Formosa is located in the northeast of Argentina.  It is on the banks of the Paraguay River.  Formosa is the capital city of the Formosa Province.  The city, which is just across the river from Paraguay has a culture close to that of Paraguay.  The name most likely comes from an archaic version of the Spanish word, “Hermosa” (which means beautiful).  It is a land of swamps, grassy plains, and tidelands.  It is known to have one of the biggest concentration and variety of birds as well as South American caimans (similar to an alligator).

All that being true, it is the people in Formosa that we are most interested in.  The city boasts a population of 250,000 people.  There is a strong aboriginal population, especially the Tobas who live in the surrounding areas of the city.  These people need the truth of Jesus!  Please pray for God to send forth laborers that will faithfully proclaim the Truth in Formosa!

 

“By the word of the LORD were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth.  He gathereth the waters of the sea together as an heap: he layeth up the depth in storehouses.  Let all the earth fear the LORD: let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him.  For he spake, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast.” Psalm 33:6-9

Several years ago, Leslie, Lily, and I went down to Calloway Gardens down in Pine Mountain, GA.  Lily was not quite 2 years old.  It was the first part of December, and we went down to see the special Christmas lights.  We had a great time!

We were about to leave , and went to eat breakfast at a restaurant that overlooked a beautiful valley.  After eating, Lily and I went outside and looked over the beautiful valley and mountains below and beyond.  As I looked at this majestic view, I said out loud, “Whoa!” (not conscious that I had said it).  Seconds later, Lily, who was right next to me, said “Whoa!”, I looked down and saw that she was not paying any attention to the majestic view.  She had a small acorn in her hands and was just baffled by it.

At that moment, I realized something.  God’s creation is full of majestic scenes of beautiful color and detail, but God’s creation is also full of little things, like acorns.  God tells us to “stand in awe” when considering his creation.  This word “awe” means to literally “to turn aside from the road (for an express purpose)”.  God is telling us to stop and look at all that He has made.  But it is important to not just take notice of the amazing “big” things, but to appreciate the “acorns” of God’s creation too!

Sometimes, I think we have a hard time “being impressed”.  The sunsets of yellows, oranges, pinks, reds, and purples can make us “stand in awe”, but the things we see daily have become “old hat”.

Take today, and appreciate every “acorn” you may come across!

Summer on the Road

June has been very busy.  We were in many different churches in different states around the country including Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Florida, Louisiana, and Texas!  God has given us favor with churches that desire to partner with us in reaching lost souls in Argentina with the Gospel.  In June, we also had “Our Generation” Camp.  This camp is unlike any other in that we have a direct and strong missions emphasis.  We had right at 30 middle school, high school, and college aged youth surrender and sign our volunteer pledge to do whatever God leads them to do in world evangelism!

We are seeing God meet every need, move in each church, and lead us to more who desire to partner with us!  Please pray for us that in July, we would come into contact with many more who will join us in world evangelism!

Serving Together,

Patrick, Leslie, Lily, Piper, and Ivy Henry

 

In Argentina…

This month, one of the churches in La Plata, Argentina will have their annual mission conference.  Iglesia Bautista El Faro (Lighthouse Baptist Church) is a great church where missions is on people’s hearts.  I spoke with the Pastor a week ago and he asked me specifically to pray that God would use this conference to help the people get more involved in missions in their city.  Please pray for the people of Iglesia Bautista
El Faro and for Pastor Jorge (George).  Pray that more young men will see the need for world evangelism and respond to the call of God on their lives!

Most people have heard of Buenos Aires.  After all, it is the 20th largest city in the world!  As we are raising support for church planting in Argentina, we are studying the different cities in our mission field.  There are over 20 cities in Argentina with a population over 200,000 people.  Some of these cities have churches in them, some we are having trouble even finding a church.  I will be giving a small synopsis of several of these cities over the next few weeks.  For this post, we will look at #18, Lanús.

Lanús is located just south of the capital city, Buenos Aires.  It is in the greater metropolitan area.  Lanús has a population of 212,000 people.  The “partido” of Lanús (the greater district) has a population of over 450,000 people!  This area is known for their futbol team, Club Atlético Lanús.

I wanted to know what the spiritual situation is in Lanús, so I emailed a friend who is a national pastor in La Plata (Argentina).  I asked him what he knew about Lanús.  This is what he told me…

Hello Brother, it is ironic that you asked about Lanús, because last week I was talking to a brother, a young man from our church and he asked me, Pastor please pray for Lanús I have family there, and there are no churches like ours, and I have many acquaintances.  

As our Argentine friends and I pray for the people in Lanús, would you pray with us?  I believe God desires His name to be known and magnified there.

Please pray for Lanús.