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¨Though he brings grief, he will show compassion, so great is his unfailing love.”  Lam.3:32 

      Nine years and seven days ago I left secular work to begin a march toward missionary life and pursue a calling that would not let me go.  By the grace of our great nation loving God, we left desiring to lay hold of that for which Christ has laid hold of us.  Our journey has been flesh withering and joy-filled, but never could it be characterized as easy or “fun” like a kind of Christian camp experience. Most of you know by now of the violent break in of our home on November 8th and the terror that three wicked men brought to Gail and Ian.  I especially want to thank you all for your encouraging letters and the constant prayers you have offered to God on our behalf.  We have felt the unfailing love of God in the midst of a circumstance designed by Him for our sanctifying and the building up of his church in Argentina.

         I am writing you today to formally express what many of you already know by now, that the Lord has changed our battlefront and we will be coming back to the US for the near future.  The reasons for this decision reached by the counsel of our elders will be outlined more clearly in another article by Pastor Bob Selph who has, by kind providence, literally walked with me in this journey since the first day.   I want to now simply tell you about what great things the Lord has done in Argentina in recent months which have so greatly encouraged our broken hearts through these past few weeks.

          Many of you may remember after constituting the church on May 11th, the next month we lost the building we had been meeting in for the previous three years.  We moved to a rented space in town and the church went on with plans for the annual pastor’s conference and outreach.    We arranged the second leg of visits by Pastor Jim Adams to coincide with the conference and with the needs of William Carey Seminary in Cordoba. The theme of the conference was “Salvation is of the Lord” and the topics would cover the order of salvation in its doctrinal and experiential detail.  So beginning with our redemption rooted in the Trinity itself to the restoration of all things by the power of the gospel Pastor Jim, Pastor Omar Ramos of Chile, Pastor Freddie Burk of Argentina and I, tried to lay out each glorious phase of God’s redemption in Christ.  In addition we gave as a gift to each pastor attendee several books, “Redemption, Accomplished and Applied” by J. Murray; “The introduction to the death of deaths…” by Packer; and for the first time in Spanish, “Spurgeon and Hyper Calvinism” by I. Murray.   Generally speaking, we sold more books this year at this conference than any previous conference we have held or been apart.

           The conference this year was split between locations in Carlos Paz and the seminary in Cordoba.  The attendance however, was very strong in each place. More than 35 attended the meetings during the day sessions in Carlos Paz and the evening services in Cordoba were attended by nearly ninety each night. Despite many obstacles, pastoral attendance was very strong with more than 20 pastors or church leaders.  We had the unique pleasure of having with us this year three young men who having had contact with the conference in earlier years, wanted to come to assist and to be an encouragement to us, David Adams from Medellin Colombia, Zac Coventry from Quito, Ecuador, (along with two pastors who came with him) and Nathan Sinclar of Christ Church, New Zealand.  All three were a tremendous blessing to us and greatly enriched our fellowship together by the grace ministered to us through their acts of humble service.  Such examples of single-hearted, Epaphroditus-like devotion are too rare among young men. Many young men long to teach, but few long to serve in hard duties at their own expense. 

             Following the conference in Argentina, Jim, Omar, David and I left for Chile to continue preaching the themes of God’s redemption in Santiago. We were joined there by Pastor Cesar Guzman of Santiago who until recently was the dean of the Anglican Seminary in Santiago. Now he is seeking to plant a new congregation in Santiago.  Dr. Guzman is a very fine expositor and teacher of the scriptures and we immediately found sweet fellowship with him.  The conference in Santiago was held each evening for three nights with a steady group of 30-40 who attended.  

