MEMORABLE MONDAY
We were supposed to have visitors from Argentina and the US on Monday and Tuesday but because of COVID travel complications, they were unable to come at the last minute. We decided to make the planned visits anyway since so many people had rearranged their schedules for the occasion.
On Monday we drove an hour and a half west to Valparaiso to visit the homeless shelter run by the Salvation Army. We were able to introduce the stake president to the director so collaboration could begin for a community service project at the Hogar. We were also thrilled to tell them in person that the project has been approved.
We had time for a drive along the coast and a stop for lunch at one of our favorite Peruvian restaurants in Vina del Mar before our next appointment.
Does this bring back memories? Still a thing in Chile, gas station attendants all dressed in company uniforms. WE LOVE IT!!!
We had another memorable visit with our friends at Acción Social witnessing their community workshops in action. Our dear Catholic friends gave us the first mug produced from one of the donated items. The fact that it is upside down makes it all the more precious to us!
TOUCHING TUESDAY
On Tuesday morning we made the hour drive south to Pirque. This was one of our first projects that was put into motion while we were still in Utah, so this culminating ceremony has been long anticipated. We enjoyed traditional Chilean music and good company. The church leaders and community members we get to know through the humanitarian project process become dear friends.
The very name of the community “Agrupación Ollas Communas” or Common Pots describes the unity that exists in this neighborhood. The Pirque Neighborhood Council came together to construct a building that is owned and maintained by the community council. They use it to make lunches for residents experiencing economic instability, focusing their efforts on children and the elderly in this rural sector on the outskirts of Santiago. At the height of COVID-19, neighborhood volunteers, worked together to prepare and deliver lunches to 200 people every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Volunteers were bringing utensils from their own homes to prepare the meals. This humanitarian project provided these good people with a stove, refrigerator, and industrial size food preparation implements to help in their weekly meal preparation, providing the Pirque Neighborhood Council the tools they needed to sustain their mission to help the vulnerable in their community.
Now that the COVID-19 crisis is ebbing and more families in the neighborhood are economically stable, they are delivering meals to 12 elderly people, three times per week. They are also teaching cooking classes to community members. Currently, 20 people are learning to prepare traditional Chilean foods.
This donation has also provided the community with a sense of preparation. Whatever instability may come in the future, they are ready to unite as a community to serve the vulnerable and provide meals for community members in need.
WONDEROUS WEDNESDAY
On Tuesday evening we flew to Concepcion. Wednesday morning, we had a ceremony at the hospital there. Hospital Dr. Guilermo Grant Clinico Regional de Concepcion is the reference center for all of southern Chile. Physicians perform an average of 600 cardiac surgeries each year. The donation of a portable blood test analyzer will allow immediate transmission of diagnostic test results from ICU patients and patients on the floor, reducing the need to transfer patients within the hospital. It will also expedite the treatment of patients decreasing their length of stay. The church communications director in Concepcion, Alondra Friz, has become a good friend and is the person Hermana Lamb practices Spanish with on Thursday evening phone calls. Our local church leaders are organizing and will be hosting a heart health lecture to which community members will be invited. Members of our local congregation will also be painting offices at the hospital.
After the ceremony, we drove to Chiguayante where we experienced a tender mercy. Let us explain. When we began our missionary service, we inherited over a dozen old projects that needed to be closed out. Some dated as far back as 2016. This requires some intense detective work since contact numbers and people are often no longer the same. We have been trying for months to get the paperwork signed for a 2020 donation of items for neighborhood food baskets. We decided while we were in the vicinity to just drive to the only address we had. We assumed that our GPS would guide us to one of the Evangelical churches that made up the council of churches we joined with in this donation. But when we heard the familiar words, “You have arrived” we were actually on a narrow residential street. The address we were looking for was a small home behind a locked gate. We saw a man walking down the street, so we rolled down our car window and told him who we were looking for. And guess what – he was the man! This was his first venture out of his home since surgery a few weeks ago. He literally was standing in front of his home at the very moment we drove by. He invited us into his house. The necessary papers were signed on his dining room table, and we drove away with grateful and amazed hearts!
We had time for another beach drive before our next appointment. We found Desembocadura beach where the Bio Bio river meets the Pacific Ocean.
