August 2023 Report

Posted on September 6, 2023 by Anastacia Maness

Renting and Furnishing a Meeting Place

Legal negotiation roller-coaster!

**Until we get the legal permit for public meetings, we have been meeting in the office section each week for a time of prayer and reflection in the Word of God.**

Renting a place in Argentina is a very involved process. While some laws here, such as traffic laws, don’t seem to have anyone following the rules, other things are meticulously followed. It took about three weeks of going back and forth with the realtors and owner to come to a rental contract that we all could agree on. Many times living in a foreign country is like riding a roller-coaster in the dark; you are never quite sure what will be around the next corner.

We were able to get everything sorted out and on the 16th of August we set up a time to hand over a briefcase full of money! We now have the building paid for the next three years and are just waiting on the city office to inspect the building to give us the document that we need for insurance stating our maximum capacity. We have already been enjoying the use of the building. I have my office almost completely set up and just took delivery of 20 new strong cushioned chairs for the sanctuary. During the next three years that we have this location we would like to be saving up in the mission account in order to purchase a permanent place. The Lord knows and is already working!

***My office is set up to be both an inviting place to meet with people, teach a class, record a video lesson, audio message or just read the Good Book!***

Meeting neighbors next to the meeting place

We have already had opportunities to talk to several people in the neighborhood. There has been a lot of curiosity about us and what we are working on. So far, the responses have been very favorable to us beginning a Bible study in this location. One lady that owns a business next to our place, told me that she had been away from the Lord, but has been wanting to get back to serving the Lord. We ended up staying for about an hour and a half visiting. One person saw me bringing chairs in and thought that I might be going into business selling furniture. LOL I had an opportunity to share what we were really doing and tell him about Jesus.

~Thoughts from Stacie~

We have been so busy this month with preparing the new location that I decided to take a short break from writing my page of the report. But don’t worry “Thoughts from Stacie” will be back with even more things to talk about next month.
~Stacie

Bonus Pictures

One of the things that I wanted for my office was a giant sized whiteboard!

Fire extinguisher and First aid kit for the building!

I had asked some of our friends here to recommend a plant that I couldn’t kill for my office!

Water cooler and pantry for the meeting place!

Getting little details fixed!

Teaching a watercolor painting class for the Homeschool Coop.

July 2023 Report

Posted on August 6, 2023 by Anastacia Maness

June 2023

Posted on July 7, 2023 by Anastacia Maness

God is so good!

Finished renewing our immigration paperwork for another year!

***The kids have learned to make the best of our time waiting in line at the immigration office!***

After several trips and visits to immigration we got our temporary residency for another year. We will need to do this for three years before we are able to transfer our status to permanent. We almost didn’t recognize the place since they had painted their office.

Hymn Books and Gospels

We are very thankful to our sending church for shipping out a large box of John and Romans and some English hymn books! When we have a Bible study with Argentines we always sing in Spanish but when my family is having private devotionals together we like to sing in English as well. Before today we did not have enough English hymn books to share, but now we do! Thank you to our pastor and a special thank you to Victory MBC in Russelville Arkansas for hand delivering them down to us in Argentina! In addition to several gospels of John and Romans, we also ordered several full Bibles and soul winner’s New Testaments.

I am probably more excited than an individual ought to be but have great plans to wear out this little soul winner’s New Testament pictured above! It is much smaller and lighter than my regular Bible and able to be carried more places.

The picture shows the John and Romans booklets. They were some of the leftovers from the Birmingham, Alabama outreach. All that we need to do is change out the covers!

Building relationships in order to share Christ

**A special thank you to brother Lance and brother Kevin for dedicating their time to come and bless us!**

In the picture above you can see standing next to me, one of the guys from the music class on Thursday. The kids also have several friends at band that they are trying to win to the Lord. Please pray for the seeds that we are sowing. Please pray for this man and several others like him with whom myself and my kids are speaking to during the week.

Great visit at the end of the month

**Translating the message and Sunday School for our guests from the US**

In this picture and one above are the two members from Victory in Russelville, Arkansas that were sent to visit and fellowship with us at the end of the month. Words cannot fully express what their visit meant to us! We had a great time showing them the city of Cordoba and some of its 1.5 million people. There is so much work to be done here and so many people that need the Lord!

