Progress!

Here is a photo album of the work that we have accomplished so far on the new building. This week we removed most of the wall and welded in a new beam so we can remove the rest (supporting section) of the wall. This will be the main auditorium area. Our summer intern, Andrea Love, painted two rooms. A painter in the church started painting the front of the building. All the kids took on the task of cleaning up the backyard - they love the demolition part!

Please pray that we will be able to at least get the auditorium ready for Sunday services. We are "officially" moving in to the new building July 1. This Sunday, July 5, we will have our normal Sunday service, and then a special evangelistic service Sunday evening.

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day!

These nine fathers shown here are nine of the ten men at Iglesia Bautista Independiente this Sunday. We are very much encouraged to have such a strong showing of men who desire to be a part of this new work.

Saturday was demoliton day at the new building. The men took out most of the wall to open the space. It's not nearly as easy as it looks on those home improvement shows on television. We found that out quickly when the man who's standing on the piece of wall in the back almost had a huge piece of the wood ceiling fall on top of him! Praise the Lord for His protection!

Please pray for us as we continue the work. We need to be out of the other building June 30 and will have our first service in the new building July 1. On Sunday, July 5 we are planning on our first big outreach.

Update

Pilar Centro

We had a great service Sunday morning (6/14) with a total of 26. It is so encouraging that a majority of these folks are families. (Last week there were 8 husbands there.) One husband usually comes alone, but after a good counseling session the day before, his wife and son joined him for the first time in several months! Please pray for the Lord to strengthen Fabio and Carina's marriage.

The people are excited and energized, as well as relieved, to have possession of the new church building. James and a few men will begin some of the renovations this week, and then on Saturday we will have our first church-wide workday and a planning meeting. We have lots of ideas for finally beginning formal evangelism, but we want to make sure it's not just a program, but true effective outreach to the lost of Pilar.

Pilar Nuevo

Saturday night we invited a new convert, Pablo, and his family over for dinner. Pablo has been growing by leaps and bounds in his weekly discipleship with James. What a joy!

They live in another gated community here in Pilar. Our prayer is that we could begin evangelism in not just our neighborhood, but others as well. Making contacts "behind the gates" is the best way to get into these communities.

New Church Building

Building Update

Here is the "before signing" picture

Here is the "after signing" picture

After several months of looking, praying, making offers, having offers rejected, revising contracts, and the emotional roller coaster of it all, the Lord finally allowed us to sign a rental contract on a new church building today!

Now the work of taking down walls, painting, cleaning, and moving can begin! We are so excited to be at this point. We can finally:

• print an address on our tracts
• hold large public meetings
• have children's church in the same building as the adults
• have a class for children on Wednesday nights
• invite more people to church
• and ultimately, see growth!!

Please pray that GOD will give the increase! Thank you for your faithful prayers all along the way of this journey.

Special Speaker

Tonight we had a special speaker for our Wednesday evening service, Dr. Brian Carruthers. (I thought "Greenwood" was difficult to pronounce in Spanish, but try saying all those r's in his last name!) Dr. Carruthers is Dean of the School of Education at our alma mater, Bob Jones University. He, along with his wife and two of his daughters, is in Buenos Aires to teach a seminary class at a sister church. He gave a very timely and necessary devotional, while James translated.

One burden that we were able to share with Dr. Carruthers is the need for single missionary teachers. We have continual requests for English as a Second Language classes, and cannot keep up with the demand. We would love for an education major to commit to one year to live here and teach ESL as an evangelistic tool as well as help Amy out with homeschooling the kids. If you or someone you know would be interested in this type of position, please contact us.

El Puente de Dios

June Prayer Letter

The Long Journey

For more than six months, we have been praying and searching for a larger church building with classroom space.  As we hit one roadblock after another, we fell back on God’s provision and timing, especially when those things were completely out of our control.  It seems we are going to be able to rent a building on a main avenue with a meeting place for 60 adults and classroom space for a nursery and children’s church.  Please keep praying, and we’ll keep you updated!

