It’s why they’re on board with their skills, to keep the ship functioning. While on duty they’re also alert to the opportunities this form of service for the Lord can yield.

To show appreciation for and better connect with local contractors they worked alongside in Buenos Aires, the maintenance team held a special lunch and shared the hope that motivates them to serve God at sea.

The team had built a good rapport with the Argentinian welders and fitters who helped with steel repairs to the vessel. On their final day, on the ship’s outer deck, an ‘asado’ barbecue was grilled up for around twenty people. As they tucked into various meats cooked in the traditional way – a feast crewmembers have particularly enjoyed as part of their exposure to Argentine culture – the ship’s plumber, Carlos Alarcon (Argentina), shared a message from the Bible.

“I spoke about Jesus telling us that He is the vine and we are the branches,” says Carlos, who also comes from near to the capital city. “I explained that we operate in His strength and He is the only source of true life and growth – apart from Him we can do nothing.”  

The local workmen were presented with gifts from Logos Hope, including a Bible and keychain each. One welder told the team he had recently been able to buy a car, which he considered a great blessing from God. He said he would hang his car key on the new keychain, as a daily reminder of God’s ship, that he had worked on.

“They really liked our ship,” says Harald Smit (Netherlands), OM Ships’ technical manager. “These people work on different vessels in port all the time, but they told us this was different: our crew was friendly and welcoming; nobody barked orders at them in a pressured way, as can happen on commercial vessels.”

The days they spent repairing Logos Hope gave the workmen an insight into the ship’s mission. They noticed thousands of people queuing to visit and were appreciated by the crew, since their input was enabling the vessel to continue as a tool for God.

“It’s all part of what we do; reaching out to whomever we encounter,” says Harald. “Sometimes volunteers in our marine operations roles may not think they have as many opportunities to connect with the public visiting Logos Hope, but here we saw again that the Lord brings people on board who need to hear about Him and we minister right where we are, in whatever we are doing.”

It was early evening in Central Asia. The sun was beginning to set, and dogs were barking in the distance as Cecilia, age 20, and her small team from Logos Hope were led into an underground church—a place where followers of Christ met together in secret to worship.

“Our contact didn’t tell us where we were going,” Cecilia remembered. “We arrived at a specific street, and then we were told to enter a door across the street in pairs. We had to wait several minutes after one pair entered before anyone else could follow them into the house. Eventually, we all ended up in a kitchen. I thought maybe we were there to eat with a family.”

“Then our host opened another door and we entered a large, dark room, empty except for maybe 15 people. It was an underground church.”

Cecilia, who plays the violin, had her instrument with her, but she didn’t know why she’d been told to bring it until she realized they were going to have a church service. “It was my first time playing my violin in Central Asia. Being able to worship like that with the brothers and sisters of the secret church was really special.”

Still, they had to be careful. “They weren’t singing very loud, and they were hiding a little bit. There were two guys standing by a window covered by a curtain at the back of the church. They stood on either side and randomly peeked out, looking to see if anyone was outside and making sure it was still safe.”

This was only one of two opportunities for Cecilia’s team to visit a secret church in Central Asia. “The other time, we went to a Chinese speaking underground church,” Cecilia continued. “It was the first day of Ramadan [a holy month in Islam, where Muslims fast and pray every day until dark], so we fasted and prayed all day together, and then, at dark, we took communion together.

“That was so impactful to me. The majority of the people throughout this country were Muslims and were fasting and praying to Allah, but we were worshipping God. Even though I couldn’t understand everything because the worship was in Chinese, I could feel that they were worshipping with all their hearts. It didn’t matter that we didn’t understand the words; we just connected through the worship. And then afterwards, we all went out together to eat at a Chinese restaurant.

“It was amazing because in my home country of Argentina, there is so much freedom to worship and talk freely about God. But there, in the underground churches, they were like, ‘We need to be careful, because if someone outside hears us, they could go to the police.’ They weren’t afraid, but they were careful.

“The faith of the people I met was so incredible. They are kind of heroes to me, even the teenagers. They might have been the only Christians in their families; they have to hide this fact and attend church also while in hiding, but through it all they are trusting God.

“I want that kind of faith, that I really can believe in the Lord through everything that happens.”

Despite being aware of the need for discretion when talking about Jesus and Christianity, Cecilia felt no fear while she was in Central Asia. “We had to be careful there with what we said, but even when we were out in public, people were so friendly. They just want to make friends like everyone else. In that moment, you can see the people, their hearts, and sense just a little bit of how much God loves them.”

“While in Central Asia, God revealed His heart to me in a powerful way,” she said. “The people there were amazing to me. They really need Jesus, because they are so desperate for something to fill their hearts. Making friends there was incredible, as well as being able to share God’s love with ladies in different situations.

“I have so many stories of meeting people randomly on the street. Maybe it was because we spoke English. The youth there want to go to other countries and study, so when they see tourists, they want to talk with them. We connected with so many people that way.”

Cecilia was surprised and delighted to discover similarities between the cultures of her host countries in Central Asia and hers in Argentina. “They also have honour/shame cultures, where they honour the elderly, leaders, pastors, etc. When a pastor enters a room, everyone stands. Then the pastor stops and sits, and everyone else does too.

“Also, connection over food, community and fellowship is very important there. As Latinos, we do the same thing. We have mate (tea) in Argentina and share food around a table as we fellowship together.

“Respect is a big thing there, just like in my own culture. I felt so welcomed there, because I could understand how to treat people—some of the girls even kissed each other on the cheek, just like the Latin beso (kiss)!”

Now back on Logos Hope serving as an events coordinator for onshore events, Cecilia, who will finish her two-year commitment on board in September, has an even greater appreciation for the freedom she has to worship God openly in Argentina. In addition, she has a better understanding about the reality of what it means to be 'least reached' and in a least reached country. “They have so many needs, but the local church is seeing so much fruit because there are so many people there who need help. However, they cannot do everything alone.”

“I want to keep praying for them and be open in the future to going back there—or even to another place—if it is what the Lord wants,” she said. “After that trip, I understand that nothing is impossible for God. Just go, and if God is calling you, why wait? If that is God’s plan for you, you’ll be able to do more things there for God than where you live.”

The visit to the underground churches in Central Asia made a deep impact on Cecilia. “I know now that whatever career I choose, my focus will be not on doing something for myself, but instead I want to see how I can help people. That is my main desire–to serve the Lord through the job I do.”

Please pray for the local churches of closed countries, especially for those who might be the only Christians in their families. Pray for strength, hope and continued obedience to God’s leading in their lives—and for their friends and family to join them in being Jesus followers!

How does Cecilia’s story of the Jesus followers Central Asia encourage you? How can you pray for and encourage them, even from the other side of the world? Click here to find out more about the least reached in Central Asia: https://www.om.org/en/where-we-work

*name changed

However, due to the financial crisis in Argentina, it seemed impossible. “I prayed: ‘God, if you really want me to go, then let me go!’” Ana Maria shared. 

She kept waiting and praying for her opportunity to go, using her time of preparation to study fashion design and dance–eventually becoming a certified dance instructor. Two years later, God opened doors for her to go and even provided flights for Ana Maria through her Swiss friend’s church.

Then the time came for Ana Maria to take a huge step of faith: leaving Argentina to serve in a completely unknown country for one year. She didn’t speak English or German–only Spanish–and had no money of her own.

Upon arrival in Switzerland, Ana Maria became the au pair of a Christian family. It was not how she imagined herself being a missionary in Switzerland, but it was an opportunity to learn German, fall in love with the country and to see snow for the first time in her life.

A year later, Ana Maria returned to Argentina—but wanted deeply to go back to Switzerland. Again, her wish seemed impossible; however, God told her: “You will go back to Switzerland; take this time to prepare.”

And that is what Ana Maria did because she knew what seemed impossible for her, was possible for God.

Sharing God’s love and hope

One day, Ana Maria received a call from her Swiss friends saying they felt God telling them to purchase a flight for her to return to Switzerland. Little by little, Ana Maria received all the money she needed to return to Switzerland for one year, this time as part of a mission discipleship training with OM at the base in Switzerland.

There she learnt more about her relationship with God and how God can use her willingness to serve Him by sharing His love with whomever she meets. Ana Maria was able to work with refugees, children and in the OM café, but something that came as a surprise to her was using her training as a dance teacher.

Ana Maria was able to share God’s love and hope through her profession by giving dance classes to refugee women. Through teaching dance, she was also able to share how God can change lives.

'Everyone can serve God with their lives!'

Ana Maria never thought that one day she would be able to use her job as a dance instructor to serve God overseas. And that was just the beginning: Ana Maria returned to Argentina and began praying for her future, thinking that she would remain in Argentina, but “God changed my plans!” said Ana Maria. “A woman from my church told me she knew of some Christian workers in the Arabian Peninsula who were looking for help.”

Ana Maria kept praying about her future and after two job interviews it was set: Ana Maria would take her next step of faith—she would go to the Arabian Peninsula to serve God as a dance instructor for two years.

Ana Maria’s concluded: “Everyone can serve God with their lives!” The one thing that guided her through the whole time was, and is, God’s help and providence–He was with her every step of the way.

Please pray for Ana Maria as she continues to serve God through her skills and passion in the Arabian Peninsula.

*name changed for security

The crewmembers also welcomed the church to Logos Hope, to give them a training on human trafficking so they are better equipped to protect their own community or prevent crime.

As part of raising awareness of one aspect of human trafficking – prostitution –  two crewmembers performed a drama where a woman, desperate to find work so she can feed her child, accepts a job in Africa. The woman ends up being assaulted, tied up and forced to sell her body.

One of the actors, Tom* (Germany), explained, “Through this drama, people get more insight of what human trafficking is. There are screams; sometimes a drama provokes more reaction than giving information.” Some of the church members were visibly moved by what they witnessed. In this way, crew want to show that each person who is trafficked had a life and hoped for better before they were trapped in difficult situations.

Pastor Analia Coni said her church is going to pray differently from now on, as they had never realised the scale of human trafficking. “Often, people in our country disappear… People with little means don’t have anyone to guide them,” she says. “They should hear what we learnt. I am so thankful to Logos Hope for all the love we received. Christ needs people like you who give their best.”

The ship donated Bibles to the church, as well as audio Bibles for two members who are blind. Analia told one of the volunteers, “In life we have been treated like second-class people, so we never expected to be treated with such respect. My congregation was in tears and said that this is what heaven must look like; all tribes and nations living in peace and worshipping God together.”

*Name changed

Some believers in the city of Rosario had explained to the crewmembers that churches tend to be separate and can focus on their own denomination or congregation, without often working together as one body. Claude*, who has over 30 years of experience in sharing the gospel around the world, focussed his message on unity. 

Claude explained that Christ is the head of one body, the Church, and that each person who follows Jesus is a member of this body. They are called to work together for one shared purpose. “Strategic partnership in world mission is one of the most important things. We see in Scripture that God is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. That community is the example for us. Working together is God’s design from the very beginning,” says Claude. 

The conclusion of his focus on unity was to pass on a message Claude had received personally. He told the audience, “I left my home because God said, 'My Church in Latin America is ready.' Ready to send and support missionaries, having previously mainly received them.”

A crewmember from Western and Central Asia shared his perspective on the personal sacrifices made by those who become followers of Jesus from other religious backgrounds. Claude affirmed this, telling the audience, "More people are coming to faith in Christ through dreams and visions… As they get God’s Word and relationships with Christians, they are beginning to grow and even share the gospel too.” 

Camila Babativa (Colombia) ended the meeting by asking for those who were willing to go into mission to stand. More than 20 people rose from their seats, declaring their intention share the gospel further.

*Name changed.

Emmanuel Schwartz (France) spoke to students in a park and met two teenagers with whom they had deeper conversations. When the young men, Marcos and Joaquin, heard that the volunteers were from Logos Hope, they were interested in knowing more about their lives and experience.

One of the local men, who comes from a Christian family but isn’t a believer, was moved by Emmanuel’s story: He explained that he had gone through a phase of struggle and had been living what he called a ‘double life,’ but that God had changed him. Emmanuel said later, “Now I am in mission and to the guys, that is amazing.” One commented that Emmanuel’s coming on board was a miracle.

Marcos and Joaquin asked if they could see Logos Hope and were eager to hear more about the volunteers’ backgrounds and journey. They asked many questions; wanting to know if it is possible to be a Christian without going to church; what being a ‘Christian’ really means; what ‘mission’ is; and other subjects.

“Our testimonies were appropriate; both guys were touched,” Emmanuel recalled, realising that God had placed the right people in their path. “Their reactions to our stories and the fact that they were interested, even though they weren’t Christians, showed me God was at work,” he said.

Before saying goodbye, the teenagers said, “We will remember meeting you for our entire lives.” The team agreed that they felt grateful for the impact they could have on the people they met on this somewhat improvised day of ministry. “God knows what is best and He knows the best way to use us,” Emmanuel concluded. The crewmembers learnt that even in unplanned circumstances, God is sovereign and will work with ready hearts.

