“But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” Matthew 6:33 Hey everyone! This is a joint update which you will be seeing more of in the near future as we (Jared and Meghan) join our lives together! We are in the middle of a crazy (and really fun) time of transition, with Jared moving back to Fresno and joining the staff at GoMission. We are also planning the GoMission Internship together and are less than two weeks out from our wedding! We would really appreciate your prayers over this time, just for grace in the midst of this big life change! One thing that we’ve found SO helpful in the hectic nature of this season, has been moments of stopping… reorienting our attention back to Jesus and His Kingdom… and remembering what all these things are about. Our prayer for you (and continually for ourselves) is that in the middle of whatever your season of life is filled with, that you would feel the nudge of the Holy Spirit to stop… pray… and refocus your eyes back on the one who is really the center of it all.
God Causes the Growth “What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe—as the Lord has assigned to each his task. I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow. So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. The one who plants and the one who waters have one purpose, and they will each be rewarded according to their own labor. For we are co-workers in God’s service; you are God’s field, God’s building.” 1 Corinthians 3:5-9 Our Part and God’s Part Often, I find myself thinking about the interplay between God’s sovereign work and my participation. On the one hand, it can be easy to believe that all the results of my life and ministry depend solely on me and what I do. On the other hand, it can feel like nothing I do matters at all, and it ultimately is just up to God. What’s so beautiful about this passage in 1 Corinthians is that it strikes right to the heart of this tension. Paul tells us here that each one is given an assignment by God, that God invites us to participate in the growth that only he can cause. Like little kids helping a parent, we bring nothing to the table, but God, our Father, still invites us to co-labor with him. The way this passage describes our partnership with God in the work of ministry gives me such excitement and freedom to passionately work with all of my heart in the assignment God has given me, but never too try and carry the crushing weight of what is only God’s responsibility. As John Piper once put it: “My job is faithfulness. God’s is fruitfulness.” Here in Mendoza, our little church community has been experiencing the reality of this passage as we launched our first public English-speaking services! Public English Service On February 22nd, we started our service in the upstairs of the Vina Rock Cafe (where the Spanish church meets), and all three weekends so far, we have had new people visiting! There are already so many kids coming that we had to start a children's ministry! Each week we worship, take communion together, have a short teaching, and pray. After service, the whole group gathers for lunch at someone’s house, and usually, we all stay for hours before anyone heads home. Here are some photos from those first few gatherings: The week of the launch, every one of the families on the team had so much going on. A lot of unexpected things popped up at the last minute. In many ways, our launch of the first service was not “Ideal”, but God is faithful, and as each one in our group said yes to the small assignment that God gave, he started to do what he promised: build his church. I think this analogy of plant growth that Paul used can also be applied to our own personal growth in Jesus. We don’t have the power to cause growth in our lives. We can’t make ourselves more like Jesus, but we can make sure to bring the water and nutrients that we need (The word of God, a life lived in the community of his Church, time spent with our Father in prayer) and pull the weeds (sin and distraction) but the only other thing we can do is wait for God to cause the growth. My prayer for each of us is that we would be fervent in our weeding and watering, while resting in the goodness of our Father, the good gardener, to cause the growth. Here are a few of the ways you can be praying right now! Pray that the leadership team for the English service would be solidified and that each person would find their role. Specifically pray for Ted and Michelle, and Mark and Leah, and their families as they take on these responsibilities and the weight that comes with them. Pray for some of the people coming to the service who still haven’t made a commitment to follow Jesus And please pray for my transition back home for this next season of getting married and preparing to relaunch out to Argentina for a longer commitment!