They asked us the question, “what are your greatest needs that we can help with?” I told them that our greatest physical need right now is a place to meet that we can purchase and have as a fixed location. Any special offerings could be designated as “meeting place”. We are open to God’s plan as to where He would have us to have fixed services. While our guests were with us, we showed them about 10 different locations that we would love to see a scriptural church!

~Thoughts from Stacie~

Conversation Starters

Sometimes we can use our hobbies as great conversation starters. I usually don’t even have to say much. I just pull out whatever crochet project I’m working on and people start asking me questions. Scott has had this same response to his leatherwork as well. One conversation leads to the conversation about where we are from and why we are here. I am currently working on a temperature blanket. I’m considering other projects to start just for the conversations I can have with people, so stayed tuned.

Homeschool Continues

No summer break for our kids in June since it is the middle of the school year here. It is easier to keep our homeschool schedule in line with their Argentine friends. The kids enjoy their co-op classes and we’ve been working hard on math and reading. They’ve been growing and learning a lot. Although it was strange to see so many U.S. friends graduating while schools are still in session here.

***The kids finished another semester of classes at our Homeschool Coop***

Gym Membership

Hannah and Jonathan wanted to join a gym here in Argentina. They are very interested in health and fitness. They said they wanted some experience with gyms before one day returning to the states and being clueless. I’m not about to let my babies join a gym without adult supervision so I agreed to join the gym with them. This not only helps them to have experience in a gym but also motivates me to get more exercise as well.

Women’s Retreat

Also in June, Hannah and I attended a Women’s Retreat with the ladies of Templo Bautista. I was blessed with the opportunity to bring a devotional the first night. We had a lot of fun and enjoyed some great fellowship with the other ladies.

Retreats like this one are a great way to immerse in the culture, use our Spanish, and to make friends with other ladies. The more we learn at these retreats, the better prepared we will be when the Lord opens the doors for us to possibly host a retreat of our own someday.

Opportunities through Music

We have had some great opportunities musically. Scott and the children have been building relationships with other band members. The kids invited a lot of the young people they are friends with to a Youth Night at Templo. One of the goals of our children and other christian friends they have in the band is to win the lost ones to Jesus.

Bible Memorization in Spanish

Templo Bautista where we’ve been attending on Sunday Mornings encourages the youth and adults to memorize scriptures. Each month the children go to the front of the church to quote verses they learned with their classes.

Joshua’s Birthday

Our eldest son, Joshua, turned 25 this past month. We enjoy getting to call and talk to him and our daughter Ruth through a video call. They were celebrating his birthday at my parents house. We don’t hear from him often but it was nice to see his face and hear some of the plans he has been making for the future.

Preparing for Guests from the U.S.

Through the month of June we anticipated a visit a couple of members from Victory Baptist Church in Russelville, Arkansas. Joanna kept telling me throughout the month that she was nervous of their visit because she didn’t know who they were. I assured her they would be nice. The kids were all a bit shy the first day they arrived but warmed up to them quickly. It was like having family visit.

They engaged the kids in great conversations and even let Joanna teach them how to play a hand clapping game “Miss Mary Mack”. We took them all over the city and shared with them the blessings and challenges we’ve had here in Argentina. We truly enjoyed their visit. The children all expressed how sad they were to see them leave.

Messed Up Side Walks

Well we didn’t have a camera ready to get a good picture of my ungraceful fall one day earlier in the month as we were hurrying to music practice. When I am in a hurry and have my hands full “little” things like unexpected holes in the sidewalk will trip me up. It brought back memories of our first year here and the fall I had in 2018. Thankfully I am stronger now and I was only a little bruised up this time.

Bonus Pictures

First time to find a jalapeño in Argentina!

The boys decided to have a pepper eating contest!

We had a lot of fun making an “asado” for our guests. An asado is an Argentine Barbecue!

First fire of the year in the fireplace. The weather has begun to drop as we move closer to winter!

