Below is an account of the Christmas party on December 18, 2011 from Manuel Sosa – IMB missionary to Buenos Aires that is retiring in December 2011 from the mission field.  For those who have met Manuel and his wife, Berta, you know their heart for the lost people of Buenos Aires and how they tirelessly worked to advance the gospel. 

“Yesterday (December 18) we had the Christmas program at Villa Crespo.  It was a combined service with Barrio Norte and there were about 70 people present.  Four new people, who had never been to the church before accepted the Lord!!!!!!!!!!!  All the kids are a direct result of the classes being taught at the Casa de Amistad.

Once again, let me say thank you to NRHBC and each one of you as ministers and to all that have prayed, given and come to make this project possible.  A year and a half ago, this place was shut down but now there is life and light in the building for the community.”

Below are some pictures from the event.

Over 60 people showed up for the ceremony!

Saturday afternoon, December 3, our national partners had the closing of the Casa de Amistad for the year.  In Argentina, the majority of people go on extended vacation through their Summer months of January and February.  (The activities at the Casa de Amistad will start afresh and anew in March, 2012)

At the Casa de Amistad a variety of classes are offered including classes to learn how to play instruments, cooking classes and even electrical classes.  The students performed on guitars, saxophone, trombones, trumpet and the drawing students showed off their work plus the electrical students also had a display.  Berta Sosa’s cooking class provided chicken wings, empanadas and Christmas cookies that they prepared.

About 60 people showed up for the ceremony, which is a blessing from God!  Most of these were non believers, parents, relatives and friends of the students.  Our national partners were all surprised by the number and thankful to the Lord for what He is doing on His time.

The Sunday services have now been moved to 6:30pm and will continue through January and February.

Below are some pictures of from the celebration.

Electrical class showing off what they learned

Join with me in praying for God to continue to do great things in Buenos Aires to draw people to himself.

Mark

Manuel and Berta Sosa

Manuel and Berta Sosa spent their life on the mission field and in a couple weeks will retire.  The Sosas have served in many locations in South America, including Buenos Aires, Argentina.  Our mission teams have been blessed to work alongside Manuel and Berta, particularly in establishing the work at the Iglesia Villa Crespo, formerly called the “Casa de Amistad.”

While we are sad that Manuel and Berta will not be in Buenos Aires next year, we rejoice that they are able to retire to spend more time with family.  We are doubly blessed that the Sosas are retiring to the great state (republic, really) of Texas, and will live only a couple hours from NRHBC.

Perusing the IMB website the other day, I came across an article that demonstrates the faithfulness of the Sosas.  To read the article, click on the link below.

http://americanpeoples.imb.org/features/a-lesson-in-faith

Feel free to post your favorite memory of Manuel and Berta in the comment section below.

Mark

Click on the link below to read the Frealy Family Update for November.

2011-11 Newsletter

Mission Team - Derek, Suzie, Charlie, Abigail and Cindy

The following are daily reports from Derek Rowden on their mission trip to Buenos Aires.

Saturday, November 5

Our team met for a devotional and logistics before heading to the building formerly known as Casa de Amistad. When we got there, I was surprised to see several folks preparing for an all-day missions conference. I was further surprised to hear that I was to be one of the speakers. We helped clean and then began praying through our list of contacts. Then we went to grab some lunch and proceed to the park. I wanted to show the team where we will be holding our Bible raffle on Sunday. We sat under a tree and finished praying through the remainder of the prospects. We returned to the Casa to find the missions conference in full-swing and my turn to speak. Thoughout the afternoon and evening, people gradually showed up until there were about 50 people present for a surprise party for Manuel and Berta Sosa. Several folks shared words of appreciation as to how the Sosas ministered to them. Then a worship session was starting up at 10pm to be followed by the keynote speaker. We ducked out around 10:30 due to exhaustion and are looking forward to Sunday

Sunday, November 6

We joined the church in Barrio Norte for worship. I had the opportunity to preach and was asked to give the same sermon at their 8pm service. After lunch we went to the park for the Bible raffle. Our translators finally arrived and met us there. The balloons and candy were a huge hit, and we generated 42 new contacts as they signed up for the family Bible. One of the families from the start-up church came and helped us the entire time. From there we went to the church in Villa Crespo where I preached again. After dinner, I returned the Barrio Norte while the rest of the team returned to the hotel to call our new contacts. We have 6 appointments set so far and will go to 3 of them tomorrow. I also met a vision team from a church in Tennessee. They are considering a similar partnership like NRHBC.

