Weekend

Noelia explaining to us her group's definition of "community" at the beginning of the TOT 1 in Burela, Salta last September

I arrived in Cordoba this morning after an all-night bus trip. I went with a "full bed" bus which somehow appeared identical to the "semi-bed" I'd taken last September. Apparently there is yet a third category, "full bed 180 degrees" that I will have to try next. Let's just say it was a long night!

Tonight there is a meeting with the six of us that will be going to Burela, Salta, this weekend. The five people besides me are all from the Iglesia Jesucristo Rey here in Cordoba. I just heard some great news about this church: in spite of their intense time of transition (one of the two pastors suddenly resigned two months ago) and their lack of history of involvement in missions (only in the past year have they begun missions outreaches outside of their local area), they have just agreed to regular monthly financial support for Pastor Gabriel, the missions pastor in Burela, Salta!

Tomorrow night I travel to Metan, Salta by overnight semi-bed bus. This was the only kind that was available, and believe me, I checked! Then I take two smaller buses to get to the town of Apolinario Saravia, which is the nearest large village to Burela. Hopefully, Friday afternoon includes some sleep -- I'm still not sure where I'm staying -- and then we're doing training on Saturday. We will be continuing our lessons on the TOT1 as well as holding a workshop on family violence (see previous post). I'm very excited to go to these villages again to hear what has been happening over the past few months. My contacts there do not have internet access and so updates have been limited.

I will return sometime on Monday to Buenos Aires, hopefully getting to experience "full bed 180 degrees" on that trip!

Kairos

Why am I going to Argentina right now? There are definitely poorer countries, and countries with more obvious spiritual issues. So why Argentina? My stepsister Karina described this time as a “kairotic moment” for Argentina, which in rhetoric (her area of study) means a passing instant when an opening appears. According to the New Testament Greek lexicon, kairos is the time when things are brought to crisis, the opportune or seasonable time. What is going on in Argentina that makes me characterize it this way?

Several key provinces are excited and active in working for change in their communities. We have been invited to work in four key provinces: Buenos Aires, Cordoba, Santa Fe, and Salta. The first three are key because they are home to Argentina’s three largest cities. Salta is key because it is a land rich in natural resources that also has a significant indigenous population (Wichi).

In Buenos Aires the denominational barriers have fallen and churches are working together. The Libertador Church has been doing relief work in Baradero, a nearby slum, for many years, and recently began incorporating development techniques in the area. This past month, a couple from that church (Horacio and Silvia, who have prayed for 20 years to be released full-time to missions) received the go-ahead to move to Baradero to work full-time. In Cordoba a large evangelical church recently woke up to the idea of missions and is being trained to train others in transformational development. In Salta the villagers have responded to recent trainings with action: building a new form of oven, planning a village-wide event to deal with alcoholism, and requests for more training from both Christian and secular groups.

Horacio and Silvia

Fun serendipitous fact: the location for the training we did near Buenos Aires was called Centro Kairos! Here we are at the urban TOT1:

The village people are ready

As we share the stories of what is happening in Burela, Salta (yesterday there was a meeting of the missions team at Iglesia Jesucristo Rey among other opportunities), I contine to be amazed at how God is bringing things about. The people of the village of Burela are ready and excited about the work ahead.

Marcelo and others spoke with the ¨agentes sanitarios¨ in Burela, who are (I think) nurses paid by the government to go house to house and perform some public health work. What they told Marcelo was, ¨We need to do more than vaccinate. The majority of pregnancies we now see are among 14 - 15 year-olds!¨ They are ready to learn how to work in a more holistic way, even within a government framework. They have invited Marcelo to be a part of their semi-annual training which next occurs in December. Please pray for this opportunity.

Cultural fact: most programs in schools and churches stop for the summer, which is December through March. The new trainers in Burela are planning a ¨seed project¨for December 8, to coincide with the end of Sunday School and other programs. They are thinking of incorporating some teaching on combatting teenage drinking and domestic violence. Please pray for these plans and for the resources to carry them out.

The village of Manantial sent two people to the training last week. They took a five-hour tractor ride to come from this remote area! They are planning a seed project with the Lorena oven, a way for the villagers to use less firewood and keep the fire contained so that it does not cause burns. Please pray that they will learn how to make the oven and that they will be well-received within their village.