May 2023 Report

Posted on June 4, 2023 by Anastacia Maness

Did a month go by already?

Preparing for group coming to visit us!

***Stacie and I created a travel guide filled with interesting information and tips for groups or individuals who may decide to come visit us here in Cordoba, Argentina.*** (Click on the Picture to view the PDF of the flyer.)

We are excited about having a couple of members from Victory MBC in Russelville, AR come to visit us at the end of June. Their church made an initiative to send their members to visit all of the mission points that they support. What a great way to personally take part in the great commission for a local New Testament church!

Goodbye to Gluttony

About a month ago, my wife and I radically tried something new on our diet to try to take better control of our health to fix current challenges and prevent future problems. For over a month we have cut out almost all carbs and changed our meal times to two meals per day: one meal around noon and another about 7:00 PM. (The kids are still eating normal food and normal mealtimes.) So far we have been feeling amazing and have really enjoyed the results. Health is not everything that the world thinks that it is. This world worships the body and health as did the ancient Greeks, but God would have us to maintain the bodies that he gave us so that we can work better for Him! This paragraph is not a judgment upon anybody else’s food struggles we are just sharing some of our own.

Renewing our Visa

We have begun the long process again of getting our yearly immigrations requirements finished. There was an Argentine pastor that just took his yearly trip to Buenos Aires to handle his and told us how much faster it is to go in person. With that in mind I took my son, Jonathan, and we determined that we would get a cheap ticket to BA and back and try to get it finished. We were impressed with the giant building where the “Minister of the Cults” had his office. The secretary told us however that we were in the wrong place.

She said that the office for “non Catholic” churches was across the street. We found the little tiny worn out office and was told that we could only do the renewal process online. They were friendly at least! That same day we tried to recover my wife’s package that we talked about last month. We were unsuccessful even though we spent half the day trying. The trip wasn’t a complete loss however as we had brought a suitcase full of gospel booklets and came back empty after talking with several individuals. I also had a great time with my son at the same time. We have filed our papers and are waiting to get a reply back from the minister of the cults… Update: As we were preparing this report we got our signed letter back! On to the next step!
(I think that the other pastor could renew in person because he was Argentine and not doing it for visa renewal.) All is in God’s hands and we are thankful for the many people that we were able to talk to during our couple days there!

Lizard People?

While sharing the gospel in Buenos Aires, I found a very talkative gentleman that had lots of questions about the Bible. In Argentina as in the US there are several people that watch too many Youtube conspiracy videos and read the books that they put out. In his view, all of the world rulers were Jewish, Illuminati Lizard people. Reading books is good and I read very wide, but make sure that you don’t put more weight in man’s books than in “The Book”!

“The pope used to pass by here.”

As we were in Buenos Aires, we stopped into a barber shop to get my hair cut. (Long overdue as my normal barber quit.) Barber shops are great places to share the gospel (even if they do have a strait razor to your throat) and soon we were in a great conversation about Jesus. He had asked me at one point what I thought of the current Pope Francis. I told him that I had never met the man personally. He told me that before he was pope, he used to pass by his barbershop, walking, but then added that he never did get a haircut from him.The pope used to pass by here.”

“I read the whole book.”

There is a young man that is a member of Templo Bautista that recently surrendered to the ministry. He told me the other day that he read our gospel booklet cover to cover and listened to several of the messages that the QR codes go to. In the gospel books there are resources on two main themes: Salvation and Christian obligation (what to do after you’re saved) Our gospel booklet covers all of our doctrinal statements! Pray for this young man in his ministry.

Please continue to pray that God would provide in His time, the perfect place to meet!

Thank you for your prayers and support!

~Thoughts from Stacie~

What do the Kids think about our new diet?

Since Scott already talked about how we’ve changed our way of eating for our health’s sake, I thought I would just share how this affects the rest of the family. The children are still eating basically the same although we have included more vegetables in their diet as well. For instance if we have a salad for a meal we make sure to prepare enough for them to have some as a side dish to whatever they are eating.