 

A New Addition

Thank you for all those who prayed for the baby shower Amy hosted for our Christian neighbor and friend, Andrea.  The purpose of the shower was two fold: 1.) We wanted to show support of Andrea and her husband Alejandro. They are good friends and instrumental in the church plant in the city center as well as the evangelistic efforts here in our neighborhood. 2.) We wanted to use the opportunity to invite Andrea's unsaved family members and coworkers to our home where we could share the Gospel.

The Lord did bless our efforts and time together. The ladies really enjoyed themselves; Andrea was assured of our love and support; and four unsaved ladies heard the Gospel presented (some for the first time). Please pray for the Holy Spirit to remind them of what they heard and to convict their hearts.

One week after the shower, the Lord blessed this dear couple with a healthy baby girl, Constanza Belén - the first baby born in our new church!  (Now we just need a nursery to put her in when she’s old enough to come to church!)   

Click here to see pictures of the shower and the new arrival.

 

More Love in our Home

One of the highlights of being missionaries is hosting guests, especially enthusiastic Americans.  We, as a family, love to share our burden for Argentina as well as our love for the people to whom God has called us to minister.  We are privileged to host Andrea Love, the daughter of pastor friend Mark Love, for eight weeks.  She first came to Buenos Aires last year on a Maranatha Baptist Bible College mission team.  During her time with us, Andrea will assist in almost every aspect of the church-planting ministry, helping with ESL classes and homeschool, teaching piano, leading a Bible study in English, and learning Spanish.

 

Prayer Requests

·    Current Support – 95%

·    A larger meeting place with classroom space

·    Permanent pastor for the work in the city center

·    Wisdom and God’s power as we reach our neighborhood for Christ

Praises

·    All who heard the Gospel at the baby shower

·    Safe and healthy arrival of Constanza

·    Discipleship classes

·    God’s continual, miraculous provision

Upcoming Events

·    Tentative – sign contract on new building and start remodeling

·    June 21 – Father’s Day

·    June 24 – Summer intern, Andrea Love, arrives

 

Baby Shower

Thank you for all of those who prayed for the baby shower Amy hosted for our Christian neighbor and friend, Andrea. The idea of a baby shower is a new concept here in Argentina. Actually, it's kind-of a modern, fashionable idea - they even use the English name. This month in a popular magazine the feature article was about celebraties having baby showers. However, our purposes were totally different. It was two-fold: 1.) We wanted to show support of Andrea and her husband Alejandro. We have been discipling each of them for almost a year now. They are good friends and instrumental in the church plant in the city center as well as the evangelistic efforts here in our neighborhood. 2.) We wanted to use the opportunity to invite Andrea's unsaved family members and co-workers to our home where we could share the Gospel.

The Lord did bless our efforts and time together. The ladies really enjoyed themselves, Andrea was assured of our love and support, and four unsaved ladies heard the Gospel presented. (Some maybe for the first time.) Please pray for the Holy Spirit to remind them of what they heard and convict their hearts.

God's Protection

Praising the Lord for God’s protection and provision!

Tuesday morning our van broke down just down the street from our house. When James called our insurance company to ask them to send a tow truck out (a feature of our policy), they replied, “Oops! We didn’t know how to process your credit card, so your policy has expired.” No call. No letter. No warning. No insurance. So, instead of spending the day getting the car fixed, James spent it getting our insurance straightened out. At the end of the day, we had our car insurance reinstated. That was a minor inconvenience to deal with in comparison to what “could have been.” Praise the Lord that we found this out before any major car incident, like an accident. Praise the Lord for His provision ahead of time as well –- We are “car sitting” another missionary’s car until the end of the month, so we have a car to use while ours is in the shop. God is good…ALL the time!

By the way, the diagnosis on the van is a broken timing belt. Lord willing, it should be ready next week.