Immanuel- God with us

I love to think about the name Immanuel. Honestly anytime I hear the word it brings so much comfort and hope. The Spirit is constantly whispering these words to my innermost being: God with Us. God with you. God with me. The miracle and profound love that Jesus’s birth- His coming to live and breath with us- means is amazing. Amazing doesn’t even begin to do the reality justice.

God with us... We definitely felt and saw Him with us before, during and after our 36 hour prayer chain. He began to give us answers and allow us to see clearer, I truly believe, in response to the prayers yet to be prayed. So much came together 48 hours before the prayer time and I would like to share with you some of the news about decisions that were made.

• We decided on the place we would go in Argentina: Hurlingham. A city of about 168,000 and about a 45 minute train ride from Buenos Aires. It has a hospital, university and more immigrants are now making it their home. It’s also an established community for the Argentines who live and work there. One of the missionaries in Buenos Aires is very excited about this choice since he grew up in Hurlingham. Be praying for the people in Hurlingham that hearts will be open and that lives will be changed.

• We will go, God willing, end of January- February. The borders are still closed for people entering as tourists (which is how we need to enter) but recently they have opened borders (only by air not by land) for neighboring countries. This is good news and we hope to see more movement and open borders soon. Also the quarantine has lessened a lot in country which is also a good sign.

• Financially we are good! I don’t know how, it’s not like we didn’t run the numbers again and again but what we have now will allow us to live in Hurlingham. The dollar has gone up so much (from 60 pesos to the dollar to 140 pesos to the dollar since 2019) and also the place we decided on has changed things. There is a huge difference between rent in Buenos Aires and rent in Hurlingham. Now this doesn’t cover furloughs and things like dental/eye care or other things like that but we will be good. This is huge and again- God did a miracle and made the numbers work.

• Because we have no way of knowing when borders will open all the way, and we understand that we can not be in a state of waiting for a continuous unknown amount of time and although our plans and minds are all focused on Argentina, we decided that if borders do not open around the first part of January, we will go to Tarija, Bolivia to start a church there.

I’m going to explain a bit about this for a second since we have heard people saying good and bad about making a plan B. We get it, plan B’s often imply insecurity in plan A and two plans usually also mean a divided focus. I do not like having plan B’s for exactly those reasons. I’m of the mindset that when you make a decision you stick with it until God shows you otherwise or the situations change your direction. Well a pandemic has changed the reality and rules of everything. We cannot just say we are going to Argentina- borders are closed for us right now and we don’t know when they will open. No one imagined them being closed for so long. We also can’t keep our families in a state of instability without setting limits and having a plan (the Cabrera’s and Pilar and I left our homes a year ago and have not been able to make a stable home for our families since then). Also our supporters who have been extremely understanding and supporting of our situation cannot keep up the support for an unknown amount of time. Yes we have all tried to give clases, encourage and get with people through Zoom and other communications but it’s not the same and they asked us to have a plan B and a date that the plan B would need to come into play. We are totally focused on Argentina and believe that borders being closed and a pandemic is not a barrier for God. He can open Argentina for us, so we are hopeful, prayerful and trusting. If He doesn’t open Argentina for us than there is a different plan He has for us. Please, please be praying that borders open soon.

We truly want to help God’s kingdom in Argentina.

We believe in the power of prayer. It brings us in communion with God. How beautiful is that- Immanuel in relationship with us. It also breaks down barriers, makes ways possible that were not possible before and opens doors where doors didn’t even exist before. For months we could not seem to come to these decisions before. There was a block and as much as we tried we couldn’t settle on anything. The prayers offered really did destroy that block and allowed us to make the decisions with unity and peace.

There is more to share and we will get into those things in the coming weeks. Thank you so much for your prayer. Continue praying and lifting us up. May God be honored and glorified in our lives as we walk with Him and may others come to know Him through our lives and actions.

And think about the sacrifice and love represented in Immanuel- God with us.

Put on your Calendar:

On Monday, December 14, the team will be fasting and praying specifically for Argentina borders opening.