Thursday, June 28, 2012

Another public holiday anyone?

The Argentine parliament is seeking to ratify another public holiday.

This time it is Sep 24th to mark the 200 years since the battle of Tucuman (during the fight for independence from Spain). It would just be a once-off public holiday- this year only supposedly.

We only have 18 days of public holidays every year in Argentina- we certainly need a few more! And earlier this year we also had a 'one-off'. The more the merrier.

Iss Iss is on her way

A bit of stress in the family this afternoon when we saw on the web page for Sydney Airport that Auntie Iss-Iss' flight had been cancelled. We called her (to her mobile using skype!) and she was able to call the airport to find out that yes the flight had been cancelled, but she was able to catch a different flight to NZ, and connect with the flight to Santiago from there. Phew!

So hopefully she is on her way now to NZ and will be in Santiago tomorrow- then has a flight to Córdoba the next day... how much excess will she be charged for all the presents she is carrying? Our kids are waiting very anxiously- not sure if it is for her or for her cargo!

A touch of France

Tomorrow we are going to celebrate Charlotte's birthday with her school friends...her theme is 'A touch of France' (although her birthday is not until later, but it falls in the school holidays.

What's on the agenda?  Crepes with ice-cream, the chocolate game, a French fashion parade (with newspapers), ham and cheese croissants, making jewellery, a little bit of cooking and an Eiffel Tower cake.

One excited girl and one stressed mother!





                                     Here's the picture we used from Fancy Nancy for the invitation

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

A busy Saturday

The few weeks prior to school holidays are always super busy, no matter where you are in the world!  Last Saturday was no exception ...

Charlotte participated in her first Roller-skating tournament .... various schools and sporting clubs brought performers together to show off their rolling skills. It felt like an artistic ice-skating meet ... the seriousness and the costumes, I mean.

In the afternoon Jacob and Ellie took part in the church activity - El Circo Solidario. This is a circus, performed by the Sunday school classes to raise money for a needy local organisation. Ellie transformed into Alice, for her class rendition of Alice in Wonderland, and Jacob was fortunate to be chosen for the peaky hat of Peter Pan in his class performance of the same.

Meanwhile Lachie and Martin continue battling sore throats and nasty coughs.

Posted by Julie




Monday, June 25, 2012

Plenty of passion about the Malvinas

Malvinas y los Juegos Olímpicos de Londres, temas de un nuevo spot televisivo del Gobierno

This year marks 30 years since the War for the Islas Malvinas (or Falkland Islands) and so there has been plenty of publicity and commemorations. Cristina Fernandez, the President, continues pushing the issue at the international level, and earlier in the year this video came out, causing quite a stir (click on the above statement).

The title is- 'In order to compete on English soil, we train on Argentine soil' and the video then shows footage of one of the Argentine Olympic athletes training in various spots in the islands (unbeknownst to the authorities of the Falklands of course). The ad was actually requested by the Argentine government. The feeling is very strong this year and there will be lots of interest in the referendum that the islanders are going to have next year to determine whether they will stay under the sovereignty of the British.

Friday, June 22, 2012

Turmoil in Paraguay

I'm not sure if it has hit the news in Australia yet, but the big news here is the political turmoil in Paraguay.

The Paraguayan congress has just deposed their president for failing to do his job properly. It has all happened very quickly- from what I can understand the house of deputies brings a charge of incompetence, which then gets 'tried' by the senate. Only one congressman was opposed, they have deposed the president and they have installed the vice-president as the president. All within 24 hours.

The president of Paraguay is a controversial figure. A former bishop of the Catholic church who went into politics and in 2008 became the first president from a different party for around 50 years (Paraguay had a dictatorship that pretended to be a democracy from what I can gather). Druing his time in office there have been various scandals to do with alleged children of the former bishop.

But basically it seems the party that supported him in gaining the presidency soon lost confidence when he didn't appoint enough of their party to the cabinet. Recently there has been problems to do with land ownership, including a violent episode involving the death of 17 people. It seems that the politicians have taken the chance to get rid of him- surprisingly though, because he only has another 10 months left of his term and they don't have re-election in Paraguay. Obviously scared of him supporting a successor.

