I have written a few posts about different cities in Argentina.  This time around, I want to take just a moment and focus in on Mendoza.

Mendoza is located on the eastern side of the Andes, close to the border of Chile.  The city is 1050km (652 miles) west of Buenos Aires  and 340km (211 miles) northwest of Santiago (Chile), just to the east of Mount Aconcagua, the highest peak in the Western Hemisphere. It has a desert like climate, with highs in the summer around 90ºF and lows in the winter around 35ºF.  Most precipitation in Mendoza falls in the summer months (November–March).  The city’s five central plazas are arranged like the five-roll on a die, with Plaza Independencia in the middle and four smaller plazas lying two blocks from each of its corners.  All over the country (and in much of the world), the name Mendoza is synonymous with wine, especially with the area’s more than 1,000 vineyards!

These things are what make Mendoza what it is, but not what it should be!  The population of Mendoza is 1.8 million people!  The world looks at the attractions, but I believe we, as believers, should see the city for its people!  The need in Mendoza is not rain (contrary to what some of the locals think).  The need is a clear understanding of who Jesus is, how He has purchased salvation for us, and how to become one of His! Pray for Mendoza, that “wine country” would become saturated with the Gospel!

Argentina is known for many different things.  One of the most well known things is beef.  Argentina is regarded as having the best beef in the world (I apologize to my Texas friends reading this).  I have had it and I must say it is wonderful (and cheaper too)!

What makes Argentine beef so good?  I read somewhere that the beef’s quality is derived from the grass that the cattle feeds on.  Argentine cows are not fed on grains or corn in feedlots or stalls (as other nations do it) but are raised eating grass, principally in the humid pampas, the biggest beef producing region of the country where open flat plains dominant the landscape.  I don’t know about all that, but I do know that it is tasty!

There are other things Argentina is well-known for.  Gauchos (Argentine cowboys), bolos, mate, the Tango, and the Patagonia are other things people associate with Argentina.  My prayer is that the world will one day associate the Gospel of Jesus with Argentina!  Will you pray that way with me?

From East to West

Georgia to California

I sit in front of my computer to take down this letter in California (the San Francisco area). This past month we have been in Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Arizona, and California.  We have traveled well over 3,500 miles!  We have seen the landscape go from pine tree riddled forests, to humid swamplands, to dry grasslands as far as the eye can see, to the Pacific Ocean crashing into to the sandy shore.  One things is sure, the landscape has changed, but the people we have met are all the same (believers saved by God’s grace and sinners in need of salvation).  In all of this, God has kept us safe and used us to point others to Him!  We have also had more churches partner with us in reaching Argentina with the Gospel of Jesus!

 

In September

This month, we are scheduled to be in California, Nevada, Texas, Oklahoma, and Maryland (the one place we will not be is our home in Georgia!).  We are praying for God to use us to inspire young people to get involved in world evangelism, to be a blessing to pastors and churches, and to continue to gain support as we step closer and closer to leaving for Argentina!

Serving Together,

Patrick, Leslie, Lily, Piper, and Ivy Henry

“One cannot transform a world except as individuals in the world are transformed, and individuals cannot be changed except as they are molded in the hands of the Master.”

There are all kinds of missions works done all around the world.  Great and noble things are done in the name of Jesus, of which I am thankful for.  But with all of these very different things going on, the question that comes to my mind is “What is the biblical method for missionaries?”.  I think a clear case for church-planting can be made as to the biblical method for world evangelism.  After all, the book of Acts goes into great detail as to how the Gospel reached different cities around the known world, and almost all of it was done by church planting!  Even so, there are different philosophies as to what the “most effective” strategy for church planting is.  I read a book some years ago called “The Master’s Plan of Evangelism” by Robert Coleman.  This book changed my life!  Jesus is the best example we have in reaching all the world with the Gospel.

The natural questions that you must ask yourself is, what did Jesus do?  Jesus poured His life into 12 men (and one of them would be a betrayer).  To put it in the words of Robert Coleman, “Men were to be his (Jesus) method of winning the world to God.”  That’s it!  He loved on, taught, walked with, ate with, stayed with 12 men who He constantly challenged, corrected, and guided for 3 or so years.  This wasn’t a class or institute.  It wasn’t a “let’s meet next Tuesday by the Sea of Galilee and discuss your homework” sort of thing.  It was life on life discipleship.  The disciples saw Jesus act and react.  They saw Him perform impossible miracles, they saw Him baffle the wise, they saw Him comfort the poor broken one.  They were instructed by the Master!  Jesus would give them tasks and then hold them accountable (like sending them out in Matthew 10).   After Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection, Jesus commissioned the 11 (along with others that had followed Him).  This “commissioning” can be found in a few different places, but Matthew 28:18-20 is the one that I think of first.  What is this commissioning?  Essentially, it is Jesus saying, “Guys, what I have taught you, you go out, reach people, and do the same thing to them!”  That’s it!  Go reach people and pour your life into them.

What is the method of biblical missions?  It is reaching and training!  Our desire is to train men in Argentina to reach Argentina and the world with the Gospel of Jesus.  It is not making a name for ourselves, but building others up!  In reaching the world with the Gospel in our generation, we must lift Jesus up and build others.  The world will not be reached by one missionary, but by men who pour themselves into others who will go out and do the same.  It is this, never-ending cycle that we will one day see every single soul engaged with the Gospel of Jesus!