A few weeks ago, our teammates Rich and Jil Elledge informed us that they wouldn’t be coming back to Argentina. The rigors and instability of cross-cultural over-seas ministry pose special challenges, and they’ve decided that the lifestyle isn’t right for their family. It’s obviously a difficult and painful decision, but one that anyone who has ever tried it can understand and support. Not all ministries are right for all people, and not every phase of life is conducive to the unique stresses posed by this life. The Gorniks and we are united in our support for Rich and Jil, and are glad they are making the best choice for their family right now.

Because of the kind of team we have and ministry we do, that decision has significant consequences for the Gorniks and us. We’ve spent the last month trying to explore options that would allow us to stay in La Plata and continue the church plant here. Unfortunately, none of those options for adding additional teammates fully panned out. Ultimately, we have been faced with the reality that given the impending birth of the Gorniks’ fourth child and a completely unavoidable 5-6 month absence already scheduled for us later this year, that there is simply no way to effectively continue church planting here in La Plata. We have explored all options for staying, but to perfectly frank, we felt that projecting one year into the future, the ministry would be no further along than it is now, and may well even regress.

As you all know, our calling has never been to La Plata specifically, but to work with the Spanish-speaking urban poor. La Plata was chosen for strictly strategic reasons. We now believe there is no viable way to advance the work here in the near future without extracting and impossible toll on us and our families. Because of that, we have collectively decided to leave Argentina.

To describe this process as devastating and traumatic would be an understatement. It is not something we have done lightly or without considering all the possible options. It breaks our hearts, but we are convinced it is the best way to continue pursuing our long term goals and calling. Understand that this was not the ‘easy’ choice. This was the hard choice, but the one we see as unquestionably correct.

Functionally, this decision means that the Dunlevy family will be leaving the country in two months. The Gorniks will stay a few months more as they have to secure paper work for their new baby. After that…well, that’s the big question.

We are still exploring options with GBIM for future ministry with the mission. It is not our desire to resign from GBIM, though that might become a necessary intermediate step in the future.

We have been seeking guidance from the mission, from the elders at Community of Hope (the sending church for us and the Elledges), and from our community who was part of the original Madison House vision. Now, we are asking for your prayers as well.

The Gorniks and we have committed to taking this next step together. We have affirmed our commitment to all of our base principles and practices, and are now seeking wisdom as to how to most effectively pursue our long-term goals of planting churches and preaching the gospel among the Spanish-speaking, urban poor.

In summary, this is a change of venue (and possibly a change of vocation), but not a change in the trajectory of our lives. We are about the same things we have always been about, and will continue to be about those things no matter where we live.

More coming later…

That’s how the old saying goes.  But, in Argentina there are some days where you are eaten and eat on the same day.

I broke down last night.  Completely.  I had one of those days where it seemed like the entire country conspired against me.  A string of unfortunate encounters with businesses culminated in me having to drive away from a drive through at McDonald’s, having already paid for my food, but without dinner.  The service had been so slow that I was going to be late to pick up Ellie from school.  I had already been waiting more than 15 minutes for a bag of cheeseburgers, and I pleaded with the girl at the window just to give me whatever WAS ready.  She was in no hurry to help, though and I had to just abandon hope and leave so my daughter wouldn’t be waiting alone in the dark for me to show.  Obviously, this was not a popular decision with Scott.

I made it home 10 minutes before I was supposed to go to my first of two classes that night.  I had a car full of furious kids who wondered why we didn’t have dinner.  I was frustrated and angry. I got home exhausted, upset, and battling a cold.  After I spent 20 minutes frantically trying to find my materials for English class, I just collapsed.

I went into my room, closed the door and fell on to the bed.  I was hungry, tired, and furious at the whole country.  I seriously debated just packing up all my stuff and going back to the States.  I was that low.

I was being eaten alive by the bear.

Then, inexplicably, something happened.  I can only assume someone was praying for me.  Oddly enough, my internet reset causing Instant Messenger to chime.  I got up to see who was trying to talk to me, only to find out it was no one.  But what I did find was some encouraging messages on Twitter.  After a few moments, I began to feel my irrationality pass.  I decided that I would go to my second class (that starts at 9:30 at night).

