Santiago, Chile is a city
of 6.5 million people, in which nearly thirty percent of
all babies are born outside the confines of a marriage.
Many children suffer the effects of neglect, poverty, sexual
abuse, and great educational and spiritual need. Sadly,
many churches concentrate all their resources and energies
on reaching young people and adults, doing very little if
anything for the children.
In 1993, God gave Ester Mazurek a vision and burden
to create an exciting and attractive evangelistic ministry
to reach boys and girls with the Gospel. Thus was born
El Mundo del Amigo Invisible (the World
of our Invisible Friend), a clown team that ministers
to kids in schools, parks, hospitals and streets, as well
as from time to time through television, all over the
nation.
After
six years of success and growth, the World of Our Invisible
Friend ministry sensed the need to establish a permanent
base of operations. Thus in 1999 the Santiago
Children's Ministries Outreach Center was born.
This is the headquarters for a host of ministries that
reach out to children in need of the saving love of Jesus
Christ. A local church has been birthed there, which provides
a growing body of young people and adults who staff the
different outreach ministries.
Our main ministry is the “The World of Our Invisible
Friend Club” (El Club del MAI). Every Saturday more
than 100 children ages 0-12 enjoy different workshops
such as arts and crafts, soccer, educational games, juggling,
drama and music. After these activities the children are
divided into their respective age groups to learn about
Jesus and His Word. We end each day with chapel were the
children sing and praise the Lord and have fun learning
from the clown team and children's pastor. Many of those
children who came to us in the beginning are now finishing
high school and are active in different areas of the ministry.
Our very own “Alpha” Foster Home ministry
began in August 2006 to give poor and homeless children
with no family an education, a warm bed, three meals a
day and a Christian family teaching them about Jesus and
what a family is all about. Four children are being blessed
right now through this ministry.
Daniel
Rojas is the pastor of the Santiago Children's Ministries
Outreach Center. Pastor Daniel has been with us since
the beginning. He was one of the founders of the “World
of Our Invisible Friend” as a clown himself and
continues to perform as such in ministry. Daniel is a
very dedicated young man, an outstanding leader and a
gifted preacher and teacher.
In June,2005 we were able to purchase a quality piece
of property, one city block in length, in the Maipú
suburb, on Santiago's southwest side. Since then we have
been busy in planning and developing a major construction
project to build the permanent facilities of the outreach
center. Think of these buildings as a combination of a
church, school, and rescue mission for children at risk,
all rolled up into one.
The construction project consists of two
phases. Phase 1 is a three-story building that will feature
two sub-level stories built into a hillside, containing
offices, bathrooms, kitchen and dining room. The upper
story will be a 225 seat sanctuary. Phase 2 will consist
of a three-story school building with classrooms, bathrooms,
offices, library and computer lab for an elementary school,
grades PreK - 6th.
Funds and volunteer teams are greatly needed to complete
this project as soon as possible. Our goal is to occupy
the Phase 1 building in 2010 and to see the Phase 2 building
completed by 2012. Please download the additional infomation
posted on this site to learn more about this project and
how you can help.
