November - December Hilights

Grandpa Gibbons arrived on November 17th. to spend Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years with us.  It will be the first Christmas together in 23 years!

Grandpa checking out camp

Thanksgiving with co-workers and an Argentine friend who lived for over 20 years in California

November 28 Baptisms

The church family enjoyed having services at camp on Sunday, November 28th. to witness the baptisms of Roberto and Jonathan.  Praise the Lord the very clear salvation testimonies these two men gave.

Youth play instruments while Pablo leads the song service

Roberto shares how he came to know Christ
and after eight years finally chose to live for Him

Jonathan tells how he began coming to church and
in March of this year trusted Christ for salvation.

Summer Work at Camp

We all work at different times to keep lawns mowed at camp during the summer months, a task that takes many hours.   We're so grateful for Martin and Sandra who live on location, and even though Martin works full time secularly, they spend many hours cutting grass and watering trees and manning the drip lines.  With very little rain in the last six weeks the survival of many of our trees depend on diligence in this mundane task.  Some day people will sit in the shade of the trees, but few will be able to appreciate why they can!!!

Above & Below:  Kristi and Debbie cutting grass

Danny & Kristi in front of our home

Multi-purpose Room Near Completion

The tile floor of the multi-purpose room at church was laid recently!  Soon the walls will be painted and fixtures installed.  The next project will be plumbing and tiling the second bathroom.  Praise the Lord for a gift that purchased the tile for the kitchen, multi-purpose room and second bathroom.  

Men's Group Closing Event

Each year most of the men and their sons meet one morning a month for a men's breakfast and study.  At the end of the year it's become a tradition to gather at camp and have "choripanes" (sausage on a bun).  Nearly 30 men and their sons were present on December 13th. for the event.

Above & Below:  Fellowship

Martin begins grilling the sausage

We praise the Lord for a fantastic group of men.  The potential for leadership is great.  Pray for our men that they will step up to the plate:  at home and in the local church.

Chivilcoy Celebrates 156 Years

On Friday, October 22 the President of Argentina, along with her husband (the previous president), the provincial governor, local mayor and other officials visited Chivilcoy for the city's birthday celebration.  Our curiosity got the best of us, so we went to the city's main square to have a look!  We ended up waiting in a mass crowd for two hours for the President's late arrival.  Once she and the other politicians were on the platform we went home to listen and watch on TV.  According to the local paper 22,000 people filled the plaza in this city of just 70,000!!!  If you follow Argentine news, you may have heard that the presidents husband, probably the most powerful person in Argentine politics, died of a massive heart attack just five days after he was in Chivilcoy.

Debbie, Rocio (one of our youth), Danny and Kristi

A literal sea of people spilling into the plaza (left) and filling the entire width of a four lane avenue.  The municipal palace is seen in the background.

View of the platform

Flags and hats are worn by syndicate members.  Argentina has very powerful syndicates.

Four thousand students from local schools were present to sing.  Some of our own youth were in the group seen on the steps of the Catholic Church in the background holding flags.

President Kirchner comes onto the platform (far left in tan outfit)

A large screen in front of where we stood gives a close up view of the politicians, with Mrs. Kirchner and her now deceased husband on the right.

Mother's Day & Youth Night

On October 17th. Argentina celebrates Mother's Day. This year we worked with our youth to prepare them for heading up the entire worship service.  They did a fabulous job picking hymns, leading the service, playing all the instruments, reading Scripture, poems and several meditations.  The kids from children's church also sang.  Pray for God to raise up faithful servants from among our youth!

Diego was the service leader.  Some of you may remember praying for him a couple of years ago when he suffered a stroke while playing soccer.  You would never know today that anything happened to him.

Children's church is a new ministry in our church, which helps to provide three things:  teaching oriented to children ages 4 to 8 years; ministry opportunity, especially for our youth; a little quieter atmosphere for the preaching time in the worship service!  The children's church kids prepared a special number for the mothers.

Ailen was one of two young ladies who shared a poem in honor of our mothers.

Walter had the important task of giving the announcements.  Many of you prayed for Walter around the same time as Diego.  He has suffered from a complex sickness involving his immune system.  His health is stable, and past symptoms cured.

Rocio was our pianist.

Most of the youth group sang a special number.

Braian did Scripture reading.  Braian and his family attend church regularly and need prayer for salvation.

Jonathon read a meditation.  He's growing in Christ, and will be baptized in November.

Our son Danny also read a meditation, and obviously we're proud of him!

Matias read the final meditation.  Matias is brother to Walter (above), and really seems to be growing spiritually.

They youth did a fine job with the music, which they participate in regularly.

An excellent group was in attendance for the Mother's Day special meeting.

Pastors Gathering in Chivilcoy

In September, one of our National colleagues suggested a day retreat for missionaries and National pastors to gather in Chivilcoy for fellowship with Deb's folks and to receive needed encouragement from the Scriptures (Deb's dad preaching).  Most of our colleagues were able to make it, and the granite counter top in the new kitchen was being installed as they arrived!  Not only did we enjoy the Word and the fellowship, but we were able to use the new kitchen at lunch time!

Pastors and missionaries are encouraged as Dad "P" preaches

National pastor and missionary wives

National pastors and missionary men

Important Advances on Phase I of the Church Building Project

In mid September Debbie's parents and another couple (Scott and Gail) visited from Maine and gave us a hand finishing off the new kitchen just off the new multi-purpose room.  Scott painted the portion of the kitchen walls not tiled as well as the ceiling, including the large ceiling in the multi-purpose room.  Much waited for new kitchen cabinets were built and granite counter tops installed.

The kitchen floor and walls were tiled just prior to the arrival of our visitors.  We ordered the granite counter in advance so they could see it installed before returning to the States.

The pass-through with and aluminum shade makes it easy to serve refreshments into the multi-purpose room

Painting the multi-purpose room and kitchen ceilings was a major job that required cleaning stucco residue from the entire perimeter and cutting the joints in addition to rolling out the paint.

Thanks, Scott and Gail for your hard work!

Thanks Dad and Mom for your hard work!

Saturday Night Youth Group

Each Saturday between fifteen and twenty youth gather for three hours of youth activities.  Martin, our youth leader leads the youth in an hour of singing and study of God's Word.  Later, the young people play games like ping-pong, volleyball or UNO.  Others may sit in circles playing guitar and singing.  Sometimes organized games are prepared in advance.  At some point refreshments are served, which could be anything from pizza to cookies.  Please pray for three or four who come who are not saved.  Pray also for growth and maturity in those who attend regularly.

Debbie leads organized games

Passing the bean!!

Chilling out with the keyboard and guitars

Ping-pong, the all time favorite of almost everyone!!