Visit Report 11

Place: CCNV Soldati
Date of Visit: Saturday 25 November 4pm

Soldati is a very poor area of Buenos Aires. It consists of blocks of flats that have been occupied illegally and an area of shacks and wooden structures under the highway. People do not pay rent and there are limited services of electricity and water. In the shacks the electricity is taken from the highway above. The people are apparently very cynical about politicians, who they feel have let them down and used them for political purposes.

CCNV church have been working in the area for a number of years praying for the area and providing for the people. They have a number of praying groups in the area, of which we would visit one on Monday. They believe that they have done a lot of spiritual groundwork, using spiritual warfare to rid the area of the influence of evil and are continually praying for the area. This is also close to the area in which Carlos Annacondia will carry out the crusade in a couple of weeks time.

This event was an outreach to the area consisting of a theatre play, health talks, provision of a tea for the children, prayer and provision of food for the people in the shacks.

A massive stage was erected, with curtains and scenery. A sound system, complete with about six radio microphones was set up. Chairs were brought in for about 300 people.

The first event was a talk by a health visitor from the church, who addressed a number of the women about use of water, care of children, breast feeding etc. The women were very open and appreciated the advice and practical tips. Topics also included sanitation, cleaning of teeth and the importance of feeding the children before themselves. There were a number of under 16's there with babies. One of the babies had a kind of bronchial fever, which looked like the symptons of a very heavy cold.

The play was conceived and staged by a ministry of the church called, Artandveida?, an arts and music ministry. It was of a very high standard with full costume and make up. The sound was professionally done, although being in the open air, it was spoilt by the strong wind. The play was based on the story of the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem by Nehemiah, which seemed very appropriate for the regeneration of this community. The play had about eight scenes and lasted for a couple of hours, including comedy and dialogue. There were some pantomime-type scenes, which the children enjoyed. It culminated in a girl dressed in the Argentinean colours, with a huge backdrop of the Argentinean flag, rising up through God's deliverance and bringing hope and faith to the people. At least that was my interpretation! Mrs Larcombe lost the plot after about an hour. It really was too long and a number of the people drifted away before the end.

At the end, the characters mingled with the audience and gave out food and drinks to the children. Since when we first arrived church members had been getting alongside the audience, chatting to them, taking note of any prayer requests and this continued as the event drew to a close. I noticed quite a few members of the church praying for people and there were many tears as God's presence became manifest. The mercy mission of the church took quite a number of food parcels into the shacks.

By now it was about 8pm. No toilets could be provided and we and our translator, Amiliano, were fit to burst. It was a great relief to get back to the downtown church!

The job of dismantling the stage, sound system and chairs was performed very efficiently. However, the logistics of getting all of that, plus all the church members out of the area, was quite a logistical challenge.

Security wise, the church were obviously looking after our welfare. We noticed that we weren't invited to go into the shacks area. However, there seemed to be quite a peaceful atmosphere in the whole area and there was no sense of violence at any time. When I spoke to church members about this, they attributed it to the prayer and spiritual warfare which has gone on in this area for many years and has given favour to the church.

Observations:
- This was a very impressive work. Once again, everyone knew their role and the whole thing seemed to work like clockwork. It involved a number of ministries all working together superbly.
- The positive atmosphere, in amongst an area of desperate poverty, was quite incredible. You have to conclude that it is a fruit of earlier work.
- The mission here was holistic - preaching of the Gospel and education and feeding and hospitality and love. It is also a long-term work, not a one-off event with little follow-up.

This evening, downtown in Buenos Aires we undertook some research to help us with our next Maundy Thursday shoe shining. On Maundy Thursday, in Peterborough for the past three years, free shoe shining has been undertaken by clergy and lay ministers from the Diocese.

Revds Tim Sledge and Ron Watkinson do a great job of organising us, but I have to conclude that we do a pretty lite job by comparison.

There is a chair-stool, a foot-stool and a table laid out with various creams, brushes and cloths. The price for a shine is 3 pesos, about 60p, and he took between 10 and 15 minutes to clean both shoes.

It is a five-step process:

Step 1: The shoe sine begins with a general brushing of the shoes.

Step 2: Next comes the fitting of leather sleeves between the top of the shoe and the socks to protect the polish from going onto the socks. (Note: So that's how it's done! I always wondered about this during my role as an apprentice shoe-shiner).

Step 3: A type of liquid polish is then applied thoroughly to all parts of the shoe. The shoe is then left to dry, whilst work starts on the other shoe.

