False god, False Hope

And none considereth in his heart, neither is there knowledge nor understanding to say, I have burned part of it in the fire; yea, also I have baked bread upon the coals thereof… and shall I make the residue thereof an abomination? shall I fall down to the stock of a tree? Isaiah 44:19

Here in Buenos Aires, in almost every neighborhood, on a corner or in a park, you can find a small house. Inside it, there stands a statue of Mary surrounded by flowers and other religious icons. Outside it, at any given time of the day, there stands an individual gazing at it. This individual will touch it, kiss it and even bend down on their knees to pray to it, all in hopes of receiving a special blessing. Interestingly, at another given time, you would see someone unlocking the padlock on that little house, pulling everything out of it, cleaning it all, taking care of the surrounding grounds, then locking everything up again. The question almost screams at us ¿How can they trust something for blessing and protection that cannot even protect and take care of itself? That is the faith of the typical Argentine, faith placed in a false god that cannot help or even hear them. Please pray for them to receive the message of the only hope that can save them, the One True Son of the Living God, Jesus Christ.

Memory or Ministry?

Flashback— 7:30 AM, I hear the familiar wake up bell and a camp counsellor telling everyone to get up and get ready for the day. Marcos Paz summer youth camp in Argentina is one of the highlights of my life. Soon after, as the morning service was underway, young voices lifted up praise to their Savior in song. Then the main speaker for the week was introduced, but no one stood up right away to head to the pulpit.

Flash back to reality—my brain woke me up to the fact that it was my name they had called. For an instant the memory of past years at this camp had clouded the present reality that I had the privilege to challenge these youth from God’s Word for the week. What an honor to participate alongside other missionaries and pastors in such an essential ministry: one that  helped shape my life when I was a youth. Now it was the next generation’s turn to discover what it meant to be the “Generation of Hope,” which was the camp’s theme this year. We rejoiced in the decisions of four young people to receive Christ as their Savior during that week, and several other decisions to live for the Lord. Two more weeks of camp for the younger ages saw more salvations and many other decisions as well. Praise God for your investment and prayers which enable and empower us to help carry out the Great Commission here in Argentina!

Our group from Iglesia Bautista Calvario

Ben had the privilege to speak at camp for the week.

Click to print: Prayer Letter- Jan Feb 2015

November News

Our first ultrasound at 12 weeks. Baby is growing well.

Christmas Wonder

Ben and Rachelle taking part in a Christmas play.

Participating in special Christmas music.

Happy New Year

Something Old, Something New

These last two months have been a blur. We have experienced old familiar things, like seeing faces we remember, going to places we’ve been to, and eating some great Argentine foods our taste buds missed. We’ve also been reintroduced to several aspects of the culture, like the crazy traffic, shopping at a different store for each different food group, and remembering which appliances need voltage converters. Of course, the brand new things abound. We’ve had the privilege of seeing new faces and making new friends, learning the basic geography of our city and neighboring towns, and going through “real missionary” experiences like waiting in line for everything, getting a shipping container through customs, and having to get those appliances fixed that needed an appropriate voltage converter. All in all, God is good, all the time. Rachelle’s parents, Barry and Diane Courts, have been extremely helpful in helping us get settled in and adjusted. The church family here at Iglesia Bautista Calvario (Calvary Baptist Church) has taken us in as their own. When our container got to the house, there were twenty of the church people there ready to help unload it. That was an incredible blessing.

Some of our help unloading the container

Our living room after things were unloaded

Ministry Opportunities

Though initially focused on getting settled in here, we have been blessed to take part in a few different aspects of the ministry. Rachelle had the opportunity to help in the nursery and teach the ladies for a Mother’s Day event (Mother’s Day is in October here). Ben has been able to preach a couple of times and is helping with the youth group. We both have also enjoyed being in the music ministry, practicing for the Christmas program and choir numbers. We appreciate these opportunities because they allow us to work alongside Leo, who heads up the youth, and his wife Claudia, who helps with the ladies’ ministries. Leo is the pastoral intern at the church. They want to follow the Lord’s call to pastoral ministry, and we are praying for the Lord’s guidance in working with them to start a church.

Ladies at the Mother’s Day event

Ben teaching the youth

God also has given us some opportunities to share His word in either witness or counsel with others. The van we bought came from a business in downtown Buenos Aires, about an hour away. Ben had the opportunity to share the Gospel with the owner of the business, Andres. He was not interested in receiving Christ at the time, but still asked several questions about the Bible, Jesus, the church, and our missionary work. His office staff was listening in and he even had Ben share a brief Gospel witness with them to see if they had ever heard it before. They had not. Because of the vehicle transaction process here, Ben got to meet with Andres a couple different times, watering the seed that was planted, and giving him a Bible of his own. Please pray for Andres to realize his sin and turn to the Savior.

Click to print: Prayer Letter- 2014 Sept Oct

Maradona, Messi or Messiah

Maradona and Messi, Argentine soccer legends.

Almost Done!

Tri-City Baptist Temple, Gladstone, OR

Pastor & Mrs. Berry, Southland Baptist Church, Belton, MO

Getting Ready

Kids with Argentina missionary Mike Todd

While in Seattle we spent some time with Ben’s brother and sister-in-law, Nate and Katie.