Monday, November 7

Our team met a bit earlier Monday morning as we had an appointment to visit someone early. We split into two teams for the remainder of the day and reconnected for a late dinner to share stories from the day. All 5 of us had opportunity to engage in significant conversations with folks we met at the park on Sunday. And Abigail was blessed to lead a young lady and her boyfriend to faith in Christ. Both teams were successul in scheduling follow-up visits for discipleship. Morale is very high at the end of Monday. And there also seems to be some decent synergy with the core group among the start-up church in Villa Crespo.

Tuesday, November 8

Tuesday was productive in a different way. Both teams encountered folks througout the day who were already believers. We traded testimonies of God´s grace and prayed with each other. Cindy´s team visited Arminda at one point, and they brought her flowers and a card for her 85th birthday. My team visited Irma who introduced us to several people on her street and had us pray for them. At another home, there was a 10 year old boy who could recite John 3:16 (they don´t have AWANA here). We had other encouraging visits and scheduled more follow-up visits for the next 2 days. Wednesday and Thursday are mostly full already. Please pray for the work here.

Wednesday, November 9

Wednesday evening we had the much-anticpated Veggie Tales event at the Villa Crespo church. (At least my team had been anticipating it). The turnout was okay. There were 3 ladies present whom we had met during the Bible raffle. They brought one child with them. There were also 2 other children who were dropped off by their moms. Many others were present, but they were either missionaries or folks from the church. Charlie shared his testimony after the film and did a great job. Earlier in the day my team met with David in the park. He had emailed me prior to the trip saying he wanted to meet me. He is a Christian in his 50s but very discouraged about his situation. We talked for a long while, and I asked if he would translate for me on Thursday. He seemed pleased with the idea. My fellow NRHBC members are doing an outstanding job. We have one more day of evangelism and discipleship before we fly home.

NRHBC's Global Focus Missions Ministry

NRHBC is sending our 4th mission team of 2011 to Buenos Aires on September 8 – 17.  If you are interested in joining the team, there will be an information meeting this Sunday,  August 7 at Noon in the parlor.

Please prayerfully consider joining the team, we need 4-6 more people for this trip!

Castaway in Buenos Aires

For those unaware, our flight home last night was canceled due to volcanic ash in the air. We are now booked on a flight for Monday night and hope that the ash will clear for us to be home on Tuesday morning. Now, we have the fortunate misfortune of being stranded in Buenos Aires for a few days.

We are making the best the situation. Thankfully, our hotel is not booked and so we were able to retain our rooms. Also, Tiby, one of the translators, is able to stay with us through Monday.

Yesterday, we did a tour of the city and last night I spoke to a group of Brazilian college students who have a worship service every Friday night led by the Sosas.

If you would, please pray for the ash to clear on Monday.

God Bless,

Mark

Ashlie shares her faith story after the Veggie Tales Movie in the Casa de Amistad

Today was a bit of a long day.  After breakfast, each of our teams broke up.  (Actually, Ashlie, Sally and Marcelo had to eat on the run as they had an appointment at 10 AM.)

Nestor, Tiby, Sabrina, Aidan and I took the train this morning.  It was empty so it wasn’t quite the adventure that riding it during rush hour was for us yesterday.

Nestor and I went to an appointment at 11:30 – the lady wasn’t interested in a Bible because she already has one and didn’t want to talk about it further.  We decided to go and visit our friends in Villa Ortuzar and planned to take the Subway.  But as we were walking we came across a street where a young woman lived who Dad and I talked to in March.  So we went to visit her but she wasn’t home.

