what is to become of those bricks

Marcela and Ceferino are rebuilding. This will be their new house.






I got to see on Saturday how it's coming along. The brick walls have now been raised as high as my hip.

Those bricks will come in handy as the night temperatures drop into 50s, soon into the 40s. [EDIT: Now 30s...]. Freezing. Right now they are sleeping in a temporary wood-slat house with only three walls and a tarp for a roof. Brrrrr.

"He that hath pity upon the poor lendeth unto the LORD..." ~Proverbs 19:17



barn turned house

This is the story of the barn which became someone's house. The hard way.

The bricks from this barn will soon become Marcela's and Ceferino's (and their five kids') house.

Sometimes the cross is heavy, and it hurts, and it cuts your hands and makes you sweat. The cross of Calvary, True Love, an example we Christ-followers are called to walk in and to imitate.

Sometimes the cross takes the everyday form of bricks. LOTS of bricks.

the barn before

the inside of the barn

the top half of the building's bricks dismantled



all taken down by hand



Victor sledgehammering the bricks out

Tony and Victor working hard

they couldn't start one of the hand machines, so wrapped a wire around it and pulled hard til it started

 

the first shipment of bricks ready to be loaded -
the church's pick-up truck in the background, being put to good use



loading the bricks onto the flatbed for delivery

Tony, always smiling :)

loaded and ready for delivery

arriving at Marcela and Ceferino's (I can't say house, because they don't have live in one yet)

unloading the bricks

Tony, Victor, and Dani after a hard week's work

Reaching people with the Love of Christ, and eventually with the gospel, is hard work. Breaking ground in a new place the gospel hasn't reached (this little corner of the slums) takes various forms. Sometimes it physically hurts (Tony was achey, in back pain for days). It costs, it requires sacrifice - just as my salvation cost Christ everything - reaching others will cost, too. IT MUST COST. There is always a price. But don't be afraid to get dirty or sacrifice for what is good, becauuse God's economy works this way: It is more blessed to give than to receive.

Tony has been spending a lot of time in the slums these days.


Tony with Sebastian: his plywood house burned down and he is now living in a tent with his wife


There's always something to do.

Bring fresh water. Food. Comfort. Friendship. A helping hand. The Good News.

Love in action.



Fix-it-yourself electrical repairs: Dani holding the ladder for Raul, Sebastian's uncle


During one of their visits Ceferino, Marcela's husband, told Tony his story. He grew up in a landfill. He is one of twelve children. As a child, he picked through trash to survive. His body is riddled with gunshots. Two to his head (one grazed his jaw bone, the other his scalp), more than a few in his legs and stomach. Miraculously, he's still alive.





Dani, Sebastian, Raul

While Tony was in the slums, Yoli stopped by our house and asked for a Bible. No one has ever actually asked me for a Bible, and I was about to give her mine, right when Tony came home and said he had found one while unpacking. It was hers to keep.

Oh, Thank you, she said. I want to read the Bible at night, but I don't have one.

Now she does.

Sometimes, I venture to say most times, reaching the lost, helping those in need, spreading the gospel, takes the form of small things. Jesus doesn't necessarily ask us to do big things for him, He just asks us to be available, to obey. Knowing His will is not far from us, we can open our Bibles and read what we're supposed to do as professed followers of Christ. The question is not "What does God want me to do?", but "Will we do it?".

Marcela, cold water, and refrigerators

filling up water tanks to take to the slums

Days are full here. None are ever the same. I wonder if that is, in part, because it's summer. It is very difficult to have a schedule when people drop in unannounced every day, some with great physical and spiritual needs, some for lunch, some for dinner, some to just talk and visit. Much grace is also required as temperatures climb back up over 100.

Oh, and the dust. Don't forget the dust! I have never seen so much dust and dirt in a house in all my life. I feel like all I do is clean, clean, clean. And surely, I think, God did not bring me here to just clean all day long day after day, did He?


Dany drinking terere

Yesterday, Tony and Dani went back to visit the families whose houses burned down. The third time this week.

