Miramar is a lovely
vacation city on the southern Atlantic coast. Frances and I have dear
friends there, Pablo and Miriam Ruppel, who serve as pastors of the local
Assemblies of God church. This church has a history of involvement in the
community. They do yearly special events for some of the public schools
with puppets, dances, drama and a wholesome Christian message. They have
blessed at least one of the grade schools located about 20 miles out in the
country, by collecting large quantities of scholastic supplies and food items
for the students. Their active involvement has earned for them the trust
of the leadership in these schools.
So when the Ruppels heard that I was coming to their town for just
Wednesday and until Thursday noon, they scheduled me to minister with Felipe in
three of these schools.
From the first to the last this was a exhilarating experience.
Dario, a young man with a winning smile who is studying for a teaching
degree and seems to know everybody in town, was assigned as my guide.
Our first school gave us the 3rd, 4th and 5th
grades. They wanted to keep the group small enough to keep excellent
order. Dario helped me with everything, including holding Felipe’s
case. I let the front row pet Perfume and had Felipe sing and tell the
story about blind Bartemeaus.
The school kitchen was next to the room we were using. I noticed
the cooks peeking through the curtains to get a glimpse of Felipe.
We sang “I have decided to follow Jesus.” I had written on the
chalkboard Jesus said, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me
will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life." John
8:12 We read it aloud together then we said it again and
again as I erased words. In about 7 minutes the entire class was
repeating this verse by memory with only a few scattered words still on the
board. Then I had volunteers say it perfectly all by themselves… and
everyone applauded them.
I talked to them about the two spiritual kingdoms: light and
darkness. And explained that since Jesus is the light of the world, if we
follow Him, he promises to light up our lives. I warned them about how we
are surrounded by people who walk in darkness. They will urge you to
follow them by sneaking off somewhere to try drugs, smoking, sex and liquor.
The enemy of our souls wants to plunge us into darkness. If we follow
Jesus, He promises to give us the Light of Life. And again we sang “I
have decided to follow Jesus.” I closed with a fervent prayer, asking God
to convince every child there to truly follow Jesus.
As the classes filed out, a group of kids closed in around Dario and
me. We shot their picture.
I had left a few isolated words from the memory verse on the
blackboard. I was busy receiving hugs when I noticed that one little girl
was filling in the whole verse by memory.
Then another girl begged to erase it all and write it all herself by
memory. She did it without missing a beat! I repeated this
basic message in each of the other two schools, adjusting to the age
levels.
Wednesday evening at church time we had a very heavy rain storm, but
still a good group gathered.
And what a service we had! God just broke open the “alabaster box”
and filled the place with His presence! Oh! How I love You,
Jesus! I had to walk in rain water two inches deep to get to my car and
was soaked to the skin under the driving rain after loading my instruments and
Felipe.
Thursday morning Dario and I did the final public school event out in
the country.
What a beautiful atmosphere in this little humble public school!
English is taught from 1st grade. I told the teachers if
I had kids I would send them to this school.
That afternoon I drove one hour north along the stormy coast toward Mar
del Plata to an area on the coast call Playa La Serena (The Serene Beach) to
minister in a new little church in a humble neighborhood that night. My
dear friends, Juan Domingo and Teresa Romero, are planting a church here.
It was pouring rain again and the unpaved streets were deep mud. My
faithful little diesel car plunged into mud-holes that took me scooting
sideways and every way, but we always came out on the other side.
In 1977 the Romeros helped Frances and me start a church in a suburb of
Buenos Aires with a group of drug addicts. Since then they have held
great evangelistic, healing crusades in many countries in the Americas
(including the USA) and Europe. Now here they are in a humble rural
neighborhood starting a new church! You gotta love this kind of
people. They have built a small hall and even though people had to come
trudging through mud in pouring rain… the place was filled to capacity.
It was very cold and there is no heat.
Several pastors from other
areas had brought their people, too. Oh! What a blessed
service! God is up to something good and he lets me in on bits and pieces
of it.
At midnight we sat by a crackling fire in a humble little house
belonging to the next-door neighbors. We talked over old memories and new
plans with the pastors (Teresa in white and Juan Domingo on the right), as we
enjoyed a home cooked meal of raviolis and meat. I was back in my hotel
at 2 AM. Today, Friday, I drove the 6 hours back to the Buenos
Aires area where I have six ministry events scheduled for this weekend
(including Monday a holiday).
You have just witnessed two days of this week’s activities. This
weekend I have six wonderful events scheduled.
Ralph
