Iglesia Bautista Nueva Vida in 4 minutes. 2013

Last year I made a video of all the church activities in 2012 and it turned out really fun!!!  So, here comes another one for 2013!

HAVE A GREAT AND BLESSED 2014!

All I want for Christmas in my two front...

TIRES!!  Yeah, these things have to happen this time of year.  We couldn't wait any longer to change the two front tires.  January begins camp season and we have to have the car in a good and safe condition.

Our car has been a VERY important member of our ministry.  We constantly use it here in Junín for church business and use it throughout the year for camp business.  Many times we pull a trailer so we can take all our things and tools to work.

Within the next couple of months we will surely have to change the two rear tires and do more maintenance. When camps are over in February our poor car needs a good spa treatment!  We ask for your prayers that God would provide for this need.  If you would like to be a part of this answer to prayer or would like to donate for any project of ours look for the donate link on the right side of this blog.

Just one more picture before I finish. 

We want to give a big thank you to a faithful servant and great friend of ours, Alejandro Samariani, for coming this weekend to minister to our teens, share with the men, and preach in our Sunday morning services.  Alejandro always is a great blessing to us and an encouragement.

Thanks for the privilege.

This time of year for me is always a wake up call.  I read on Facebook all my "friends" counting down the days to Thanksgiving with a mention of something for which they are thankful.  This makes me evaluate myself over the past several months.

Am I a grateful person or do I take things for granted?
I think I can honestly say that I am probably a thankful person.

My expression of thankfulness may not be as big or eloquent or vocal as others.

But, to truly be thankful, does my expression have to be big or vocal?
I think for some things yes and for some things no.  So today I want to be very vocal on some things.

First of all, I want to thank the Lord for dying on the cross for me.  My eternal destiny is sealed to Heaven because of this.

Secondly,  I am thankful for my family and friends.  All who have been and are currently a part of my life have sincerely been a blessing in my life.  So much love, support, and encouragement cannot go unrecognized.

Thirdly, I am thankful for the privilege to serve on a foreign field.  Everyday I am reminded of the great need around the world to spread the Gospel.  It is so heart wrenching at times to live daily where there is so much spiritual blindness. But God has called me to shine in Argentina so that they might see Him and I consider that an honor.

This Thursday many of the missionaries here in Argentina will get together to share a traditional Thanksgiving dinner.  I'm taking my traditional Veg-All casserole and a dessert. I haven't decided on which dessert to make yet.  I hope everyone has a moment on that day to be or talk with family and most of all take a moment to purposefully give thanks to the Lord for His goodness.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!

Can you find me sleeping? Aug-Oct

We just finished a very busy week!!
We were able to attend the Conferencia Fundamentalismo in Uruguay.  Bro. Jim Smith from BBFI mission's office was our speaker and did a great job speaking on the theme of "A Call to Persevere".  Also, Mike's mom and dad, Richard and Lynda Todd were honored for their 50 years of serving the Lord on the mission field.

On our trip to Uruguay, we took the ferry to cross the River Plate. On the way back over we got to ride on the "Francisco" which is the brand new ferry that they named after the new Argentine pope - Francisco.  For a ferry it was very luxurious.

Can you find me sleeping? (Ha ha!!)

The Saturday after we got back we had our ladies luncheon to celebrate Mother's Day. (Mother's Day is this Sunday, Oct. 20).  We were down to just the faithful few, (down from last year :( ) but we had a wonderful time encouraging one another and just being together.

                                                          

VBS-Colonia 2013 video

I thought you might want to see a video of our VBS.  Every year we have ours during the winter break.  We call our VBS , Colonia de vacaciones.  The theme this year was Treasure Hunt o Buscando el Tesoro.  The video is in Spanish but I don't think you will have any problem figuring out what is going on.

We had a total of 17 kids and 2 professions of faith!!

Here you go!!

Super Heroes!

I've got some catching up to do!! June has been extremely busy so I'm just now sitting down to chronicle.  First of all, I have to mention a very special visitor we had for 3 weeks.  My very special friend Doni Hatfield came for a long awaited visit.  I can't even describe how deeply I was blessed by her coming.  It was such an encouragement to me to be able to finally really share with her the ministry here in Argentina, the culture, and just my everyday life.

In the month of June we also celebrated Father's Day and Mike's birthday.

We started a new cycle of our kid's Club - Super Heroes.  We studied Moses, Gideon, Esther, and today the last lesson was a missionary story.  Of course we incorporated other "Super heroes" just for fun!!

             
















Winter vacation begins today.  That means preparing for our VBS and other activities.