Several times they mentioned how much easier it has been for them to figure out what to eat since whatever has bread or rice in or on it is theirs. They also don’t have to worry about saving food for us as we fix our own separate meal each day before they fix their lunch. The kids are happy and have been learning more about health and fitness. Our eating better actually helps them make better choices as well. We also started providing more fruits and vegetables for the kids and save the ice cream and cookies for special occasions.

Hannah’s Doctors Visits

Hannah had a couple of doctor visits this month. The medical doctor we went to told us that some people are more sensitive to certain changes like standing up too fast or overheating. He said all of her lab work and everything else looks normal but she needs to make sure she doesn’t skip meals and to not stand up too fast from a sitting position. There are a couple of more tests on her heart that we are going to have done just to be completely sure but it looks like she’s fine and just needs to watch out for the activities that trigger these spells she’s had. The doctor also gave her a letter of health saying she was able to participate in any athletic activities at the gym. She and Jonathan are both wanting to start exercising more. I plan to go with them when they do start going to the gym to make sure they don’t overdo and hurt themselves.

Mother’s Day

Here in Argentina Mother’s Day is celebrated in October. But since we are from the United States we celebrate both the U.S. Mother’s Day and Argentine. I had a good day. We spent the day at home listening to the Mother’s Day sermons online. I also took Scott and Jonathan to the airport that morning which is why I decided we would stay home instead of our normal Sunday morning routine.

Scott and Jonathan Travel to Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires is such a big, busy place. If you read our report from last month you will see that Hannah and I went to Buenos Aires the previous month to try to get a package that was stuck there in customs. Scott talks about his experience there on his page. I haven’t completely given up on that package. It’s not going anywhere I just need to keep bugging them to get it out of customs.

Fall Concerts and Recitals

We have come to the end of fall and we enjoyed getting to hear the kids perform in fall concerts. Jonathan had his concert towards the beginning of May. Hannah and Elijah had a recital in the middle of the month. Then Elisabeth and Joanna ended the month with their violin concert. They are all doing so well at their instruments. It’s fun to watch them grow and learn.

Joanna’s First Lost Tooth

Our youngest daughter Joanna had her first loose tooth. Here in Argentina instead of a tooth fairy they have a mouse called “Raton Perez” that comes and takes the teeth from under pillows. However I found it much easier to just skip the middle fairy (or mouse) and just give my kids their money immediately. I know it’s not traditional but it saves me from forgetting about it.

Homeschool Co-op Field Trip

The last Friday of each month we get together with other Homeschool families. The parents take turns teaching classes for the children and then afterwards we eat lunch together and sometimes we go on a field trip together. This year we went to an outdoor park that used to be a zoo. When it was a zoo it was sadly run down and the animals weren’t well cared for. The government had the location completely renovated. We visited it with the other homeschool families in the co-op. It was set up like a zoo but without the animals just pictures and videos. The kids did enjoy spending time with their friends at least.

Elisabeth’s Birthday

Elisabeth turned 11 years old this past month. She had a great day filled with eating out, playing games at an arcade, and ice cream. We also went to a nearby town to watch Hannah’s clarinet teacher perform in a concert at a museum. When we arrived back home Elisabeth opened her presents and we watched a movie. She seemed to really enjoy her day.

Bonus Pictures

This store in the neighborhood where we live advertises that they sell idols that don’t break! At the bottom it says that they are ideal so that your kids can know who Jesus is.

As you can see there is a lot of work to do here and the challenges are great! Pray that we might reach the people where they are and help them to know that you don’t connect to Jesus through an image!

In front of the “casa rosada”, the equivalent of our “white house”, some people have built a shack in protest demanding an audience with the president!

The sign says that they have been there for two years and three months!

Joanna made a life size “Elsa” out of a “Frozen” popcorn bucket. Something like this standing in the living room can really startle a person in the morning!

April 2023 Report

Posted on May 5, 2023 by Anastacia Maness

Packages, the mail, flat tire, sharing the gospel and doctor visits

Packages and the Argentine mail

Card and church bulletin that we received from White Oak Baptist Church in Nancy, KY

Thank you for your prayers!