Dani is one of the pastor's sons. He is 17 years old and he is pure genius. He handles all the car repairs for the church, is a master electrician, mechanic, welder, and builds his own computers. And he loves to do missions. He also recently repaired our TV all by himself - the one that Tony (ahem) blew out. Dani is very smart and always busy helping out.

Today my boy asked me why Dani is so white but doesn't understand English.

lol

I told him that it's because his parents are of European descent, but he's Argentinian, so he speaks Spanish.

On Wednesday when Tony and Dani went up to visit the families for the second time, bringing water and the food we forgot to unload (duh), one of the women, the one who has 5 children, opened up and told her story.

Oh boy.

When Tony asked the families why they thought this may have happened to them, all were silent. Then, Marcela spoke up. She said, yes, she had thought about that question many a time since her house burned down.

Marcela, in the middle, wearing a dress

Marcela uses cocaine. Her husband abuses alcohol, does coke, and also smokes pot. Fortunately, Marcela's husband holds down a job. He works from midnight until 10am loading and unloading fruit crates at a fruit distributor. As she opened up, Marcela also shared that they have dabbled in Umbanda. They have five children. She admits that she feels empty.

Tony and Dani stayed all afternoon visiting, baking under the sun, sharing time, conversation, and Christ. When the guys were getting ready to leave, Marcela asked that they stay. She wanted to talk some more. It did her so well, she said, that they came. She has thought many times of taking her own life. But she was feeling better now that they had talked. So they stayed and promised to come back in a few days. Tony told her that even if we continue to bring food, water, a refrigerator, or any and all sort of material things, without Christ in her life she would still feel empty.

When Tony came home after this visit and announced that we would be buying them a refrigerator, I confess that my reaction was more like, "Woahhh... Hold on there a minute, don't forget you don't have a job yet. We have to pay rent, you know. Refrigerators are expensive. Why don't we wait til Sunday, make an announcement at church, and have everyone give 100 pesos?"

No, he said. They need a refrigerator now.

True.

The construction guys next door have a used fridge they can sell to us for 800 pesos ($200). New ones cost $2000-3000 pesos.

Where are we going to get an extra $200??, I asked. If you hadn't noticed, we don't have much of an income.

Worry, worry, worry.

The next morning fellow missionary Lee came over. We had given them 3 big peices of furniture that literally did not fit into our smaller house here, even after three yard sales and tremendous downsizing. We needed to sell one of the pieces, hoping to help pay for our own rent while Tony still waits for a call from the TV station (they say he is #1 on the list to get a job, but everyone is on vacation now, so we need to wait.). We're living on faith already.

While I was wondering how on earth we were going to give Marcela a refrigerator, when we don't have a job or fixed monthly support to even pay for our own roof, the next morning Lee came and offered us 1000 pesos for the 3rd piece of furniture we were selling.

Not the first time I've felt ashamed of my lack of faith and amazed at the goodness of God at the same time.

Yesterday it was 38 degrees Celcius up there on the desert hill. That is 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Today it will be hotter.

There is no water. There is no shade. There is a not a tree or a blade of green in sight. They do not have ice, or even a refrigerator. One of the women had a headache from the heat and the beating sun, which are brutal here. The low pressure system that constantly hangs over the city, inviting hot winds to blow in, can make your head bound. I know this personally since I've had to take Tylenol or Ibuprofen every single day for three straight weeks for constant headache. Even Tony complains it bothers him.

Today Tony and Dany will be going back to Marcela's neighborhood. They filled two big tanks with fresh, cool, sparkling water.

Our kids ask why they keep going back there. I tell them that the Bible says to Love the Lord God with all your heart, and love your neighbor as yourself. Would you want to be thirsty and hungry and homeless and without Christ? Wouldn't you want someone to come help you if you were Marcela?

"For whoever gives you a cup of water to drink in My name, because you belong to Christ, assuredly, I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward." ~Mark 9:41

"Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.

You are my friends, if you do whatsoever I command you."
~John 15:13,14

the trip and life on the other side

The journey from our old home in the States to our new home in Argentina started on Tuesday night and didn't end until early Thursday morning. It's now Friday, and we are feeling a bit more rested up and settled in. Well, as much as you can be settled in when you're homeless, and living out of suitcases, and other people's houses, in a foreign country... you know.

