Sat
Jun
7
2008 CBCA Senior Class plus translators Daniel & Evi Bardales.
On May 17 we welcomed the senior class from Central Baptist Christian Academy (New York) to Argentina. Most of the groups that come to Argentina are sports teams or church groups. After flying all night and getting very little rest, we rushed the group right off to start their ministry on Saturday night. The above picture is at a church in Buenos Aires during Word of Life Bible Clubs.
Sunday we returned to the same church and joined in the morning worship service. Thankfully we were able to get a little rest in the afternoon and Sunday evening we went to an annex of the church (called Marcos Paz) and had a service there. Monday we went back to Marcos Paz and painted the building and cleaned up the property.
Tuesday morning we went to a school and did two programs with 400 kids. Rodrigo, from the church in Buenos Aires, clearly presented the Gospel message and we saw many respond and accept Jesus Christ as their personal savior. Afterward we went to Florida Street. It was a large walking street in the middle of Buenos Aires with lot of businesses and restaurants. We passed out tracts, had lunch and did a little shopping.
On Tuesday late afternoon we took the group to an orphanage in another part of the city. We had a great time hanging out with the kids for a couple hours. Central also brought several items, like school supplies, clothing, hygiene products, books, and toys to donate to the orphanage.
I hit it off with a little guy named Pedro. I am ever surprised by just poking fun at certain kids makes you best buds.
Megan also made friends with a young lady at the orphanage. She is really enjoying being able to communicate in Spanish for moments just like these.
Wednesday we took the morning to catch up on some much needed sleep. In the afternoon we headed to San Miguel del Monte where Word of Life Argentina is located. The seniors were able to go to the student led missionary prayer band service and then see the students break up into groups and pray for over 30 countries around the world. Thursday we took the group to a ranch to learn the history of the Gaucho (Argentine Cowboys) and to have some fun. There we learned what the Gauchos played to pass the time. Then we tried some of the games that they made up.
Other activities at the Ranch included feeding the animals, a zip line, riding horses, learning the history of and making bricks, and making bread. We had an asado (Argentine style bar-b-que) for lunch and before we left they gave us the baked bread that we made.
Friday we went back into the big city for some sight seeing and souvenir shopping. We went to a historic area called “La Boca”. The touristic area was a street called “Caminita” (little walk way). It had several bright multi-colored buildings and lots of souvenir shops. A few of us got to have our picture taken with the Boca Jr. team. For lunch we went to a historic steak restaurant called “La Estancia” (the Ranch) where they cooked all the meat like the old Gauchos used to, over coals with no flame. Then we went to “Recoleta” where there were many artesian stands and did more shopping. It was a great week with CBCA, we were able to evangelize, help a couple local churches and a school and we challenged the group with the Word of God.
Before my trip back to the States, Megan and I were invited to a church by a couple who are missionaries with Word of Life. We were able to share the ministry of SCORE and I had the opportunity to preach.
This is the Pastor and his family. They invited us over for lunch after the morning service and took care of us in the afternoon till the evening service.
