Buenos Aires

I ran across this BBC article on drug use in Buenos Aires shanty towns this week. Pretty depressing stuff, although I love the story about the Mothers Against Paco fighting back.

I was particularly struck by the last paragraph:

"Most Argentines never set foot in the sprawling shanty towns around the main cities and are only now becoming aware of the growing paco problem - a problem that is threatening to become a crisis."

I guess it's easy to be insulated and unaware, no matter where you live.

Blessed by Lexington GBC

This past weekend Jil and I participated in a Missions Fair at the Lexington, OH GBC. It was such a great blessing. They really went all out to show their interest and support for us and the other missionaries there. We had a cookout Saturday evening with one of the adult bible fellowship classes. It was a great time of getting to know some of the individuals in the church. Then on Sunday, there was a fair at the church building like I've never seen before. Each of the ABF classes constructed a house representing the 6 different countries for the missionaries who were there. The amount of time and energy put into this was really impressive. There was also lots of great ethnic food and a pitch-in lunch afterwards. It was such a great time, and Jil and I were both really blessed and encouraged. Below are some pics from the event. Thanks so much Lexington folks!!

This is the Argentine house they built.


Emerson and her new friend, Emma,
trying to take down the Czech castle


England

Equipped and free

This week is the Equip 07 conference here in Winona Lake. I have to work so I'm not able to take any of the classes that are being offered. But Jil is attending Neil Anderson's class. Last October I had the opportunity to attend a seminar of Neil's in Fort Wayne. His books and ministry with Freedom In Christ Ministries are really pretty amazing. We've also had the opportunity the last 2 summers to be taught by Dr. Tim Warner, who is also with FICM, at GBIM's family reunion. Great, great stuff. Maybe for my next post I'll work on putting together a list of some their key ideas, just to whet your appetite if you're not familiar with their core teachings.

Oh man, can I really do this?

We are currently just 4 months away from really beginning our life as missionaries. The weekend after Thanksgiving we will head out to MTI in Colorado for 3 weeks of training. Just after leaving for MTI I will officially shift from my safe, comfortable, full-time employment position, to my part-time tentmaking contractor / missionary position. Shortly after MTI we'll leave for Costa Rica for a year of language school to learn an entirely new language...

All of that, and right now what I'm really thinking is "Oh man, can I really do this? Can I really commit to updating a blog on a semi-regular basis?" But, it's definitely a necessity. There are just too many people to update. For all of my reluctance, it really is something I need to do. So here it goes. (Maybe we'll shoot for weekly updates for now.)

Our blog begins...

Thanks for checking out our blog. We plan to use this site to provide periodic updates on our life and ministry with GBIM.

The Elledges- Planting Churches in Argentina

We have been accepted by GBIM (Grace Brethren International Missions) to work in Latin America as church-planters. We are truly privileged to join such a great mission organization with some really amazing people, including our teammates – Nate & Deb Dunlevy and Brian & Tara Gornik.

Our current target is to begin our first 3-year term in August 2007 (with the first year for language school to learn Spanish) and an anticipated deployment to La Plata, Argentina in mid-2008. La Plata is a large university city near Buenos Aires, with a tremendous need for church-planting among the urban poor there. Our vision is to see a movement of multiplying churches started in this area. The Argentine church is strong and growing, but there are still areas like La Plata where there are virtually no opportunities for large numbers of people to hear the amazing, life-changing truth about Christ. We want to change that.

If you want to be part of this or find out more about what we're doing, then there are several ways for you do that.

• You can commit to pray for us and receive our regular email updates – We desperately need people who want to join us in praying for God to build His church in Latin America. If you feel God leading you to commit to this, then please send us an email with the subject "Prayer". We will add you to our list of individuals who will receive a prayer email every 2 weeks or so.

• You can financially support our ministry with GBIM – There is obviously a large financial cost in doing something like this. We need people and churches who want to partner with us financially. All support in this way is greatly appreciated, but we especially need individuals and churches who will commit to supporting us on an ongoing basis (monthly, yearly, etc.) If you feel God leading you to commit to this, please click here https://donatelinq.net/donate/gbim-donate.asp?mid=gbimorg. You can select our names from the drop-down list of missionaries.

• Also, if your church or small group is interested in hearing more about GBIM's ministry in Latin America and you'd like us to visit sometime, please let us know. We'd love to come.

It's really not possible to convey the full extent of our excitement in this email. Some of you know that we've been praying about and preparing for this for several years now. We are truly expecting to see God work in ways we can't even begin to imagine or hope for right now! We hope that each of you are seeing God work in your lives, and we look forward to hearing about what's going on.

Thanks,
Rich and Jil

Eph 3:20 Now glory be to God! By his mighty power at work within us, he is able to accomplish infinitely more than we would ever dare to ask or hope.