In Baradero on Saturday seven kids took a running leap in their faith journeys and committed their lives to following Jesus. One of them, Ester (not her real name), is a 16-year-old girl who has a beautiful four-month-old son. She is living in her boyfriend's parents' home and her "mother-in-law" is deeply involved with the local curandero, or spiritual/folk healer. Please pray for strength and courage for these kids as they become "free for God and neighbor....[that] the 'fullness of Christ' be re-created, the image of God be restored in [their] lives and relationships" (Bosch, see below). Many of these kids have experienced physical and sexual abuse, have either left or are seriously tempted to leave school, and live in communities with rampant alcoholism and violence.
I've been reading David Bosch's Transforming Mission: Paradigm Shifts in Theology of Mission. After he spends 12 remarkably succinct (!) pages defining "mission as evangelism" he concludes with the following definition of evangelism: That dimension and activity of the church's mission which, by word and deed and in the light of particular conditions and a particular context, offers every person and community, everywhere, a valid opportunity to be directly challenged to a radical reorientation of their lives, a reorientation which involves such things as deliverance from slavery to the world and its powers; embracing Christ as Savior and Lord; becoming a living member of his community, the church; being enlisted into his service of reconciliation, peace, and justice on earth; and being committed to God's purpose of placing all things under the rule of Christ.
Some of the group that meets weekly for prayer in Baradero plus three of Ines' children.
