Today in a Chinese Christian School

About 300 children and teens study in a Chinese Christian school in downtown Buenos Aires.  Their school curriculum includes Saturday classes.  

Graciela, the School Principal, divided the student body into two assemblies for me. 

I had from K through 6th grade at 3 PM. Check out these delightful faces!

Perfume and Felipe did their stuff. 

I taught the smaller kids a song with the accordion.

Then I drew them a reversible face and gave them the "bad news... 

...Good News message... short version.

At 4 PM the 7th through 12th grades gathered.

What a delightful bunch! Both groups!  

They tell me that a few speak only a little Spanish, but most understand well. 

After each message I closed with prayer. I think that the parents of some of these youth are business people who may have other religious backgrounds.

How do I get myself into these things? The answer is just one word: Jesus! 

A lovely young lady named Ana happened to be among the 90,000 youth in the stadium last December. She tells me that God touched her with my brief message that night, leaving her in tears. 

She followed through finding me on Facebook or somewhere and made contact via email. She is part of the large Chinese community in this great city and connected me with this school where she had graduated... working out all the details.  

Beside this she supplied me with a thumb-drive wireless internet modem! Oh how I needed that! I have been struggling all week, having to carry my computer down stairs and set up on a bench in the hall sometimes in the middle of the night. And she refuses to let me pay the bill to keep it going.

Ana recently completed her studies as a medical doctor and will take her final exams in a couple of weeks. She wants to give her life for Jesus!  

Ralph

 

   

  

A Church of Youth

My GPS seldom lets me down. The newly rented hall in Pilar was on a main street, but for some reason it did not figure in the GPS data base. With the help of cell phones they finally got me there.

Mario and Alicia Fleita had previously served as pastors in the town of Alberti for several years. I ministered there once late last year when they were feeding a lot of poor people. But they had to leave that borrowed facility and have recently rented this hall and are starting over in downtown Pilar. Most of these youth have parents that want nothing to do with God or the church.  Yet these teenagers truly love God and make the trip from Alberti to most of the services here in Pilar. Others help them with the bus fare. 

I cannot remember another church quite like this one. I looked out at the congre-gation of about 60 people and looked for adults. I counted 4 men and 4 women including the pastor and his wife.  Not one grey head! 56 of them were youth and children! I don't know their secret, but this couple attracts youth. 

The four girl singers did a lot of motions to the music and the youth in the front row imitated them.

You can tell when an audience is "with you" when you preach... and these kids were "with me" big time! 

My message was nothing unusual or outstanding. I gave an invitation for salvation and one young man raised his hand and at the prompting of someone who had brought him, he came forward for prayer. 

Then several others in need of prayer came, too. I prayed with each one. 

Then I suggested "If anyone else feels like praying you may come up and kneel." 

In a few minutes the chairs had been pushed back and the entire front was filled with kneeling youth.  

A couple of guys on the platform kept some soft music going. After a long time had passed I asked the pastor. "What to we do now? These kids are down there praying with tears and they aren't getting up." He just smiled. 

Finally there were only a few left praying and the pastor had someone set up a box on the edge of the platform and people came up and left their offerings. 

This couple has taken a big step of faith. The hall is costing about $1,000 US dollars per month. And these youth spend all their money just to get there on the bus. They can give only pennies. With only four men... like many other church plants, they will need some major miracles to keep this hall and grow this into a strong church.

It never fails, after all is said and done... somebody begs me to get out Felipe again just for a picture. I sat down on the edge of the platform took him out. And at the sound of clicking cameras Felipe started flirting with a little bashful girl down front. I scold him for doing such things, but the girls love it.

The service had started promptly at 7 PM. 

It was now almost 11 PM "dinner time". 

I was served a delicious little pizza and a hot dog. They even provided me with a stool. 

This is the way we say goodbye in Argentina. I call it a "prayer-hug." Their arms clutching me tightly say, "Please come back soon!" 

Will I ever be able to return? I cannot promise. I plan to be driving far away into the interior of the country in early April. 