             After closing the conference in Santiago we immediately left for the southern part of Chile following the only major highway through that narrow country, eight hours, to the city of Temuco.  Pastors Adams and Guzman had preached there the previous year with a wonderful welcome by about 70 pastors who enthusiastically invited us back.   Unfortunately, after participating in only the first evening with the men, it was the next morning that I received the chilling phone call that Gail had been held hostage and Ian’s life threatened.  With the help of many brethren and much prayer I was able to return back home to Carlos Paz in twelve hours.  I cannot here describe to you those next few days of terror, anger, grief and pain as we considered what had happened and what to do next. Our bedroom had become a crime scene of unforgettable proportions to my wife. One imprecatory psalm after another ran through my head as I tried to comfort my wife and calm our home and lives.  After several days and counsel from several pastors and friends I decided that the best solution, for the moment was for us to return to a secure place where Gail could heal and seek counsel about our future.  I cannot go into all the detail here but over the next few weeks it became clear that the Lord himself was extracting us from Argentina and by means we would not have chosen for ourselves, we had not merely been made the target of evil men but of God himself, for the sake of his purposes in Argentina.  I am convinced that Christ loves his church and we are merely expendable instruments of what He is doing in building his church.  This truth would become clearer to me in practice as the next weeks unfolded. 

               Following the heartache of the decision to leave, the pain and regret of what appeared to be a vision lost, I came back to Argentina accompanied by Pastor Bob to pack up, sell, sort, give away and otherwise dispose of all our belongings that could not be put in an army bag or trunk.  The last few weeks have been very emotionally and tearing to my soul.  I have been made to live on the promise, “Though he brings grief, he will show compassion, so great is his unfailing love.”   The Lord of unfailing love has ministered to my grieving heart by my dearest brother and Pastor Bob Selph through hours of conversation and reflection upon the work of the missionary-pastor, but even more through his gracious acts in his church in Carlos Paz.  We came here with the hope of seeing a truly indigenous confessional, reformed Baptist church planted, resting upon the sure foundation of the Scriptures and working by the leadership of the Spirit of Christ among them. In these weeks of our grief and separation from them, we have seen them locate a new place of worship in a evangelistically strategic place in Carlos Paz; secure the building with their own offerings and committed giving; remodel the building for worship with their own funds and working together with David Adams as project manager, they completed the work and began worship on the 11th of January 2009.  Pastor Jorge Molina and the deacons Claudio Molina and Alejandro Catalano have been greatly used of the Lord to shepherd and challenge the congregation to independence and stability in a way that only the Spirit of God could do.  They are very young and few, but I believe that God has set his seal of blessing upon his church and it will find great success without the missionary presence.

              If that were not enough to witness, I was still troubled to think of the brothers in San Nicolas.  The four families who have longed for us to move there and complete the work of founding a reformed Baptist church there for the past year were deeply upon my heart.  What would happen to them?  How would they stand?  After Bob returned home, Claudio, Amy and I went to visit them and to talk to the face to face about the future of their fellowship.  What I expected to find was discouragement and despair.  What I discovered was a small but now newly determined group who met for the first time on the previous Sunday morning and laid plans for meeting each week to the end of constituting a church according to the will of God.  Nico Griboff and Juan Lugo along with their families and friends number about sixteen. Ideally they need a church planter-evangelist to come along side them.  But believing that Christ will lead them, they long to see a clear testimony of truth and righteousness raised up on San Nicolas.  I have come to believe that such self-determination in a body is the first step toward establishing an identity as a church of Jesus Christ. Along with the full support of Misión de la Graica in Carlos Paz, Centro Crecer church in Cordoba and our counsel from a distance they would go forward by God´s grace supplied to them through his sure word. 

             What more could I ask of the Lord to comfort my soul as we leave?  By mere human sight, these are fragile works, but spiritually speaking they are as fragile as the power of the Triune God that upholds them and the grace of the cross that will sustain them.   Our future is uncertain but the past proves to me that Christ has lead us and he has not erred but rather done all this for the good of his church and renown of his glory in Argentina.  Wasn’t that the whole reason we came and for which we were sent?  We have deposited our treasure and while we will continue in contact with Argentina in an auxiliary way, I can say I have nothing left to give. For the first time in my life we have no physical address, no furniture, a borrowed car, even all the books I came with I will leave to Argentines to use, yet we feel abundantly supplied and rich for having done the will of God. There are many things that I would now do differently, but by the grace of God, I can say that I could have done nothing with more zeal or sincerity as a gospel missionary or evangelist. 

