http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7udJUBxH_g&feature=player_embedded
Enjoy this video showing a little of what happened on the Salta Project this year! :)
Thursday, September 6, 2012
Thursday, August 9, 2012
"And you will be my witnesses...to the ends of the earth"
Have you ever been in a situation where God astounded you with His power and showed you what a lack of faith you really have in Him? Well, that was basically the theme of the 2 weeks I spent with 15 other Argentine students, professionals, and Crusade staff in the small town of Payogasta in the province of Salta. Over the two weeks, our team split up into two groups, one that went to a nearby town called Cachi each day to work on construction projects, share the Gospel in people's homes, and put on evangelistic events for teenagers and young adults in the area, and the other group either stayed in Payogasta or traveled around to very small, nearby villages to give out donations, show the JESUS film, and share the Gospel with families in their homes. The things God did in each location in 2 short weeks astounded me and the rest of my team. What a great God we serve!
I helped lead the team that stayed in Payogasta and traveled around the surrounding villages, and it was an experience I will never forget. In one of the villages, Piul, I had the opportunity to hike up a mountain for 45 minutes to find a family who told us they had never heard of Jesus Christ before! What a privilege to share the name of Jesus and His story of salvation with someone for the first time!
In Payogasta, the town where we stayed, we were able to do more follow-up and discipleship since we were there for a longer period of time. One of the first days there I met Graciela, a believer who gave her life to Christ with Campus Crusade students when they visited Payogasta as a part of this annual mission trip in 2010. When we met, she told me she was so excited that we had come back. She told me that she would take me to the most needy families in the town so we could get together a list of what exactly they need and later take them the donations they requested. I asked her if she had ever shared her faith before and she said she hadn't and would like to watch me do so and learn how! I told her I thought we could maybe work something out... ;)
The next day, Graciela and I visited Susana, a woman with no husband and three children, who lived in a tiny room in an old barn with her three sisters and all of their children. Other women and their families rented other rooms in this barn as well. My heart dropped as I saw a dog start lapping up the soup that Susana then served to her children. Their clothes and shoes were falling apart and the only food I saw was a half-filled bag of rice. She warmly welcomed us into her home, quickly trying to find stools that we could sit on as she sat down on the bed. We conversed for a while about her family and her life in Payogasta and then asked her about the physical needs that her family had. After making a list of donation requests, I told her that the most important reason our group of students and professionals came to Payogasta was to share with the people how our personal relationship with God has changed our lives. Graciela silently watched as I transitioned to the Gospel and began sharing the Knowing God Personally booklet (http://www.campuscrusade.com/downloads/kgp.pdf) with Susana. By the end, Graciela was chiming in and talking about how her personal relationship with God through Christ has a daily impact on her life. When I asked Susana if she had ever accepted God's gift of forgiveness through Jesus Christ and given Him complete control of her life, she said, "Of course not. No one has ever told me how." As I listened to her pray out loud and give her life to Christ, I thanked God for such an awesome opportunity to not only lead someone to Christ, but also show a current believer how she can share her faith with others! Afterwards, Graciela told me, "Wow. I've never thought about how much people here in my town need to hear the Gospel. And now I know how to share it!"
Throughout the rest of that week, the girls on my team and I organized a women's Bible study each night for the three believers we had met, along with the women who had come to know Christ with us that week. Susana came twice and loved it! Pray that the women continue to meet and grow together in their relationship with the Lord!
Here, I'm going to list out the prayer requests I passed along in my last post and detail how each and every one was answered!
-Safe travel to Salta Capital for 3-day retreat with all of the students and professionals before the project begins safe travel for the many different teams going to their respective towns from Salta Capital on July 16th. Everyone arrived safely to Salta and, afterwards, to their respective locations! Such an answer to prayer since the mountain roads are pretty dangerous!
-That God will bless our U.S. team's Spanish language ability as it is even harder for us to understand people from this region than it is to understand someone from the city. There were a few times in which the older ladies in the villages could not understand my accent in Spanish, but in general I was able to understand everything that they said and they could understand me! This is a definite miracle!
-No technical problems with each JESUS film showing in the different town plazas that we'll visit. In La Paya, Buena Vista, Payogasta, and Piul, the JESUS film equipment worked beautifully! However, in Brealito, one of our student leaders broke the equipment on accident and we were unable to show the film. However, God was gracious and everyone who came to see the film stuck around and we got to share the Gospel personally one-on-one with each person!
-That men, women, children, and youth will attend our evangelistic outreaches and have an interest in hearing the Gospel. We had outreaches for teenage girls, teenage boys, women, and children in the different villages throughout the 2 weeks and each outreach had a great turnout! We were able to clearly share the Gospel at each event as well!
-That the donations will go to the families that truly need them most. In Payogasta, we were able to talk to Christians in the town who helped us find the most needy families and find out exactly what they need. While we did this, we shared the Gospel with them and several accepted Christ!
-Safe travel for the teams who will traveling to different towns every day. Our team traveled in the back of a pick-up truck through mountainous terrain and we never had any troubles!
-Rest and wisdom for Andres and I, the team leaders in Cachi, Salta, as we lead two teams of 10 people. Andres and I worked very well together and experienced no conflict as we led the team each day. (Such a miracle!) God was very gracious to give us a wonderful team of students and professionals that took initiative and worked hard each and every day, making our job much easier! Though there were a few nights in which we got little sleep, both Andres and I were able to sleep as much as the rest of the team most nights.
-That our student leader, Leo, will have the freedom to share the Gospel during the two hours of air time he has daily on a radio program that reaches 10,000 people in the province of Salta. Though the radio did not allow Leo to share the Gospel, he did interview our team leader, Andres, and asked him to share his testimony! He talked about how having a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ has changed his life and no one at the radio studio said anything about it afterwards!