Ralph

The Banquet Table

On Thursday evenings the H Street team, under the dedicated leadership of Tony Giannosa, starts preparing a free hot meal for hungry men and women that show up. Space limits them to about 50. The free dinner is complete with salad, a hot dish, and delicious dessert. 


Photo: Tony and his wife, Gloria are parents of three girls.

Last Thursday it was my turn to give the devotional, my last chance to minister publicly before flying off to Argentina again the next week.

The tables were set with scripture verses by the place mats. At exactly 6 PM the kitchen crew announced that "all was ready." Tony called the cooks, the servers, the sound and video operator, the counselors and worship leaders together. We formed a circle and joined hands as Tony led us in prayer. God was waiting when the door was opened to invite the line of hungry people inside.

They took their places at the tables. But before the "banquet" was served, two lovely young ladies lead us in a couple of good old gospel songs. 

Then Tony invited anyone who had learned the memory verse to come up. 

A valiant older man with a strong Latin accent made a noble attempt. Obviously English was not his native language. He struggled and left out a word or two, but included the entire message of the verse. He got an applause and a prize, a coupon to the "Dollar Store". 

I pulled out Perfume and Felipe and followed with a testimony of my first flight, which served as a parable about my Jesus and His wonderful Gospel that lifts us up to new heights. I gave an invitation and prayed for those that responded. 

If you were never hungry, really hungry... you might not have described spaghetti and chicken nuggets as a banquet, but I observed that the food disappeared rapidly.

After the meal was over I noticed an elderly man who did not rise from his seat. I thought I detected tears in his eyes and went over to hug him and pray with him. 

There could be no doubt. God was in His "Banquet Hall". And the guests seated at the table were those from the highways and byways... the very ones that our "King" instructed us to invite to our feasts. 

This morning, Sunday, I cornered Tony and Gloria after church and asked for an interview. I found out that he works a full-time job organizing truck deliveries. Yet now for 7 years he has faithfully spent many additional hours every week operating the H Street ministry. He started reaching out to the needy in this area even before the H Street building was purchased by Neighborhood Church and remodeled.

He has about 25 faithful volunteers. Some are men and women that formerly were part of the line waiting outside. This is not just a program of passing out groceries. Each visitor is carefully registered and is shown personal interest. They are individually given godly counsel and prayed with. Some now sit on the other side of the table! They have been saved and have been prepared in special classes.  Today they are listening to stories similar to their own, stories of broken people.  But now they are offering counsel and praying with them! Praise God!

Tony told me of an atheistic former gang member that was living with a girl friend. Now they are saved, properly married and attending church in Reno, Nevada.

He informed me that every Tuesday night a team meets with him to prepare about 100 large bags of groceries to give out to needy families. At daybreak Wednesday mornings people start lining up since they know that the packages are limited in number. 

The Thursday hot meal is a relatively new idea. Tony says that he was seeking a way to have a more "church-like atmosphere" complete with a couple of worship songs and a short devotional where they could hear testimonies and a Gospel message from God's Word. It is working!

On the first Saturday morning of each month a special children's program is prepared. (See my March 8, 2014 blog entitled "God's Masterpiece.") 

I asked Tony, "What made you start doing this?  And what keeps you doing it faithfully week after week?” 

He answered “It happened when I was visiting a ministry to the needy in San Francisco.  I remembered Jesus’ words,  'I assure you, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!' And ever since that day when I look at these people's faces, instead of a ragged beard and the scars of sin... I see the face of God!"      

Ralph

Playing with God and the Angels

I have a retired pastor friend, John Thomas, back in Pennsylvania that has a wonderful little granddaughter named Svana. This little child is truly a miracle. Here she is last Christmas Day kissing her little brother Zak, who quickly out-grew her. Svana was born with multiple serious physical abnormalities and little hope of surviving more than a few hours or days. Over and again during the past five years she has had to be rushed to the hospital. She has spent more time in hospitals than most of us adults and has been operated on many times. She has lived most of her young life attached to tubes and devices and still has to be fed supplemental nourishment through a tube and breathes partially through a trach ventilator device inserted in her neck... which they are praying may soon be removed. 

