Ministry Update from Argentina

Howdy from Cordoba once again!  There has been a lot of activity lately, so I wanted to give you all a brief update by focusing on some of the highlights.  

First of all I praise God for His provision and for what He is doing in Cordoba, Argentina.  We have seen some growth lately in our weekly meeting “Cafe Ekklesia”.  Last Saturday we had close to 30 people attend.  It is good to see new people come, especially new people who are excited about coming.  Several of these new people have allready attended several Saturdays in a row, so it looks like they are encouraged by the meetings and want to keep coming.  My neighbor, Javier, told me a while ago that he had a “fight” with his group of friends that he usually plays soccer with, so I used the opportunity to invite him to join our frisbee team.  He began coming to all of the practices, and after about a month or so of coming to the practices, he came to our house church meeting.   Ever since then he has not missed one meeting, he is the first one to come and the last one to leave.   The other day I heard loud Christian music coming from his stereo in the morning, so I can tell that God is really working on his heart .

A few of the new people coming to our meetings are contacts that we made from our “English Talk” activity just a few weeks ago.  We have been praying that God would somehow guide us to the “right” people, through our activites and events, or just through our daily interaction with people.  It seems that many times people arent interested in God or our meetings that we offer, so we prayed that we would find people that are at a place in their lives where they would be excited about learning about God and how to relate properly with him.  Amazingly, in the English talk activity, God answered this prayer.  Over 30 young adults came to the English talk activity, and amazingly, God used various circumstances to put David and I in the right place with the right people, as we talked to several of the people about who we are, why we are here, and what our beliefs are.  Normally we use the English Talk activity as kind of a “first touch”, where we get to know some new people, and get some more contacts, rarely does the conversation go so deeply.  One of the guys, Jose Sarmiento, is an English student at the University, and has decided recently to “leave” his religion of 7th day Adventism, because he has been so burdened down with rules and regulations that it just doesnt satisfy him.  Besides attending our weekly meeting, Jose has been meeting with David for various discussions and studies, and he also has committed to our weekly “purpose driven life” study, which we offer at the University, in English.  Yesterday at this study, he said “I need God, I dont need religious burdens”.

Also, many of you know that in late March we held our first Baptisms as a group ministry.  We baptised 3 young men: Gustavo, Lucas, and Laureano.  Lucas and Laureano became believers through our ministry.  

Prayer concerns:  we have 2 students from the USA coming for our summer program in June and July.  Pease pray for the preparation in receiveing them, and that God can use them here as he sees fit.  Pray for the continued discipleship of the many that are wanting to be discipled.  Pray for the Purpose Driven Life study group.  We have participating an atheist, a Pseudo-Jewish girl, who believes in a wide array of all kinds of things, and Jose.  For our space concerns, as the saturday meetings are getting quite full in the living room of David’s house.

Thank you for your prayers and conern, in July-August I hope to send out letters in the mail to keep you up to date on things going on down here.

Scott

A busy week, and upcoming events

The past 10 days or so have been quite busy, full of different events.  Last saturday, during our football game, i managed to pull the quadriceps muscle in both legs.  My right leg now has interesting colors appearing as a result of internal muscle damage/bleeding.  If you want to see more information on the football team/league i have helped start here, go to the website at www.acfa.com.ar although it is in Spanish, so you might be quite lost, or you can use it as an opportunity to practice Spanish!

On monday and tuesday David Fulfer and I took a 300km (roughly 200 miles) trip to a town called Rafaela, in the province of Santa Fe, which is East of Cordoba.  We drove in the car that I purchased a few weeks ago, and managed to get along fine, and had a good time seeing all the farm land that Argentina has.  The purpose of the trip was to discuss starting a network for church planters here in Argentina.  We met with pastor David Ibarra, who has done a great job in not only growing his own church in Rafaela, but has taken on the task of planting churches in the many small towns surrounding Rafaela.  We had a good time talking to him, and a good time with his family as well. 

The final event that made the last week so busy was an Ultimate Frisbee tournament.  I had to plan/organize/host the first ever National Ultimate frisbee tournament in Argentina.  2 teams from Buenos Aires came to play in a 2-day tournament.  There were players from all differente countries including Argentina, Canada, Columbia, Germany, Venezuela, and the United States.  It was a good time, but very busy as we played for 8 hours on Saturday, and 6 more hours on Sunday.  I was mainly an observer with 2 hurt legs, but i managed to “walk” around playing in a couple of points. (see pictures below)

As far as ministry goes, we are excited about the beginnings of the formation of the Church planting network.  There are many towns without a church here, and the network will help identify where the church planters are working, where the needs are, supply resources, prayer, and encouragement for church planters, and provide a means for sharing ideas/talents/resources among the existing church planters.  We are also working on a video that can be used as a tool to show our ministry to others back in the United States.  We are excited about the progress of discipleship for many of the newer believers.  Many are meeting regularly to go through their discipleship material.

In the weeks/month ahead there are several things to mention:

1) My mother and step-dad will be coming for a visit in Late October to Early November.  This should be a good experience for them, and for me. (Mom please bring what you can and dont leave any extra space in the suitcases!!)

2) Breakaway’s Go! Missions conference at Texas A&M University, November 11.  David and I will attend this event, by setting up a booth and talking to students interested in missions projects.

3) David Fulfer and family are currently planning a 3 month stay in the United States, from Early November to Early February.

reagin, me, victoria, marcelo, and coen

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ultimate tournament, day 2

2 subjects in 1: Athletes for Christ and New Car!!!

This past friday night, we had our 2nd meeting for “atletas para Cristo” (which we are hoping turns into something like a Fellowship of Christian Athletes).  10 Guys came and we enjoyed a good Argentine cook-out and playing video games.  Before all of that, we had a discussion on what it means to seek after God.  I also challenged the guys with this:  “If you could ask God any question, what would you ask?” Some of their responses were: How does one find peace and tranquility?, Why do we exist?, Why does suffering exist?, Does purgatory exist?, How did the universe begin?, Where are my family  members who have passed away?, How much is God’s plan, and how much is up to me?, etc etc.

dinner at Athletes for Christ meeting

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Also, I now have a car as a mode of transportation.  It is a 1997 Peugeot 205, white, with a diesel engine and no Air conditioning.  It gets the job done though!

New car

Welcome!

Hello from the Southern hemisphere!

Cordoba, Argentina to be exact.

Explore my blog to learn about me, our mission in Cordoba, see photos, and more.

New photos of the orphanage trip have been posted, so go to the pictures page to check them out!