March: Happy new year! April: Time for decisions

MARCH: Happy new year!

You are probably wondering… excuse me! I am confused! The New Year begins the first day of January, right? Well, don’t get me wrong; Argentines do not have their own personal calendar, like Chinese people, but even though it seems they do. Officially, the year begins in January, but off the record, the real New Year begins in March. Little by little, people start showing up again back in the city by the end of February. March is the month when everything starts for real. Kids go back to School, others go back to College, courts open, everything! The city is noisy again (We didn’t miss that part) and there is a sense of energy and renewed enthusiasm in people after their long and precious vacations.
During these couple of months, like I mentioned before, we went through the ‘rotation’ effect. ( I wonder: Does it happen in the US as well?) Some came one week, and the next one didn’t, but there were others to replace those first ones. And so on. In the meantime, during this rotation cycle Jared and I got to spend time with new contacts. God was opening ways for us to meet new people and we were excited to get very close with some of them.
Paula, a girl that I met at the gym last November, drew really close to us as her family lives far from Buenos Aires. One day, after working out (Yes, God works at the Gym too!), we started talking and I invited her home and told her that we were Christians. We became really good friends and we realized that she was seeking Jesus. She got really stuck to us! We invited her to hang out with our Christian friends and she also spent Christmas with us. We started sharing our experiences of living for Jesus, and she said that one had ever talked to her like that. We gave her a bible as a present and also ‘The purpose driven life’. She said that she had not touched a bible since she was a little kid. She was thirsty for more of Jesus. Paula has just moved to the States, maybe temporarily, because she had a job offer from the Argentine consulate in Washington DC. For this reason, we couldn’t study about baptism and Christian living yet as she was involved in all the craziness that means to move to another country. But, we know that God and other brothers and sisters over in DC will continue the work that has begun in her heart here.
Carolina, a girl that I met last year through a temporary job of one week, has also become VERY open to listening about Jesus. Jared and I have spent lot of time with her. She has just had twins and she is a single mom. She is a brave 32 year-old woman who does not count on much help from her family. We realize how many people are all alone in this huge city, but find it hard to trust people because usually nobody cares about others. Carolina is now very concerned about her babies (a baby girl and a baby boy) and their spiritual future. The same night she began labor, we laid hands on her belly and we prayed for the twins. Carolina had these beautiful babies that night and she said that she felt God by her side. Carolina is now living with her dad, as her parents are divorced, and her dad is such a nice man who is also very open to sharing about Jesus. In the very near future, they both agreed on letting us go over their house and study the bible together. We are very excited about this!
We can also mention names like Marcelo, Omar and Yasuo, new contacts that God let us know during these last times.
Despite this good news, we have also faced very hard times.
We knew that we were going to go through that part sooner or later. After spending a whole year together, two people in our group decided to step away. On one hand, we always mentioned Hernan, an agnostic guy who was very close to us. Hernan was becoming more and more disrespectful when he spoke about his belief in front of the other people in the group. He did not only criticize, but also hurt some of the people when he expressed his opinion. We kept on showing our love but, finally, Jared wrote a letter in which he asked Hernan to be considerate to others and that all those things he spoke against Jesus will have consequences, whether he likes it or not. Our love for him would remain the same whether he wanted to accept Jesus or not. After that, Jared tried to contact him several times but he just refuses to talk to us.
Enrique, another man who has always kept on coming to our group every week has stopped coming. Enrique is a very opinionated man who is very interested in Jesus teachings, although he welcomes to other ‘religions’ as well. We have always made clear that being a Christian does not only mean agreeing with the bible says but to live according to it. He has recently broken up with his wife. We talked to her as well as she had begun to come to group. Enrique is unwilling to compromise with his wife or reconcile with her, even though his wife is willing to. Jared asked Glen Henton, another missionary in Argentina, to help him to talk to him about what Jesus says about divorce and about stubbornness. Despite all what it was said and done, Enrique was and is not willing to change his position. We keep praying for Enrique and for God to keep working in his heart. We were sad to see him rejecting God’s word. He likes to interpret it in his own way.
Although it was sad, we were convinced in our hearts that we were not going to change his word just to please people’s needs. I was particularly encouraged by 2nd Corinthians 2:14-17. We don’t be workers, we want to be servants. Like Paul mentioned in 1st Cor.3:6-7 “ What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe…I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow…” Isn’t this beautiful? We can rest that He does the work!!

WHAT´S NEXT

We started advertising this week free lessons of English. The idea is not to promote English as a language but to get news contact by reading the bible together in English. Pray for us for God to draw people who are really seeking him!

PARTNERS IN THE GOSPEL

Again, we are already thankful for your support but please keep praying for us! It is not over yet, but just started! You are partners in the work here in Argentina! It is NOT our work! And we need your prayers! We are looking for workers full or part-time to come and work here with us. If you have time to come down and visit, and what you have is some time off, give some of your time to reach out in Buenos Aires, we will most delighted with your visit!