Tuesday night some friends  - who have a van big enough to fit us, them, and our 10 suitcases + 5 carry ons - drove us to JFK Airport, about a 3 hour drive.

We grabbed a few hours of sleep at a hotel near the airport (also compliments of friends!), only to get up at 5am for a long 24-hour day of travel.

We traveled TAM, a Brazilian airline (one way tickets, by the way:)). It was kind of nice to be waited on, with nothing to do but watch movies and TV - something I, um, let's see... never do. The kids were in their glory, each with their very own TV on the seat in front of them; they were glued to it the entire time, and we hardly heard a peep from them. It was also neat to practice my Portuguese, be able to understand everything the flight attendants said, and watch some Brazilian TV shows - I forgot how good (in a wordly way) they are.

Keeping the toddler busy and out of trouble was not easy - and we were praising Jesus when she finally passed out while eating lunch, after having been up since 5am.

Our connecting flight from Sao Paolo to Buenos Aires was on a smaller plane, this time full of Argentinians instead of Brazilians. The plane was so much noisier than the big airbus we had been on - that, plus the stress of travelling that far with kids - gave me a migraine, so I was not a happy camper the last leg of our journey.

Finally, after 13 hours flying time, and almost 24 hours awake, we made it to Argentina. We woke the kids up at 2am to shuffle them through Immigration and Customs. It went well - except for the $420 they took from us: the "Entry Fee" for North American, British and Australian citizens. Fortunately, when the cashier saw on our son´s passport that he was born in Buenos Aires (which makes him an Argentine citizen), she didn't charge him the $120 Entry Fee - even though he was entering with a US passport. God saved us some money again - sweet!

Tony's brother-in-law and family were waiting to pick us up. Everybody was tired, one was bawling and just wanting a bed - but, of course, some of Tony's family was still up and waiting for us when we pulled in at 3:30 in the morning.

They had been cooking all night for the following day's festivities.

I struggle with having to be nice and smiley and chatty at that hour - but we survived and were finally able to hit the hay at 5am.

The next morning family started pouring in early to say hi and stay for a huge meal. It worked out that several people had off work, and the kids didn't have school because all the teachers in the country are on strike. Apparently a mom and a student beat a teacher up somewhere, so all the teachers in the country went on strike... or, at least, that's what I understood. lol Welcome to Argentina.

homemade ñoquis [gnocchis] with tomato sauce, all made from scratch

beef stuffed with garlic and parsley... so tender

bife con relleno... mmmmm

juicy, moist, beef empanadas

Since I woke up with a mild migraine the first day, all the noise and commotion was a little challenging. To make matters quickly and exponentially worse, the 2 year-old almost immediately fell from the 2nd story of the not-baby proofed stairs... see how wide those slats are??

I was a nervous, sleep-deprived wreck that first morning. I still can´t take my eyes off her here. We're doing better now - she knows she's not allowed on those stairs alone. I don't know how my sister-in-law raised two boys with those stairs!

My boy also electrocuted himself trying to plug one of these 220-120 converters in...

and I offended my brother-in-law because I yelled at him (I'm good at that here - offending people. I don't mean to, I just always end up doing it.). I couldn't help yelling at him, though. He was showing the girls the patio on the second floor, and he picked my baby up to stand on the ledge so "she could see better". But he was holding her... so that was silly of me to yell Noooooooooooo!

Which I did.

Loudly.

(sigh)

Not a great way to start our first day.

Things did improve by dinner, though. The Aleve kicked in and many more warm and lively family members descended on the premises with hugs and kisses and laughs and cameras.

Some good news: the kids have already started speaking  Spanish:

What is wrong with this picture?
Why, absolutely nothing.
I always keep my eggs on top of the fridge,
don't you?

Hola, tia. [Hi, aunt.] 

Hola, tio. [Hi, uncle.]

Bien. [Good.]

Si, por favor. [Yes, please.] 

Gracias. [Thank you.] 

