To all my dear friends from a world far, far away,

Greetings from Buenos Aires!  My travels have now brought me to Argentina, one of the wealthiest and most modern countries of South America.  The past couple of days I have been exploring Buenos Aires - fascinating city!  Every sunday they have the crafts market in the plaza, and I was able to see some fantastic tango - hands down the sexiest, most beautiful dance-form created by mankind!  I will travel to the Argentinian coast tomorrow, and then take a bus tour of the Argentinian countryside.  Then back to Santiago to pick up Damian. 

It has been one month now since completing the DTS (6 month missionary journey), and it has been a nice time to relax and reflect, while improving my spanish at the language school in Santiago (YWAM base).  I got a good chance to really get to know the city of Santiago during this time, saw different churches, met a lot of wonderful people and made new friends.  I also had some good discussions with Ricardo (the director of YWAM) while at the base.  He is a man with quite an ambitious vision - to see God change an entire nation!  Currently he has a radio program in Santiago where they have a discussion forum with all the different areas of society, including government, the media, sports, education, etc, and they have had several very prominant Chileans on this program, including a political candidate for the presidency.  (an interesting note - one of the men that has been on this program is the leading News Anchor for the Chilean news, who coincidently was the man in the subway who we asked to take our photo the first time I came to Santiago.  See the picture of Kiko, Jamie, Gabi and I in the subway - this dude took this photo!)

But far and away the topic that continues to burn in my heart more than any other is the subject of the church - the beautiful bride of Christ.  This mystery continues to elude my understanding, yet it stirs my curiousity in a manner that is undescribable.  There is no greater desire, longing within my heart, than to have God reveal to me more of this heavenly, spiritual, eternal project, that I believe is the very apple of His eye.  Just like a young man who has fallen completely and desperately in love, I believe Christ is longing for his bride.  It is all about the work of the Holy Spirit within humanity, within us.  We are human, God is divine.  In Christ we see the marriage of divinity and humanity - the union of perfect humanity with complete divinity.  And somehow the church is the full fruition and expression of this sacred union.  (That is our humanity being sanctified and even transformed by the divine nature that is now within us.)  And all the while it is personal.  It is about our decisions, our desires, our thoughts, our imagination, and above all our choices, in relation to the divine will.  And the practice of the church is the environment that makes all this possible, it is an act of our will that permites the Holy Spirit to complete the work.

To me, this is all very exciting stuff.  One day we will see just how big this really is.  In the meantime, I aspire to be faithful to the call, and hope that God will continue to reveal to me more of these wonders. 

Be encouraged, beloved.  Treasure your faith - guard and protect it.  It is your salvation.

Blessings, love to you.

In Christ,

-Alex

ps - I added a couple of new photos.

Peru:

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/alexkazanjian/album?.dir=/a5dd&.src=ph&.tok=phyvd0CB27qPwZtu

Chile (old):

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/alexkazanjian/album?.dir=/b23c&.src=ph&.tok=phJrd0CB9grrYEEe