Asado in Argentina

 

 

An amateur video showing what an Asado is and how to do one.

 

Pics from TIME Ministries visit, July 2011

Me with the whole group

A funny skit to attract the crowds, even street dogs!

 

Kids watching the plays in Plaza Colon

 

dance moves

 

Book activity and cookout at Bethel Children’s Home

A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to go to Bethel Children’s home.

I went with a few friends, and our goal was to cook lunch for the kids, a typical food here is the “choripan” which is basically sausage cooked on the grill, with bread and other condiments.  We also delivered a bunch of books to the children, which had been donated by the church that I am going to.  We talked to the kids about the importance of reading and encouraged them to read and stay active in school.  Here are some photos:

Transcendency/Immanence of God

I have enjoyed spending time pondering over the Transcendent and Immanent nature of the One True God, the God of Christianity. (although I was “forced” to ponder these things as it was a requirement for Seminary class)  These 2 ideas of God seem to be on opposite poles of one another, and indeed many theological errors have been made by focusing on 1 extreme or the other.  Transcendece has to do with God’s existence and being outside of creation.  He is not defined by our physical world and is over, beyond, and above it in every sense of his being. He is on an entirely different wavelength of men.  Yet God is also Immanent.  He works in, through, and within His creation.  He has chosen to reveal Himself through natural and special revelation.  He has total control over history.  He has placed His image in mankind.

Pondering over these things will leave a person in awe over His attributes, that pertain both to His Greatness and His Goodness.

We, like Lucy, in C.S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia will see God as being bigger as we age.  This should be natural for the Christian.  How big will he be when we see him in all of his glory and see him in our final state of age, having a glorified body?  I enjoyed John’s thoughts (taken from http://cogitavi.wordpress.com/2009/05/04/aslan-youre-bigger/ ):

I am currently reading through C.S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia; I just finished the fourth book in the seven book series, Prince Caspian. As I have been reading through them, some of my favorite parts are when the various characters are talking to Aslan. In Prince Caspian, there is a scene depicting Lucy’s first encounter with Aslan in this story, it goes like this,

“Aslan, Aslan. Dear Aslan. At last.”

…She gazed up into the large wise face. “Welcome child,” he said.

“Aslan,” said Lucy, “you’re bigger.”

“That is because you are older, little one,” answered he.

“Not because you are?”

“I am not. But every year you grow, you will find me bigger.”

As Lewis I am sure intended, we see a great truth brought out in this simple scene as Lucy meets Aslan for the first time. As Lucy returns to the world she loves so much, and comes into the presence of the one she loves so much, we see the first thing she says to Aslan is, “You’re bigger.” Aslan then explains that it is because Lucy has grown that he seems bigger. He is no bigger, she is. “But every year you grow, you will find me bigger.” How true is that of Christians. Every year we grow, we find Christ and the cross bigger, we find God bigger. However, they have not changed, but our understanding of them has, understanding of our sinfulness has changed. Therefore we see more of them. I pray that you can come to the end of this month, the end of this year and see God as bigger, just as Lucy saw Aslan. We must remember that this does not happen by accident. Lucy was looking for Aslan, that is why she saw him first and the others could not see him. We must be looking for God, “Seek first the kingdom of God.”

 

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Darwinistic Evolution vs. Intelligent Design

I imagine as time goes on we will see countless articles like this one by scientists with post-graduate degrees. Behe’s “Irreducible Complexity” will be around for a while, in my opinion.

http://journals.witpress.com/paperinfo.asp?pid=399

October Video Update

Instead of sending out a typed newsletter, I decided to just film me talking about some of the stuff going on here.

http://www.youtube.com/v/TLR-pPzKwVE?fs=1&hl=en_US

Shalom

I have allways had an interest in Jewish culture and religion, and I like being in a classroom setting, so I decided to take Hebrew this year.  The class is offered by the language school at the National University.  The classes meet 2 times per week, 1.5 hours per class, and last from March until November.  We just had our 2-week winter break, and I was surprised by how much i missed the classes.  In the first month of class about 20 students attended, but now attendance averages around 10 people.  The classes go at an easy pace, so it is nothing that demands too much of my time and energy.  I was thinking that Jewish people would be in the class, but there are none (I guess they learn Hebrew at their own schools), however, my classmates are fun to be with and the teacher teaches in a very conversational style, which makes the learning not so boring.  At only 30 bucks a month, its very affordable too.  Shalom.

