Into The Heart of Argentina

This is going up a few days late, but we want to take a stroll back through memory lane 2008 so sit back and relax. If you have any chocolate or cookies left, grab a handful. This may take a while.

Because honestly, this has been a year of HUGE changes. You know about the big move to Argentina in August but that’s only part of our story.

Okay, let’s back up to January. That’s when we hit 60% of our support. And just stayed there. For almost two months.

It’s also the month we had meetings in different churches every Sunday and every.single.weekend.we.were.socked.with.a.storm. Remember that? NOT fun! Our car heater just couldn’t keep up and there were days when we had to scrape ice off the inside of the windows. So we are NOT missing Midwest winters!

February was more of the same.

March brought glimmers of warmer weather and as the temperature edged up, so did our support level. 63%... 69%... And we continued our crazy traveling schedule every weekend as well as making plans to move out of the parsonage at the end of April.

April was INSANE and EXCITING. Packing boxes for Argentina, setting aside things to take to Indiana, Kim helping Tina throw a bridal shower…watching the support level rise week-by-week. Not knowing how long we’d be in Indiana with Ivan’s folks before we could leave for Argentina, it was hard to know what to pack for that mini-move.

The uncertainty was tied to the support. We couldn’t buy our tickets for South America and make firm plans until we hit 90%. And then, on the very last day of April we got the call. You know, THE call. The one informing us that a church was taking on a significant chunk of our support which would push us OVER the 90%!!! Woot! It was with merry hearts we packed up the car (to the gills!) and set off for Indiana on May 1st.

We wanted to spend as much time as possible with Mom and Dad before we left and the best way to do that was be right there with them. We also thought Ivan could help them get a few things done around the house. And that’s all true. But we hadn’t anticipated the amount of traveling we’d do in those final months. We had a number of meetings back in Michigan, some in Indiana and even a few in Ohio. Plus all the packing for the big move to Argentina was taking place back at the parsonage.

We got a bit of whiplash from all the back and forth.

How grateful we are for the time with Mom and Dad and for others in the family who came to see us (from Colorado and Georgia). God provided opportunities to see old friends as well, some from as far away as Uganda!

In July our home church hosted an amazing commissioning service and dear friends from another congregation joined us in praise and worship to the God who makes it all happen!

Goodbyes are hard, no doubt about it, but we were pretty excited to finally be on our way after FOUR LONG YEARS of deputation.

Since arriving in Argentina we’ve seen God continue to do powerful things. We were able to get the paperwork for our national ID cards done in one day. That’s unheard of! It usually takes weeks and multiple trips and standing in long lines for hours… While we won’t actually receive our cards until February or so, the paperwork was accomplished in less than six hours.

He provided a house with almost everything on Kim’s “wish list”. She also has an excellent Spanish tutor and although Kim is often frustrated with what she sees as painfully slow progress, there IS progress! We’ve enjoyed great fellowship with the other missionaries in Argentina, as well as wonderful times with our co-workers here in Carlos Paz.

We really don’t know what to expect this year. We know what we hope for: for Kim a higher level of fluency in Spanish, for Ivan to develop relationships and learn from our co-workers how to best help with the church planting effort, and a general settling in for both of us.

We hope to finish cleaning and painting and unpacking boxes until it feels like we BELONG here. We want to hunker down and make this house a home. After all the moves this past year, we need this.

We hope to make friends and start getting involved in lives. We hope to be a light for Jesus and make a difference. There’s a lot of darkness here…a lot of New-Age-feel-good-about-yourself teaching and believing going on. And that takes us back to the Spanish. Kim can’t do much if she’s not able to communicate.

So there you have it, a wrap-up of 2008 and our dreams for 2009.