At the age of 15, God placed missions on her heart. “It has been a God-process with me. He told me I would go to the least reached, so I knew that would be my focus,” shared Ariela. “I chose my professional career with that in mind. I knew I’d work with vulnerable, at-risk kids and children with disabilities.” In fact, since childhood, she’d had a desire to specifically work with people from Myanmar.

After earning her degree in child psychology, she asked God: “What now?” A friend randomly told her about a group working with refugees in the Middle East, and she went on a short-term trip there.

“That was when I realised God had called me to work with the most vulnerable kids in the world: refugees,” Ariela declared. 

As she began to pray about opportunities, the Rohingya refugee crisis in Bangladesh had just begun. Part of one of the fastest growing refugee crises in history, the Rohingya are a Muslim people group from Myanmar. More than 800,000 men, women and children fled on foot into neighbouring Bangladesh, due to what the UN has called an ‘ethnic cleansing’.

Soon, working with the Rohingya became Ariela’s primary focus.

In 2018, Ariela boarded a plane to the UK, where she planned to get a visa to Bangladesh and then spend six months serving the Rohingya there.

But God had other plans.

Due to restrictions outside of her control, Ariela was unable to serve directly with Rohingya refugees. Her first two months involved a lot of prayer and waiting, until one night she asked God: “Please, either let the permissions appear, or show me a way out, because I don’t think I can stay here waiting without doing the job I came here to do.”

The next day, Ariela received a message from the OM office in Argentina, asking if she’d consider serving refugees in Serbia or Greece. “I’d never thought about that, but I felt like it was God’s answer to my prayer from the night before,” Ariela explained. “So I decided to go to Greece.”

Greece

On her first day in Greece, Ariela was invited to join a group of women and families at a local beach. “We were on a tourist beach with long sleeves and coverings, and we even taught them to swim. It was a lot of fun,” Ariela remembered. “That day, I realised that God had redirected me to meet up with people from the Middle East. There were a lot of similarities in our cultures, and I felt like I could relate to them.”

Ariela spent two months in Greece volunteering with different ministries. “I went to a church where they did local outreaches like giving out lunches twice a week, handing out clothes, helping with paperwork, etc. That place was amazing. I also helped with kids ages three to five while their parents were in English class. Twice a week they did a devotional there and we saw some amazing things.

“These refugees came from countries where Christians cannot openly share the gospel. But in Greece, there is more freedom to talk about God. They came to the gospel instead of the other way around,” said Ariela.

Serbia

When her time in Greece ended, Ariela went to Serbia to serve at a camp near the Croatian border. Most of the refugees there were from Iran, Afghanistan, Nigeria, Pakistan and Somalia.

“We were able to talk with them and share Jesus’ love with them,” Ariela remembered. “We were in a refugee camp, so we couldn’t have official meetings. But they would ask us: ‘Why are you doing this for us?’ We were able say it was because Jesus loves them. I had some really good talks with the people there.”

Ariela especially connected with a 16-year-old girl from Iran who was waiting with her family to go to Germany. “She was worried because her brother was trying to cross the border and travel to Germany, which can be dangerous.” Ariela recalled. "This girl came to me and said: ‘I want you to pray for my brother because I know Jesus listens to the Christian people.’ I said: ‘Yes,’ but I knew this was God saying to me: 'You need to talk with her, because her heart is open to hear of me.’

“I developed a good relationship with her and gave her the Gospel of John. One day she said: ‘You are a really good person. I want to be Christian, just like you. But I want to be in a better place. So when I get to Germany, I will find a church.’

“It was really difficult to leave her. She was incredibly smart and had learnt English just by talking with people. Because she’s a refugee, she couldn’t go to school and her dad couldn’t work. They were stuck in time. They had dreams just like everyone, and they struggled with not having a future there.

“They were from Iran, which is one of the top 10 nations for persecuted Christians. It’s really hard for people from Iran to hear the gospel and also for people to convert. They could go to jail or even be put to death. The fact that they are in Europe meant they were in a safe environment where they could hear the gospel and even see a Bible for the first time.

“My prayer is that she will find a real hope for life, because they are hopeless without Jesus, but also that they will be in a better physical place where her father can work, and she can go to school.” 

Back in Argentina

Needless to say, Ariela’s trip didn’t look anything like she’d imagined. She ended up going to seven different countries in seven months, including attending a training for disaster response in Germany. While she didn’t get to serve directly with the Rohingya, Ariela said: “I sensed God saying: ‘Right now this door isn’t open to you, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t in the future. Right now the door is open to speak to refugees in Europe. When the war ends, the refugees will stop coming, and it will be harder to get to them.’

“I get this feeling like God is not going to put me in one place for my whole life. He is trying to teach me to be flexible and trust that He is in control. It’s about learning how to rest in Him.”

Now back in Ushuaia, Ariela is preparing to return to Serbia, this time as a long-term worker. “There are so many opportunities to serve at the camp. And recently I heard that even a few Rohingya have come through there!”

When God placed missions on her heart at the age of 15, Ariela had no idea the turns her story would take. The same was true for when she left Argentina for Bangladesh. But through every surprise and each new challenge, God was with her every step of the way—writing a much greater story than she could ever imagine.

The crewmembers explained to the young people that they are just like them, and that they have decided to go and serve God in other nations. Pastor Montes said the young people were as yet unaware about global mission, so the crew's visit was an opportunity for them to discover a new perspective.

Carolin Kluepfel (Germany) told the young church members about her journey to serve on board. She joined Logos Hope as a ‘STEPper.’ STEP (Short Term Exposure Programme) is a programme for volunteers who stay on board for a shorter time than most crewmembers: three months. Before coming on board, Carolin worked with prisoners and studied social work. When her sister mentioned the idea of volunteering on the ship, she thought living with people from many different cultures would be interesting.

Carolin prayed about the idea and received her answer through a Bible verse. “I applied to come on board and said, ‘OK, God, if this is your plan, then it will happen.’” When she was accepted, she sold her car after having an accident. The insurance money she received covered the amount she needed to raise to serve on the ship.

“It all came together, and I was able to come here,” explained Carolin. She wanted to show the young believers that nothing could stop them from going to serve God. “A seed was planted, and I believe God will be working in their hearts,” Pastor Montes commented, as he drove the volunteers back to the ship.

“Today we learnt that we must share the good news with people around us and realise that we must all be missionaries,” Pastor Montes said, as he reflected on the message another crewmember had given. “But not only where we live – the message of the gospel must be shared with the entire world. This is why having this time with Logos Hope’s crewmembers was so important.”

The pastors and church members thanked the volunteers for their visit and for the message shared with their youth. Many had a lot of questions and showed their encouragement and support through praying for the crew and their mission work.

The missionaries gave some general advice on what is good for couples, as well as more specific advice for those who wish to serve God in mission. They explained that both husband and wife need to have a calling to this way of life, and that if one spouse feels called and the other doesn’t, serving God according to His will could become complicated.

Robert and Angela told the church that they had each sensed a strong calling to a specific part of Asia. This confirmation that God led them there has helped the couple remain strong in difficult times, and they are able to remind each other of their purpose and remain committed.

“It is also very important to pray together, to have fellowship. It is important in your home country, but abroad, there are more difficulties socially, physically and spiritually, when you work for God,” explained Robert. “Satan doesn’t want healthy couples and families to succeed, so he may attack a lot. Spiritual unity and fellowship is essential,” he told the gathering. Later, Angela reflected: “We have people back home who pray for us. We reminded the church to also pray for those they have sent out.”

Viviana Calvo, a church member who arranged contact with the ship, spoke about what she would take away from the session: “Their story was very useful, especially the advice that both should feel a calling to serve – otherwise, it won’t work,” said Viviana.

Robert and Angela observed that the church was open to sending missionaries and that the couples were encouraged to hear what God was doing in far-off places. At the end of the meeting, they gave the audience some examples of Argentinians who are missionaries, and invited them to also consider going to the least reached to share the good news.

The missionaries and the church are still in contact; the church’s pastor and his wife invited Camila Babativa (Colombia), who had also been present, to talk about Logos Hope on a local radio show, and the missionary couple also had the opportunity to talk about their ministry in Asia.

*names changed

The mobilisation tour, 11 Jan. - 16 Feb. 2018, was both a prototype and an answered prayer, according to OM Argentina Field Leader Markus Leder. “We knew we wanted to do traveling teams and mobilisation, but we never did,” he admitted. Fifteen years after he and his wife, Vanesa, moved to a suburb of Buenos Aires, Argentina’s capital, with three new team members arriving and the annual summer holiday looming—traditionally the most difficult period for Markus to fill ministry-wise—“it was the right time to do it.”

Freshly enrolled in Spanish classes, the trio of new OMers filmed a simple video advertising their missions-themed workshops, and Vanesa, an Argentine national, posted it on OM’s social media channels. Over 20 churches responded, inviting the team to visit various summer camps and youth retreats. “According to the dates of the camps, I tried to make a map connecting the dots,” Vanesa recalled. The road trip was on.

Developing curriculum

As preparation for the trip, still a few months out at the time, the team divvied up topics, assembled costumes for the ‘hat presentation’—an interactive demonstration of the ratio of missionaries serving among least-reached people groups—and tested their programme at a handful of camps October through December.

The team developed individual, hour-long workshops corresponding with ‘Pray, Give, Go,’ long considered OM’s informal tagline. Naemi chose to focus on prayer because of its newfound importance in her life. “I was never a prayer person, and spending time with God was usually something I had to check off,” she shared. “But here [in Argentina], because I didn’t have my daily routine like in Germany, I found the fun of it and the joy of spending time with God.”

Casey, who presented on going, told audiences about his first experience on a short-term missions trip to Africa (his mom made him go) and meeting a new friend there who had never heard about Jesus. He also introduced the ‘commitment cards’—business card-sized hand-outs the audience could keep. “We believe there’s power in making that commitment to the Lord, writing it down and making it tangible,” he said. In fact, a similar pledge card in college catapulted him into his own two years of service in Argentina.

Tim, by default, opted to talk about giving, though his background in banking provided a natural link to finances. His presentation, however, focused more on giving one’s life for God than simply writing a check (or standing in line for hours at the ATM to withdraw a donation, as the case may be in Argentina).

All three foundational workshops, flavoured with intimate personal stories and individual cultural details, as well as other parts of the presentation had one goal: “to share with them what OM is doing and why we think missions is important,” Casey said.

On the road

When the three OMers and one translator, who switched halfway through, finally piled into their car and took off, they’d prepared their materials, but they still didn’t know what to expect.

“It was basically different at every camp and church,” Naemi summarised. Sometimes the team were the main speakers for a three-day camp—as well as the worship band and the game leaders and the schedulers—and sometimes they only had a few hours to present.

“I love to prepare myself for things that are going to happen, but that’s a little bit difficult in Argentina because before we got to a camp or a church, we didn’t know how many people are going to be there, what age do the people have, are those teenagers, youth or maybe older people, and how much time do we have for a program,” she explained. “So that was a thing that I really had to learn, to just stay calm and to trust everything will work out fine.”

For the most part, it did.

“We had amazing times—going on detour to Bariloche, seeing a beautiful part of Argentina we weren’t expecting to see, getting to know each other better as a team—it was a great road trip,” Tim described.

“We didn’t have challenges between us in the team. That’s where everything went super well,” Naemi added, “and even on the trips, we’ve never run out of gas. We got lost sometimes...”

And a few things also got lost in translation. “Whether we were explaining what would happen next or talking about a specific verse and how it relates to our mission—it didn’t happen a lot because we had great translators—there were a couple times when something was explained [incorrectly], and it shifted the original intent of what we wanted to get across,” Casey explained.

The team, who all rely on internet rather than cellular data for everyday messaging and GPS, spent a fair amount of time at roadside rest stops, mapping out their next moves over free WiFi. At times, planning, scheduling and communicating with camp organisers could be frustrating, Tim said: “Not all the camps would have a clear schedule. Even if they did have a clear schedule, they wouldn’t always follow it exactly. Everything was always flexible.”

At one church, the team had been asked to present their workshops, ending in the afternoon or evening. By 19:00, they’d finished their ‘Pray, Give, Go’ workshops, the ‘hat presentation’ and another prepared skit. “We’d done everything we wanted to do, and then they come up to us that evening and they say, ‘Actually, we want to end tonight about 22:00,’” Tim recalled. “We had to think of more things we could do just to fill up the time. I ended up sharing a message about guarding your heart that has nothing to do with missions.”

On the mobilisation tour, the team slept everywhere from air-conditioned camp cabins to makeshift chair beds in the middle of an empty event hall. At one family’s farm in the countryside, they milked a cow and star-gazed for hours in the pasture.