Please pray that a path will open to enter the different Wichi communites. Gabriel has formed a lot of relationships, but there are many obstacles. The Wichi that live in the town of Burela no longer speak Wichi and there is animosity between them and those who live in the forest. The other villagers look down on the Wichi. The Wichi look down on themselves and have been pushed down so long by others.

Speaking engagement

Very cool -- yesterday I was asked to speak at the Lopez´church. They wanted me to give my ¨testimony,¨which to them meant how I was called to missions. This was an amazing opportunity -- this church, Iglesia Jesucristo Rey (http://www.jesucristorey.org/), is 25 years old and has not yet sent out a missionary (they have given some support to one missionary over the years).

Last year, something wonderful happened -- both pastors and the church itself awoke to the idea of missions and the needs around them. They met Gabriel, the pastor in Burela, and sought ways to support his work. Next weekend they have a missions conference with several speakers from LifeWind. Yesterday I was able to give a preview: I spoke at the morning service and the evening service and spoke about holistic ministry throughout, since that is really my call. With my varied background of medicine, youth ministry, volunteering in homeless shelters and healing prayer teams, I was instantly attracted to the way that LifeWind operates.

Iglesia Jesucristo Rey seems like a great church. Marcelo asked if I thought I would start going there, and I think I will -- I didn´t want to ¨church shop,¨ and what I was looking for was basically just a church with sound doctrine. I have now been there twice and have really enjoyed both the teaching and the fellowship.

Fun fact: Argentines, at least the evangelicals in Cordoba, go to church on Sunday night, not Sunday morning. Iglesia Jesucristo Rey´s service starts at 7:30 pm and ends around 9:30. I did also speak at the morning service (10:30), but there weren´t very many people there. This is good because at the morning service I had pictures and an outline to work with, and I discovered that I cannot speak extemporaneously in Spanish! When I get lost it takes me several sentences to recover. So, I wrote out the entire talk for the evening service.

Cultural fact: pastors are not paid by the congregation. They tend to have full-time jobs and are pastors on the side. Apparently there is some bad history in this country of pastors using the congregation´s donations to enrich themselves, so it seems they have seriously responded the other way. The two pastors of Iglesia Jesucristo Rey are both doctors! There are a lot of professionals in the church, and it is really exciting to see them being mobilized to help their community and those around them.

Why

Above is a photo of a Wichi child in the community of Ebenezer. The Wichi recently lost most of their land to a national park. In the land now owned by the park they are not allowed to cut down trees to use for cooking fires, which in practice means that they cannot live there. Meanwhile, vast areas of forest are being cut down and burned for companies to use the land to plant crops.

Please pray for Gabriel, the pastor of the church in Burela. In addition to his pastoral function in two villages, he has worked with the Wichi for over ten years, doing what was needed at the moment -- legal representation, starting a school, even taking children into his home (upon request by their mother for a week of childcare while she went to a city -- she returned a year later without any communication in between). Sadly, most of the projects have been frustrated by various agencies. He is very excited about the LifeWind training. When we spoke with Donato, the cacique (leader) of the Ebenezer community, he invited us to come and start a project there. We are hoping to do a screening project in the community in February or March. Please pray that the community will be freed from their negative self-image, and be empowered to seek change. Pray for Donato, who is a Christian, that he will allow us into his community, and continue to see Gabriel and now LifeWind as being different than so many others who came in offering help only to abandon the community and leave them in worse conditions.

During the training of trainers held last week in the nearby village of Burela, a few of the participants mentioned the indigenous people in the area as being part of the community. This step is huge as there is an enormous divide between the indigenous people and the ¨criollos,¨or mixed Argentineans. This divide exists even in the church. Please pray for the Christians in Burela and the nearby village of Apolinario Saravia, for their hearts to be broken by the condition of the indigenous people, and to recognize them as their brothers and sisters.

Above is a photo of a community within Apolinario Saravia, the village near Burela. This community was formerly mostly Wichi, but is now nearly entirely made up of Bolivian immigrants. The majority of people in Bolivia are indigenous, primarily Aymara and Quechua.