Bob and Sue Stern

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Prayer Letter/Ministry Update

Greetings!!

Since we´re gearing up for the holidays we thought we´d send out this update now while folks are not yet inundated with too many things to do!! For us November is already promising to be quite busy here with several trips planned, one of which is vacation! :) Some recent highlights have been:

* Alliance Pastors´ Retreat and Annual National Church Convention October 9-12 in Buenos Aires. It was one of the best, if not the best ever and we came away inspired and encouraged about the future of the Argentine Alliance National Church. A new President, Felix Jimenez, was elected and the workshops were great, especially the one on Missions.

* While at this event the Lord confirmed and further amplified His leading about our future ministries. We are currently exploring different avenues and would greatly appreciate your prayer support. Thank you!

* Bob ran his second marathon on October 11 while in Buenos Aires and was pleased that he bettered his previous time and was uninjured as well!!

* News came during our stay in Buenos Aires that we had received the full amount for our Women In Crisis Project from the Alliance Women National Project for 2008/2009!! (Thank you SO much, Alliance Women, for once again making a difference.) We have been organizing and communicating with local pastors, professionals, and lay leaders upon our return to Corrientes to make the best possible use of the $5000 seed money. It is our intention that this ministry continue even when we conclude our involvement here in Corrientes mid June 2010 when we depart for the US on our next Home Assignment.

* We appreciated our field Director couple Jon and Judy Grames visit this past weekend. It's great to have their input as always!

* Bob will be traveling to the city of Paraná in order to greet and lend some moral support to the fledgling work there. He and Dario Dans, a criminologist and member of our church, will leave this coming Friday and return, Lord willing, on Saturday. Dario teaches at the university in this city once a month.

* Bob will celebrate his birthday next Tuesday, November 17 and will still be able to say that he´s in his 50s for another year!!! Little Tomas Conti celebrates his seventh birthday three days later, Many of you remember praying for Tomas when he spent the first two months of his life in an incubator. He´s learning how to read and gets great report cards in first grade!!! Bob and he are special friends.

* On November 20 and 21 Sue will be driving to our district's Alliance Women's Retreat in Yapeyu, Corrientes, birthplace of General San Martin. Sounds like there will be a good turn out! Carmen Conti and Sue will be accompanied by two ladies who are pretty much unchurched, so we would really ask you to pray for them and their experience at the Retreat. Please pray as well for speaker Elena Papa, whose husband Roberto is seriously ill with a nodule in his pancreas. At this point it is touch and go whether she will be able to be our speaker. Also, the organizers of the retreat just contacted Sue this week and asked if she'd give a workshop!! She decided it would be the perfect opportunity to present our Women In Crisis Project. Pray especially for journey mercies, please, as Sue is the only driver and the roads are not the best.

* Following the retreat we plan to drive to Buenos Aires and see good friends, Royal, Linda, and Andrew Hamel, who will be here on a visit from Canada. The Hamels are coming to celebrate the anniversary of the Ramos Mejia Alliance church which they helped start when they were missionaries back in the 80s. Afterwards we will drive down the coast to the cities of Mar del Plata and Trelew, and possibly Cipolletti. Bob wants to run his third marathon of the year in the Trelew area. We plan to be back home in Corrientes by December 10.However you may be planning to celebrate the holidays this year, we trust that you will remember to take some moments every day to get quiet, breathe deeply, and think about how much God loves you. That should refresh all of us and keep us going on the seasonal marathon so we all finish well!!

Much love,

Bob and Sue Stern

STRETCHER BEARERS
(Or Letting in the Light)

These particular words bring our family members back to a pick-up baseball game down at the lake one Labor Day long ago….Frankly, it’s the only time I ever remember the Howe and Barnes families having a game!! Brother Bobby (13) was up to bat and little sister Marsha (10) was pitching. Threats were going back and forth: “Don’t you dare hit me!!” “I’m going to drive that ball right through you!!” Or something like that….Anyway, when Marsha pitched the ball, Bobby kept true to his words and slammed it right to her stomach which left a bruise there for a few weeks!! Marsha wailed and screamed and 51 year old Bob Barnes, to lighten up the moment, coined the phrase that always brings a smile to our faces whenever any of us hears it to this day:

“STRETCHER BEARERS”!!!!!!

Why am I mentioning this now in this email to you? Well, at our recent retreat, for which many of you prayed, the Lord brought some new insights on a pretty familiar passage of Scripture.

