Argentina Day 5, September 9, 2009
Today was a big day. We had to split up in the morning to complete all of the tasks.
We all met for coffee in the hotel restaurant. The Nigerians were all there, and we were able to talk to some of them. Lawson and Emmanuel are the older leaders of the group. Lawson is a pastor who does sports ministry. Emmanuel seems to be like the team parent. He’s the oldest. Before they left the restaurant, they wanted to take a picture of us. They may go to church with us on Sunday.
Don, Emily and Evelyn went to Tina’s to get as much of the work done there as they could. They were able to get the grass cut back, pick up most of the trash, and start getting an unwanted plant pulled up out of her front yard. We will need to go back to finish the rest of the work, but I’m not sure when that will happen.
Tina was so grateful that she made Empandas and a strawberry dessert for them. She also sent them each with some Argentine treats that are packaged like candy bars, but resemble snack cakes.
Ken and I had to stay back to work on plans for the training we were to do that evening. We had been asked to train the leaders in a church in the city of Hurlingham, outside of Buenos Aires on how to lead a children’s ministry. This was a difficult task for us, because all of our work before coming to Argentina was done based on churches who would be allowed to use materials provided by DBC back home. This church would not have access to those materials, so we had to rewrite much of our work to generalize it for this church.
We left City Bell around 1:00 to travel to Hurlingham, and our time there was a whirlwind. We began by visiting with the pastor, Gaston, and his wife. She served us soda and cookies as a welcome.
Our main mission there was to teach on Sunday School programs. We taught them about learning styles and gave them an outline and suggestions for how to plan a schedule. Ken and I pretty much did most of the teaching on that part, while Evelyn and Emily helped demonstrate the songs and games. Don was busy preparing to teach a BTCP lesson later that night.
After the workshop, we went to spend time with some neighborhood kids that the church is working with. Two twin sisters who attend the church open there home each week to the local kids. The sisters and others from the church play games with the kids and teach them about God. There were nearly 50 kids in attendance. We were able to see them sing some of their regular songs, then Evelyn taught them one of ours. We taught the lesson that we’ve been presenting since Sunday on God Protects Baby Moses. We weren’t able to get through all of our activities due to the sheer number of people.
Emily using the wordless book to share the Gospel with some of the kids.
Our team with some of the volunteers and kids from Hurlingham.
Later, we went back to the church in Hurlingham where the men taught two sections of BTCP from thePersonal Spiritual Life” text.
Don teaching about time management.
The Hurlingham BTCP class. There were a few students missing due to the big soccer game.
We visited with the church members there and ate HomeMade Argentine pizza. Who knew tomatoes and boiled eggs could top a pizza?
Ham and Cheese
Tomato and Egg
During this time, we were able to talk to Romina and Elizabeth. We exchanged e-mail addresses and will be finding each other on Facebook!
It was after 10:00 when we finally left to drive the hour and a half back to the hotel in City Bell. Late night, but a blessed day.