OSI & ANNIA

Shalom family!

As you can see from the above photo, we are still here in Frutillar, Chile with the lovely Volcán Osorno off in the distance. 

We are still in the process of applying for Annía’s partner visa to Australia. Due to the fact we are no longer using lawyers and Annía’s complicated immigration history in Israel, it is proving to be quite a complex challenge to make sure we can provide all of the information that Australia’s immigration authorities require. Thankfully The Lord knows what we need, and our friend Brenton in Australia has been helping us immensely with understanding how to best present our application. We hope to be able to have everything together and ready to submit within the next few weeks. Thank you to those of you who kindly agreed to help us by providing supporting witness statements.

As Osi’s tourist visa here in Chile expired at the end of May, we have had to apply for a temporary residency visa in order for him to be able to stay. This application required our official marriage certificate from Canada which we have not yet received. We submitted the application without it, but please pray that we receive it before immigration requests it.

The Battle at Hand

Annía

We have found ourselves in a strong spiritual battle these past few months. At first it really limited our ability to worship the Lord freely. Almost everyday we have been experiencing the loud and disturbing noise from our neighbor's music, which has had a huge impact on our nervous system. A quiet space is fundamental for us, both to work on our music and spend time in worship together with The Lord. 

As we're already challenged by the dynamics of living here in a tight space, the constant demonic beat thumping through the wall would wear us down, and without noticing we would fall into a slumber and stop worshipping. 

As time went by and discouragement kicked in, the Lord in His faithfulness prepared for us a powerful tool that He knew we would need in this time. Our friend Philippa had told us back in March that she believed the Holy Spirit was leading her to send us a book.  The book was called ‘Music, The Glory and Cosmic War’ by Ruth Webb. All the way from Australia, this gift from the Lord arrived at exactly the time when we needed the encouragement. As we read through the author's teachings and revelations as a prophetic worshipper, we laughed at how similar our current situation is to some of the ones described in the book. Quotes such as "Worship in times of peace is different from in a time of war" expanded our perspective on the importance of keeping the fire burning on the altar and changed the way we approach our worship together at this time. 

One morning when the neighbors had loud music playing, we stopped what we were doing, Osi grabbed the guitar and we started praising the Lord at the top of our lungs! The sense of cosmic war was so strong! The Lord has been teaching us to be wise as serpents and to understand how the enemy – our adversary – is roaming like a roaring lion, seeking who he can devour.  We have also come to understand how powerful music can be as a tool both for good and for evil. If Lucifer was the chief musician in Heaven, then you can bet he is using music today as a weapon of war against God’s elect. No wonder we have been battling with the thumping rhythms next door!

Overcoming Obstacles

Osi

The Lord has been teaching us about Levitical worship and how during Old Testament times, the musicians were stationed in the temple with the purpose of ministering to The LORD day and night. Reading through passages such as I Chronicles 15 & 16, and II Chronicles 23 really opened my eyes to how key worship was in honouring The Lord and the significance it carried during this period. I began to see worship almost like a job I needed to take up daily in order to honour God with the musical gifts He has given me.

The two biggest challenges that were keeping us back from continuing with our daily worship watches were knowing that the disruptive music next door could start at any moment and not having access to a proper camera to film ourselves.  

After a while we found that if we worshipped in the morning between 9am-10am we were fairly safe from being interrupted by the music next door.  That still left the problem of the camera. However, after much experimenting with different software and lighting, I found that I was able to use my phone’s camera and get a much clearer image that was good enough for our current setup.  

Praise God! The two obstacles stopping us are now removed and we have begun doing our daily worship watches and sharing them on Youtube. If you’re interested in joining with us we encourage you to visit and subscribe to our channel using the button below.

Looking Ahead

The Lord has been teaching us, refining us, and using this time here in Chile to grow us in so many areas of our lives. It has not been easy. We are still challenged and face constant battles daily, but we’re grateful.

We are continuing to pray and seek God for what He wants us to do next. We have been asking Him to provide the means for us to rent a small house, in order to have a quiet space to ourselves, to continue our worship watches and record our songs/videos.  Renting a place of our own would also help immensely with Annía’s Australian visa application, as we could show immigration that we share a lease + joint bills etc. (one of the big four pillars of the application). 

At the same time there is the possibility that Osi will have to go back to Australia in the near future to look after the house and dogs. Walking through this uncertainty is not easy. Please pray that we hear God’s voice clearly so that we can discern what it is He wants us to do.

Lastly we wanted to say thank you to everyone who has blessed and supported us both in prayers & financially over the past nine months. Your support has enabled us to stay together and grow our worship ministry. We love you and are blessed to have you as our brothers & sisters in Christ.