Update

Please continue to pray for our friend Norma. Earlier, I had written in my blog about Jorge and Norma. For the past year or so, Jorge had cancer. It got worse and worse, until finally, Jorge passed away three weeks ago. We were very sad, as Jorge was our neighbor and friend since I moved to Argentina. I spent many times with him talking to him about why he needed to follow Jesus, but he never responded. In the meantime, Norma has had a very different attitude. Norma believes in God and Jesus, and she has expressed openly that she wants to follow Jesus. The next step for Norma is to repent, be baptized, and become a part of the church. Please pray for her as I’m quite sure, like all people who are outside of the church, that Norma is carrying a lot of baggage from her past life.
We also have quite a bit to do this year. There are several contacts that we want to begin working with extensively. We need prayers in dealing with all these people. One particular person we think if is Karen and her husband, Federico. Karen is the 31 year old daughter to Jackie Mitchell, and missionary friend of ours who has been in Argentina for a long time now. She had breast cancer, but was operated on recently and is currently receiving aggressive chemotherapy treatments. Pray for her treatments. She is such a wonderful addition to our small group. She always has a good attitude and good things to say every group.
Her husband, however, is not a Christian. Federico is just beginning to consider what a relationship to God means in his life. He is attending church once a month in a small congregation in the province area outside of the capital. He does not like people pressuring him to follow Jesus, but we pray for him consistently. I hope that in the future he will get involved in our small group if it is God’s will. Pray for Federico, and pray for his family.
There are many others to mention. Abel is a good friend who has experienced depression because he is a workaholic and does not spend time with people or family outside of work. Jacobo is a dentist whose family is originally from Korea who has seen some changes in some friends who recently became Christians. Adriano is a friend that grew up in the church, but left it at a young age and is looking to form a family. Marta is a new English student of Karina’s that Karina has already begun to talk to about Jesus. There are many others. God has truly given us people to work with, some of them with very open hearts. Please pray that Karina and I will have the courage and insight to say the right kind of things to each of these people. It takes time and patience to work with all of these people, lots of prayers, and trust in God that his Holy Spirit will begin to work in their lives. Also pray that each of these people can begin to participate in our small group.

Moving and big news

The past few months have been a flurry of activity for Karina and I. Since our return from the States, we have had quite a few things to do. We searched for and bought an apartment, closed with our apartment we were renting, and then spent three months renovating the new apartment. We painted the whole apartment, put new ceramic tile in the kitchen and ground floor, worked on restoring the living room floor, put a new floor down in the bedroom, and other such restoration. It was a lot of work, but we now have already hosted many people in our new apartment, even though it is small. Our apartment is a big blessing from God and we are very grateful to him for it. We have already been able to make such good use of it, and we expect to have many more people in our home in the future.
It was a big surprise to hear during the whole process of moving that Karina was pregnant! Karina found out the pregnancy test was positive when I was setting up our bed in the bedroom. She was so shocked that she went out and bought another one just to make sure. Positive again. It still took me a little while to completely convince her that she was pregnant, but after a doctor’s visit it was confirmed, Karina is pregnant.
On top of all this renovation, as a result of the pregnancy Karina spent her first trimester constantly sick all the time. It was rough on her, but now that she has emerged from the first trimester and she is doing much better. We feel so fortunate that, so far, both baby and Mom are healthy and doing great. We recently had an ultrasound and it looks very likely that the baby is a girl.
Karina and I now find ourselves preparing for the important task of being parents. We are both blessed and excited. God has given us many blessings together all at once. The due date for the baby is sometime in mid-June.
We have quite a bit of planning to do! Please pray for Karina’s pregnancy if you get a chance. We added some pictures to show you briefly with images with we’ve been up to.