Team Report

We're home as you all probably know. Please join us for our team report in the Choir room at GSCC--at 7:00p.m. Saturday August 23rd. We'd love to see you all there.


BTW--we are 100% funded. Thank you all again.
We were also 100% covered in prayer--thanks for that especially!

From Derryn

Derryn preaches at Figuiera, enjoying the trip back, and Derryn hangs out with kids at the orphanage

Shelley and Trini hanging out, in the Central Plaza at Rosario with the kids and more of the central plaza

Hello. I am happy to say that CJ and I(Derryn) are getting better. I have had a fever for the past couple days and CJ has had a cough and congestion and stuff. I'm sorry to announce, however, that everyone else on our team is getting increasingly ill. So if you're reading this you have no excuse not to pray for them. Today we are going to Rosario again. We went there yesterday with 9-11 year olds. Today it's with the 12-18 year olds. It will be exciting. Rosario is a small village, of one million residents, about two hours from San Nicolas. We will be shopping and partaking at the local Burger King.
Here is what I have thought of the trip so far:
We have felt the Holy Spirit leading us every day. CJ wrote this in the previous blog but I'll just remind you. It was last Friday night and up to that point I don't know that anyone had gotten saved. So that night when we were praying as a team I prayed that God would allow us to see some people get saved. So the next day(Saturday) we did our puppet show thing and they asked all the visiting kids to come to the front if they wanted to get saved. So sixty kids came to the front and accepted Christ. So we need to give God all the glory for that because if that was the only good thing that happened on this trip it would have been worth it.
But God has helped us with everything. None of us are preachers at all but every time we had to preach God gave us audiences that needed to hear exactly what we said. There are many things that each of us could have done better as far as all that went but I believe anything we did right was because of God anyway. We have felt all of your prayers and we have needed each one more than we can say to thank you for that.
we're coming home soon.

For Taylor Sluman--MIA

A toast for Taylor...
You missed out.

From C.J.

The thrill of a good balloon and the agony of a bad one--on our way to another show.

Tara, Jess and C.J. painted faces in Chacabuco's central park, CJ and Derryn do their statue pose and Claudio and Tito find signs of the mother country

Hanging out after one of the shows, CJ admires his handywork and 60 kids prayed to receive Christ in Baradero

The past few days haven't been as busy as the days in Pergamino. However they still are keeping us busy. I personally have preached twice already, Derryn will preach tonight and my dad has already preached again. I think we all have a done a great job and our spirits are still high. Yesterday was great for us. We witnessed 60 kids come to know Christ. What's funny is Derryn prayed to be able to see someone get saved. That was great to see. Then our group split up and Tara and I went to this "no fun and games" (LOL) Baptist church where I preached and the rest went to another church in Empalme where my dad preached. So it was a father-son preaching night. Then we met up for dinner and talked about our plans. After tonight, we are done preaching and doing puppet shows. We are on the home stretch.
Prayer request: Derryn and I especially have been sick. We are battling some sort of cold and everything that goes with it. It has been draining on me and Derryn and others have had it to some extent. Pray for healing please.

From Jessica

CJ and Tara do face paints--the team.

CJ preaches, a typical neighborhood where the puppet show played and Jess and CJ learn how to work the puppets.

The past 3 days have been packed: we put on 8 puppet shows in 7 different places, painted hundreds of faces and made 300 balloon animals, spent 2 nights in police barracks with one working toilet, ate 4 meals a day (breakfast of white bread, lunch with white bread, merienda (tea) with white bread, and dinner around 10 pm), and reached 2000 kids with the message of the gospel. We spent our time in Pergamino (a town about 2 hours away from San Nicolas) with a team of 20 kids from the Hogar that presents a puppet show with music and dancing. Since it's winter break here, the city government of Pergamino had approached a local pastor, Samuel, asking him to put together activities for the kids. Samuel arranged performances for the puppet team and the government gave us free license to share whatever message we wanted.
Each morning, we went to community centers around the city that basically serve as daycares; kids come to the centers for their meals because there is nothing to eat at home. They all loved the puppet shows and clapped, yelled, and danced with the puppets. In the afternoons, the team performed at churches and we painted faces and made balloon animals for the kids afterwards. The kids got really excited about even our messy paintings and balloons that looked like large intestines: simple things bring them so much joy.
Many of the kids we met were enthralled by the fact that we were Americans. One little boy came up and asked me if I knew Nicholas Cage, Spiderman, and Batman because they live in the US. Yesterday, Tara and I went outside to play with some kids and were immediately bombarded with questions about our families surrounded by a semicircle of kids who just stared at us and asked questions.
We were all so exhausted by the third day that we learned to drink mate. It's an herb mix similar to tea but much stronger-- it's drunk through a straw and passed around to everyone. It's pretty potent: one little cup of mate kept CJ going all day.
We've had a lot of practice being flexible the past few days. Everything in Argentina starts at least a 1/2 hour late (Dad- you would fit in well here :)) and starting times are just suggested, so schedules are always subject to change. The Argentines are all really laid-back and patient. They are content to sit and talk for an hour while waiting for church to start, and the whole pace of life here is much slower and more relaxed.
We didn't have specific roles with the puppet program, so we had to play things by ear. We sat and danced with the kids, helped with set up and take down of equipment, spent time with the teenagers from the team, led devotionals in the mornings. Derryn and Claudio preached at two different churches (one was a hip-hop youth service of 250 and the other was a small pentecostal church) and I sang at both despite a few hairy moments due to sound equipment.
We all had a lot of fun together and got to know many of the kids better. Relationships are being built, so please pray for continued opportunities for connecting with the kids.

from Shelley

Wow!!! People have been so open and warm despite the language barrier. Claudio preached and Jessica sang. They both did so well, even though I couldn't understand them (it was in Spanish).
It is amazing to see the joy of God in the hearts of the people down here. They have so little. The Lord has truly shown us a few saints. Life down here is so different from home. We are the fortunate ones to see how God works. Thanks for the prayers from so many people. We can feel your warmth around us.

From Tara...

In the airplane and at the airport...

Arriving at the hotel--Derryn prepares for battle

Wow! That was a long flight, probably the longest some of us have experienced. Praise be to the Lord for getting us here safely! Flying over the Andes at sunrise, was beautiful. The clouds hovered low over the hills and looked like pools of whipped cream. In one of these pools it looked like God had taken a swipe with His finger as if to test the sweetness of the whipped cream. We also watched a magnificent lightning storm through the night.
Customs and immigrations was a breeze and we eventually found Tom Feeney, who took us to San Nicolas. We are staying at the (retired hotel) house of Tito and Blanca, friends of the Feeneys. Its not too cold here, nothing we Oregonians can't handle!
Pray that we get rested up and adjusted to the time change, that we all are patient while letting the Lord work through the language barrier, that we make good connections and relationships with the people here and that each of us remains strong and faithful in our walks with the Lord.