Monday, June 30

It is so late that I doubt that pictures will make it to the blog tonight, but it has been another good day. I imagine that we will all sleep well since the construction began today.

We worked on two different homes this morning. Jader is building a home in his mom´s back yard so that he can better focus on his family and the ministry that the church provides to families. We cleared a floor of dirt to be able to pour cement tomorrow. Also, Tyler learned the joys of creating re-barb forms to help form the columns and foundations of a home.

Many of you know Adrian and Diana. Diana leads the children´s ministry and Adrian helps lead worship when possible. He is a police officer and she is studying graphic design. Sebastien They have two children (Sebastien - 4 years old and Mauricio - 2 (incorrectly named "Daniel" in yesterday´s blog)), and the entire family sleeps in one bedroom. We are also working on their home.

Finally, in the afternoon, we began working on Martin, Gloria and Saul´s (son 6 years old) home. They are using an area of their home in order to start a micro-enterprise of weaving for adult clothes as well as some small items for children such as booties. The interesting opportunity with this is that Martin has only seen the church through negative eyes. He is a great person, but annoyed with God for what he has allowed happen to Gloria over the years.

Gloria is a believer, and Martin will walk her to church, but will not step in for service. This week is a real opportunity to see that God is a god of mercy and grace. Please pray that he comes to know the Lord.

Tonight, Frank, Tyler, Piqui and Vanesa went to "David´s" home. David, came to know the Lord in prison, and has been removed from the jail, but is still under house arrest. His life is changed now, and his family - that was there tonight - really helps out a lot in the church. It was a very powerful time for everyone that was there.

The rest of us drank hot chocolate (well, Chad didn´t drink the hot chocolate), and sang praise songs in Spanish and English with Moises and got to know his mother (Andrea) better. Richard and Moises played dueling guitars. That was fun too.

Afterwards, Piqui and Vanesa shared a fun pizza place with us, we dined and then had ice cream. It´s great to have them back with us. It is always a big, important part of our trip. Well, it´s been a long day, and it is time for bed - more heavy construction tomorrow. We will try to post pictures in the morning, if possible.

Doug, we miss you and everyone is asking about you/praying for you here. Families, we all miss you tons as well.

In Christ,

Sunday, June 29

First let me say, that the settings of the blog have changed. Anyone can leave a comment now. No pressure, but we wanted you to know that a change had been made.

Today has been a great day. We got a slow start, and everyone slept well last night. Rey picked us up to go to church at about the time that church started. It didn´t matter because, of course, church wouldn´t start without the pastor anyway - welcome to Argentina!

Service started with great praise songs to God. Chad then spoke to the church about the beauty of a Christian marriage. Then we listened to a very powerful testimony by Emma, who grew up in gangs, drugs, without parents and without any hope. She now has a strong marriage, 4 well-adjusted children, and is a business woman. She met Christ 14 years ago (is 41 now), and all of this change was brought through God´s power and after her conversion to the Lord. Can you imagine a child without parents, abused, in drugs, violence, ganges, etc. that turned out this way? Only God can do that. Praise Him!

At the end of church, Chuck presented the church with jerseys so that they can start a new soccer team as a part of their ministry.

Afterwards, we ate some delicious empanadas and pizza, and then headed for the Iron Bridge Community (Puente de Hierra). This is a very poor community where houses are shacks, 11 or 12 people typically live together, etc.... We used the community center/church/prayer house that we helped build over the last two years to hold a children´s service. We divided into 3 teams to go and invite the children and their families to the service.

It was so much fun! The kids sang, watched a puppet show, and shared God´s love through balloons (much like we did yesterday). Those of you that have seen the prayer house over the years should be very pleased with how well-maintained it is, how it has been painted/improved even since last year, and most importantly how well it is being used to serve the Lord in a difficult situation.

We closed the day with prayer, and then back to the hotel.

Sunday, June 29 (Pictures 2)

Chuck presents church with jerseys for new soccer team.

Tyler and Sebastien are friends (after Tyler was hit in the head with Sebastien's piece of wood and rusty nail).

Sebastien and little brother...Daniel(?)

Some girls from the Iron Bridge community in the prayer house.

Pictures 2

Children during church service.

Look they require booster seats in Argentina too!

Frank, Lorena, Marco Daniel (christened this morning), and Lorena's mom laughing.

Saturday, June 28

We would be re-miss to jump into today without letting you know what happened yesterday. As many of you know, we were to leave at 3:05 Friday afternoon. That flight was cancelled for mechanical difficulties which resulted in splitting not only our team, but also the other missions team coming to Argentina into 3 different flights.

