Experiencing a 6th Year Celebration!

One of the churches here in La Plata celebrated their 6th year anniversary! Iglesia Bautista Berea (Berea Baptist Church) was started by a missionary friend along with Hernan, a man he trained. Pastor Hernan has been the Pastor of the church from the beginning. I was able to attend the anniversary service in August. I heard the testimonies of brothers and sisters in Christ who experienced God’s love in their lives. I saw a short video of how things all started in that neighborhood. I saw how things have grown considerably in the past 6 years. It was a blessing to see and an encouragement to know that we will be training men like Hernan and planting churches just like Berea. We are honored to be here in Argentina to carry out God’s great work!

What is Dia de los Niños?

I remember asking my parents why there is a Mother’s Day and Father’s Day but there is no “Kid’s Day” when I was a child. My parents would respond, “Everyday is kid’s day.” Well, in Argentina, there is a “Kid’s Day”, and we experienced it in August. Our children had a great day, but more than that I saw how the church we are going to while in language school (Iglesia Bautista El Faro) used this as an opportunity to invite friends to a “kermesse” (carnival) in celebration of Dia de los Niños (Kid’s Day). It was a great day for the church!

Serving Together,

Patrick, Leslie, Lily, Piper, and Ivy Henry

Iglesia Bautista El Faro (Lighthouse Baptist Church) is the church we attend while in language school. We love the people here. Pastor Jorge and the church have been very kind to us these past 5 months. We had a “kermesse” on Sunday in honor of Dia de los Niños (Kid’s Day). I am learning Spanish and quite often I come across words I have never known before. “Kermesse” is one of those words. A “kermesse” is a festival (or a carnival). Think of a “Fall Festival” (many churches have them in the States). We had inflatables, hot dogs and snacks, musical chairs, cup stacking game, matching game, futbol (soccer) game, and more. Our kids loved it and so did all the other kids that came. I also saw a lot of people from the community that I did not recognize. To conclude the kermesse, a presentation of the Gospel was given. It was a great day.

We will be planting the first church when we are fluent in the language. Because we are in a thriving church, we are learning so much more than just language. We are learning culture and customs. I will give you one example in the form of the kermesse. Dia de los Niños was actually a week ago, but we didn’t have the kermesse on Dia de los Niños. I didn’t quite understand why we waited a week for the kermesse. I didn’t know if it just worked out that way this year. Pastor Jorge taught me that this is done on purpose. Dia de los Niñ0s (Kid’s Day) is a national holiday. Places all over the city will have fairs, carnivals and festivals on that day. It is a great day for the family. It is a big day in the city, but the next week there isn’t much going on. Because of this, we have many more families visit. I can learn these kinds of things by experience, but it is much better to learn them by participating in a great church like El Faro!

The truth is our family is already looking forward to next year’s kermisse. It made for another great day here in Argentina!

I have attached a photo in this post. If you look closely you will see things on the pulpit (above the balloons). Those “things” are what makes this a beautiful picture.

I had the opportunity to go to Iglesia Bautista Berea (Berea Baptist Church) last night. It was their 6th anniversary. They had a beautiful service of celebrating what God had done in the past six years and challenging the church for the years ahead. Pastor Hernan is a great man of God who is working hard in the church. I am encouraged when I go to visit there.

Back to the picture. As the guest preacher stood to preach, people in the church started walking up with their cell phones and placing them on the pulpit (the cell phones are the “things” you see in the picture). There were at least eight phones (you cannot see them all). At first I thought this was strange. Why were these people walking up to the pulpit? But I figured it out and was pleased at the reason. These people were recording the preacher’s message on their cell phones. They not only wanted to hear the message but to have the opportunity to hear it again! They were excited to hear God’s Word preached! The beauty is not in the cell phones laying all over the pulpit but the hearts and passions of God’s people that the photo displays.

We can be excited and passionate about God’s Word! We can look forward to the preaching of the Bible! We can believe that God has something for us in each and every message and lesson we hear! We can have the desire to do more than just listen but to make notes of the message (paper, audio, or video) so that we can revisit what God spoke to us about in each message. This kind of hunger is something every Christian can have! Do you have this hunger? You can have this hunger!

I am not a “professional” at language acquisition, neither do I have the “language learning gene”. I struggle along in the language I am learning, making many mistakes as I go. But I believe that this is the way we learn languages, by speaking with mistakes and listening with misunderstandings. I believe that learning a language is not in the number of months I have had in language school, but in the number of hours I am spending speaking and listening in the language (this would include language school but certainly not limited to it). This is the last post of this blog series on language learning (at least the last for now). In past posts, we have shared with you the different ways that we, as a family, are learning Spanish. The bottom line is that we look for opportunities to speak, listen to, read, and occasionally write in Spanish. The opportunities that Leslie and I have are different from the opportunities that others have, but I believe that we all have opportunities to learn another language. So what else are we doing? In short, we are always looking for more opportunities to converse in Spanish. I leave you with one of our latest opportunities…

La Peluqueria

I went into the “Peluqueria” for the first time in May (a “Peluqueria” is a barbershop). It is a one-man operation. The owner is the same man who cuts the hair. As I sat down in the barber chair, the man asked me, “So where are you from? Why are you here?, etc.” (These are the same questions we are asked everywhere by anyone we speak to for the first time). All of this was done in Spanish. I told him about why we are here and told him I am currently learning Spanish. He responded quickly with “You haven’t learned much, have you?” (how about that for blunt honesty?). We spoke for a while. He is an Atheist. He loves politics and is very conservative politically. He grew up in La Plata, just a few blocks from the Peluqueria. Since that first time, I have been back to his shop a few times. We talk more and more. He wants to talk about politics and I would rather talk about virtually anything else I can think of, but we converse back and forth. At the end of the hair cut, I pay him and ask him if I can come by some time and talk with him, practicing my Spanish. He corrected my Spanish all through the hair cuts and that is something I look for. He told me he really enjoyed correcting me (I found that funny) and that I could come talk with him anytime. I don’t know when or how I am going to “fit this in” to my schedule that is already loaded down. Even so, I see a great opportunity to speak, listen, and learn and even a greater opportunity to share the truth of Jesus. I like the guy. He is blunt and doesn’t think he needs God and/or Jesus. That sounds like me before I was saved. This is yet another opportunity God has placed before me. For a Christian, language learning is much more than learning a language, it is the opportunity t0 share what Jesus has done in us!