Hi friends,
Last weekend in Irigoyen was an adventure! On Saturday, we walked the streets of the small town inviting it's precious inhabitants to the church gatherings planned for that evening. One of which was a kids event where Bible stories were told, songs were sung, and games were played. Later on in the evening, Sergio, a brother who had traveled with us, shared a wonderful message of hope with the adults that came. Around 10 o'clock, the normal dinner hour in Argentina, more adults showed up for pizza and boys vs. girls Bible trivia games (pictured below).
The following day we were able to enjoy a bit of fresh country air. It was healing for Lindsey and I, who generally have to go to extreme lengths to find nature to help lift our spirits. We were asked to sing a song for the Sunday evening service, so we spent a good portion of the afternoon preparing outside with the guitar. We asked our new friend, Juan(cho) to sing with us. Juan(cho) is another brother from La Plata. He is the music director at one of the other churches here in town. The previous night he had sung 'Cambiare mi tristeza,' at the service, so we decided to sing the same song in English, 'I'm trading my sorrows.' We asked him to sing the verses in Spanish after we sang them in English. It turned out very nice (pictured).
We headed out late that night for the 6 hour ride back to La Plata. The ride is always taxing. The missionary pastor and his wife make the drive every weekend, and for economic reasons use 'gas,' in the very real, vaporous sense, to run their vehicle. I hadn't heard of this method before, but the gas stations provide it, and the occupants of the vehicle have to get out of the car while they fill it up with fumes. We later discovered that it's similar to the gas used to run a stove, and that vehicles with the potential to use it have large yellow tanks installed on the underside of the vehicle, whereby the gas is contained. This method requires that we stop for gas every hour. It is quite the adventure! But we were glad when the drive was finally over around 3 a.m.
The people from Irigoyen did seem to be much more amiable than I had experienced on our first visit there. Thank you for your prayers! All in all, we enjoyed mingling with both believers and non-believers in Irigoyen last weekend. It was especially a blessing to spend some time with other believers our age from La Plata. We pray and trust that God used our service there for his glory, both in the small ways that we could perceive and in the much bigger, grander ways we cannot. Thanks for your prayers and support.
Please continue to pray for our health. I am unsure if I've gotten another water parasite, but feeling steadily better since the stomach pain began on Monday. Additionally, Lindsey and I both caught colds (first one of those yet!) a couple of days ago.
Thanks again, and God bless you!