When they only needed to give one workshop a day, the team spent time with the teenagers and youth, building connections and friendships. Casey played pick-up football whenever he could. “I’ve probably doubled my Facebook friends over the last four weeks,” he said, laughing.

The last night at their final camp visit, around a campfire, the OMers washed the feet of all the teenagers there. “While I was washing their feet, I really felt like God loves us so much and He gave everything for us, and He came to this world to serve us. That was a really, really beautiful experience,” Naemi shared.

“It was a lot of traveling. A lot of going to different places” and creating ways to stay in contact with people and offer them opportunities as they grow in their understanding of missions and their walks with the Lord, Casey said. “We lived out of a car, and it was awesome.”

Encouraging results

“It was always encouraging when we gave our three workshops about ‘Pray, Give, Go’ and then people came to us, trying to get more information about missions, about how to pray, how to give, how to go, about short-term mission trips,” Naemi said. “Sometimes people were saying, ‘Wow, we didn’t know these things before; we want to get involved.’ That was our goal. People wanted to get involved into missions.”

At one camp, the team handed out information cards and the commitment cards at the same time, “probably a logistical error on our parts,” Casey noted. Later, when they were looking through the information cards they had collected, they found someone’s personal commitment card. The card didn’t have a name, but it showed the person had committed to serving—someday—in long-term missions.

“It was encouraging to see that through our programme, through the process we’ve been working on and praying about a lot, God was working. God was putting it on people’s hearts to serve long-term in countries other than Argentina,” Casey said.

Nearly a month after the team returned from the road trip, Markus said he was still receiving requests for them to visit new churches. The team collected contace details from around 300 individuals interested in receiving information about short-, medium-, or long-term missions. “One of our objectives was not to go and talk and leave, but to go and share and keep that conversation going and build this database of people we’ve been in contact with and have been able to share something about missions with,” Casey said.

OM also connected with 40 new churches as a result of the mobilisation tour. “Most of them never had experience with missionaries before,” Vanesa said. “Here in Buenos Aires, we’ve been to so many churches, but we’re just one of many organisations.” Outside of the capital, however, OM’s missions presentation “was a big eye opener for many [churches]. Most of them are inviting us back.”

Logistically, the trip worked well because of the team, Markus and Vanesa acknowledged. Churches and camps hosting the team provided food and housing, and they often gave love offerings, which covered fuel and toll fees. The team took petty cash for upfront expenses, but rather than needing to raise a separate mobilisation budget, they returned from the tour with extra funds for OM’s ministry.

Some Argentines who listened to the team’s presentation have already applied for short-term trips, Vanesa reported. For others, “the next step is for them to learn more,” Tim said. “These are all the building blocks ... that will help us achieve our goal of sending 100 missionaries over the next ten years.”

*Name changed for security

Nicole James is a world traveller and writer for OM International. She’s passionate about partnering with believers to communicate the ways God is working across the globe.

A description of football ministry in Argentina jumped off OM’s website. “I always say I have three things I’m really passionate about outside of the Lord: business, soccer [football] and missions,” Casey said. “This seemed like the perfect opportunity to combine a couple of those things.”

He applied to the field and was accepted nearly a year before he planned to go. Five months before his scheduled departure, OM Argentina Field Leader Markus Leder called him on Skype. “I love your passion for football, and you are definitely going to use that here in Argentina, but I feel obliged to tell you that we are shifting our focus to missions and mobilisation,” Markus said.

Recalling that Skype conversation, Markus admitted, “I was scared to call him. Probably he would not be willing to come [anymore].”

Casey, however, “wasn’t really surprised at all, which is weird because I had no intention of working in missions in Argentina,” he said. “At every step of my life, God has always put me in this position of international ministry, even when I’m not planning on it.”

Argentina’s alignment process

Markus (Germany/Netherlands) and his wife, Vanesa (Argentina), had been planning on mobilisation, though—13 years prior when they were first talking about returning to Argentina with OM. “Our vision for coming here was to mobilise Argentines to go abroad,” Vanesa shared. “It was something we didn’t do for ten years... We actually didn’t do what we came to do.”

They did start a thriving football ministry, plan English classes, work with children in the slums, visit a prison and manage the team in Buenos Aires. “Because we had so many things going on locally, we didn’t have time to do church mobilisation. We had six days of ministry locally. The seventh day we needed a rest,” Markus described. About four times a year, the team squeezed in a token visit to an Argentine church.

When Markus became field leader in 2015, Latin America’s OM leadership asked all fields to go through the code of good practices. Markus contracted an OM coach outside Argentina to help guide his team through the process.

First, the coach asked, “What ministries do you do?” The 20 field members at the time listed 25 activities. Then the coach presented the second question: “Close your eyes for a moment. If you were to say what OM Argentina is about, what would it be?” At the same time, everyone answered, “OM Argentina is about mobilising the church.”

In theory, but not in practice. “Not one of the activities that we listed was even closely related to church mobilisation,” Markus said. “That’s when the team noticed there was a big difference between what we think we do and what we actually do.”

That was the beginning of Argentina’s alignment process—praying about which ministries God had actually called them to do, and which ministries they had started simply because there was a need. In 2017, when OM unveiled its new mission and Latin America announced its intention to become a sending area, focusing on 13 strategic least- reached areas, OM Argentina underwent the second phase of alignment: letting go of local ministries.

For Markus, the most painful part of the process was handing over the football ministry he’d started and invested in for eight years to the local church. At first the local pastor was shocked by the suggestion that the church take over, but as Markus explained how the church had Argentines—fluent native Spanish speakers—who were skilled and better equipped to direct the programme than the short-term international volunteers who had headed up the ministry to that point, the pastor quickly agreed. “It’s going fine without me,” Markus shared several months after the transition.

Some ministries ended naturally; other ministries were passed on to different organisations with capacity to build the ministries beyond what OM’s limited finances and personnel could accomplish. “We finally feel we have permission to let go of these ministries and focus on different things,” Markus shared. “God prepared the way, and step by step, He opened our eyes to new realities.”

The OM team in Argentina had also shrunk, due to finished commitments and personal obligations. So when Markus needed to tell new team members—Casey, Tim and Naemi—that the jobs they had signed up for were no longer available as full-time OM ministries, he was worried they would walk away.

While Casey had planned to play football, Timothy Tai (UK/Malaysia) and Naemi Siemens (Germany), scheduled to arrive in Argentina at the same time, both wanted to work with children. During their first team meeting together on the field, Markus shared the new vision for OM Latin America.

“At first, I have to say I was a little disappointed or confused because I love to prepare myself for things that are going to happen,” Naemi said. She had to rethink her plans, “but with the time, with talking about the importance of mobilisation and Argentines, with their culture and [how] they’re perfect to go be missionaries, I got to love that idea.”

Tim, too, quickly warmed up to the task of mobilising Latinos for missions. “Our very first weekend here we were invited to a church. They were having a missions Sunday, and we didn’t know what to expect, but we just went there and started helping out with whatever we could,” he recounted.

The church had decorated one room to look like China, filing different groups of youth in at different times to listen to volunteers talk about missions in China. Tim, born in Malaysia, jumped in, teaching the teens how to use chopsticks and playing games with them. “It was a really cool first experience visiting another church and helping them in their vision to [get] their people excited about missions,” he said.

Anyone can go

Because Latin America had been receiving missionaries for hundreds of years, Latino Christians rarely received the message that they, too, could go to the least reached. In Argentina, new workers joining OM need to commit to reversing that mind-set. “We are really here to serve as an example of stepping out of our comfort zone, where we’re from, what we’ve been doing our whole lives,” Casey explained. “We’ve stepped out of that into something that’s unknown and uncomfortable, and ... they can do the exact same thing.”

“It’s not easy for anyone to pack up their bags, leave their families, leave their homes, leave all the comforts of home, leave their friends and everything they know just to go somewhere foreign, so the fact that Casey, Naemi and I are here, and obviously we had to do that, it’s showing them that we’re not just telling them to go, but we’re actually modelling it as well with our lives,” Tim added.

Just as missionaries do not need to come from certain countries, neither do they need a particular skill set. Some of the workshops the OM team developed included information about sports evangelism and social media—everyday tools Christians can use to share the gospel at home or overseas.

“We’re normal people,” Casey said. “Whether you just finished high school, you just finished college, whether you’ve been working for a little while, God calls all types of people to go, and all you have to do is be obedient.”

“We just need an experience of God that we can tell others about. We are all his witnesses,” Tim emphasised.

At a mobilisation visit to a small church, the OM team handed out response cards after their presentation, encouraging audience members to fill out contact details if they wanted more information about short-, medium- or long-term missions.

“What’s this about?” one 11-year-old boy asked Naemi. After she explained the card to him, he thought for a second and then checked the box for long-term missions.

“Whoa, that’s super cool,” Naemi remembered thinking. “That’s how we should react. That’s our task and our responsibility in this world—that we go and spread the gospel.”

Responses like that are indicative of a larger movement, Casey shared. “I think that God is doing something big in Latin America,” he said. “I think it’s their time to step up and go. ... I don’t think it’s a coincidence that it’s shifted from local ministry to mobilisation; I think it’s a strategic time. ...God uses people. That’s why we need to be here to be part of that movement.

On a Saturday afternoon in March 2018, Pastor David Lencina sat with a group of 17 people, mostly youth, attending OM’s mission presentation at his church, Iglesia Bautista Misión Vida in Buenos Aires. He’d hoped for up to 40 from his congregation to attend, but the late summer weather and other conferences across the city had deterred many people. Still, “the fact that [OM] is here saying something is already good, and that they’re sharing their passion about evangelism—it might be contagious,” he said.

Maria Isabel Oliva, who started leading the church’s youth group in September 2017, had organised OM’s participation that day. She knew OM from a short-term trip she’d participated in as a youth and wanted to introduce another generation of Christians to missions. After listening to the workshops and presentations on the least reached, Maria recognised the appeal of the social media evangelistic tools the team had presented. “This is what the youth use these days. They’re always [on] the phone,” she said.

Though she was used to other methods of spreading the gospel, Maria didn’t mind that technology had trumped tradition. “The most important thing is that the Word of God spreads, and more people go to those who haven’t heard. These tools are good for that,” she said. “OM is very important for young people to go out to other countries. Without this support, they probably wouldn’t do it.”

Julian, 16, had received an invitation to the missions presentation over the messaging application WhatsApp. He’d been interested in a photo advertising sports evangelism (Casey’s first workshop) and had enjoyed the entire day’s presentations. The information about praying for and giving to missions was review, he said, “but I haven’t heard about where to go, how to go, the 10/40 window—that was new.”

Through April 2018, the OM team in Buenos Aires was booked every weekend to visit churches, with more invitations lined up for the rest of the year. “We are sensing that God is doing something in Argentina,” Vanesa shared. “The churches are open—it’s something different that didn’t happen before. There is more interest in missions and more people willing to commit.

Markus agreed: “I really feel that God has prepared Argentina and OM Latin America with this vision for mobilisation.”

Nicole James is a world traveller and writer for OM International. She’s passionate about partnering with believers to communicate the ways God is working across the globe.

After five days of activities with the families of the community the team returned home with new friendships and open doors. One part of the journey took them along dirt and gravel roads causing the vehicles, including the trailer, to shake considerably. Soon the team noticed that there was smoke coming from the trailer and that the wheels had come off the axle.

Unavoidably, they had to stop on the side of the road, close to the entrance to the city of Bariloche. Parked there the missionaries tried to think of someone who could help them on a Sunday, which in Argentina means all businesses are closed. The trailer already broke twice on this trip and some team members expressed their doubt if it had really been worth the thirty-hour journey to come to this place.

A teacher from the community and her husband had accompanied the team and together they were trying to think of where to find a mechanic. At one point a volunteer remembered a couple that was from this city and had visited the native community in the past. So they asked the teacher if she knew them. As the teacher told the team about friends that sometimes came to visit the community, the missionaries realised that they might be people they knew from a past OM training course.

The teacher was able to call her friends, who were willing to come and help the team in their difficult situation. After waiting one hour, a truck pulled up behind the group and the first person to get out was indeed the man who had once taken the OM course.

The OM team rejoiced when seeing familiar faces in such an unlikely moment, not only because they had the tools needed to fix the trailer but also because they discovered that this couple had been visiting the same community the team just left.

From that moment on the OM team and the local couple were able to stay in contact and arrange visits together, joining efforts and resources which resulted in two more outreaches. This unlikely encounter changed the missionaries’ perspective and they were able to see that the trip was worth it after all.

OM Argentina is praying to change the vehicle that allows them to make these trips. The current vehicle has many miles on it and is difficult and costly to repair. Please join them in prayer for a new car so they can go on outreaches, visit churches, bring resources and materials for different programs, take literature to conferences and special church events and keep team travel costs down.

One day the ball once again ended up in the neighbour’s garden. While the team was waiting for him to give the ball back, his son stormed onto the pitch attacking some of the participants with his fists while carrying a gun in his pocket. The group was able to calm him down and have a conversation. Although he had reacted badly, the team could understand his annoyance.