-That our time in the different towns will be uplifting and encouraging to the pastors and small church congregations there. Pastor Marcelo in Cachi, asked us to focus our efforts on teenagers and young adults. After two weeks of ministry there, Moises, one of the young men who is extremely influential among the young people in Cachi (he started a folklore dance school that has 70 teenage students) accepted Christ along with 15 of his friends! What an impact they can make on the youth of Cachi! Pastor Marcelo was so excited!
-Wisdom for us as we disciple new believers in the various church plants. Graciela (from the story above) and her sister Gabriela were two believers that attend Marcelo's church that we were able to disciple through the women's Bible study we started. Also, Daniela and Audelina, two women who accepted Christ with me, attended the Bible study as well and also met with me a couple of other times for discipleship!
-Good relationships with the priests that many times "run" the town and has to approve of any mission work that comes in to help. Thankfully, we didn't have any run-ins with the priest in Cachi and the other towns where we visited are too small to have their own priest. Most of these towns share one priest within their region and he usually passes through each town once a month or sometimes only once a year. However, in Molinos, a town where another one of our teams was, the priest told the town over the radio to not talk to our team because we were preaching lies. After that happened, the team prayed fervently for the upcoming evangelistic events and at every event they had a great turnout! The people said that they didn't care what the priest said--they wanted to come hear what the team had to say anyway! Praise the Lord!
-Safety and efficiency in construction efforts as we build houses and churches in various towns. We had three architects on our team that helped build a house and a well for a Christian family in Cachi! They were so thankful for the help and the architects were so excited to use their gifts for God's glory!
-That the Holy Spirit would open the mens' eyes to how their abusive and alcoholic behavior is destroying their families. In general, we do not converse much with the men in the villages, but I had an opportunity to clearly explain what a man of God is like to the father of Daniela, one of the women who accepted Christ with me. He happened to be sitting in the room as I encouraged Daniela to start going to church in Cachi and find Christian men who can be a godly example to her sons. She had told me separately how her dad never expressed his love for her and was drunk most of her childhood. As I sat there and talked to her about the kind of man her sons need, her dad listened attentively the whole time. Please pray that what he heard will impact his heart and that he will accept Christ and become the male role model that his grandsons need!
-That the Holy Spirit would stir up a passion in the youth's hearts to find their true eternal purpose in life instead of simply living the common lifestyle of drugs, sex, and alcohol. The potential impact that Moises (read story above) and his friends can have on the young people in Cachi is tremendous! Pray that the impact that was made on their lives will be transferred to their friends and families as well! Also, one of the students on our team is studying to be a doctor and she taught a sex education class to a group of teenage girls in Cachi and talked about why abstinence before marriage is the best option physically, emotionally, and spiritually. She also talked about our value as women in Christ and how we often settle for the lies of this world that tell us that we must meet certain standards in order to be "beautiful." Praise the Lord for this wonderful opportunity to speak truth into these girls' lives!
Thank you so much for your faithful prayers! Enjoy the pictures below!
We found a Clemson shirt with the donations! This precious little boy in Piul is now a proud Clemson Tiger!
With Daniela, one of the women who accepted Christ with me and began attending the women's Bible study we started!
With Susana and her family! You can see the small room in the back right corner where she lives with her 3 sisters and all of their children
With Mabel, another woman who rents a room in the same place where Susana lives
With Romina, one of the teenage girls I was able to share the Gospel with and get to know during my time in Payogasta
The teenage girls (and a sister and mom!) who came to our talk on our beauty and value as women created by God!
With Mateo, one of Graciela's sweet children :)
Unloading the many donations that we collected before the project and gave out to families in Payogasta, Piul, Buena Vista, La Paya, and Brealito
Some of the children who attended our evangelistic event for kids in La Paya
Our team that traveled to different towns surrounding Payogasta each day! In this picture, we're on our way to Brealito, a 1 1/2 hour drive in the back of a pick-up!
One of the sweet little girls that came to our evangelistic event for kids in Brealito
Ayelen, one of the missionaries in Cachi, who I actually met in 2009 when we attended the same church while I was studying abroad in Cordoba! Small world!
The women's Bible study that we started during our second week in Payogasta!
Sharing the Gospel with a group of women in Piul
Handing out donations to needy families in Piul
Showing the JESUS film to 15 women and their children in Piul.
Wednesday, July 11, 2012
Prayer Requests for Salta!
