Well after much delay here is an update from my new home. Yes I have officially moved and have started my new job working with Vida Estundiantil (Campus Crusade for Christ) in La Plata Argentina. I have also returned from 2 weeks working quite hard in Los Valles Calchaqui as well as 4 days helping the university movement in Montevideo Uruguay.
My new Job in a nutshell involves going into the different schools in the University and using different tools evangelizing 4 days of the week. I am also involved in helping out on friday nights with English club and the weekly meeting as well as helping disciple a few of the students. I’m really looking forward to the next few months as work steps up a gear and we push hard to reach the students of La Plata.
For a brief update of the month or two I have been truly really busy. I moved work and town and have now finally moved into the flat where I will be spending the rest of my time. I was also on the already mentioned trips which were great opportunities to both see and experience different lifestyles in South America. Yet I think the best part of the two trips was really seeing how big God really is and how little we really are. I was in one of the 200 students and professionals who went to the valleys to offer practical support and evangelical outreach to people, in many of the small towns and villages scattered throughout the valley. It was a truly amazing time in which I helped translate, paint a school for disabled children, give out donations and evangelize. God really worked both in my heart and in the hearts and minds of many people. He really just showed me that no matter my role that He is working and will work in peoples lives. It was wonderful to watch and see people getting saved when we were there and just to know that even in remote places God can work through little actions. In a real way God reminded me of what is says in 1 Corinthians 13:1
If I speak in the toungues of men and of angels but have not love, I am only resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.
Basically my actions and words and everything are as nothing without the Love of God in me. God used this to show me again how He is the one that works and only through Him can I help others. The time in the valleys really helped me see that again and see how great our God is and his grace in using us in His work.
The time in Uruguay was a bit more of a short term business trip rather than mission team. We were involved in helping the Uruguayan Vida team both with evangelism and with Discipleship training. We also had the joy of beating them at 5 aside football 20-10 and with 2 injured players. The 4 days passed very quickly and it was a time when I discovered how truly blessed I have been in the student ministry in Argentina. Uruguay is a country in which the government is atheistic and so evangelism in universities is not really allowed. Thus when we did our surveys we found it very difficult as we spoke to people about God and they were very angry or closed to listening. In a true sense it made me realize how God has blessed me in my life with hearing and being allowed to hear about the gospel and how thankful I should be for it. Yet it also challenged me to not keep the gospel to myself but to aim to share it more fervently.
I think we, especially the privileged few who have heard the gospel for all our lives, need to be more willing to share the truth about God. We often keep it or are scared to share it with people. Yet people need to know that God made us for the one reason to have a relationship with Him. I love the way the Jesus puts it in John 10:10
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.
We have great, good news to share to people and we need to share it. So I have been challenged to realize that I am not needed by God but that I should seek to share with others God as much as possible on this earth. In such a way that I can share His glory and his love to people. I am really enjoying my work here and look forward to the next few months serving God here. Yet again I thank you for your prayer, patience ( especially with late blogs) and support in every way and I thank God for the blessing you are in my life.
God Bless,
Jonathan
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