                I want to thank you again for your faithful support of me as an association of churches and gospel loving individuals. We continue to need your prayers as the events of recent months have left us very weak.  Pray that we will accept no substitute but that we may find our rest in Christ alone.  We are hopeful that this is but a pause in our formal missionary labors, however whether it is or not, we have placed our trust in the wisdom of the All Wise, “so great is his unfailing love.”  

                                                        In gospel bonds,

                                                                              Don       

Misión de la Graica Constituting Service, May 11,2008 Part I

Misión de la Graica Constituting Service, May 11,2008 Part II

I know there were many of you who expressed you desire to be with us on this wonderful occasion of the Constituting service of this new church.  So I am posting here the links to the video in two parts of the entire service.   “Part I” takes you through the actual constituting which include the signing of the articles of faith and the verbal covenant made to each other as members.   “Part II” includes the preaching of Pastor Omar Ramos of Chile who delivered the charge to the church, followed by Pastor Bob Selph who brought an affirmation of greetings from the “mother Church”, GBC of Taylors, SC.   The service was entirely in Spanish of course, with the exception of Bob’s message. 

          I want to again thank each of you for your prayers for us and for this congregation.  As a group they are facing challenging days since we have lost our building location, about two weeks ago.  Please pray for the Lord to meet this very important need in the  life of the saints of Mision de la Graica

It has been without a doubt one of the greatest experiences of my life over the past six years to see the the grace of God at work through His word to call out a people from among the many to whom we have witnessed and worked since we arrived in Villa Carlos Paz.   In that period of time we have seen approximately 96 people come in contact with our preaching for extended periods of time.  Some endured for a month others for years, but all 96 eventually left.  Some left because of the doctrine, others because of the practice that the doctrine demanded; others left because of the worship style, “too much preaching” or too many hymns;  others said there were not enough marriage prospects; others went away because we would not be a financial or social support system for them; others feared living with the biblical expectations of practical holiness and personal commitment to one another in a local church.  It has been sad to see these go away.  We cannot say that they were all unbelievers, although some undoubtedly were.  Others were merely those who have bought into  the lie that the church is merely an institution that exists to meet the needs of a “spiritual consumer”.    

             Paul has clearly said that the church is so much more.  In Ephesians 3 he refers to the chruch as, “the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things,” .  The church has always been upon the mind of God in all his gracious purposes for mankind and for that matter even “heaven-kind”.  Paul leaves no doubt about the purpose God has for the church, ”so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. This was according to the eternal purpose that he has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord,” (Ef.3:10,11).    God did not make all these plans merely to occupy a small place in the mind and life of mortals who have needs.  But so that He might display through this new creation, the church, the rainbow colors of his wisdom and glory to the very top of the created order.   

It seemed that on this past Sunday when we looked upon the 13 new members of this, the first reformed baptist church to be planted in Argentina by an American missionary, we were viewing something that the world would take little notice of but that, according to the Bible, the event had incredible eternal and spiritual importance.  Those 13 committed souls represented, “the manifold wisdom of God”.   There were husbands and wives, mothers and fathers, daughters and sons, brothers and sisters, a north american daughter-in-law and her Argentine in-laws, there was a policeman, and a casino employee, an artist and a tennis teacher, an english teacher and a hotel employee.  However, in all their differences it was only  one characteristic that they all shared which qualified them to take the covenant vows that they pledged to eachother before God and witnesses… they were all sinners, called out from the world to be a singular,  “spiritual house” and a “holy priesthood”.    It was as though before  our very eyes and to our very ears we saw the Lord form these “living stones” into a ”people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light”  . 

The witnesses present for this act were; the good brethren who came from the Grace Baptist Church of Taylors, Pastor Bob Selph his wife Cathi, Pastor Chad Clint and Aaron Selph, as well as my dear brothers from Chile, Pastor Omar Ramos and brother Javier Valenzuela; also several brothers from the church in Cordoba, “Centro Crecer” whose pastor is Sam Masters a dear friend an fellow missionary.  We were so thankful that these could join with us as each one has had some role in the progress toward this day as insturments by the grace of God. But furthermore they represent three countries and cultures brought together to bear witness and marvel with us at the grace and work of the Triune God.  