Mail in Argentina is a crazy thing! Some items will come through with no problems while other things get stuck in customs or some other unknown place. During the month we received a card and church bulletin from White Oak in Nancy, KY. Words can not express what this meant to me. The card was great, but it was the inclusion of the church bulletin that really affected my heart! Someone thought to include us by adding the bulletin. It is hard to explain in words what it meant to me personally. Thank you for sharing your Sunday service with us!

On another occasion we received a package for my wife from the “Missionary Wives Assistance Corps” head up by sister Toni Shockey. Even though it took my wife about 5 trips to be able to pick up the package, it was a great blessing to get the package in the mail.

There is still another package downtown that we have not been able to retrieve. After we received a notice under our door, I took a trip down to the center the next day to try to retrieve it, when they told me to come back as the delivery man still had it. I came back again the next day with the same advice given to me. A few days later I came back and was told that I needed to declare the total value of the contents and pay the customs. As I had no clue as to the contents or the sender, the agent apparently made up a number and told me to create an online account, fill out the information and pay the fee online. (“There is no option now to pay the fee in cash”, he said in Spanish.) In the post office I created an account on my phone, filled in the information and tried to pay, and then tried to pay again, and again. He could not explain why the payment just said that it was in transit, but told me that when it was paid, then the package would be released for pickup. A few days later we tried again from the computer with different browsers but with the same errors. Not sure where we will go next on that process.

My wife will share on the next page another package experience that involved even more!

We are very thankful for everything that has been sent but please contact us before sending a package especially something that is valuable or irreplaceable!

Flat tire and sharing the gospel

We took a trip one weekend to a neighboring town to meet people, change the scenery and pass out gospel booklets in that town. While we were there we had a flat tire that we had to have repaired. Due to the need for repairing the tire, it required two special trips to get the tire fixed. On both occasions, God gave me an opportunity to share the gospel with lost sinners in need of salvation that is only in Christ Jesus!

Several doctor visits

Hannah scared us one day when she wasn’t feeling well. It started with her having an upset stomach and then her hands and arms cramped followed by a slight cramping in her legs. It took a good bit for the cramping to loosen up. She’s fainted in the past when she was dehydrated or overheated but this time was different so we took her immediately to the hospital. The doctors ran quite a few tests and found her healthy but recommended she see a couple of specialists. The general consensus is that she probably went too long between meals and needs to be careful to eat and drink enough. She’s been doing a lot better since she’s been taking better care of herself. We will update in our next report on the outcome of her visits with the specialists.

Please continue to pray that God would provide in His time, the perfect place to meet!
Thank you for your prayers and support!

~Thoughts from Stacie~

Troubles with Customs

Way back before Scott had his short trip to the States, I ordered some tea and a few other items from a reputable company that said it delivered to Argentina. I realized shipping would be expensive and I would most likely have to pay customs on the items since but I thought since I was using a delivery company it would at least arrive in my town and I could deal with customs here. I watched the tracking and saw it arrived at the delivery company in Buenos Aires but got stuck in customs. So they cannot deliver it to Cordoba. I could either abandon the package or go to Buenos Aires directly. Well, I’m a little too stubborn to just abandon the package that easily.

Trip to Buenos Aires

We had too much going on with our schedule for a family trip so I decided this would make a nice opportunity to go on a mother/daughter trip with Hannah. This will probably be Hannah’s last year here in Argentina and I thought we could make it a bit of a sight seeing adventure while also getting my package. We found a good price for two way plane tickets to BA and I made a 2 night reservation at the hotel there. We tried to get the package but there seems to be some kind of process the delivery company has to go through and I have to pay the customs fee all because I bought “too much” tea. If it had been a non-food item it would have been a simpler thing. Even though we weren’t able to bring home the package, we had fun sightseeing and it was nice having a stress free plane ride.

Easter Shopping

We have a tradition of buying new dress clothes to wear for Easter Sunday. After Hannah and I got back to Cordoba from our short trip, we decided to divide and conquer. Scott took the boys suit shopping and I took the girls dress shopping. We had to go to different stores because there really isn’t one store that sells it all. We found Hannah’s skirt and blouse at one store, and then Joanna’s and Elisabeth’s dresses at another store.