Work at camp continues. Lord willing they will be installing the new roof on the men's dorm the first part of August. I'm sure in the next few weeks there will be many work days put in to get every thing ready for that day!!  Next time I'll post pictures of the progress.

I also want to give thanks to the Lord for all of His goodness to us. We have our health, daily provision, a home for our assembly of believers, and the freedom to share His Word in Argentina.  He has also blessed us with a wonderful core group of people who also love the Lord and are always willing to serve.  I am extremely thankful for that!!

Thank you for your continued prayers and interest in our ministry!!

Baptism and Fire Fighters

You probably have never heard those two things together in the same phrase!  But, that's what we've been doing in the last few weeks.

The last Sunday of April we were so proud to see Renzo make the decision to be baptized. He has been with us since he was 6 or 7 years old.  Please pray for him that he would continue to grow spiritually and that  he would be a testimony to his friends and family.

This past Saturday we had the closing day of the first cycle of our Children's Club.  We invited the fire department to come and they sent out a young man to give a demonstration for the kids.  The best thing is that he got to hear the Gospel message and we gave him a Bible to thank him for coming.

The month of May is our mission's emphasis month.  We've invited Mike's dad and mom to come for our Mission's dinner which is always one of the highlights of the month.  We also start the second cycle - Super Heroes - of the Children's Club this month.

We still ask that you remember us and our ministry in prayer.  Satan has blinded so many and the battle is raging.  Pray for the whole country of Argentina. Many decisions are being made and more are to be made that can very well affect the individual freedom of its people.

Thank you for your interest in our ministry, your prayers and support!!

Will you pray with me?

I've been praying and thinking a lot lately.  I really think that one of the things we need to do to reach the world is to pray that God would break the bonds of spiritual blindness of those who do not believe.  We also need to pray for the spiritual obstacles that Satan puts in the way of believers that discourage us to reach out to those who are in darkness. Will you pray with me?

Potpourri

It's been awhile since I've posted so there is going to be a lot of "this and that".

After camp season was over we re-evaluated some of the ministries at our church. This lead to restructuring our teen and children's programs.  The children's ministry we renamed Crusader's Club and this is what the inauguration looked like.

Our attendance drops considerably during summer as the kids get involved with summer programs, vacations, and swimming pool time. So, we started with a few kids but are praying that we will be able to re-group and get them all back and involved in the Crusader's Club.

We are always looking for ways to strengthen our teens and for ways to reach those who are lost.  We plan to have 3 teen activities a month.  Each activity always will have a good strong Bible lesson or Christian character building lesson. We always try to have games and food but now we are going to try to have some movies from time to time.  I have to give  a shout out to "Minute to Win It" games!  They are so much fun and definitely provide a lot of laughs!!

We also started up our monthly ladies Bible studies again. I don't have a picture but we had a good group at our first meeting. We had 2 new ladies join us!!  Everyone seemed to be excited about the topic, "Lies Women Believe" taken from the book by Nancy Leigh DeMoss.  I am so thankful for Marta, a member of our church, who is teaching this series for us.  She is doing such a wonderful job.

I must say that we are very blessed to have people who are very capable, talented and willing to serve along with us. I would like to thank Sofia for her help in the children's ministries; Carlos, Fernando, Aldana, and Trinidad in the music and multi-media; and all those (and including those already mentioned) who always help with cleaning, maintenance and construction.

Everything we do, we do to honor and glorify our Lord!  Our heart's desire is to reach others and share what Christ has done for us. Our prayer is that He would give us fruit for our labor and that lives will be changed for eternity!!

Unfortunately, 1+1=2

While at our first week of camp...

first attempt at breaking in.

While at our third week of camp...

second attempt at breaking in.

We are praying that the culprits are discouraged and won't try again now that they know that we have security glass and alarm system that works.  We are also praying that we will be able to replace these windows as soon as possible.

And speaking of camp, we just got back from 3 weeks of camp and are happy to report 32 professions of faith and many, many decisions to serve the Lord!  We thank all of those who prayed for our camps and ask that you would continue to pray that these young people will stand firm on their decisions.

7-11 year olds

12-14 year olds

15-25 year olds

In February we have one more camp week which is our annual pastor and missionary family retreat.  It is always a wonderful week to reunite with ministry friends and family and have a time for us to sit and hear God's word preached and taught to us.

Satan really has been at work trying to discourage us.  I just ask that you would continue to pray for us and our family in the States.  All of us are in the ministry or studying to be in the ministry and each one is going through special trials and challenges right now.  Thanks for remembering us and allowing us to be your ambassadors in Argentina!