It was a particularly blessed day for my wife and I as we tasted the sweet fruit of our labors for the past 7 years hear in Argentina.   As sower of the seed we did not make it to grow, nor did we sustain it by our power or will, we were not the author of its goodness, neither could we make the soil to receive it.  We merely were the farmers. We sowed. We watered. We cultivated. We waited.   And we did none of this alone. We had many helpers who worked with us and the power of a mysterious and wonderful providence ordained by God who brought us into contact with each soul now present.  But most of all it was the person of the Holy Spirit sent before us who prepared and prospered the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  He “over-shadowed” the Word that was sown so that it supernaturally grew in the hearts of those who heard it, making much of Jesus and his work for sinners.    We have known much frustration, yet I do not believe that it was in vain, but God sanctified us through each of the 96 who turned away.   So that on the 11th of May 2008, in these 13 “living stones”, He has glorified Himself by so much more grace than we could have imagened, that all our grief has been turned to joy.  To Him be glory in the Church, now and forevermore!!!

                                in blessed bonds,

                                                         Don 

larry norman memorial service montage

I think to really “GET” a person you need to know what they listen to.  I know that some of you think I fit pretty squarely into a “reformed baptist-missionary-50´s guy”.  But that can be a pretty “flat screen” image of my life.  So let me tell help you to know where I get some of my more “undefined edges”.   I would trace them back to my first year as a christian when I knew what “religion” was, having grown up in the church.. but I did not know how to follow Jesus as a disciple.  Then the man who God used to lead me to Christ gave me some albums of Larry Norman, (that have turned out to be collectors edition copies).  In his music I found out for the first time what authentic christianity ought to be… ”outside the lines” of church, religion and “safe speech” about God.   

             So if you care to listen, hit the button (larry norman memorial service montage) , and go see and hear one of the most profound influences of my early christian life…  I am convinced he was the most relavant christian singer/songwriter of the past 40 years.  But be warned: what Larry sings about is not “safe”.   Jesus said, “I have cast fire on the earth, and would that it were already kindled… I have a baptism to be baptized with and how great is my distress until it is accomplished! Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division. (Luke12:49-51)  and continuing another said to him, “I will follow you, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my home. Jesus said to him, ”"No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom.”"  Luke 9:61-62    

                       in bonds,

                                              Don

           So did you ever feel “over exposed”.  It is not a very comfortable feeling.  Though a few trips down to the river where I live and you are convinced that such a feeling scarcely exist in Carlos Paz during the summer.  Nevertheless, for most people with a conscience and a sense of propriety we try to keep ourselves and our lives “covered” as best we can… At least those parts of us which are least attractive.  Maybe it is really generational or cultural more than true modesty that drives our fear of ”over-exposure” as individuals.  Because we really don’t mind it so bad if the side people see of us is ”not so bad” or expemplifes our strength.  

            Even Paul had some words to say about how the body of Christ reacts to itself and its “weaker parts”, saying, “And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, while our presentable parts need no special treatment.”  There is just something proper about how much or how little we let people see of our lives.  The application to the church is one of giving equal honor to all the members of the body of Christ.  But I fear some have used this to forego a “transparency” that the gospel requires and that humbles us to seek grace for one another. 

             Frankly, I have found that even the “blogosphere” makes some people feel very uncomfortable.  The fear of “electronic exposure” can be pretty frightening to some.  It can give them something of the feeling of waking around your downtown in bad spandex or a bikini to see your name in someone’s blog.  Maybe those of us who blog are some of the more daring, but clearly, we should also be the most sensitive to the power of this medium.   

             Call me crazy, or maybe an “electronic exhibitionist” but I  have recentely joined my name to the millions who are now using “Facebook” as their tool of electronic exposure.  It is a great tool for keeping in touch with people close to our life and gaining an insight into the lives of others as well.    For me it helps me separte family from ministry. For those who are more intrested in family and the people who I hang out with the most… go to my facebook ;  but for you who, “just want the facts” about ministry and missions and occasionally the men who are most effecting the work we do, you are in the right place…  

          Honestly, for all that is written about the “ills” of this “post-modern” age, when it is all said and done, we may find that our society and this generation owes a great debt to postmodernism, because it may be that through their willingness to be transparent and risk over-exposure that they may lead us to face some realities about who we really are.  That is it is really not “over exposure” that we are afraid of, but being seen and known at all beyond a very select group of people.  See you soon!!!!