-Safe travel to Salta Capital for 3-day retreat with all of the students and professionals before the project begins
-Safe travel for the many different teams going to their respective towns from Salta Capital on July 16th
-That God will bless our U.S. team's Spanish language ability as it is even harder for us to understand people from this region than it is to understand someone from the city
-No technical problems with each JESUS film showing in the different town plazas that we'll visit
-That men, women, children, and youth will attend our evangelistic outreaches and have an interest in hearing the Gospel
-That the donations will go to the families that truly need them most
-Safe travel for the teams who will traveling to different towns every day
-Rest and wisdom for Andres and I, the team leaders in Cachi, Salta, as we lead two teams of 10 people
-That our student leader, Leo, will have the freedom to share the Gospel during the two hours of air time he has daily on a radio program that reaches 10,000 people in the province of Salta
-That our time in the different towns will be uplifting and encouraging to the pastors and small church congregations there
-Wisdom for us as we disciple new believers in the various church plants
-Good relationships with the priests that many times "run" the town and has to approve of any mission work that comes in to help
-Safety and efficiency in construction efforts as we build houses and churches in various towns
-That the Holy Spirit would open the mens' eyes to how their abusive and alcoholic behavior is destroying their families
-That the Holy Spirit would stir up a passion in the youth's hearts to find their true eternal purpose in life instead of simply living the common lifestyle of drugs, sex, and alcohol
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR FAITHFUL PRAYERS
-Safe travel for the many different teams going to their respective towns from Salta Capital on July 16th
-That God will bless our U.S. team's Spanish language ability as it is even harder for us to understand people from this region than it is to understand someone from the city
-No technical problems with each JESUS film showing in the different town plazas that we'll visit
-That men, women, children, and youth will attend our evangelistic outreaches and have an interest in hearing the Gospel
-That the donations will go to the families that truly need them most
-Safe travel for the teams who will traveling to different towns every day
-Rest and wisdom for Andres and I, the team leaders in Cachi, Salta, as we lead two teams of 10 people
-That our student leader, Leo, will have the freedom to share the Gospel during the two hours of air time he has daily on a radio program that reaches 10,000 people in the province of Salta
-That our time in the different towns will be uplifting and encouraging to the pastors and small church congregations there
-Wisdom for us as we disciple new believers in the various church plants
-Good relationships with the priests that many times "run" the town and has to approve of any mission work that comes in to help
-Safety and efficiency in construction efforts as we build houses and churches in various towns
-That the Holy Spirit would open the mens' eyes to how their abusive and alcoholic behavior is destroying their families
-That the Holy Spirit would stir up a passion in the youth's hearts to find their true eternal purpose in life instead of simply living the common lifestyle of drugs, sex, and alcohol
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR FAITHFUL PRAYERS
Sunday, July 8, 2012
Giving an empanada box an eternal purpose
Summer Project consists of around 25 students and staff from Cru movements on US campuses that dedicate 6 weeks of their summer to go on a evangelism-intensive experience and help an international Cru movement generate contacts and share the Gospel with more students that they can normally throughout the year. This year, our group was amazing and did such a great job stepping out in faith and sharing the Gospel on the Law, Economics, and Engineering campuses. They also did a great job connecting the STINT team and student leaders in Cru to their contacts BEFORE they left so that we can continuing following up with the students they met and those they led to Christ.
At their goodbye party, we encouraged the students and staff to invite any and all campus contacts who either came to know Christ recently, are believers that are interested in getting involved with Vida, or are spiritually interested non-believers. During the goodbye party, our city director, Charly, shared the Gospel and encouraged any students there to talk to a student leader, STINT, staff, or Summer Project member if they were interested in finding out more about how to know God personally.
One of the male contacts from the Engineering campus, Bruno, grabbed one of his Summer Project friends and began asking questions. A group soon formed and they decided to order empanadas and find a meeting room in the hotel where they could talk more. When I arrived a few hours later, they told me the exciting news that Bruno had just accepted Christ and that they had used the empanada boxes to share the Gospel with him. Pretty resourceful, huh?? Don't worry! If you're wondering, "How in the world did they pull that off?!" I've posted the pictures below! :)
And just think...how many times do we come up with excuses for not sharing the Gospel with those around us? If these college kids from the States can share the Gospel using empanada boxes, we really have no excuse. :)
Friday, March 16, 2012
God moments
Sometimes I walk off of a day on campus full of conversations with students who just aren't interested in hearing about God's love for them and what Christ sacrificed for them to have a personal relationship with their Creator. On those days, I feel useless. Many times, I listen to Satan's lie that I am no good at what I do and should just give up. Then, God gives me days like yesterday and the day before and I remember why God called me to Argentina in the first place.
Two days ago, all of the STINT team, staff, and several students gathered together on one of the campuses of the University of Buenos Aires to pray, share motivation from the Word for evangelism, and go out to share the Gospel with students on that campus. I talked with 6 people that day, but the last conversation I had was the most memorable. I, along with Estefania, a girl who just joined Vida Estudiantil (Campus Crusade's college ministry in Argentina) a few weeks ago and had never shared her faith on campus before, approached two girls sitting alone and asked if they had time to do a survey on life and spiritual beliefs. They said yes so we sat down and began to get to know each other. As we approached the third question of the picture survey ("Pick one picture that describes who God is to you.") one of the girls' boyfriends, Lucas, walked up and listened to our conversation. He quickly butted in the conversation and began to grill Estefania about her faith and what exactly she believed about God and why. Lucas asked if we were Catholic or evangelical Christians and we told him evangelical. He then went on to explain that he has four uncles who were evangelical Christian pastors and half of them have cheated on their wives, left their families, and turned their back on their faith, so he has a huge problem with the evangelical Christian church and what they believe. We challenged him to look at the life of Christ, the center of Christianity, instead of the lives of those who say they follow Christ. Go to the one and only perfect example of how Christians are called to live, instead of just those who claim they follow that example. We explained to Lucas that once he examines the life of Christ, then he can make a truly informed decision on whether or not He is one worth following and believing in.
Lucas' biggest struggle was that he sees the Christian life as one of guilt. He told us that we looked like such nice girls and asked us if we had really done anything so bad that we needed forgiveness from God. Estefania explained that the life Christ came to offer us was not one of guilt, but one of freedom. Though we are sinful, we don't have to live with guilt because Christ's took the punishment we deserve so that we can live the abundant life He offers us--a life of peace, joy, and freedom that can't be found anywhere else. And, although neither one of us had killed anyone, we still hurt others through our actions and words, all of which separate us from the one and only holy, perfect God. Sin is sin, no matter how "big" or "small" it appears. We are sinful and God is holy and just, so He must punish that sin to remain so. However, because of His great love, He offers us the choice to accept Christ's forgiveness and allow Him to pay the price for sin that we deserve: death. Once we accept this free gift of salvation, the Holy Spirit comes to live within us, molding and forming us into the follower of Christ that God desires us to be. As we begin to live this life of Christ, we experience God's perfect plan for our lives, which is a much better plan than one that we or anyone else could have for our lives! It's the best life plan possible!