I made my way to Marcelo and Ester’s house.   You may recall that Marceo is 29, and learning to read for the first time after being orphaned as a child.

It was a landmark class, really. It was the 22nd lesson in Marcelo’s literacy book.  It marked the final lesson in the first book.  It was all about the letter ‘b’ and ‘c’.  As it turns out, it was far and away the most difficult lesson we had ever done.  Typically, Marcelo has been flying through his lessons, advancing quickly.  A typical lesson takes only about 30 minutes.  This one was a struggle.  We spent almost an hour and half on it, but just before 11 at night he successfully read the following paragraph on his own:

Ramón, Ana y todos leen la Biblia.  Por la lectura de la Bibla conocen a Jesús.  Jesús curó a Ana y al ciego.  Ana y el ciego alaban a Dios.  Todos los sanados alaban a Dios.  Todos los sanados conocen y aman a Jesús.

Translated, that reads:

Ramom, Ana, and everyone read the Bible.  By reading the Bible, they know Jesus.  Jesus healed Ana and the blind man.  Ana and the blind man worship God.  All the healed people worship God.  All the healed people know and love Jesus.

Just a few months ago, I was teaching him the letter “a” and was learning the word “ana” in his first lesson. Now, a few months later he was reading on his own about Jesus.  It was stunning.  The whole day had been worth it.  All of the frustration had paid off.

As it turns out though, at 11:00 at night, my day had only just begun.

As we finished the lesson, Marcelo’s friend Silvio, who had been waiting and listening quietly, began to talk. There’s always people at Marcelo’s house. I’ve easily met 15 or 20 different people just by going to do reading class with Marcelo.  Silvio looked at the sheet Marcelo was reading from. The sheet had a Bible reference at the bottom.  He called for a Bible, and began reading from Matthew 9.  It seemed Silvio had an agenda.

He asked me a few questions, and then said to me.  “I know you. I know all about you.  I mean, I don’t really know you, but Marcelo talks about you all the time, and I have a pretty good idea what you are all about.”

He didn’t say it in a nice way.

Silvio then began to pepper me with questions and half accusations.  He challenged every aspect of my life and theology, beginning with the question, “Do you really think that Jesus is God?”

I prayed a silent prayer and dove in.  Over the course of the next two hours we covered every possible area of theology while Marcelo and Ester and another friend listened.  We discussed:

The divinity of Christ, the purpose of the law, the nature of the Bible, the 10 commandments, the nature of the church, the trinity, eternity, the end times, Jehova’s Witnesses, the Catholic church, salvation, the nature of baptism, the nature of religion, what it means that Jesus was in the image of God and what it means that He was the “firstborn of all creation”.

We read from the Psalms, the gospels, and the epistles.  I told stories of David, of Isaac, of Cain and Abel.

As I was reasoning with him, I was aware that every level of my Christian training was being tested:

What I learned as a child at Eagle Creek, lessons from my first year of Bible quizzing, things I discovered on my own, advanced ideas I learned at Grace College and Seminary, things taught me by my team here in Argentina, and things Deb and I had discovered through our ‘read through the Bible in a week’ projects…it was all on trial, and the opposing council was hostile.

Silvo had experience with religious people and thought he knew me.  As the Spirit gave me words to say and answers to his questions that he had never considered, he thawed.  Marcelo and Ester grew increasingly excited as the tone of the night changed from “the trial of Nate Dunlevy” to a night of great encouragement from God’s Word.  For better than two hours went back and forth, and by the end Silvio was delighting in hearing things from God’s Word that he had never considered.  It was astounding.  By the end, he was no longer giving me the third degree, but was asking honest questions that he really wanted answers to.

Finally, Deb called wondering where I was (after all, it was 1 am).  We ended the night with hugs as he thanked me for taking the time to talk with him, and we all agreed that there was nothing better than spending time talking about God and reading the Bible.

I’ve been doing class with Marcelo 1-2 times a week since October.

