January-February... Where is everybody???

While December was a mess of people moving like crazy, going to get everything done before January..Finally January comes and peace settles on the city... Nice! but.. wait a minute? Where is everybody? It is just incredible the transition from, hot, noisy, crowded places to empty, silent, almost heavenly... It seems weird that in such a huge city almost everything is put 'on hold' till March, when kids go back to school. There is this urge in people to run away, no matter what, probably trying to leave behind in their minds the year that has recently passed.
However, we decided to keep on getting together every week. And that is when we suddenly realized that all these events did not stop us from starting one small group at home, one wednesday night in the middle of January of 2006. So, why should we stop this year? We knew that our main guest, Jesus, was definitely going to be with us before we started our time together as a church, I guess because he is not the main guest, but the one who calls the meeting right? Some of the people in our group even took a whole month of vacation (yes, believe it or not), and some of them less than that. The point is this: Have you ever been to a volleyball match? or Do you know the rules of volleyball? Well, for those who don't know it, there are six people in a team and sometimes seven, and depending on whether the team scored or not, they keep on moving and rotating positions. That is pretty much the explanation that I can give about how it felt our group was like during January and February. One week, we have two or three coming, but the next one, those three wouldn't come but 'no worries'!! there were some replacement! Back up to fill out those positions. Sometimes it was Jared and myself only! To be honest with you, we know that this situation repeats in almost every single church here in Buenos Aires. While someone is coming in, someone is leaving and takes turns, rotates and so on and on. It is sad to say that the church is also affected by this society's habit of leaving and taking a light commitment to meet with brothers and sisters on vacation times. We were told and advised by other missionaries here as well to not get discouraged about this situation. Therefore, during this time we tried to get more personal with those who stayed around us and are trying to deepen our relationship with them as friends. To learn to live in a community takes time. And we used these times to ask more personal questions on which point each one was standing at.

Added to all this, God also let us know more people and increased the good relationships that we've been having with our new contacts. Jared mentioned that not long time ago we made a new friend. Her name is Paula. Paula and I got to talk and I asked her if she would be willing to follow Jesus, to which she answered Yes! So, we were encouraged to see that God is getting us closer to these new contacts.

We are learning a lot. Please, pray for us! There are times that are not easy! We get tired, but then we pray for God to keep the fire in our hearts. And God is faithful! Our beautiful father has never left our hearts abandoned, although there are times that we get anxious looking for more answers from Above.. But he takes his times. And we are learning that we can not solve people's problems and we are not the ones that can draw them close to Jesus. Jesus, the almighty and powerful is the one and only answer to everybody! It is not going to be for our eloquence,enchanting words or charming personality (no way!), but because of his abundant love that people will come to him. The will be drawn to him! We keep on praying for Jesus personal revelation to each one of the people that we meet.

Unfortunaly, there were times of decisions. Hernan, one of the guys that Jared mentioned many many times, has stopped coming to group. Jared wrote a lovely and friendly letter to him, to let him know that no matter what they will continue being friends, but more than their friendship, Jesus was eager to be his friend. So, he asked Hernan to give this oportunity to Jesus to be his friend and lord. After that, Jared has been trying to contact him lots of times, but there has been no answer. This kind of situations can be sad. Not because we are taking this personal, but because that there is nothing that hurts more that when someone rejects Jesus plainly.

However, our hearts overflow with more love than before for our Jesus and for others who are willing to know about him. But, keep on praying for us! We want to stay firm and be called good servants at all times!