This Sunday will be the second Sunday of services for Faith Baptist Church. We have been very busy this week with visiting those who have come to the church, inviting others, and completing a few unfinished tasks in the church building. We are excited about the coming days! Today I spent most of the day with two men, one who is attending the church and the other has not yet visited. We hope to see him visit very soon.

The church also had our first midweek service last night. We had 18 people including our family of 5. We had a few returning visitors and a few first time visitors. It was a great first midweek service!

Our second Sunday will be be here very soon. There is still much to do between now and Sunday. I look forward to seeing how God blesses.

I sit here in an empty church building as I type out this blog. Two days ago we had the first two services inside this building. We had 15 people from the area come to the morning service and 6 come to the evening service. Although we did not have anyone believe on Jesus during these two services, we did have two people indicate on their visitor cards that they wanted to know more about believing on Jesus for salvation. We had another young man come who expressed interest in baptism (he and I will be talking this week further about salvation and baptism). All in all it was a great day. I look forward to seeing more. This week there is much to do. I will be visiting every family who came this week. We still have a few finishing touches to make in the building that we were not able to do before Sunday. We also have our midweek service this Thursday. This is just the beginning. There is so much to do. We are also in the midst of planning the special events in the coming months. The church has finally started, now it is time to go and grow! Here are a few things that I would like to accomplish in the next week…

• Finish what we lack inside the building.
• Visit every visitor.
• Start or at least set up a plan for discipleship with anyone and everyone that came that is willing.
• Invite more people.

Faith Baptist Church has been born, but it is just a baby, a newborn. In the fist weeks of infancy we believe God is going to set the foundation for years to come. Please pray this way with us.

This Sunday is Easter. It is a special time for churches to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus. It will also be a very special day for us. Faith Baptist Church will have the first church service this Sunday! We have been working for the past several months to get to this day. There are still things we need to do and will be doing today and tomorrow. We have literally invited thousands and thousands of people to this service. We will continue inviting people today and tomorrow. We are both excited and nervous. This is not a one day event, it is the start of a church. In other words, the services we have on Sunday are just the beginning! Although I do not know how many people we will have come to the church, I do know that God will be magnified. Please be praying for us as we start Faith Baptist Church this Sunday!

Last week I was on my way to Lanús to invite people to the first church service (which will be this Sunday). It didn’t take long to see that something was wrong. I had less than 1/4 of a tank of gas but as I tried to stop at a few local service stations I them closed. As I entered the highway, I saw that I was 1 of only 3-4 cars on the highway! This is impossible! Cars are everywhere normally, but that day was strange. I arrived at the tollbooth and it was completely empty and the poles were up to allow everyone (all 4 of us) through. As I continued, I exited the highway and continued on, I noticed that there was not one bus. There are busses everywhere, going all over the place, stopping and going all along the way, but that day there was not even one bus. There were no taxis. Taxis are common here, so common that you don’t even notice them as you pass them, but no taxis on that day either. There was not one gas station open between my house and the church. I could not understand what in the world was going on. After talking to several people, I learned that the day was a “paro nacional”, or a “national stop”. The gas stations, busses, trains, subways, taxis, and government buildings all went on strike. Because of this many people could not get to work. My daughter had a dentist appointment, Leslie took her only to find out there were no doctors that were able to make it to the office. This was all to express disdain toward the Argentine President. To put it clearly, it was a very frustrating day. Almost 100% of my time has been focused on starting Faith Baptist Church. Although most everyone knew about the “national stop”, I haven’t been watching the news, nor have I been talking about much of anything other than inviting people to church. What I was going through is something called “culture shock”.

Culture shock is what a person experiences when he is in a culture different than his own, and is disoriented by the customs, way of life, or attitudes of others in that culture. I was certainly feeling it! I cannot imagine the whole country just “stopping”, but it is something people are somewhat “acclimated to” here in Argentina. I was going door to door inviting people to church later that day. After hearing my accent one family asked me how I liked it in Argentina. I told them I love it here (I do love it here), but I am still learning and somethings are confusing to me, like “today”. The family came back with “We don’t understand it either, we are just used to it.” The daughter could not go to work, but she just shrugged her shoulders as if to say “What can we do about it.” Culture shock is real and it is a part of life as a missionary. I am thankful for the time I have had with my mentor who has taught me about culture shock and how to deal with it. The “national stop” was still frustrating, but I knew what was going on. Other Argentines were frustrated too, but they knew it was just how things work. I am not here to fix “national stops”, I am here to start churches and train men.

Sometimes it is easy to get sidetracked. Distractions get in the way. Even so, we should have a laser-like focus on what God has called us to do. Other things will happen, frustrations will come and go, but our eyes should remain on progressing the Gospel. Culture shock is real, but I cannot allow it to take me off course. Is there something that is distracting you from God’s desire (advancing the Gospel)? We must keep our focus on God’s work!