They felt that, as Christians, they should do everything possible to maintain good relationships and give good testimony. They began planning on how to continue the ministry without annoying the neighbour, and a week later they were able to put up a net along the side of the pitch. Thanks to the net, the team felt more at peace about continuing with the ministry.

Each time the team holds a football class they have a new story to tell. One day, not long ago, four boys from another neighbourhood came to the pitch. They had never been to the classes before and the team was sure the young men had somehow heard about people coming together to play football there. Shortly after they started playing, one of the new guys began arguing with one of the participants. Suddenly he threatened to shoot him and asked one of his friends to bring him the gun he had in his bag.

One of the OM members overheard the threat and put himself in the way of the young man, telling him that this way of treating people was not allowed there. “We are Christians and here we don’t treat each other this way,” he said. Immediately the boy that made the threat stopped, put away the gun and asked for forgiveness. The team was very thankful to God that this young man respected the warning and that there were no more problems.

Each time that OM workers go to “Las Violetas” the team covers them in prayer. The crime and violence in this neighbourhood is a constant problem and even unimportant disagreements are often dealt with using weapons.

The day of the second incident, one OM worker had asked his wife: “Please, pray for us.” His wife was praying various times during the three hours the group worked in “Las Violetas”. The team was amazed, how once again God protected them and heard the prayers. They saw that the Lord has all authority, that He goes with them and that He takes away the fear that could stop them from doing this ministry.

Please pray for the OM workers that serve the community in these dangerous circumstances, for the Lord’s protection and authority over the lives of the young people they serve. Pray for their non-violent example and commitment to Christ to help change the hearts of those in the community surrounding them. 

As time went by there was little change in this area. The workers saw how some of the mothers that brought their children to the workshops were very hostile in the way that they were treating them. With little progress to be seen, some of the missionaries began to question if it was really worth it to invest in trying to change such ingrained attitudes, and also to continue putting themselves at risk by work in such a dangerous neighbourhood.

One day, during the Bible study time, the workers asked the women, “Who is the most important for God? Children or adults?” They all responded together: “Obviously adults!”

The OM members continued asking: “What did Jesus say?” Some of the women could paraphrase part of the verse that reads “Let the little children come to me.” Rita, a mother who frequently yelled at her daughter, was listening attentively. Suddenly her whole attitude changed: from her usually very extroverted and talkative self she fell into silence, lowered her head and appeared deep in thought. 

The OM team realised that often history repeats itself in these families.  But they also believe that God’s Word has an effect on these women’s hearts and at some point this will bear fruit.

Pray that God will help the women at the Bible study to see their own children as He sees them.

Luciana’s story

Though I was never strongly against what my ET friends believed, I also didn’t feel any interest in going to church on Sundays with them. I have a family that loves me and friends - I didn’t feel like I needed to be a part of it.

But as we all know life is difficult and there comes a time when it’s hard to get up and keep going. For me, that was in the middle of 2014. I started working to earn my own income and help with my family's bills, and with university on top of that, I got really stressed. I didn’t have any time to be with my friends or to focus on my studies like I did before. Everything became hard and I didn’t know what to do. 

One Friday, I’d been working all morning and had classes in the afternoon. I went home, where things weren't exactly great, and then I had ET. As I arrived, I ran into one of my best friends, who’s also an OM worker, and she asked me how I was. I couldn’t take it anymore and I fell apart. She comforted me and then asked me if she could pray for me, and I said yes. It was a very special moment, and I felt like that was what I needed in my life, a love that would never fail me. I told her that I wanted to be a part of it, I wanted to feel and have God in my life, and so the journey started.

A changed perspective

After that night, Luciana and her friend from OM started meeting every week for Bible studies and started to go to church together.

“I could already see a change in me” Luciana shared, “Everything didn’t seem as bad as before, and I had a hope that I hadn’t felt in a long time. The first time I went to church, I cried through the whole service, feeling overwhelmed with all the love running through the church.”

Today, in 2016, Luciana’s schedule looks very different to the one of 3 years ago. She participates in many activities in her church, which she calls her second home. Furthermore, she supports local OM ministries. From girls’ football classes, to joining in with a weekly kids’ club in a slum, her week is full of activities to bring love and the Gospel to the people of her community. “I have to say though, English Talk is still my favourite [ministry] without a doubt.” Luciana said.

“God has changed my life in a way I could’ve never predicted,” she shared, “and the people around me are witnesses of that. I still have bad days, like everyone, but there’s a light in my heart that wasn’t there before. No matter what happens, that light is always shining, and God‘s love does, and will always, guide me.”

Please pray for Luciana and the English Talk team that they may be instruments in the hands of God and can see many more people get to know Jesus.

"Can you come and share about God?" a woman from the church in a nearby shanty town asked the OM team in Córdoba, Argentina. “We're trying to start women's meetings this year, but we don't know how to get more people to come. The women are a little discouraged."

The woman is the principal of a Christian school in the area, and the school also ministers to and shares the gospel with the students’ mothers. However, the daily realities of domestic violence and poverty have weighed greatly on them.

I suggested organising a tea party for the women and we planned to present a workshop called “Relationships in the centre of God's will,” with a discussion and a few short skits.

We had a great turnout—about 25 women attended. We gave them practical tips on how to improve their own family relationships but we also stressed the importance of continuing to be part of God's family.

At the end of the gathering, several women commented on how much the workshop helped and encouraged them. They also realised there were many relational problems to solve in their families.

Please pray with us for the women and for the school's ministry in the neighbourhood, Pray that many more families will be reached with the Gospel.

Marie Schünemann and Rebecca Moor started working at the children’s home in Buenos Aires a couple of months ago.

“We had just been playing with the children or helping the staff where we could—no special planned activities,” said Rebecca.

However, after Rebecca was asked several times about her cross necklace, about whether she knew some Christian songs in Spanish, and about whether her dictionary was a Bible, she thought about what else she might be able to do with these kids.  

“They are so interested in God and His Word but know so little about it,” Rebecca shared.

OM Argentina regularly hands out colouring books of Bible stories to kids during outreaches. These booklets, called Historias para Pintar, have drawings of Bible stories for the children to colour, along with a question to answer for each story, which helps the children think about the story and how it applies to their life.

The booklets are produced by OM Argentina in collaboration with local partners.

“I got the idea to start something like a Bible study with the kids there,” said Rebecca. “Reading a story from the colouring Bible every week, talking about it, colouring in the drawings and praying together. When we are done reading all the stories, they can keep them so they have their own first Bible!”

Please pray for Rebecca and Marie as they share God’s Word with the children at the children’s home. Pray that God will plant seeds of faith in these kids.  

I met Gaby during a gathering that we used to organise for women every month to talk about all sorts of things with a Christian focus. The topics ranged from what children need to family violence.

Gaby did not attend all of the meetings, but when she came, she was greatly interested.

Her sister, who is a Christian, asked if I could help because Gaby and her husband had problems in their marriage. So I met her husband, Enzo, and Liam, their newborn child.

As a child, Gaby attended a church of the Jehovah’s Witnesses. She didn't want to know anything about “studying the Bible” or “visiting the temple frequently”, because her mother had tired her with religion. Moreover, Enzo had no idea who God was, because his parents had never spoken of Him.

After four meetings with the couple and a little progress, Gaby told me very distressed, “Andrea I beg you, please! Please speak with my husband and help him because I realise that I am not the problem. Even if I would do everything right, I'll never be able to help him. He has a deeper problem that I cannot solve!”

Enzo said, “My wife is right. I have a profound problem. I can't find satisfaction in anything. Not in my work, not in talking to my friends. Their subjects just don't interest me. I am not happy and I don't know what to do.”

We opened the Bible together and read from Romans 3. I presented the plan of salvation to Gaby and Enzo. God was with us and they could understand what the Bible said.

“Do you want to accept Christ in your lives, repent of your sins and believe He died for you?” I asked. “We can invite Jesus into our lives today.”

Gaby said, “Yes, I want to! This is what I missed about God. Now I realise why religion did not fill me!"

Enzo added, "I never read the Bible like this, but now I realise why I feel this emptiness: I don't have God! I want to believe!”

They both prayed for forgiveness for their sins and invited Jesus to live in their hearts. Gaby and Enzo are now studying the Bible.

I know that there are many marriages like this. That's why we need to be attentive. God will use us to reach many more people with the Gospel.

Praise God for Gaby and Enzo’s marriage and their new faith in Jesus. Pray that they will continue growing in their faith and help others to do the same.  

The children are a part of Horita Feliz (little happy hour), a weekly kids' programme organised by team members of OM Argentina. It was with great joy and gratitude to God that the team took 35 of the children in the programme out of the city to enjoy camp in the countryside.

"It was a fun-filled weekend where we fed the children spiritually and physically and got to know them better," shared OM team member Ingrid Taylor.

When they arrived at the campsite, the children and camp counsellors were assigned to their rooms. After dinner, they played an uproarious game involving two teams, coloured balls, and a race against the clock to fill several containers.

"This was a big hit with the kids," recalled Ingrid. "We could hardly get them to bed that night!" 



They woke to a rain-soaked Sunday, but that did not deter the children from enjoying the rest of the activities the team had planned for the second day of camp. They were treated to an asado lunch (meat cooked over a grill called a parrilla), watched the last film in a Christian series, played games, took lots of pictures and were given snacks for the bus ride home.

A bus full of 35 exhausted but happy children arrived back in Buenos Aires later that day. They returned to their families with many stories to share.

"Some tears of joy were shed as some of them thanked us and told us how grateful they were for such a great weekend," said Ingrid. "I felt so very blessed and much the richer for having been able to serve God by serving them. I pray that the seeds of God's love planted that weekend will take root and bear much fruit in their lives."

However, the field is in one of the safest parts of the neighbourhood, so the parents don't worry about sending their children to the classes. It's also strategic, because it's near the entrance of Las Violetas, where many people pass by.

The sports ministry team in Córdoba has been working for more than five years in Las Violetas, teaching football and sharing the Gospel with the children. At first, the team used a concrete court in the middle of the neighbourhood for their activities. But it was too small and often occupied by others.

"We have been looking for other options for a while," shared one team member. "God has answered our prayers and provided a new location."

Turning a garbage pit into a decent football field required a lot of work. Many volunteers helped, including some of the children.

"These improvements have had a major impact," said the team member. "There are more children attending the football classes and hearing the good news."

There are also more adults from the neighbourhood getting involved in the football school. Like Federico, who is in his early 20s: "He's a great help in the training sessions," the team member said.

The team still faces daily challenges with the football school. However, step by step things are falling into place, and people’s lives are being changed by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Please pray for OM in Argentina. Pray for these young people who desperately need Jesus.

But on the first night of the camp, a challenge came her way. As she was leaving one of the rooms into the dark, she tripped unexpectedly, falling off a ledge about a metre high and spraining her foot. A doctor at the camp attended to her, and the team thought that perhaps she would need to go home.

The next day, however, she got up and made a firm decision to continue with the activities.

“It surprised us all,” said OM team member Evangelina Salazar. The team remembered that when this woman first came to the camp three years earlier, she had wanted to go home on the first night. “Her response made us aware of the great change that she had gone through.”

Many participants undergo radical changes during the gatherings, shared Evangelina.

“Part of the ladies already know the Lord,” she said. “They’re new Christians who need to be strengthened in their faith and who need to build relationships within the Christian family. Other ladies are invited for the first time, and we get the opportunity to share the Gospel with them.”

Since the OM team started organising the camps in partnership with women from a local church, more and more ladies participate. The goal is to have fellowship and provide Bible teachings that strengthen the lives of women who live in poverty and have few opportunities. Most of them face life alone with their children.

“It’s always a challenge to organise the camp,” shared Evangelina. “We want to include topics that are very urgent for the ladies, and we need a lot of creativity to present these well.”

The three-day camps usually include discussion in small groups, Bible studies, creative workshops, a beautiful surrounding and fun. Through the activities and an open atmosphere, trust is built within the group. Most of the participants are open to talk about their problems and God’s answer to them.

“Many accept Jesus as their Saviour during the camp,” said Evangelina. “It’s such a privilege to be able to see God transforming them.”

Onelli is home to only about 80 people and is only reachable by a series of dirt and gravel roads, three hours from Bariloche. Onelli was once larger with the presence of a train station, but now the train rarely stops in Onelli and the town has dwindled.

Compared to the beautiful lakes and mountains of Bariloche, Onelli seems dull and bland. “However,” said an OM Buenos Aires team member, “we know that regardless of location or situation, the people of Onelli are beautiful and important to their Creator.”

With this mind set, the OM team partnered with a church from Bariloche, which has ministered in Onelli for several years.

