Into The Heart of Argentina

Dear Friends:

When you’re a child, summer stretches before you endlessly, with the promise of long, lazy days and no set schedule. Now most of us would be happy for a day like that occasionally! But as a child of God our days are spent seeing Him at work as He comforts those who are discouraged or sad, brings joy in the middle of trouble, and guides those we love. He fills our days and that’s a good thing!

It was great traveling with Tito Ramirez during the month of May, visiting six of his supporting churches as he gave updates on the work in Carlos Paz and introduced us as his future teammates. What a blessing!

In June the schedule included visits to three churches here in Michigan and a week at mission headquarters for Synergy. That’s when any BMW missionary who is in the U.S. can gather for a time of fellowship, brainstorming, learning and just plain fun. How encouraging and energizing! Plus there was time to see Ivan’s brother, Lynn, and some of his family who moved to Atlanta last year.

Besides visiting several churches in July, Ivan also preached at our home church. And he performed the wedding for one of the young ladies who was in the youth group when Ivan was youth pastor. That was a joy!

If you’re in the tri-state area (Michigan, Indiana or Ohio) and would like us to come and share with you, your family, small group or church, please call! We love to share our vision for ministry in Argentina with anyone who will sit still long enough! Now available is an 8-minute video from the Ramirez about the ongoing work in Carlos Paz so just ask if you’re interested in receiving a copy.

Please continue to pray that God will connect us with churches and individuals to partner in this ministry. How exciting to hear from several individuals recently who want to get behind us with their prayers and financial support! It would be great to get commitments even from those who don’t plan to start the support until we’re ready to leave for the field.

Some wonderful things are happening in our family these days! Our son Jon was recently saved. What an amazing blessing to see him growing in the Lord; there have been some huge turnarounds in his life. Praise God for the saving grace of Jesus! And Tina thoroughly enjoyed her short-term missions trip to Uganda. She’s still assimilating all the experiences, especially working in the clinic at Kasana Children’s Center. It has made her consider a degree in nursing!

Jon has developed a website where prayer needs can be updated, as well as news about what is happening. The website address is: Please check it out! In addition to our prayer letters and periodic updates, the site will feature photos, our biographical sheet, the strategy sheet for the work in Carlos Paz, and a few other things. We really appreciate all of Jon’s hard work! Many hours went into the project. More photos and information will be added as we have time.

Current prayer needs: 1) that God would connect us with churches and individuals who would support us; and 2) for Kim as she continues to study Spanish on her own this summer. Have a wonderful summer and hopefully an occasional lazy day!

Yesterday after work I dedicated to preparing for Bible study since it was the only block of time I had. My leaning towards doing made me feel a bit guilty that I wasn’t helping with the work project at the ladies burned down house. It turns out that about 60 people showed up, three trucks and a loader. God blessed the effort, the project was completed and I stayed home and was blessed by His Word.

Acts 19 an exciting chapter in an exciting book that hits the highlights of God’s work in the establishment of the Church in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and the ends of the earth. Ephesus in Asia Minor is the focus. Paul starts by asking some disciples (of John) a very revealing question: “Did you receive the Spirit when you believed?” By their response he immediatly knew their status. They had repented (Baptism of John) but lacked some pieces just like Apollos had (ch 18:18-27). Paul fills in the blanks for them intellectually and God did the rest. They believed, were baptized, received the Spirit and it was manifested to them through speaking in tongues and prophecy. Another example to the unbelieving Jews of God’s inclusion of the Gentiles, authentication of the messengers and formost of Jesus as Christ / Messiah.

This piece generated a good discussion at Bible study and a great deal of the time was dedicated to a discussion about the purpose or function of tongues in the context of Acts and the subsequent change in the epistles up to the present day. The more I study His Word the more I see this pattern. The great need for tongues at the beginning and the subsequent cessation in the Biblical account.

We only got through verse 7. But ended with Pastor sharing that he himself would love having an occasional “postcard” (a supernatural manifestation)from God confirming His direction, activity and presence. Wouldn’t we all? However, His inspired Word is sufficient and we are called to “Trust and Obey”. We sang the first verse and the chorus then had a sweet time of prayer.

Had a nice time afterwards talking, looking into the water heater element problem and topped it all off with a scoop of ice cream at Moscow General Store along with John and Loretta. Sweet fellowship and Moose Tracks. I appreciate my church family more now that we’ve had to be away so much visiting other churches. There’s no place like home.

On the way home Tina called and wondered if I wanted to play Settlers with Al, Jon and her. We played one game and Tina soundly beat us. I must get faster at doing this. I’ve discovered a website that has new Argentine Tango selections every day. This post has been a “two time through the selections” one. I hopefully I’ll get better at it and make it in one lap.