Step 4: Now comes the real work. Solid polish is applied to the shoe. This is then brushed energetically and thoroughly.

Step 5: The final stage is the polishing. First comes one cloth as a rough polish remover, and this is followed by the piece-de-resistance - a special polishing cloth held between the hands and vigorously moved from side to side at the back and front of the shoe.

The gleam in the shoes was very apparent - they were almost better than new. The man did such a great job and he had a very pleasant manner. Like all satisfied customers, we will return in the next few days with our other shoes, which have taken a battering on some of the dusty streets of Buenos Aires!

Visit Report 10

Place: CCNV Hospital ministry, Penna
Date of Visit: Saturday 25 November 2pm

Monica heads up the hospital ministry for CCNV. They minister in 36 different hospitals throughout Buenos Aires and have teams of hospital visitors, who visit on a weekly basis. We went to Penna Hospital, which is just behind the Agaces Church.

The hospital facilities seemed very poor. There were plastic gloves, left lying on the floor and the patients cupboards all looked dirty. Liz said that the storage of medicines was not up to the sort of basic nursing standards that she is used to. There were very few medicines visible.

We met the team of about 20 visitors in the grounds of the hospital. The team prayed for opportunities to pray for and speak with patients, staff and visitors. We went with a small team of men and a small team of women. Each visitor carries a record sheet to record the patients name and any prayer requests and they also have leaflets about Christianity and about the church.

As we approached an upstairs ward the first sight we saw was two armed Police standing in the corridor outside one of the bays. Inside a young man of about 20 was handcuffed to the bed. Apparently he had tried to harm his cousin and would be going to jail once his treatment was complete.

We were very impressed with the team of visitors. They spoke sensitively to all the patients in each bay and when they offered to pray for them, each patient said yes. This is in complete contrast to the UK, where hospital visiting is mostly a matter of talking to the patients, many of whom are sceptical of prayer. Also, because of the faith of these visitors, the prayers were for healing and miracles, as well as for comfort and peace.

Liz was given a special, and unusual, opportunity to go into intensive care with one of the teams. Inside Liz said it was like going back to the 1930's in terms of the available equipment and technology - more like a field-hospital. One man was being treated for a gunshot wound and they had an opportunity to pray for him. A couple of young people were prayed for, who gave their lives to Christ there and then. Altogether about ten were prayed for, as well as one of the nurses.

I asked if there was a hospital chaplaincy, but there didn’t seem to be. The Catholic church has special privileges, but the team were pretty disparaging about any real pastoral care provided, which seemed to be limited to a couple of services a year. They quoted one pastoral situation involving a patient who had just died and the Catholic priest wasn’t interested in speaking to the relatives. There is an outside chapel for use by all. Above the ward entrance was a shrine/doll of the Virgin.

Observations:
- It was so refreshing to see the team taking Jesus into the hospital. So often in the UK we seem to take what we have to offer, but keep Jesus hidden in the background. The people's openness to prayer was staggering.
- There is a real financial crisis here in terms of hospital funding. There is a need for the prophetic ministry of the churches in the nation to speak out against the corruption that we are constantly hearing of.
- I was very impressed with the organisation of the team, which had clearly been very well trained. A ministry to 36 hospitals, without being part of an official chaplaincy is a pretty impressive fruit of the Spirit.

How are we? Well, as you can see from these reports, we've got a pretty full programme of activities. It's a far cry from our concerns before we came as to what we were going to do for five weeks! If anything we're having to take activities out rather than put them in.

The hotel is proving to be working very well. Thank you Claudio for your wisdom in arranging this. There are a few idiosyncrasies about the room. I mentioned in this blog about the incident with the sink falling through when I washed my feet. Another was when the toilet flush on the wall got stuck and water started pouring onto the bathroom floor.

Our third incident occurred when we were woken by a wake-up alarm in the next door room, which wasn't stopped. It went off at 05:20; 05:30; 05:40 and 05:50. This was followed by the hotel wake-up call at 06:00, followed by another call received at 06:25. We advised the reception desk that we were not amused!

Everyone here seems quite used to staying up until the small hours and, from what we can make out, they seem to survive on a few hours sleep.

Liz was disappointed that the open-air swimming pool doesn't open until mid-December, but they have opened the Solarium on the 16th floor - the hotel only has 15 floors, so its a garden on the roof. I have, however, been banned from showing any photographs of Mrs Larcombe in her bikini!