An hour’s drive south found us at Hospital Coronel for another ceremony. Hospital San Jose de Coronel is the only hospital in a town of 126,000 inhabitants. They also serve surrounding communities. Coronel was historically a mining center, with a high level of unemployment and its inhabitants are of limited economic resources. The pediatric department cares for a population of 26,000 children under the age of 15. They currently have the capacity for 27 children with combined incubators, cribs, and beds. The most frequent hospitalizations are due to respiratory infections. The requested equipment: an oximetry monitor, otoscopes, ophthalmoscopes, secretion pumps, and scales will greatly improve treatment for pediatric patients. Because they now have monitors, children do not have to be transferred to Concepcion for observation and treatment.
The youth in our local church congregation drew and framed pictures for the pediatric unit.
FOREVER COMPANIONS/ MATRIMONIO LAMB
What a wonderous day and wonderful way to spend our 43rd wedding anniversary! We are missionary companions now, and forever companions for eternity. We are grateful for temple covenants that seal us together forever. In Chile, married couples are called ‘Matrimonio.’ We love being introduced as Matrimonio Lamb. We ate a delicious anniversary dinner at our favorite restaurant behind the Holiday Inn Express.
THANKFUL THURSDAY
On Thursday morning at 7:30 a.m. our faithful friend and field manager, Raul Seguel, picked us up at our hotel to be our chauffeur for the day. We were traveling in territory that has been recently plagued by civil unrest so we were instructed by church security that we must have a Chilean driver, dress in casual clothes, and travel only on certain main highways during daylight hours if we are in these areas. We have had zoom calls with the community leaders requesting help but realized that we needed to visit in person to properly assess their needs. We are thankful to Raul for his willingness to help us and to Heavenly Father for safety in our travels.
It was a three-hour drive to our first stop in Purén to discuss the possibility of donating a container and medical equipment to extend this rural health posts space. This clinic serves 1,200 people in three Mapuche communities.
Then another hour drive to Hospital Victoria where they are asking for new hospital beds and mattresses.
Raul knew the perfect place in Victoria to stop for a traditional Chilean lunch.
Then another hour to Temuco where we had dinner with Ishmeal Riquilme and his wife. He is a molecular biology professor/researcher who is working with us on a big cancer project.
FULFILLING FRIDAY
On Friday morning we had help from Raul and the stake president to get the document signed for an old 2019 project at the Hospital in Temuco. This is a regional hospital called Hospital Dr. Hernán Henriquez Aravena. Though it has a long history, it was devastated in the 2010 earthquake and lost more than 80% of its treatment capability. The recovery of lost infrastructure and technical capability continues. One area of need lies within the Neonatal Critical Patient Unit (CPU), where old or outdated equipment functions poorly or not at all. The unit has the capacity to treat 48 infants and has an occupancy index approaching 100%. This donation provided phototherapy equipment, a sonometer, acrylic hospital bassinets, and suitable digital newborn scales. Local women in our church congregation made little sheets and blankets for the bassinets, and aprons for the nursing mothers.
From Temuco, we flew back to Santiago. When we arrived home Friday afternoon, the Lindquist’s had dinner ready for us. We appreciate their thoughtfulness. Several times, after we have been traveling all week and have not had the chance to go grocery shopping, they have insisted we go straight from the airport to their apartment for a meal. Their friendship is a blessing in our lives.
SLEEP-IN SATURDAY
Elder Lindquists birthday is next Tuesday but we began the celebration early. He wanted beef bourguignon at Castillo Forestal. We are becoming regulars at this restaurant!
REFLECTIONS
(Debbie speaking) As we reflect on this past week, we can clearly see the Lord’s hand in this work. We had direct answers to specific prayers – we are calling them our Monday-Wednesday-Friday miracles. On Monday at the Hogar a lady from Salvation Army was there that we had not met before. She spoke some English, so I talked to her as we sat at the table full of cookies that they generously provided for our morning nourishment. She oversees all the Salvation Army schools in the country from Arica to Puerto Montt. There are 7,000 students in these schools- which corresponds with the number of school kits planned for next year. We have been praying for a single organization to donate school kits to in 2023 so we do not have the nightmare we had this year of donating to dozens of individual schools. Voilá! I sat next to our answer and she spoke enough English and I enough Spanish for us to communicate. On Friday Heavenly Father used Raul and the Stake President to make the connections we needed to have the documents signed. On Wednesday He placed Luis on the road in front of his home at the exact time we drove by. It was breathtaking.
Abrazos, Élder y Hermana Lamb, (aka Ed & Debbie, Mom & Dad, Pop Pop & Tu Tu)
Lambs in Central Europe 