Argentina

Argentina Trip Report

March  2007

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Greetings in the Wonderful Name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

A team formed of 10 brethren: Rob Brown, Jesus Nunez, Willie Ripple, Constantin Lupancu, Allen Andras, Francisco Sanchez, George Ieremciuc, Johnny Buia, Aurel Balici and Adrian Greab went to the cities of Rosario and Buenos Aires, Argentina from March 24 to March 31 to spread the word of God to inmates in nine prisons, many churches and a Remar halfway house.  First we want to thank God because he was with us on our trip and guided and protected us all. During our week there, we distributed about 480 bibles. It rained every day we were there.

We left Saturday, March 24 from Chicago and after a 12-hour plane ride we arrived in Buenos Aires, Argentina. From there we took a bus, which was arranged for us by brothers Hugo and Daniel Brodbeck, our hosts for the week. It took us another 5 hours by bus to get to city of Rosario, which has a population of 1.5 million and where we spent most of our time. We divided into two teams one composed of: leader Rob, Willie, Allen, our interpreter Francisco, and Adrian.  The other team consisted of: leader Jesus, Aurel, Johnny, George, and Constantin.

As soon we arrived each team spoke at a different church. One church was called “Vision de Dios” (Vision of God) and had about 250 members. All on the team had a chance to speak and at the end of service a lot of people decided to pray that they would get closer to God.

Monday morning we went to our first two prisons, one of which was in the city of Nujere, which was for women. There were about 15-20 women present at the service but others listened including about 6 or 7 guards. The word of God was preached to them but at the beginning not all of them were paying attention, but after 10-15 minutes we could see that even the guards were paying attention. At the end we saw some of the women crying because their hearts seemed to be truly touched by God. Some of them decided to give their lives to God.

Monday night there was much flooding in the area and even the church services were cancelled because of flooding in the churches.

Tuesday morning we all went to another prison in the city of Santa Fe, which was for men. The prison had about 750 people. Two weeks prior to our visit, 12 inmates were killed in a riot there.  One team went to the south wing and the other group to the north wing.We spoke to about 60 prisoners for about one hour and a lot of them also prayed to give their lives to Jesus. After we spoke to the inmates, we got a tour of the prison and we saw were some of the inmates were receiving industrial training. They had sections for learning carpentry in order to make furniture, training to make cement grills, benches, metal desks and chairs, floor tiles, etc.

Tuesday night we went to Remar, a halfway house, in Rosario and about 100 people were present. The whole team attended.  Also attending were the homeless, alcoholics, drug addicts, etc. It was a special night because we really felt the presence of God in a special way and we felt certain that hearts were touched and lives were changed.  Many now want to start serving God and to minister to other people that are going to thru the same pain as they have gone through.

Wednesday morning we went to two more prisons in the city of Pinero, but we didn’t get a chance to speak to a lot of inmates in one of them because it is a very dangerous prison and there was a conflict inside the prison that morning and there were a lot of guards present in order to get the situation back to normal. But the inmates who heard the word of God decided to give their lives to Jesus, and we pray that they could be a light for the other inmates who couldn’t be present to hear the Word of God.

Wednesday night, Rob Brown and Jesus Nunez held the Prison Training Seminar, which was attended by about 65 people. One woman in particular heard about the seminar on the radio and had traveled a long way to attend. She is interested in working the women’s prisons and has only been in prison ministry for two weeks.  She said it was a big blessing for her to receive the training.

Thursday morning we went to another prison in Rosario and again one team went to one wing and the other team went to a different wing. There were about 140 inmates who were in Christian wings but we also we spoke in another 3 wings with about 12 people in each present. Many were hearing the Gospel for the first time.

Thursday night we went to a church, which was pastored by a Brazilian missionary. Special prayer for some of the young people was made.

Friday morning we went to 2 different villages around Rosario, which are considered among the poorest in Argentina. We distributed food that we had purchased to about 110 families, but after we saw how great the need was so we bought food to feed another 70 families. Also we gave preached the word of God and gave bibles to the people before we gave them the food. We thank God for the chance that he gave us to touch those people lives even for a small way considering how vast the need is.

Saturday morning we left for Buenos Aires. There we went to one of the few prisons in the world that has only Christian inmates and is run by a Christian administration. The name of the prison is “Cristo la Unica Esperanza” (Christ, the Only Hope) or Number 25. Argentina gives numbers to each of their prisons. We had lunch with the director who, with tears in his eyes, shared his personal testimony of how Christ changed his life. After we finish eating, we were invited to take part in the church service being held in the prison. People from outside the prison come with their families, including children, to take part. Many from around the world have come there to see what God is doing. As soon we entered into the room we felt the presence of God in there. All of us had tears in our eyes because we felt the Holy Ghost inside and all around us. It was something that we are going to remember for the rest of our lives because its something rarely felt even in the churches of America. God has done something special there because the inmates spend each day in prayer, fellowship, Bible Study, and worship services.
Saturday night we returned to the U.S.  We saw His Mighty work again like we see in every country we visit. We thank Him because we had the great privilege to speak the word of God in prisons and churches in yet another country. Please pray for the lives of those who gave their lives to Jesus that they will become a light in the darkness. Amen.

Blessed be the Name of the Lord.
Staff Chaplain Rob Brown