Visit with the church family in Bernal (Uno)

Last night, after visiting with the people of the Wilde Church, Steve and I headed over to the Bernal church meeting. This is a church in one of the tougher neighborhoods that is doing a great job of reaching young people (Jovenes). I really enjoyed meeting and talking with Jorge', Hugo and Luisa, Martin, and several other young men who are really growing in their faith and also sharing Christ with others.


Martin is the guitar player here, and he apparently taught his sister how to play the drums. It was great to see him use his talent and passion in the form of worshiping together! As you would expect with a church that has a lot of young people, the worship was a little faster, with more clapping and such. I recognized several of the songs from other worship events, and Steve also helped me understand what the words were saying. One young man spoke about an opportunity he had to talk about Christ with his older brother. Another young man shared about how much he is learning about God through studying the Bible with a friend. After about thirty minutes of sharing and singing, one young man welcomed everyone and said, "Now we will start our more formal time."

After a few more worship songs and prayers, Steve introduced me to preach. Again I shared about Colossians 4:2-6. Paul calls Christians to be devoted to prayer. Anything worth doing in this life is going to take devotion and hard work. I talked about how devoted people here in Buenos Aires are to soccer, and they all connected with that. We should be even more committed to praying for people we know who are far from God.

I talked about seizing opportunities to encourage and talk with people about Christ in the midst of their everyday conversations. You never know when God is going to give you an opportunity - for example....

This is Hugo, one of the main adult leaders in the church. He is well-respected and admired by all of the young men and women who attend there. He has had a great influence on many lives in this neighborhood. After I preached, Hugo walked to the front and basically said this - "Gary is right about being ready for an opportunity to talk about God. I just started a new job, and found out that at 9:00am, everything at work shuts down so that we can have mate (MAH-tay) and conversation. On my very first day at the job, my boss invites me to mate (MAH-tay) and says, "So, I hear you believe in God and that you're a Christian." I do not know how he knew this - but I couldn't believe that this was the first thing he knew about me! Gary is right - we must live good lives and be ready for opportunities to talk about Christ!"

I was amazed at how God again brought all the things together - testimonies, prayer, music, sermon - to focus on how we should be praying and prepared to represent Christ at any moment!

Near the end of the worship time, Hugo invited the church planting team headed to the city of Corrientes to come forward and give an update about their plans. Kevin High is sharing in this picture.

Please do pray for Kevin & Holly High (and their three kids - Levi, Hannah, and Amelia), and for Guggi and Cristina (and their four kids), and for Alice Peacock, and now Tatiana - as all of them prepare to move their entire lives to a new city and start a new work in Corrientes!