By the end of the conversation, Lucas was asking us how we came to know Christ and what he would have to do if he wanted to accept this free gift of salvation that we told him about. Please pray for Lucas as one of Vida Estudiantil's male student leaders on that campus follows up with him soon. He is so close to accepting Christ--just pray the Holy Spirit will continue to draw his heart to Himself and reveal the gravity of his sin and the greatness of God's salvation.
Yesterday was also a very encouraging day as Jess and I went to the Agronomy campus for our first full day of on-campus ministry of the semester. Jess met with two Colombian girls in the morning named Sara and Laura. Sara studies on the Agronomy campus, accepted Christ 3 months ago, and met us a month ago with a great desire to do evangelism and discipleship with us--what a surprising blessing! And the other girl, Laura, is Sara's friend whom Sara helped lead to Christ last Sunda. So exciting! After they finished discipleship, I met the three of them for lunch on campus along with two Argentine guys who are friends of ours--one who is a Christian and one who isn't. As we sat in the grass eating lunch, a guy and a girl approach us and asked us where we were from. We told them two of us were from Argentina, two from Colombia, and two from the States. They sat down with us and told us they are studying abroad on the Agronomy campus and are from Spain and Mexico. We got to know them and Jess especially focused on the girl from Mexico, telling her what we were doing and that we would love to meet up with her later and talk with her about her beliefs about God. We ended up getting the contact information of both the guy and girl and, before we left, Cristian, one of our Vida Estudiantil student leaders on that campus from Honduras, walked up and got to meet the guy from Spain! We are praying Cristian will be able to meet up with this new contact and share the Gospel with him soon!
As I looked around the circle of people from Spain, Mexico, Argentina, the US, Colombia, and Honduras, I was amazed at the sovereignty of the Lord as He obviously orchestrated that each of these people from completely different cultures and walks of life would cross paths so that His glory and Gospel could be spread across the nations!
After this crazy lunch, Jess and I headed to find a few friends we have in the student political group that runs our campus: Nuevo Espacio. When we walked up to their table on campus, the two girls we knew the best weren't there, but one girl I met briefly was there and immediately recognized me. (Advantages to being the only Americans on campus!) We sat down with her and the other girl at the table and in the next 30 minutes, 10 other members of the political including the PRESIDENT walked up and met us! Jess and I got to talk to and get to know almost everyone in the group in one sitting--yet another God-orchestrated blessing! Five of them gave us their contact info when they heard we were starting our English clubs back up in a couple of weeks and one girl even said she wanted to do the spiritual survey that we do with students there. Wow! If just one of these influential students could come to know Christ, this political group and, ultimately, this campus could be radically changed for Christ!
Then, last night, four of our Vida Estudiantil students organized an event for all the college students in their 40,000-person church to challenge them to evangelize on their campuses, casting vision for how strategic it is to reach the future leaders of Argentina for Christ. As I listened to these students give such clear motivation and vision for God's heart for the future of Argentina, I was amazed. This is why I'm here. To see students grow in their faith and get excited about sharing the life-giving, life-changing Gospel with their classmates while encouraging other Christian students to do the same.
God is working mightily in so many ways and I can't wait to see what He has in store for this semester! Thank you for your prayers!
Two days ago, all of the STINT team, staff, and several students gathered together on one of the campuses of the University of Buenos Aires to pray, share motivation from the Word for evangelism, and go out to share the Gospel with students on that campus. I talked with 6 people that day, but the last conversation I had was the most memorable. I, along with Estefania, a girl who just joined Vida Estudiantil (Campus Crusade's college ministry in Argentina) a few weeks ago and had never shared her faith on campus before, approached two girls sitting alone and asked if they had time to do a survey on life and spiritual beliefs. They said yes so we sat down and began to get to know each other. As we approached the third question of the picture survey ("Pick one picture that describes who God is to you.") one of the girls' boyfriends, Lucas, walked up and listened to our conversation. He quickly butted in the conversation and began to grill Estefania about her faith and what exactly she believed about God and why. Lucas asked if we were Catholic or evangelical Christians and we told him evangelical. He then went on to explain that he has four uncles who were evangelical Christian pastors and half of them have cheated on their wives, left their families, and turned their back on their faith, so he has a huge problem with the evangelical Christian church and what they believe. We challenged him to look at the life of Christ, the center of Christianity, instead of the lives of those who say they follow Christ. Go to the one and only perfect example of how Christians are called to live, instead of just those who claim they follow that example. We explained to Lucas that once he examines the life of Christ, then he can make a truly informed decision on whether or not He is one worth following and believing in.
Lucas' biggest struggle was that he sees the Christian life as one of guilt. He told us that we looked like such nice girls and asked us if we had really done anything so bad that we needed forgiveness from God. Estefania explained that the life Christ came to offer us was not one of guilt, but one of freedom. Though we are sinful, we don't have to live with guilt because Christ's took the punishment we deserve so that we can live the abundant life He offers us--a life of peace, joy, and freedom that can't be found anywhere else. And, although neither one of us had killed anyone, we still hurt others through our actions and words, all of which separate us from the one and only holy, perfect God. Sin is sin, no matter how "big" or "small" it appears. We are sinful and God is holy and just, so He must punish that sin to remain so. However, because of His great love, He offers us the choice to accept Christ's forgiveness and allow Him to pay the price for sin that we deserve: death. Once we accept this free gift of salvation, the Holy Spirit comes to live within us, molding and forming us into the follower of Christ that God desires us to be. As we begin to live this life of Christ, we experience God's perfect plan for our lives, which is a much better plan than one that we or anyone else could have for our lives! It's the best life plan possible!
