Reflections on Argentina Part III

Here is the last entry in my Reflections on Argentina series.

Reflections on Argentina Part III

On one of the days in Laguna Blanca, the missionary who was translating for me and another girl (the missionaries were Bama fans, but no one is perfect) told us that we were not going door to door as a woman in the city had contacted the ministry after hearing their radio show and wanted to talk face to face. So we visited the home of this woman, who was named Laura. Laura was much more well off than most of the people in the city, but she still lived in a lower level than would be perceived as "well off" by American standards.

Any way, she (who is Argentine) and her husband (who was German) had divorced two months before and she and her son had just moved back to Argentina after living in Germany for 8 years. She told us that she was Catholic but that she had never really had a relationship with Jesus Christ (remind me later to describe to you the dominion that social Catholicism has in the region and just how difficult a barrier it is to overcome).

Well, for two hours straight, I took the lead in sharing with Laura my personal testimony in faith and how it applied to her and the Gospel. I showed her that it is through our times of struggle that God reveals to us the most awesome of things. I showed to her the awesome power and love that is found in the Gospel and that God wants for us to be loved and prospered (but not in terms of possessions, I can't stand the "prosperity gospel" idea) through His word. I showed her the way that Christ came back to save us from a live of sin if we live our live according to the word of the Gospel, as Paul so greatly outlines in Ephesians 2:1-10. I did all of this with this woman for two hours with the help of my translator and the help of my partner at times.

This was big for me in three ways. First, it was the first time that I truly participated in trying to bring another to Christ in an evangelical setting. Of course I have shared my faith with others in the past and of course I have talked to others about faith in Christ, but I had never truly attempted to bring someone to Christ through my words. Secondly, this was big for me in that this was also the first time that I took the lead in sharing the Gospel with another. This took place on the third day of our trip and we had already gone door to door for two days, but in that time I had mainly served in a role of helping out and letting the other two do most of the work, so to take the lead in this was a big undertaking for me.

However, the biggest area that this impacted me was in the area of my future being a missionary. While the above do have an impact on that, this last one is the biggest because it is something that I will face in the field for sure, and that is the fear of being ineffective. I didn't tell you the decision that Laura made until now because she at the end of the two hours was still reluctant to accept Christ as her savior and instead wanted to think about it and study the Gospel of John that we provided her.

Now, let me tell you that for me, this was disheartening at first as I had just spent two hours sharing with this woman, and I kept thinking "What else is there to do?" But then the Lord taught me my most valuable lesson from this trip, and that is to not be discourages by not being able to see immediate results. While I did not personally bring Laura to Christ at that time, I have the knowledge that my words planted the seed of knowledge of Christ and His love for her in her heart and mind, and that any decision that she makes in the future will be influenced by what I did.

That is the biggest thing that God taught me on this trip, to know that we work here on His time and that results are had in His time, which ties everything that I have written back to the first thing I wrote about this trip. I thank God everyday for allowing me the opportunity to travel to Argentina to show the people there God's love and to bring them the hope that can be found in the Gospel.

I know that you have all been praying for me while I was there and I thank you all so much for that, and now I just ask that you will continue to pray for me as I prepare for more trips to go around and spread the word of the Lord.