Burdens

My heart is burdened with many things. I hope these burdens are continually expressed in my prayers to God, and continue to be motivation factors for pressing on in the work here. I hope these burdens may be felt by others of you who are concerned with Cordoba, Argentina.

My heart is burdened

for the hundreds of thousands of university students in this city.  They are the future of Argentina, and many are like sheep without a shepard.  I long for the day when good, solid, Biblical churches are full of college students in Cordoba.  I constantly see the things of this world pulling the hearts of students away from following Christ.  Just the other day I saw the news of this billboard in downtown, aimed at young women looking for something to study.  The billboard is an advertizement for a new university program, the school offers young women degrees in how to be a pornography actor, call girl, etc. 
This burdens my heart:  the fact that this can be done legally here, and the fact that there is so much of that industry thriving in a tough economic environment.

My heart is burdened

for my friend from the USA that I had dinner with last night.  I knew he was having some problems, and on the way to church last night Me and Sofia saw him walking rather depressed and alone on the sidewalk.  We invited him to dinner after the church University meeting, and the man is truly full of many tough problems and issues, the biggest one being that he has recently separated from his wife, and has moved into a small apartment by himself. 

My heart is burdened

for 2 friends of mine, who are both struggling between faith in God and a homosexual lifestyle.  I cannot imagine the inward struggles they must have and often feel hopeless in knowing how to best council these young men.

My heart is burdened

for the family that I live with.  They are 2 university aged men, along with their mother.  Their father passed away suddenly not long ago.  The mother had a stroke and is pretty much limited to life at home.  These and many other family, financial, and future concerns has placed a lot of emotions bottled up inside them, which at times manifests itself in disputes and bits of anger.  Not long ago I had a nice chat with the 2 boys until almost 4 in the morning about God, religion, etc.  I have seen one of the boys reading his Bible more, and I hope to continue to point them towards Christ.

My heart is burdened

by the difficulty here to do the work of evangelism.  It really does seem like a tough place, and I am a concrete, goal-oriented person who likes to see results, so I can get frustrated at times.  One of the things that has been in my mind lately is how many young people have pretty much forsaken the Catholic church, yet at the same time many view the “evangelical” churches here as being just plain crazy and weird.  The evangelical churches have gotten a bad rap based on many preachers being exposed on hoarding money from their congregation, from the many other sects such as mormonism, jehova’s witnesses, etc., and from just plain post-modern thinking.  This burdens me.  One of the things we are doing at my church here, Centro Crecer, is trying to bridge the gap between the church and the community.  We hope to do a variety of activities that are healthy for the community.  The result we are praying for is that as we do these events, we can invite people to church, and also for the church to be known in the community, and not just known, but known to be a church that is eager to improve things in the community.  We have allready done 2 “mobile youth center” activities in the local plaza.  I wrote on this before, but it is basically a fun, safe place for kids in the community to hang out and have a good time playing sports, video games, skating, or playing music.  Another event that I am working on and have written about is a local fun-run. It is not until October 24th, but I really want it to be a great event, both from a runner’s perspective and also for the church, so there are lots of details to be taken care of. The entry fee will be 20 Argentine pesos, which is normal for a fun run here, and the idea is for this money to go towards the Children’s home that I have been involved with, as they are in need of a van to take kids to school and other activities. If the up-front costs involved with organizing the fun run are paid for, then all of the money that comes in from the entry fees will go straight towards the Children’s home.

What is your heart burdened for? Are you turning your burdens over to the One who takes care of all burdens?

for continual or one-time giving go to: http://www.armmin.org/giving_opportunities.php

World Cup

Yesterday wasnt too surprising, as both Argentina and Germany, the apparently stronger teams going into their games, both took care of business and are now looking ahead to Saturday, where they will have a rematch from the last World Cup.
Today I expect Holland and Brazil to win, but surely in one of these games we may see an upset or near upset.

Here are some images from Cordoba, Argentina of some of the world cup fever:

6/26

The first round of the world cup is done. I was 28-20 overall in picking the games. 18 games remain.
Go USA! the USA will have a great chance against Ghana, a team which beat the USA in 2006.

I would love to see Uruguay and USA face off in the quarterfinals, so I will pick them both to win today.