Merry Christmas!
A Special Thank You for the Special Offering to buy Bibles and Print the Gospel of John Book
This year, while we were in quarantine, I finished preparing a Gospel of John booklet that has a clear plan of salvation, the complete text of the Gospel of John with the beginning steps of discipleship at the end. About a month ago a church, which desired to remain anonymous, had connected with us on what they could do to help us share the Gospel here in Argentina. We mentioned our desire to print these booklets to be able to give to people that we meet.
They had graciously voted to send $1,000 to either print the Gospel booklet or buy Bibles. We will be looking for the best options for getting them printed as soon as possible. This booklet will be a great resource as it could be used not only to visually share the Gospel, but also as a basic study guide for beginning discipleship sessions with someone. On the back of the book there are links to our Podcast as well as our Youtube channel. If we can get somebody plugged into our podcast we can continue to speak the Word of life into their lives. This book is free to download and copy, so if you know anyone in your community that speaks Spanish you can freely share it with them!
We Miss Having Places Like O’Reilly or Autozone
Culture in other countries can be very funny sometimes. We miss the fact that in the US, every town has an Autozone, ABC or some kind of autoparts store. The experience is usually very straightforward. You enter the store, buy your part and leave. Done.
Here in Argentina, in a city of almost one and a half million people, it was very difficult to by the part that we needed for the car recently purchased. When we bought the car, we bought it at a discount, knowing that it was going to need the rear light assembly. When asking whether the part was in stock, the auto parts store did not have one and were unwilling to order one from the factory for fear that the price would change while it was being shipped.
They gave me the number of someone else that might have the part. They did not, but they told me of another that would have the part. They did not but were willing to order it with a 7-10 day wait. I told them to order the part and two weeks later received notice that it came in.
When I arrived with the money to pay for it, they explained that it was not there but at the other location on the other side of town. He printed off the bill for the part and I traveled to the other side of town and was able to get the part that we needed. After several trips and translations, we finally have that part that we need! Praise the Lord!
The Lord Opens Up Opportunities to Share the Gospel
One thing that is nice about a large city like Cordoba is that you have great potential to meet new people. There are many times that you will meet someone for the first time and possibly never see them again. It is a great opportunity to share the Gospel. This month had been no exception! From the people that I get to talk to regularly to people that we met that were selling items for Christmas.
One such person was the green haired young man that came to Cordoba to take college classes right before the pandemic hit. While he was not very interested in making Jesus the Lord of his life, he did listen to the gospel and later I shared the link to our podcast. Pray for him.
Or the taxi driver that was sad when we got to our destination because he was enjoying the discussion. Please pray that the Lord gives us wisdom in all our words, actions and decisions!
Abortion Legalized
At the end of the month, our hearts sank with the knowledge that abortion had been legalized here in the country. Earlier in the month we even saw a notice by two women that wanted to become pregnant just to be the first in line to abort their babies. I am having a hard time even writing this paragraph without tears in my eyes over the evil rebellion in the heart of people. Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
Thoughts from Stacie
Thank You for making our Christmas so Special!
Christmas is usually an unsure time of year and some years are a little tighter than others. Our children are really sweet though and are always excited for Christmas no matter how many gifts are under the tree.
This year because of several generous Christmas offerings we received we were able to get some really special gifts for not only our children here in Argentina but also to send a little something special to our State side children as well.
The five children here were especially excited a couple of days before Christmas when we gave each of them money to go out and buy gifts for me and Scott. I think they might have been more excited for us to open our gifts than they were to open theirs.
Christmas Eve we set out their gifts after they were in bed and Christmas morning they set our gifts around the tree. After our Christmas morning Bible reading where we read about the birth of Jesus from the book of Luke and Matthew, they wanted us to open our gifts from them first.