Last night, it all started to pay off.

Yesterday, Argentina was a bear.

Some days, you eat the bear.

Discipleship.

The case can be made that discipleship is the core concept from which early Brethren thought proceed-ed and around which it was organized. However, the theological content of that thought is expressed more clearly by the German word Nachfolge (a following after) than by the English word discipleship (a learning from). All Brethren distinctive doctrines can be interpreted as outgrowths from and necessary implications of a basic commitment to the following of Jesus.

That Christians are to follow Jesus, rather than simply believe on him, immediately draws Brethrenisrn away from the usual intellectualities of systematic theology, creedalism, and confessionalism, directing it toward matters of life, walk, and character. The New Testament acquires direct authority as the requisite means for Chris-tians to become contemporary with the historical Jesus in order, together with the first disciples, to follow him. The church, with its profound sense of divine communion and fraternal commonality, exists precisely as the caravan of “followers in pilgrimage.” All the elements of Brethren “nonconformity to the world” proceed from the fact that these pilgrims could not follow the world because they were already pledged to follow the Lord. All the distinctives of ethical and social fruitbearing are simply the specifics of what the Brethren have discovered the New Testament to demand of Jesus-followers. And Brethren ‘ordinances are the means by which the community, assembled with its Lord, portrays for itself the source, dynamic, and nature of kingdom discipleship.

Furthermore, this focus upon Nachfolge brings with it a general theological perspective quite different from the churchly theologies that have reigned through most of Christian history. These expound the gospel primarily as a system of personal salvation, the way of the individual soul to its beatitude lying just beyond death. Conversely, the essential context of Nachfolge theology is eschatological Heilsgeschichte, that is, salvation as the world-historical process by which, through Christ, the Lord God, with the following of the faith-community, continually moves his world from its first creation toward its new creation in the kingdom. This view is eminently historical (God is identified much more strongly in his ac-tions moving history to its goal than in plucking individuals out of history and into salvation) and eschatological (oriented toward history’s transcendent end in the kingdom).
This different perspective, which modern scholarship is finding to be much more profoundly biblical than that of classical theology, radically transforms Christian doc-trines, namely:

Theology. God is primarily the Alpha and Omega of history, the one whose will being done on earth as it is in heaven constitutes the coming of his kingdom.

Christology. The Christ of faith is the historical Jesus, the only one who can be followed. His function is as Leader-Lord, as the eschatological agent who has in-augurated the kingdom, who leads his people toward it, and who will come from it in order that where he is, they may be also.

Authority. The mind of that Leader-Lord is the sole authority for his followers; it has been given its normative expression in the New Testament, which thus becomes the rule of faith and practice for his followers.

Hermeneutic. The New Testament can speak this mind of Christ only when his followers use Scripture as a vehicle for becoming contemporaneous with that par-ticular historical person, hearing him and responding to him in the same terms as did the first disciples.

Piety. One can truly follow this Jesus only upon first loving him and putting oneself into his hands in the per-sonal trust of complete dependence.

Eschatology. Eschatology is no longer an appendix to theology or mere speculation regarding the when and how of the events of the end. It is the dynamic of theology as a whole, an action of following the eschatological agent to his eschatological destination, of appropriating the precursions of the kingdom in anticipation of its consummation.

Pneumatology. The coming of the Spirit is an eschato-logical sign and itself an eschatological power in the wake of Jesus, sweeping creation toward its appointed end.Ecciesiology.

Ecclesiology. The church is the caravan-community in eschatological pilgrimage. It is composed of individuals drawn into a body through the power of the Spirit to make common cause in following their Leader-Lord.

Evangelism and Social Concern. Because we cannot know who all and what all ultimately is to be caught up in the eschatological current of Jesus, the church must always be open-handed toward all others, both to grasp their hands in welcome and invitation and to wash their feet in service.

Soteriology. Although personal salvation is in no way denied, it is subordinated as just one aspect of God’s great work of salvation that is to make all things new.

Pistology. “Faith” cannot be simply believing in Jesus. It must be belief acted upon through the venture of a committed and lived following.