Our trip to the Northwest included some great sites, like Mt. Rushmore.

Click to get our printable prayer letter: Prayer Letter May June 2014

Click to see our list of needs: List of Needs

“Your Order is Complete”

We bought our plane tickets! Over the last two months we have been amazed to see the Lord increase our support from 69% to 92%! We praise God for His merciful provision for us during this deputation journey. It would be impossible to do what He has called us to do without your faithful prayers and support, so we also thank you! With immense joy we purchased our plane tickets and will be leaving for Buenos Aires, Argentina on August 26th, to arrive the following day. With our upcoming schedule through August, we are confident that God will also bring in at least another five ministry partners to get us to our support goal before we leave. Argentina, here we come! A few new ministry partners:

Wick Road Baptist Church Mission Conference. Pastor and Mrs. Broadus, The Hickeys, Alvarez, and Metzger families.

Pastor and Mrs. Reilly. Beacon Baptist Church, Taylor, MI.

Pastor and Mrs. Nevin. First Baptist of Calvert, Prince Frederick, MD.

Pastor Don and Michelle Hooker, Serenity Baptist, West Chester, OH

The Next Step

Another area in which we have seen the Lord provide is in our setup costs. Through the generosity of many churches and individuals, we have been able to save up over 70% of our setup costs. In preparation for our family’s transition to Argentina, would you consider how you might help us with the remaining portion so we can get established quickly on the field? If you would like to give specifically towards these needs, you can find the list here. You can also just go to the “Contact Us/ Donate” page and follow the links to give online, or simply send a check to our missions’ office address listed below with the item specified in the memo line. Thank you for being a blessing to our ministry.

Ministry in Argentina

Update on ministry happening in Argentina: April 17-19 Calvary Baptist Church had their annual Easter family retreat at the camp.  On Friday night one of the young teenage girls, Karen, and a lady, Mariana, both received Christ as their Savior! We rejoice for these two decisions, and look forward to being there with the church family for next year’s Easter retreat!

Easter Retreat in Argentina

Click for printable prayer letter: Prayer Letter- 2014 Mar Apr

Christmas Greetings from our family to yours! We thank God for sending the Savior and for sending us to make Him known to the people of Argentina. We will be enjoying Christmas with Ben’s family this Christmas. We are thankful for this since, hopefully, next Christmas we will be in Argentina, serving the Lord there and spending it with Rachelle’s family.Thank you for your continued prayers for us on our deputation journey. We will be sending out a regular prayer letter in the next couple of weeks.

Serving the Lord together,
Ben, Rachelle, Natalie, Lucas, and Alenna Metzger

Countless Blessings

You most likely remember singing, “Count your blessings, name them one by one. Count your blessings, see what God has done.” That pretty well summarizes these last two months. It has been a whirlwind of meetings and conferences. In fact, we participated in seven different mission conferences during the months of September and October, and presented our ministry in five other churches on top of that. We praise the Lord for six of those churches who voted to partner with us, and pray that the rest will be able to take us on soon. God has provided almost two-thirds of our needed support, funds for our airline tickets and enough for half our vehicle fund so far. He has also provided valuable, life-long friendships along the way; not only with people we meet at the various churches, but also with fellow missionaries who are following the Lord’s direction in their own lives. What a blessing to know we are not alone, and we have people praying for us specifically as we also pray for them. It is getting close, and we thank you for your faithful prayers and support along the way.

The Alvarez, Metzger, Chau, Robertson and Spore families with Pastor David Perdue at the First Baptist Church Mission Conference in Milford, Delaware.

Along with Pastor Terry Faulkner, his family and the Bradleys after the Dunnegan Bible Baptist Church Mission Conference in Dunnegan, Missouri.

Men of God

During a Sunday morning invitation, a man named David went forward to talk to the pastor of the church in which we were presenting. He had realized his previous profession of faith was not genuine, and he could tell by his own life that he was not a true child of God. After hearing a message on surrender, he got it settled that Sunday morning in September. He surrendered to the Savior and took a stand to be the man of God to lead his family. We rejoice in his decision. However, we cannot help but to think of the thousands of men in Argentina routinely abandoning their families due to desperate circumstances. As it also happens here in the U.S., ministry leaders fall because of immorality or lack of integrity. They miss out on the blessing of God’s design for their lives, and the difference they can make in the future generations for the sake of the Gospel. Only a changed life through Christ will make the difference. Please pray for that transformation to happen in Argentina, and for us, as we take the life-changing message of the Gospel to the Argentine people.

Obedience.

September found us in Springfield, MO on a Sunday night so we attended our sending church, Cherry Street Baptist. While there, Ben had the privilege of baptizing our son Lucas! He was saved a year ago in October, but we wanted to be sure that he truly understood what he had done and that he was serious about being a follower of Jesus Christ. So, once he was ready, we had to wait for a a time that we would be at our home church. What a privilege to see him follow the Lord in this step of obedience! Please pray for his spiritual growth. He wants to be obedient to God’s Word, but as the rest of us, the flesh gets in the way many times. We thank God for his tender heart, strong will and endless energy, which we are constantly trying to steer towards the Lord Jesus.

He was definitely excited!

Ben had the privilege of baptizing Lucas at our home church.

Click to download printable PDF: Prayer Letter- Sept Oct 2013