This week has been so intense, first off I have found a church that I love. It´s a small church with about ten people in it so we already know everyone and the best part is when we finish the service at 9:00 we all walk next door to the pastors house and she cooks us a meal and we all eat and talk for hours. It has a true family feeling and the people from the church are already asking me if I´ll come back to Puerta Madryn after I´m done with my DTS. So I can definitely feel the love.
But what was really intense about this week was the classes. The whole week has been on the topic of deliverance. A big part of deliverance is talking about demons and some of the stories that the director was telling were just insane, if it had been anyone else saying it I would of thought that they were either lying or crazy, but I definitely believe a lot more in the power of the spiritual world now. But what was great about the class was that it´s more about the freedom that comes from deliverance, which by the way deliverance is renouncing the power of sin in your life and allowing Christ to give you the freedom that comes from submitting only to him it sounds a lot like baptism but it involves a lot more steps. The class has helped me to forgive other people, and it´s helped me to forgive myself for a lot of the things that I´ve been carrying around with me for a while.
I have no idea what the classes will be this week but I know our schedule is going to be tight because we have to leave this Saturday to go to Buenas Aires for a YWAM conference with all of the YWAM bases in the Southern region of South America, and we´ll have the oppurtunity to hear from the YWAM founders themselves, so it should be alot of fun. I´ll try to send an update from Buenas Aires when we get there next weekened.
Genesis 4:7
-Matt Hursh
Monday, October 18, 2010
Sunday, October 10, 2010
Good week
This week has been pretty awesome. The church service I went to last week was only supposed to be two hours long, but the spirit decided that it was going to become a four hour celebration.We didn't get back to the base until well after bedtime but we were excited. And on top of that there were a bunch of kids at the church that my group went to, it reminded me of how much fun I had working with kids in the states. It even made me miss my old job a little bit, but the kids were really excited to get to talk to a new foreigner and I ended up teaching them how to do the macarena (not sure how to spell it), but it was an incredible experience.
This week we had the same topic for class all week taught by Nacho. It was an in depth discussion about how we see God with our own concepts, and how God is truly described in the bible. The classes sparked a lot of healthy debates and brought up a lot of good questions for me and how I look at God. We also had the opportunity to do some more visits in the neighborhood that our base adopted as our mission. I got to meet a guy named Louis and his family. He was extremely nice and open to talking about God, not that I understood the entire conversation, but I caught onto it for the most part. We were even able to get his wife to come to the celebration with us that evening. So we can see God moving in the relationships that are being built in the community and it's awesome. On the way home that night I was feeling especially friendly and decided to say hola to everyone I saw and give them a smile ( I originally wanted to say God bless you but every time I tried to pronounce it in Spanish the Latin missionaries just laughed). It was refreshing to see that the people in Argentina reacted the same way as people in America, they looked at me funny and kept walking, but a few people smiled back.
This week has included a lot of reading, I was assigned a book called Making Jesus Lord by Loren Cunningham (The founder of YWAM) to read for a book report that's all about us conquering the world through submission. It was a pretty good book and it had a lot of cool stories in it. The book also helped me realize that I still struggle to give certain things over to God and that I need to continue to pray for strength in this area. I've also been reading a book called The Irresistible Revolution by Shane Claiborne. This book is incredibly eye opening, it had me tearing up in the first chapter. For anyone who wants insight into what radical Christian love looks like today I would highly recommend the book.
With the classes and the books, on top of the scriptures I've been reading, and the discussions I've been having with my disciplers and class mates God has been teaching me a lot. I'm seeing old verses in a completely new light, I'm getting a more clear picture of God's call in my life, and I'm loving this country and it's people more every day. I keep praying for the kids in this city and I urge my brothers and sisters at home to do the same. I'm keeping the churches in America constantly in my prayers. God bless you guys.
Luke 3:11
-Matt Hursh
This week we had the same topic for class all week taught by Nacho. It was an in depth discussion about how we see God with our own concepts, and how God is truly described in the bible. The classes sparked a lot of healthy debates and brought up a lot of good questions for me and how I look at God. We also had the opportunity to do some more visits in the neighborhood that our base adopted as our mission. I got to meet a guy named Louis and his family. He was extremely nice and open to talking about God, not that I understood the entire conversation, but I caught onto it for the most part. We were even able to get his wife to come to the celebration with us that evening. So we can see God moving in the relationships that are being built in the community and it's awesome. On the way home that night I was feeling especially friendly and decided to say hola to everyone I saw and give them a smile ( I originally wanted to say God bless you but every time I tried to pronounce it in Spanish the Latin missionaries just laughed). It was refreshing to see that the people in Argentina reacted the same way as people in America, they looked at me funny and kept walking, but a few people smiled back.
