Being Part of a Christmas Blessing

Christmas 2011 God chose us to be a blessing to the Gonzales family. Here is the story. Oct 2011 our friend and sister in Christ, Doris, was hospitalized for 10 days. At the same time her 2 1/2 yr old granddaughter was hospitalized with complications with the chickenpox. During their hospitalizations Milagros, the 10 yr old, granddaughter was ALSO hospitalized with sever pain. Quickly they realized that Milagros had Purpura. The next 2 months continued with one by one getting out of the hospital, expensive tests to complete, many new medicines to try & BUY, and bedrest. As a church community, we called, visited, dropped off dinner and groceries, and PRAYED.

Like all good sisters do, my sister and I were talking about life and I was telling her about the Gonzales family and all of their recent struggles. Her heart was burdened just like mine and she committed to praying for their family. Not only did my sister pray, but she talked to her small group about the Gonzales family and got MORE people praying. Her small group decided that they wanted to try and help miles and miles away. AND HELP THEY DID! They mustered up and sent A LOT OF MONEY to practically meet the needs for this family. Now comes the fun part for me. I got to spend the money in a practical way to help this family. I knew that they needed money for bills, medicine, and more testing but I knew they also needed food and some emotional blessings. So this is what we did...

These are the gifts that we bought for the kiddos under our tree.

One basket full of food

2 baskets full of food

1 bucket full of cleaning supplies and toiletries

Wine, champange, sweet bread, budin, chocolates, peanuts, traditional christmas candy bar= 1 super caja feliz (1 box full of traditional Christmas foods/sweets) I am told without these things in Argentina, you are really not celebrating. ;)

We went to the Gonzales' home on Christmas Eve about 8pm becuase we were invited to celebrate Christmas Eve with the Rengel family. (another blog about that coming soon.) This is early because you don't start to really celebrate and eat until about 10:30pm and it goes on ALL NIGHT...... Seriously! Until like 4 or 5 or 6 AM!

Here Zane & Mateo (5 yrs old) are being silly and covering their ears from the noisy FIREWORKS!

Doris and her granddaughter, Barbara, talking with us at the table.
Recently Doris was in the hospital with Pulmonary Fibrosis & Pulmonary Trombosis & is now at home on bed rest for 3+months. She will live with these diseases for the rest of her life. Please pray for her healing and God to continue to meet her needs.

Barbara (2 1/2 yrs old) opening her new kitchen cooking set.

Mateo opening up his gift.

THIS IS MY FAVORITE PICTURE! Here Mateo is realizing what the gift is and is saying "Grandma, Grandma this is what I just saw at the store yesterday and I wanted soooooo bad." He was completely astonished and SUPER EXCITED! I (Beth) prayed before I went shopping for the Gonzales family that I would purchase things that would bless the family and spend the money wisely. I was blessed that God directed me to buy that specific gift. God cares for each and everyone of us that he would even bless a little 5 yr old with the desire of his heart for a Christmas hotwheels set!

Milagros (10 yrs old) opening her gift. Milagros was diagnosed with Purpura
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purpura 2 months ago. She has battled for her life on serveral occasions and we praise God she is still with us. She will be traveling to Buenos Aires to see a team of specialist next week. Please pray that they will assess her correctly and put her on medicine that will be able to maintain her health. Pray that she draws closer to God through this confusing time.

Julieta (12 yrs old) opening part of her gift. Pray that Julieta will have the peace that only the Holy Spirit can give. Pray that she will step up and be a big help in the family.

On the right side is Maria Amilia, the mother to these 4 children. Pray for her emotional healing and ability to raise her children.

Luis, Doris' husband the the children's grandfather, is helping Barbara open another gift.
Pray for Luis, as he works MANY hours in a LOW PAYING job. He is trying to provide for his family and is exhausted. Pray he draws closer to God through this trial.

Milagros and Barbara opening up at 5 in 1 board game for the whole family.

Barbara 'praising God' for their Christmas gifts and the money that they can use for bills.

Doris and Luis took 10 minutes to give us a blessing and thanks to give to my sister's small group. So THANK YOU for being God's blessing to this family. Thank you for being selfless to help this family. Thank you for allowing us to be blessed as we were able to see their blessings up close and personal. AND PLEASE CONTINUE TO PRAY FOR THIS DEAR FAMILY IN CHRIST!

