Time after time, I have seen this piece of wisdom from Ecclesiastes proved true. When people are sad, mourning, or sick, they begin to turn to God for answers. This is perfectly natural. In our fast-paced world, we get caught up in unimportant subtleties that rule our day. When tragedy strikes us, though; we begin to look for answers. Why? Why me? Why would God, if there were one, treat me so cruelly? I think this is a complex question with many layers of answers, but I also know that sometimes God allows tragedy to strike us so that we will begin to realize there is more to our lives than what we will eat for lunch.
When we are in mourning or pain, the only place humanity knows to turn is to a higher being. Even many atheists who have been on their deathbeds have revisited their lives and their belief about God. The threat of death works powerfully in our lives to bring us closer to God, or at least think about him. As a proverb I learned in Spanish says: To get your attention, God whispers in your ear. If that doesn’t work, then he throws a brick at you.
Recently, I have seen this principle in action with our neighbor, Jorge. Jorge is a doctor who has seen much suffering. It is hard for him to put his faith in such a God who permits so many bad things to happen. Jorge has also recently contracted a deadly cancer that has spread from the top of his ear to his shoulder. The cancer has caused the left side of his face to swell up like a balloon. On top of it, Jorge was sanctioned recently for his practice as a Doctor. The courts accused him of practicing medicine in an unethical way, and it’s simply not true that he did it—it was a simple mistake. Everyday, Jorge saw corrupt practices in the medical world all around him, but he did what he could to oppose those practices and always maintained his dignity. Now, as he is retiring, they have stripped him even of his dignity.
Jorge is a charming, charismatic, well-liked man. Imagine the difficulty for him of being stripped completely of his dignity. His features are marred by the swelling in his face. Society has deemed that forty years of helping others in medicine was unethical. And on top of it all, he stands in the throes of death.
Jorge is a person who I would call a good friend. One day, he asked me over to give him an injection in his backside for his swelling (I learned how to do that back in the day in Guatemala. Isn’t it amazing how God uses simple stuff like that?). When we finished, we sat down at the kitchen table and began to talk. Jorge knows I’m a missionary, and of course, he knows I would love to convert him. He brought up Jesus’ name twice; I don’t remember why. I figured that he wanted to talk about Jesus. I figured that God had given me an opportunity.
So I started with the message of the gospel, God’s love, sin, suffering, redemption, everything. For about forty-five minutes straight, I kept talking. I’ve never seen anything like it. Most people, you can’t give them the gospel like that all at once. It’s too much. You have to start with a simple principle and plant seeds. But not this time. Jorge hung on every word and sincerely listened to every one with enthusiasm. What I said impacted him in a profound way, even though what I said was fairly simple. I’ve never seen someone listen to the gospel with such intensity. I’m sure if I was preaching in the U.S., half the audience would have fallen asleep after twenty five minutes. But Jorge listened, asked a few questions, but he listened.
In the end, Jorge got to listen to a full gospel presentation. He knows what life is. He knows what death is. He knows what the consequences for each choice is.
I don’t know what Jorge will choose in the end, or if God will decide to let Jorge keep living. But I know that God has thrown a brick at Jorge. God wanted me to show Jorge the gospel in its fullness in that moment. He set everything up, called Jorge’s attention to him, and put his words in my mouth.
Pray for Jorge. Pray that he sees that his life has been a failure, and that God is reaching desperately for him with love. Pray that his eyes are opened, and the lies that our enemy has fed him for a lifetime begin to fade away. Pray that he can understand life and death.
Pray that God will reach for Jorge’s heart with all his might.
MAY
May was a busy month for Karina and I as we started up our project to expand our group and involve more people in it. We advertised English classes with natives around our neighborhood and in the newspaper, Let’s Start Talking style. For those of you who don’t know what LST is, it’s a program that uses certain passages from the Bible in simplified English to have conversation classes that last one hour. We are doing something similar to this program but slightly modified. I’ve already begun to read with several people in our neighborhood, and the people that I’ve met are extremely nice. A couple seem very open to the gospel and may actually integrate into our group in Spanish. At the end of this month, we will hold a special event and invite these new people to it. From there we will invite these new people to become involved in the life of our small group.
Our group continues to commit to growth. We have really prayed about everything as a group, each person taking turns and praying about every detail in their lives. God has put many contacts in all of our lives and people that need to hear the gospel. A few weeks ago, Karina began to spend time with Vanesa. She is a 33 year-old woman studying to be an accountant. Vanesa wants to be baptized and to give her life completely to God.(see picture)
Pray for Vanesa.
In May also, Chris and Alessandra Kelly moved away to do mission work in Brazil. They have been working in the Villa Urquiza congregation, and they will be missed. We also know that God will use them in mighty ways to grow his church in Brazil. Karina spent quite a bit of time helping them get their apartment and bags packed and do a garage sale. Moving to a new country is quite an endeavor! May God bless them in their new church plant.
Glen and Kathy Henton, the last missionaries in Villa Urquiza, are also selling their apartment and will leave as soon as they sell it. With Glen and Kathy gone, this church will have no more people from the US and will not be spiritually depend on missionaries. May God bless the congregation in Villa Urquiza in this time of transition. Within two years, three couples have left/are leaving the congregation, the church unified with two other congregations and then split back into two branches. These are a lot of changes! Despite all these changes, it is our prayer that God will use this congregation to reach out to its own neighborhood.
We also attended a weekend retreat here in the capital on church planting. It was a wonderful experience and made me feel pumped up about what we are doing. The speaker talked about church planting (He is from Thailand)and methods of reaching the lost. It was a wonderful experience. It is good to hear what God is doing everywhere!
TRIP TO THE US
We have set a date for our travel to the US July 29th (arriving on the 30th) to September 3rd (departure date). During this time, we’ll be visiting all our supporters raising support as well. We still are looking for a couple/single to come work with us in Argentina. If anyone who reads this blog knows someone who is interested in doing mission work in Argentina, please let us know. We will upload our specific itinerary with dates to the blog for everyone when our travel plans in the US are completely finalized.
Prayer Requests
Loida, Sandra, Ricardo, Vanesa, Norma, Jorge, Marta, Carolina and her twins
(Anna Belen and Santiago are their names)(In the picture, Jared is holding Anna, and in the other Carolina's dad is holding Santi. They're beautiful!)
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and Carolina's dad , Paula, Hernan, Enrique, Maria Margarita, Yasuo, Julieta (seven-year-old with throat cancer), Jose, Estela, Silvia, Jacobo and his family, for all the other contacts we have, Glen and Kathy Henton, Chris and Alessandra Kelley, Pray for Argentina as the presidential elections are this year and it could be a scary moment of transition for this nation. Recently, the new mayor of Buenos Aires was elected and a lot of changes could happen here as well. Pray for this city and its people.
Pray for the vision and our small group. Pray that God will give us more opportunities to reach out; both with those we already have a strong relationship with and that God will open more doors for us with new people. Pray for that we can go stronger in Jesus during this time that we are learning so much.
