Argentina - 2008

Buenos Aires, Argentina Construction Missions Trip Missionaries: Rocky & Sherry Grams – September 5-16, 2008, Henry Weigel

Caveat

This report is not meant to be a comprehensive report on everybody’s activities. It is simply a report on my personal experience, especially in the area of ministry. Construction trips usually are not associated with ministry, but if we look to the Lord He can and does arrange such opportunities.

Travel and the Routine

Stan and Julie Wagner had arranged for a team of ten to go on this construction missions trip to the Instituto Biblico Rio de la Plata (IBRP) in Buenos Aires, Argentina. In English it is River Plate Bible Institute. Six were coming from California (Stan, Julie, Carl, Doty, Steve and Anita) three from Virginia (Doug, Jean, and I, Henry) and one from Arkansas (Thomas). We all were to meet at Dulles International Airport (IAD) and go together from there. One of the ladies from California took ill on the plane ride to IAD and was not able to go further. My wife Grace took her to a hospital and from there home to our house to spend the night and make arrangements to go back to California while the remaining nine proceeded to Buenos Aires.

Our overnight UAL flight for Buenos Aires departed from IAD the evening of Friday, September 5. We arrived in a rain on Saturday morning. By the time we got settled in and with the rain coming down we just took in the situation before us and didn’t start the work until Monday the 8th. Our last day of work was Saturday the 13th. We departed on an overnight UAL flight on Monday September 15, arriving early Tuesday morning at Dulles.

Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires is a large city with a population of about 13,000,000. It has probably the widest boulevard in the world consisting of, I believe, 18 lanes. We drove on it. I should say Sherry drove on it. She is an excellent driver of a large Speed-the-Light van. Argentine men are not used to seeing a woman drive a van and are duly impressed when they see Sherry back this thing into a tight space. She was an excellent and exciting chauffer, being somewhat on the aggressive side – a necessary characteristic to survive the traffic and sometimes bad streets. She and a student, Fernando, picked us up at the airport. Later that Saturday we went to downtown Buenos Aires to eat steak at a nice restaurant. Argentina is noted for its beef. During our stay at IBRP Sherry also took us to several shopping areas in Buenos Aires. We got a good look at the city and its people.

The Work

The work consisted of refurbishing a large stately old house with a big yard that hadn’t been lived in for years. The IBRP had received permission to possess it with the intent of purchasing it sometime in the future. It, at one time, was the home of Hitler's attaché, his representative to Argentina. The roof had been leaking and consequently some floor boards were rotted, beautiful stained glass windows were broken, a staircase was missing, walls needed plastering, the yard had heaps of ruble: and dead trees and brush strewn about, and more. We worked with local craftsmen and received enthusiastic help from students. Our combined effort accomplished quite a bit and the place looked very different at the end of our six working days.

The Instituto Biblico Rio de la Plata

Rocky and Sherry Grams are the missionaries in charge of IBRP. They have been there since the early 1980s. Rocky is the director of the Institute and his wife Sherry is his able support and counselor. In a way she functions as a behind the scenes-director. I mean this in a kind and constructive way as she is an integral part of Rocky and what he does. In addition to administrative, budgeting, and counseling duties, they both teach at the Institute. At present the school has 1200 students counting day and week-end students. Quite a few of them become missionaries to other lands. The students’ dorm facilities are crowded to the hilt. Future work teams hopefully will help to expand the facilities. Expansion of IBRP is also in the plans and will require hundreds of thousands of dollars.

There has been a decades-long revival in Argentina that Rocky has documented in his book, "In Awe In Argentina." I have read the book and was truly inspired by it and looked forward to going there on this missions trip. The book is available from Rocky’s sister, Rachel Schaible, 7304 W. Ford Circle, Sioux Falls, SD 57106; phone: (605) 362-6858; also e-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Ministry Opportunities

On the Flight Down

Normally, I look to the Lord to open ministry opportunities on these trips. On the plane ride to Buenos Aires I was sitting next to a young man who was going to a wedding in there. I was in a conversation with him at the beginning part of the trip and then we did our own things. As the flight progressed I became agitated in spirit because I had not yet talked to him about Jesus. I silently cried to the Lord to help do this. The opportunity came and I offered him a Gideon New Testament. Making this offer produced a good opening to discuss Jesus with him. Together we looked at John 3: 16, 17, and 18. Verse 16 says God loves us. Verse 17 says God is not the bad guy some people make Him out to be. He is the good guy who sent His Son to save us, not to condemn us. Verse 18 is the clincher: the choice is yours! If you don’t accept Jesus you condemn yourself. I also countered the idea that Christianity is an exclusive religion by likening it to a castle built on a steep mountain peak with the only access being a bridge to it. The owner of the castle issues an invitation to have dinner with him and provides a map on how to get to the bridge and a password to use in getting in the door. If some of those that are invited insist on trying to climb the cliff based on their own efforts and NOT use the bridge and the provided password, how can they possibly say they have been excluded. It is their choice. Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life and no one comes to the Father but through Him. We also looked at Romans 10:9 and 10.

On the Flight Home

Julie Wagner had loaned me a book on the life of a missionary family in what is now the Republic of Congo, "Beyond Jungle Walls", by Sandy Thomas. I had put it down in the empty seat next to me and a young man, Mike, sitting on the other side of the empty seat noticed it and commented on it saying that his mother had said that he should read it. That started a conversation that was mutually encouraging in the Lord. Mike was with a group of young men making up Team Canada &emdash; men’s volleyball. He is 22 now and after his playing days are over (at about 30) he wants to go to Bible School and go into ministry.