We should pray that peace might prevail as the implications of this seemingly anti-democratic action unfold.


Fuel crisis

The fuel crisis seems to be resolved for the moment... the service stations had petrol again today and we were able to fill up.
But there is a general strike planned for next Wednesday- likely to disrupt most of the country.

The truck drivers have resolved the wage dispute, but are now asking for changes to the system of taxation. From what I can understand, because the government 'fixes' the inflation figures in single digits, when it is really between 20-30%, the wages reach the tax threshold levels very quickly. That is they haven't adjusted the thresholds to keep up to date with real inflation. The same issue applies for the limits for family allowance payments.

Could be a rocky road ahead between the main unions and the government, which is interesting given that they were the main supporters of Cristina at the last 2 elections. She doesn't come across as someone big on negotiation - all guns blazing seems to be a better description.

Thursday, June 21, 2012

The latest crisis

The latest crisis to hit Argentina is a stand-off between the union for Truck Drivers and the government. The union has blockaded the distribution centres for fuel and gas, and so the country is about to hit a serious shortage.

The police in Córdoba say they have fuel for five days, the ambulance service have fuel until Friday afternoon. The general public- who knows. Very few service stations have fuel available.

The union wants a 30% wage increase, and they have significant clout, as seen by their ability to shut the country down. That is basically how wages are worked out in this country- the stronger the union and the more you can paralyse the country, the more you earn. On the whole truck drivers and bus drivers earn far more than doctors, nurses and certainly teachers.

It might mean our planned trip to the north when Julie's sister arrives needs a rethink.

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

One very sore throat

Today my throat took a beating... about 7 hours speaking in Spanish!

I was giving a workshop on how to understand the Bible as one book focussed on the Lord Jesus, based on the book by Vaughan Roberts, God's Big Picture.

We did a quick run through the whole Bible from Genesis to Revelation.

And mate is my throat sore now... I had been battling a sore throat and cold over the weekend but now I have lost my voice as well.

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Meeting dad

Through the ministry of ABUA we have a responsibility to care for many students who are far from home and family.   One such student is Marianela, a delightful Christian who studies English in the Languages Faculty.

Today we were able to meet her dad, who is here to visit his 3 university-aged children. Hector is a pastor in his home town in the north of Argentina. He was thankful for the ministry of ABUA Cordoba, and for the way Marianela has found a home away from home amongst the group. He said that the transition for Marianela´s little sister, Micaela, was so much smoother when she arrived this year and was instantly incorporated into ABUA as well.

Posted by Julie


Important day for Charlotte



Today Charlotte chose to stand with her 4th grade classmates in a special celebration of respect for Argentine culture and the flag (tomorrow is a national holiday to celebrate the creation of the Argentine flag).

Posted by Julie

Cake baking for the Gospel ...

Last Monday afternoon our girls Arts Faculty ABUA group met, and Judith brought three friends. One girl was noticeably uncomfortable in the group, and at times aggressive in her question-asking. I wasn´t expecting a return visit from this young lady!

After committing these three girls to God in prayer I shouldn´t have been surprised to see all three girls return this week. The aloof visitor continued asking questions and her body language continued to communicate distance, but SHE WAS PARTICIPATING. She asked great questions like ´Why did the people go to the temple?´  and ´Why did they need to offer sacrifices?´ ... which gave us plenty of room to explain humankind´s problem with sin, who Jesus is, and how He has dealt with this sin on the Cross. 

After these girls left for class I asked one of the regular girls about our 3 visitors. She didn´t know a lot about their past experience with reading the Bible, but said that the cake and mate was the attraction.

I have no problem with this!   I am convinced that extending such simple hospitality as a cake and a hot drink can open doors for important discussion about God.


This a practical example of what I tried to demonstrate last weekend on our Winter Young Adults Retreat. I was asked to run a cooking workshop ... clearly the Activities Team was scraping the bottom of the barrel in asking me!   However 24 young adults squashed into the tiny kitchen, and in teams of 4 cooked a lemon cake.  After putting the product in the oven, we sat down together and chatted about Biblical hospitality. The main point being that even a simple cake or mate (argentine tea) builds a bridge and allows us to share our lives and our faith with our friends.

