The President is close to victory

On Sunday we had what is called the 'Primaries'- elections for the president.

This was a new thing here in Argentina... basically the primaries just give an idea of how people are going for the presidential election in October, as well as knocking out a few of the smaller parties that don't reach the quota of 1.5%.

Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner won this election easily, with just on 50% of the votes. Her nearest rival had only around 12%. If the voting remains the same then she won't even need to go to a second round come October.

But who knows, things may change...

A Summer day in the middle of winter

Can you believe it? We are supposed to still be in winter here in Cordoba, but today the mercury hit 33 degrees. That's right 33- a summer day.

Just last Monday the temperature didn't get above 5 degrees the whole day (which is also quite extreme here).

No classes today in Cordoba for 1000 students... because the janitor was sick

Most students have fantasised about arriving at school to find it closed, either to avoid a test, go home for more sleep, or simply to earn a day off midweek. The dream materialised today for more than 1,000 students in a traditional public school of Cordoba, who had no classes because the janitor, who alone had the keys, did not arrive for work.

The unusual incident occurred this morning at the school Alejandro Carbó. Teachers and students crowded outside the door of the institution waiting for the janitor to open the doors. But that never happened. The man was sick and no one could communicate with him ... he was the only one with keys.

As a result, all morning school students were sent home.

To make matters worse, the headmistress was also sick, so the authorities of the Directorate of Secondary Education authorized to force the doors of the school, that occupies an entire city block and is home to nearly two thousand students.

Posted by Julie (with the unhelpful help of a badly written newspaper article and google translator!)

Who is Jesus?

During the first three weeks of August we have been going out onto campus talking to students about their opinions of Jesus. To get the conversation started we have been using a booklet that has 18 different images of Jesus- some traditional, others more controversial. It has been going really well- yesterday I had a good chat with three young blokes in the Engineering faculty, who all chose different images and had different ideas. Each time I was able to speak a little of what the Bible says and invite them to check it out for themselves.

Election day on Sunday

Sunday is election day for the province of Cordoba. It is a three way contest between the Radicals (who are more conservative), the Socialists (left wing) and the Peronists (who really knows what they stand for?).

Yesterday at the uni they were handing out how to vote cards. Well, sort of... they were just driving by and throwing up piles of leaflets into the air, for them to land on the road or the ground. Not what you call socially or environmentally responsible- and I'm really not sure how effective either!

Lots of ways to teach the Bible

Ellie (11 years old) is having some tutoring at the moment to prepare her for the exam for a selective high school here in Cordoba.

One of the other kids there was doing his biblical studies homework from school, but didn't have clue what it was about. So Ellie jumped in and explained all about Moses and Mt. Sinai and the law and the broken tablets and the golden calf.

Good on you Ellie!

Sad times

The last few days we have had heavy hearts.

We learnt late on Wednesday night that the brother of one of our good friends here in Cordoba died suddenly. He was living and working as a missionary in El Salvador. Earlier this year he had married the pastors daughter. He had an asthma attack but was dead when they arrived at the hospital and they weren't able to revive him.

Andres has travelled to be with his family (and the family of his sister-in-law) in El Salvador and his parents have travelled from Spain where they are missionaries.

It seems that the whole issue of distance has made the tragedy even harder to accept and cope with for the family. We are keeping them in our prayers.