Max's Story Hey everyone! This update is going to be a little bit different! I just wanted to share with you a testimony from someone who is a part of the church here! Max recently had a really beautiful encounter with Jesus that has completely changed his life. His parents say he is like a totally different kid. Max and I have been spending lots of time together lately, and our discipleship meet-ups consist mostly of reading the bible and playing chess while we talk about following Jesus. The thing that makes Max's story here extra powerful and encouraging is the fact that Max is one of the people that our church has been praying for by name for the last few months. It's so exciting to see how powerfully God moves when we ask, even though we may see nothing at first. I'm reminded of how Jesus ends the parable of the widow and the unjust judge: And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?” I love that Jesus tells us that when we ask, God won't be slow in answering the fervent prayers of His people. Just a few days ago, I asked Max if he wanted to share with the people in the United States who are praying for us and our church. So we sat down together at a coffee shop and wrote it out. Everything in the story below is Max's words and what he wanted to share. I hope it's as encouraging for you as it is to me! “Hi, my name is Max, I’m 15 and I’m from Austin Texas and now live in Mendoza Argentina. When I was younger I knew about God, but I didn’t have a real relationship with Him, or know that I could really talk to Him and know Him. About a year ago I started hanging out with the wrong crowd and felt pressured into smoking and using drugs. I started struggling with school and skipping classes. At the same time I began struggling with pornography. During all this I felt like I was a disappointment to my family because of my grades, I felt empty and I stopped caring about my future. Then one night when I was planning to go buy some weed, my mom forced me to go to a prayer/ministry night with the Vineyard church and a pastor from out of town. After the pastor started praying I felt guilt and conviction for all the things I was doing. I started crying and then everyone started praying over me. When they were praying I started feeling the mercy of Jesus and how patient he had been with me. My guilt that I had felt suddenly turned into joy. I felt really loved by God for the first time The next day all of my desire for the bad things that I was doing before was almost gone, and for the first time in a long time I felt happy! I started wanting to read the Bible more than ever before and I started learning that God is always talking to me if I stop and listen. That same week when I was praying I felt like God said that one of my friends was having a hard time and that I should talk to him about it. I asked him and he told me that he was having a hard time with his church (his family is Jehovah's witness). I told him it isn’t about just going to church but really getting to know God and asked if I could pray for him and he said yes. Later that day I asked if he wanted to pray and then he prayed for us too even though I had never heard him pray before that! Now I’m excited for the future and what God is teaching me. I’m praying and reading the Bible almost everyday now and I feel like I’m a little baby again and that I just get to hold God’s hand and grow up with Him.” Please keep praying with us for more people to experience Jesus like this! This is the beautiful fruit of your prayers and the prayers of our small community here! Thank you!! A few more quick updates and things to pray with us for: Our English service "soft launched" (basically just our most committed people) two weeks ago. Our first public service where we invite everyone is set to start Febuary 22nd Max and his parents are becoming more and more our core team here at the church. Please take some time to bless what God is already doing in their family! This week the whole Vineyard Argentina Partnership (4 churches from the States will be represented, along with the pastors of 3 churches and 1 other ministry here in Argentina) is gathering in Buenos Aires for prayer fellowship and dreaming about the future of what God is doing here. Please be praying for God to bless this time and that he would continue to lead us. Thank you all so much again for being a part of this with us. I'm so excited to share how it all goes in the next update!