Chuck was routed through Chicago with a simple flight plan to get him in by this morning at 9:20 a.m. The other five of us were sent to La Guardia (NY), to take a shuttle to JFK and then arrive this morning at 9:55 a.m. A long story short, the New York crew showed up 2+ hours late to La Guardia causing a delay in their JFK flight, and somehow we still beat Chuck in by about 20 minutes!

We were greeted with an excited smile by Reinaldo, the pastor here in La Plata. Though we were a couple of hours behind our original schedule, we were able to step off to our traditional mall to have a quick lunch. We all got a taste of traditional Argentinean mall food, and then quickly moved on to La Plata, checked into the hotel and went quickly to La Mision Betesda.

A children's program was begun. Marta, Diana and Lorena (a new translator for us this year!) led a great program for the children. The children sang, learned about God's love for them, and created helium-filled balloons that said "Dios te ama" or "Jesus te ama" (God/Jesus loves you). The idea was to teach them that being filled with God's love makes you want to share it with others. We all went outside and released the balloons to share the idea of God's love with others.

After the children left, Rey gathered us together for prayer. He explained that some of these children came from abusive situations, and that at least two of them were regularly beaten. This was amazing based on how much fun the kids seemed to have with the program. We prayed for their safety and God's love/protection for them.

Chaos at La Guardia (waiting for the shuttle with members from the other team)

Richard and Tyler get ready to nap on the plane.

Rey, with Frank and Gray at Hotel La Plata.

The children getting ready to release their witness balloons.

(See blog below for more pictures!!!)

Saturday, June 28 (cont...)

Balloons after their release.

Frank enjoyed handing out candy to the children!

The school children made a welcome banner for us at La Mision Betesda. (It is in English!)

Tyler, Richard and Sergio chill in front of La Mision after the children's program.

Days Leading up to La Plata...

Amazingly, it was just this morning that we finalized our La Plata, Argentina team. We all ask for your prayer support during this trip. Let me introduce you to our team:

Richard Bomar
Chuck Ellingsworth
Chad Jackson
Tyler Jacobus
Gray Lane
Frank Warren

This is a picture of the whole group:

Okay, so the whole group didn't quite show up that Sunday, but we will all be taking off on Friday, June 27th for La Plata and Chascomus, Argentina. Here's a map to give you an idea of where we will be in Argentina.

As you begin to pray for us, please keep the following requests in mind:

Specific Prayer Requests of the Argentina Mission Trip Members

 Humility for the team – willingness to listen, willingness to learn, willingness to leave what is comfortable, willingness to forgive and seek reconciliation with others when needed
 Grace for the team – that our actions and words would be grace-filled to all we come in contact with; that others will know we are Christians by our love
 Boldness/Courage for the team – for us to speak the truth in love, for us encourage those who are discouraged, for us to walk into the “unknown” trusting our Father’s hand
 Patience for the team – Type A personalities from the USA and the Argentine clock don’t seem to mesh well naturally – so we need prayer for our patience with each other and with our very kind hosts when plans don’t seem to go the way we planned (or if there is a plan at all!)
 Hearts of gratitude and thankfulness no matter the situations or conditions that we find ourselves in – pray for the team’s contentment
 Completing our regular work loads at our jobs this week and next in order to be away nine days
 Comfort and care for this group of fathers who will be leaving their toddlers in Memphis these nine days
 Travel logistics – maximum contact time with the Argentinean people (pray for flights to all work out and for us not be delayed in this process)
 Those of us who have been to Argentina will see God’s great work there and the progress of the gospel in this area and that this will result in praise and thanksgiving
 Health of the entire team – it is winter in Argentina and oftentimes the drastic change causes a great deal of illness
 Team to get plenty of rest and when we don’t, we will seek God’s strength all the more to respond with grace to others when we are exhausted
 For us as individual team members to trust Christ in our fears and in those things that stretch us out of our comfort zones
 God’s help in building positive relationships with all people we come in contact with – at the airlines, on the planes, in Argentina, etc. in which bridges for the gospel can go forth
 That God will use this trip for all the men to deepen their relationship to Christ as one and to each other as one, and to be better husbands and fathers
 God would help us with the language barrier and that He would give us excellent recall of all that high school/college Spanish we “learned” a long time ago in our lives
 Please pray that God will use this trip to “enlarge” our Christian world-view of the gospel and “enlarge” our compassion and hearts for those who are in need.
 That the team will be given multiple opportunities to encourage and inspire others at Second when we return to Memphis to consider going on a short-term mission trip.

We will post as often as possible, but will have availability to the internet guided by the Lord.

In Christ,