Happy New Year!

We are excited to see how God leads in this new year!  We have been on deputation for nine months now, and we are just over 28%.  We received word of several more supporters in December!  We are on target for our goal of leaving in the middle of 2016!

Our calendar is completely filled up for the first quarter of 2015, and filing up more and more each week for the rest of the year.  We are trusting God to give us favor with each church.  We want to be where God has called us!  Thus far, we have meetings in Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Florida, Tennessee, Louisiana, Texas, Oklahoma, California, Ohio, Michigan, Delaware, Maryland, Missouri, and Mississippi!  We look to completely fill the rest of out 2015 in the next two months.

Jesus, Our Shepherd

I have the great opportunity to teach a Bible Study on Tuesdays.  We have been going through the book of John for months now and we have just reached the tenth chapter.  I have been so encouraged by this chapter!  In John 10:9, we see Jesus is our Shepherd, a Shepherd that saves us, a Shepherd that promises safety, and a Shepherd that satisfies us!  I am thankful for Jesus as our Shepherd as we seek to reach Argentina and the world with the Gospel of Jesus!

Serving Together,

Patrick, Leslie, Lily, Piper, and Ivy Henry

This year has been an interesting year to say the least.  We started deputation as church planters to Argentina in March.  Since then, we have been traveling from the east coast to the west coast to share our burden to reach Argentina and the world with the Gospel of Jesus!  We have been in 18 states this year.  We have partnered with churches all along the way and have many churches that have committed to partner with us in the near future.  In all of this I must say, God is amazing!

A question comes to my mind, “What stands out the most in all that has happened this year?

This is a hard question to answer.  We have seen God provide, we have been in wonderful churches, we have experienced great encouragement and criticism, we are receiving great training, all in all it has been incredible!  It is difficult to narrow 2014 down to the most memorable moment.  If I had to pick one thing, I would have to say our survey trip to Argentina.  What I saw so burns with in me!  I want to be there so badly!  We were only there a few days, but in those short days, we saw the 5 churches that were started by missionary Jeff Bush and the Argentine men he trained.  The churches in La Plata are going strong!  People are being saved, men are being trained, God is being glorified!

Statistics tell us that anywhere from 90%-96% of the people of Argentina are lost.  That being true, we must proclaim the Gospel of Jesus and train men to see all of Argentina believe on Jesus for salvation.  The need is far greater than anything I could ever attempt and yet I know in Christ miraculous things are ahead!

Our survey trip to Argentina is the most memorable event in 2014, and I thank Jesus for it!

The impossibility of reaching every soul in the world with the Gospel of Jesus vanishes away in the almighty power of God who loves us enough to make a way to Him (through Jesus) and who empowers our insufficient efforts to actually change the world!

The best years in world evangelism are ahead.

As believers, our purpose is to bring the most glory we can to God, to strive to do all we can for Jesus, to live our lives for Jesus, to give Jesus 100%.  Do you agree?  The problem I think we have is that we allow things in our lives to become distractions.  What is a distraction that would get in the way of your pursuit of living for Jesus?  EVERYTHING IS A DISTRACTION!  We allow all kinds of things in our lives that we then allow to distract us from our purpose.  Their are bad things that are distractions.  That is what we like to emphasize.  I know that people like to point at the TV, music, movies, etc as bad things that become distractions.  But lately, I have been thinking about other things that are distractions.  Good things, actually they are great things.  I want to address one of them in this post.

In the Bible, Paul speaks of a spouse as a distraction.  1st Corinthians 7:32-33 says, “But I would have you without carefulness. He that is unmarried careth for the things that belong to the Lord, how he may please the Lord:  But he that is married careth for the things that are of the world, how he may please his wife.”  Do you realize what he is saying?  He is saying that you cannot give your full attention to the Lord because you must give some attention to pleasing your wife (spouse).  Your spouse can be a distraction.  Actually, your spouse is naturally a distraction, as are you to her.

But, there is a great example of a married couple, that were not distractions to each other from the Lord, but rather a team that brought more glory to God than they might have alone.  Aquila is found 6 different times in the Bible, and is not found without being joined with his wife, Priscilla.  They were a team that worked together to glorify God, and bringing others along.  Because their names are ALWAYS mentioned together, it shows that it wasn’t just Aquila as the “gospel laborer” and Priscilla being the supporting wife at home.  No, she was very much involved in the ministry with Aquila.  They were not just husband and wife, but co-laborers in the furtherance of the Gospel!  My wife and I are natural distractions, but it doesn’t have to be that way.  We must strive to be co-laborers, always working and bringing each other as well as others closer to Jesus.

Are you married?  If you are, are you a distraction to your spouse?  As married couples, we must strive to be like Aquila and Priscilla, co-laborers in the Gospel!

I highlighted a few different posts on different cities in Argentina.  For this post, we are going to take just a few moments to look at San Justo and La Matanza.

San Justo is a city and the seat of government of La Matanza Partido.  It is located in the greater Buenos Aires area.  I was reading about this city and partido a few days ago.  La Matanza is on the southwest border of Buenos Aires proper.  The partido is made up of over 1,775,272 people.  It is the most populated Partido in the Province of Buenos Aires and the biggest municipality in the country.

San Justo is just another example of the great need in Argentina.  There are so many places with multitudes of souls that need Jesus with very little Gospel light!  Please pray for San Justo and La Matanza.  Pray that every single person in that partido would be engaged with the Gospel of Jesus!