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| Kristin and I left for Chaco early Friday morning. We packed up Kim Babcock’s red Nissan xterra and Kim, Ed, Kristin and I took off for the 11 hour drive to Restinstincia. It was a interesting trip, it felt a lot like what I would picture Africa to look like not Argentina. It was really a good opportunity to see a lot of the Country. Huge open fields much Like home but with Palm trees scattered through out. Also there are millions of cows, which is good for us, we can get a steak meal for the same price as McDonalds #1. We were driving along and we started seeing these little shacks with one or two rooms, no windows or doors, and a grass or flimsy steel roof held on with logs. We watched these houses go by and felt like we were supposed to stop at one. So we pulled into the grassy trail to the house. When we pulled in we saw seven people emerge from one little room with no windows doors, plumbing, etc. We build buildings to put our lawnmowers in that are a hundred times more livable than what this family was in. The father came to the car and welcomed us over. We gave the children Gospel comic books and some candy and the let us pray for them. It was amazing to see the love of God impacting these lives, they were a little unsure how to receive us. Skipping ahead to the end of our trip. Ed who is another missionary here in BA felt impressed that he was supposed to buy a couple weeks worth of food for this family. So we watched for the house on the way back and stopped again. This time the youngest children came running out laughing and waving their arms when they saw us, and everyone was excited. We unloaded the truck and blessed this family with more food than they have probably ever had a one time. We prayed for the family, and they told us they had read the comic every night and had been talking about us all week. They said they had never had anyone stop by to talk to them before. We felt really blessed to be able to share the Love of God with them, knowing that the experience we shared with the little kids in that family will stay with them the rest of their lives. One of them could some day be a Billy Graham of Argentina, and thousands of cars passed by them everyday feeling sorry but not ever giving those people another thought.
So anyway we arrived at Restinstincia late that night and met the family that we would be working with for the week. The Pastors name is Daniel Lopez. He has three sisters, and one of them past away like five years ago. She was a doctor and well known all through Chaco. She built an addition on their house to bring in sick Wichi people and give them care. We sat down in the kitchen and Kris and I were the only two people not fluent in Spanish. Ed translated for us. We watch home video of the sisters trips up to Chaco. Wichi people would come in mass to have teeth pulled and their hair washed and disease and sickness treated. We were told every mother has 2 to 5 children that have died before hitting kindergarden age, and until they reach that age the gov’t doesn’t consider them, and so they are looked at as never having exsisted. The people were nearly killed off by the Gov’t and so they do not trust any aid the gov’t provides which is not much. The people got a disease from the bugs in their soil roofs and so the gov’t started building houses to keep the disease from spreading to the rest of the country. The gov’t brings some water in and puts it in dirty wells, but the people think they may have poisoned it so they get water out of swamps full of bacteria and disease. The water literally looks like waste water. The area actually only receives 2 inches of water a YEAR. Kristin and I went to bed that not shocked at the condition of the people God was sending us to, all we could do was cry ourselves to sleep. It didn’t seem possible that there could be people like this so in need and so neglected and no one willing to go help them. The area was called Nuave Pompai and is refered to as the impenetrable, because no one goes there. Everyone we talked about the trip to said we were brave, and very few people even near by go there. It was a wake up call to the intensity of the trip we were about to embark on.
The next day a team of Americans from Michigan came in and it was refreshing to have them with us. We had a night service right away and it ended up being the basic service all through the trip. We had a monkey costume named Congo and a dog named Pepe. It really got the kids excited. We did a skit and human video and explaination of the wordless bible using beads, symbolizing Christs sacrifice and then added a bead of purple to tell these people that regardless of how the gov’t and society look at them they are part of a royal family, really powerful. Then we showed them the Jesus video, which was the gospel of Luke in motion and color and in their language. Then a time of response. Through our trip we reached at least 1500 people and each village consisted of an average of 300 and so when we came in pretty much everyone from the communities came out. Every village we went to had a unique personality, Spirit, and feel, to it. It was obvious which villages were ruled by the witch doctors, and which ones had a church and which ones were most neglected. It was instantly obvious in the kids. The heart of a child doesn’t lie. Numerous times we cooked food and prayed for God to multiply it because there was no way we could feed everyone with what we had. Numerous times people came back for seconds thirds fourths and probably more, and these people were full and we still had food left over to give to the Pastor, God truly performed a miracle of multiplication. Many of the people fed had probably not eaten a meal in more than a week. We got opertunity to lay hands on the sick, pray for salvation, encourage, and watch God transform the countenance of the Wichi people. In spite of having to travel in the back of an old truck with pounds of dust blowing in, or eating wild guinie pig, or any other thing that keeps people from going there, we had the most life changing experience with God and with these people. It most certainly was the most significant time Kristin and I have shared in our marriage. There were times when we would leave a school after ministering to the kids and as soon as we were in the truck the presence of God would so consume us all we could do is weep for these people. Their faces are forever etched on our hearts. We built lasting friendship with the team and realized even greater how amazing it is to be a part of the body a Christ and work in unity for His purposes.
God is continuing to do awesome things here. This last few days we have been relaxing more and getting settled into our own apartment. Saturday I will speak to a youth group here in Ba and I believe Sunday we are leaving on another trip. We are so blessed to be a part of what God is doing here right now. Thank you for you prayer support.
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|  Kim and Sheri
These are the amazing people we are staying with, the Babcocks. It has really been a ton of fun getting to know them the last few days here in Buenos Aires. Tomorrow Kim and another missionary named Ed along with kris and I will be heading out early for Chaco. Sheri unfortunately will not be able to go on this trip, but we are praying God will open doors for another trip to Chaco next month before we head back to the states. We appreciate all of your prayers! | | |
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