Mark and Mary have one daughter, "Gabby," who was just baptized Sunday, along with three others.The baptismal service was supposed to take place at a nearby river, but since everyone's a little antsy following the earthquake, it was held in the pool in Juan & Adriana Sáez's backyard. (Juan & Adriana are the Chilean-Argentine missionaries on the Chile team).
Gabby and Mary both meet with me to study the Bible, although Mary's work and college schedule has made it difficult for us to meet much in the past several months. Mary is studying to be a social worker and is hoping to be able to dedicate herself to full-time ministry once she's finished her studies. But for now she barely has time to sleep as she goes to school full time, works full time, and added to all this, she tries to take care of her extended family. She is planning to take out a loan for this year's tuition so she can use her earnings from her job to help her extended family pay for a place to rent while they try to figure out what to do.
Church takes groceries to "Mary"
Fourten of Mary's family members lived in a house downtown before the earthquake (six adults and eight children), and they had two small apartments adjacent to the family home. All of that was destroyed, so for now Mary's elderly mother and two others are living with Mary & Mark. The rest spread out to stay in other homes or are camping in front of the house's rubble in a tent, a dangerous place to be, but protecting the house from looters. Once the rainy season starts, though, their situation will be even worse. Our church used part of its offerings to help Mary's family with groceries, but they still have a lot of financial needs.
Please be praying that God will provide for Mary's family and their needs, and that Mary, Mark, and Gabby will all three have boldness, wisdom, and gentleness in sharing their testimonies with their family members.
Pray that God will use everything that has happened to draw Mary's and Mark's families to Him, and that this will also draw Mary and Mark closer to each other and help them work through the barriers they've had in their relationship. Please pray that God will provide for Mary's dream of serving full time in the church, and that He will help her through her studies to be able to have the time she needs to dedicate to her family and her spiritual growth.