September-October 2010

"The Lord will build His church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it." AMEN!

I believe we at Monte de Luz have been a living testimony to this verse. Since Don Donell, Missionary and Pastor, came in 2001 the Lord Strong and Mighty has accompanied this small church's testimony and light on a hill in a city of darkness. And now more than ever we're seeing the fruits of many years of tilling and watering the ground.

As a church we've been greatly blessed and encouraged by the faithful attendace of the two new couples previously mentioned in blog entries, Marisel, Nelson, their daughter, Daniela, and Andrés and Cynthia and their little boy, Máximo. Since then, Marisel's mother, Graciela and Step father-in-law, José, have been consistantly attending as well. Their fervor to serve the Lord together with us has been a huge encouragement to us all and we look forward to a formal service of adding them to the church's membership.

We've been studing through the books of the bible and this month have been hearing wonderful preaching from Judges. There has been a beautiful thread of grace through out the preaching and teaching from the Old Testament of God's faithfulness to deliver and His commands to "not forget" what He has done with the Israelites. We've been challenged ourselves to not forget what God has done with us and how He has delivered us each individually and as a church and to remember Him in all that we do and be faithful to tell it to the next generation.

At the end of October we have planned a evangelistic outreach which consists of an evangelistic puppet show. Summer is soon coming upon us (December-March) and we've decided to start some outreach early. Please pray that the Lord would accompany our efforts and that despite people's redisence and hostility towards evangelicals that the Holy Spirit would move them to come and give us the oppertunity to extend Christ to them.

Thank you all for your prayers and support. "May the Lord bless you and keep you and make His face to shine upon you and give you peace..."

August Update

(left to right: Sam Masters, Jim Adams, Nancy Adams, Bilma Molina, Jorge Molina)
This picture is from the GA in Greenville, South Carolina.
We'd like to give our appreciation to all those who recieved Jorge and Bilm with such a warm embrace. We hope that their burden for Argentina was communicated and we trust that the Lord will do His work here in Argentina.

Sunday June 13th, 2010

Here is an updated picture of us all. We're missing 5 members (Jorge, Javier, Sebastián, Amy, and Alejandro.). They were out getting food for the pot luck OR taking the picture :).
The Lord has blessed us with two new young couples. Nelson and Marisel with their 1 year old daughter, Daniela. And Andrés and his wife Cyntia and their son Máximo also one year old( at the bottom left next to Jillian).
These two couples are looking for a church where they can be taught the truth from the Scriptures and consistantly.
Please pray that the Lord would lead them, giving them wisdom and if He is pleased to be a part of Monte de Luz.

Our Kids
left to right & top to bottom
Joaquin, Maximo, Tomi, Jillian
Antonella, Jeremias, Florencia
(this picture is missing Micaela and Daniela)


This will give you an idea of our location. We are in the middle of a neighborhood. There are several Kioscs/ma&pop stores near us, but mostly residential areas. Behind the church about 2 streets over there is a large Catholic church and school. And right in front of the church there is a Bus stop, which makes things convenient for those who might come from a little farther out that don't have cars. However most of our church memebers live within 10 blocks of the church. As you can see though, there are a lot of oppertunities to get into the lives of families and share the Gospel with them.

25 de Mayo

This year Argentina celebrates it's 200th Anniversery from the day that they first declared independance from Spain.

Several of members from the church traveled to "Córdoba Capital" to join Centro Crecer Church together with Pastor Sam Masters and the other beloved brothers and sisters there. We had a wonderful time enjoying music, dance, and some good "Locro" (the traditional food for all national holidays) and Empanadas.

Easter

We had a special service planned for Easter this year. Including a traditional chorizo sandwich and fellowship after the service. But as we invited all of our friends and varios contacts, we realized that most people spend their holidays with their family.
Easter, culturally is a time to spend with family, not eat meat, and have lots of chocolate eggs. Some talk of Easter as a time to "connect with the great Energy" and others spend their weekend wearing black and mourning the death of Christ. For most of the catholics in Carlos Paz, it's a time to serve their time in the church mass in the evening, be a good person, and then party come night fall.
However, this year we did see much more pre-disposition from our friends to come and attend the service at church with us. We had one friend, Daniela, come and others who really wanted to, but were unable because of famiy engagements.
We praise God that we have the Resurrection and Life to preach every week and not just during Lent, Holy Week, or Easter Sunday.

"Lord let your judgment pass over us, Lord, Let your love hover near,so don't let your sweet mercy passover us, Lord, Let this blood cover over us here."

New Name.... Same People

As you can see by the title of the blog we've changed the church name.
This change has come about for several reasons.
The primary reason being that there are several other "Mision de la Gracia"'s in Argentina and throughout Latin America of varying faiths ranging from Catholic to Pentocostal. So in efforts to have a distinguished name and not confused with other confessions we've chosen a new identity.

By a congregational majority vote we've come to the name " Monte de Luz", which translated means something like, "Light on a Hill Church" taken from the passage in Matthew 5 that really describes our vision and mission as a church the best:

14 "You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. 16In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven."

Pastor Jorge Molina