Page 7 - News Spring-Summer 2025

went under a lot of underpasses. Santiago was a mix of a picture of the Last Supper by his bedside. He had several
skyscrapers and greenery with trees and patches of grass health conditions. We explained who we were, presented
everywhere, although it was heavily populated and built the Gospel message to him and gave him a magazine
up. Everywhere you looked you could see the Andes that contained the Psalms and John with a Commitment
mountains looming in the distance and you got an idea Prayer in the back. His eyesight wasn’t great, he could
of the temperature difference, in the city it was 27/28˚C only really read through a green magnifying glass that he
most days but clearly it was cold enough on top of the carried with him and even then, he struggled. He was due
mountains for the snow caps to remain. for an operation later that day and so he wanted prayer
for that, which we did. When he wanted to say a prayer
of salvation, David turned to me and said ‘aha, you can
do that!’ What followed was probably a bit of a poorly
worded prayer of salvation but hopefully I remembered
the key bits and he repeated it. David then conversed
with him for a bit and felt that we should pray over his
eyesight and so David laid on hands, me and Richard had
our hands raised and David prayed. When he’d finished,
Emilio picked up the magazine without the magnifying
glass and started to read portions of it back to us. He
was stunned and overjoyed, we were all overjoyed too,
and Emilio said that his eyesight was bit by bit becoming
clearer and clearer. A first for me not only to witness
someone accepting Jesus as their Lord and Saviour but
also being healed on the spot.

HE HEARD OUR PRAYERS,
AND HE WAS DRAWN IN

We spent a day visiting schools and presenting the Gospel
to children of a whole range of ages. At one school,
David, Canadian Amal and me were assigned a Grade 1
Occasionally, along the banks of the Mapocho river class. We waited outside their classroom door; their faces
that flows through Santiago, were temporary homeless beamed as they walked past us, and they all said ‘Hola!’
dwellings (pictured above). We didn’t get to approach I was really nervous but I felt easier when I realised that
any of these dwellings during our trip (hopefully on the children in the class were all a similar age to my son.
future trips the chance might crop up) but my heart did I figured, ‘I’ll just pretend I’m talking to him!’ We talked
go out to the people who had to live and survive this way. about how we can have Jesus as our best friend and that
We did occasionally see people carrying their possessions He’s always there for us, when we’re feeling happy or sad,
in a shopping trolley and digging through bins to find brave or worried. When I asked who would like to have
scraps of food, but you see these sights here at home and Jesus as their best friend, it was heartwarming when they
not just in Santiago. all shot their hands straight up in the air ready to receive
their Spark magazines! One of the images that has stayed
Santiago was a beautiful city and I hope there will be an
opportunity to visit it again! with me was when we were ready to move on to the next
school and were waiting to board the coach. The children
What did a typical day on the GO Trip entail, assuming we’d just visited still wanted to say ‘goodbye’ to us and
there was a ‘typical day’? so reached their hands through a small gap in one of the

No two days were the same, though we did similar fences. I can recall Jane Mann shaking their hands! (see
things on some and the timings varied from day to day. lower picture on page 8).
Breakfast was self-service: scrambled eggs, spicy sausage, At another school we were only allowed to speak
cereal, fresh fruit, breads etc. If we didn’t have use of one with the ten or eleven children who had their parents’
of the hotel meeting rooms then we’d try and have our permission. The teachers had grouped them together
morning devotional and prayer time on the coach (which in the playground and so I was asked/encouraged to
was most times), often we would sing hymns together present the Gospel message to them via an interpreter
on the coach on the way to our destination which and with the rest of team standing watching! No pressure,
was a great way of getting rid of any nerves about the then! As nervous as I felt about doing it, I felt that
upcoming day – and it was truly humbling to be singing a I wanted and needed to do it and was glad I did.
tune in English whilst our interpreters sang in Spanish. We then had conversations with them afterwards and
What blessings did you experience on the trip? I know at least one of them, through Geoff and Jane
One of the key moments for me was on our second day Mann, made a commitment to Jesus there and then
(Geoff Mann is the GOOD NEWS for Everyone! National
of ministry at the Dr. Franco Avera Zunino hospital; we Treasurer and Jane is the Region 5 Director).
went around the wards in groups, I was with Canadian
Richard, two of the nurses and David (our interpreter). Later in the week when we visited a hospital in La
We spoke with an older gentleman called Emilio, who had Florida, me, Amal and David, met a chap called Abraham.

7

18/03/2025 16:34
News Spring_Summer 2025.indd 7
News Spring_Summer 2025.indd 7 18/03/2025 16:34