Visit Report 8

Place: CCNV Centro
Date of Visit: Thursday 23 November 7pm

Once again, as we entered the downtown church we were met with the sight of lots of people meeting in groups. They are in every spare inch of the building. Bearing in mind this is a rented theatre, they are having to fit into fixed seating with the leaders standing.

This time I was taken to an ABC (nurture) group and Liz was taken to an Espigas (pastoral).

We met with Co-pastors Alberto and Sebastien and were able to discuss and enhance the programme of activities, which they are preparing for us. They are quite interested in our comments that we are doing much the same type of activities, but without seeing much fruit e.g. Childrens work. They said that this was true for their Pastor in 1986, when there were 100 people in the church. The key for him was the strategy he believes that God gave him to organise the church into groups and to grow and develop leaders through this structure. Eva, one of the translators, also said that spiritual warfare and intercession were fundamental to every church activity.

There are daily services and activities and after our meeting we went downstairs and joined in with a worship service just as one of the Co-Pastors, Carlos, started preaching. His message, again derived from the theme preached by the Pastor last Sunday, centred around contrasting Saul and David, encouraging the congregation about being ready and prepared.

Observations:
- The programme for us feels as if we are looking at groups every day, but we realise that it is such a fundamental part of the structure here and it is key to the growth of this church.
- The leaders of the groups appear very capable and mature in their faith.
- It is helpful to be sharing our hearts about why we are seeing so little fruit in England and being open to what they see as their keys.

Visit Report 8

Place: CCNV Centro
Date of Visit: Thursday 23 November 7pm

Once again, as we entered the downtown church we were met with the sight of lots of people meeting in groups. They are in every spare inch of the building. Bearing in mind this is a rented theatre, they are having to fit into fixed seating with the leaders standing.

This time I was taken to an ABC (nurture) group and Liz was taken to an Espigas (pastoral).

We met with Co-pastors Alberto and Sebastien and were able to discuss and enhance the programme of activities, which they are preparing for us. They are quite interested in our comments that we are doing much the same type of activities, but without seeing much fruit e.g. Childrens work. They said that this was true for their Pastor in 1986, when there were 100 people in the church. The key for him was the strategy he believes that God gave him to organise the church into groups and to grow and develop leaders through this structure. Eva, one of the translators, also said that spiritual warfare and intercession were fundamental to every church activity.

There are daily services and activities and after our meeting we went downstairs and joined in with a worship service just as one of the Co-Pastors, Carlos, started preaching. His message, again derived from the theme preached by the Pastor last Sunday, centred around contrasting Saul and David, encouraging the congregation about being ready and prepared.

Observations:
- The programme for us feels as if we are looking at groups every day, but we realise that it is such a fundamental part of the structure here and it is key to the growth of this church.
- The leaders of the groups appear very capable and mature in their faith.
- It is helpful to be sharing our hearts about why we are seeing so little fruit in England and being open to what they see as their keys.

Visit Report 9

Place: CCNV Centro
Date of Visit: Friday 24 November 7pm

Claudia is the Major Elder who oversees the childrens groups. She is in her early thirties and is a mother herself. She showed us a worship service, which was underway, and included children from 5 to 11. We then watched the various children as they met in groups in every square inch of the building and even meeting on the pavement outside. The building itself is in much need of maintenance and lacked any decoration.

In the office she described her role as overseer of childrens work. There are over 400 children and teenagers in her care. Most of the children (80%) are from church families. Outreach to other youth is done in the Go groups.

The children are organised in line with the names of the plagues of Egypt. Each is a squadron e.g. the Lice are aged 2-4 years; the Frogs are aged 5-6 years; the Ants aged 7-8 years; the locusts 9-10 years; the Flies 11-12 years; the Bees 13-14 years; the Wings of Eagles 15-18 years. There is one leader per squadron and 1-2 elders. From 5 years the boys and girls are in separate groups. Every Wednesday the 7-9 year olds go to a hospital to evangelise.

Testimonies shared by Claudia include a 3-year old who made his friends join hands and give thanks for their food. Also a 2-3 year old who laid hands on her grandmothers stomach and prayed in the name of Jesus. Her grandmother, who was not a Christian, was healed.

Every Saturday, children go to the poor area, Saldati, with food and also for evangelism.

Issues such as child protection and handling reports of abuse are dealt with, but perhaps in a less well-documented way than at home. They have guidelines about leaders not being alone with children. Abuse and rape are issues that often have to be dealt with.