The men on the team did construction projects in the town’s small church building. They tore out and re-poured part of the cement floor and put cement on the walls of one of the rooms. They helped repair a pick-up truck that was literally broken in half. And the men spent time with the police officer in Onelli, getting to know him and talking about Christ.

The women on the team spent time with the children in the town, inviting them to play games, do crafts, and hear a Bible story each day of the week. The children learnt about ordinary people in the Bible who God used in extraordinary ways: Joseph, Esther, Peter, and Mary the mother of Jesus. They learnt that even though they might be ordinary kids, growing up in a small town, God can still use them in extraordinary ways for His glory.

“One day, we invited the women in the town to come over for tea, coffee and fellowship,” explained a team member. They shared a short devotional with the women and encouraged them to attend church.

“It was a very blessed week,” she said. “And we believe that the seeds that were planted will continue to be watered and grow through the work of the church there and through the work of the Holy Spirit.”

The OM Buenos Aires team looks forward to investing in and ministering to the people of Onelli more in the future, and watching how God works in the small town in the weeks and years to come.  

A young mother of three, Pia faced severe depression. With her husband working in construction and without work regularly, the family has very little money.

A chance to escape poverty seemed far away when the OM team in Córdoba first met Pia, about four years ago. Pia became a participant in OM Córdoba’s women’s ministry.

Team members meet weekly with women from Las Violetas, teaching them to make purses and other handicrafts. Together they have set up a micro-business, through which they sell the items.

A year after she joined, Pia made the decision to follow Christ. Since then, she has advanced greatly in commitment and health.

“We’ve been wanting to offer the women who are part of the project a little bit of professional development,” shared Ministry Coordinator Evangelina Salazar. “Each one of them has different gifts, and we were looking for ways to let them develop these.”

The team received a donation and used it to enable the women to take formal classes in their discipline of choice. Pia decided to develop herself as a seamstress.

“We were able to give her a sewing machine,” said Evangelina. “She’s using it a lot.”

One of the first garments she made on the machine, was her own wedding dress. Last year, Pia and her husband decided to get married legally. They had been living together for years and had three children. But they realised that God asked them to ask for His blessing on their relationship.

“This made a huge impact on their families,” said Evangelina. “Several family members made a decision for Christ after this event.”

Pia, of course, looked beautiful on her wedding day, in the dress that she had made herself. “Quite a challenge for a beginner,” said Evangelina.

The next challenge for Pia will be to make costumes for kids, which she can offer for rent. Pia is very excited about this opportunity.

“She can use her creativity in making the costumes,” said Evangelina. “There isn’t much competition in the area and she can work from home.”

Finally, it seems that Pia has found a way to develop herself and make money to support her family. Besides that, Pia has become a very committed member of the local church. This year she’ll start discipling other new believers in Las Violetas and she’ll be in charge of organising meetings for women in the church.

“She is a beautiful example of inspiration and transformation by God,” concluded Evangelina.

*Name changed

This time they expected more of the same. That is why the team members had been spending a lot of time in prayer regarding the prison ministry. Their first visit this season was a fairly smooth start with some awesome results, shared Becci:

“It took us a while to make it past security and then walk approximately 500 meters to cell block 5, modulo cinco. As usual, we had to convince the guards that we have authorization to be there and that we need them to announce our Bible study to the four different sections within the facility. We found later, that this Thursday, the guards simply walked into the sections, calmly said iglesia (church) and then walked out. I doubt that hardly anyone heard them, but that is business as usual here. Generally speaking the guards are not very motivated.”

“Luckily two individuals heard the announcement. John* from the UK and Carlos* from Colombia. John is 59 years of age. He spent most of his life as a security guard in various countries. Unfortunately he has resorted to drug trafficking in the past few years to make some ‘quick cash’. Instead he hasn’t made any cash and he quickly ended up in prison. He claims to have resorted to drug trafficking because of the lack of income and scarcity of jobs in his own country. He doesn’t use this to justify his actions now and he is ashamed that he fell into temptation in hopes of making a quick buck. He was totally honest and transparent this Thursday and I praised him for that. Over the past year and a half, John has been somewhat cold toward our prison ministry and Bible study. He has never been rude but he definitely had no interest in it. This Thursday was his day to be introduced to a wonderful God and His son Jesus Christ.”

“Carlos was born in Colombia, used to own a taxi and made decent money. After returning home one weekend he found that his father sold his taxi to pay for some of his personal debts. This hurt the family severely and caused a lot of pain and financial stress. As time went on and jobs became scarce, the family moved to Argentina with hopes of finding  work here. At this time Carlos has a wife and two children. He quickly adapted and found work. He was working two jobs, one at a kiosko (small store) and the other at a fruit and vegetable stand. Everything seemed to be going fine.”

“One day the cops met him at his house and took him to prison. It seems that Carlos’s father was in a different type of business. He was searching for a courier to traffic some drugs. In his father’s search for a courier, he used Carlos’s cell phone to send some text messages. With the record of the text messages in Carlos’s phone, both he and his father were sent to prison. They have both been there for one year now. Carlos has never officially been charged with a crime and is patiently waiting to appear before the judge. As you can imagine, Carlos has been extremely bitter and angry toward his father.”

“Knowing a bit about their backgrounds helped me to understand and connect a little with John and Carlos. Regardless of their situations and past lives, I simply wanted to present the Gospel message to these men so that is what I did. After all, I did have a captive audience,  we collectively read John chapter 3. I don’t know if either of them had ever heard the Gospel in it’s entirety, but I did my best to present it. We covered all the main aspects: everyone is a sinner, being born again of spirit, God gave His only son, the after life, judgment, and the greatest pardon of all time.”

“Regardless of their current situation or who is to blame, both men admitted their own faults and sins and accepted Jesus as their Saviour. Carlos has a new hopeful future, as we prayed for his court hearing and also for future wisdom regarding his father. John seems to have a great burden lifted. He is a strong willed man who has insisted on doing life his way. He realizes his errors but the hardest part for him, I think, was admitting that he needs God’s help to clean up his life and finish strong.”

*Names have been changed to protect privacy

Valeria, 35, lives with her four children in Alpa Corral, a small town of approximately 900 people, which bases most of its economy on the thousands of tourists who visit the river and enjoy the sights of the sierras of Córdoba. Valeria sells handcrafts to support her family but also uses her talents to make contacts with her clients to eventually share the Gospel. Additionally, she has a weekly programme on the local radio station where she shares God’s Word.

Valeria suggested that the OM team, as well as members of the local church in Córdoba, make the most of Good Friday this year to share Christ with the tourists. Her heart weighs heavy for the small town, in which there is only one Catholic church. For that reason, Valeria goes to a church 45 minutes away in the town of Río Cuarto, which is where Evangelina Salazar, OM Argentina member, first got to know her.

“I was sharing about my trip to Europe to work with OM’s Transform, as well as work with ministries in Albania and Moldova,” Eva said. “In the list of names of people who wanted to support me financially, I was surprised to find her name with a different city beside it.”

Eva wanted to stay in contact with Valeria and even visited her humble home to thank her. From there, they formed a friendship based on their shared burden for the lost.

When Friday finally arrived, the group of 15 volunteers drove the four hours to Alpa Corral. The team dispersed to various parts of the town. One group acted out two skits in the square, while the rest passed out Christian leaflets in the streets that explained the true meaning of Easter.

The people were open to hearing the story of Jesus and were fascinated by the skits. Valeria believes that this was a good start to sharing the Gospel in her small town.

“There is still much to be done,” she said. “But I am very excited to have had this opportunity to work together with the team in Córdoba.”

Please pray for Valeria, her ministry in Alpa Corral and the work of OM in Argentina.

The words hung in the air as her eyes scanned the room for a reaction.

English Talk (ET) Espiritual is a twice-monthly meeting on Thursday nights in a local café in Córdoba, Argentina. The ministry has been active for several years, even before Andrea and her husband, Mike, arrived in the country to assist in the leadership of the ministry.

As Andrea looked for a response of disgust or anger, she was instead met with confident head nods of approval. This was not the response she and Mike had expected as they prepared for the evening’s discussion.

The ET team had been praying and preparing a lot for the ministry. Last year, God had been clear with them about the direction to take with ET Espiritual. “Purpose” was the focus of 2013. They discussed that one’s purpose comes from the Creator that has written our story into history for His glory.

This year has been different, however. The leadership team fervently prayed that God would give them something like He had last year. Instead, on the day that they would start their bi-weekly meetings, they had nothing except the title of the recently released movie God’s Not Dead as inspiration.

Most of ET Espiritual attendees acknowledge some kind of spiritual authority, which is why Mike and Andrea expected a strong backlash.

Alternatively, some said, “God cannot be dead because He doesn’t exist.” Others sat in quiet endorsement of such statements, and so began a night full of more questions than answers.

While the consensus of the group argued against God’s existence, they did agree that if this is the case, finding meaning in life is extremely difficult. According to a worldview without God, humankind is left with a world of corruption and pain.

Many expressed their distaste for the Christian way of life. They didn’t like to be preached at or seen as another project to be converted.

ET Espiritual used to meet with the intention of evangelising non-believers with English as a common interest. It has transformed into a vulnerable community where pain and confusion are starting to come into the light, a place where people are seeking healing for their entire lives.

As the ET team prays, their hope is to form deep friendships with the people of this community.

“We want to enter in to their lives with sensitivity and love, and we want them to enter our lives as well,” said Andrea. “Our hope is that we can pose pertinent and weighty questions, speak with grace and listen with the humility of Jesus. We want to be about people and processes and not programmes and products. We want to see a cultural centre become a place of healing and a café a place of honesty and friendship, because we as God’s broken people dared to love a little deeper.”

While sometimes going to a church building can be intimidating for non-believers, the playing field presents opportunities where cultural, social and religious barriers are overcome. OM Argentina has found that sports is an excellent avenue to share the gospel with people who are in desperate need of a Saviour.

The OM Córdoba team has been working for several years in one of the roughest neighborhoods of the city, Las Violetas, where drugs, fights and even killings are common. Whereas the local church has had a hard time connecting the neighborhood to Christ, the OM Córdoba team, through football, has been able to break ground.

The small team of OM workers and a few fathers from the local church are renovating the football ministry for the year 2014. What began a couple of years ago as just a weekly soccer hangout has now been refined to get the Las Violetas teenagers involved in an official football league.

The programme will consist of four training sessions during the week, followed by a meal and a short Bible study.

“We want these kids to have a real encounter with Jesus Christ, which will not only transform their personal lives but will also have an impact on the neighborhood,” said OM team member Stijn Cocquyt from Belgium.

Nevertheless, there are plenty of challenges ahead. The OM team is working on putting together a coaching staff that will commit to the job. Additionally, they are still praying for a good football field. For the past two years, the OM team have played on the cement court in a nearby club, but this is not the best condition for practices and games.

“The greatest challenge though,” Stijn mentioned, “will be to stand our ground against the flaming arrows of Satan. As we learn from Ephesians, our (primary) struggle is not against people but against Satan, who has caused already a lot of destruction in Las Violetas.”

Please pray for the OM Córdoba team. Pray for the logistics, protection and success in the ministry.

Sharayah had included Bible verses that were specific to the needs of each girl. Having visited the home where the girls live for the past three years, she has been able to get to know many of the girls at a deeper level. To her surprise, not only did each girl enjoy the personalised card they received, they also eagerly read the verses addressed to the others.

“They commented how much more they liked another girl’s verse, or how comforting it was to read specific words about God’s love for them,” Sharayah said.

That’s when it clicked for the OM worker: “Why not buy the girls Bibles? What better way for them to be inundated with the words of God that could literally transform their lives through the work of the Holy Spirit?”

Even earlier in the year, Sharayah had shared about her ministry to a friend who lives in another province of the country. He was so touched by the work that he decided to start donating on a regular basis. This money was exactly what was needed to pay for a teenage study Bible for the girls in the home.

The day Sharayah brought the Bibles, it was no surprise to find that many of the girls were not in the home, as they had gone to the doctor for a check-up. “I know how much Satan trembles at the idea of God’s Word coming into someone’s life for the first time,” Sharayah said. She left the Bibles with the director to hand out to them when they got back.

When she visited two days later, she found a couple of the girls already reading their Bibles. They said that they had started reading each morning!

On a separate later occasion, Sharayah brought paper and coloured pencils to pass the time together colouring. She asked the girls what they would like to colour, and for some reason they had asked her to draw for them a sheep. In time, the conversation opened up with two of the girls about what they are reading in their Bibles. Karen* talked about reading the story of Daniel. Maria* said she was reading the story of Moses.

“And do you understand the purpose of Jesus?” Sharayah asked them.

Both girls responded that they knew He was a good guy, but they never understood what the big deal was about Him and the cross.

Using the picture of the sheep, Sharayah explained to the girls the former way of dealing with sin according to the Old Testament. She explained that, before, they sacrificed animals such as sheep and goats to cover the cost of sin, but when Jesus came, His sacrifice was once and for all.