By the end of the conversation, Lucas was asking us how we came to know Christ and what he would have to do if he wanted to accept this free gift of salvation that we told him about. Please pray for Lucas as one of Vida Estudiantil's male student leaders on that campus follows up with him soon. He is so close to accepting Christ--just pray the Holy Spirit will continue to draw his heart to Himself and reveal the gravity of his sin and the greatness of God's salvation.
Yesterday was also a very encouraging day as Jess and I went to the Agronomy campus for our first full day of on-campus ministry of the semester. Jess met with two Colombian girls in the morning named Sara and Laura. Sara studies on the Agronomy campus, accepted Christ 3 months ago, and met us a month ago with a great desire to do evangelism and discipleship with us--what a surprising blessing! And the other girl, Laura, is Sara's friend whom Sara helped lead to Christ last Sunda. So exciting! After they finished discipleship, I met the three of them for lunch on campus along with two Argentine guys who are friends of ours--one who is a Christian and one who isn't. As we sat in the grass eating lunch, a guy and a girl approach us and asked us where we were from. We told them two of us were from Argentina, two from Colombia, and two from the States. They sat down with us and told us they are studying abroad on the Agronomy campus and are from Spain and Mexico. We got to know them and Jess especially focused on the girl from Mexico, telling her what we were doing and that we would love to meet up with her later and talk with her about her beliefs about God. We ended up getting the contact information of both the guy and girl and, before we left, Cristian, one of our Vida Estudiantil student leaders on that campus from Honduras, walked up and got to meet the guy from Spain! We are praying Cristian will be able to meet up with this new contact and share the Gospel with him soon!
As I looked around the circle of people from Spain, Mexico, Argentina, the US, Colombia, and Honduras, I was amazed at the sovereignty of the Lord as He obviously orchestrated that each of these people from completely different cultures and walks of life would cross paths so that His glory and Gospel could be spread across the nations!
After this crazy lunch, Jess and I headed to find a few friends we have in the student political group that runs our campus: Nuevo Espacio. When we walked up to their table on campus, the two girls we knew the best weren't there, but one girl I met briefly was there and immediately recognized me. (Advantages to being the only Americans on campus!) We sat down with her and the other girl at the table and in the next 30 minutes, 10 other members of the political including the PRESIDENT walked up and met us! Jess and I got to talk to and get to know almost everyone in the group in one sitting--yet another God-orchestrated blessing! Five of them gave us their contact info when they heard we were starting our English clubs back up in a couple of weeks and one girl even said she wanted to do the spiritual survey that we do with students there. Wow! If just one of these influential students could come to know Christ, this political group and, ultimately, this campus could be radically changed for Christ!
Then, last night, four of our Vida Estudiantil students organized an event for all the college students in their 40,000-person church to challenge them to evangelize on their campuses, casting vision for how strategic it is to reach the future leaders of Argentina for Christ. As I listened to these students give such clear motivation and vision for God's heart for the future of Argentina, I was amazed. This is why I'm here. To see students grow in their faith and get excited about sharing the life-giving, life-changing Gospel with their classmates while encouraging other Christian students to do the same.
God is working mightily in so many ways and I can't wait to see what He has in store for this semester! Thank you for your prayers!
Thursday, February 9, 2012
The free gift that we could never earn
When I experience discouraging days in Argentina on the mission field (of which there are plenty!) I try to remember the days that God showed up in great ways and encouraged me in a very visible and obvious way. Tuesday was one of those days.
Two days ago, my STINT team and I went to one of the college campuses in the city to participate in an evangelistic outreach that was organized by Patricio, a student who studies there, is a leader in Vida Estudiantil, and wants to reach the students taking summer classes there now. Wow! It's so exciting to see students taking the initiative to not only share the Gospel themselves, but invite others to come alongside them!
Along with our team and Patricio, there were 3 other students who are also leaders in Vida Estudiantil on this campus, plus 4 more Christian students who study there, but knew nothing about Vida Estudiantil and had never shared their faith before on campus. I was able to share the Gospel alongside one of the new girls, Vanessa, and God blessed us with two opportunities to share the complete Gospel with three different girls. Two of the girls, Sol and Leila, we talked with at the same time. Both said they were Christians because they believed Jesus was God's Son and "came to save the world" but that they thought it was arrogant when people say that they are SURE that they are going to heaven when they die. I knew that if they clearly understood the Gospel, they would see how these two beliefs they held were in complete contradiction to each other.
For about an hour, Vanessa and I shared the complete Gospel with them, explaining that we can be sure that we are children of God because of the path that God provided for us through Christ. It's not arrogant for us to say we're sure that we're going to heaven, because we're not crediting anything we did--it's all because of what Christ did. Both of them asked really good questions about salvation not being based on works but instead on grace and faith like Ephesians 2:8-9 says: "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast."
Christ took the punishment we rightly deserved and all we must do is place our faith in Him and accept His free gift of forgiveness, surrendering control of our will and our lives completely to Him. Because as sinful humans we could never reach a holy God, God reached down to us. I could tell that both Leila and Sol had never heard this truth before. They kept saying that they just couldn't believe that salvation from sins could be that easy. Surely they had to do something to restore their relationship with God. For someone to offer a free gift so great is craziness. Vanessa and I looked at each other and chuckled, admitting that they were exactly right. The fact that God is freely offering all mankind the incredibly great gift of salvation seems insane.