New Year and Life/Ministry Update! Hey everyone! Happy New Year! I’m just getting ready to head back to Argentina after a very sweet time with friends and family over Christmas break, filled with good food, stories, and encouragement. I’m excited to share with you all some life and ministry updates that are very relevant for this next year! Meghan and I got engaged! We are looking forward to getting to do the things God has called us both to do, but as a team! This means we will be moving to Argentina to continue to participate in what God is doing in the Vineyard churches there. In this transition, through prayer and discernment with friends and mentors, we’ve decided to take a year in Fresno after getting married at the end of April, to prepare for the move to Argentina in the summer of 2027. We don’t know what everything will look like yet, but we would love if you could pray with us about both our year of preparation in Fresno and our move to Argentina. Here are some specific things you could join us in praying for in this season: This season of engagement… preparing for marriage, Jared’s last 3 months in Mendoza, and all that comes with planning a wedding. Our first year of marriage… direction from the Lord about priorities for that year, provision for a place to live, and preparation for the transition to Argentina. In summary, I will be returning to Mendoza for the next 3 months before coming back for our wedding in April, and spend a year preparing to return to Argentina for a long-term commitment with Meghan. One of the things that God has been using to help me think about this transition over the past few weeks is the old phrase, “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” I’m excited to take this time to prepare for a longer-term assignment in Argentina together. The remaining time in Mendoza will be focused on supporting some of our new leaders and helping them step into all that God is calling them to! My prayer is that by the time I leave back to Fresno for the wedding, Mark and Karina will feel they have a strong team of leaders that they can rely upon for each area of ministry in the church! We are also currently looking at shifting the way that the Vineyard Argentina partnership’s state-side churches support our in-country leaders. Please be praying for wisdom as we restructure our support system to better serve and help our leaders. Thank you all so much for your prayers and your support! I’m excited to keep sharing with you everything God is doing in Mendoza! Over the next few months, I plan to reach out to each of you individually and share in more detail about the transition!
Looking Back and Ahead “I shall remember the deeds of the LORD; Surely I will remember Your wonders of old. I will meditate on all Your work And muse on Your deeds. Your way, O God, is holy; What god is great like our God? You are the God who works wonders; You have made known Your strength among the peoples. You have by Your power redeemed Your people…” Psalm 77:11–15 Looking Back As we arrive at the end of another year, I am continually reminded of the many exhortations in scripture to “remember”. It’s so easy to be on “autopilot” constantly moving from one thing to the next (especially during the holiday season), and often we can miss an opportunity to look back, remember, and celebrate what God has done. Here are some things I am looking back on and celebrating over the last 5 months that I have been here in Argentina! Prayer in the Church Since the time I arrived at the church here in Mendoza, there has been a huge shift in the culture of prayer. Twice a week, there are devoted times of prayer, but the change is so much deeper than just a change in scheduled meetings. Each of our Sunday services now ends with prayer ministry, and people are stopping to pray for each other and offering prayer way more regularly. A few weeks back, one of our midweek groups had a very small turnout, and the few people present decided to devote the entire time of the group to prayer! Clearly, God is drawing the hearts of his people here more and more towards prayer. Ministry on the Streets It was so exciting that as we prayed and asked God for ways to be a blessing to the city of Mendoza, He was so quick to answer! We have continued to go out to the streets either once or twice a week to offer food, prayer, and company to those living there. A few more people from the church have gotten involved, and the church has decided to start financially supporting the work as well! Trip to Cordoba and John’s Visit At the end of November, Pastor John Aureli from the Mission Vineyard in San Antonio, Texas, came to visit and encourage the church here and also in Cordoba! I was given the opportunity to travel to Cordoba and spend time with the leaders of another church there. The time was incredibly sweet and encouraging. We got to celebrate with the church as they baptised a whole family from one of the neighborhoods they minister in! Afterwards, John and I traveled together back to Mendoza, where John led our community in a powerful time of waiting on the Holy Spirit and listening for how God may want to minister. The whole church walked away from the time excited and encouraged to continue in the work God has given us. Looking Ahead What’s especially beautiful about the psalmist's example of remembering in Psalm 77 is that he is using this remembering of what God has already done and what He has proven of His character to look ahead. The Psalm starts in a place of despair, but