Scott found the boys suits and him a new suit coat at another store. Then finally I went out and found myself a new black dress. We would normally do more pastels for Easter but since Easter is in the fall here we went for more fall/winter colors since we’re going into winter.

Hannah’s Scare

The day after we went shopping Hannah woke up with her stomach feeling funny. The evening before we had soup for supper. She didn’t feel well so she was afraid to eat but she drank quite a bit of water because she has had problems passing out from not drinking enough and standing up too fast. She threw up a little but hadn’t eaten breakfast so we thought she should try some crackers and see if that would help her stomach.

As she went to pick up a cracker her hand started cramping followed by the other hand. Then the cramping progressed up her arm. We weren’t sure what was going on but decided it was best to get her to the private hospital in our neighborhood. Scott went and got the car from the garage while I tried to calm her down. She was conscious the whole time so the doctors don’t believe it was a seizure. All of the tests they ran on her heart and all came back normal so they think this happened because she went too long without eating. They are probably right but to be on the safe side we decided to go ahead and make the appointments with the specialist and other doctors. We’ll update next month on how those tests go.

Easter Sunday

Easter Sunday we attended the services of Templo Bautista. It was nice having new clothes to wear to church. We don’t buy dress clothes often but this time of year is a good time to do so. The venders understand a little better when you’re shopping is “extravagant” for a special occasion.

Weekend Get-a-way

We feel a lot of stress sometimes as missionaries. I think Scott and I feel it more than the children. There are certain “symptoms” that come on us emotionally that we have to catch. When the signs of stress start showing Scott and I talk about where we need to go and start planning a weekend away from our norm to reset. Only a couple of nights away somehow puts us back into a better state of mind and encourages us as we move forward with what God has for us here. It also gives us opportunities to meet people outside of town and share the gospel with them. There is always the possibility that the Lord could open more doors outside our normal city life.

The Phone Call

While we were in another town we received a call from Malvinas Argentinas. Someone had an accident and they were needing money. Another problem we have as Americans is people seeing us as the solution to all their financial problems. The call greatly confused us as we still care about them however they had made it clear before that they had no desire to communicate with us at all. But thankfully we were out of town when they called so they would have to wait for us to get home the next day. That gave us time to think about how to handle the situation. They managed to resolve their financial problem within the family and we didn’t have to have the hard conversation that it looked like we were about to have.

Bonus Pictures

One of the normal strange sights that you will see in Cordoba, Argentina!

Thankful to be able to be a blessing to a sister here in Argentina by repairing and recovering her worn out hymnal!

A hymnal is something that is not easily replaceable as most hymnals in Argentina are spiral bound with only the words. They are not normally available for sale with the music included. To have her book brought to a better than new condition was something that she did not know was possible.

Enjoyed getting to preach to the men’s fellowship in Colombia by Zoom!

March 2023 Report

Posted on April 2, 2023 by Anastacia Maness

February 2023 Report

Posted on March 11, 2023 by Anastacia Maness

January 2023 Report

Posted on February 2, 2023 by Anastacia Maness

December 2022

Posted on January 5, 2023 by Anastacia Maness

At the beginning of the month we had the last concert that Hannah, Jonathan and Elijah were in. We prepared gift bags that had several treats and gospel booklets in them. It was great getting to share the gospel with several that day!

Dirty Ice

We had been buying bags of ice from the store next to our house because of the heat. After about a week of using the Ice for our water, we noticed that there was a lot of nasty floaties in the water when the ice melted. We are not sure if that was a contributing factor in us getting sick or not.

Two Weeks of Sickness

During the middle of this month we had sickness that even shut down our midweek service for a week as I was sick at the same time as the family where we are meeting. I was sick for the first week and as I was getting better Stacie became sick. Thankfully as I write this we all are better and are diligent in His service.

A Short Rest

We had planned since last month to rent a house outside of town for a couple of days. The time that we went fell at the time that I was recovering from the sickness and Stacie was starting with it. The change of scenery was a blessing for the kids, even if only for a few days! Cordoba has been very hot lately, over 100º and in the house it gets very hot some days. Where we went had a nice breeze blowing throughout the day as it was on a lake in the mountains.