This week has included a lot of reading, I was assigned a book called Making Jesus Lord by Loren Cunningham (The founder of YWAM) to read for a book report that's all about us conquering the world through submission. It was a pretty good book and it had a lot of cool stories in it. The book also helped me realize that I still struggle to give certain things over to God and that I need to continue to pray for strength in this area. I've also been reading a book called The Irresistible Revolution by Shane Claiborne. This book is incredibly eye opening, it had me tearing up in the first chapter. For anyone who wants insight into what radical Christian love looks like today I would highly recommend the book.
With the classes and the books, on top of the scriptures I've been reading, and the discussions I've been having with my disciplers and class mates God has been teaching me a lot. I'm seeing old verses in a completely new light, I'm getting a more clear picture of God's call in my life, and I'm loving this country and it's people more every day. I keep praying for the kids in this city and I urge my brothers and sisters at home to do the same. I'm keeping the churches in America constantly in my prayers. God bless you guys.
Luke 3:11
-Matt Hursh
Saturday, October 2, 2010
Out of shape
This past week has kicked my butt. My American friend David and I decided that we would start exercising and since our day is already jammed full of lessons and work we decided we´d wake up earlier in morning. It was a terrible idea. But, we´ve been learning a lot this week. We had the opportunity to discuss the Fear of the Lord, which I always found a little ridiculous, but now I have a better understanding of it. We also talked about tithe and the importance of giving what we have back to God, so it´s been really good. The best is that my job for the week was cleaning dishes after dinner with two of the leaders. It was great because one of the leaders, Dawelky loves to sing worship songs in English, so everyone got to hear our not so beautiful singing every evening. I doubt they´ll let us do dishes together again.
This week we received our final three students for the course. Genesis from Ecuador, Philip a pastor from Ghana and his wife Selina. For Philip and Selina it´s going to be a tough transition since English is their second language and they don´t know a word of Spanish, but I´ve talked with Philip and his English is very good. This is the first time that this base has had missionaries from Africa. So it´s pretty cool.
It´s been awesome to see God working here. We had a service last night and we needed to raise $1400 pesos for a cement mixer to help build blocks for the new base. And with the forty people there, twelve of which were students, eight of which are missionaries with no salary, we were able to raise $1650 pesos. And on top of that we have a team in Ecuador that was caught up in the middle of the chaos that happened there. One of the students had gone to the bank right before it started and the missionaries lost contact, but fortunately after a lot of prayer he found his way back unharmed and the chaos subsided.
There is so much work to be done here. After going door to door and talking to people in one of the poorest neighborhoods of the city you can see a desperate need for Christ. The missionaries here do an amazing job with what they have. But there´s still a lot of things to be done. I´m asking for my brothers and sisters at home to please pray for the children in Puerta Madryn. There is a serious problem with trafficking young girls in the sex trade. My heart breaks every time I hear another story about it. And of course as in most situations like this the police are bought off and there is little hope for justice. We´re praying for God´s hand to move in this and we ask for you to do so as well. One thing I´ve learned is that Satan hates nothing more than when Christians selflessly lay down their pride and pray for others. So intercede with us for their sake.
God bless every one who´s fighting for the kingdom and I can´t wait to be back with you guys in adoration.
James 4:7
Matthew R. Hursh
This week we received our final three students for the course. Genesis from Ecuador, Philip a pastor from Ghana and his wife Selina. For Philip and Selina it´s going to be a tough transition since English is their second language and they don´t know a word of Spanish, but I´ve talked with Philip and his English is very good. This is the first time that this base has had missionaries from Africa. So it´s pretty cool.
It´s been awesome to see God working here. We had a service last night and we needed to raise $1400 pesos for a cement mixer to help build blocks for the new base. And with the forty people there, twelve of which were students, eight of which are missionaries with no salary, we were able to raise $1650 pesos. And on top of that we have a team in Ecuador that was caught up in the middle of the chaos that happened there. One of the students had gone to the bank right before it started and the missionaries lost contact, but fortunately after a lot of prayer he found his way back unharmed and the chaos subsided.
There is so much work to be done here. After going door to door and talking to people in one of the poorest neighborhoods of the city you can see a desperate need for Christ. The missionaries here do an amazing job with what they have. But there´s still a lot of things to be done. I´m asking for my brothers and sisters at home to please pray for the children in Puerta Madryn. There is a serious problem with trafficking young girls in the sex trade. My heart breaks every time I hear another story about it. And of course as in most situations like this the police are bought off and there is little hope for justice. We´re praying for God´s hand to move in this and we ask for you to do so as well. One thing I´ve learned is that Satan hates nothing more than when Christians selflessly lay down their pride and pray for others. So intercede with us for their sake.
God bless every one who´s fighting for the kingdom and I can´t wait to be back with you guys in adoration.
James 4:7
Matthew R. Hursh
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