through remembrance of what God has already done (even long before the author was born), the psalmist arrives at a confidence that God will continue to display his faithfulness and love despite circumstances that would contradict this idea. So, in light of all God has already done this year, here are some of the things I am really excited for next year. Please join me in praying for: The official start of a public Sunday morning church service for our English-speaking community! We have pulled together a team of a few leaders who are already praying and planning through what it’s going to look like to start this service in the new year. Our meetings have been really encouraging, and I am so excited to see what God does! Expansion of the Street Ministry. We have been dreaming together about what it could look like to expand the work we are doing in our ministry to the poor. We have been reaching out to some of the shelters in our area and looking into appointing a few leaders to lead more groups going out. I’m so excited to watch this move from a small group going each week to the whole church getting involved in different ways. From cooking and cleaning to prayer and giving rides to church, there are so many ways for our entire community to start being involved in what God is doing! Partnership Meeting in February. This coming February, all three of the Argentine churches that are part of the partnership we be getting together with the American churches in Buenos Aires for a time of encouragement, prayer, and fellowship! These gatherings always encourage a deeper sense of belonging and help to fight off the threat of isolation and loneliness that so often accompanies leadership in the church My hope and prayer for each of you is that even right now, you could take one moment to remember something good God has done in the last year, give thanks, and then think of how He may be wanting to move this next year. I hope your holidays are filled with excitement and hope for things to come! Thank you all so much for all your encouragement and prayer through this first part of my time here in Argentina! During my time at home in Fresno over the holidays, I will be meeting with mentors and praying for direction and wisdom as I make decisions about the future. Please join me in prayer, and feel free to reach out! I hope to see many of you when I am home this month!
Channels for God "On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, 'If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive…" Mendoza is a desert. It’s famous for more than 300 days of sunshine each year. Rain is rare here (In fact, Mendoza gets less rain each year on average than Fresno), and yet. Mendoza is filled with thriving trees. Almost every city block is shaded by massive green trees. How can these beautiful trees thrive in such a dry environment? The answer is actually really cool. Mendoza is located very near the Andes Mountain range, and as the weather warms up in the summertime, the snow in the Andes begins to melt and supply water to the Mendoza River. In turn, the Mendoza River supplies a massive network of irrigation canals (or acequias) that run up and down nearly every street of the city and through many of the parks and plazas. This water is fed right into the soil that supports the thriving plant life of Mendoza. This layout for the city really got me thinking about our role as the Church. Jesus says that from the hearts of those who believe in him would flow the living water of his Spirit. We get to operate as channels through which God can flow. These acequias in Mendoza come in all shapes and sizes; some run through grassy parks and some down small alleys, but all of them provide a way for water to reach the city, and wherever that water flows, life follows. Everywhere we go, as we interact with friends, neighbors, co-workers, and family, we get to offer the living water of the God who lives in us. It's not through striving or trying really hard; it's just through having a real relationship with Jesus and being available to the people around us all over our cities. Different channels supply water to different places, but all of them are needed for each part of the city to thrive. This last week I had some really cool opportunities to see how God is working this out in my own life! The first was with a friend I've just met who is from here in Mendoza. We get together for coffee so I can practice Spanish and he can practice English. He doesn't know Jesus yet. As we talked about our lives, he was sharing with me about the lack of community he is experiencing, and I got to share with him about our church and the community that we have. I invited him to come and join us, and he expressed interest. I'm hoping he will come join us soon! The Second was with my Spanish teacher, who is also originally from Mendoza. She also hasn't met Jesus yet, but when we were practicing conversation in Spanish, we couldn't decide what to talk about, and she said, "You're religious, right? Why don't you tell me about that?" and I got a chance to just freely share with her some of the ways that Jesus has changed my life. She told me she was very impacted by what I shared, and I'm hoping for more opportunities in the days to come to share more with her! In both of these moments, it felt so clearly like God was giving an opportunity, and all I had to do was be honest about my life with the people he put in front of me. I didn't have to have everything completely planned and figured out. I just got to be a channel for God. My prayer is that in these conversations and the ones to come would offer them a little living water that would make them thirsty for the source. Right now, the most pressing requests for prayer are: - My friend and my Spanish teacher from the stories above! - Our core leadership group for the English-speaking community is gathering for the first time this week to plan and pray! - Continued prayer for my Spanish learning. - Prayer for Pastor Mark and Karina and the Vineyard church here in Mendoza