Remember the one about the paralytic and his friends? Luke records the story about the man who was completely unable to get to Jesus without the persistent and concerned effort of four friends. The “stretcher bearers” in this case really went to some extremes to help their friend get the help he needed from the Lord. They really had to think “outside the box” as everyone likes to say these days. Actually, I’d say, that they had to “think outside the house’!!! Can you imagine, someone actually tearing your roof apart so that his/her friend could have a moment with Jesus? What would you say as a homeowner?!!

Those friends, however, knew that their friend, immobilized as he was, would not get the help he needed unless they took some pretty drastic measures. They tried to go in through the door but, if you read the passage, they couldn’t even get close due to the crowds who were gathered around the house where Jesus was…

Then there’s that matter of Jesus’ not addressing the man’s obvious needs first. Instead He tells the man that HIS SINS ARE FORGIVEN!! What? I thought the man’s problem was his paralysis, didn’t you? As they say here in Argentina, “OBVIO”!!! Or, DUH!!!!!

But evidently there was more, much more as we see.

It has been three weeks since we returned from our three day retreat in Paso de la Patria. While there, we resolved to work together on a Pastoral Care and Counseling seminar to offer here in Corrientes in March 2010 at a local Bible Institute.

Our plan is also to make this available to Alliance Churches here in Argentina. We will be presenting the course as part of a package in a proposal to the Argentine Alliance National Church when they gather October 10-12 for their annual Pastors’ Retreat and convention in Buenos Aires.

If the National Church officials approve our proposal to return for two years following our June 15, 2010-January 2011 Home Assignment, then said proposal goes to International Ministries of the C&MA for approval. Should this be accepted, we will be returning, Lord willing, to Argentina to give the seminar and also work with churches which are open to receive us to give Missionary Conferences and Alliance Heritage Celebrations as well. Thus we would be involved in the C& MA’s new thrust to Push Back the Darkness through the further preparation of Alliance Missionaries from Argentina.

This is already happening at our local church here in Corrientes. The very day before we began our retreat to discern the Lord’s will for our future we were totally blown away by a powerful skit the youth group did during our Sunday Celebration service. It was Missions’ Night and the kids did a mime of a young Christian who wants to get out there for God and serve Him. It started with one of the kids wearing a tee shirt with the word “God” who embraces the globe and shows His love for the world. Santiago Conti’s facial expressions spoke volumes as he played this role. Then Anna Gomez, the Christian, gets distracted by Sarita Fretes, dressed in black, to forget about her desire to reach out. So while Anna is goofing off, Sarita proceeds to attack and “kill” Mauro Conti, dressed up as a Central Asian person, while Santi (God) pleads with and tries to warn Anna about what’s happening to Mauro. But it’s too late for Mauro, and Anna finally realizes what has happened. The skit ended with her falling on her knees and weeping over Mauro. Most of us in the audience were weeping along with her. (Later Anna said her tears were real.)

Following this, Anna, who is hoping to go to Mozambique in December with YWAM on a short term ministry effort, drew our attention to the flags and information around the room. The countries represented were the 6 or 8 spiritually neediest nations in the world, she said. Anna directed the congregation to meet in groups of three or four and pray for the people in these places. We had “fresh information” on one Central Asian country as our church had been visited just the previous week by an Argentine missionary whom our church supports.

Pastor Ricardo Conti’s dream is to one day go to Spain as a missionary. His heart’s desire is to reach the Basque people of this nation. But for now, he and Carmen, Bob and I continue to work together to establish the Casa de Esperanza Alliance Church in the city of Corrientes. When we all started the work here eight years ago, we didn’t know how the church would develop. For us it is wonderful to see how our little church is growing into a missionary-sending body. Meanwhile we continue to learn and grow in our outreach in the midst of political campaigns, ingrained distrust between the haves and have-nots, government corruption, crazy traffic, and the ebb and flow of life in an influential city where students from the interior and surrounding provinces come to study medicine, law, psychology etc in the various institutions of higher learning in Corrientes.

In other words, people still stuck or paralyzed in their sins and needs are trying to make their way and somehow get ahead. “Succeed at all costs!” is their motto, but eventually they are totally stopped by one crisis or extreme need or another. Where are the STRETCHER BEARERS who will take them to Christ? Who will help allow the Light come through in their lives paralyzed by fear, depression, family dysfunctions, materialism, substance abuse, family violence or just plain independence apart from God?

I thank the Lord for Jean and Helen and others like them who prayed for me when I didn’t know where to turn for help. Because of people like them, I have the peace of Christ in my life and know where I’m going!!! I also thank the Lord for people like you who have supported us throughout the years in what we do here in Argentina. These past eight years in Corrientes have been amazing, and a real highlight of nearly thirty years as International Workers with the C&MA in Argentina.