Un poquito de puré de zapallo, por favor. [A little more mashed butternut squash, please.]

Me gustó mucho la pizza. [I liked the pizza a lot. My boy really said that! All by himself!]

...and so on and so forth. It's ador-a-ble. Here they were so worried about not being able to speak Spanish, but I can tell they will be just fine.

Today, our second day here in Buenos Aires, we woke up to birdies chirping (spring has sprung here), the sound of a horse trotting down the street, several dogs barking, and somebody yelling over a loudspeaker advertising something. Welcome to South America. lol

casa sin terminar and stinky fish

"Do you know if you will be living in the slums? Or in a nicer neighborhood and just working in the slums?".

I answered that I didn't know. We don't know yet where we'll be living. I guess we'll have to see.

(I am vaguely aware I must make people uncomfortable when I give strange and vague answers like this.)

But it's true. We have no idea. We don't have a home in Argentina yet. We do not know where we will live. We will be homeless for at least 2-4 weeks. Or more. But that's okay. We know that and we are prepared (at least mentally) for it. Getting through it with three kids living out of suitcases with a potentially cranky toddler and no where to lay our little heads may be a different reality. But, like pregnancy, it's a temporary state of affairs.

There is a pastor in Neuquen who is relocating this year to an area 20km away to lead up a new church plant. He is leaving his house in the city of Neuquen open and available to anyone that might need it. We have the option of staying there (assuming the timing works out). But we have been told it is a casa sin terminar (an unfinished house/a house still under construction). It is "livable" by Argentine standards - he lives there, after all - but "livable" for Americans means something somewhat different. There may be bare bulbs hanging from the ceiling, electrical wires hanging out of the walls, gaping holes, piles of bricks, unpainted walls, no air conditioning, no heat, no hot water, no washing machine, nothing that passes for a civilized bathroom.

Casa sin terminar could mean anything.

If it doesn't work out that we stay there, I guess we're in the Lord's hands (well, we're in the Lord's hands, anyway). Our pastor friend said we could stay with his family until we find a place. That's super nice, they are so humble and generous, but we really don't want to have to take them up on that. I think there's something to the saying, "Company and fish both stink after three days." Or, I like this one better,

"Two dayes y'ave larded here;
a third yee know,
Makes guests and fish smell strong;
pray go." -[1648 Herrick Hesperides 169]

Yeah, so we don't really want to be that kind of company for anyone. Our two week pit stop in Buenos Aires will be hard enough.

Homeless!

"And when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him: for they know his voice. And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him: for they know not the voice of strangers." ~ John 10:3-5

We will be officially homeless as of September 30th! We officially gave notice in writing on the house that we rent.

We're locked in now, I guess. No turning back! :)

Someone at church asked me if we have a Plan B. We actually never thought of that... No Plan B. Just a Plan A: follow God to Argentina to do missions. That's it.

That's the plan.

What a walk of faith and practice in trusting God this has been. It is all a joy to follow Him, because we hear His voice. "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me." - John 10:27

The hardest part about this has not been trusting God, but dealing with and accepting the misunderstanding, the questioning of our motives, the doubting of us as Christians and people. We just shake our heads that there are people that choose to believe we are just "moving back to Argentina". Like life is better there or something. It's not (imagine going to this hospital in Neuquen where we are moving - just take a look, go ahead. Then tell me we are going to be living large.). We're just "moving back to Tony's home country" - we're not really going to do missions. We just want to live abroad and have other people support us and not work. Who are we to do missions anyway? We've heard it all (or at least I hope, because I can't take much more of this). I could go on, but won't... (sigh). That has very much been the. hardest. part. of all this, hands down. We never in a million years imagined that our greatest support and encouragement would come from outside of church, from non-believers, from the third world even. But it has, at least so far. It doesn't make sense. For every word of encouragement from a believer, we have received two from non-believers. I don't understand it. [And please don't criticize me for just telling the truth, I don't know if I can take one more person jumping on us for just wanting to do mission. This has simply been our experience]. Of course, we hope and pray that this changes.

I love what Hudson Taylor said in response to his critics and doubters when he was about to leave for China,

'“A foolhardy business,” said those who saw only the difficulties.