Making Room "...you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit." Ephesians 2:19-22 Hey everyone! Over the last month, there has been a lot going on here in Mendoza at the church! There are a lot of exciting opportunities coming up for partnerships with other churches and ministries, as well as the start of some really important conversations about our goals and priorities in this season as leaders in this community. God has continued to put on my heart the centrality of prayer and dependence on Him and His leadership over our ideas and strategies, and we have continued to move in this direction! We are still dedicating time before our Sunday night meetings to pray, and we have also started a weekly English-speaking gathering focused on fasting, prayer, and worship. Our goal is that prayer would be the heartbeat of everything we do. That the focus would be not on what we can do, but on what God can do. We have also been making progress towards preparing the new space for our English-speaking community to use. The whole project is moving much more slowly than we were originally hoping, but we are still definitely getting closer to having this space ready to use! All the demo work is done, and we should be making some major progress this week! Throughout the whole story of the Scriptures, there is a recurring theme that whatever is fully given over to God, He fills with His presence. First, the tabernacle, as it's made holy and fully consecrated to God, is filled powerfully with God's Spirit. This happens again with the construction and dedication of the temple by Solomon. Then, at the start of the book of Acts, the disciples gather together in prayer and wait on God. In this Holy space of waiting and prayer, as they offer themselves to God, they are filled with His empowering Presence for the sake of the Gospel. In both our times of prayer and as we prepare a physical space to be devoted to God and His Church, we are clearing spaces in our lives and community for God to come and fill. This not only happens at a community level but also at a very practical personal level. The more space God is given in our hearts and lives, the more we will be able to see and experience His kingdom here on earth as it is in heaven. Jesus said it like this. "...he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it." Mark 8:34-35 As we let go of our own lives and deny ourselves, Jesus will fill that empty space with His very own life. Right now in my life, this practically looks like going for walks that are set apart just for talking with God. Other times, it can even look like just taking 2 minutes to be silent and give God my full attention and remember that He is with me, but whatever way I choose to make space for God, I find that somehow, He always fills it. Sometimes in major ways, sometimes very subtly, but time, space, and attention given over fully to Jesus is never wasted. Thank you all again so much for your prayers. I'm excited to keep sharing with you all that God is doing here! If you are interested in hearing more about what is going on here in Mendoza, I'm planning to host an hour-long Zoom call on Sunday, October 26th, at 5:30 pm (PDT). This will be a time where I can share a few of the things going on here as well as answer any questions you may have about life and ministry here in Argentina! I hope to see you then! Here is the link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/83449502648 Thank you all so much for all of your encouragement, prayers, and support! If you haven't already, please sign up for my WhatsApp prayer group! Click here to join the WhatsApp Prayer group! Please be praying for: Pastor Mark and Karina as they lead this community Discernment in vision and direction for the church (especially as it relates to discipleship and partnering with other groups) My continued Spanish learning process Fresh personal experience of the Gospel for each member of our community
Starting with Prayer "Devote yourselves to prayer..." Colossians 4:2 I've now been in Mendoza for a little over a month, and so much has already happened! So far, most of my time has been spent getting to know this new church family, studying, practicing my Spanish, and exploring the city of Mendoza. There are so many things to share, but for this update, I want to focus on sharing with you what God has been doing to establish a culture of prayer here at the church. Right when I arrived in Mendoza and started asking about what God was doing in the church, almost immediately Karina shared that she felt we should intentionally devote time to prayer before our weekly Sunday gatherings. We weren't sure if anyone else would want to come, and planned mostly that it would just be us, but extended an invitation to the rest of the church as well. Since we started just a few weeks ago, we now regularly have more than 10 people coming just to pray for a half hour before the service! What's even more exciting is that we have actually been seeing the impact of these prayers in our gatherings! The very first night that we prayed, there was a clear sense of God's presence in worship, and since then, we have been seeing more and more people come each week! This has also led to some people coming early and spending time just talking and drinking coffee, and forming a community together. All this just from choosing to set aside time to pray. This simple time of prayer has been a beautiful reminder of what lies at the very heart of the gospel: Asking God to do for us what we are totally unable to do for ourselves. Jesus says it like this: 5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me, you can do nothing. 