The way, the truth, and the life

Wow, has life been crazy here! This week was our first week on our assigned campuses and it has been such a whirlwind of activity! The campus breakdowns are as follows:

Law campus:  Jill and Robbie
Economics campus:  Kurt, Morgan, Britt, Ben
Agriculture campus:  Lauren, Jes, Me

The Agronomy campus already has a strong group of male leaders in the Campus Crusade for Christ movement, but they really need more females to step up and take leadership. For this reason, we placed 3 girls here. For the past few weeks, we have mainly been initiating evangelistic conversations with the students on campus and also shadowing the current STINT team as they conduct Bible studies, discipleship meetings, English clubs, planning meetings, and prayer meetings on their respective campuses. This ministry is pretty complex because of all the campuses involved, so please pray that we will stay focused on what God has called us to do in the midst of many administrative and planning tasks. We are not here to get a bunch of tasks done--we are here to bring the Gospel to lost students who need Christ. Staying focused on this truth is key to the ultimate success of our ministry.

This past weekend, we hosted an evangelism training conference for all of the student leaders in the Campus Crusade movements on the campuses of Buenos Aires and La Plata, a nearby city. During this weekend, about 45 student leaders were trained how to share their faith, grow in their faith, and disciple others in their faith. It felt like Spanish-overload at times for our new team, but it was also a great time to get to know the students in the movement here and to learn more about how to share the Gospel in Spanish.

The reason I entitled this post "The way, the truth, and the life" is because most of the students I've shared the Gospel with so far have given me the very postmodern response that "all religions lead to the same God." Please pray that God would give us the words (in Spanish!) to lovingly share with the students that man is sinful and therefore could never come up with ways to reach God, so God reached down to us through His Son, Jesus Christ. Pray that these bonds of moral relativism would be broken as we tell students that God has already provided "the way, the truth, and the life" so they don't have to try to create ways to reach Him!

Below are some pictures from the past few weeks! Enjoy and thanks for reading!

 Cari and Garrett, the other two Clemson Tigers on STINT in BA! Unfortunately, they'll be leaving with the rest of their team to return to the States in one month. We'll definitely miss them!

Eating dinner with some of the guys in the men's Bible study group that meets weekly on the Agronomy campus. Pray that more of these guys would become leaders in the Campus Crusade movement there!

Practicing the Knowing God Personally booklet with a student leader on a campus in BA that has just started a Campus Crusade movement! This evangelism training weekend was such a wonderful experience!

I'm officially a native...

Ok, not really...but I sure felt like one when...wait for it...I ran into someone I knew walking down a random street in BA!!! If there's any occurence that will make you feel like you're a native, running into a friend in a city of 13 million people definitely is it. No doubt about it.

We made it!

Praise the Lord! My team, myself, and ALL of our luggage made it safely to BA last Wednesday and we've had a wonderful time so far! I live in an apartment with 3 other girls, one from USC (we're trying not to kill each other), and two from UNC Chapel Hill. Our team of 5 girls and 2 guys joined the current STINT team of 3 guys and 4 girls here, so we'll be spending the next two months together, transitioning the Vida Estudiantil movement (Argentina's Campus Crusade for Christ) from their team to ours.

Our team spent all last week in briefing sessions, learning about the history, culture, and language of Argentina, along with some key safety tips from the current STINT team. They also took a few days to show us around the campuses where Crusade is present: Agronomy, Architecture, Natural Sciences, Law, Medicine, and Economics. They are such incredibly different campuses, but it was amazing to hear how God is working uniquely on each. It was so interesting to learn about the vision and mission of each campus directly from the STINTers and staff that are working on them.

This week, our team will be splitting up and shadowing the current STINT team one-on-one as they do evangelism, discipleship, small groups, weekly meetings, and English clubs on each campus. Please pray that God leads and guides each member of our team to the campus where He wants them to be focused this year.

We're also in the middle of helping plan a leadership retreat for all of the student leaders in BA and La Plata at the end of this month. Talk about hitting the ground running!

My co-leader and I get along great and, although we are very different, we lead well together. It's been so encouraging to have the team respect us as leaders, but also love us as friends too. :)

I'll leave you with just a few prayer requests. Please pray for:

· A spirit of unity within our team and between us and the Argentine Campus Crusade staff

· Smooth transition as the 2010/2011 STINT team passes off the ministry to us over the next 2 months

· Evident growth in our love for the Lord and each other as we adjust to the ministry here

· Barriers to the Gospel to be broken as we engage in spiritual conversations with students on campus starting this week

 
Please email me at berkeley.bagwell@gmail.com and let me know how I can be praying for you as well! It would be such a privilege to do so! Enjoy the pictures below!

 Eating an "asado" (Argentine steak cook out = AMAZING) with the current STINT team and the Vida Estudiantil staff and student leaders

 The Vida Estudiantil staff and student leaders praying over our team

Group photo of both STINT teams