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| Technical Difficulties We must say that technology has been a huge blessing for us during our time here in Chile…and we never really knew how great it was until we lost it. On April 29th, our computer broke down and we thought it was a goner. We took it to the service store, only to find out that the motherboard had crashed, costing over $400 to fix. After the bad news came the good…and at perfect timing. It turned out that it was covered under warranty by 5 days! We just picked it up 2 weeks ago, with no cost to repair. Wow…it’s been confirmed…God is in Chile!! …Fall Retreat… During the first weekend of May , we held the very first (and long-awaited) Fall Retreat in Chile. Clint was in charge of overlooking everything for the retreat…and what an amazing job he did! It was held at Isla Negra (Black Island), on the coast of Chile and the theme of the week was ‘Leadership That Changes Lives’. We wanted the theme to be one that Christians as well as non-Christians would be interested in…and the outcome was great. We had about 45 students come…a 50/50 mix of believers and non-believers. With all the details and planning, the whole event was quite stressful for Clint and those that helped, but the results were well worth the work! The students had a wonderful time…friendships were formed, relationships were deepened, and the Word of God was delivered to all who was there. What better example of leadership do we have than Jesus Christ? Summ er Project
On May 22nd, we had a great big package arrive from the States—13 Summer Project students! They are literally from all over the country and they are here for 5 weeks to experience the ministry here in Santiago. We held a welcome barbecue for them on the roof of our apartment. We also invited some Chilean students, so we had about 45 people there, lots of meat, and some Chilean dancing. They are a really great team and it seems that God has already begun to unify them and teach them more about Himself. What a blessing it is for them to be here. With their help, we are now currently reaching 5 different universities in Santiago!
Winding Down With June already here, that means that we have less than 5 weeks until we return to the States. It’s a strange feeling to be so close to coming home, but also so close to the students here, the staff, and this place we’ve called home for so many months. We say it a lot, but we can’t say it enough: Thank you all so much for your prayers and support. You all have been such a huge part of our journey here and in furthering God’s kingdom. We are so thankful for you all. PRAYER REQUESTS… That we would be bold with the students…that we will have the boldness to share Christ with each of our Chilean friends before we leave. That the ministry here will continue strong That God will provide financial supporters for the Chilean staff members
Diego de Velasquez 2071 Dpto. 1511 l Providencia, Santiago, Chile (314)-256-9243 l clint.coyan@uscm.org l maggie.coyan@uscm.org
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New Semester…New Surprises With the start of a new semester here in Chile we really want to do reach out to the freshman students. They undergo an initiation process by the upper-classmen that is like nothing we’ve ever seen before. The older students take rotten fruit, vegetables, fish heads, and pig guts, dump them into a plastic pool, then make the freshmen jump in it. After this, they write on their bodies, tear their clothes, take their shoes and make them beg for money on the streets all day to get their shoes back. Needless to say, we took a different route in making an impression on the students. We advertised and promoted a campus-wide orientation for all students—geared especially toward first-year students. The day came to have our event, when riots filled the streets of the campus, forcing the administration to close down the university, which also meant canceling our event that we had been promoting for weeks. This was very frustrating, but we were able to re-schedule the orientation for the following week. Little time was left to re-promote, but the Lord really proved faithful and many students showed up. During the orientation, we explained more about who we (Vida Estudiantil) are and what we have to offer the students. One of our Chilean staff members gave a talk on how to make good grades while having a great, lasting experience throughout college. During this whole process we were able to collect over 350 contacts, of which over 150 indicated they wanted to meet in small groups to discuss the Bible. Through these contacts, we also met 5 Christian students who have begun getting involved in our leadership group. Once again, God has blown us away and this week we are beginning our small groups to discuss the Bible with both Christian and non-Christian students. Please be praying for these groups, that students’ eyes and hearts would be drawn to Jesus as we study the Word with them. Juvenile Delinquent Facility This past week, we, along with other students and staff, visited a juvenile delinquent facility for minors in Chile. We went and spent time getting to know the kids, shared the gospel with them, and, of course, played soccer with them. It was an all boys’ facility and each one of them had their own reason for being there, whether it was stealing, breaking into stores/houses, buying/selling drugs, assaulting, or even killing someone. As we spent time getting to know them, we found that many were happy and even proud of doing what they had done. Most of them said that they planned to continue to make the same poor decisions once they were released from the facility. While on drugs, many of the boys had made deep cuts all along their arms and stomachs with knives. We could really sense that what these kids really need is love and positive influences, but most importantly, they need a Savior. Despite the majority who were boasting about the way they lived their lives, there were a few who actually felt convicted to change, feeling a need for God in their lives. We plan on continuing to visit these kids and do our best to invest in them as much as we can during our time here. The reality is that these kids need a lot more than we can offer and the only solution is for Jesus to do a major overhaul in their lives. Please be praying for these kids and our future visits with them.
