Alvaro and Natalia never planned to leave Chile, but when God called, they said yes. On remote Easter Island, they faced challenges but saw lives transformed as the church grew. Their story shows how saying yes to God can change everything.
Alvaro and Natalia were settled in Chile with their three-year-old daughter, Catalina. He worked as a dentist for the Seventh-day Adventist Church. She was a physical therapist at Chile Adventist University. With great careers and a happy marriage, they had no plans to leave.
Then one Sabbath, during a church service at the university, they heard a sermon about Adventist Volunteer Service.
“Could God really use a family like us? they wondered.”
“We felt like the Lord was truly speaking only to us. We looked at each other at that moment and knew what was going to happen. We knew we had to say yes.”
They applied—and just two weeks later, landed on Easter Island, one of the most remote places on earth.
Food was scarce. Language barriers made life harder. Locals were wary of mainlanders. And the island’s Adventist church? Just ten elderly members.
“When we arrived, we said, did we do the right thing? Because we were used to having our own house, getting around by car, and when we arrived they assigned us a house. We bought bicycles–we were riding bicycles! So, everything was very different.”
But Alvaro and Natalia didn’t give up. They visited homes, gave Bible studies, and reopened the Pathfinder and Adventurer clubs.
Kids came. First 25, then 95! Families followed. One child and his mother were baptized.
By the end of the year, when they were ready to return to the mainland, the church was thriving, with trained local leaders ready to carry the mission forward.
“We came back as different people, which [00:16:55.02] is a bit of a strange feeling, because in this case, we returned home to the same place, with the same jobs, but we are definitely not the same.”
They hadn’t planned to be missionaries. But God had a plan—and it changed them and Easter Island forever.
“There are difficult moments, yes there are. Sometimes we cry, but [00:18:35.15] we also laugh…”
“When we leave things in the Lord's hands and let Him truly guide us, the Lord already goes [00:18:53.05] forward, opening everything up, so we have to dare.”
This quarter, the Thirteenth Sabbath Offering will help train and equip more missionaries at Chile Adventist University—people just like Alvaro and Natalia, who are ready to go wherever God calls.
Your offering can open doors, change lives, and carry the gospel to the ends of the earth.
Please, give generously. Because when you do, you’re not just supporting a project, you’re helping people say, “I Will Go!”
