by Yanina Valdez

Hi everyone! For those that don’t know me, my name is Debora Yanina Valdez.

I recently turned 18 years old and I’ve been a part of 4 different campaigns in the last 4 years!

It’s a great privilege to be able to serve in the Work of God in different ways this year. I wasn’t asked to go out to share the Gospel with the others but I was able to be a helper in the kitchen cleaning among other things. This helped a lot in my growth because in the mornings we would share about our quiet times with the rest of the people in the group.

I also give many thanks to God because every year He has something to make me change my life. This campaign, God helped me a lot in growing and has spoken a lot to me that I need to preach the Gospel everyday of my life and not forget it.

I saw the Lighthouse members speaking about how God is forming them and the work that He is doing in each one of them. I am very thankful to our Heavenly Father for the privilege he gave me to get to know them. The truth is if I hadn’t been walking with the Lord I would have never been able to meet people from another place, much less another country!

I am truly thankful for the support that LBC as a church are giving to our church. And as always, every campaign has been of great blessing. Each campaign bears its fruits.

Something that amazes me from seeing from every campaign is seeing my ministry leader. He was the fruit of a campaign a couple of years back and he says that he was a fruit of the campaign thanks to your guys’ help. You can imagine that you all helped in the growth of each and everyone person in our church!

The truth is that it is a privilege to be able to communicate our love in Christ that we share with one another.

I will end on a very happy note, giving so much thanks to God and the leaders of my church and Lighthouse.

I’ll be available next time that you need something from me. I don’t have much to give but I have my entire life and my gifts to serve and help those who need it.

by Emanuel Romano

Hi everyone! My name is Emanuel Romano, I am a member of IBM in Tucuman and I came to Tucucman in February of this year, and since then God has not ceased blessing me greatly as well as my family. In the beginning of the month of March I was challenged to work in the ministry with the young adults. It was something new for me, but even still I was motivated.

In His grace, God used me greatly despite the fact that we are not deserving of so much love. And the campaign this year helped me to discover that truly the work is outside but also it helped me discover that God is great and He does everything with a specific purpose.

When my parents divorced in 2002, I moved to Monte and there I had the opportunity to study English. During this time my heart was hardened and I began submerging myself in the trash of this world up to the point to even being addicted to drugs, which gave me problems at home.

After a long process, God molded my heart and showed me His love even when I didn’t deserve it. Thus I decided to submit all of me to Him and I truly experienced His love…by His grace God allowed me to collaborate and translate during the campaign, which I had never done before and it was a wonderful time sharing with each one of the members of the team. But what encourages me the most is that now has come the time to work because the ministry is growing because each campaign left its fruits and this one was no exception: in the young adult ministry we have 7 new people, and we are staring a soccer ministry with the people from the neighborhood for Juan Pablo. We are encouraged and there is much need.

We love you and we ask God that we would continue receiving His blessings. Pray for us; we have limited resources but we know that everything in the hands of God is worth much more. One of the challenges this year was starting an English workshop that would allow us to communicate on a basic but fluent level with our brothers and sisters in Christ, and this would be a useful tool in ministry. And we are definitely starting that up. Lately we have been getting around 10 people who are very motivated and at the same time motivate my life. It’s a great challenge that God has given me, so I ask you all that you pray for my life.

It was truly a pleasure enjoying the time of the campaign as a church. We were greatly blessed and it is the desire of our hearts to have blessings like this that promote growth, but even more, that challenge us to perfect us in His word. I sent you my greetings and I thank God for having used us in such a great way.

1.sam12:24/heb.6:10

by Richard Dillard

I always insist that the Tucumán trip is the best translating trip of the year and strongly encourage all interested to try to go. A few things that greatly mark the difference between this trip and the rif-raf are:

1. LBC is selective in whom they bring. Many churches bring down a group of ten or so youth who think they are taking a free vacation. Many are not interested in doing ministry, and often the translators have to preach the gospel to some team members. The Lighthouse team comes prepared, they know what they believe, are secure in sharing the gospel (though some may be a little nervous, but the nerves go away after a day or so) and have clearly put a lot of effort into skits etc. to be able to effectively do ministry upon arrival in Argentina.

2. The communion/fellowship between LBC and IBM Tucumán is always a great blessing to behold, and though we translators are kind of on the ‘outside,’ we still are able to very much feel part of this fellowship. It’s always refreshing to be ministered to by some solid, reformed preaching and conversation. You guys treat the translators very nicely, and that makes us feel extremely appreciated.

