Tickets Purchased
We are very thankful to have our tickets purchased for returning to the US for our first furlough.
There are three main focuses that we plan on accomplishing during our time in the US is to:
1. See family that we have not seen in a long time.
2. Take care of the business end that is behind the scenes, such as renewing passports, drivers licences and many etceteras following.
3. Visit with as many of the churches as possible that have been holding us up in prayer during our first term.
We plan on arriving in the the US on the 20th of September and returning to Cordoba on the 16th of February.
(Interesting trivia side note: It was on February 16th of 1992 that I accepted the Lord and was saved!)
Gospel of John booklets sent off to be printed
This is a project that we have worked on and tweaked and re-edited several times during the last couple of years. At the time of this report we have worked back and forth performing minor layout edits and are waiting for the final product to come back to us. When the books are finished we will have 1000 copies in this first printing. We are very excited about the possibilities of having them in our hands to be able to use. They will be a wonderful blessing!
“Nobody is doing this!”
Most people prepare a book to be printed in order to sell it. When the printer brought me a sample copy of the “Gospel of John” booklet, he told me how impressed he was with not only the completeness of the content of the book but the fact that we are planning on giving this work away for free. He told me, “none of the other groups are doing anything like this.” People are many times unaccustomed to something of value being freely offered without any personal ulterior motive. Our motive is that people come to know Jesus as Savior and to begin to walk with Him in a life of discipleship.
A Lot to Get Finished Up Before Flying Out
We have been busy getting preparations arranged for both leaving the field for 5 months as well as planning our time there. We are thankful for a landlord who is very flexible in allowing us to pay our rent and many expenses in advance and to keep an eye on things for us while we will be gone. We will be continuing our language classes and the kids’ violin classes by Zoom while we are in the US. It will be very important for us to maintain contact with individuals here in Argentina while we are away so as to not go backwards too much during our absence from the place. We are planning to keep our podcast audio messages going out on the normal schedule while we are on furlough. The idea of being back in the US for only 5 months and getting all accomplished that we are planning feels daunting to say the least, but we have a great big God that daily strengthens us with His presence.
“My mother is blind. I will share your audio messages with her.”
This is what the friendly delivery driver told me after I handed him one of our flyers and shared a little about Jesus. He got really excited that we had so much available to scan and listen to. He explained to me that his mother was blind and liked listening to messages. He also told me that they were Jehovah Witnesses. Please pray for them that they may hear the truth and believe. Here in Argentina we have met several people who affiliated as a Jehovah Witness that had no idea what their church taught. Once a Jehovah Witness had knocked on my door and argued with me saying that he believed that Jesus was God in the flesh and that he was sure that they didn’t teach otherwise.
“I really like the flyer that you gave me.”
One day last week, my daughter and I went to a shop downtown that I had not been to in a few months. The man that works there had mentioned to me that gone through some of the messages that were on the flyer. Please pray for the salvation of people to whom we are speaking. Many times we will share the message with people around us and not know whether or not we are making an impact. Keep faithful in your part of the world sharing the most important message that has ever been written!
Thoughts from Stacie
It’s hard to know how to prepare for future events as plans can change so quickly. I didn’t want to get my hopes up about our first furlough. It almost looked like we might not be able to go on furlough this year. We’ve lived here in Argentina three years and we really need to come back and see our family. We were advised to go ahead and get our tickets. If we wait for a “perfect” time to travel it may never come. Then again it could even get worse. Now that we have our tickets we are able to focus on getting ready to travel.
It’s surreal to think that in only a few weeks we will be back in the United States. Pray for us as we will need to stay healthy and all 7 of us need to pass the Covid Tests in order to fly out.
Homeschooling and Flexible Schedule
One advantage we have for travel and ministry is Homeschool flexibility. We are able to travel really any time of the year and not have to worry about the kids missing school because we can homeschool anywhere any time. Our children have grown so much in the past three years. We are looking forward to picking them up some more curriculum that we will be able to use during our second term.
The only classes we will be missing will be the older children’s band classes but we will be returning to Argentina at the perfect time for the children to start band again in the new year. We will also miss the Homeschool Co-op that we were helping with but we’ll be starting a new year and semester of the co-op after our return. We’re really only missing a couple of months before the Argentine summer break begins.
Difference in Seasons
In August we had some really cold days of Winter and a few warm days. It’s hard to adjust to sudden temperature changes. Probably one of the crazy things we’re trying to anticipate is that we will be leaving Argentina in the Spring and arriving in the United States in the Fall all within a 24 hour period. Then in February we’ll be doing the same thing. We’ll be leaving the United States towards the end of winter and arriving in Argentina the end of Summer. Please pray for us as we really won’t have a lot of time for our bodies to adjust before we jump into another change.
Bonus Pictures
