Here are a variety of photos:
Rio Cuarto
Rio Cuarto town
Mendoza
This is a very special family…Pascual and Gloria Pizarro with their son and daughter. They live in the north of Chile, and every year, after having travelled thousands of kms to attend their own conventions, they come to Mendoza for the meetings. We love the Chilean people coming, because without them, the group in Mendoza would be tiny…for this family, nowhere is ‘too far’ to go to meetings!!
Anita Gutierrez and her husband Martin Aguero. Anita professed the first year I was in Argentina, in the city of San Juan. Her mother was professing, but left the meetings, and Anita kept going as a teenager. She married Martin, and when I arrived in the country we were having studies with them. She made her choice, and was baptised when I was in that field (baptised 5 months pregnant with those twins you saw above!). About 6 years later, Martin also made his choice. This was the first year they had come to another convention, they wanted to help, so they did the cooking for us. They enjoyed every moment!
Cipolletti
Cipolletti is a city in Patagonia, comprised mostly of Chileans who came over in the ‘70s. Most of the friends in that field are of Chilean descent, but there are two Argentinian families…one of which is my companion Laura’s family. She comes from the neighbouring city of Neuquen, which although it’s found in a different province, is in fact just back-to-back with Cipolletti, on the other side of the River. It’s a big pip-fruit area, a fertile valley runs through the stark Patagonian steppe, and it’s quite amazing to come across it in the middle of dry old scrub.
Rosa Maria was visiting from Mexico. She has an amazing testimony, let’s see if I can remember it… As a young girl, she loved dancing, music and parties. Went away from home and worked for a while in another town where she came in touch with the truth, and after a real struggle, made her choice. When she went back home not long after, she met with the wrath of her family…the first thing she used to do upon entering the house was turn on the music…this time she didn’t. Her parents became suspicious, and they questioned her. Finally her father searched her bags and found…a Bible. That confirmed their suspicions, and they all made her life hell. She couldn’t read and pray in peace, they would come along and find her…she would hide to pray, but they’d find her. So she would go out into the street to try and pray quietly. One day her sister was so angry and so worked up, she threatened to beat her. 'I don’t know what she saw’ said Rosa, ‘but all of a sudden this fearful look came over her face, and she just walked away without hitting me’!! This went on for a long time, then Rosa did what her parents feared the most…she offered for the work. They watched her, and virtually kept her prisioner. The night she was to leave, her sister she tucked a 10 peso note, her only money, under the pillow which she was going to use for the bus. Her sister came in and lay down on the bed beside her, her head on that very pillow! She never slept with her, but it was to make sure she didn’t leave. Rosa.by this stage was desperate, she wondered what ever was she going to do! Her sister was sleeping on top of the only money she had, it seemed hopeless. She prayed and lay very still till her sister was asleep. Then she suddenly thought of Peter in prison, and how a great sleep came over the guards and he got out and they knew nothing about it. So very quietly she inched down the bed, prayed, and very quietly opened the door, shut it again, and slipped out. She left the house, left the gate, and walked away in just the clothes she stood up in. It was the early hours of the morning, and she walked to the home of some friends, knocked on the door, and eventually they got up to find her standing there. She got to special meetings the next day,which is where she was to join her companion. The other sisters all got together and bought her a suitcase, clothes and toiletries, and that’s how she started in the work! (Later on she heard how angry her family were upon finding that she’d gone. Her mother went and confessed to the Catholic priest that her daughter had run away. He asked if it were with a man, and she said no, she’d run away to preach the gospel. So he told her she should be glad that she had given her life to God! That began to change her attitude, and later on both her parents softened and also made their choices! Her brothers and sister never did, but they softened greatly and her sister – the one that threatened to beat her – even said that as long as she is there, she will look after their parents so that Rosa is free to be in the work. Interesting eh?!!
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