting some of the church staff and young adults, we drove back to our apartment complex to wrap up our first complete day.
Day 4: June 27th, 2018
Right before we headed out to our sights for the second full day, Parker told me about an amazing app called Speak and Translate (self-explanatory). I really wanted to talk with the children and adults at the school and this app proved to be invaluable to my experience during the next two school days.
The PE teacher tried talking to me some in Spanish but I was able to tell him that he could speak directly into my phone. I felt so much better that I could get my point across and communicate more fluidly. The day was more of the same activities but I had a better time interacting with the children overall. We left the school a little earlier than expected just because of the lack of action and buzz for the day.
In Chile, they call Table Tennis, “Pig Pog.” Pretty much like Ping Pong but a little bit different. In addition to playing with the children at the school, we met Daniel, a young boy no older than eight or nine. He was so much better than either of us at Table Tennis that it wasn’t even funny. I’m talking about Olympic speed talent. By the time I served to him, the ball was already spiked to the other side for an easy point. Despite being humbled, Parker and I had a great opportunity to play soccer and Pig Pog with him and establish a cool relationship with him throughout the week.
Again, we had Once with an amazing meal, a sweet bread with caramel dipping. Following the meal, we had a short meeting with Iglesia Recoleta Bautista. The six of us in the Parkway group had an opportunity to share our stories and why we chose to travel all the way to Chile for this trip. I thought that was a great way to introduce the meeting before some words by Donnie Taylor to cap off the evening.
Day 5: June 28th, 2018
For Day 5, we set our sights on a popular tourist attraction, San Cristobal Hill. This was slated to be the team’s “rest day.” Instead, it actually turned out to be pretty tiring I would have to admit.
We took the Metro as usual and then walked about a mile to San Cristobal Hill. Subsequently, the group rode a cable car to the main area where you could walk around and see everything below. At the top was some of the greatest scenery that you will ever witness in person. Not to mention the perfect photo-op for most participants. Unfortunately, it was a dreary day but being able to see a glimpse of the snow-capped mountain peaks on the other side of the city was amazing!
The most unique and astonishing thing was our prayer session at the top of the hill. We were able to pray for the city of Santiago, the 5.2 million people that currently reside there, the pastors in the local area, and for God to bless the rest of our time in South America.
At the conclusion of our tourist day, we walked all the way back to the apartments where we had actual rest time before we chowed down on dinner. What was dinner you would ask? Little Caesars, another American meal. As much as I love pizza, having being my favorite food, I work at a pizza place so I was hoping to get some Taco Bell instead (inside joke).
After that, my group headed with Pastor Mike to his group’s church via the metro and bus. It was a good 45 minutes away so it made me appreciate our 15 minute car rides with Cliff and Jethro. My group met the pastoral staff there, had Once, and went on a prayer walk through the surrounding neighborhood. While prayer walking, we were able to talk to a group of teenagers, a woman with a dog, and a drunk guy on a bike. Wait, what?
We encountered this one older gentleman in an open alley near the church. We walked up to him and we knew he was a little off. We gave him a gospel track and tried to create some conversation the best way we could. He asked each of us our names. It took two or three times before he could wrap his mind around it. When he went to Parker, he was very confused. “Parque?,” the man said. “No, mi nombre es Parker,” Parker responded. It was a lost cause trying to explain. Ultimately, by the end of the conversation, he was convinced that Daniela was a German, Pastor Mike was a Chilean, I was a Haitian, and Parker was a park. Yeah….
We also met another Chilean couple that actually originated from Haiti and could speak French and Spanish. I know, right. Sometimes, we can’t even speak English the right way. Overall, that encounter will definitely go down in the memory banks.
Day 6: June 29th, 2018
*Personally, I didn’t take many notes about this day but I still have a decent picture about some of the main highlight points.*
Friday was the last day at school not only for our group but also for the children as well. They were slated to be released early for their version of a “Winter Break.” During the day, I spent time in the library helping a teacher with stapling some tests for various classes and also spent time in an English class teaching them the correct pronunciation of the ABC’s English style.
Towards the end of the school day, they had a cool activity for some of the younger kids. The adults filled a huge metal pot with boiling water and placed it in the center of the outdoor gym. Surrounding the big metal pot was some white buckets filled with various colors of hot paint. They gave each of the children a t-shirt in which, assisted by an adult, could create a DIY tye-dye shirt. I had never seen tye-dye done that extensively but I thought it was pretty awesome.
Following this activity, we said our goodbyes to some of the children we made a connection with during the week and handed out invitations to the Recoleta Kids program at our host church. A young boy also gave me his Fortnite username on PlayStation and told me to play him one day. I kinda felt sad since I haven’t played the game and probably never will :( .
