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!

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!

Our Children posing in front of the tree on Christmas Morning

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.