So I´ll keep baking ....

Posted by Julie

The revelation of the Cross

I am currently reading through The Cross of Christ by John Stott with a small group of students. It is a great encouragement to read it again (I read it when i was a uni student), though this time in Spanish.

One of the ideas that Stott deals with is that the Cross is the perfect revelation of the character of God- both his justice and his profound love.

But last week in one of our small groups I was struck by the passage in Luke 20:9-16 which tells of a man who plants a vineyard, rents it to some farmers and then goes on a journey. He then sends back servants to obtain some of the fruits of the harvest, but the workers kill the servants, one by one, until he sends his son. But they kill the son as well, saying 'This is the heir, let's kill him so that the inheritance will be ours'.

Of course the parable is talking about the rejection of the prophets by the Jewish leaders throughout history which culminates in their rejection of Jesus, God's own Son. It struck me how similar their action is to that of Adam and Eve in the garden- a desire to be 'gods'- the desire to have the control and ownership of all. And it struck me that in the cross we have the perfect revelation of the nature of sin- here is sin in its essence- a rejection of God and his rule, expressed in killing his own Son, in order to try and wrest control from him and take what is rightfully his. The cross perfectly reveals the heart of man, and yet amazingly, also the heart of a merciful God.

Sunday, June 17, 2012

Fathers Day today

Today es Dia del Padre in Argentina.

I enjoyed a nice breakfast of pastries and fruit, some great cards and gifts (undies of course). Later we had lunch at some friends house.

And tonight we ate using the Raclette- a type of grill, where you melt the cheese and others goodies, and pile it on top of boiled potatoes.

A good day!

Promise to the Flag?

This Wednesday, June 20, is the national day for the flag in Argentina. And one of the traditions for this day is that children in 4th grade in Argentina make a promise to the flag on that day.

Charlotte is in 4th grade this year, so what should she do as an extranjero (foreigner)? The school has said there is no problem is she doesn't want to make the promise to the flag- she just stands aside for the ceremony. But clearly she will stand out.

The promise they make is this...

Do you promise to defend, respect and love the flag, with brotherly tolerance and respect, studying with a firm will, committing yourself to be citizens free and just, accepting the differences of all those who live on our soil and passing on, in each and every one of our actions, its permanent and irrevocable values.

The students respond, 'Yes, I promise'.

Mmm, should she promise?

One extreme to the other

It is hard to make sense of the weather in Córdoba at the moment. Today and yesterday the temperature didn't get above 12°. Very much inside weather.

But during the week we had three warm days of around 28-30°- it felt almost like summer.

It isn't surprising that plenty of people are getting sick- me included (Martin).

Los Pumas

Lachlan and I had our first experience of Argentine Rugby yesterday. We went to the test match between the Pumas and France in the stadium in Córdoba, with a crowd of about 25,000.

Argentina didn't play the better football, but ended up winning the game with a run away try in the last few minutes.

It is a big year for Argentina in Rugby as they have entered into what was the Tri-Nations with South Africa, New Zealand and Australia. And so this year in Argentina there are 3 big games against each of these countries. We were keen to go and see them against the Wallabies, but were slow off the mark. The cheaper tickets have gone, and given that the game is in Rosario (400km) it works out a little expensive.

Maybe next year we can see the Wallabies play in Argentina?

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Back from the camp

We had a good time with the young adults on the weekend. The talks were on 'Holiness' and were a good reminder of the challenge of living God's way in the world. Two of the guys I spoke with are fairly new Christians- it was very encouraging to hear how they are seeking to live out their new faith, especially amongst friends and workmates.

As usual with activities of the young people at our church, we were amazed by their creativity... on Saturday afternoon they did various workshops and then presented the results on Saturday night. The workshops included acrobatics, rhythm, craft, multimedia and cooking (led by one red-headed Australian chick!).

Ellie was in tears when we left because she had fallen in love with the kitten that lived in the campsite...they had given her/him about 5 different names during the weekend.