We sure hope we’ll be sent back here for another two years at least as International Workers with the C&MA. But if not, and if the Lord wants us to return, we will look for another way because that is what we are sensing from Him. The very first morning of our retreat, when I turned to my journal I read an earlier entry where I had asked the Lord for this. Bob and I are both in agreement about it. We will see how all this plays out.

Meanwhile we are continuing on here in our various ministries and are very excited about what God is doing in our midst!!! It doesn’t get any better than this, this side of Heaven!!! Hallelujah and thank you very much for praying!!!

The Lord bless you!

Sue and Bob

Seven Years!!

Dear Friends,

This past Sunday, June 14, our church Casa de Esperanza celebrated the 7th anniversary of our first public service. We kicked it off with a leadership meeting in the morning and lunch together following. It was heartwarming to hear the twenty leaders commit to the areas of ministries to which each felt most drawn.

During our customary evening service we also celebrated a baby dedication and a time of sharing our hopes and dreams for the future. A pastor from another church even came of his own initiative to join in this very special Celebration!! For the ten of us present at the very first meeting in 2002, it was a special blessing to look around at the full room of families and singles and thank the Lord for those who have been added to our midst and the ones yet to come, Lord willing.

Thank you for praying for the Family Violence Prevention Seminar held on Saturday June 6. Fourteen came out on a cold morning in June, and at the end of the day reported having gained new insights on this social malaise which affects all strata of society and culture. Two social workers mentioned their surprise at a church hosting such an event. They were taught at their university that churches aren’t generally involved in such matters.

Bob has been training for some months to participate in his first marathon in the city of Rosario, Argentina on June 21. However he is battling a cold so we are praying that he will be well enough by Sunday to run. We would appreciate your prayers for him about this. It’s something his heart really desires.

Sue is gearing up for another counseling activity, this time what we’re calling Counseling Teas. The idea is for a support group for women between the ages of 45 and 60ish as they rediscover themselves in the face of the ‘empty nest´. Friend Susana has invited Sue to design and lead such a support group in around ten sessions during the winter and early spring. The goal is to begin on Saturday June 27 and wrap up in mid November. Sue asks for prayer for themes which will meet the needs and for those who will profit by participating. We are currently drawing up a list of possible interested women and the first two sessions will be at Susana’s.

We truly thank the Lord for these opportunities and for our church as we all serve the Lord in our various capacities here in the city of Corrientes. This past Saturday night we were invited to attend a dinner complete with authentic Mexican cuisine in the home of a couple who are physicians. At first we didn’t think we should accept, since we were already committed to share with the teens’ group about dating. But after praying about it each on our own, we sensed we needed to go afterwards. And as it turned out our host was someone whom a mutual friend had tried to introduce to us during our last term here!

As we close we want to remember four people who have gone to be with the Lord during this past month: Joyce Caston, retired missionary to Argentina; Yolanda Escobar, from the Curuzu Cuatia church; Angela, a grandmother from Corrientes who attended our church several times; and Jean Perry, longtime family friend and fellow believer. We are grateful to have known each one and that each one knew the Lord.

We also want to say thank you to those who pray, and express our gratitude to those who support us through the Great Commission Fund! Thanks as well to those of you who continue to give to our Work Fund, Car Special Fund, and to the Corrientes Property Approved Special. You make it happen!!

Living the Call together with you,

Bob and Sue

LOOKING BEYOND

Serendipities are fun sometimes and we had one this past week while we were composing the last email you received from us. A gentleman we met on a plane during one of our Home Assignments in the ‘90s looked us up on the Web and got back in touch with us after all these years (by way of our locator page on the C&MA website www.cmalliance.org !!! He said he’d saved one of our prayer letters and had been praying for us all these years. This is what he said:

"Every few days, when I encounter it, I ask the Lord to give you strength and wisdom, to bless you and make you a blessing to others. Attached is a copy. This morning, when I turned to your prayer letter, I thought that perhaps I could find you on the Web so I conducted a search in Yahoo and your web page came up on the Alliance web site. It is good to see that the Lord has been faithful in preserving and blessing your ministry down through the years. The next time you return home and report on your ministry, please let me know. I'd like to hear what's happened to you over the last 15 years. In the meantime, I'd like to receive your prayer letter in whatever format you currently use (snail mail or e-mail). Oh, how the technology has changed! I look forward to hearing from you and seeing you again."

