After many many hours of planning, the semester has finally begun! Students are back in classes, it’s starting to get cold, and El Oasis is in full swing. Well, as much as it can be during Phase 1 Covid times. Our first month of events was pretty exciting, and we’re thankful for the students in our community and the ways we’re seeing God move. Thanks so much for being a part of this with me. Check out everything we did in March!
“Black?? We’re not painting the patio black.”
Way back when we could have 5 people in the El Oasis house, we decided to remodel the patio, expecting that we would use the outside space more often this year. While it might not work out that way, at least the patio looks good! One of our goals as a team is to give students opportunities to lead and serve in the community, so each semester starts off with a week of service dedicated to projects in the El Oasis house. This year, only a handful of students were allowed to come and help, and we spent the week chipping away at plaster walls, repainting, and hanging new lights. Hopefully, we’ll be able to see our students using the new space in just a few weeks when we go back to Phase 2.
Cris and I painting some hard to reach spots! Kata, Nacho, and Belen chipping and painting the patio.
BEFORE:
AFTER: (note that the back wall is, in fact, black)
“What if they had a piece of El Oasis at home?”
To kick off the semester, we came up with a plan to personally deliver “El Oasis kits” all over Santiago. We put together 50 kits with a bunch of helpful supplies for our students – highlighters, postits, El Oasis merch, brownies, the essentials. However, two days before we were supposed to deliver the kits, only a few people had requested one, and we were starting to wonder what we were going to do with the rest of the boxes! We decided to test out a paid instagram ad, and less than 12 hours after publishing it, we were scrambling to figure out how to close the subscription form before we got more than 50 requests!
The next few days were pretty hectic as we delivered boxes to every part of the city, especially with the impending quarantine that would make anything like this impossible just a few days later. In the end, we delivered kits to 49 students, 27 of which had never been to an El Oasis event before. Also, because of the ad, a bunch of students filled out the “I”m New” form on our website, and 2 of them even joined small groups! We’re looking forward to seeing some of these new students get integrated into our community and start telling their stories.
“What makes you want to stay?”
This semester, we’re doing a big zoom event once a month, called El Ventanal, or “The Big Window,” in which we play games, discuss something from the bible, and spend time together as a community. In March, El Ventanal was focused on Aldo and Steph Ossa, a couple that has worked for El Oasis for 8 years, and plans to move to the states next week. Aldo talked about why we stay in a community, whether it be free food or friends or the gospel. After an event full of laughter and games, everyone shared memories of Steph and Aldo and we saw the impact they had had on the community during their time here. We’re hoping that in a time where fewer and fewer students are connecting to zoom every day, our students continue to find reasons to stay.
What I’m Reading:
What I’m Listening to:
Thank you for your prayers and support!
With love,