Shout out to all my gringos!

by Pablo Daut

Well, for me the Lighthouse’s mission trip was the best evangelistic campaign I’ve been to. One of the greatest things was the fact that you guys came not looking for “decisions” or “numbers,” but to encourage the local church. You guys came with the priority of being a blessing to the local church, and NOT to be able to have a nice “street-preaching/emotional video” to show when you return back to the U.S. Secondly, I felt really comfortable when I had to translate the sermons because I was sure you were preaching with a biblical gospel and not a man-centered gospel, as we often listen to here in Argentina.

I really want to thank the Lighthouse team because you were all a HUGE blessing for me. I love you guys.

All of you are very godly and all I can say is that I know that my God glorified His Name through this mission trip. May He continue to work for His own glory, now and forever.

Rom 11.36

by Tiby

My name is Tiby, I am from Romania. It was a privilege for me to be part of what God did last year and this year in Tucumán through Lighthouse Bible Church. The thing I remember most from this trip is the joy and work of the LBC members and the love and care from the local church in Tucumán. I enjoyed talking to people and learning from the Americans I translated for. We had an intellectual exchange. 🙂

by Monica Iriazabal Liguori

Honestly, it was a blessing being part of the campaign. God gave me opportunity to translate for Lighthouse two years ago, but this time was very different. It was a privilege for me share with the members of the LBC team. I needed a time like that in the campaign. Translating for Keziah and Kara was very encouraging for me. The Lord gave me the opportunity to talk with Angela, and she helped me a lot and gave me some counsel. God used each one of you to help me, exhort me, and encourage to me. Thanks to you all. For His Glory.

by Eugene Park

Spending this past year in Argentina going to school really opened my eyes and helped me understand many things. One of those things was what life is like for a translator on a campaign. Before LBC came down to Argentina in July, I had the opportunity to go on two separate campaigns as a translator with other churches, one from Missouri and another one from North Carolina. There were obviously similarities and differences in the way they did campaigns.

I was also heavily involved with the LBC trip, but on the Argentina side, which meant taking care of transportation and the translators. In previous years the translators were randomly chosen. But this year, since I was there, I was able to hand pick the people who would come on this trip. As time went on, the translator team started to take shape and I was getting really excited because I was good friends with just about all of them.

Another advantage of me being in Argentina is that I was able to conduct meetings with the translators. This is something that’s unheard of. On the other trips I went to, all I knew was when and where to show up for the bus. I knew nothing about the church, where we were going, where I was staying, etc. It’s the Argentine way: show up and they’ll figure it out. But having meetings with the translators before the trip was beneficial because it gave me the opportunity to share about the trip, what they could expect, LBC’s missions philosophy, and what some of the team members were like (Yeah, I shared some funny stories about team members).

So things were going great until the “piggy flu” (“Swine flu,” coined by Pablo the translator) came to town. This caused a huge mess and scare because it was an epidemic that the Argentinean government tried to hide until after the recently held elections. Because of the flu, Word of Life told the student body that no one was allowed to leave campus during the winter break (which was when we were going to Tucumán) unless you were Argentine and/or going home for good. That stressed me out because that meant that about half of the translators I lined up couldn’t go and I had to scramble for replacement translators who were either Argentine or not students. But this drove me to God in prayer and pushed me to trust in God’s perfect plan. In my eyes my original group of translators was “perfect.” But obviously God had different plans and the group of translators that eventually went to Tucumán was the group He wanted there.

The translators (some of whom I met for the first time that day) left campus one cold morning to pick up the LBC team at the airport and then enjoy a lunch together. It was great having lunch together and seeing the interactions between the team and the translators. If I didn’t know better, I would have thought that everyone had known each other for a while judging from the warm and friendly interactions I observed.

After lunch we dropped the team off at the airport and then headed off to the bus station for our ride up to Tucumán. I’ve heard of the famous 16 hour bus ride form Buenos Aires up to Tucuman, but to experience it was another thing – and something that I hope to never experience again. Sleeping was very difficult because the seats were uncomfortable and didn’t recline very far. They also didn’t serve meals on the bus, or even stop for meals. We only stopped at one place for breakfast, which, as team members know, isn’t a very substantial meal. Fortunately I had my care package from the LBC Home Team and over the course of the trip the translators all devoured the contents. That experience made me appreciate the translators even more because they were willing to go on a 16 hour bus ride to serve as translators. This trip wasn’t about their agenda; this trip was about them being a part of the body of Christ and serving. However, I’ve made a mental note to explore upgrading transportation for the translators on fuure trips.