Wow! That was pretty special as you might imagine. It just so happens that the particular prayer letter our friend mentioned, written in July 1993, was entitled Looking Beyond. We found the following excerpt to be most appropriate in today’s transitional situation:

'Last week as we busily prepared for our July 17th departure for Argentina, we decided to call directly to the airline to confirm our flight plan. What a shock when they said, ‘you are not booked for the final leg of the trip.’ The tickets were purchased and in our possession, but our names didn’t appear on the passenger list.
We had called in time and the problem was solved, but the lesson we learned was even more timely. We need to look beyond our present circumstances and prepare for what lies ahead' (underlined in the original letter).

Bob and I would also like to quote our Field Director, Jon Grames, in the email he and his wife Judy just sent so that you can understand more fully the picture here in the C&MA’s work in Argentina. He says it so well and we quote:

"TRANSITION
Last December I received a phone call advising me that the C&MA had decided to transition out of Argentina. In this case, “transition” means the process of closing the field over a period of time- in the case of Argentina- five years. Of course, this information could not be made public until our partner C&MA church- the Argentine Alliance- had been informed. In their General Conference in October they had approved an aggressive ten year plan to, among other things, open 25 new churches in the next decade and were counting on the C&MA Mission to help them accomplish those objectives.
Some are probably asking why the C&MA is closing so many fields right now (six in South America). I cannot express it better than what JoLee Bubna did in her article in the September 2008 issue of Alliance Life- “…there are not enough funds to continue to resource all that The Alliance does around the world…”

So cuts must be made. There will still be many needs and opportunities in the fields that are being closed. But we have reached a point where, of the Great Commission Funds (GCF) that are designated for International Ministries, more than 90% are used just to keep our missionaries on the field. This means that very little is available for such things as evangelistic programs, pastoral training or places for churches to meet. Since the decline in giving to the GCF (as a percentage of total church giving) has been continuous for decades, we can no longer “dodge the bullet”. Changes must be made.

Our field’s transition plan is still in development. However, it is certain that none of the missionaries currently on the field will be able to retire as C&MA missionaries to Argentina. At some point in the next five years, most of us will be seeking other ministries or employment outside of International Ministries.

Prayer Requests/Answers to Prayer
Pray for the development of the transition plan for the Argentina Field. Pray for our Regional Director Bill Mangham and missionary Bob Stern (in Jon’s absence) as they discuss transition with the leadership of the Argentine Alliance Church on Friday, April 3rd. Pray that our Argentine brothers will in faith take up the challenge of moving forward without continued missionary help. They have never faced this challenge in over 110 years of ministry.
Pray for our field missionaries as they seek the Lord’s direction for future ministry. Transition back to ministry in the USA is often difficult.”

Meanwhile we are gearing up for special Easter celebrations. Our church is distributing special edition booklets from Our Daily Bread with daily readings having an Easter theme. Salmo Trio*, a terrific folkloric group from Buenos Aires is planning to come to Corrientes during Easter week to sing in different churches. God willing, the Casa de Esperanza church will be hosting them at an Easter Sunrise breakfast* and service. Afterwards, we hope to have an Easter dinner* at our house in our backyard, complete with ham and all the trimmings!!

Easter Sunday is not generally celebrated here in Latin America, as it is in protestant nations.So this year, we really want to CELEBRATE THE RISEN LORD!!!!!
*If you would like to help us subsidize these events, please send your donation to R. Stern Work Special at the address given below!! Thanks!! Or, if you could make a trip to the Dollar Store and buy some colorful Easter napkins, stuff them into a mailer like the ones available at the PO, and send them to us at our home address listed below, that would help make our celebration really special!!! Thanks!!!!
Love and prayers,
Bob and Sue Home Address: V. Sarsfield 907 3400 Corrientes ARGENTINA

Please send your financial contributions to us at:
The Christian & Missionary Alliance PO Box 35000 Colorado Springs, CO 80935

Previous Letter--
It’s Official

Dear Friends,

Now that Argentine National Church leaders have been informed, we are at liberty to share the news with you that, as of 2014, International Ministries of the C &MA plan to withdraw all missionaries from Argentina. We are not alone, as six other countries in Latin America will be affected as well.

We are committed to the Casa de Esperanza church plant here in Corrientes until we leave for our next Home Assignment in July of 2010. It is not yet clear where we will serve upon our return to Argentina in January of 2011. The Lord knows the future and that is calming, exciting, and assuring. Jer. 29:11

We would ask that you pray for a special meeting our Regional Director Bill Mangham will be having with the National Leadership on April 2. Bob will be traveling to Buenos Aires to accompany Bill to this meeting. Afterwards all missionary personnel who are in Buenos Aires will meet with Bill.

The goal of International Ministries and our Field Leadership at this point is to leave the two mission church plants in the cities of Corrientes and Mendoza with buildings as well as fully supported by nationals.