At the Work Site

Our whole team was quite busy with the clean-up of the grounds. Word came back to me that my work (and I expect the work of the whole team) had been noticed and that it was a testimony to the neighbors. At one point a local man came walking on the sidewalk as I was dumping an arm-load of trash into the dumpster; he smiled broadly at me, clapped me on my shoulder and all the while he is talking jovially in Spanish. I indicated I did not comprehend. That did not deter him. He motioned to someone from the Bible School to come to him and he continued to talk to that person. I have no idea what was said. He seemed pleased with something I had done. It goes to show that our actions are a testimony as well as our words, in some respects a testimony of greater impact.

At a Chapel Service

At one of the chapel services in the morning Sherry introduced our work team to the students. She asked us to tell about ourselves. In particular, she asked me to tell my story of my family fleeing from Hungary in a boxcar train in late November of 1944 as the Soviet soldiers were coming. My mom and dad had five children (I was number four) and my mom was seven months pregnant with child number six. My dad got separated from us and after seven days on the train we were let off in a little village in Germany on the Danube River about 15 miles from the Austrian border. On New Years Eve my mom kept the four oldest up to pray in the New Year and specifically for God to reunite us with our dad. Through unusual circumstances my dad found us before the baby was born (she was born on January 30, 1945). Furthermore, after World War II ended we found ourselves in the US zone of Germany. A representative of the US Assembly of God, Brother Gustav Kinderman came to check on Christians that had been displaced. In 1949 he and his wife sponsored our family of eight to come to the US – what a delight and blessing that was. Sherry also asked me to tell about my Gideon affiliation and opportunities to give out New Testaments. I told about some Divine orchestrations of opportunities to talk about Jesus or give out New Testaments.

Being Ministered to

Seldom do I get ministered to as I was on this trip. I rarely use the word, awesome, to describe situations or events. This experience was awesome to me. We sat in services by three personalities that are mentioned in the book: Edgardo Munoz, the pastor of the church that Rocky and Sherry attend (he is also the Vice President of the IBRP); Claudio Freidzon, an internationally known pastor of a church of about 25,000 people; and Osvaldo Carnival, a pastor of a church of 25,000 and the host of the Spanish 700 Club. Sherry took notes of the sermons where no radio translation service existed and passed them piecemeal to us so we got a feel for what it was about.

Edgardo Munoz

Pastor Munoz’s church is in a building program and the heating system has not yet been installed. The people came dressed for the weather and filled up the church. The striking thing was the worship service. It was very enthusiastic and Christ –centered. Something like three people took turns leading the worship. It was beautiful – even with the language barrier. Pastor Munoz was not there on the first Sunday we went but was there the second Sunday. He had just arrived from Singapore. He had been en route over 30 hours and had prepared his sermon on his laptop which he used to give it.

Claudio Freidzon

On Sunday the 7th we had attended the Grams’ church (Munoz) in the morning and in the afternoon we attended the King of Kings church pastored by Claudio Freidzon. We had to be there early as it ended up with standing room only and no empty spaces between people in the benches – the ushers saw to that. About 3,500 – 4,000 people were packed into the auditorium. They had small personalized radios with English translation for the visitors – a nice touch. They also alternated between a couple worship leaders. The worship was very uplifting. The first segment went about an hour. Then came a short presentation of the Gospel based John 3:16-18; followed by an invitation to accept Christ. An estimated 50 – 80 people came forward for salvation. These were shepherded to another place to receive further instruction. Then more worship. Pastor Freidzon came on stage at about 6:30 PM. The service had started at 4:20 PM. He interviewed several people with testimonies of God’s intervention in their lives, including healings. After his sermon we had communion and then the altar service began. He invited our team and others to the altar so he could pray for us. This had been my desire. I went forward hungry for a touch of God. I prayed my heart out, so to speak. Freidzon must have laid his hands on me three times. The Holy Spirit set my body into motion that in brief can best be described as an animated "dancing in the Spirit," – what an experience. I think it was after the third time he laid hands on me that I went reeling and staggering and was upheld by people around me. We know David danced before the Lord with all his might (2 Samuel 6:14) and the apostles were accused of being drunk when the Holy Spirit came on them in Acts 2. So I believe I was in good company. One of our brothers, Doug, was completely overcome by the Holy Spirit and lay on the floor. Ushers got him to a seat and his wife and I helped him get out of the church building as it was 8:00 PM and people were coming in for the third service of the day. I believe the key to having the Holy Spirit move like that was the extended worship that focused on our Lord Jesus.

Osvaldo Carnival

Pastor Carnival spoke at an evening chapel service at IBRP that some of our team attended. The students had a beautiful worship service before he spoke. At the end of his sermon he had an altar service. Just about all the students got in line to be prayed for. When the line was just about gone I went up and told Pastor Carnival that I did not speak Spanish. He prayed for me in English that the fire of the Holy Spirit would sweep through me (or something to that effect). At one point as he was praying for me I felt something I can best describe as a big fist enclosed in a glove of feathers hit me in the body. It made me take a couple of steps so that I would not fall over. I took it as a definite touch of the Holy Spirit.

What Now?

I relish a touch of the Holy Spirit as much as the next person. That does not make me anything special. But if, because of it, my life changes to a greater devotion to the lordship of Jesus, then we have something to be excited about.