I was with 20-30 other guys from the church last Saturday. This is the church we have attended while in language school. Every so often we come together to have a men’s asado. My wife will be meeting with other ladies from the church this Saturday and they will be having an asado. An asado is Argentine. Asados take place at birthdays, Christmas, any special holiday, family events, or even just a good Saturday/Sunday afternoon. It is not always “just for men” or “just for women”, it just happened to work out this way these two weekends. Living in Argentina means you will see, smell, and taste on a somewhat regular basis. I am told as the days get warmer asados are more often. It is a part of Argentine culture and for this we are very thankful!

So what is an asado? An asado is a few things. It is a grill out. There can be all kinds of meet from beef ribs, to a sort of grilled roast, to cow intestines, to different types of sausage, to a grilled pork roast, to chicken. It can be all, some, or just one of these types of meat. The meat is cooked on a parrilla (a grill) over small coals for a few hours. The smell is incredible and the taste is even better. I have walked out onto my back porch to the smell of one of our neighbor’s having an asado. Jealousy sets in, followed by regret that I hadn’t prepared for an asado, and finally a resolve to one day have an asado soon (which I rarely follow through on). Asado is also what Argentine’s call a type of meat that is eaten at an asado. It is the beef ribs (as far as I am concerned, it is the best part of the asado!) that are cut 3-4 inch pieces (see the incredible picture below). This is the stuff Argentine dreams are made of! I love it. It is not easy to do. I have tried twice since we have been here to only come up with something very chewy and not particularly tasty. But I have been to other asados where the meat was incredible. So what do we do at an asado? It is really just an excuse to be around friends and loved ones. We talk, the kids play, the men at the church have a devotion, it is really just an event to spend time with others, around delicious, slow-cooked meat!

Asados are as Argentine as can food can be. It is just another aspect of the rich culture we are experiencing as we learn the language and prepare to start churches and train men!

 

Living in Argentina is wonderful, we love it here! The past 6 1/2 months have been incredible to us. We are certainly not experts, but we are learning more every day. This post is a continuation on the series “Living in Argentina”. Some things we share are light-hearted, some things are perhaps strange from the reader’s perspective. Today’s post is much more serious. I cannot speak for all of Argentina, but if you are in Southern Greater Buenos Aires, you will see red flags, images, and the name “Gaucho Gil” (pronounced “Hil”). I was in a city called “Lanús” last week and saw a “pasa calle” (a banner across the road) that said “Gracias Gaucho Gil”. I have been in markets where that name is displayed on cups. I see red ribbons tied on various cars. I passed by an enclosed display on the side of the road with candles around it with red flags on the sides. Inside the display is an image. All of these things have to do with “Gaucho Gil”.

So, who is Gaucho Gil? Very plainly, Gaucho Gil is an idol. It is prayed to and worshipped. There is nothing biblical about this “legendary cowboy”. There is a whole story behind the legend, but it really is not important. The thing I want to point out is that this is a stronghold that blinds people from the truth. I have heard stories of people denying the Gospel of Jesus, because they have Gaucho Gil who answers their prayers. The images of Gaucho Gil on the sides of the road are to worship. The red ribbons on cars signify Gaucho Gil’s protection over the person(s) in the car. It doesn’t take long to see signs of this idol here.

I understand that all people need Jesus. In other words, if a man prays to Gaucho Gil or not, he still is a sinner and needs salvation in Jesus! I do believe this to be a manifestation of the lack of the Gospel. We are in a country in great need of the Gospel. This idol, Gaucho Gil, certainly illustrates that. Please pray for Argentina, that the Gospel will shine to every soul!

We have just returned from Arequipa. We were in a Pastor’s conference. There were national pastors and missionaries from Argentina, Peru, Chile, Bolivia. Ecuador, and a group from the United States. I received so much from this week! The keynote speaker is the man who came down to Arequipa in 1989 as a missionary. He started churches and trained men to start dozens and dozens of churches. I watched this man love on these Pastors with a fatherly love. There were many things covered. He spoke to the churches about taking care of their pastors. He spoke to the pastors about training strong men to be deacons in he church. He spoke to the pastors about training young men and starting new churches. My heart was stirred by all this, but all of this wasn’t the best part for me.

I had the opportunity to be with many friends who are serving Jesus in different countries. We talked, ate, laughed, recalled times in the past. I truly have some of the best friends in the world, I love them all very much! I am so blessed and challenged by each of them! Some of them I will probably not see again for many, many years because of the way our furloughs will work out. I won’t see any of them for at least a year. My wife and I said good bye to them all of them on Sunday night. This was such a great part of our time there, but it wasn’t the best part for me either.

I was with a few teenagers that I have known for many years. These are friends who desire greatly to serve the Lord and are looking at where they are now and how they are going to take the next steps in serving Jesus. I hope I was an encouragement to them. We talked about the future and options they have. We talked about what they can be doing now. I am very excited about each of them. This was very special to me. As we said our goodbyes, we were “bear-hugged”, and I wondered when I would see them again. Can it get better than this? It can, and it did.

For me, the highlight of this week was spending time with my mentor. Brother Gardner challenged me in many ways this week. I asked him many questions and he patiently worked through each of them with me. We spent hours together, along with others, talking about where we are, where I am personally, and what to do next. We worked out a step by step plan for the coming weeks and months. He explained to me that I am much further ahead than I thought, and while I still have a long way to go, we are at the point to start working toward starting the first church. There are many preliminaries that must be worked through before we launch, and it will take months to accomplish all of this (all the while growing in the language). All of this and more was covered in our time together.

There is a great work to be done for Jesus, and we are thrilled to be a part of it! We are praying even now for God to give us young men to lead to salvation and to train as warriors to send out to conquer the world in the power and name of Jesus! Would you please pray this way with us?

We are continuing the series on living in Argentina. I love it here, in fact I was thanking God this morning for allowing our family to be here. If you ever visit Argentina, you are going to notice that there are phrases that are very commonly used. For this blog, we are going to look at the phrase, “Que bárbaro!”. So what does it mean? “Bárbaro” literally is translated as “barbaric”, but that is not really what the phrase means. It can mean many different things. I was in a local butcher shop where I practice my Spanish in the mornings. I asked the couple who run the shop what “Que bárbaro” means. I found out that context is very important, because depending on the context, “Que bárbaro” can mean, “cool”, “how sad”, “that’s great”, “that’s horrible”, “wow!”, and many other meanings. For example…

• A family was hit by a truck on the road yesterday (this was actually a conversation we had last week). In response, “Que bárbaro!”
• We had 10 visitors at church on Sunday. Again you can respond, “Que bárbaro!”
• I lost my job this morning. “Que bárbaro!”
• We are going to visit my grandparents in Jujuy. “Que bárbaro!”
• The asado will be on Saturday afternoon. “Que bárbaro!”

I could go on, but I think you get the point. It is an all-purpose phrase. So maybe the next time you are talking with someone, you might throw in a “Que bárbaro!” for good measure. If you are in Argentina, you will fit right in, if not it will make for an interesting conversation. So what do I say to the idea of training men and planting churches in Argentina? “Que bárbaro!”