Of course, nowhere is this theology stated as explicitly and neatly as here; yet these are themes that, both by statement and by implication, pervade the early Brethren literature. It cannot be said that any of the modern Brethren groupings have done a very good job of maintaining such a full and complete vision of discipleship.

I had asked for prayer for Marcelo and Ester who needed a new house because they were being kicked out of their home.  They found a plot of land in a villa (shanty town), and were told they could buy it for $3000 pesos (about $750).

The saved up their money and made payments and bought the land.  What they didn’t know at the time is that the whole thing was a scam.  Some thugs in the neighborhood would sell the land (to which they had no right…there’s no paperwork on those plots).  Then when the buyers would move in, they would set the new house on fire and chase them off.

Then they would sell the land all over again, and start the whole process over.

Marcelo and Ester found out about this before they started building.  When they talked to the men they paid, they were threatened.  The men came to there old home with pipes and threatened violence if they made problems.

The couple had no choice but to walk away from the situation, grateful they ‘only’ lost the $3000.

And so the search continues.

Continuation and Progress of the plan put in place March 2009

Long Term Goal for Ministry in Argentina #1:

For our team to gain experience in church planting, the Spanish language, and Argentine culture so that in 5 years we can be redeployed.

o For our team to be healthy and stable enough to return to complete a second term in La Plata.

o To add an Argentine couple to our church planting team

Short Term one year goals (to be completed by March 2010):

• • To establish a healthy working relationship as a team, and have a strong understanding of our unique team dynamic.

• • To mutually encourage and strengthen one another spiritually through:
    • Regular weekly accountability, prayer meetings multiple times a week, and team planning meetings weekly.
    • A regular rotation of caring for one another’s children so as to provide each couple with needed time alone
    • The processing of cross-cultural books and resources as a team
    • Continuing to develop ideas and strategies for ‘whole family worship’
    • Meeting regularly for prayer at a predetermined time
    • By taking a team retreat
  • To host a team from the United States that will dedicate itself to “foundation laying prayer”
    • We currently expect a team from Community of Hop in Columbia City Indiana to come later this year.
  • To foster relationships with Argentine national believers in the hopes of finding teammates through:
    • Collaboration with Eduardo Pizzi in bringing small groups from Cordoba for long weekends with the team
    • Continued involvement in other Grace Brethren Churches in Greater Buenos Aires
    • Involvement in Brethren national camps in January
  • To develop a team strategy for communication with supporters in the United States

Progress Report: We successfully accomplished almost most everything on our with two notable exceptions.  First, we have not identified an Argentine or Argentine couple to join our team.  We have made overtures to various people, but nothing has materialized.  This is an issue for intense prayer in the coming year, as the lack of an additional teammate hinders the development of the work.

Second, we did not meet regularly for prayer in the second half of the year. As activity crowded out the times we had to meet for prayer, we simply failed to make room for it.  This was the only real significant failure of the year for our team.

Long Term Goal for Ministry in Argentina #2:

To lay a foundation for a church with national leadership and that will eventually reproduce.

Short Term one year goals (to be completed by the end of 2010):

• • To have two Hora Felices running in our neighborhood
    • UPDATE: We have one.  We have not expanded because of the lack of an Argentine teammate and because of the opportunities provided by the first Hora Feliz.
  • To have 300 contacts among the team members
    • UPDATE: We currently have around 150 contacts as a team.  We hope to make a similar amount in 2010.
  • To have shared one of the “Seven Signs of John” with at least 100 contacts
    • UPDATE: We have shared with roughly 50 people, and would like to see that number double
  • To develop a strategy for the use of our team office for developing relationships with contacts
    • UPDATE: The office is already used to teach English and Computer classes.  We would like to expand the number of ways we can use the office.
  • To hold at least one major evangelistic event
    • UPDATE: We showed the Jesus film in the neighborhood where we work. It was well received.  We would like to do at least one more event this year.
  • To plan a ‘special focus Go Team’.
    • We hope to have a small group of two or three people come down to do some specific kind of evangelistic ministry.  Possibilities include business training, health work, or nutrition education.
  • To have a minimum of 15 evangelistic Bible studies as a team
    • UPDATE:  We currently have just one person involved in evangelistic Bible studies.
  • To have five baptized believers in the discipleship process
    • UPDATE: This goal will be difficult to meet, and needs to be a focus of intensive prayer
  • To bless our community in one major tangible way that will serve to identify us as members of God’s Kingdom to the neighborhood.
    • UPDATE: Though we did have extensive discussion and some reconnaissance on this topic, we have not yet identified a specific project.  Our goal is to have a project identified and planned by the end of the year, but execution may have to wait.

