Amigos Por Siempre (Friends Forever)

July means winter vacation for us here on the underside of the earth. This makes it perfect for a mission trip. Our church sent a group north to the province of Salta to minister in the Calchaquí and Lurucatao valleys. The 15 day trip was split up between three teams. Each team had at least one Seminario Carey student getting in some practical experience.

The first team to set out ministered in the town of Cachi where Marcelo and Nancy Brondo have planted a church. The team helped launch the youth ministry with week-long activities. There were also practical workshops during the week for adults and VBS for the children. Each day the workshops ended with an evangelistic lesson as well.

The second week of the trip brought new arrivals to the team as some returned to Córdoba. The group was reorganized into two teams and sent to their new ministry locations in the Lurucatao Valley. One team went to serve at the boarding school in Alumbre where they continued the teachers’ training in “religious lessons” to comply with the provincial guidelines. The Lord has allowed us to serve this school as suppliers of these religious lessons that are now required by law. We provide the training with our curriculum “Amigos por siempre”, bibles and other materials the teachers and students need for these classes. Last year the teachers were all very receptive. This year all but one of the teachers are new to the school. They are not receptive to the program or to God’s word. The children, however, do like reading their bibles. So much so, that at times they have to be taken away from them so that they will do their other school work

Our friend Val told us about one of the new teachers. Here’s her story (Her name has been removed for privacy):

She was one of two teachers who let us know from the very first day that she was a strong Catholic and she was opposed to teaching religion in school. It was only after we assured her (and the others) that we weren’t there with an agenda, just a desire to teach the Bible, that she gave the ok. During the week we started to realize all the internal problems in the school – teachers fighting, theft, backstabbing, etc. Two of the teachers stopped coming to the Bible training but this one continued. We had to change shower times (since one of the teachers turned the gas off on us, on purpose), but the new shower time gave us the chance to talk to this teacher alone without any interruptions (since she’s the Kindergarten teacher, she has a different schedule). On the last day before we left, she told Natalia that she had been reading in Revelation where God says, Behold I stand at the door and knock…and she commented that during the week, she’d come to see and understand that the “door” was her heart and her life, and God was giving her the chance to open the door to him so He could be part of her life.

At the end of the trip Val said the teacher’s spiritual condition was still not clear, “but just seeing how God took her from being a voice of opposition to a soft, searching heart, encourages us that He has a plan for her.” In October a smaller group will be returning to Alumbre for the next training session with this group of teachers. I ask you to pray for them. Pray that they could speak boldly, without fear, the truth of the gospel. Pray that hearts of those that hear would be open to receive God’s word – that they would find salvation in our Lord Jesus Christ.