Image not found or type unknown Central Chile Mission MARCO YAÑEZ, AND PABLO MILLANAO TORREJÓN Marco Yañez Pablo Millanao Torrejón The Central Chile Mission (MCCh) is an administrative unit of the Seventh-day Adventist Church located in the territory of Chile Union Mission (UCh), with headquarters on 1038 Cinco Sur Street, Zip code 3461997, in the city of Talca, Talca Province, Maule Region, Republic of Chile.1 The Central Chile Mission administers the sixth region of Libertador General Bernardo O’Higgins and the seventh region of Maule. The O'Higgins region has an area of 16,387 km2 and a population of 914,555 inhabitants.2 It comprises the provinces of Cachapoal, Cardenal Caro, and Colchagua. The capital of Cachapoal province and Libertador General Bernardo O'Higgins region is the city of Rancagua, and it has 241,774 inhabitants. Its neighboring city is San Fernando, the capital of Colchagua, which has 73,973 inhabitants.3 In turn, the Maule region has an area of 30,269.1 km2 and borders the O'Higgins region to the north. There are 1,044,950 inhabitants in this region, and it is the fourth most-populated one in the country, behind the Metropolitana, Valparaíso, and Biobío regions. It is comprised of the provinces of Cauquenes, Curicó, Linares, and Talca. The latter is the regional capital and main urban center with 270,078 inhabitants, followed by Curicó with 149,136 inhabitants.4 In short, the Central Chile Mission territory has a total of 1,966,512 inhabitants, 7,133 SDA members and 709 other interested people. The average number of Adventists in the Central Chile Mission is one Adventist per 276 inhabitants.5 With these statistics in mind, in order to better reach and serve church and community members, the Central Chile Mission is divided into 14 pastoral districts, 62 churches, and 38 organized groups. Its congregations are established in two regions: the 6th region (Rancagua Zone) comprised of the missionary districts of Rancagua Norte, Rancagua Central, Rancagua Oriente, Rengo, San Fernando, and Santa Cruz, with 26 churches and 17 groups; and the 7th region (Talca Zone), which is comprised of the districts of Talca Central, Talca Oriente, Molina, Curicó, Talca Sur, Constitución, Linares, and Cauquenes, with 36 churches and 21 groups.6 The Central Chile Mission administers three educational institutions, all of them are part of the Adventist educational network and have the mission “to promote academic excellence and includes all the essential content for the practice of responsible citizenship. Its objective is to develop a balanced spiritual, intellectual, physical, social, emotional and vocational life of the students.”7 These schools offer education from the pre-school level to the elementary or middle- school level. The institutions in this field include: Molina Adventist Academy, established in 1932, located on 1955 Aromo Street, Molina, Maule, which has a total of 753 students; Rancagua Adventist Academy, established in 1983, located on 560 Araucana Street, Manzanal, Rancagua, O’Higgins, with 335 students; and Talca Adventist Academy, established in 1993, located on 1359 Cuatro Sur Street, Talca, Maule, with 579 students. In total, 1,667 students are part of this educational system in the central region of the country.8 In the social assistance area, the Central Chile Mission has service stations of the Adventist Development and Relief Agency International (ADRA).9 These branches are located in the cities of: Curicó on 6 Villota St. and on 91 Arturo Prat Street; Linares on 134 Colo Colo Street on Freire corner; San Clemente at San Clemente, VII Region; and Talca on third South St. 651 between West 1 and 2, and on Third St., East 2 and 3 North. In these social assistance centers, some programs are provided, such as Familia de Acogida Especializada [Specialized Host Family] (FAE- PRO),10 Programa Reparatorio en Maltrato [Abuse Rehabilitation Program] (PRM),11 Programa de Reparación del Abandono [Abandonment Reparation Program] (PRI),12 and Programa de Intervención Integral Especializada [Specialized Integral Intervention Program] (PIE).13 All these programs are linked to ADRA Chile and Chile National Service for Minors (SENAME).14 The target of both institutions is to help children and adolescents in situations of social risk and serious violation of their rights.15 The transmission of the Gospel through broadcasts has gained strength since July 2019, when Empedrado New Time Radio station (107.1 FM) was inaugurated, operating from the commune of Empedrado, Maule region.16 Prior to this, New Time Radio programs were broadcast thanks to the support of community radio stations in Constitución and Curicó. Other media such as TV channels and the Internet are also helping this population to prepare for the soon coming of Jesus. Regarding the number of servers, the Central Chile Mission has 209 collaborators at the service of the institution, including