That's what makes the grace and mercy of God so mind-blowing.
But how else would we ever be able to enter heaven and have a personal relationship with Him? There's nothing we could possibly do to earn that, so God, because of His immeasurable love for us, wanted to provide a way for us to restore our relationship with Him, so He had to reach down to us with the free gift of salvation and pay for our sins with the blood of His innocent Son. It makes no sense why the perfectly self-sufficient God of the Universe would ever think to make such a great sacrifice for us, but He did.
And this is why He deserves the complete surrender and devotion of every second of our lives.
I told the girls that many times we struggle with the idea of the free gift of salvation by faith alone because as human beings, we want to say that we earned everything we have. We don't want to be given such great gifts for free because we are admitting that we are indebted to the giver, which is very humbling, especially if we know that we could've never done anything to earn the gift we were given.
Though the girls said they were not ready to make Jesus Lord and Savior of their lives, they were extremely interested in talking more with us, so we exchanged contact information and left them with the Gospel booklet we had just discussed in detail.
Not only was it exciting to have such a wonderful conversation that hit on the deepest and richest truths of the Gospel, it was also so amazing to see Vanessa watch me lead in sharing the Gospel, but then become increasingly comfortable explaining the message and sharing her personal experiences. By the end of the conversation, she was leading the conversation just as much as I was. Wow. Praise be to God.
Please pray Vanessa can meet back up with Leila and Sol and see them accept Christ one day as Lord and Savior so we can meet one day in heaven and celebrate together the incredibly great and free gift of God's redemption and salvation that we did nothing to earn.
Two days ago, my STINT team and I went to one of the college campuses in the city to participate in an evangelistic outreach that was organized by Patricio, a student who studies there, is a leader in Vida Estudiantil, and wants to reach the students taking summer classes there now. Wow! It's so exciting to see students taking the initiative to not only share the Gospel themselves, but invite others to come alongside them!
Along with our team and Patricio, there were 3 other students who are also leaders in Vida Estudiantil on this campus, plus 4 more Christian students who study there, but knew nothing about Vida Estudiantil and had never shared their faith before on campus. I was able to share the Gospel alongside one of the new girls, Vanessa, and God blessed us with two opportunities to share the complete Gospel with three different girls. Two of the girls, Sol and Leila, we talked with at the same time. Both said they were Christians because they believed Jesus was God's Son and "came to save the world" but that they thought it was arrogant when people say that they are SURE that they are going to heaven when they die. I knew that if they clearly understood the Gospel, they would see how these two beliefs they held were in complete contradiction to each other.
For about an hour, Vanessa and I shared the complete Gospel with them, explaining that we can be sure that we are children of God because of the path that God provided for us through Christ. It's not arrogant for us to say we're sure that we're going to heaven, because we're not crediting anything we did--it's all because of what Christ did. Both of them asked really good questions about salvation not being based on works but instead on grace and faith like Ephesians 2:8-9 says: "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast."
Christ took the punishment we rightly deserved and all we must do is place our faith in Him and accept His free gift of forgiveness, surrendering control of our will and our lives completely to Him. Because as sinful humans we could never reach a holy God, God reached down to us. I could tell that both Leila and Sol had never heard this truth before. They kept saying that they just couldn't believe that salvation from sins could be that easy. Surely they had to do something to restore their relationship with God. For someone to offer a free gift so great is craziness. Vanessa and I looked at each other and chuckled, admitting that they were exactly right. The fact that God is freely offering all mankind the incredibly great gift of salvation seems insane.
That's what makes the grace and mercy of God so mind-blowing.
But how else would we ever be able to enter heaven and have a personal relationship with Him? There's nothing we could possibly do to earn that, so God, because of His immeasurable love for us, wanted to provide a way for us to restore our relationship with Him, so He had to reach down to us with the free gift of salvation and pay for our sins with the blood of His innocent Son. It makes no sense why the perfectly self-sufficient God of the Universe would ever think to make such a great sacrifice for us, but He did.
And this is why He deserves the complete surrender and devotion of every second of our lives.
I told the girls that many times we struggle with the idea of the free gift of salvation by faith alone because as human beings, we want to say that we earned everything we have. We don't want to be given such great gifts for free because we are admitting that we are indebted to the giver, which is very humbling, especially if we know that we could've never done anything to earn the gift we were given.
Though the girls said they were not ready to make Jesus Lord and Savior of their lives, they were extremely interested in talking more with us, so we exchanged contact information and left them with the Gospel booklet we had just discussed in detail.
Not only was it exciting to have such a wonderful conversation that hit on the deepest and richest truths of the Gospel, it was also so amazing to see Vanessa watch me lead in sharing the Gospel, but then become increasingly comfortable explaining the message and sharing her personal experiences. By the end of the conversation, she was leading the conversation just as much as I was. Wow. Praise be to God.
Please pray Vanessa can meet back up with Leila and Sol and see them accept Christ one day as Lord and Savior so we can meet one day in heaven and celebrate together the incredibly great and free gift of God's redemption and salvation that we did nothing to earn.
Saturday, January 28, 2012
Christmas and Campamento
Hello everyone! First of all, I want to apologize that it's been almost 2 months since I've updated this blog! Our schedules have been crazy these past couple of months as summer has begun and we are all out of our normal campus routines. During the first part of December, the student activity on the Agronomy campus started winding down as students finished up classes and solely came to campus to take final exams. Ministry here is so tough during exam weeks since students do not live on campus like in the States--in fact, many live 1 or 2 hours away by train! We focused on deepening relationships with Christan and non-Christian contacts we already had, aiming to make a clear presentation of the Gospel to any contacts who had not heard it yet.