6 If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire, and burned. 7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples. John 15:5-8 Apart from Jesus, we can do nothing, but if we ask him, he wants to answer! When we first surrender to Jesus, I think this feels so clear. We know we can't do anything to save or change ourselves, but sometimes, over time, it can be tempting to think that we are somehow responsible for where we are, and we forget that it's still that same desperate dependence on Jesus that not only brings us into relationship with him, but also continues to transform us to be more like him. It seems clear to me that right now, here in Mendoza, God is stirring this kind of hunger for him. The focus for this coming month is on pivoting our English gathering from a hangout-bible study to more of a worship gathering. This means we will need to do some very practical work to clear a usable space in the upstairs portion of the cafe, where there would be more privacy for prayer and worship. I'm excited to share how the transition goes, hopefully in the next update! There are so many other stories of what God is doing that I would love to share with you all, but I don't think I will be able to share them all in this format! In light of this, I am planning to have a video call with anyone interested in October, so be looking out for more info on that in the next update! If you haven't already, please sign up for my WhatsApp prayer group! Click here to join the WhatsApp Prayer group! Please be praying for: The Spanish-speaking church and Pastor Mark and Karina The transition for the English service and a clear direction on what this transition should look like My continued Spanish learning process
Arrival in Argentina! I'm now officially settled into my new home here in Mendoza! Over the past two weeks, our small team and I traveled through a few different areas in Argentina, visiting and encouraging churches! First, the whole team flew into Buenos Aires, and there I was approved for my Argentine citizenship before our team traveled to visit a church in Cordoba. Cordoba In Cordoba, we visited a home church led by our friends Jorge and Dulci. They are doing an amazing job of building community and inviting both their church community and their neighbors who don't yet know Jesus to join them in ministering to the poor in their community. As we gathered with their community and worshipped and prayed together, someone had invited a woman who didn't have a relationship with God. After our team prayed with her, she decided she wanted to follow Jesus! This church also has a thriving community of young people between the ages of 12-18, so our team spent some time just praying for, blessing, and encouraging them in their walk with Jesus. Gualeguaychu After Cordoba, we flew back to Buenos Aires and drove 3 hours north to the city of Gualeguaychu, where Ezekiel and Gisela lead a small church. As we gathered and met many of the members of their church family, it became clear that many of those in the congregation had suffered recent and significant loss. This led us to a time of all praying for the peace and comfort of God. It was a very sweet and touching time that left all of us feeling that God was inviting this church to be a place of healing for others who are suffering loss in the community. Mendoza After leaving Gualeguaychu, we flew to Mendoza to visit Mark and Karina and the church family I will be serving here in Mendoza! Here we experienced something really powerfully that we had actually already seen at the other Argentine churches as well: both our team and the members of the churches here in Argentina felt a strong sense of kinship with one another. Again and again, people we had just met shared how it felt like we were all family. This brought to mind what Jesus prayed in John 17:20-23 "My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May the also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one---- I in them and you in me---so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me." God cares so much about the unity of his church. Even when it's incredibly inconvenient and impractical for a small team to travel thousands of miles to a group in another country that speaks a different language, it seems that God honors and blesses these connections and, through these kinds of relationships, is showing the world who Jesus is. Thank you all so much for being a part of this with me! Prayer Right now, the most pressing requests for prayer are: That God would bless our new English-speaking gathering to reach and minister to those in the community in Mendoza who don't speak Spanish That God would give me grace to learn Spanish quickly so that I can participate more and more in the Spanish-speaking community That God would give grace for building new community here in Mendoza