The Gospel is for All

Church of Christ minister and missionary John Moody McCaleb spent almost 50 years in Japan as a missionary. When asked why he would travel all that way when there were people in the US who needed to hear the Gospel, McCaleb wrote these words that later he made into a song:

Of one the Lord has made the race,
Through one has come the fall;
Where sin has gone must go His grace:
The gospel is for all.

Say not the heathen are at home,
Beyond we have no call,
For why should we be blest alone?
The gospel is for all.

Received ye freely, freely give,
From every land they call;
Unless they hear they cannot live:
The gospel is for all.

The blessed gospel is for all
The gospel is for all;
Where sin has gone must go His grace:
The gospel is for all.


This song is always a reminder to me of the need for the Gospel throughout the world. That is the reason that we are going to Argentina. Although 92% of the population claims Christianity as their foundation (mostly Catholicism), less than 5% attend any sort of church services in a given month. Most Argentine men go to church as children, stop early in their adult years, and then only attend for major events in life (marriage, baptisms, funerals). They joke that the true religion in Argentina is futbol, since the games are played on Sunday afternoons.

There is a need to take the true Gospel to the people of Argentina. They need to hear that God loved them so much that he gave himself for them. It is amazing and awe inspiring, and the people of Argentina need to know that following Christ is about more than traditions, doctrines, and rituals.

Pray for the people of Argentina. God is working in their hearts and lives; people are constantly coming to Christ, and there seems to be a small sense of openness. Pray that God will do great things in that nation.

Small Groups

Dear Friends, Family, and Supporters,

Greetings in Christ! We are getting excited about the opportunity to be in Buenos Aires. It is hard to believe that it is less than 5 months away! Wow, time flies when we are having fun. We are still working with Hawks for Christ and helping our students grow. We are working hard on exiting well and passing the torch on to whoever takes over.

One of the major components of our work in Buenos Aires will be working with small groups. We are currently reading the book Leading Life-Changing Small Groups, which discusses long term small group ministry. Although the book isn’t completely relevant for what we will be doing, it has provided great insight into the time we will spend there. (We will give a review in a couple of days…)

First, we hope to start a few English small groups throughout the week. There are currently two being run by Joel and Osvaldo, two of the missionaries. We hope to free them up from these tasks, as well as add another group or two to the mix. I hope to make them different for each level, and there will be parts focused on Bible study and other parts focused on practical situations. (Maybe doing a Bible study at the beginning, and then the practical towards the end; i.e. studying John, then role-playing going to a café, or buying a new outfit.) We also hope to create small-group times for our readers (and others) and have movie nights, game nights, etc.

We also plan on being a part of the Young Professionals small group through Caballito. We want to be intentional about investing ourselves in the lives of these individuals, and we think this is a great way to be involved. We hope to build good friendships with these young adults and spend time getting to know them. We also hope to play a role in leadership later on, when our Spanish is better.

Finally, Megan and I have a heart for men’s/women’s ministry. We both would like to have a part in ministering to men and women (respectively) in the congregation. Pray that God will make those opportunities known.

Thank you for your faithfulness in prayer and your support. It is a blessing in our lives. God bless you!

LST Training Weekend

I wanted to fill you in on some of the training we have been doing. Parts of LST's training are:
- Read multiple books on missions, small groups, etc, and write reports about each
- Participate in FriendSpeak as an active reader
- Begin language acquisition
- Go through LST training videos
- Participate in an LST Training Weekend

There are a few other things, such as setting goals, etc, but this is a good summary. A few weeks ago Megan and I drove to Dallas to participate in a training weekend. We arrived at 3am in Fort Worth and slept at our friends' home (the Campbells). We were at LST's offices at 8am, and Daniel lead the devotional that morning, looking at Philippians 3-4. Afterwards, we participated in a number of team building activities, from building a tall structure (we failed) to a survey/scavenger hunt in the surrounding community (140 out of 150; that's what I am talking about.) We helped train a few new readers for their trips in the near future, and spent some time talking about the intracacies of traveling abroad. Megan spent time learning the accounting proceedures and learning how to keep track of our missions funds.

That evening we had dinner with the Altrocks and they answered a number of questions about our internship and time in Argentina.

It was a great weekend for training, as well as catching up with friends. We were blessed to think about what God is going to do in our future. Megan and I are growing more excited each day as we prepare for our time in Buenos Aires. Please keep us in your prayers.

Many of you know, but we officially have a sponsoring congregation. Northside Church of Christ in Wichita has agreed to be our spiritual and financial partner. We don't know how much they are contributing yet, but we already have over $12,000 of our support raised. Please keep that in your prayers; we are nervous about the rest of the funds. If you know anyone wanting to give, please put us in touch!

God bless you guys! Thanks for keeping up with our lives. We are blessed by each one of you. Hasta luego, y vaya con Dios!

LST Training

For those of you who don't know, Megan and I attended LST training in Dallas/Fort Worth in the middle of February. We spent two days with LST teams headed to a variety of locations throughout the world (China, Argentina, and Estonia, to name a few.) Keep these groups in your prayers!

I will post more about our training tomorrow. God bless each of you, and thanks for keeping us in your prayers!