Obstacles to completing the Goals on Time:

Some obstacles can be overcome by planning and hard work.  Others are spiritual in nature and cannot be cleared with out consistent, dedicated prayer.  The following obstacles can only be overcome by your help.

1. Human weakness-As a team we have had a successful year building relationships, however we want to see those relationships grow and develop along a spiritual line.  We all have limitations and weaknesses which we need God’s Spirit to overcome.  Pray for us as we battle the stresses of cross cultural living and the natural limitations imposed by it.

1. Workers for the harvest-The harvest is ready, but our team would greatly benefit from having an Argentine or Argentine couple join it.  Please pray fervently that God will raise up a national to partner with us.

1. Spiritual Blindness-The area we are working in is rife with dark spiritual strongholds thanks to idol worship, the crushing effects of poverty, and broken homes and families.  Pray that eyes would be open and the Spirit would draw men and women to God.

1. Opposition-Other religious groups are hard at work in our neighborhood, including the Jehova’s Witnesses and the Mormons.  Pray that God would frustrate their efforts to lead people to destruction.

What is it and how did it happen?

Blue Blood is a history of the Indianapolis Colts.  Some of you may be aware that I run a popular blog about the football team.  I also wrote a novel in my spare time.  The novel is about basketball in a small town.  In trying to get an agent to represent the novel, a non-fiction agent strongly encouraged me to write about football and said he would represent the project if I did.  Having attended Colts games since 1986, I felt I had a unique opportunity to tell the history of the team since it came to Indianapolis.  I started writing in January and finished in March.  I wrote in my spare time (which is limited).  Yes, it was extremely stressful, because we knew the book needed to be ready for this summer if it was going to do well.

Why are you are writing books?

There are several reasons that both Deb and I have been working on literary projects

1.  Our team is philosophically committed to finding new ways to fund missions work.  Deb and I both have writing talents, and we felt that it was our obligation to use them to find ways to solve the funding crisis that all missionaries face.  We are just trying to do our part.

2.  It gives us a clear, understandable answer when Argentines ask us, “What are you doing here?”.  We are writers who work with churches. That answer makes more sense to people than, “We are missionaries”.

3.   We want to set an example to Argentine youth of how to practice bi-vocational ministry.  We want them to reach the Muslim world, but they won’t get in as ‘missionaries’.  They need examples of people willing to work bivocationally.  We want to be role models they can follow.

4.  We’ve got stories to tell and love to tell them!

When do you write?

We carve out space in the day.  Deb and I try to give each other space and time to do uninterrupted work.  It isn’t easy.  Because until now, our writing hasn’t generated any income (I make about $50 a month from my blog!), we have been careful not to let writing interfere with any of our normal ‘missionary responsibilities’.  Until now, this has been a hobby for our free time.

Why not write Christian books?

There are two answers:

1.  We are Christians.  Everything we write is from the perspective of a Christian and is imbued with our view of the world.  Even my book on the Colts is a Christian book.  I can’t write any other kind of book!

2.  Though there are expressly “Biblical” projects that I hope to pursue eventually, the truth is that writing strictly to the church doesn’t meet with our overarching goals.  We want to ‘make tents’.  I don’t want to write ‘Biblical’ books until I can offer them as gifts to the church.  Right now, we are pursuing commercial endeavors so as to not be a burden to our supporters.  The time will come for other kinds of projects, but when I write them, I want to be able to view them as gifts rather than a means to earn money.

What will happen to the money?

