weekend in irigoyen.

After a great week of recovery, both mentaly, spiritually, and physically, Staci and I went to visit the last of the four covenant churches here in northern Argentina.

This church is in a small town called Irigoyen (pronounced by the locals as "Irigoshen"). It is a 5-6 hour drive north of La Plata. What makes the trip interesting is that we have to stop for gas every hour and everyone has to get out of the car in order for them to fill it up. I haven't really asked yet, but I have a feeling that its either different from what we us in the U.S. or that their tanks are really small. Anyways, we traveled at night, so every hour I would sleep walk my way out of the van and wait for the guy filling up our gas to finish, then sleep walk back in, get comfortable and crash again.

The decorated door of the church in Irigoyen.

The pastor and his wife, Beto and Claudia, with their young daughter Alma have been making this trip for 6 months! 6 hours there after the work week, two or three days there, and 6 hours back on Sunday night. They do this because the church no longer has a pastor and they didn't want the church to close. After the last pastor left, a lot of the people left as well. The church service was only Staci, me, and three other people that come regularly. Beto explained that they have done a lot of outreach and have a few other new believer couples that they minister to, but they don't make Sunday church a priority.

At first I was kind of sad about the situation. But I was really encouraged by their faithfulness. They really feel called to ministering to the small town, and I think that God will continue to bless their faithfulness.

SO! Our weekend:


Saturday we prepared and ran the kids program that they have every Saturday night. We decorated stars and made angels to hang up at the church for Christmas! We also sang songs and Beto told a Bible story and we ended with "merienda," Argentina's official 4th meal that takes place between lunch and dinner. Staci and I tried to teach the kids Jesus Loves Me in English, but they were all super shy. Claudia said they would practice it and when we came and visited again they would show us!

The kids making little angels!

Decorating stars for the door. 

Claudia and Beto singing songs with the kids! 

Saturday and Sunday afternoon we were introduced to a couple of the young families that have recently become Christians in the town. Their kids come to the kids night and they both work on farms, one a milk farm, and the other a chicken farm!

Cezar showing us how to milk a cow. 

After he showed us I got to try, but I definitely need practice!

It was such an eye opening experience! The cows have to get milked every day twice a day! And there were SO many chickens! It was sad to think that all the chickens would soon be food, but it was also a reminder that there are people that do this kind of work to bring food to our tables!

Staci and I in one of 4 chicken pens. They have 25,000 chickens!

Sunday evening we had church. It was small but beautiful. Staci and I got to sing a song during the service and afterwards we treated the pastor and his family for ice cream before heading back to La Plata. We arrived back at our place around 4 a.m. and slept walked to our beds.


As always, thank you all for your prayers and keeping up to date with what's happening in Argentina. Here are some things you can be praying for:

- Please pray for Beto and Claudia as they continue making trips to Irigoyen. Pray that the new believers would be strengthened in their faith and that the church would grow. Also that God would show Staci and I what it looks like to continue helping in Irigoyen; whether we should make monthly trips with them, or something of the sort.

- Please pray that God would continue to shape our time with the churches in La Plata. There are a lot of ideas being thrown around, but want God to lead and direct our steps as we put ideas into action.

- Please pray for the relationships that we have started building with the community as well as within the church. There are people we run into a lot (the owner and workers at the local market, the lady that works at the kiosk down the street, and our normal server at the coffee shop in town). Pray that God would use us to encourage and speak truth to them!

- Also! Please pray for my mom back at home as she might have to have surgery in the near future. Pray for healing and a quick recovery if it has to happen. Thanks!


Last night I went to our church's prayer meeting. (When I say "our church" I am referring to the church of Fabian and Pratricia's, which is the church that I am living at.) It was so encouraging and great to see the congregation come together to talk to God. Please email me with any prayer requests as I would love to keep you in my prayers as well as being prayed for by you!


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