in gospel bonds,

                 Don

“Pray then like this: Our Father in heaven, hallowed by your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”  Matt. 6:9,10 

I have just finished the thirty-third message in a series on the Sermon on the mount with this part of the model prayer given to the sons of the kingdom, “Your Kindgom Come”. And ironicly enough in the providence of God, it seems that our longing prayer to see the reign of Christ extended here in Argentina is coming about even as we are preaching and praying for the same. This blog instalment I hope will serve as some evidence of how we believe the Lord is answering our prayers for the, “sanctifying of the Name of our God” among the Argentine people.

1. About four weeks ago I recieved a letter from a young man in San Nicolas a town about 6 hrs from us toward Buenos Aires. Edwardo Griboff, was looking for a copy of a book by John Owen and wondered if I could sell one to him. I wrote back and told him I had the book and I would send it too him for nothing if he would tell me how he became intrested in John Owen and the reformed faith. What he wrote was a sweet story of the kindness and providence of God that began with a longing desire for something more of God than what he was finding in his local church. He went to a small chrisitan bookstore one day a copy of “No Other Gospel” by C.H. Spurgeon and began to read it with great intrest. When he came to the chapeter on free will, at that moment God turned his world upside down. He had never herad such things taught from the scriptures as the bondage of man’s will by a fallen human nature to the point that unless there was a work of sovereign grace by God man cannot be saved. He had no other books but the bible to study and then began to research the footnotes of Spurgen and found Augustine, Luther and Calvin on free will, and with “the ancients” as his guide he came to embrace a position of free and sovereign grace expressed in the Five Points of Calvinism. He then told his best friend,Juan, who within a few weeks, he also came to the same position. They had all but given up hope of finding anyone who agreed with their positions when they found on the web the internet site of “Publicaciones Faro de Gracia” and our dear brother Wayne Anderson from Mexico. Wayne referred him to us for more books.

I gladly accepted his testimony as “full payment” for a box of various books within the week. When he received them he was so over-joyed that he called me and could hardly keep from laughing outloud for the new friendship he had made and especially the books. The next week in the providence of God, Edwardo Griboff and Juan attended with Bob Selph and I a reformed conference in Buenos Aires where we spoke to them extensively about their lives and longings. During those talks they often expressed their longing to see a reformed baptist church started in San Nicolas, so we have offered to drive there once a month to begin with and see what the will of the Lord might be in this regard. Please pray for us. Our first meeting will be on July 6th. Eduardo and Juan will be inviting people, lost and saved to hear the gospel.

2. For some time two couples, Basilo and Virginia, Armando and Marta, have been driving more that 200 km to attend services here in Carlos Paz. Jorge Molina has known these believers for many years. Only recently their church in Laguna Larga had been all but destroyed by immorality in the leadership and many similar cases of outward sin which over years that had not been dealt with biblically. Unable to endure any longer they left the church and hearing of this new work through family members,they began to attend. Last week Jorge and I, accompanied by our wives, drove to Laguna Larga to visit with them for a day of fellowship,shepherding, bible teaching and investigation. By the end of the day they asked if we would consider coming to their town, (a pueblo of about 10,000) and begining a bible study in their homes. There are no other viable local churches in the area and though we contacted a young man in the church they left there is little hope at this point of restoration to a church without leadership and a splintered congregation. Please pray for this situation as we seek to follow the Lord and tend these hurting sheep according to the will of God.

3.About 20 km from Laguna Larga lies another small country town (Encautivo) of around 10,000 souls whose only conservative church has been without leadership for more than 15 years. For most of that time they have had few men 5-10, but none, elder qualified. Most of the ministry of the church has therefore been carried out by women. Jorge Molina has had much contact with the church over that period of time has he has been one of the men regularly called by them to fill their pulpit each month. Now it seems that the Lord has opened a door for us to go there with the intent of helping them develop a biblical leadership. Jorge and I will meet with the men in the church on the 4th of July to try to present a plan of teaching and oversight for them. The church is a “free brethren” church but they have had very little biblical instruction or oversight of their souls. Please pray that the men there will recieve us openly and not be threathen by our sincere efforts to lend aid to a struggling congregation and seek to establish biblical worship in their town. There will most certainly be doctrinal questions. Pray that Jorge and I will prepare our words with wisdom and sincerity that will be evident to the men with whom we will speak.

