New House in the Barrio

Well we've finally found a place and we moved there today. We aren’t sure how long we will be here. Right now we’ve paid for 6 weeks which is almost half the price of our previous tourist cabana. It's a 2 bedroom apartment on the bottom floor of a massive complex. It’s located right in the middle of town between the touristy nice stuff and the Barrio where the poorer people live. This location is really perfect for the upcoming mass distribution of gospel tracts we will be doing. We can walk anywhere which will save money on buses. It’s got a decent view and came partially furnished by the nice landlady who lives above us. Our American friends Ginger and her Swiss husband Hans, both previous YWAM’rs, helped us move here and even loaned us sheets and a small refrigerator. On Saturday we are going to have a Parilla, which is basically a BBQ, but Argentinian style. People in our new barrio seem to be nicer and easier to meet than the more affluent folks from our previous location. People are on foot here too so we fit right in. There are also lots of kids around for Ritter to play with and learn Spanish. Plus it has a washing machine for all of Amelia’s diapers so Cheri is happy about that. I am getting our 10,000 gospel tracts tomorrow so we will begin to saturate the entire city with them. 2 Corinthians 9:6, though talking about financial giving, applies just the same to our work with tracts. It says “…he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.” Who knows what God will do with the tracts once they get into the hands of people eager for God’s truth. Hudson Taylor, the great missionary to China in the 1800’s was saved after reading a gospel tract. So one of our goals for the next 5 months will be distributing all 10,000 of them. We’ve got a couple of friends coming down in January that will be able to help out a lot. This last week I was able to have some great conversations with people. I went hiking with a friend named Diego who works at a Refugio Lopez in the mountains. We hiked to his work and then a bunch of local and foreign tourists showed up. I was able to speak in Spanish for ½ hour with a couple who actually knows and works with a guy we met on our bike ride 4 years ago. They gladly took a Done book and eagerly listened as I explained the difference between trying to earn your salvation through works and God’s free gift of life through Jesus. Cheri got to spend about an hour sharing the gospel with our neighbors before we moved out. They listened intently and were excited to receive a Spanish/English Bible to practice their English and also appreciated a Done book to further explain what Cheri had given an overview of. They were two young guys that had been dabbling in drugs, pray that the seeds she planted did not fall on dry soil. I also met an Israeli guy named Boaz on the bus who was curious to hear about Jesus the true Messiah. At the refugio Diego let me leave a Hebrew New Testament and a Spanish Bible along with a Done book. There are many trekkers who spend the nights in these places and I’m sure God will prick the hearts of some to read His holy word. One of my goals is to leave bibles in all of the 6 other refugios this summer. I was able to hike up Cerro Otto yesterday and do just that at Refugio Berghof. While there I spoke with Estefan the caretaker for 20 minutes about Jesus. I’m certain he’ll be opening the bible I left as he seemed curious about a couple things I had to say. Two of the neighbor dogs we call “Black dog” and “Yellow Dog” followed me 1000 ft up the mountain and back for about a 5 mile hike in all. The next morning they showed up to say hello, or I guess goodbye because we left shortly there after. Another objective I have is to place Hebrew bibles in all the hostels downtown where God might use them to reach travelers I’ll never meet. So that’s what we’ve been up to lately. Pray that as we go out daily God will go before us.



Our new apartment, only the lower floor, but it has a white steel rebar picket fence and a rose bush!
Black dog and Yellow dog on the hike

Not sure what she´s thinking here

Cheri and Amelia having lunch with an American girl we met

Ritter found this bamboo stick and immediately called it his ¨staff¨. He then said he needed to part the sea like Moses! He is starting to speak a few words of Spanish on his own now.

Sipping mate

Canyon hike up to Refugio Lopez

view from Refugio Lopez