Cursed by False Prophets but Blessed by God

Continue to pray for the next door neighbor where we are meeting. She had a meeting at her home where she called her false prophet pastors to pronounce a curse upon us and on our Bible study on Wednesday night and upon the family where we are meeting. About this same time four of the people in their family became sick and it looked like we would not be able to have our special Christmas outreach. This took place on the Friday before Christmas. We prayed! They prayed and read scripture! The next day I received a phone call from them letting me know that they were all feeling better the next morning and they all wanted to still have the meeting that evening and not let Satan have the victory

We spent the rest of the day getting things ready and had the best meeting ever! We even prepared a gift basket for the lady next door that had been so vile to them and to us! Jesus had the victory for the evening!

The sky is falling! The sky is falling!

Thankfully my kids are hard headed! towards the end of the month the plaster fell from the ceiling on into the middle of the dinning room table while the kids were eating lunch. The roof as already been fixed at the time that I am writing this but you never know what each day will include.

Thoughts from Stacie

End of Year Band Concert and Last Violin Class for the Year

The beginning of December we had all of our end of year concerts and parties with the band and violin classes we are taking. Scott and the older three children had an end of year concert and the younger girls and I had our final violin class for the year. We made our last class special by having the rest of the family bring their instruments and we played Christmas songs with our violin teacher.

Weekend Getaway at the Lake House

Even though Scott still had a cough we decided to go ahead and escape the big city and head to the lake house. The last time we visited the lake house was about three years ago. It was good to get out of the dusty city and enjoy some fresh air. It was beautiful weather and Scott started feeling better. Then I started coming down with the same symptoms he had. Getting sick was not in our plans for the month.

Soccer – Argentina won the World Cup

Most of December was filled with excitement as Argentina competed for the FIFA World Championship. Soccer is super important in the culture here. It’s bigger than the Super Bowl in the U.S. People here practically worship their favorite players and when Argentina won it was like all the problems of the world were solved in that final victory.

Soccer – Argentina won the World Cup

Christmas Shopping

We want to thank all the churches that sent us special Christmas offerings. We were able to not only buy gifts for our children but it also helped us to take them out Christmas shopping as well. Letting them shop for each other and us has been a tradition that we all love. It’s fun to see what each one picks out for everyone. Then they also get to go out and buy gifts for us. The special offerings helped us be able to give them enough money to buy gifts they knew everyone would truly enjoy. It is also fun for us to see how much older they are getting in their gift selections.

A Christmas Blessing

We almost thought we weren’t going to be able to have the special Christmas Eve celebration when several people from our Bible Study in Malvinas Argentinas fell sick. The Friday before Christmas we found out about those who were sick and also heard the sad story of the neighbor who had the elders from her church come curse the Bible Study and the home where we’ve been meeting.

Scott asked the ones who were having problems with their neighbor to read Nehemiah who went through a similar situation while repairing the temple. That night I prayed for special Christmas blessing for our brothers and sisters in Malvinas Argentinas asking God to bless them more than the others wanted them cursed. The next day as we were preparing the baskets to deliver to the families we received the news that they were all feeling better and wanted to continue with the plans for the Christmas Eve celebration.

Happy New Year!

We ended 2022 with thirteen in attendance in our Wednesday night Bible Study. We discussed goals and the possibilities for the New Year. In 2023 we would love to find a better place to meet and to add another service on Sundays. Please continue to pray that the Lord opens the doors as we continue to seek His will.

Bonus Pictures

One Sunday the church in Cordoba where we visit asked Scott to translate for some special guests from the U.S.

It was Bro. Victor’s first time to have someone translate his sermon.

First time to preach in a gaucho poncho! It was a cool evening and our host passed us out coats to keep us warm!

Preparing Christmas gift baskets for people in our neighborhood and for our Christmas outreach!

November 2022

Posted on December 9, 2022 by Anastacia Maness

She that goeth forth and weepeth!