We rejoice in these “open doors” of ministry and in the growing burden of the people of Misión de la Gracia to share with others the truth they have come to embrace.  There is a growing sense of burden of conscience like that which overcame those two lepers in the abondoned camp of the Syrians in II Kings 7:6-9, when after gorging themselves on the richness of food during a time of famine they said to one another, “We are not doing right. This day is a day of good news. If we are silent and wait until the morning light, punishment will overtake us. Now therefore let us go and tell..”   Pray with us and for us as we seek to carry the announcement of “Good news! Our God Reigns!” to as far as the Lord will allow..

In gospel bonds,

Don

As some of you know we have started the Reformed Pastoral Institute and Library which meets twice each month in our newly remodeled room at the church. We are an official study center of Vision R.E.A.L. a ministry of Roger and Dianne Smalling of the Miami International Seminary. Vision R.E.A.L. stands for “Vision Reformación en America Latina”. We are very thankful for the work of Dr. Smalling in developing an mentoring program of theological and practical biblical studies for the training of leaders in Latin America. With nine students involved we are very hopeful that we have begun well in developing a strong leadership of faithful men and women for our congregation. Having spoken to Dr.Smalling twice he has been a great help to me in this new area of ministry. This week he has featured our new Institute on his website at Vision R.E.A.L. Newsflash and according to the will of the Lord we are making plans for Dr. Smalling to come to Argentina later on this year to teach his course on Christian Leadership to a larger group of pastors and students..

Thank you so much for your prayers for the Institute and for our men and women who are making steps to obey the words of Christ to his disciples, “Take my yoke upon you and learn of me.” Matthew 11:29

in gospelbonds,

Don

“Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity!”

This past week I asked that you be praying for a meeting in Buenos Aries of reformed baptist pastors in the southern cone. It really was not as official sounding as all that. We are just men whose churches and ministries share the same confession of faith and long for the spread of the truth of the gospel of God’s glory. Omar Ramos of Santiago Chile, Hugo Camera of Buenos Aries, Trevor Routley of Tandil and myself met for the first time to become acquainted with the history of our very young congregations and our personal testimonies of God grace and goodness to us.
First Omar and I spent several hours of sweet fellowship in the home of Hugo and his wife Monica and their two boys. We spoke much of how the grace of God brought us to our present ministries and places in life. It was intresting how each of us in our own countries and cultures had known an similar estrangement from our former denominations and fellowships because of our belief in the reformed faith. We had all passed through many months and even years of lonliness and trial, but the Lord had preserved us and was granting to us the blessing of knowing brethren with whom we could now walk together.
The next evening, during the mid-week service of Hugo’s congregation, we were joined by Trevor Routley, who first introduced me to ministry in Argentina and has been a long time friend of Hugo. Each of us shared of our congregations and the joy we found in the possibility of continued fellowship and labor with one another. In addition to our fellowship as pastors, it was a time in which we were able to demonstrate a unity of heart and faith to Hugo’s congregation so that they might also not feel alone in their small and young work. The church is located in a very dangerous part of Buenos Aires that holds many opportunity for evangelism for the brave and the bold. The church building is humble and needs many repairs but can accomodate about 50 souls. Furthermore they are a congregation of very few men and none at a place to serve as yet. Nonetheless, our evening to fellowship and to be encouraged by mutual edification from the scriptures was a precious and unforgetable moment in the providence of God.
Please pray with me that these times are but the beginnings of fruit to be bore by the grace of God and the gospel in the southern cone of South America and particularly in Argentina. I will keep you informed as opportunities for working together arise and as God blesses his people with further manifestations of sweet unity in the gospel.