After we left the school, our group decided we should try a local restaurant in downtown Santiago. We ate dinner at this place called Mamut in Nueva Providencia. I laid my eyes on a delicious double cheeseburger with egg. Apparently, Chileans put fried eggs on all of their burgers. Yum! There was no events at our church that night so we had an extra hour or two to rest and relax our minds before a crucial day at the mall on Saturday.
Apparently, when the other groups got home, they claimed that there was a possible suicide in the Metro Station. Personally, I can’t speak too much about this since I wasn’t there. That being said, the group claimed to have seen a large group of people huddled in near the Metro cars and based off of some surrounding comments, came to an unfortunate conclusion. The locals said that suicides happen “all the time” there. That was definitely a moment where we decided to pray about the city before turning in for the night.
Day 7: June 30th, 2018
My philosophy with the mall was this: “If I can do it here, I can do it anywhere.”
Day 7 was the day where we would reach hundreds of people in a matter of minutes. We had two phases. The first phase was pre-organized. We reserved a stage and got approval in order to perform outside of the mall. The music group set up for their performance on this small stage outside of Mall Plaza Vespucio. The job for the rest of us was to go around the outside of the mall and try and create conversation with some of the Chileans.
I’ll admit that I was really out of my comfort zone for portions of this day. However, in a weird sort of a way, it was easier in Chile than in America. I would say this because I had no idea if they were insulting me or actually cared about what I had to say haha. Of course, some people refused the gospel tracks we offered, threw them into bushes, or trashed them in the nearby garbage bins. On the other hand, I did see a few of the people at least open them up and read some of the message inside.
To generate more interest, I had an idea to hand out some of the Upward basketballs that we had brought with us. It was amazing how that changed the perception of many of the people that we talked to. We probably handed out a dozen of those basketballs to little children and teenagers that passed us by. Each time we offered a “regalo” (gift) to the families, they were all stunned. Something along the lines of “Why us?” or “This is free?” This gave us a brief opportunity to share why we traveled over 5,000 miles to Santiago: to go and share what the Lord is calling his followers to do.
The spotlight moment of the day was being able to share the Gospel Story cloth with a group of teenagers. The group seemed really into what we had to say. If I’m not mistaken, I believe one or two of the boys wanted to give their life to Jesus which is a sight to see no doubt. In addition, we had many people who stopped by the music stage and were attempting to see what we were talking about, breeding in more conversational opportunities. Again, another example of “planting the seed” (Mark 4:1-33). We may never know if some of those people will read the Gospel tracks and truly accept Jesus into their hearts but the fact that they were able to hear the truth at least once is an ultimate blessing.
No matter the language we spoke, we were all here for one cause. To honor and glorify our Lord and savior, Jesus Christ! That was truly amazing to think about. Later when I returned back home, I even had one young teen direct message me on Instagram and telling me how he really enjoyed the gift we gave him. It’s the little things that can make a huge and sometimes eternal impact.
The second part of our day was back at Iglesia Bautista Recoleta for their Recoleta Kids event. I would compare this event to a mini-Vacation Bible School. The kids had an introduction where they would have to get up and talk to five people in the room. Next, we got up and danced with the children and trying to make them laugh with the Dab and of course, the popular Fortnite dances. Then, the children sat down and watched a short film which was supposed to teach them a lesson. The video that we watched was about “Reglas,” (rules). The whole point was that not following the rules that are set in place can have detrimental consequences and have a negative impact on not only yourself, but the surrounding individuals as well.
Afterwards, we got to play mini games like participate in soccer scrimmages and tossing frisbees with the children for the second half of the event. At the conclusion, there was a lesson presented by Jethro and the Recoleta staff. They handed out multi-color wristbands to every child and parent in attendance. I’ve always thought that having something tangible, even as small as a wristband can go a long way in motivating a child in wanting to learn more about the Lord.
Day 8: July 1st, 2018
*Again, I didn’t take many notes about this day but I still have a rough picture about the gist of Sunday.*
Day 8 was Worship Day. For the most part, Chileans are pretty religious. They are predominantly Roman Catholic so we saw many people preparing for their church services in the streets. We spent time at two churches: our home church and then Pastor Mike’s church in the evening around Once time. We spent the entire morning with our church in Recoleta. At our church, we were able to worship in four different languages including English, Spanish, and some tribal languages that I had never heard of. Worshiping in multiple languages was something that I believe every Christian should get to experience over the course of their lifetime.
After the two services we attended at Recoleta, a local family at our church invited us to their house for lunch. There was an option of pollo (chicken), clams, and pescado (fish). I chose chicken as I’m not huge on seafood but I did enjoy the meal as well as the hospitality that our group received from the host family despite the language barrier. In the background, was another World Cup game on television between Croatia and Denmark with an epic penalty shootout that sent the room into a huge frenzy.
