Wow, what a day. Today we began prayer walking in the urban environment here in La Plata. Kellie and I are a “team”, which is really great for me. We spent the morning today with Nate Dunlevy, walking inthe immediate neighborhood, learning of the contacts they have made here and a little about each person and their circumstance. We then had an oportunity to pray for each of them, which was really AWESOME, and God’s presence was palpable. It is important, for those of you praying from home, to ask God to open the hearts of those people who the team here has made contact with so that they are receptive to learning about the word of God. Although, even asking God to pave the way for social relationships should lead to eventually a discussion about God and hopefully sharing His word.
After returning to our apartment, we shared some praise and worship together and learned some more about culture, and how our culture might affect the way we view or judge other cultures (for example the culture here). One interesting this we talked about was how ALL evangelistic work is cross cultural, since we as Christians are citizens of Heaven, and unbelievers are citizens of the world. We must be aware that when we speak the language of our Christian culture un-believers do not really understand.
Of course, we than had a really wonderful lunch, Anna and Norma are great cooks and we are blessed to have them taking care of our meals. Praise God for them! Of course, they also prepared our dinner so that all we had to do was warm it up. They were sort of like giant empanadas, with different fillings inside a pastry crust….WOW, the food here is really wonderful. I’ll be blessed if I do not gain weight while we are here!
This afternoon we walked around this neighborhood again, but this time we spent some time talking and praying about some of the ongoing issues here. It is amazing how some of these issues tie together, and much of the problems here trace back to broken homes. We definitely prayed that God would strengthen the nuclear family so that the children will grow up with both a mother and a father.
The poverty and need here is great, and I keep going back in my mind to how much we American’s take for granted all the blessings we enjoy daily. We rarely wonder whether or not the electricity will work, we never worry about running out of water and most of us do not really worry about where our next meal will come from. What we in the US consider poverty is ABOVE the level that would be considered middle class here!
All in all today was a very emotional day. Sometimes emotional events can be exhausting, but it is so wonderful to see God in action here on the “front lines” of the spiritual battle.
We did get to take a few pics today, mostly of the team from Grace Brethren and our “digs”, but the picture below is a horse that is tied up outside our place, and we are told they are here (outside the fence) to keep the grass “mowed”.
Argentine Lawn Mower
Great blogging, guys! It’s great to be able to follow your work like this. The Missions Committee met last night and prayed for you (I-GO Team and Team La Plata), so did the Wednesday Night Discussion Group on Mark, as well as the Missions Prayer Group on Wednesday. Needless to say, many are praying. Many seem to be tracking the blog, as well. Brian and Tara, Rich and Jill, Nate and Deb–thanks for your excellent work!
Jay