All money I make on the sale of Blue Blood goes:

1.  To help Rich and Jil Elledge make it back to Argentina. They need roughly $20-25K a year (more) for the next three years.  I hope to make a dent in that.

2.  If we are satisfied that they can come back, Deb and I would like to augment our GBIM salary.  We have been operating $5-7K a year under the recommended missionary salary since joining the mission 8 years ago.  I cannot in good conscience ask for another penny from all of you for myself.  I know how deeply our team (you!) is sacrificing to keep us here.  Still, the financial pressures on us are real.  You’ve done your part.  We are trying to do ours.

3.  If we can get our team up to full salary, then I will seek to use any book profits to live on, thus reducing our support level. We are a loooong way from that, however.

My eventual goal would be to be able to provide my own salary from my writing, and depend on all of you for the various other expenses we have.  This project is just the first step, and will not get us there.

What other projects do you have?

I have written a novel, Invincible, Indiana, that is currently being shopped by an agent.

Deb has also written a novel for young adults that is the first in a series.  We are currently exploring representation and publication options for her books.  We are investigating new and nontraditional publishing options.

Deb has a blog as well:  tellmeastorymommy.com

Where can I purchase Blue Blood?

Blue Blood will be on sale June 9th.  Blue Blood will be for sale at Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com and other major retailers.  You can check out the site

bluebloodbook.com

for more details.

Anyway, I hope this letter makes the how and whys of things clear.  We covet your prayers in this whole process.  We see writing as a big part of our ministry and our future.  We need wisdom and guidance at every step of the process.

The water is filthy.  The world has polluted it, dirtied it.  It is one of the least healthy, most disgusting places I can think of.

The boys were fishing in it.  They proudly showed us a bucket of small fish they had caught.  It was semi-tragic really.  They were proud they had caught dinner for their families, but nothing caught in that river could possibly be safe to eat.  That wouldn’t stop them, of course.  The whole scene made me a little sick.

Then I realized that we were fishermen too.  We were fishing in that same dirty, polluted stream.  Most people wouldn’t want to look at our river, let alone take anything out of it.

Even if we do catch fish in it, what kind of fish will they be?

Small.

Unhealthy.

Worthless.

Matthew 4:19  “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will make you fishers of men.

1 Corinthians 1:27-29   But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.  He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things– and the things that are not– to nullify the things that are,  so that no one may boast before him

The night of the event, they all went haywire all at once.

We had forgotten the screws for the movie screen.  I went to five stores to find replacements.  In the end, the ones I got didn’t work.  We still got the screen together, but it was rickety.

On of the neighbors promised to let us use her electricity, then changed her mind at the last minute.  We did find someone else.

It was blazing hot, but someone bought us a bottle of cold Coke…which one of the villa kids accidentally spilled all over the microphone.

After we finally got everything set up (an hour late), we found that the big sound system we had wouldn’t work because the electrical current wasn’t strong enough to power it.

And just like that, the whole night had to be canceled.  There was no way for anyone to hear the movie, which was ironic because we initially were going to use a smaller sound system, but decided that we wanted to be sure people could hear it!

And then a funny, miraculous thing happened…

Everyone clapped for us.  Suddenly, we were people instead of foreigners.  Suddenly, we were pathetic instead of intimidating.  Suddenly we were weak instead of powerful and competent.

The men who had gathered started to play volley ball and once we had loaded up all the equipment back into my car, they asked Brian, Rich and me to play.

So we played (duh!).

We stayed for a couple of hours playing and talking with the men.  I had a long conversation with Roberto who told me all about his home in Paraguay and how much he longs for it, and how he’d do anything to live in his home country, but has to be in Argentina or his children will starve to death (by the way…that’s what most immigrants everywhere say about their homes…an important lesson to remember).  We talked, played, and got to know the men there.  It was astounding and incredible.  This was where we hoped we’d get at the end of the month of movies.  It was far and away the best case scenario for weeks and weeks of work.  We’d spent lots of time with the women and children in the villa, but the men are notoriously difficult to reach out to.

All it took was for all our plans to fail miserably and for us to look like fools.

Totally worth it.