God gave me the opportunity to have a wonderful conversation with a girl I met on campus through one of our student leaders in Vida Estudiantil (Campus Crusade for Christ in Argentina). Her name is Aldana and I believe she is very close to accepting Christ. She has been influenced not only by Catholicism, as she grew up going to Catholic school, but also by many Eastern philosophies and religions. We talked about God being a personal God, instead of an ambiguous "energy", like many students here believe. As we sat in the middle of McDonald's, I told her to look around at all the people socializing around us and asked, "How evident it is that we are social creatures who thrive on relationship? Wouldn't it make since that our Creator be the same way?" The biggest hang-up for her and many other students here is that Jesus Christ is the one and only way to God. When I showed her what Christ said in John 14:6, "I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through me" she told me she had no idea that he ever claimed that. Please pray that God would allow me to have more conversations with Aldy and that she would surrender her life to Christ, her loving Savior and Creator.
Christmas in Argentina was wonderful but HOT. Though my roommates and I blasted American Christmas music 24/7 for the entire month of December in our apartment, it really didn't seem like Christmas, to be honest! I celebrated Christmas Eve Argentine-style with Maria Sol, one of the female student leaders in Vida Estudiantil. Not only do they count down Christmas Day and make a toast at midnight, but they set off fireworks all night long, like it's New Years or something! :) Christmas Day was spent with my STINT team as we exchanged secret santa gifts and opened gifts from home. I felt so loved as I opened so many packages sent from friends and family in the States!
And then came December 27th...when all the craziness began. That day, my STINT team and I all headed off to Cordoba, Argentina in an 11-hour overnight bus ride for a one-week national Vida Estudiantil staff conference, immediately followed by a one-week national student leadership conference, immediately followed by a 2-day trip to Cordoba to visit the family I lived with when I studied abroad there in 2009, immediately followed by a week of vacation in the south of Argentina. Whew!
The national Vida Estudiantil staff retreat was such a relaxing time and a great opportunity to get to know the campus directors and their families from all over Argentina. It was so exciting and eye-opening to learn about all God is doing on college campuses all over the country. Once the 250 students arrived for the leadership conference, called Campamento, all relaxation ended and craziness began! Between morning and evening sessions, praise and worship, volleyball and soccer tournaments, personal devotional times, a day-long evangelistic outreach, workshops, and breakout groups, we all definitely stayed busy! I had the privilege of helping lead worship, lead a breakout group, and direct one of the night sessions, so though I didn't get much sleep, I would have to say that the week of Campamento qualifies as my favorite week in Argentina so far. Though all three of my leadership responsibilities were challenging and intimidating at first, it was so exciting to see God stretch, grow, and use me mightily in all of them. I especially loved the conversations that I had with two girls that week, one who was in my breakout group and one who I roomed with at the hotel.
Marlen was one of my roommates during the conference and I had the incredible privilege of talking with her about Vida Estudiantil and how God called me to Argentina. She had been invited to the leadership conference by a friend who is involved in the Buenos Aires movement, so she knew very little about what we do on the college campuses. After attending workshops, listening to the messages in the morning and evening sessions, and speaking with students at the conference about Vida, she decided that God is calling her to help Vida on the Philosophy campus this coming semester. I, along with the other STINT and student leaders on the Agronomy campus, are starting a movement on the Philosophy campus this semester and we're so excited to have Marlen join us in leading this effort! I can't wait to see what God is going to do on the Philosophy campus, one of the darkest campuses in the city.
Jessica was a girl in my breakout group and I had the opportunity to sit down with her one afternoon and talk about her relationship with God. She told me that though she had accepted Christ as her Lord and Savior years ago, she still doesn't think she would go to heaven because of all of the bad things she has done. How exciting it was to show her verses of Scripture that assured her that Christ's sacrifice is enough! I explain to her that if she had to trust in the lack of bad things she's done to get her into heaven, then Jesus didn't need to come and die in the first place! I said that when God looks at her, He does not see the sin she has committed, but instead He sees the perfect life of Christ because Christ's death has paid the price for all of her past, present, and future sin. When she sins as a believer, it cuts off communication between her and God temporarily, but it can never change the status of her relationship with Him. She will always be His daughter. Please pray that Satan will fail in his attempts to make Jessica doubt the sufficiency of Christ's sacrifice in the future.
After the conference, I went straight to Cordoba Capital and spent a couple days with the family I lived with for 5 months in 2009 when I studied abroad. From the moment I saw them, it seemed like no time had passed and we all enjoyed catching up and remembering good times and funny stories from years ago.
The day I returned to Buenos Aires from Cordoba, I changed out all of the clothes in my bags from summer to winter and hopped on a plane with my roommates to head south to Patagonia, Argentina for a week of vacation. We had a wonderful and relaxing time reveling in the beauty of God's creation there. I had many refreshing times in the Word as I read passages like Psalms 19 and 98 and had to merely look up to see a breathtaking example of the creation these verses talked about.
Now, my STINT team and I are back in Buenos Aires constructing our vision, strategic plans, and action plans for each campus we're on for the coming semester that starts in March. Please pray that these preparations would be guided and directed by the Lord and that many of our student leaders would also be able to help us plan at our upcoming leadership retreat here in Buenos Aires.
Thank you for your prayers! Enjoy the pictures below!
