January 2020 Report

Greetings from Uruguay! In December we celebrated Christmas by participating in an evangelistic outreach (in a public plaza and local stores) and in the Lord’s Day service in Iglesia Bíblica Comunidad in Carmelo with FEBU co-workers. Our two nieces, Florencia and Lucía (also part of our church in Pando), accompanied us. We also celebrated the wedding of a former student in Vergara, JM being given the opportunity to give a gospel message during the ceremony. And we celebrated the second FEBU graduation: Two young ladies completed requirements for the four-year degree; three other ladies completed a certificate program; and five local pastors and missionaries received recognition for their faithful attendance during the five years of pastors’ classes. Nations and ethnicities represented by this group of ten graduates include Uruguay, Argentina, Costa Rica, Germany, Brazil, and the Armenian diaspora.

During the next several weeks we will finish our move, now in process, out of the EMU/MEU mission house to an apartment up the street in the same neighborhood. Over the past six and a half years we have appreciated opportunities provided by living so close to Bible-Institute (B.I.) classes and, for several years, FEBU classes. However, the time seems right for our family to have a place of our own. January has been taken up with preparation of the apartment, organizing and moving, and participating in workshops at Camp Emmanuel on the topic of Christian music. February activities will include translating for part of a two-day class on ecclesiology and eschatology (the wrap-up of the five-year Pastors’ Program mentioned above); attending the EMU/MEU workers’ conference; preaching in the wedding of two former FEBU and B.I. students; and taking a week of family vacation. Matías Acevedo, who is helping with the youth activities in Iglesia Bíblica Maranatha, is organizing with the teens and college-aged group an evangelistic soccer tournament in the church neighborhood. Please pray for the Lord’s work in this barrio and for the ongoing growth of the church. The elementary academic year (for DJ and D) begins on March 2, as do B.I. and FEBU classes (for JM and D). E also returns to local public middle-school in March. This semester D will teach Grammar & Composition in FEBU. JM teaches OT Poetic Books in FEBU and Homiletics I in FEBU and the B.I., while continuing work on a manual for tracing argument in the N.T. Epistles.

 

According to her national ID card, Julia Piedad (pictured above right) was born in April 1926. She says her birth date was really in February, however, and we aren’t sure of the year. We know that this year she turns at least 94. She dates her new birth to the month of the 1950 Uruguayan World Cup victory when—in contrast to the temporal celebration around her—her thoughts turned to God. For approximately seventy years she was the housekeeper and bulldog of the EMU/MEU mission house. The word bulldog is not unkind and might, in fact, be euphemistic. This description now is necessary, not only to give a picture of the fierce care that she took for whatever she considered her realm, but also because the description highlights, we think, the work of God in her life over the past several years. As her health has waned she has experienced increased pain and near blindness. She has also been forced more and more to depend on others for her care. At a time in life when complaining about her discomfort would be understandable and even expected, her disposition has sweetened. Her occasional comments about pain are rarely—if ever—complaints. The picture, taken this week, is a regular scene. Please pray for her continued growth and unwavering trust in Jesus, and for wisdom and grace for those responsible to make decisions about her care.