 The timetable still takes a little getting used to... we had the first session on Friday night after arriving at about 10pm... we then had dinner at 11.45pm! The games then followed. On Saturday night it wasn't much earlier. Fortunately breakfast wasn't until 9am, otherwise we oldies wouldn't have coped.




                                                                                                                              Yes, it was very cold!


Thursday, June 7, 2012

Oh boy its cold

As per my previous post, winter has come in a hurry. It has just gone midnight here and the temperature has dropped to -1°. We've popped a coat on our little dog who doesn't have much fur- he is more like a small pig. But no doubt he will have chewed it off by morning.

And this weekend we are away in the hills for the Young Adults camp- we were told tonight that there is one blanket per bed and no heating in the bedrooms!


Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Greek geek again

The last two Tuesday nights I have been 'teaching' a Greek class at church. In reality the students have a manual to teach them- I am just there on Tuesday nights to help them with their questions or problems.

It is a class that started this year for some of those in leadership in the church. Up until now a guy called Roman has been taking the Greek part- he has studied Greek as part of his training as a linguist. But he is away in the US at the moment for three months working on his Masters. So, I am it!

It hasn't been bad for me to brush up on some of my Greek 'skills'- much of it has been locked away for too long in the deep recesses of my brain! Mind you, learning the pronunciation has been a challenge. Not being a spoken language, NT Greek has different ways of being pronounced, and what I learnt at college is quite different to what this manual teaches. Although I doubt any Greek speaker would have recognised many of the words we tried to speak in college days! 

Winter has arrived

It seems that winter arrived last night. Very cold winds blew from the south  and this morning the temperature dropped to just above 0- maybe 1 or 2 degrees here in the city, but below 0 in the hills.

Although the last week of April was very cold, May was very mild, with some days of 25 degrees, and the nights not particularly cold. But the heater is definitely running on high now.
 

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Marley and Me

I have just finished reading Marley and Me, on the recommendation of my 12 year old daughter. It was a very enjoyable read- funny, moving and insightful.

One thing it made me realise was that I need to keep reading what the kids read. There were a few moments in the book where the author speaks about issues a little beyond an 11 year old (she was 11 when she read it). She herself told me that it wasn't suitable for her younger siblings! But hopefully now we can chat about some of those things... she is not likely to raise those issues with me first.

The second thing it made me think was that we are missing out a little with our dogs. We enjoy them, but nowhere near to the level that the author did with Marley. Sometimes it actually feels like Cookie and Chongy are another chore to be dealt with- feeding, picking up poop, taking them for walks. Partly because one of our dogs has small dog syndrome- quite hard to deal with and not much fun even to take on walks. Our dogs sleep outside in the backyard which changes the dynamic. But it makes me wonder...

Monday, June 4, 2012

News from the field

Here is a short and dodgy video we put together for our link churches back home... at least you get a good look at our two cats!

Thinking back to training days



Here is a video that some of the students at St. Andrews Hall have put together.

St. Andrews Hall is the training centre for CMS missionaries. We look back on our time there fondly, but also thankfully- the preparation we received really has been very useful.

Home again

Jacob had a great time on his camp Thursday/Friday. Julie picked him up from school on Friday afternoon and he was exhausted!

I picked up Ellie from the bus terminal at 1am this morning... they made the semi-finals on Sunday in the volleyball tournament. Unfortunately they lost, and then lost the play-off for third. They didn't finish until around 9pm, then got on the first bus they could. As you could imagine, it was tricky getting her up for school today, but we needed to do it. They are very strict about the number of days you miss here, and she had already missed Friday.

Sunday, June 3, 2012

Not enough tables!

Yesterday we had 35 students for lunch (not counting any of our family). Crowded into our living room. The extra table was necessary- in fact even still a few ate sitting on the lounges. Next option?

Friday, June 1, 2012

Getting ready...

Getting ready for the student meeting in our home tomorrow...no idea how many are coming. 30? 40? We now have 4 tables, because in Argentina you don't have lunch on your lap- you sit at a table!

We are doing a series on world views- tomorrow we look at atheism or naturalism. A challenging topic. Praying for clarity of thinking and expression.