God gave me the opportunity to have a wonderful conversation with a girl I met on campus through one of our student leaders in Vida Estudiantil (Campus Crusade for Christ in Argentina). Her name is Aldana and I believe she is very close to accepting Christ. She has been influenced not only by Catholicism, as she grew up going to Catholic school, but also by many Eastern philosophies and religions. We talked about God being a personal God, instead of an ambiguous "energy", like many students here believe. As we sat in the middle of McDonald's, I told her to look around at all the people socializing around us and asked, "How evident it is that we are social creatures who thrive on relationship? Wouldn't it make since that our Creator be the same way?" The biggest hang-up for her and many other students here is that Jesus Christ is the one and only way to God. When I showed her what Christ said in John 14:6, "I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through me" she told me she had no idea that he ever claimed that. Please pray that God would allow me to have more conversations with Aldy and that she would surrender her life to Christ, her loving Savior and Creator.
Christmas in Argentina was wonderful but HOT. Though my roommates and I blasted American Christmas music 24/7 for the entire month of December in our apartment, it really didn't seem like Christmas, to be honest! I celebrated Christmas Eve Argentine-style with Maria Sol, one of the female student leaders in Vida Estudiantil. Not only do they count down Christmas Day and make a toast at midnight, but they set off fireworks all night long, like it's New Years or something! :) Christmas Day was spent with my STINT team as we exchanged secret santa gifts and opened gifts from home. I felt so loved as I opened so many packages sent from friends and family in the States!
And then came December 27th...when all the craziness began. That day, my STINT team and I all headed off to Cordoba, Argentina in an 11-hour overnight bus ride for a one-week national Vida Estudiantil staff conference, immediately followed by a one-week national student leadership conference, immediately followed by a 2-day trip to Cordoba to visit the family I lived with when I studied abroad there in 2009, immediately followed by a week of vacation in the south of Argentina. Whew!
The national Vida Estudiantil staff retreat was such a relaxing time and a great opportunity to get to know the campus directors and their families from all over Argentina. It was so exciting and eye-opening to learn about all God is doing on college campuses all over the country. Once the 250 students arrived for the leadership conference, called Campamento, all relaxation ended and craziness began! Between morning and evening sessions, praise and worship, volleyball and soccer tournaments, personal devotional times, a day-long evangelistic outreach, workshops, and breakout groups, we all definitely stayed busy! I had the privilege of helping lead worship, lead a breakout group, and direct one of the night sessions, so though I didn't get much sleep, I would have to say that the week of Campamento qualifies as my favorite week in Argentina so far. Though all three of my leadership responsibilities were challenging and intimidating at first, it was so exciting to see God stretch, grow, and use me mightily in all of them. I especially loved the conversations that I had with two girls that week, one who was in my breakout group and one who I roomed with at the hotel.
Marlen was one of my roommates during the conference and I had the incredible privilege of talking with her about Vida Estudiantil and how God called me to Argentina. She had been invited to the leadership conference by a friend who is involved in the Buenos Aires movement, so she knew very little about what we do on the college campuses. After attending workshops, listening to the messages in the morning and evening sessions, and speaking with students at the conference about Vida, she decided that God is calling her to help Vida on the Philosophy campus this coming semester. I, along with the other STINT and student leaders on the Agronomy campus, are starting a movement on the Philosophy campus this semester and we're so excited to have Marlen join us in leading this effort! I can't wait to see what God is going to do on the Philosophy campus, one of the darkest campuses in the city.
Jessica was a girl in my breakout group and I had the opportunity to sit down with her one afternoon and talk about her relationship with God. She told me that though she had accepted Christ as her Lord and Savior years ago, she still doesn't think she would go to heaven because of all of the bad things she has done. How exciting it was to show her verses of Scripture that assured her that Christ's sacrifice is enough! I explain to her that if she had to trust in the lack of bad things she's done to get her into heaven, then Jesus didn't need to come and die in the first place! I said that when God looks at her, He does not see the sin she has committed, but instead He sees the perfect life of Christ because Christ's death has paid the price for all of her past, present, and future sin. When she sins as a believer, it cuts off communication between her and God temporarily, but it can never change the status of her relationship with Him. She will always be His daughter. Please pray that Satan will fail in his attempts to make Jessica doubt the sufficiency of Christ's sacrifice in the future.
After the conference, I went straight to Cordoba Capital and spent a couple days with the family I lived with for 5 months in 2009 when I studied abroad. From the moment I saw them, it seemed like no time had passed and we all enjoyed catching up and remembering good times and funny stories from years ago.
The day I returned to Buenos Aires from Cordoba, I changed out all of the clothes in my bags from summer to winter and hopped on a plane with my roommates to head south to Patagonia, Argentina for a week of vacation. We had a wonderful and relaxing time reveling in the beauty of God's creation there. I had many refreshing times in the Word as I read passages like Psalms 19 and 98 and had to merely look up to see a breathtaking example of the creation these verses talked about.
Now, my STINT team and I are back in Buenos Aires constructing our vision, strategic plans, and action plans for each campus we're on for the coming semester that starts in March. Please pray that these preparations would be guided and directed by the Lord and that many of our student leaders would also be able to help us plan at our upcoming leadership retreat here in Buenos Aires.
Thank you for your prayers! Enjoy the pictures below!
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| Maria Sol and I celebrating Christmas Eve with her family! |
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| All of my Christmas presents from the States! |
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| Some of the girls on my STINT team with a couple of our female student leaders from Buenos Aires |
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| Students at the leadership conference praying for the nonbelievers on their campuses |
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| A few of the girls at the leadership conference during the evangelistic outreach we did in a nearby town |
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| The breakout group I led each day during the leadership conference |
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| Spending time with my study abroad host family from 2009 |
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