The First Fruits and a New Baby

July has been a month of blessings. Our fourth daughter was born on July 06. Her name is Isla and we are very happy to have her! We also saw our first two people saved this month! These two are the first fruits of Faith Baptist Church! We are so excited to see God working in this infant church.

This month missionary Jason Holt from Chile will be preaching for us. This is a wonderful opportunity for the church as well as for me because we will be able to glean from this veteran missionary and friend. We also have “Children’s Day” this month and we are hoping to use the day to invite new visitors to the church. These are more opportunities to advance the Gospel.

Serving Together,

Patrick, Leslie, Lily, Piper, Ivy and Isla Henry

• Pray for our special day this month with missionary Jason Holt.

• Pray for the families we are in the process of discipling, including the young couple who was just saved.

• Pray for more visitors to come to Faith Baptist Church.

• Pray as this infant church continues to grow.

I can remember being a young boy. The weekend started as soon as school was over on Friday. This was what I looked forward to! My weekends used to be all about playing, not doing any school work, sleeping in, and just relaxing (I would be reminded of chores, but that usually wasn’t until Saturday morning). Years later, I live in Argentina as a missionary, and my weekend starts tonight in just a few hours. Instead of the weekend being all about relaxation, it is all about the church service for Sunday, but it starts tonight at 6:00 PM. I will be sitting at the table of a young family going through discipleship. We will probably spend 2-3 hours chatting, learning, and going through this week’s lesson, The surety and security of our salvation! I will be with another man tomorrow morning going through a different lesson, and perhaps another married couple tomorrow afternoon for more discipleship. All of this before Sunday! I am very eager for each opportunity. It will all start in just a few hours!

Teaching and preaching the Bible is a wonderful blessing and privilege. Doing so in another language is challenging. The problem is teaching and preaching the Bible is what missionaries do. So teaching and preaching the Bible in Spanish is a big part of what I do. In discipleship, I am teaching the Bible. In the church I am also teaching and preaching the Bible. I love every bit of it, but it comes with adjustments that I am learning to make. First I must make clear, I am still learning Spanish and I make mistakes…a lot! That being said, those who are going to the church are people I am also discipling. I have asked them in our times of discipleship to correct me in the language when I am wrong. They do exactly that and it is a great help to me as I grow.

Last Sunday morning we had a great service. We had several families with us. During the message, a few people would speak out and say, “That’s not how you say that” or “You mean to say____”. A few times they just corrected me by saying the right word or the word I was using correctly (of course all of this is done in Spanish). It isn’t very constant, but it is 4-5 times during the message.

So the big adjustment is how I react to this. How should I react? I almost always repeat the word or phrase the right way, and say “Thank you”, if there is more than normal I say something like “We are going to preach this message together!” People laugh and are very gracious toward me. In order to continue in this adjustment, I try to keep in mind two Biblical principles.

• Gratitud – In everything it is important to be thankful. The Bible says, “In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.” 1 Thessalonians 5:18
• Humility – Pride will keep me from continuing to grow in the language. In Proverbs 26:12, we read “Seest thou a man wise in his own conceit? There is more hope of a fool than of him.”

Yet another adjustment we experience. If we are not corrected, we will not know when we are wrong. The only real way for us to continue to grow is to welcome every correction knowing that it is for the better.

This Sunday will be our “Friend Day”. Friend Day is actually a special day here in Argentina. The actual day was on Thursday, but we are celebrating it this Sunday. Thus far, we have a few families that are planning to attend that have not yet visited the church. Tomorrow will be another opportunity to invite more people to this special day. Pray with us that we have a great day on Sunday!