This past Sunday we attended church. We went to Iglesia del Centro, the church we found the first day we were in Buenos Aires. It was weird being able to sing in spanish because the words were up on a flat screen. This is the first church I’ve been to since leaving the US that has had the words written on a screen. It felt like we were back in America, except for the spanish. The seats were interlocked chairs, not traditional pews, the praise and worship band were shouting out choruses, and the people wore jeans and t-shirts. This was a far cry from Utupampa.
We tried to talk to a pastor, but it was a special day for them. They were moving to a different church building a few blocks away. This “old” church was getting turned into a bilingual school. So, everyone rushed out to go to the new building. Scott and I went to the zoo.
On Monday we returned to the church at 8 am as we had promised that last Friday. We showed up tired, eyes half shut. And immediately we were put to work, cutting onions, chopping meat, breading beef, shredding carrots, sweeping floors, etc… We had to put together 2 meals, one to eat there and another to bring home as Tuesday is Argentina’s Labor Day (a day off for the workers). So we stayed busy until about 10:30. Then we asked if we could find a close coffee shop (they’re about on every corner here). Then we sat with our javas to debrief our experience with the church.
Many of us go back and forth with how we feel about such a big, modernized church. We’ve just come from tiny mountain churches, and being exposed to what we’ve left behind in the States. I think the outcome was World Racers need to be exposed to it all, and it’ll wrench your heart either way. This church is alive and growing, it just looks different. It’s a culture shock for us, but that’s good. World Racers need to experience it all… the very poor, the very rich, the growing, the stagnant. They need to have their discernment, wisdom, and above all else, love, fine tuned.
And working in a little soup kitcken with the 4-6 other workers is just one way to fill a great need. (We’re sure that out of a church of a 1,000 members more than 6 could help, but then again, God sent us there to fill that need). So, as we wrapped up our debrief, we decided that for all it’s worth we’d be willing to put the phone numbers and addresses in the hands of AIM and let them figure out if this is where God wants to bring future AIM missionaries.
And then there was confirmation. After we returned from coffee talk, we prepared to serve the meal of ravioli and beef. And we werre suprised to see team Agapetos walk down the stairs into the fellowship hall. They said they had gone to the evening service Sunday night met some young people, had a chance to hang out together, and asked to help out on Monday. So our 2 teams took turns serving. And more meetings with pastors are now scheduled for Wednesday, when we return to help on our final day there.
The best part of this whole thing is just watching how God orchestrates. That this experience didn’t happen because of anything we did, but only because of what He’s doing.
