We’re looking forward to Mondays now.

For the next nine weeks Monday means we get a visit from our friend, Alfonso Coñoepan. Alfonso is from Curihue, a Mapuche man who is a leader in the church and community. He is the “chispa” or, the spark, in the Mapudungun language revitalization classes that we have enabled over the last several years.

When we started the classes there was a good bit of resistance and active disinterest in doing Mapudungun classes in the churches. In fact, when I asked Alfonso when we first arrived here, “Do you speak Mapudungun?” he told me, “No.” He told me later that recovering the language he grew up hearing, and becoming fluent in it, is what has most improved his self-esteem and given him dignity.

Due to Alfonso’s persistence and graciousness in pressing the importance of Mapuche churches strengthening this part of their identity, the churches in the area now have an effective outreach tool in their hands, and a means of strengthening their witness in the community as Mapuche followers of Jesus.

Alfonso has taken several courageous stands in his church in support of a less condemnatory approach to Mapuche traditional religion and one more open to finding points of contact through friendship and understanding.

The director of  the Baptist Theological Institute, Patricia Cofre, and I have talked often about offering some courses that might take students closer to an accurate, informed understanding of the Mapuche culture and religion. This year, after Patricia taught a workshop in Curihue and engaged in conversations about the Mapuche culture and language with Alfonso, she invited him to come to Temuco and offer a series of classes.

The purpose of the classes is to teach students to enter into and respect the experience of another culture, seeking understanding. How can more Mapuche people be reached and discipled if they are regarded and approached with prejudice and misunderstanding?

And who is there, better than Alfonso, in his winsome manner, to dispel mistaken ideas about the Mapuche experience? He speaks from the depths of his heart, as a committed follower of Jesus, who longs for a way to be a Christian without losing his Mapuche identity.

We asked you in our last newsletter to pray for our convention partners as we seek to cultivate a “culture of missions.” Surely this means to love and respect profoundly those whom we seek to make disciples of Jesus, appreciating that which is good in their culture and allowing the Holy Spirit and scripture to bring the transformations needed.

So, we look forward to Mondays because we get to enjoy “once” with Alfonso when he arrives, and catch up on the latest from Curihue. Then Dwight accompanies him to the class and gets to witness students’ hearts and minds being opened to an encounter and dialogue with someone different from them who follows the same Lord, and learn from him. And then we get to share “máte” with Alfonso around the woodstove in our kitchen and talk late into the night.

Dwight and Barbara Bolick

dbbolick95@yahoo.com

You are invited to join the Missionary Partnership Network of individuals and churches who partner with the Bolicks.   To receive a pledge card, receive their e-mail journals, or learn more, please contact the Coordinator,, Betty Helpa at betty.helpa@gmail.com