Encuentro Bautista Regional de Mujeres 2021 (Ladies Retreat 2021)

 The last few months were spent preparing the camp for our annual ladies retreat and for the camp season which is coming up in January and February. 

A big thank you goes out to Diane Courts and Rachelle Metzgar who were the planners of the Ladies Retreat this year.

We are so amazed of the enthusiasm of this event and how God has blessed. This year it was attended by 135 ladies. Our coworker in Christ, Veronica Sanchez encouraged us with 2 lessons on hope. Claudia Falloni shared her testimony which encouraged us to always trust that God is always with us and will never abandon us. God is so faithful!

Christmas season is upon us. Plans for special services and activites are moving forward at the Iglesia Bautista Nueva Vida. It is always a pleasure to focus on our Savior's birth! We are praying that we will be able to reach those who have not yet received God's precious gift of salvation. 

God bless you as you contemplate on our risen Savior this season and as you begin 2022 in service to Him!

May 2021 - June 2021

 Hello Everyone! There is not much to report in the last few months. The government has put in effect stronger restrictions again to slow down the second wave of Covid 19. This means that we have had to go back to virtual meetings. They have started a large campaign of getting more vaccines in to Argentina and are vaccinating record amounts of people. Hopefully, the Covid situation will get better soon and we will be able to plan and have in person services again.

Before the second wave and second set of restrictions, some of us ladies were able to get together to make some turbans and caps for a group that serves cancer patients.

As of this past Sunday, we continue to have virtual services with the preaching of God's Word.

https://www.facebook.com/Iglesia-Bautista-Nueva-Vida-de-Jun%C3%ADn-103741104799401/

We will also continue our Sunday morning Bible studies where we dive in deeper to study the Word of God.

We can never say 'thank you' enough to those of you who continue to pray for us and support us finacially. We could not do this without your partnership. God bless you all!

Update for Jan. - April 2021

 January

This was a roller-coaster month. With permission from the government, we had planned to have one youth camp. Everything was ready to go and three days before the first day, the government revoked our permits and camp was cancelled. However, we were not defeated. We planned two individual day activities. One for youth and one for married couples. It was so incredible to see the attendence of these two events! Everyone was so excited to get together and encourage and enjoy each other as brothers and sisters in Christ.

February

This was a very special month for us. Our daughter Stephany was married! They had the ceremony at camp and it was incredible!        

March

 

 

This month we had a ladies meeting and a men's. The ladies met in my home and the men at the church. The men did not take a picture.... 🙄

We also had a Covid scare so Mike preached form home and all of us met at the church.  * Covid 19 test was negative.

April

In April, we celebrated Easter. It really was a celebration! We had an excellent attendence. We had several visitors and recurring visitors. Mike preached the last sermon of a series on the New Covenant. If you know anyone who speaks Spanish, I would highly reccommend this four week series. El Nuevo Pacto. It starts on March 14th.

No picture of the congregation but we did get a picture of the eggs we gave out as gifts.

Thanks for reading and your continued prayers!

The Restart (El Reinicio)

 This past Sunday, the 6th of December, we were finally able to have services in house for the first time in about 9 months because of the pandemic.

God allowed us to use this time to make some updates on the building. We were all so happy to see each other in person and see what the Lord allowed us to do to the building.

It is our prayer that the Lord will allow us to keep our doors open and that we would be able to reach more people during this period of so much uncertainty.

Thank you for partnering with us to reach Argentina for Christ!

A different Ladies "Encuentro"

 A different Ladies "Encuentro".

As with everyone this year, our annual regional ladies retreat went virtual. The idea was to connect with all our sisters in Christ in the province of Buenos Aires. We invited Tonya Liles, missionary in Peru, to share a Christmas message. She reminded us of all the hope that we have in Christ and that that same hope is still available to us today, tomorrow and forever!!

Encuentro Bautista Regional de Mujeres 2020, el 5 de diciembre

Hello!

 Hello!! I'm back!  Please forgive me for the long absence. So, now to try and catch up!