One of the ladies in our Wednesday night Bible study has been going up and down the streets in her neighborhood and inviting her neighbors. She would share with the people that she met, (bearing the precious seed), and weep and pray over the lost souls in her community! She truly has a heart like Jeremiah (Mine eye affecteth mine heart… Lm 3:51) It is a blessing to be able to encourage such people with the Word of God! After only three months of meeting we have been running 14 in attendance consistently. (Seven in my family and seven besides!)

May all of our hearts look to His promise and be soul winners!

She chose to be with us on Wednesday night!

Last month we shared about the lady that lived next door to the family where we are meeting and how the false prophets in the neighborhood had pressured her to not spend time with us since we we Baptists! We noticed that at one point in the month she stopped leaving in the middle of the service to appease the other pastor. She decided to spend the whole Wednesday service with us! Please pray for her as she has a lot of physical pain in her legs, especially now that the weather is so hot!

Bible Lesson for the kids!

Another thing that we did was to reorganize our Wednesday night meeting to have a short kid’s Bible lesson before the preaching. It is hard to describe the neighborhood where we are reaching out, but there are several kids that do not go to school and are not able to read that many times have never seen what a Biblical family is supposed to look like as they have never had it modeled for them in their homes! Please pray for the Lord to give us the wisdom and strength to reach out to win souls for Him!Another thing that we did was to reorganize our Wednesday night meeting to have a short kid’s Bible lesson before the preaching. It is hard to describe the neighborhood where we are reaching out, but there are several kids that do not go to school and are not able to read that many times have never seen what a Biblical family is supposed to look like as they have never had it modeled for them in their homes! Please pray for the Lord to give us the wisdom and strength to reach out to win souls for Him!

Thoughts from Stacie

Jonathan’s 15th Birthday

On the 4th of November we celebrated Jonathan’s Birthday. We surprised him by taking him and his siblings to the Super Park. The Super Park is a small local theme park with rides and activities for kids. It has been several years since we’ve been. They’ve all grown so much since our last visit there.

Women’s Conference

That following Saturday, November 5th, I took Hannah and two other ladies from our mission point in Malvinas Argentinas to a Ladies Bible Conference in the southern part of the city. We had a wonderful time of fellowship and encouragement.

Children’s Bible Lesson

Also this month I started teaching a children’s Bible Lesson on Wednesday nights when we have our worship and Bible Study services. There is a little boy named Samuel that has been coming to our Bible Studies with his mom. He is a little too independent four year old that has never been in any school setting and has never heard about Jesus and the Bible before coming to our meetings.

We all felt like we needed to do something special for him. It’s been a process teaching him to stay and listen to a lesson and to not run off with my illustrations. We are seeing progress with him though as we continue to show him the love of Christ.

Decorating for Christmas

It’s going into summer here as we approach the Christmas season. We had a cold front come through the Monday before Thanksgiving and so we decided that was the perfect day to put up the Christmas tree and stockings. It doesn’t change the temperature but having the Christmas lights glowing makes things feel a little more festive even as we enter the hot days of summer.

Thanksgiving Dinner with Friends

For Thanksgiving we were invited to the home of another missionary family in the country. We joined several other families. Argentina doesn’t exactly stop for Thanksgiving.

We managed to cook some good food to share at the Thanksgiving dinner and really enjoyed getting to spend time with other English speaking friends. After the dinner we surprised our children by taking them to hear a string quartet in concert.

Last Homeschool Co-op for this Year

Our last meeting with the other homeschoolers was held in a different location a little outside of the city. A family in the co-op owns some property with a camp style building that is used throughout the year for group events. They invited the group to their campground where there were rooms that we could teach our classes in. We all had good classes and enjoyed the fellowship afterwards. All the children were also given certificates for participating in the co-op.

End of Year Concert and Band Recital

The school year has been winding down as we approach the summer break. Yes, it still sounds strange to be approaching summer break in November. After four years here in Argentina we are finally starting to get used to the school year ending and vacations beginning in December.

Summer begins in December and ends in February. All the normal school activities and other classes will begin again in March. We are getting better at planning a vacation during this time of year. In July when the United States are in the middle of summer break, we will be experiencing a two week winter break.