The girls nodded as they began to understand. Sharayah prayed with them, asking for the Holy Spirit to fill them with the knowledge and understanding of God’s greatest act of grace. With very little formal education, the girls often struggle to comprehend the things that they read and hear, but Sharayah is certain that limited education cannot stop the power of the Holy Spirit.

Sharayah renews her weekly visits to the home this March, having taken a break during the summer, as most girls stay in other locations at the time. “I am intrigued by what God might do this year,” she said. “After all, as we read in Isaiah, God’s Word never returns void, and maybe, just maybe, the girls continued to read their Bibles while I was absent.”

“It is the same with my word. I send it out, and it always produces fruit. It will accomplish all I want it to, and it will prosper everywhere I send it.” - Isaiah 55:11 (New Living Translation)

Please pray for the hearts of the girls, those who have been there for several months, and those who are coming to live in the institute for the first time this year, to be open to the Word of God. Pray for favour from the directors of the home who are not all believers. Pray for boldness in continuing to share the good news of Christ!

* Names changed

Paola has a family background with the Jehovah’s Witnesses, and when she heard the truth about Jesus, she understood it clearly and made a decision to follow Christ. Marta Rodriguez, a faithful member of the church led by OM leader Samuel Meza, played a fundamental role in helping many of the mothers from Las Violetas come to know Christ before Marta passed away in July 2012. Paola was one of the many fruits of Marta’s labour.

Paola has blessed the local church where she, her husband and children attend. She has grown consistently as well as more committed. She shows enthusiasm and participates in the various outreach activities of the church. Despite a past of prolonged and sporadic periods of depression, she now depends more on God in these moments and continues forward.

Over the past year, the workshop has developed into a small business run by women of the local church who predominately come from Las Violetas. The micro enterprise, called Violettas, focuses on selling handbags and has already had great success.

Paola’s role has been crucial as she creates unique designs; she knows how to combine colours and has quickly learnt various knitting techniques to bring variety to the products. Many of the women look to Paola for help in completing their projects, as she is good at organising and including every member of the group.

“I like working with my hands and sharing time with the other women,” says Paola. “We often talk about life and about God when we get together. And I really enjoy the fact that we can leave the house to do something different – something that allows us to feel useful.”

Please pray for Paola and the rest of the women involved in Violettas. They have faced many challenges and have set high goals for the growth of their business in 2014. “I would love to have our own store at some point,” says Paola.

For more information on Violettas, watch this video: http://vimeo.com/62660918.

“Even after the first consult,” Andrea explained, “I knew that the Lord had something special planned for her. It was no accident that her sister-in-law, Paola, had sent her to talk with me.”

Paola is a member of the small church headed by the leaders of OM in Córdoba. Paola became a Christian a couple of years ago, and was baptised last year.

Yesica’s son, Santi, has suffered from a respiratory problem for many years. Yesica has consulted several doctors without seeing much change. On top of this, her economic situation does not allow for her to get her son the best treatment available.

Each time Yesica would visit Andrea for a consult, she would reveal another part of her life in casual conversation. Andrea would end each meeting with prayer for Santi.

Santi began to recuperate, an obvious miracle from God, as the results of the medicine given superseded expectations. Andrea felt that it was time to share with Yesica the reason.

“I shared with her that there was something different with this experience [compared to the other doctors], and it’s because I am a Christian. The power of recovery had come through Jesus’ power,” said Andrea.

Andrea suggested that Yesica begin to read the Bible, and she did.

At the beginning of Argentina’s summer, the OM team along with the church prepared a women’s retreat, and Andrea invited Yesica to attend.

Andrea gave a talk focused on the story of Mary Magdalene, including the implications of repentance as one of the important starting points for salvation in our lives.

Andrea asked the attendees, “Who this evening would like to repent and ask Jesus in her heart?”

Yesica, bursting into tears, raising her hand.

Later when Andrea and Yesica could be alone, Yesica prayed to the Lord. Afterward she said to Andrea, “I don’t doubt it. I know that God was looking for me! And I know that now, many things are going to change in my family.”

The OM team in Córdoba prays that professional workers like Andrea would be aware of the Holy Spirit’s movement in the workplace. There are many women like Yesica, waiting to hear the good news of salvation, who will cross their paths.

English Talk began in 2010 as a ministry geared toward the 150 thousand university students in the city. Many students seek opportunities to practice English, especially with native speakers.

The OM Córdoba team has found English Talk the perfect gateway for building relationships with the students, and then sharing Jesus with them. 

Diane found Pablo very friendly and easy to chat with. “He seemed to enjoy both English Talk and English Talk Espiritual,” she commented.

English Talk Espiritual formed shortly after English Talk, as a hub for conversations more specifically Christ-centred.

As the year went on Pablo shared with Diane that he had a dramatic week because he had run out of money and food. He wrote about his plight on Facebook and was surprised to find kind strangers willing to help him.

Consequently, Diane invited him to the OM house for a few meals. One time he stayed for almost seven hours, talking through some of his doubts and questions about God with a few of the OM team members.

On a different morning, Diane felt like she had not had a proper prayer time. Feeling rushed as she prepared lunch, she was surprised by a mental image the Lord had given her in her quick prayers. It was a picture of a straw broom in a room sweeping and a large shiny coin was found on the ground.

“That must be for Pablo!” Diane had told herself and raced to find the well-known parable in the Bible from Luke 15:

“Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Doesn’t she light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? And when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost coin.’ In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents” (vv. 8-10; NIV).

A few weeks later, Diane shared with Pablo her revelation. He wore a big smile on his face, but did not want to pray with Diane just yet.

The journey toward salvation with many English Talk participants is long, as many students are in a season of figuring out their personal beliefs. The OM team members ask for prayer for patience and confidence in the Lord’s work in each of the students’ lives.

Please pray for Pablo to realise how much the Lord is carefully searching for him. Just as Philippians 1:6 says, Diane is confident that God has begun a good work in Pablo and “will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus” (NIV).

 *Name changed

Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Within this in mind, OM Córdoba has designed a women’s ministry which, for the past two years, has visited several churches in Argentina. The objective is to help women from the local church, as well as non-Christians, find in God the stability they need to improve their relationships.

The team gives workshops on emotional health to help women find practical strategies for living the Christian life, as well as in performing well in their homes and jobs.

A few Sundays ago, the OM women’s ministry team visited a church in Villa Giardino, one of the small towns in the hills of Córdoba. Around 50 women from various nearby congregations came, five of which were visiting for the first time. The talk: Relationships at the centre of God’s will, a theme based on a sermon by long-time OMer Don Hammond.

The team had prepared various short sketches to demonstrate how not to respond to the different day-to-day trials. After a good laugh at the performances that exaggerated negative behaviours in daily occurrences, the OM team shared from the Word of God the strategies that can help in such situations.

After the workshop, several women came up to the team to express their gratitude and say that it had helped them a lot.

One of the participants, Ana, commented, “Just yesterday I had an argument with a sister in the church, and I was very discouraged. Today, I understand that with patience and love I will be able to re-establish the relationship.”

The OM team is encouraged from their visits to churches this past spring. It is a joy for them to have been re-invited to some of the churches, or invited to new ones.

After participating in the workshop in Villa Giardino, one woman asked them to come to the church in La Falda, the neighbouring town, and teach the same workshop. “The exact same,” she had said. “We need it!”

“It seemed like just another day of ministry,” thought OM member Mauro Brizuela, when he found all of the children and teens running around. One of the kids had brought with him a referee’s whistle, and he was blowing it to his heart’s content for the sheer noise it could make.

Then, all of the mothers of the kids came running to the soccer court, each frantically looking for her child.

“From all the noises of playing, as well as that annoying whistle,” said Mauro, “we couldn’t hear the gun fighting happening two blocks away.”

It was an intense fight, as many police had been called in and the neighbourhood as a whole was in a state of panic. Thankfully, no one was killed.

Nevertheless, the atmosphere of Las Violetas has been unsteady. On December 4, Córdoba’s police force went on strike in petition for a salary increase, causing the entire city to shut down. Large groups of people began looting supermarkets and local shops, making going outside very dangerous.

OM team member Sharayah Longoria said, “I had called my friend who lives in Las Violetas to make sure that everything was all right. She told me that her neighbourhood was actually quite calm because everyone had left to rob the other neighbourhoods.”

When the team members returned to Las Violetas at the next safest opportunity, some of the teens expressed their pride in all they had accomplished. They were already talking about their next opportunity, an infamous day before the Christmas holidays in which they steal the gifts and food they don’t want to pay for.

The OM team tried to explain to the teens that this wasn’t right. Unfortunately, most of them have grown so accustom to stealing that they cannot see how it is wrong.

When Mauro and the others returned to the OM base after the shooting, they talked about how clearly God had kept them safe. Nevertheless, their concerns for the neighbourhood of Las Violetas had only increased.

The teens have exchanged a truth for a lie. The OM team pleads for prayer for these teens and for their neighbourhood. May their plans to steal on 20 December be foiled; may God intercede in a marvellous way as ministry picks back up in 2014.

From the first whistle, God’s blessings were evident in the beautiful weather for the tournament. As play continued, the atmosphere was electric—this, as the organisers had envisioned, would be a tournament that would make a difference. 

Despite the fierce competitiveness on the field, play was carried out respectfully. Off the field, competitors from different teams enjoyed the relaxed atmosphere together and spent time with the many volunteers and supporters, who showed the love of God through their service and encouragement.

During the well-deserved break for lunch, there was a presentation by an evangelist who specialises in youth ministry. He gave a visual presentation of the gospel and prayed with the competitors.

After this, participants were presented with a sports gospel, which was received with intrigue. They were directed to the many volunteers and supporters from local churches if they had questions about what they had heard.

Throughout the day there was also a table with leaflets and other gospel literature available, manned by volunteers from local churches that people could visit. 

Despite only having three teams in the volleyball event, it was a tightly contested tournament with the teams’ fortunes changing throughout the day as teams became tired or more determined to win.

Even after the trophy presentation, the volleyball court was filled with team members and volunteers having fun. Play continued on the football pitches and soon the 11 teams were whittled down to just four when the finals began. One team from each of the two age divisions emerged victorious and both enjoyed a medal ceremony to close the day.

All in all Grita Gol proved to be a great day, and the fact that over 100 young people—most of whom were not connected to a church—their coaches and supporters heard the Word of God made it a rousing success. 

A week before, the team went to a sports ministry training. The team members heard about some incredible sports ministries through which God is transforming lives, in tough neighbourhoods like the one they work in, Las Violetas. Each of the OM members came home from the conference with many ideas and with an excitement to see what God could do through sports in Las Violetas. They came home with big dreams.

Something small

Before returning to Las Violetas, they had spent some time thinking about mission statements and visions, dreaming about what could be. But then something happened. Reality hit them. They could barely round these boys up to have a ten minute lesson together, much less try to have a training programme or a league with them. With big dreams still in their hearts they decided to start with something small.

The OM leaders decided to bring their own soccer ball.

Something so simple, and yet so revolutionary. Although bringing a soccer ball was a regular occurrence in the past, it hadn't been done in a while. Mostly, the leaders didn't have faith in how the boys might treat their property having experienced many losses - balls getting torn up or kicked into neighbours’ backyards where they are irretrievable. They had thus given up on bringing their own balls, reverting to waiting on the kids to come with one.

Somehow, someway, God gave them the courage and faith to do this one little thing. Bringing the ball was revolutionary for a few reasons. It gave the team members an opportunity to set limits and in general, to spend more time with the kids. Before, the wait was 30-40 minutes before one of the boys would be brave enough to donate their ball for the day. 

Battle for the boys

Only a week later, everyone gathered together in the centre of the court before the game started. They asked for prayer requests and prayed. “These small steps truly made me feel closer to these boys,” said team member Andrea Green. “I hope that they are helping them to trust us more as well.”

Things of God never go without a battle, because Satan does not want to see God's plans succeed, stated Andrea. “Last Friday when we began setting limits and praying with the kids things went great. Monday, however, was a different story.” Everything was running smoothly until the end when a couple of boys showed up with the intention only to fight. Things got crazy enough that team member Mike Green had to physically remove a kid who had attacked another. 

“These two teens have basically been abandoned emotionally by their families. They don't go to school and have been rumoured to have joined a neighbourhood gang,” shared Andrea. The younger one has been filled with anger and has been wanting to do nothing more than fight lately. “But the truth of the matter is that God is pursuing them. God wants to adopt them into His family. We know that it is not just these two boys who are going through so much pain. We want to bring all of these young men to a place where they can belong, a place where they can feel safe, but most importantly, a place where they can meet their true Father.”

The OM Córdoba team is in the middle of a battle for these boys. Will you please join the team in fighting for them in prayer and fighting for the plans God has for them? “We need people to lift our hands just as was done for Moses’ which were lifted to continue winning the battle,” said Andrea.