Diego de Velasquez 2071 Dpto. 1511 l Providencia, Santiago, Chile (314)-256-9243 l clint.coyan@uscm.org l maggie.coyan@uscm.org www.xanga.com/coyans_in_chile |
Thank you all so much for your prayers and support. You are playing a great part in furthering God’s kingdom and we are so thankful for you all. Please let us know, by email or phone, how we can be praying for you. Thanks again and God bless! Prayer Requests: · New small groups · Kids at the juvinile facility · That we would finish our time here well · Our upcoming fall retreat for students in May | | |
| These first 2 months of 2007 have been quite busy....to say the least! During the 1st week of January, our 2 new team members a rrived in Chile! Marion from Germany and Dave from Kansas. We are so excited to have them on our team and looking forward to getting to know them. During the 2nd week of January, all of us staff and STINTers of Chile took a seminary class on Christian Worldview. We learned all about different worldviews from Eastern views, Modern, Post-modern, New Age, to Western views. It was great to be able to disect these different perspectives in order to find the similarities and differences between the Christian worldview and all these others.
During the 3rd week of January, we left for a conference in Argentina. It was great to see the staff and STINTers from La Plata and Buenos Aires, Argentina and just to share our stories of what God has been doing through the ministry. 
On January 27th, we left straight from the conference in Argentina to southern Chile, where we worked with the native people called the Mapuche Indians up in the mountains. We went out every day inviting the Mapuche families to see the Jesus Film--a movie about the life and ministry of Jesus (based on the book of Luke). We brought generators and a huge screen to project the film so that large groups of people could see. Our whole team from Chile broke up into 3 groups and we all were assigned different areas. Me and Clint's group moved every 2 days to a new location. Our  group was without showers, electricity, or transportation. It was qui te an experience not having any toilets, bathing in the river, and walking everywhere. It was common to walk for 3 hours and only find 4 or 5 families. At one point, we were in such a remote location that we had to buy a goat for food because the nearest store was too far for us to walk. God really amazed us with the number of people He brought to see the Jesus Film. It was so great for me to be able to work with the kids that came. We brought them clothes, crafts to make, tootbrushes, and toothpaste. We taught them songs and lessons about Jesus and thow to use their new toothbrushes. It was really an amazing experience. 