When Jesus spoke the words, “You shall be my witnesses..” in Acts 1:8, you might be suprised to know that it was not the first time that the people of God had been told these words. It is interesting to notice that it was through the prophet Isaiah that God first said, “You are my witnesses”. In the midst of an obvious promise of new covenant glory in Is.43:10, God declares, “You are my witnesses, and my servant whom I have chosen, that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he.” Among many other sweet truths contained in these powerful words, it is obvious that God has always entended that you and I would stand and testify faithfully to what God is doing on behalf of his own glory and Name in the world. In Jesus Christ, our God has reveled his greatest works. Now is the time when our witness should be the most powerful and known. What I want to do in this first post to the “ministry bonds” section of my blog is to testify to what we see the Lord doing for his own glory here in the souther cone of South America and specifically in Argentina.
First I want to tell you about Hugo Camera. I first met Hugo in Buenos Aires on my exploration visit to Argentina in 1998 along with Jim Adams and Bob Selph. Hugo was then teaching at the Bible Institute of Buenos Aires. Hugo had just come to embrace the five points of calvinsim, and had some introduction to the reformed faith. He was the pastor of a Christian Missionary Alliance Church and professor of theology at the Institute. We visited his congregation and not knowing spanish I had very little direct interaction with him. We left him some books and our assurances of prayer.
Over the time since that first meeting I heard very little of Hugo or of what the Lord in his providence was bringing about in his life. Until about one month ago I discovered that he had taken a job with the supervisor of the Argentine Evangelical Foundation, in his accounting office. I spoke with him by phone, in the providence of God. As we spoke for the first time in spanish together, he shared with me what the Lord had been doing in his life. Through many hardships of personal health and spiritual growth, he had come to embrace firmly a reformed baptist position and thus had left the CMA church and denomination. And the most unexpected news of all was that about 18 months ago began the first reformed baptist church founded upon the 1689 Second London Confession of Faith in the megalopolis of Buenos Aires. They are about 25 in attendance and he is faithfully training men and carrying on a solid ministry.
Secondly, I want to share with you about my second great suprise of 2005. Through the Reformed Theological Seminary website I was informed by a pastor in the states, that a missionary who lives in Cordoba,(about 25 km from Carlos Paz) had recently graduated from the RTS virtual class room online. Sam Masters, has been a missionary in Cordoba for about 8 years and beginning some time prior to that he began to study reformed theology culminating in pursuring his degree online through RTS. I contacted Sam and we have developed a sweet fellowship and relationship as missionaries who share a similar vision for Argentina. Growing out of a burden for church planting and the need to train national pastors, Sam and his congregation in Cordoba, have begun a Bible Institute and training center called the “William Carey Bible Seminary”. As I have fellowshiped with Sam and as we have shared our desire to train men, the result has been a desire to help one another to acheive this shared goals. One of the unique features of Seminary’s approach to training has been the ability to “web cast” the class room lecture. We are therefore working together toward establishing various “pastoral institutes” or “pastoral training centers” in Argentina with reformed libraries and under local church oversite, to receive the web casts several times throughout the year. In the first class held in the name of the Seminary there were more than 200 who enrolled. We hope to establish the first “Reformed Pastors Institute” here in Carlos Paz at “Mision de la Gracia” in early 2006. We will be the “test case” for the program. I have currently 5 men who will be taking classes and enrolled in the Seminary in 2006. We hope to roll out the complete program of training in 2007 after a year of proving.
I wanted to share with you these brief examples of just how the Lord is working to establish his gospel here in Argentina. Many of you have been praying specifically for the Donell’s, but I want to testify to you that your prayers are having a far greater effect in the providence and plan of our God for the spreading of the kingdom. These recently discoverd works by the Lord are just a couple of the gospel bonds we have made in ministry over the past few months. Others are still growing stronger as our dear brother,Omar Ramos works in Santiago Chile to establish the first Reformed Baptist church in Chile. These are the bonds that we would see the Lord use to bring about a fruitful and deep work by the gospel that will go far beyond us, to the glory of Christ and his grace. Please remember these men and these opportunities as you pray for us. I will keep you informed as we move forward with the pastoral institute here in Carlos Paz and with our further contacts in Argentina. Our God is acting on his own behalf to call his people from the ends of the earth and from the darkness of unbelief to the glorious light of his Son Jesus Christ.
in gospel bonds,
Don Donell