After our late lunch, we took a small break before grabbing our Bip! Cards and taking the Metro across town. Consequently, we had to walk about two or three miles to the second church. Their church was much more developed than ours was and had a number more in the congregation. I was in awe with the musicians. Their music was incredible and I loved hearing every second of it! Pastor Mike was on the docket to preach a short sermon which was great as always....except for saying “Buenos Dias,” at 8pm haha. We were prayed for by the church body for safe travels back to the United States and to continue our pursuit of the Lord.
The epic night concluded by eating at good ol’ McDonalds...of course. I felt bad for the cashier as our “Spanglish” was undoubtedly confusing to understand. On the bright side, the Bacon McDouble combo I ordered was the “moves” as Jeremiah would say. Others that had already eaten earlier had sided for a McFlurry dessert instead.
Day 9: July 2nd, 2018
The last day was simple: we would go buy souvenirs and then head to the airport. I was wondering why the streets were empty as the Metro had few people on board, and the traffic was light. I found out that Chile was celebrating a Catholic holiday which I researched. It is called St. Peter and St. Paul Day.
When we got to our destination, Parque de Los Dominicos, you could see the pretty blue sky and the Andes Mountains surrounding the city. Of course, we had to take more pictures. Following that, we entered into what I would describe as a local shopping village or bazaar. The official name was Centro Artesanal Pueblito Los Dominicos or “Little Town of Crafts.”
At this time, many of the local merchants were just opening up their shops when we arrived. Each individual sold a variety of different gifts including hand-crafted art, t-shirts, paintings, and jewelry. Many of them had a small television in their shop to catch some of the Brazil-Mexico World Cup game. Soccer is very important to South Americans in case you couldn’t tell by now.
We finished our shopping excursion by eating at a local cafe in the shopping village. I had a food dish called “Chorrillana” which consists of a plate of fries with sausage, cheese, beef, and egg mixed in. It is a typical Chilean dish and it is very tasty. After lunch, we took the Metro once more, said adios to our translators, and returned back to the apartments to finish clearing the apartments and prepare to load the charter buses back to the airport.
I was amazed how short the ride in the bus felt. A thirty minute bus ride felt like five minutes. When we first came into the city at the beginning of the trip, it felt much longer. The group said its goodbyes to Jason and Kellie Frealy and their children before making it through the airport and security. Then, we had over an hour to get some dinner in the food court and buy some last minute, overpriced airport gifts before boarding the plane for our flight to Atlanta.
During the night, the flight had much more turbulence than I thought. I figured that sleep would be hard to come by again and since I would have time to recover and get some rest at home, I decided to watch some movies instead. Kung Fu Panda, Independence Day, and Lilo & Stitch were the go-to movies for that flight.
When we landed in Atlanta and got off the flight, I had never been so happy to be in the USA. I enjoyed my time in Santiago but there is no doubt that America is head and shoulders above all other countries.
Day 10: July 3rd, 2018
Rise and shine. We were back in America! North America I should say! After another tedious journey through customs, we decided to go to Parkway’s favorite restaurant, Chick-Fil-A, for breakfast. Surprise, surprise!
I’m not going to bore you with the same “airport and bus” routine. The Atlanta to Baltimore flight went well and the bus ride back to RVA was a smooth transition as well. However, the best feeling was rolling up on Powhite Parkway and seeing the illustrious deciduous trees that Virginia is known for. Following that was the street. Hull Street. At last, we made our way into the Parkway parking lot to conclude an eventful and entertaining ten days away from home.
Conclusion
To wrap this up, there are many moments that I could discuss but I’ll close with a few short thoughts. First, when I left the United States and returned, I realized how fortunate and wealthy our country is. Even though Santiago is pretty well off on its own, there is no matching the infrastructure and technology of the US, something I’m pretty sure everyone takes for granted at some point while living here.
I also realized that if I was able to talk to people in which I could barely speak their language about Jesus Christ, I have absolutely no excuse not to share in my hometown. As Christians, we focus so much on the perceptions of what our friends and/or family will think. In a perfect world, those thoughts shouldn’t even cross our minds. The truth of the matter is that failing to share God’s word could mean that one less person will be spending eternity with Jesus in heaven. The alternative to heaven is a frightening thought.
I pray that in the future, that if it is God’s will, that I will go on another international trip. As I head to the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill this fall, I hope the momentum will carry over from this trip and help me to stay focused, be a light on campus, and continue to grow my relationship with the Lord.
To close, here are some of my favorite verses that coincide with God’s mission for all of his disciples to go out into the world and serve him!
Mark 16:15 “And he said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation.”
Matthew 28:19 “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit…”
Romans 10:13-14 For “Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.” How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher?”
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