For Another Look Through The Lense

While my pictures give a glimpse of what we are doing, you might enjoy the real photos that Jan is taking.  She has started a photo blog that gives you a more aesthetic and artistic perspective.  You will see a lot more of the cultural perspective as well. Here's the web address.

        throughonelense.blogspot.com


Just a couple of quick photos today from me. The first is of Jim sanding the doors which will be painted next week.  Then a prototype of the bunk beds is under construction.  I will show the finished product at another time.

Building Relationships is Key!

We returned today to resume scraping and preparing walls.  We've patched a lot of the plaster with a Sheetrock mud-type material. Normal stuff for renovation, and fortunately, it went a lot faster than expected.

But the most important things we accomplished today were bridge building experiences. Around mid morning we paused for a break and were hosted to a Mate' tea conversation time. There's a tradition of brewing and sharing tea that's apparently very common.  At this occasion, we learned about Julio's and Ezequiel's families and their hopes to return to their respective communities to pastor churches there.

Then tonight we attended a seminary choir event where the students are raising funds for a mission trip to the United States. The relationship between the seminary and the mission work here has not been as strong as the missionaries hoped for, so anything we can do to show support and encourage them is helpful.  To do ministry, relationships are key! 

Note below photo of Julio and Ezequiel, two seminary students, who also work in the seminary maintenance department.

Guess what?

We found out today that the plaster walls in the hallway will need additional scraping and repainting due to some changes of the seminary's longer term plans. We have had to change our work schedule and it's likely that we will spend all of this week and into next week on more wall preparation, both in the hall and in the dorm rooms.  We may not have time to complete the painting and it appears that the seminary will have to be responsible for putting the flooring down after we leave.

Such is the nature of mission and ministry work - plans are always evolving and we must constantly adapt to the needs around us.  We trust in the Lord's ability to bring to fruition what He desires!

Picture of the day: scraping the walls.

When will the painting end?

Second full day of renovation at the dorm: The day was filled with more painting which is the first priority, since everything else will follow the completion of that task.  The hope is that we will complete this phase by Thursday. Our foreman has the agenda mapped out so that the natural flow of work accommodates all that needs to be done.

We have a neat group of individuals, all of whom are Tennesseans and have worked with the TBC disaster relief group or have done extensive mission trips with the TBC or IMB. For example, one person just got back from Cambodia, and another couple dropped in from Peru and will be here for our two weeks, before finally returning to the states.   Our foreman and his wife actually lived in Athens, Greece for two years as ambassadors for the IMB. There's a lot of experienced people here and we are glad to be a part of this effort. What a group!

Each day at lunch we have a meal prepared for us by someone at the seminary.  It's been enjoyable, but the real challenge is when we get a bite to eat in the evening and we are on our own - i.e. no missionaries to translate for us. We ate tonight at a "Kentucky Pizza" and though it said, Kentucky, they didn't speak with a southern drawl, unless that might be Southern Hemisphere...  Here's a pic:

A Day At The Seminary

Our work began today with the renovation of the first floor of a dormitory at the seminary.  Our role is to prepare the building for future teams who will stay here as they partner with local Argentine Baptist Chuches.

It's a lot of work for eight team members but we hope we can complete the renovation by the end of the second week.

Below are a few pictures of the outside of the dorm, the hallway, and examples of the rooms we are working in.   First, we paint.  Then we put down flooring. Followed by the construction of over thirty bunk beds.  I will keep you posted on the progress.

In Buenos Aires

Just a quick post...

We had a good trip down on Friday night and Saturday morning, about a ten hour flight from Atlanta.   By late morning, we were settled in the hotel, The San Remos, and after a quick rest we had the opportunity to go to an ESL class where we participated in a round-table conversational class for people who were wanting to learn English. By the end of the day we were beginning to feel the effects of flying through the night, so we were thankful to call it a day.

Today (Sunday) we worshipped at Nuevo Chicago, a church of about 80, which also has an elementary school of about 260 children. We spent the day with one of the missionary families and also others of our mission group.  We have a busy two weeks laid out for us and we start tomorrow with painting, which will be followed by putting flooring down in the dormitory.

I will try to post when I can, and Jan will also post some pictures along the way.

From Buenos Aires ...

Leadership Team Announcement: Collegiate/Young Adult Position Filled

After a prayerful and careful search process, the Leadership Team of  Calvary has offered the position of Collegiate Pastor to Micah Hoke, who is currently serving as an Associate Collegiate Pastor in Lubbock, Texas. Micah is from Midland, Texas and his wife Cynthia is from Lubbock.

Micah has been the Part-time Associate College Minister at Indiana Avenue Baptist Church in Lubbock since 2010. The local university, Texas Tech, is of a similar size to MTSU in that it has over 32,000 students. The college ministry at Indiana Avenue has grown from approximately 40 to 400 in the last three years, thus allowing Micah to develop significant staff and leadership experience in the collegiate area. Cynthia has also served as a Part-time Associate in the collegiate ministry. They met when they began working together and then married in May of 2012. He has a Master's in Christian Ministry and she also has a Master's degree. 


It's our hope that he will begin his ministry with us by the end of this month. Pray for him and Cynthia as they begin making preparations for the transition to Calvary.