Yet in spite of all this, Svana is one of the happiest, sweetest and most delightful children I have ever known. Yes, I "know" her... because her grandpa "Papa John" sends an update on her set-backs and miraculous advances every few days or weeks, complete with pictures. And along with other friends, many times we have held her up in prayer when she was hanging between life and death. This morning I received this message from "Papa John": 

We pray with Svana and Zak every night at bedtime.  After prayer, we ask each one what she/he is thankful for.  Last night Svana said "I'm thankful for playing with God and His angels every day." --As a theologian, I'm not quite sure of what she meant by that.  But as a grandparent, I believe I do.

I answered John with the following note:

You and Carolyn and Rachel have been wonderfully blessed with a very special little girl.  We all know that she is still here on this big round ball because she has something to teach us.  And I think God just now used her little voice to teach us all something.  “Svana plays every day with God and His angels.”  Now that is deep! 

I have been widowed now for 3½ years and I can understand that.  I play with God and His angels a lot.  

These days computers can help with almost everything… window-shopping, buying, calculating, bookkeeping, editing, storing and printing photos, studying the Scriptures, making video calls to foreign lands, communicating with the entire globe via email and much more.  So I tend to spend a lot of time with my computer.  

Often I am sitting at my computer and get that feeling that it is time for a break.  I think I hear Jesus calling me to have some fun with Him.  So I go to the piano or my Hawaiian steel guitar which are in the next room just waiting for me… and I “play with God and His angels!”  My singing voice sometimes fades into a squeaky whisper… maybe from preaching in the open air… or perhaps just from old age… but the angels join me… and the warm tears flow… and the praises rise to the throne of God!  And somehow God joins in the fun and I know I am not alone. This can go on for an hour or more.  Sometimes I sing in Spanish, sometimes in English and other times with words that only He and His angels can understand. And sometimes I, too, know exactly their secret meaning.  

Oh! I think I hear His voice calling me now!

“Ciao, hermano!”  See you later!

Ralph

God's Masterpiece

The theme was "You are God's Masterpiece" at "H Street today". 

"H Street" is a ministry arm of Modesto Neighbor-hood Church. Years ago the church purchased and renovated this building located in an area of town where the needy and homeless are close by. 

When I drove up to the building this morning two homeless people were sleeping on the cement sidewalk under our overhanging roof to get out 
of the rain and cold.  Yes, there are two bodies under that pile. (above)

Tony Giannosa, a man with a great heart, (shown here serving up mini-empanadas to the kids) supervises the ministry here.  They give away free groceries and free hot meals every week to around 100 individuals or families. Every contact is given the message of Jesus' great love for them and a chance for a new beginning. 

Some of those needy ones who before stood in line are now part of the team of workers.  Praise God!

On the first Saturday of each month a team meets to do something meaningful with the children. Josh Kazas, a high school teacher and a member of the H Street team, invited me and my friend, Dan Middleton to join the fun today. 

Following the theme of "God's Master-piece", Dan dreamed up the idea of having each kid lay on the floor and be traced with pencil on a sheet of butcher paper, then each would color their silhouette and cut it out. I added, "Why not take a picture of each child, enlarge it, print their faces on plain paper and paste it on the head. So as the kids came in I took a portrait of each one, then enlarged and printed them and someone cut them out. 

After songs and prayer we embarked on the project. 

Soon loose heads were laying everywhere. 

The 7th and 8th grade girls did some special art on theirs. 

Kids worked on the floor or tables using crayons to color clothing onto their silhouettes.  

After coloring they cut out their silhouette.

Each child seemed delighted when they pasted their own portrait onto the cut-out of their bodies.

The idea of the message was "You are unique. God has created you for a purpose. You are beautiful! You are God's masterpiece."  

So the final step was to paste the memory verse on each cut-out. For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.  Eph 2:10

After a delicious snack, the kids enjoyed a visit with Perfume and Felipe. 




And I prayed for these precious masterpieces of God's workmanship. May they each keep Jesus Christ foremost in their future!

Finally we called them all to bring their paper cut-outs up front for a picture. Behold! Now there was two of each of us!  And what am I doing in the picture? I was holding the camera!

Ralph