We have continued with our normal activities at church and and camp during this time. Two highlights at the begining of this year  was a visit from our friends, David and Tonya Lyles. They were so kind to come in February to preach and teach at the Pastor's/Missisonary Retreat and also at our camp for married couples. They did such an excellent job and were such a blessing!  We have invited Tonya back for our regional ladies encounter. This year it will be done through a platform like Zoom due to the quarantine measures that still restrict us here in Argentina.

Another sweet blessing was a baptism on the last Sunday of services we were able to have before the quarantine.

As I have already mentioned, we are still under quarantine from the Covid 19 pandemic so we are unable to have meetings in our church building. However, we have continued to have services via Zoom, Facebook Live, and WhatsApp. We are anxious to have regular meetings again!  We have two who are waiting to be baptized!

We do give thanks to the Lord for His protection and care during this prolonged quarantine. He has allowed us to be healthy and has provided for all our needs. God is always faithful even in such crazy times that we are living in today!

22 decisions made for Christ!

8-13 year olds  -  10 decisions

14-25 year olds  12 decisions

Ladies Retreat 2017/Encuentro de Mujeres 2017

Treeless

Did you know that it is over 8,000 miles round trip from Buenos Aires, Argentina to Miami, Florida? Did you know that you can travel over 8,000 miles around the United States in 3 months? I'm sure others have done more but 8,000 is plenty for me!
God blessed those three months and allowed us to visit family and churches with only a few little hiccups. One of those was hurricane Irma. But like I said, God blessed and protected us and our family.
Now, we have been back in Argentina for two weeks. It feels like we have never left. It took us a few days to get unpacked and reacquainted with our house again. Reconnecting with the church was sweet and end of the year plans immediately were made.
                                                                                                             

This past Friday and Saturday we had our first regional ladies retreat out at the youth camp in Marcos Paz. Words cannot define the amount of joy and happiness I experienced as 56 women came together to worship, learn, and share with each other. I think we are all agreed that this will definitely be a yearly event! This is a picture of  a small group of us. When I receive more pictures I will make a special post to explain what went on those 2 glorious days.


Christmas time is upon us and I think this year more than ever I really have been able to focus on the true reason for all the celebration. I'm not against Christmas trees but this year I won't be putting up ours due to the fact that I just don't have the time and we have already begun some of the repairs on our house that have been put on the back burner for too long. I am convinced that being treeless this year is the reason that it has been so sweet for me to focus more on my wonderful Savior's birth. God's gift to us is so incredible, who needs a Christmas tree?! (At least for this year!)

There is no one like you!

Jeremiah 10:6,7  Forasmuch as there is none like unto thee, O Lord; thou art great, and thy name is great in might. Who would not fear thee, O King of nations? for to thee doth it appertain: forasmuch as among all the wise men of the nations, and in all their kingdoms, there is none like unto thee.

These past few months, to be honest, have been discouraging. Some very big changes and challenges have been going on in our ministries. On top of that, preparing to leave for our furlough in August and a sick 13 year old family pet has added to the mix.
Sorry not to be upbeat, but it is the reality of missionary life. Many times it is hard and you just don't know what to do.
I keep going back to these verses in Jeremiah these days. No matter what is happening or going on, no matter if I feel abandoned or feel like I am standing alone, I know who is great. I know who is worthy. I know there is no other who deserves my service. No matter if everything feels like it is crumbling around me or if it feels like I may never get out of the rut, I will always stand up and shout "YOU are my King!!"

On a sweet note, this picture was taken of our daughter Stephany visiting her brother Michael in Peru. He is a TEAM missionary for one year in Lima. He has shared with us what a blessing it has been serving with the David Liles family and that he has learned many valuable lessons that will help him in his future ministry in Argentina. His term will be ending in a few months and Lord willing, we will all be together for the first time in years for Thanksgiving.

Please continue to pray for us. Our story is far from over. Just a new conflict in the plot. We all know how it ends.  VICTORY!!