In the park

“There were so many children,” said Marjolein van der Plas and Marina Morssink, team members of OM in Buenos Aires. “At first a few kids asked us what the price was of the colouring pages we had stuck to easels in the park. But when they found out it was all for free, they ran all over the place to tell their parents and all their friends.”

While the children were colouring, team members chatted with their parents, handing out flyers and inviting them to a special service in the local church. On the other side of the park, another group of OM team members offered an interesting activity to the public. They had put different pictures on the table and asked people to identify themselves with one. This way, team members were able to get to know more of each person’s background before sharing with him or her about Christ.

“A couple of curious teenagers came to see what we were doing,” shared a team member. “One boy had chosen a photo with two people screaming at one another, confirming that in his home-situation there was quite a bit of shouting going on.” Referring to the picture of the screaming people, the team explained that God always hears you and understands you, even in those situations where it seems that no one does.

The team handed out a thousand flyers and prayed with several people. Over 200 children coloured. “Everyone seemed to enjoy the activities and talks,” said Marjolein and Marina. “And we had just as much fun.”

In an apartment building

Sharing the gospel doesn’t always require a planned activity, noticed team member Judith Depenbrock. The housekeeper in the apartment building where she lives with two other European team members acknowledged that these girls were different. “You have something special,” he told them.

The man showed interest in their work and wanted to know more about it. The girls now plan to invite him over to their apartment to have mate, a local drink, with them. “It also made us think about having a small party, for which we’ll invite all our neighbours,” said Judith. “We would love to meet them all and share with them about our lives and who Jesus is. To me it’s just amazing how God uses us as his testimony without even knowing.”

At a train station

While team member Stijn Cocquyt was waiting for a train in Buenos Aires, a young man approached him asking for una moneda—a coin. “I gave him some,” said Stijn, “and then he just walked away.”

Stijn, still waiting for the train, started memorising Bible verses to kill time. “The guy got interested,” he said. “He came back and asked me what I was memorizing.” Stijn read to him from 1 John 4:16: “God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them” (NIV*).

The guy seemed touched by this piece of God’s Word. “He started to hug me,” recalled Stijn. “You know, one of these hugs you will never forget about. I told him that he should get to know God because He is a God of love and he cares for us. We just have to accept God in our lives. I didn't have the opportunity to share a lot more, but it was enough. The seed was planted and God will do the rest.”

Even when buying shoes

Her name is Tutti, and she’s a saleswoman in a shopping street nearby the apartment where a few OM team members in Buenos Aires live. OM team members met her a while ago, when they found a nice pair of shoes in her store.

She knew some English, and enjoyed practising it. So the team members invited her to their house, to practise English twice a week during her break. “We taught her English, she taught us Spanish and the friendship came along the way,” said Marina. “At first we focused on the language. But after a while, Tutti started asking us questions about our faith. We had great opportunities to testify.”

Currently Tutti comes over every Wednesday afternoon for a Bible study. “She loves God and she loves to learn more about Him,” said Marina. “Fortunately, God can even use shoe shopping to build His Kingdom!”

*Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

The meeting consists of a weekly Bible study where the pre-teens, just older than age 10, meet to play games and study the Bible. The already-established El Refugio (The Refuge), a building owned by the OM team in the neighbourhood, houses various ministries for children, teens and mothers.

The OM team saw that there was a gap between the younger children who meet every Saturday for a backyard Bible club and the teens with whom OM workers play soccer and share testimonies three times a week.

Thus far, the group of pre-teens has encouraged Andrea and Sharayah, who share the load of teaching and leading interactive games. “Almost every week there is someone new or something that happens we least expect that encourages us to keep our eyes peeled for what God has in store,” Sharayah said.

One example was the return one Saturday in May of two girls, Sarah* and Sharon*, who had not come for several weeks for unknown reasons. The girls were with Sharayah during a small group time where the young ladies could share about some of their more intimate moments with the promise of confidentiality. The girls shared about their fears, having witnessed in the past week the effects of a suicide of a teenager from the neighbourhood. One shared about one of her family members in prison, another about her present boyfriend.

Andrea and Sharayah find it important to speak truth into the lives of these vulnerable pre-teens, who seem to lack adults in their lives who are willing to answer their tough questions. “At the same time, what I find so neat to witness is the fact that a couple of our pre-teens are already very firm in their faith and have encouraged Sarah and Sharon with prayer and verses in the Bible,” Sharayah added.

Impressing on the pre-teens the importance of memorising Scripture is one of the main goals of the gathering each week. There is always a prize for the pre-teens who bring their Bible as well as for the ones who memorised the verse of the week.

“When we saw how faithful they were in memorising the verses, we decided to up the ante,” Andrea said. They bought personal notebooks for each person who comes. One week was spent decorating the cover, and now they have a place to store their verses and take notes about the study.

“They sometimes cheat and work on the memory verse on the walk to the study, but we don’t mind because we know that God is planting His Word in their hearts and it won’t be snatched up,” added Sharayah.

Andrea also asks various get-to-know-you questions that the pre-teens can answer in the notebook during the week. Each one then has the opportunity to leave the notebooks with Andrea and Sharayah for the following week, who respond with a note of encouragement.

Andrea and Sharayah are excited to lead the group. At the same time, it’s not an easy group, with all of the personal struggles the kids deal with in the dangerous neighbourhood. Pray for wisdom and perseverance as Andrea and Sharayah lead, and for an extra serving of God’s love to pour out over the pre-teens.

*Names changed

The team brought various school supplies, as they would serve the local school by providing books and bookshelves. Additionally, the team brought personal hygiene products, backpacks and shoes, which are important for the long treks each student must make from their home through the mountainous terrain to the two-room school.

One OM team member, Mari Freille, would work with the two cooks of the school, Dominga and Julia, who were pleased to meet someone new.

Before each meal, the team prayed. This slowly opened the door for Mari to talk with Dominga about Jesus. Mari shared the stories about how Jesus had transformed the lives of several teenagers in Córdoba, through an OM ministry called El Refugio (The Refuge).

One day while preparing the daily meal, Mari asked Dominga, “Where do you think you will go when you die?”

“To heaven,” Dominga quickly responded.

Just as quickly, Mari added another question. “Why do you think Jesus is going to open a door to heaven for you, if you have not opened the door to your heart, here on earth?”

To this, Dominga had no response. She remained quiet and eventually continued stirring the pot of the day’s meal.

After a few more minutes of silence, Mari asked one more question. “Dominga,” she said, “do you want to open up the door of you heart and let Jesus enter it?”

“Yes, Mari,” she said. “I would like that.”

After praying together, they hugged. “Today, Dominga, God has opened the doors to heaven for you,” Mari said.

Another team member gave Dominga a Bible as well as a devotional book. On the way home from the trip, the team met a local pastor, whose wife had previously served with OM. He made the promise to keep in touch with Dominga and the other contacts they had made.

“I was able to see how the Holy Spirit so naturally brings together the networks of Christians in ways beyond our comprehension,” Mari commented. “God will do what He wants because He is so grande.”

However, no taxi came. Well, at least not one to pick him up. Three taxis with lights indicating they were free for use passed him by. “I was thinking to myself, ‘Okay God, if you could just send me a taxi, it would be much appreciated,’” he said.

Moments later, one stopped to take him to his destination, and it turned out to be a divine encounter.

The driver asked Adam where he was from and what he was doing in Argentina. This is a constant question to foreigners whose accents give them away. When the OMer explained that he is from South Carolina, in the US, the driver told him that he had an ex-girlfriend from California. This simple connection to the States miraculously opened up the conversation to talk about God.

“Oh, I am a Christian,” the driver told Adam. “But it has been a long time since I have stepped foot in the church.” The church plant for which the Germans were volunteering is a church started through a partnership with a local church and the OM team.

When Adam explained that he goes to this church, called AVIVA, the taxi driver looked up at him through the rear view mirror. “Are you serious?” he asked Adam.

Apparently, the taxi driver had just been on AVIVA’s Facebook page only two hours before. It had been recommended to him by a friend, and he even “Liked” the page. The driver, named Pablo, could tell Adam the address of the church and even explain what the current sermon series was about.

“This was not a chance encounter,” Adam told Pablo. “This meeting of ours had to have been planned by God.” When Adam explained to Pablo his prayer right before getting into the cab, Pablo was moved. Adam reached into his pocket to pay the cab fare, but Pablo stopped him.

“This ride is free,” he said. “It’s my way of giving God thanks for our meeting.”

Pablo went to AVIVA the following week, but hasn’t been able to come since. Please pray that Adam is able to stay in contact with Pablo, and that the Holy Spirit would guide their conversations.

So the question remains. Was Adam late? Or was he right on time?

To prepare for the return journey, the team needed to take their only vehicle to the closest town for gasoline, a placed called Jacobacci, which is one of the larger cities in the foothills of Patagonia. From there, they would have to backtrack 100 km to get on the highway to Córdoba.

During the hunt for gasoline, the axle of the trailer broke, rendering the trailer immobile. The team now not only needed to fill up on gasoline, but also look for someone to solder the broken trailer. They were forced to wait half a day. To say the least, everyone was discouraged.

All the while, another team member was waiting in Anecón Grande with a teacher from the school. They would return in a separate vehicle, going to Bariloche, a tourist city about 200 km away. Due to the rest of the team’s delay, the two groups, by what seemed like chance, found each other on the road and created a mini caravan.

‘Look how God works!’

Moments later, the car with the trailer started emitting smoke. At the entrance of Bariloche, it appeared everyone would have to stop. The axle had broken again, this time in half. No one knew any place they could go, nor did they have anybody to call. Yet God proved faithful, as someone remembered they had recently made contact with a woman from Bariloche, a woman who had recently started a ministry visiting Anecón Grande.

But they couldn’t make contact. The teacher from Anecón Grande realised she had the number of another woman working in the same ministry. Even though the teacher is not a believer, when she finished the phone call, she exclaimed, “Look how God works!” She said that it is typically very difficult to find car repair shops open at the time of day they were in the city, but this woman’s husband just happens to know how to solder, and even has the machine to do so.

“Oh, and the couple happens to be from Córdoba,” she added at the end.

The teacher continued to explain their connection while they waited for help. In time, the OM members realised they knew the woman, Ruth, as she had participated in the annual OM week-long training for future missionaries.

God planned everything

When Ruth arrived with her husband, she was quite surprised. Everyone quickly shared the stories from the previous week, which encouraged the couple to know that God had prepared them for this work with the Mapuches. She had attempted to arrange a visit with the OM team in Buenos Aires to Anecón Grande, but they were unable to organise everything. Ruth admitted to being discouraged.

“In their stead, God sent the other OM team without me even knowing!” Ruth exclaimed. “Praise God that he planned everything, even the breakdown of the trailer so that we could encourage each other."

They were eager to start sports classes again for teenage girls, after summer break in Argentina. The OM team in the country’s capital, Buenos Aires, had gained a few new foreign members. But due to a prolonged renovation of the sports hall, they couldn’t start the sports ministry in September.

By the time the sports hall was ready to use again, many of the teenage girls seemed to have found other occupations or had lost their enthusiasm for the sports classes. Girls barely showed up. “It wasn’t an easy start,” said Team Leader Markus Leder. “But God had bigger plans.”

At the same time, the OM team organised English Talk, a weekly gathering for young Argentineans interested in practicing the English language with native speakers. Thanks to a presentation at a nearby high school, the attendance to these gatherings grew. Amongst the participants were many teenage girls.

The older sister of one of these girls, also attending English Talk, had followed everything going on with the sports classes the year before and asked OM to offer volleyball classes for girls aged 13 to 17. And so it happened. The team bought volleyballs, made preparations, and only a little while later the first volleyball class took place. Since the start of the classes the attendance has grown from four to 14 girls.

Every class, during the break, the girls are introduced to a volleyball-related topic, linked to a life lesson and an example from the Bible. “The talk and citing of the Bible is still new to the girls,” said Markus. “But the silence when the Word of God is spoken is impressive.”

The girls seem to listen carefully to the messages. One week before the class, they found that sports hall was dirty from previous users. Before class could start, it was necessary to clean up. Without being asked to help, the teenage girls understood what had to be done and started cleaning up the court, helping one another.

At the end of the class, the OM team members affirmed their helpful and grown-up attitude. “Their eyes started to glow and smiles appeared on their faces,” said Markus. “One girl proudly pointed out that she had picked something up from the previous weeks’ theme of teamwork. Isn’t that great?”

Las Violetas is a poor neighbourhood in the city of Córdoba, Argentina, with many problems. In this area, OM Argentina owns a house called El Refugio (The Refuge) where team members offer various workshops for children and mothers and give free psychological help.

About two months ago, Laura visited the small health centre in the neighbourhood and talked to one of the paediatricians about offering pedagogical help. “She was very interested in this,” says Laura. “There are many children who need this type of care, but don’t have the resources to be able to afford it.”

