July 2021 Report – The Maness Family

So much to write about! God is so good!

A hot cup of coffee on a cold day

Sharing the message of the Lord many times begins with simple actions and gestures. One of the people on our list that gets our podcast messages is the water man. Each week he deliveres water to our door and has been receiving our audio messages since June last year. We always have a few moments to talk. One freezing day this month, when answering the door, I presented him a hot fresh cup of coffee. Please pray for him and his family.

First time to be able to drive outside of the city

After about a 10 month wait, we were able to get our papers for our car in 3 days! We were able to leave out of town for a couple of days and visit the countryside. The kids had such a fun time being able to do simple things like throwing a ball in the yard and playing in the dirt. We had an opportunity to share the gospel with the owner of the the AirBnB where we were staying. Please pray for him! He considers himself as a modern Argentine, meaning that he sees a relationship with God as something from his grandparents’ generation.

He did tell me that he suspected that there is more to having a relationship with God as he once had somebody working for him that had a bad drug addiction but broke the addiction after coming to Christ. He was receptive to receiving the podcast messages each week. Please pray that God will use one of the messages to help him to know the Lord!

Travel Fund has been provided

We received a couple of special offerings this month that helped us reach the goal we set for being able to go on furlough. Please pray for us as we are looking at dates and pricing tickets for our trip back to the US.

A month of immigration meetings

Here in Argentina there is a two week winter break in the middle of July. The government lifted the quarantine just in time for people take their vacations. Before we left the city Stacie and I stopped by immigrations again and were told to come back the following week. So after got back from our trip, we went back the following week and were told to come back with all our children two days later. That led to a whole afternoon with them still stuck on one part of our paperwork. They needed to close so they then told us they will email on Friday to let us know what we need to do.

Immigration papers hand delivered to our Door!

The next day after spending all Thursday afternoon at immigrations someone came to our door. We were surprised to see the lady that was working on our case the day before. She had brought our papers to us. We were so suprised. She really didn’t explain what had happened but the papers say “Permanent resident” on them so it looks like we have recieved the status and are now just waiting to receive our ID cards.

“I Love Podcasts!” the next day a new subscriber

We are constantly looking for opportunities to hand out flyers. We stopped at every store we had frequented during our stay out of town just to say “goodbye” and give them a flyer with free Bible Study lessons if they want to learn more.

These flyers have really been well received by the people we give them to. One Sunday afternoon we gave one to a delivery driver and he excitedly declared he loved podcasts. The next day there was a new subscriber. It might not be the same person but the audience is growing. Each time a person listens to our podcast they are receiving the gospel. We know God’s Word never returns void. Please pray for each one that they will listen and take the next steps.

Thoughts from Stacie

Lockdown Lifted
When we sent our report in June we were dealing with new lockdowns and things being closed. Schools were closed, extracurricular activities were halted. However just as tight as things were closed up in June things opened back up in July.

National Holidays
We celebrated 3 special holidays in July. One of the days celebrates the founding of the province of Cordoba. Which is the province we live in. Then for the 4th of July we celebrated our United States Indpendence Day. Then the 9th of July is Independence Day in Argentina. We celebrated each of these by adding new flags to our collection. The top two flags pictured are the US and the Argentine Flags and the lower two flags are the Texas and Cordoba flags. Each of these places have a special place in our hearts.

Friends Day
Argentina also celebrates Friends Day in July. Scott and I have been enjoying taking some traditional Argentine Folk Classes together. We enjoyed dressing up for Friends Day with the rest of the class. If you want to learn the language and culture of an area it really helps to jump in and find new things to do that forces yourself to interact with normal everyday people. Being willing to step out of our comfort zones and make new friends opens many doors to share the gospel.

Winter Vacation
Scott mentioned above that we were able to rent an AirBnB and spend a few days outside of the city. Where we live we do not have a yard. So whenever we are put under lockdown by the government there isn’t many places for the kids to play. When we heard the lockdown was to be lifted for vacations we took that opportunity to escape the city. (By the way: Driving by Kilometers Per Hour is very intimidating.)

The kids really loved being able to go outside without masks and play as much as they wanted during our get away. It was even safe enough for Joanna to go outside by herself. Freedom and safety is such a precious thing that many take for granted.

Music Classes Resumed

When we returned from our trip we were happy that things remained open. All of the children’s band and violin classes started back up and in person classes resumed. Things aren’t quite the same as they used to be before the pandemic but we are trying to take any opportunity the Lord allows us to get to know people and share the gospel.

Special Offerings

I want to thank everyone that has sent me love offerings. I have received them and will try to send out some Thank You notes. Mailing a letter here is quite a process so I hope to maybe get them all taken care of at once. If not I will try to catch up on letters when we go on furlough. Thank you for all the encouragement, love, and support you have shown us.