Then we walked to Iker’s house but he wasn’t home.  In the past, he has gone with his mom to Peru, where he is from for the month of July…so he may not be in town.  Meanwhile, Nestor talked to Irma and we set our appointment for the afternoon – at 5 PM.
In other words, at that point in the day we had walked for a couple hours only to visit with one disinterested lady!

After a quick visit to a store called, Jumbo (a bit like Target) Nestor and I took the subway back to Chacarita and met the team for lunch.  After that, Nestor needed to run to a meeting at the Word of Life offices, so I hung out with Sabrina, Aidan and Tiby.  We took the coin soccer board to the park to play and hopefully engage some kids and invite them to the Veggie Tales movie at the Casa de Amistad.

We played in the park for a couple hours, met a few families and invited several to the movie.  We had a lot of fun.

While at the park, Irma called and said that she couldn’t meet – she had something come up with her son.  So I was a little disappointed.  But it gave us the chance to take it easy as we are all tired and hang out in the park a little longer to invite people to the movie.

Nestor met back up with us and we had an appointment at 6 but…as per our day…no one was home!  That makes three busted appointments and three empty homes!  I’ve never “batted zero” for a day in Argentina before!

A couple new families came to the movie tonight as did Rick Kuntz – his family are missionaries here in Buenos Aires.  Rick is a lot of fun and we had a great visit.

After the movie, Ashlie Duncan shared her faith story…in Spanish!  And did a great job. (Check out the video above!)

We then came back to the hotel, ate McDonalds and went to bed!

Please pray:

• For the team to finish strong on Thursday
• For several families to come on Thursday night to see the movie
• For hearts open to the gospel
• For the volcanic ash from Chile to not interrupt our travel plans on Friday.

Found this sign several blocks away from the Casa de Amistad. This sign demonstrates that when we are in the US that outreach continues in the Casa de Amistad.

Yesterday, we met as a group and headed for breakfast at about 9:30.

Nestor and I headed back to the hotel to get a new projector that we brought for the Casa de Amistad.  After taking that and a few other things to the casa, we headed to two houses but no one was home.

We then had lunch and met up with Sabrina and her group.  They went to a house from the November trip and met with an adult daughter, mom and grandmother.  They talked for two hours – one was universalist and the other two were catholic.  Sabrina said it was a great visit (they drank mate’) and answered their questions about the Bible and Christianity.

Together we headed over to a lady’s house, Isabel, that Dad and I met in March.  She asked us to go to where her husband works and visit with him about the gospel.  So all of us went to his work (he owns a car “dealership”) and spent about an hour with him.  I shared my faith story and the gospel and we listened to his story.  His car dealership was successful until the economy went bad and then some of his workers stole a few of his cars.

We talked about turning to Christ in the midst of troubles.  This man, Mario, didn’t “make a decision” for Christ but listened attentively and asked questions.  Hopefully, I will get to see him again this week and visit further.

After that meeting, Sabrina’s team went on their way and Nestor and I went on our own.  Nestor and I walked to another home from a previous trip.  The lady was home and so we set an appointment for today (Wednesday).  After that I was exhausted and so we went to a cafe and made some phone calls.  We now have appointments today including one with Irma Soto – an evangelistic lady who lives in the neighboring barrio of Villa Ortuzar.

Nestor and I had to head back to the hotel to grab the computer to show the movie at the Casa de Amistad.  We took a taxi there and a train ride back.  The train was an experience because it was so full.   Nestor and I had to push our way on and off!

The team and the Sosas were at the Casa when we arrived.  We started to set up for the movie including setting up the new projector.  It is fantastic – very clear picture even in full light.

Only two families showed up for the movie.  My worry is that it is too cold for parents to send kids to the Casa but we are praying for more to arrive tonight.  After the movie, Sally shared her faith story and did a great job.

After the movie, Berta Sosa had dinner for us ready at the casa de amistad.  She served chicken chili over rice and it was excellent.

Ashlie, Sally and Marcelo (the new translator) said that they led someone to Christ yesterday!

Today we are breaking up into teams again and will show another movie (Veggie Tales) tonight at the Casa de Amistad.

Please pray for:

• Hearts open to the gospel
• For people to be home
• For several to come tonight to the Casa de Amistad to see the movie and hear the gospel.