Missions Month Activities

Saturday we had our yard sale and it was a great success!!  I was surprised of the outcome and so excited to think that all those proceeds will go to our missionaries.  We still have a lot of things left over so we decided to do it again in 3 weeks.

The Zacal family was with us this Sunday. They are Filipino misionaries in Argentina. We enjoyed hearing their daughters and son sing a special song and hear a challenging message from Raymund.

Highlights for May - Missions Month!

This month is missions month for us here at the Iglesia Bautista Nueva Vida! I thought you might like to meet our missionaries and join with us in praying for them. David and Monica Hughes - San Martin de los Andes, Neuquen; Gustavo and Beth Lopez - Neuquen - Neuquen; Ricardo and Vilma Orozco - San Juan, San Juan; and Mike Todd (son) - Lima, Peru.

We started last Sunday with a prayer breakfast, praying in small groups for each missionaries needs.  This Saturday we are having a yard sale and all the proceeds will be divided between them.  We have visitors planned for two more Sundays and other activities that I'll share as we receive them and take more pictures.

On a personal note I was able to go to a seminar with two other ladies from the group Sentirlavida. Sentirlavida is a group to help and encourage cancer patients and help in the prevention of cancer.  We learned how to make wigs from donated human hair!! For me personally, it was a blessing to see in a very active way how God can use me to love people. I'll keep you posted if we are able to make our own wigs to share!

See all 3 2017 camp videos in one place!

Week One

Week Two (click title below)

Camp Marcos Paz 2017 12-14

Week Three (click title below)

Camp Marcos Paz 2017 8-11

Short and oh, so sweet!

Two big blessings for the month of August!

We have added a new missionary to our church family!

Mike Todd - missionary to Peru

He is our son who grew up in the ministry here in Argentina. His long term goal is to return to Argentina as a missionary. His first step to reaching that goal is doing his internship as a TEAM missionary in Peru working with the David Liles family. Obviously, we and our church are very proud to officially have him as a partner for reaching the world for Christ!

If you'd like to read about his ministry, here it is.

www.miketodd.org

Next stage in building project - COMPLETED!!

We are so happy to present what the Lord has done in the construction project!! Not only has it been a blessing to us, but also to the neighborhood. Many have come to us and mentioned how it has made the neighborhood look more polished.

It is our prayer and heart's desire that it will be used for His glory and be a testimony of His love to the world.

Wew!!

We have had a busy 2 weeks of winter vacation!!  We had our annual winter VBS and our first winter retreat for teens. It was a lot of work but the Word was planted and lives were challenged. Our prayer is that God will touch the lives of these children, teens and their families.  All is for the glory of the Lord!

Activity in the plaza to promote the VBS.

VBS

Teen Retreat

MMM

May is Mission's Month!

This year we detoured a little from our traditional activities. As you will see, my pictures were untraditional also!! (I was distracted from the great teaching and preaching that I forgot to take pictures of people!)
The first weekend we invited Missionary Pete Ard and his wife to come teach us about their ministry to the Jews in Argentina. Saturday night he taught us about the Jewish culture and on Sunday gave us an excellent challenge from God's Word.

Later on in the month, we had Alejandro Samariani come and teach us about personal evangelism. He gave us some great tools to use to break the ice! He also was able to share with our teens and preached on Sunday to encourage us to have compassion. The fuel that will ignite us to reach out and be a witness!!

The last weekend, on Saturday,  we had our "International Dinner". This year we did a traditional Argentine custom,  Cerdo al disco con vegetales - Pork loin with vegetables.  We made desserts that were international. Mike gave a lesson to remind us of our promise to support missions and to challenge us to pray that God would increase our faith. Sunday, we had a special missionary visit us! One of our very own, our son Mike (Michael) Todd via Skype!!  He is a TEAM missionary to Peru raising his support to be on the field hopefully before the end of this year.  We also took our Faith Promise pledges. We are so honored to be able to participate by giving and it shows by the 50% promised increase. Looks like we will be able to give our current missionaries a raise and take on a new one!

What are YOU doing for missions?