by Angela Kim

The women of Iglesia Biblica Misionera (IBM) are so very precious. They love to hear God’s Word being taught and desire to live it out in their daily lives. I’ve had the privilege of sharing with the IBM women there in both corporate and individual contexts. I enjoyed meeting the women of all different ages, from a 12-year-old youth gal and a 16-year-old mother of a baby to a 90- year-old grandma. The day after we arrived, a women’s event took place where we sang songs of worship, played an icebreaker game led by a couple of youth girls, drank tea with delicious snacks, and I got the chance to share my testimony as well as teach the women from God’s Word.

Looking at the faces of these women eager to learn and fellowship with the other women encouraged my teammates and me greatly. One of the translators, Noelia, did a wonderful job translating the message into Spanish. The following day, the whole church had a park day and we had an opportunity to fellowship with them. We formed as group of moms and they asked me to share regarding biblical parenting and to answer some practical questions they had. Though it was quite spontaneous, we ended up having a profitable time in discussing the issues we all face as moms (and grandmas). It’s interesting that the problems in Tucumán are very much the same as those in San Diego or anywhere else in the world. Many other women asked to meet with one of us individually to receive counseling and to share their burdens so that we might be able to pray for them and share from God’s Word in a more personal way. I was truly challenged to gain wisdom from the principles from the Scriptures to examine my own heart and life as well as to share it with the women there in Argentina. I met several women who love God and people so passionately. They live in such a way that represents Christ with the sole purpose of living out and sharing the gospel with their family and neighbors.

by Jenna Kim

Hola! My name is Jenna, and I had the unique opportunity during this trip to be a youth helping to minister to the youth of Tucumán, Argentina. Though one of the main focuses of the trip was the evangelistic campaign, we had the opportunity on both weekends before and after the campaign to gather for various activities with the “jovenes y adolescentes” (young adult group and the youth group). The first Saturday, we spent the whole day at the park, alternating between messages, soccer matches, and meals. That evening we had our first official youth meeting, where we gathered and listened to Cesar – who also works with the youth back at home in San Diego – speak on what it means to have a cross-centered youth ministry. It was very refreshing to see the consistency of the mindset towards ministry, in that, like we often say, missions is simply doing church somewhere else, and the way in which we would desire to teach and equip the youth here, we would make every effort to do the same there. Throughout the week, we got a chance to interact with some of the youth on a closer basis, as many of the youth girls ministered to the team by preparing and serving meals, and as many youth joined the door-to-door groups as we shared the gospel throughout the “barrios” (neighborhoods). That in itself was a great encouragement to me, and really caused me to consider if back at home, I really am taking advantage of every opportunity to serve the body in joyful humility, or if I use youthfulness as an excuse to only be catered to.

At the end of that week, we had a night youth gathering. That night, we taught them some classic Lighthouse games, including pantyhose wars and the screaming game, all of which made for a very fun and memorable time, with many memorable quotes (“Ay no!”). After all the games, I actually had the chance to share my testimony with the group, and then Teddy gave a message regarding love within the church body, an issue that is very applicable, particularly among youth, where social conflicts and insecurities are all things that youth in particular deal with a lot. But as Teddy shared, the love of Christ truly transcends all these things, and the unconditional nature of God’s grace on all of us as equally sinful rebels should truly cause believers to be unified in the cross and therefore desire to extend a reflection that same grace to one another. That same Christ-given unity was what really made this trip so sweet, in being able to join with like-minded brothers and sisters, all of us being equally in need of God’s grace and all desiring to present our lives as living sacrifices for God as an act of worship, and to do all we can to pass on the greatness of God, that others may worship as well, and partake of that great love.

by Alyssa Kim

Hello friends and family of LBC. I will be sharing with you about the children in Argentina. I have met some amazing kids in Argentina. A couple of reasons I call them amazing is because they are so unlike us! They are so content with what they have. Kids at Lighthouse Bible Church: imagine living in a house (the size of our regular living room) being your whole house. Imagine on the coldest night with no heater! On the hottest day there is no air conditioner and no one complains at all! You would also be pretty amazed if you went.

I also met some friends there named Diana, Vicky, and Selena. They are so kind and patient with me. I have learned all a lot from them and do my best to be just like them. I wish to see them as soon as possible. I hope you have been encouraged to make good choices in what you do, act, and say. Not just the kids, but adults too. Thank you!