The paediatrician started to bring her children, mostly under the age of seven, with complex problems. “We are now working with each one of them individually,” she says, “and with their families as well. They are very committed in helping their kids. That is not very common in neighbourhoods like these, but indispensable and valuable.”

The team recently started organising a workshop for parents as well, in which they provide tools for raising their children, specifically in regard to discipline and how to set limits. “We’re very grateful for this opportunity,” says Laura. “Please pray with us, that the families in Las Violetas may develop positively in all aspects of their lives.”

In mid-December OM missionary Stephanie, in Córdoba, Argentina, looked ahead to her second summer in South America with great anticipation and great fear. There were so many places she would be travelling and so many important decisions to make in 2012.

In mid-January, after a stressful week of travelling and only one week to go before OM’s annual TeenStreet camp in Uruguay, the anxiety hit full on. Steph has struggled in the past with anxiety affecting her breathing, and it came on full-force. One night it took her over an hour to get to sleep because she couldn't get in a rhythm of breathing while lying down.

“I was thinking in 1,000 different directions, and my biggest prayer throughout the week was that God would take the anxiety away before my time serving at TeenStreet the following week,” she said.

During the two weeks in Uruguay, Steph saw a huge sign of God's faithfulness. The anxiety lifted completely from her heart and lungs, and she never struggled with breathing once.

Steph was one of the many volunteers serving in Montevideo, Uruguay’s capital, where TeenStreet was being held. The first week she served as a team leader for a group of eight girls, ages 11-14. “It was a week filled with sleepless nights, lots of bugs and remembering nearly every moment how much pre-teen and teenage girls need Jesus, and need someone to show them His awesome love.”

The second week in Uruguay, known as Reloaded, was a camp intended to encourage older teens and younger adults in their relationship with God. While serving on the kitchen team, Steph had opportunities to attend the talks and says that she was also challenged personally, especially after already serving as a missionary for more than a year and a half.

“At times the fire and passion in me seems to have died down a bit, and I lack motivation in day-to-day ministry,” she said. “God is always faithful to throw kindling on the fire, and in Uruguay He reminded me through amazing time in teaching, fellowship and in His Word how important a call it is to reach the nations for Christ. And even more than that, how incredible of a privilege it is to have the chance to serve full-time in ministry for these few years.”

Contrary to wishful thinking, summer is not always a peaceful time. After returning from Uruguay, OM Argentina held their annual team retreat in the hills of Córdoba, and then Steph spent a weekend away in Mendoza. Before, between and after these trips she spent significant time discipling university students in Córdoba, working on the programme for ministry for the year and going through the interview process for graduate school via Skype. “It seemed like there were never enough hours in the day,” Steph said. The anxiety returned and, once again, her breathing difficulties returned.

Then Steph came across Luke 10, where Martha similarly feels overburdened by many responsibilities that all seem of vital importance. Jesus says, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her” (Luke 10:41-42; ESV).

“The last part of the first verse hit me even harder than the anxiety: ‘Only one thing is necessary,’” Steph admitted. She said that God was reminding her that although there are many important things in life worth our time, only one thing is necessary.

“Not 10 things, not even two things, but one: our relationship with Christ,” Steph realised. “Everything else is secondary. And these words from our awesome God not only brought back a peace, which so far has been powerful and lasting, but they gave me even greater hope for the future of ministry here, and great hope for my future, wherever God calls me to be.”

During her third visit to the children’s home in Buenos Aires, Argentina, OM team member Dani noticed a timid teenage girl walk onto the soccer field. The team visits the children’s home twice a week to play soccer with the kids who don’t have parents who can care of them.

In the children’s home, soccer is a male-dominated sport that not many girls dare to join. After Dani had played with the boys during her previous couple of visits, the young girl named Fabiola* timidly entered the soccer field for the first time. She laughed as Dani won the ball from a few of the boys on the field. Ultimately, she stepped out and joined the game.

“Seeing this teenage girl walk onto the soccer field and play with all the boys inspired me immensely, as I could see her confidence begin to increase,” said Dani. “I pray that her confidence continues to grow and that she realises how precious she is in God’s sight.”

Deeper than music and nail polish

Anna, another volunteer with OM in Buenos Aires, managed to connect with Daniela*, a 14-year-old Bolivian girl in the children’s home. Because many of the girls don’t want to play soccer with the boys, some of the female OM volunteers try to talk with them.

“It’s really difficult to get into a conversation with the girls that goes deeper than music and nail polish,” said Anna. “But Daniela was the first girl who told me about her life.” Because of a learning disability, Daniela never went to school. But she was good at handicrafts and managed to make herself pretty clothes.

One week after the conversation Anna had with her, Daniela was gone. She had been in Buenos Aires for a few years but suddenly decided to go back to Bolivia. Anna found out that she moved to a shelter for refugees and waited there for her mother to come pick her up.

“But one week later I got the news that she’s in another children’s home in Buenos Aires,” said Anna. “Something went wrong and she never made it back to Bolivia.” In the new home, Daniela is exposed to bad influence of others. “She even started smoking,” said Anna. “Please, pray for Daniela. Pray that God will protect her in this new surrounding and that she will find the right friends. Pray that she will keep hearing the gospel and finally make the decision to accept Jesus as her Lord.”

God’s endless love

The OM team members in Buenos Aires appreciate your prayer for all the children in the home they visit. Please pray with Dani for Fabiola, that she may grow and get to know the Lord. Pray that all the children and teenagers may experience God’s endless love for them and that they will come to recognise Christ as a solid rock in their restless lives. Pray that OM Argentina’s SportsLink ministry may reach the heart of many children as they visit the home weekly.

*Name changed

For three years, the OM team in Córdoba, Argentina, has made weekly visits to an orphanage that holds around a dozen young boys. The life of each of these 8 to 12 year olds is very difficult. They have been left to live among strangers who share their sense of abandonment, and many have parents in jail or in prostitution.

The children are naturally rebellious and tend to live with few rules in the government-run orphanage. Many have mental disabilities due to prior abuse, which makes it even harder for them to cope with the other children. The OM team has recognised this, and has been able to talk with them each individually about the pain in their hearts.

Due to a lack of government funding, the children stayed in Córdoba during the summer in Argentina instead of going to a camp as was the tradition in past years. As a result, the OM Córdoba team is praying for more ways to spend time with the children. Please pray for volunteers from the local church to join the ministry and take it over when OM team members are away. Pray that God will help the team be an example of a good family for these boys, and that they can continue to develop strong bonds with them.

The OM team in Córdoba, Argentina, has seen a decline in attendees to its local Saturday morning Bible club, Escuelita. What began with a group of 20-25 kids is now only 9-12 kids. Leadership is also suffering, as many who say they will come do not.

While Escuelita had seen many promising ministry opportunities in the beginning of the year, including two services projects for the neighbourhood, many factors have played a part in the drop in numbers. The OM team, nevertheless, is using the resources they have to continue moving forward.

During the winter break in August, OM team member Sharayah Longoria decided to give the kids a bit of incentive to participate. She painted a cereal box to look like a Bible and put little prizes for the kids inside. But there was a catch: only one prize would be given each week, and only to one who had memorised the previous week's Bible verse.

"We had always given out little cards with the verses on them; we had even given them prizes for memorising the verse," Sharayah said. "But having a visual reminder was the key, I think."

Sharayah collected verses from the year and put them in a booklet, using a map of Argentina and the verse of the Great Commission found in Matthew as the cover. After Sharayah showed the children the booklet, one little girl, Sophia, made her own for the following week. "When she showed it to me, I was surprised to see not only the verses, but her own notes about what the verses mean in the margin,” shares Sharayah.

Sisters Yohanna and Melisa, who had always come but never participated, were finally getting more involved with the Scripture memory challenge. Yohanna or Melisa won a prize three weeks in a row.

Additionally, team member Andrea Koll saw a need for more leaders in the local churches near OM’s office in Córdoba. She made weekly visits to encourage participation in a six-week course called LAPEN (Liga Argentina pro Evangelización del Niño), Argentina's version of Child Evangelism Fellowship (CEF). Many volunteered, including a few leaders from Escuelita. On 10 December nearly 20 women graduated, eager to put into practice their new skills of creative evangelism and teaching techniques.

One of the leaders, Christina, has already decided to take on the role of sharing the lesson every week in Escuelita—something the OM leaders had been dividing amongst themselves. Sharayah was encouraged to see Christina’s enthusiasm, but also didn’t think Christina should take on the role by herself. Sharayah explained that it is important to share the teaching role, especially when some of the other leaders also participated in the LAPEN course and can practice their gift of teaching during the coming year.

For the final week before Christmas, Sharayah proposed to the children that whoever could say the most verses would receive the grand prize: the Bible box and all the leftover goodies inside.

The children were very excited and even the leaders asked if they could participate. One of the more recent Escuelita attendees, Melany, came to the leaders and said, "I am going to study very hard all week. I will read from Genesis all the way to Revelation!"

On the day of the end-of-the-year celebration, Melany came prepared. She stood before the others to say the six verses she had worked hard to memorise that week. But everyone was caught off guard when her younger brother, Abraham, recited more than half of Psalm 23, along with a few other verses!

Of the small group of kids that participate, only two faithfully attend church. The leaders are encouraged that the kids now know more of the Bible.

"Even if they don't understand it fully, the Word is hidden in their hearts,” says Sharayah. “We pray that God will use His Word faithfully when their time of need comes."

Joy met Andrea, a 21-year-old university student, through a Bible study only a week after Andrea made the life-changing decision to follow Christ.

Andrea had been discouraged and searching for direction after a difficult breakup with her boyfriend of five years. During this time, she met an elderly woman named Maribel at work. Maribel discerned Andrea’s fragility and asked her how she was.

Andrea admitted to her feelings and Maribel shared the gospel. She gladly accepted what Maribel told her, and the following week she accompanied Maribel to a wedding, two church services and the Bible study where she met Joy.

Joy immediately could see Andrea’s hunger to know more about God. Additionally, Joy had been praying for the Lord to bring a young woman into her life to disciple individually, so she invited Andrea to begin meeting one-on-one to read the Bible. Andrea was thrilled for the opportunity. The girls began to meet, share their lives and read through a chapter of Mark each week.

While Andrea comes from a Catholic background, she had never read the Bible on her own or clearly understood the gospel. A close friend of hers, Emanuel, had shared the gospel and explained to her time and time again about Jesus’ love. Though she had never rejected her friend’s experience, she hadn’t thought it could impact her personally.  

After deciding to follow Christ, she told Emanuel of the new change in her life. “He told me he’d been praying for me for so long!” she exclaimed to Joy. “I think I was like the seed thrown on rocky places. I accepted the Word before but it didn’t last. Now I can’t imagine my life without God!”

It was finally clear that each person in Andrea's life had played a distinct role in her journey of accepting Christ as her Saviour, like 1 Corinthians 3:6 says: “I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow” (NIV).

Please pray that Andrea continues reading the Word on her own and understand that the Lord can produce fruit in her life. Pray that Andrea can be a witness to her friends and family who are not Christians. Also pray for Joy to have discernment in their Bible studies.

During the Bible study, Adam and his teammate Ezequiel shared the love of Jesus with Ulises and about how Jesus died for him. “I could tell Ulises understood what we were telling him because his eyes kept lighting up with excitement,” said Adam. “I love it when someone learns something new and truly understands.” After the Bible study, Adam and Ezequiel prayed with Ulises to receive Jesus in his heart.

Please pray that Ulises will grow in his faith and have a strong foundation. Also pray that the OM team in Córdoba would have more opportunities to tell people about how much Jesus loves them.

While walking towards the security gates, Carolina gave one last wave goodbye to her family and a small group of friends, including Steph, a young OMer working with university students in Córdoba, Argentina.

When Steph met 25-year-old Carolina from Argentina a year ago, Carolina was studying English translation at the local university and hoping to leave one month later to work in the United States as an au pair.

She had recently accepted Christ after reading A Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren, but she didn't know very much about the Bible or about what it meant to follow Jesus. Carolina told Steph that she had never been to church, but that she wanted to know more about Jesus and about being a believer.

In January, Carolina's application to be an au pair was rejected. Although it was a very difficult moment for her, it became clear that this was from God. It gave Steph and Carolina the chance to meet together every week and have a time of discipleship over the course of seven months.

Carolina grew in her faith to the point that she was praying passionately for friends from her university to know Jesus. She later received news that she had been accepted into a different au pair programme, and a family was awaiting her arrival in the U.S.

The goodbye was difficult for them both, and Steph prayed with Carolina at the airport before she left.

"Thank you for telling me about Jesus and for teaching me so much about God," Carolina wrote to Steph in a letter she gave her during their last few minutes together.

They both cried with joy, knowing the incredible things God had done in Carolina's life during the time they had spent together.

Please pray for Carolina as she works in the U.S. Pray that she finds a good church and fellowship, and that God would provide a faith-filled woman to continue discipling Carolina.