Schools here tend to be secular and this church is mostly unable to gain entry. Any Catholic involvement is limited to providing set services.

Observations:
- Claudia seemed to be a very mature and competent leader of the childrens ministry.
- The authority structures are known to everyone and everyone knows where their role is. What we are seeing is the administration of God's grace. Blessing alone will not take a church forward, but the structures and organisation here enable the growth and sustenance of this ministry.

Visit Report 7

Place: CCNV Church - Agaces
Date of Visit: Wednesday 22 November 4 pm

The first sight we were met with when we walked into the church doors was multitudes of people sitting in groups reading the Bible and praying. I would estimate that there were 200 groups, each with 5-8 people. The church and its adjacent rooms were completely full. Alberto, the Co-Pastor for groups, showed us the various groups. There were two types of group - ABC's (nurture) and Espigas (pastoral). Liz joined an ABC group, which was using a course book similar to Alpha with nurture themes, but published by this church.

I joined an Espigas group, which was led by Louis, who is an 'Ancient' Elder. He preached to the group from Jeremiah 51, using the theme of the same message that had been preached by the Pastor on Saturday and Sunday. He then prayed for them from the heart, for blessing upon them and upon their circumstances and families. An offering was then taken from the group. Every persons hand is held over the envelope for blessing, whether they give or not.

The Co-Pastor for groups explained to us later that everyone is encouraged to be in a group and that about 80% of the church are in them. People in the ABC groups have a workbook, written by the church, and they are in the ABC group for between 3 and 10 weeks. The groups are separate for men, women, children and ages. The elders try to put people in appropriate groups for that person's social culture.

In the church there is the following structure:
- Leaders of Espigas and Go groups
- Elders
- Major or Ancient Elders
- Co-Pastors (42 full-time)
- Pastor Guillermo Prein

As a Major Elder, Louis is responsible for the following structure:
- Elders (4)
- Leaders of Espigas and Go groups (15)
- Sub-Leaders (10)
- Men (138)
Every day he prays for his leaders and people.

We then went to see Louis leading another group, this time his Leaders group. Again he preached from the Pastor's theme and was equipping these leaders for their own groups. Once again, there was prayer and an offering.

Observations:
- It was very encouraging to come into the church and see such a buzz of enthusiastic activity.
- There are clear pastoral and evangelistic structures here. Everyone understands their authority and responsibility.
- We are impressed with the quality and personalities of the leaders, who appear to take their pastoral responsibilities seriously.

Visit Report 6

Place: CCNV Church - Agaces
Date of Visit: Tuesday 21 November 4 pm

The co-pastor for evangelism, George Garcia, met with us to discuss the schedule for visits, which they are proposing.

He explained that the church was started 24 years ago, but about 8 years ago they began a strategy of basing the structure of the church on groups. Now there are the following groups:
- ABC groups for new believers
- Espigas groups for nurture
- Go groups for evangelising neighbours

He said that no-one was forced to go into a group and that the church was run by the people for the people.

After this meeting we went into the church a Prayer for Miracles Service. This church is in an L-shape and probably holds 700-1,000 people on moveable-chairs. There is a stage for the worship group. A cross is in the centre. The service began with worship, again with no words displayed, which was curious as there were first-timers present. During the worship people were writing out their petitions and needs and were coming to the front of the stage, where there was a glass-fronted box into which the petitions were placed. It was clear that there was a lot of writing on most of the pieces of paper.

The leader reiterated the Pastor's message from the weekend from Galatians 5:10 about freedom in Christ and about spiritual intelligence. "We need to pray more - if you want a miracle, then pray for a miracle."

A time of prayer for miracles then took place, led passionately from the stage. This lasted for about 15 minutes. A number of people then started to gather at the side of the church queuing up to go up onto the stage to testify to their miracle. There were leaders from the church ready to ask them further details. There were two leaders on the stage who took it in turn to interview the people as they came up. The testimonies included someone whose utility bill had been much less than expected; someone whose pension had been given after being told none was due; a lady who was taken to hospital with a heart problem, but then the pain had gone; a lady with pain in her joints, who at the meeting found that she could walk well. As each person left the stage they were prayed for and then details were taken of their name and testimony.

The meeting concluded with a call for those who were there for the first time to come to the front and then they prayed a prayer for salvation for 15-20 people. (Note: We were a bit confused about whether they were praying because it was their first time, or because they wanted salvation).

An offering was taken. Envelopes are used for all cash donations and people can mark on the area of ministry that they want to give to. (Note: There is a general mistrust of the banking system due to the economic collapse of four years ago and people seem to use cash).