This is our news and we look to you as always to pray about these very important matters. Thank you so much.

Some of you have accompanied us throughout our missionary journey with the Christian and Missionary Alliance for 30 years now. And as always, we thank the Lord for the privilege of partnering with you. We look forward to continuing that partnership.

That’s it for now and we will certainly continue to be in touch. Meanwhile we are continuing to work toward the expansion of the Vineyard here in the city of Corrientes, Argentina.

We love you,

Bob and Sue

PREVIOUS POST

WHAT’S COOKIN….

Well for one thing, WE have been during this long HOT summer here in the Southern Cone of the Southern Hemisphere!! Of course we know this means that YOU there in the North have had an unusually COLD winter and that warm weather sounds pretty good about now! We hope that your warm weather arrives soon!! (So we can ALL have some respite!!!!!)

Seriously, our body temperatures aren’t the only elements which have “been cookin” here in our neck of the woods. We’d also like to report to you about some up-and-coming projects-in-the-making. Fall is approaching, schools are reopening here next week, and people are returning back to life as usual after the summer holidays. As you can imagine, this is an opportune moment to be launching new endeavors. Here are some for which we ask your prayer support:

• **Family Violence Prevention Seminar Dr. Susana Zuloaga, lawyer and mediator, highly experienced in this area, and a close friend as well, has approached Sue about collaborating with her. We hope to hold the seminar and other subsequent one-day workshops in either a church with large capacity seating or at a facility which offers overnight housing for family members of out of town medical patients. Our goal in hosting this seminar is to train interested lay people and also to provide further counseling to victims of abuse at the latter setting, which is sponsored by a not-for-profit interdenominational foundation.
• Dental assistance to needy Bob, Ricardo, and Pastor Miguel Pujol, the prime mover and shaker behind the above mentioned facility known at the Casa de Mi Hermano (My Brother’s House) have recently worked together on a proposal to receive Alliance Women’s National Project funds allocated to the Argentina field for medical ministries. The Casa de Mi Hermano has had a goal to obtain dental equipment and the pro bono services of dentists in order to offer free attention to people using their services. (Note: Pastor Pujol told us personally that they had been promised a dental chair by a political organization which never materialized even though they were continually told that said chair would be delivered!!) We are awaiting approval from our personnel here when they have looked over the proposal.
• Weight Loss and Maintenance Seminar and subsequent weekly support groups. (Sue as both assistant and participant in these activities presented by Marianela Ackermann, M.D. and Emilio Hidalgo, M.D. Dr Marianela is a recognized expert in nutrition, endocrinology, diabetes, and Dr. Emilio is an excellent psychiatrist in his own right. It will be both a challenge and a privilege to work with these two professionals. Sue is really excited about this! She will also be involved in the organization and planning stages of this group.

• Children’s Outreach The Good News Club in the Santa Rosa Neighborhood will be resuming activities again now that summer is drawing to a close.
• Concerned Parents of Corrientes Three influential citizens here in our city, distressed about the effects of violence and substance abuse taking its toll on their children, have been organizing meetings to discuss and discover alternatives and solutions for effectively relating to their adolescents and pre-adolescents. On Saturday, February 28, Pastor Ricardo Conti was invited to represent the evangelical ministers’ point of view at a town hall meeting. Over one hundred people were present at this meeting. Ricardo was selected by his peers from the protestant ministerial association to be their spokesperson. We thank the Lord for this opportunity to serve our community.

**FYI
Gifts given to projects like the first one mentioned above under the Alliance Women’s National Project for this year, THIRST QUENCHERS, raise funds for the purpose of helping women at risk. We submitted a proposal which was approved by the mission leadership team here in Argentina, and was subsequently selected by Alliance Women National Committee. Check it out on the Alliance Women’s Website at www.alliancewomen.org and look under the ’08-’09 Emphasis link. Our project is #17 ARGENTINA: WOMEN IN CRISIS. Further information is available there on how to give to our project. During these hot summer months here in Corrientes, the validity of such endeavors was further impressed upon our hearts when a dear friend tried to take her life. THANK THE LORD that her life was spared and that she sought counsel and was open to a visit in her home. We continue to pray that the thirst in her soul will be quenched by Christ’s love and salvation.

Please pray with us for the implementation of all of the above! Thank you! It’s always great to hear from you and we value your friendship so much. Your emails, cards, and support are a source of great encouragement to us and the Casa De Esperanza Team.

All our love and greetings from Corrientes,
Bob and Sue

Prayer Requests/Answers to Prayer

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Argentina

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