December 2011 Newsletter

JESUCRISTO PARA TODO - CHURCH
Please pray for our friends and family in Christ the Gonzales family. Luis & Doris have 2 children and are grandparents to 4 grandkids. They have a complicated family yet strive to serve the Lord and know Him more fully. The last 2 months have been very difficult as they have literally struggled for their lives. Doris was in the hospital with Pulmonary Fibrosis & Pulmonary Trombosis & is now at home on bed rest for 3 months or longer. She will live with these illnesses for the rest of her life. During the same time her 2 yr old granddaughter was in the hospital with a complication to chicken pox. AND during that same time Milagros, the 10 yr old granddaughter, was hospitalized (in the same room as her younger sister) with a disease called Purpura. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purpura Milagros fought for her life on several occasions and we praise God that she is still with us. Everyone is out of the hospital, yet there are lasting effects. Missed paychecks, medical bills, cost of medicine, healing of Doris, and a continued concern for the health of Milagros. She needs to travel to Buenos Aires to see a team of specialists. Please pray with us for immediate needs to be met AND for the healing of Doris and Milagros. We have made weekly visits to the hospital and home to encourage, pray, and provide some meals. Here are some pictures of Mateo, the 4 yr old grandson. Mateo came to our home a couple of times to play, get away from the concerns of the hospital, and SMILE. I had never seen him smile before. Nope, not in Sunday school nor playing with the other kiddos at church.(Like I said it is a complicated story/family) However, I was so blessed to see the huge smiles that Mateo shared with us during his time at our home. QUICK UPDATE: A small group from CO sent money to help this family with medical bills & some Christmas gifts! Blog with pictures coming very soon!!!! Thanks for being God’s hands & feet!

OTHER CHURCH NEWS/EVENTS
It has been a very eventful year in the life of church Jesucristo Para Todos. We have seen several key people leave, including the founding missionary family. All left in a positive manner and are missed greatly. Pastor Antonio Pereyra has committed to leading the church and has been doing a great job. We saw the baptism of several men during the year and a strong unity within the men’s ministry. Much of this has been a result of Antonio’s ministry. We are now working on a outreach and evangelism plan to reach more people in the community. The plan is called “Casas de Paz” (Houses of Peace) and is focused on promoting families united in Christ. We have been developing a group of leaders to share their faith with neighbors and help guide family unity in the home. Please pray for this project. We are hoping that the church will grow through this project, but more than that, we desire to see entire households transformed by the grace of Jesus Christ. Things are slow right now because of the summer break, but we will continue to develop this outreach and will be using a church retreat in the coming months to encourage church members to get involved.

BLESSED TO BE A BLESSING!
We are so blessed to live in the mission home. It has 3 bedrooms and a wonderful spacious kitchen/dinning room & living room. Our goal with this home: HOST, HOST, HOST!!!

We love having people over to our home. Below, Daisy & Andrea are teaching Beth how to make homemade empanadas. And then Above, David, Pablo & Roman are tasting to see if they are ‘any good’. They were amazing!!! Empanadas are a very traditional food here. You can fill them with beef, chicken, corn, ham & cheese, or even cow stomach (not my favorite!).

I (Beth) celebrated my 33rd birthday in Nov. I was so blessed to have many wonderful women celebrate with me. I was humbly brought to my knees to really see how many friends God has brought into my life to walk beside me in this new chapter of my life. Some of these women are non-believers, some are sisters from my church, and many are sisters from other churches. Pray with me for some to come to know the saving grace of Jesus and others to grow solid in their faith in the Lord.

Our Thanksgiving plans to spend time with another US family was cancelled, so we went out to a nice steak & popsicle lunch. We had a great time thanking our Savior for so many things HE has done this past year. He truly is faithful.

Sorry. I can't figure out how to turn this picture!
We had a young family over for dinner & games. We played the WII all night and had a lot of laughs. We are excited to use the WII as a ministry tool to get young adults and young families into our home and build relationships with them. Pray for Jorge, this young husband & father, to come to know the Lord as his personal savior. Pray for Veronica, this young wife and mother, to honor her husband, to faithfully pray for him, and to raise their daughter to love the Lord.

We love showing people ‘new things from our culture’. Here we are introducing 2 friends to ‘coke floats’ (No Root Beer here). They didn’t love them! Pray for Fernando & Emanuel to grow stronger in their faith and to find a ministry they can serve in.

THE INSIDE SCOOP FROM ZANE

Mondays are our days to take the Sabbath and rest. I love going to the park with my mom and dad. We kick the ball around and I ride my bike.

My friend, Laura had a birthday/costume party at my house. My mom and I were super heroes!!

My best friend, Agustin, & I went to a Dinosaur exhibit. It was AWESOME! I talk about Dinosaurs all of the time now! I love to play with Agu. We are super silly together.

These days I love to play with puzzles and memory games. I’m really good at both! Here I am playing Curious George Memory with my good friends Ivanna & Valeria.
I am now on SUMMER VACATION! I get to sleep in, play in the water to keep cool, and have lots of playdates with my buddies and their mommy’s. My mommy and I are doing some preschool every day in English. I’m LOVIN’ it!

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