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!