**
BA Culture of the Day: as many of you (especially our younger readers) may be familiar with, the "bromance" is a close friendship between guys. As you may or may not be familiar with, in Argentina the traditional greeting is a polite kiss on the cheek. Well, on the Subte today, Beau had a little cultural faux-pax. Much like when you are walking through the mall and have to divert around another person and keep running into each other in a perplexing studder-step face off, Beau had this same issue. Only with his mouth. And another guy. No kissing, just lots of head bobbing and awkwardness. BA: a different kind of bromance.
PS about the culture: you are always supposed to "go to the left" when greeting someone."
**
Today was yet another incredible gift from God. We started our day at the Sinclairs' house, praying "through the alphabet". It was awesome to have to really, really, really think about things to pray for. It always seemed like once we'd get past a letter the requests for that letter would just start flowing. "X" was a little difficult. I don't know how to pray for xylophones or xenophobia. If you do, please advise.
We took the subway to the end of the line today and visited the Catedral Metropolitana before walking to the colleges. Being in such a grandiose and historic building was slightly overwhelming, but seeing the lostness of people and the hopelessness of mass (we visited during daily mass) was compelling. There were so many people praying to statues of the saints or the Virgin Mary, expecting they have the power to bring them salvation or satisfy physical needs. They have a notebook for you to write prayer requests in which are read monthly by the priests; I wrote the following prayer:
Lord,It felt like I was able to use this opportunity to share the Gospel with Catholic priests. Also, witnessing people in a practicing cathedral (as opposed to the non-practicing church we visited on Monday) gave us increased cultural insight about the role religion and the "saints" play in Argentine life.
I ask that the people of Buenos Aires would see the truth that salvation comes only through faith in Christ and is not about a religion or the good things we do. Only Christ saves!
Justin
The first school we visited was UBA Facultad de Ingeniero (School of Engineering). Carmen, Beau, and I were on a team today, and we began the morning by prayer walking. I walked up to a student (Fernando) and asked him where the cafeteria was. Engineering students are different than humanity students. We were able to ask him his thoughts about God and found out he is actually an atheist. For him, he believes in things he can test and prove, and God does not fit within those limits. I was quickly able to share with him that God is God because He extends beyond our intellectual capacity.
Outside of the school, Beau and Carmen engaged a group of guys, and we ended up talking to them for like half an hour. Okay, actually... I kinda pushed them to go talk. One of the guys told us he was a Protestant, so we're praying he is a believer and can connect with Dave to continue reaching the students.
We walked from UBA Ingeniero to Puerto Madero, one of the nicest areas of the city. It was much like being in a US city (me gusta). We ate at this DELICIOUS Italian restaurant on the patio (go patio servers!) with a view of Puerto Madero and Rio de le Plata. The environment of PM made us feel like we were in a different world.
The Universidad Catolica de Argentina is in PM, so we visited it after lunch. Beau, Carmen, and I all felt mentally exhausted and had a hard time getting things rolling at UCA. We walked around, tried ambush evangelism (we were [inadvertently] sitting in front of the bathroom trying to start conversations), and then walked outside. Finally, we decided to walk back to near where we were meeting as a group and prayed God would show us who to talk to. He did.
After [again] pushing Beau and Carmen to go ask some guys where the international admissions office was, we were taken by Nicolas y Noel to the information office. **Cultural fact: if you ask a Porteno where something is and it is less than a mile away, they will not only tell you where it is, but walk there with you.** It actually turned out they did not know where the office was, so we were able to spend probably 30-45 minutes talking with them. Carmen chatted with Noel, and Beau and I were able to talk to Nicolas. Both were very interested and receptive of the truth we were telling them. Beau and I were able to extensively use our experience in the cathedral to witness to Nicolas. He said he did not believe in God because it was too hard a thing to do, and we made it our goal to show him faith in Jesus Christ is simple and personal rather than difficult and based on a religion. He seemed to truly respond to the Gospel, and we pray that He makes a decision to put his faith in Christ. Beau and I both felt he was on the verge of accepting as we were finishing our conversation. While we weren't able to pray a prayer with him, we know that faith in Jesus Christ is all you need for salvation and sincerely hope he finds it soon.
We came back to our hotel, and took the most amazing siesta I have potentially ever experienced. Two and a half hours. After forcing ourselves to wake up (and stopping Beau from throwing my iPhone/alarm clock out of our ninth story window) we grabbed dinner at Rey de Hamburguesa (they actually call it Burger King, too) before heading to UBA Facultad de Economias.
At UBA Economia we actually met a group of like seven guys who had just finished final exams. We talked to them for a while outside of their classroom and then they invited us to dinner with them. At Burger King. Again. (We've ate there three times so far)(it's good)(and comfortable)(but the beef is better than in the EEUU). On the way we had to dodge a barrage of confetti, flour, and whole eggs. Apparently it is a tradition in UBA to throw eggs, flower, and confetti at graduates after the finish their final exams. This is one tradition we intend to definitely NOT bring back to the states. It looked like someone blew up a bakery at Times Square on January 1. Crazy.
At BK we spend about an hour chatting with the guys and just getting to know them. Jessica, Jordan, and I talked to Sebastian, an economics student at UBA. We were able to talk about a bunch of things, and though our conversation never got deeply spiritual, we shared our faith with him and were able to forge a friendship.
It's amazing to see how God can do amazing things through and despite our weaknesses. Fatigue is definitely beginning to rear its head among the group, but due to our prayers and earnest seeking of the opportunities God brings us, we are continually provided with a sufficient amount of energy and enthusiasm to accomplish His work.
Truly, we are learning each day what it means to offer ourselves as living sacrifices to God, continually and literally relying on Him to provide us with the physical and mental capability to get through our days. Believing God will provide for us and actually relying on Him to do so are very different things, much like the difference between believing in Jesus Christ and having faith in Him as Lord and Savior.
Thank you for all of your prayers; you have no idea how much they are working. Hopefully this blog will help frame your perspective. Please continue to specifically pray for our team's energy, that we would be able to make it through the rest of the week, and for Dave and Paula Sinclair, that the energy and enthusiasm we have brought to BA would continue long after this week is done.
Solo Cristo salva!
Justin
P.S. (A little from Beau): During this trip Justin has converted me to blogging, so I couldn't resist coming down and throwing some thoughts his way as he wrote. It is interesting he mentioned sacrifice in sharing the Gospel because I've been studying that in the Bible this trip. As I've learned how to show the Gospel with non-believers, I've been afraid that my inadequacies might have a negative impact upon my communication. But we need to keep in mind it is God using as tools for reaching the lost rather than us bringing them to Christ. Since God is perfect, by offering ourselves as living sacrifices for His work, sharing the Gospel, He will use and amaze us as His instruments of righteousness. - Beau
thanks for keeping us updated.Justin I sent you an email.
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