We returned on February 2nd...just in time for our parents' visit on the 3rd. Clint's parents, his grandmother, and my mom all came to visit for a week. We had such a great tim e and it was such a blessing to see some familiar faces from home. It was so sad to see them go and say goodbye again, but we know that God still has a ton of work for us here. We packed our bags again and left on February 13th to Algarrobo for our STINT midyear conference. Terry and Nancy McKinney (staff members from the states) came and led our time for the week. It was great to evaluate and reflect on our last semester and also plan and prepare for the next. Terry and Nancy were huge encouragements for us and we were so blessed by their wisdom and biblical insight. We just returned last night and we are doing laundry and packing once again to leave tomorrow morning for out National Staff Conference, where all Chilean staff and STINTers will come together and discuss our visions for the upcoming semester, along with short-term and long-term goals for the ministry. Needless to say, we haven't had many chances to update the blog these last couple months, but we really will try to update more regularly. Thank you for your patience! | | |
| We hope you all had a great Christmas and a happy New Year! Maggie and I spent Christmas with our team at our director’s house in Santiago. It was a lot of fun, but once again we really missed being with our families and friends back home. It was a rather strange Christmas day because we had a poolside barbeque. We sang Christmas Carols and ate an amazing feast prepared by our wonderful directors here. For New Years we went to the beach with the other two couples on our team and stayed at a free cabin for missionaries and it was so beautiful and relaxing. We saw fireworks over the ocean and spent a lot of time playing games and enjoying a little vacation time. It felt a lot like our 4th of July back home with the fireworks hot weather, but we were still able to convince ourselves that we were actually celebrating the new year. As 2007 is now upon us, people normally make resolutions for the new year and set goals for themselves, hoping to see change in their lives. We often focus on losing weight, eating healthier, saving more money and things like these, but how much more should we focus on spiritual goals for ourselves that will bring about change in our relationship with the Lord? Eating healthy is a great thing and a good goal to shoot for, but in the grand scheme of our lives, Christ should be the priority and the area we focus on sharpening more than any other. For some of us, it may simply be taking 15 minutes a day to spend with God praying and reading his word. For others it may be starting a Bible study with co-workers. Whatever the resolution, it will hopefully cause you to develop the ability to share your faith on a consistent basis. We pray that the spiritual goals we set for ourselves will not only bring about change this year, but that they will have eternal implications on us as well as those around us. Happy New Year and may we all treasure Christ more in 2007 than ever before! Glenda is a freshman who has proven to be our most faithful student leader, with an amazing heart to reach her university and country for Christ. Just a few weeks ago, Glenda was returning from a 6-hour trip to the south of Chile. She was reading a book called When God Does Things We Don’t Understand before she arrived at her metro stop, where she then walks about a mile to her house. It was getting dark and she saw a man out of the corner of her eye standing on a street corner not far away from her. She noticed that the man seemed incredibly sad. She felt convicted to talk to him about the Lord and His love for the man, but didn't feel safe approaching him alone at that time of night. She prayed, promising God “If this man approaches me, I will tell him about you." A couple minutes later, the man came up to her with a knife at her throat. He took her purse and ran off. As he was running away, Glenda realized that she hadn't kept her promise to God. She ran after him and yelled, "Hey! Do you have problems? If you’re having problems I want to talk to you." (This sounds completely crazy, but it’s entirely true). The man stopped, turned around, and began telling her that, in fact, he did have problems. She asked him, “Why did you rob me?” He told her that he didn’t want to rob her, but he desperately needed money to buy diapers for his baby. Glenda explained the gospel to him, expressing God’s love for him and how God has a purpose greater than that for him. After they talked a bit, she asked him for her purse back, which had her wallet, cell phone, and camera inside. He gave it to her, keeping only her cell phone (after removing the memory card and giving it to her). She told him about the book she happened to be reading and left it with him (a strangely peculiar title, given the situation). It wasn’t until she was almost back home when she really felt scared and shaken up by the whole experience. God clearly spoke to Glenda that day and she responded with a promise that she wasn’t about to break. Glenda is an amazing example of someone who truly walks by faith, sensitive to the Holy Spirit. She truly has a heart that I yearn for…one that desires for all people to come to know Christ. | | |
| Hey Everyone! Sorry it has been so long since we have updated our blog, we got pretty busy taking a seminary class and other things and this got pushed to the back burner. I just wanted to ask for all of you to be praying for Maggie and I and our team. We leave tomorrow for Argentina to go to a short conference with students from Argentina and Chile. Then we will be breaking into 3 teams to go and show the JESUS FILM to the native people of Chile called the Mapuche. This trip will be quite an experience, we will be sleeping in tents for two weeks, taking showers in rivers and lakes, and hiking off the beaten path from village to village showing the Jesus Film every night in a different village. Please be praying for the conference, our safety, our health, and the message of Jesus that we are taking to these native people. This will be the first time for many of them to ever hear the gospel and we are so excited to have this opportunity. Thank you all for your support and prayers for us and our ministry here. We appreciate it all more than you can imagine. When we get back, we will be sure to update this and let you all know how things went. We return to Santiago on Feb. 3rd. | | |
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