Ok, enough about what the Lord taught me on this trip (though I could go on and on for hours). We flew into Asuncion, Paraguay, and then crossed the Paraguay River into the city of Clorinda, which has about 50,000 people and is located in extreme northern Argentina. We worked in Clorinda for three days, then traveled to a city 70 kilometers NW named Laguna Blanca, where we worked for two days, then traveled another 45 kilometers to a city named Espinillo, where we worked for only one day.
Each city presented its own special challenges as in each city we were reaching out to different people with different backgrounds in an attempt to open the door for the missionaries that we were working with to go back and continue to build upon the relationships that we forged in the short time that we were there. However, we were also there to do some evangelical work.
In the mornings we would go door to door in and around the cities to share about who we were, why we were there, give the people contact information of the missionaries, and pray for the people in their home. In the afternoons we would put on a Vacation Bible School style event for kids that involved games, puppets, crafts, etc. and just try to reach out to adults by reaching out to their kids.
My personal favorite thing that we did was sports ministry. I wrote earlier about this, but it is amazing just how effective of an evangelical tool that we have in a soccer ball. Within five minutes of just kicking around this ball, we had a group of about five kids there kicking with us and inviting us to go with them to play a game on the local semi-pro team's field. And while walking the two blocks to this field, the kids the entire time were inviting more kids to come play with us. And of course, when we got to the field, the 16 Argentine kids wanted to play all of them versus us 7 Americans. You can imagine how that went.
They destroyed us. It was brutal. One of the guys on our team who is a minister for the NC Baptist state convention and works at the BCM played college soccer, and even he looked like a fool. But the great thing about this was that through the game, we were able to find an avenue through which to present the Gospel, and we used it. After the first game that we played, we sat all the kids down (they were like ages 10-15) and then my roommate Josh (you may or may not remember him) and I presented the Gospel.
In the end we led them all in a prayer of acceptance of Christ, which is amazing, but at the same time we have no idea how many of the kids were earnest in their prayers. I do know, however, that at least three of the kids who prayed with us had their eyes transfixed on me and Josh the entire time that we were talking, and I pray that what we had to say had an effect on their life and that they are seeking out ways to grow in their faith.
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