pastors, workers, and employees. Among the pastors, 16 are ordained and four are licensed;17 In the districts, 14 exercise the role of district pastor18 and four work as administrators, department pastors, and field secretaries;19 among other workers, three are missionary-licensed and seven work with missionary credentials. Finally, 13 work in the Mission administrative offices.20 The Origin of the SDA Church Work in the Mission Territory The history of the Adventist work in Chile is related to the arrival of the Dessignet family, a French Adventist couple, who landed in the country in 1885 with the aim of preaching the Gospel. Notwithstanding, “it was due to the work of Clair A. Nowlen, F. W. Bishop and Thomas H. Davis, from 1894, that the establishment of the Adventist Church in Chile was more successful. G. H. Baber was the first Adventist pastor to arrive in Chile, in 1895. The first church in the country was established in the city of Iquique, in 1896.”21 Shortly after the Adventist work began in Chile, in 1901 La Revista Adventista [the Spanish-language Adventist Review] requested reports from all the groups and churches constituted in the country, and among them were mentioned congregations in Rancagua, Rengo, and Salsipuedes, a city near Rancagua.22 The Rengo congregation is considered the first one organized as a church in this territory, having about 13 members at the time. It was organized by Francisco H. Westphal and Eduardo Thomann in the middle of 1905.23 In that same decade, in 1907, the first Chile Conference (presently the Metropolitan Chile Conference) was established, headquartered in the city of Santiago, and from then on, the Mission would be advancing throughout the Chilean territory. Until that time, the Church in Chile had nine congregations and 192 members.24 It is worth noting that during the first decade of the 20th century, Rancagua and Rengo were in the common circuit of missionary visits by pioneers to believers who lived in this part of Chile.25 The records of 1932 report that in the 1930s, there were already active congregations in the cities of Curicó, Chimbarongo, Molina, Rengo, San Fernando, and Talca.26 As for the educational work, the records show the existence of a church school in Curicó in 193327 and another in the city of Molina.28 However, the beginning of the Adventist educational work in this Mission is related to the arrival of some Adventist families in the first decade of the 20th century, and the desire to give their children a Christian education. Nonetheless, this would only be possible in the 1930s with the inauguration of Molina Adventist Academy. The Molina Adventist Academy began its activities with the Seventh-day Adventist Church of Molina, which was located on 1846 West Avenue. That probably took place in the same year that the temple was inaugurated (1932). In the next stage, this educational project was transferred to a large house located on 2008 West Avenue that offered them adequate accommodations for 37 years. In 1950, the Chile Conference had surpassed 4,000 members in the entire country and, nevertheless, due to this growing membership, the Chile Conference needed to divide the national territory in order to spread the Gospel more effectively.29 Thus, Chile began to have two church administrative units through a division that was rather geographic; that is, the Province of Ñuble would mark this division. Thus, South Chile Conference was responsible for southern Chile up to the provincial border of Ñuble-Linares.30 Consequently, the Central North Chile Conference (ACNCh) would cover the central-northern territory of the country. The Central North Chile Conference remained in the same offices as the old Chile Conference, which was located on 72 Porvenir Street, Santiago. In this new organization, Pastor Eliel Almonte was elected as president to manage the 24 churches and 2,065 Adventist members, and Juan Zevallos was the secretary-treasurer of the new Conference.31 In 1965, within the framework of the organization of Chile Union Mission,32 the newly established Union had an average of 1 Adventist per 791 inhabitants in the whole country.33 Due to the need of increasing resources and evangelistic efforts in this field and to better serve people, in 1966 the Union administration together with SAD decided to reorganize the Central North Chile Conference by dividing it into two. From that decision, the new North Chile Mission was established, and naturally the Central North Chile Conference became Central Chile Conference (ACCh).34 Thus, the Central Chile Conference remained headquartered in the city of Santiago. This time, Humberto Arias and E. F. Almonte were respectively elected as president and secretary-treasurer in order to lead 31 organized churches and 4,636 members.35 In 1981, Molina Adventist Academy (CAM), after a period of recess (since 1969), began to operate out of a central location in the city.