“A superhuman task,” sighed others who wished them well. And many even of their friends could not but be anxious.

“You will be forgotten,” was the concern of some.

“With no committee or organization before the public, you will be lost sight of in that distant land. Claims are many nowadays. Before long you may find yourselves without even the necessaries of life!”

“I am taking my children with me,” was the quiet answer, “and I notice it is not difficult to remember that they need breakfast in the morning, dinner at midday and supper at night. Indeed, I could not forget them if I tried. And I find it impossible to think that our heavenly Father is less tender and mindful of His children than I, a poor earthly father, am of mine. No, He will not forget us!”' - from Hudson Taylor's Spiritual Secret, p. 124 [read the whole thing here]

I thank God for the example of Hudson Taylor. For Gladys Aylward, and for all the others that have gone before us in faith and have proved God to be faithful. Their testimony speaks and encourages us even to this day. Thank you, Jesus.

So... we're looking forward to being homeless!

:)

Never Stop Preaching the Gospel, and Don't Forget the Homeless!

Someone dared enough and cared enough to share with this guy, and now look who the LORD had mercy on.

Beautiful.

(forgive the commercial in the beginning :))

life in the upside-down Kingdom

"it is more blessed to give than to receive..."

Life in God's kingdom is upside down. Only God could make giving better than receiving. Only God could bless you MORE when you give, than when you receive. Only God. How does He do that??

We were trying to figure that out on the drive home from the city on Christmas day. We went to serve a meal to the homeless, and God - as is His Way - ended up blessing us more. Only God could make a law of the universe like that.

We got there just in time for the director of the homeless ministry to debrief the volunteers and assign jobs...

  



Then the homeless began to arrive...

Once the house was full, the director got up, said a few words...

...the gospel message was given, an invitation to give your life to Christ held out, 3 or 4 hands went up, a prayer, then 90 minutes of non-stop singing while the food was being served.

Somehow I ended up on stage with the rag-tag worship team, sitting at an empty piano holding sleeping baby, and singing (sort of, I can't carry a tune) for 90 non-stop minutes. It was FUN.
 

my view from the piano

A little video of us amateurs rockin' the worship...

                                        

Afterwards, the director gathered the volunteers to thank them, and to open up the mike for testimony time. Many, including us, shared an experience from the night or a word of thanks or encouragement, their own story, or whatever else was on their hearts. Testimony time went on for over 15 minutes.

It was awesome, what more can I say? I love that our kids were there with us, serving alongside us. Living missions, not just hearing about it. We want them to grow up doing missions, seeing what faith looks like by showing them what it means to really obey Christ's teachings - which includes going into the rough places and rubbing shoulders with the down-and-outs. And how can we do that if we ourselves do nothing? Reminds me of what I heard a preacher say once, "God will not be impressed in heaven by how many verses we've memorized.". He put it this way, Simon says, "Tap your head," and we do it... Jesus says, "Feed the hungry," and we... memorize it?

It was our first year here in the States that we didn't spend Christmas with my family (although that is not to be disdained). We wanted to do something different. Something for someone else, for others who don't have what we have been given, which, all things being relative, is too much.

"...For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall much be required..." ~Luke 12:48

Do we believe this? Do our lives show this? I don't know if ours do.

Getting over the spiritual inertia is hard. It's a fight. A battle. But Nike says, 'Just Do It' (profound theology, I know). So we picked a day and said enough talk, we're going. And we went. So much of following Christ is just doing it.

The place we went to is a GREAT ministry. They are the real heroes. They have not closed their doors one single day to the homeless in 14 years. The Spirit of Christ is palpable there, the commands of Christ are being obeyed, and the gospel is being preached - all with joy. It was a tremendous privilege just to be there. I am convinced that we came away much more blessed and more full than anyone we served.

That's life in the upside-down Kingdom. Confirmation that giving away what we have is getting so much more. That is still what we want to do. Now more than ever.

We also got some good ideas about what we can do in Argentina, ideas about how to do it... good stuff for the memory files.

And, yes, we are SO going back!

:)