There was then a general call for those who wanted prayer to come forward to receive. So many came forward that chairs had to be cleared out of the way.

As we were leaving a second service was due to begin.....

Observations:
- The service leader told us later that this was mostly a prayer service rather than their usual miracles service.
- Most of the testimonies were brought to the meeting for events that had already happened. Nevertheless the service did provide an opportunity for people to bring testimony.
- I was impressed by the care and diligence shown regarding praying for and following up those who came to give testimony. I notice the CCNV website contains testimonies and this probably comes via this system.
- The Pastor's message from Saturday and Sunday is being reinforced through the mid-week services.

Visit Report 4

Event: Go Groups Central Picnic Meeting
Date of Visit: Saturday 17 November

Twice a year all the leaders of the Go (Groupos de Oracion) evangelism cell groups in the CCNV church gather together. There are over 1,000 Go groups so the venue has to be able to accommodate over 1,000 people. We were taken to the CCNV central church where we got on one of the fifteen or so coaches that had been arranged to take people to the event, some 50 Km away.

The venue was a municipal picnic park, which is available to be used by groups. It contains a venue with table-seating for about 1,000, a bit like a very large school canteen, as well as open-air swimming pools, café, barbeque points, volleyball courts etc.

The coaches left Buenos Aires at 9 am and arrived at the venue at about 10 am. There was then a lot of socialising as more people arrived throughout the day. Before lunch we were taken for a tour around the park. Everyone had brought something for the bring-and-share lunch. For us this included a variery of new tastes such as sweetbreads, very thin sandwiches and the communual tea drink, mattee, which is passed around.

We had lunch with the Go group that we had attended earlier in the week, but were then invited to join the pastors table as well. We had more than enough food and were treated very well.

It was estimated that their were 1,000 to 1,100 people present. The attendance was predominantly women and children. A few men were present. I was told that the Go groups were mostly led by women, because many were day-time groups and the men were working.

After lunch, people engaged in a number of informal activities, including walking, sunbathing, socialising, playing games etc.

At about 4 pm the main part of the day got underway with a time of worship led by a singer-guitarist, using songs that were obviously well-known to all present. This lasted for about half an hour and was entered into passionately and enthusiastically by all present. There was then intercession for Go groups led by a clearly-anointed woman who led in the style where all pray out loud at the same time, mostly whilst standing. The Co-Pastor of Evangelism then gave some guidance about plans to expand the Go groups further. People were encouraged to write down questions, which were collected in. The Co-Pastor then answered the questions from the front. The questions were very real and were handled with mature leadership from the front.

The Pastor of CCNV arrived and preached a message from Jeremiah 51 - A judgement upon Babylon. It was a strong message to prepare the church for the mission by Carlos Annacondia taking place in early December. He believes that the enemy has put a wall around the people in the city, but this wall will fall, when Jesus gives the command. He spoke of growth by the Spirit through multiplication, not mathematical growth through human strategies. [As he spoke about the Spirit came upon me. This Spirit of multiplication is the anointing that I received twelve years ago, that the Spirit highlighted in Peterborough Cathedral in 1996.] The Pastor said that at one time, he was preaching without fruit. Today, the church is three hundred times greater than then, but this was through obedience to the Spirit, through the establishment of groups. In the last ten years over 62,000 have attended the groups and they are looking for a ten-fold increase in the next ten years. The message concluded with everyone standing and praying, led by the Pastor.

Pastor Prein called Liz and I to the front and asked us to introduce ourselves. He prayed for us, something like this: 'Take the embers and spread them around the uk. Blow on the embers around the uk to see revival.'

Around ten new elders and group leaders were announced and then prayed for.

The event finished at 9.30 pm. There was what felt like a stampede for the coaches and transport home. The worship continued on the journey home with enthusiastic singing of Christian songs. Most people would have arrived home at around 10.30 pm.

Conclusions:
- It is difficult to contemplate the scale of this event and the fact that many gave up a Saturday from 8 am to 10.30 pm, including being away from their husbands.
- We felt very much part of the event and were warmly welcomed and included. Food was provided. Three translators were made available.
- The Pastor is ensuring that they don't get complacent, especially given the massive growth they have already seen.

Visit Report 5

Event: CCNV Sunday Service - Corientes Av. Church
Date of Visit: Sunday 18 November 8 pm

This was the second service that we had attended at this church and this was the second service of the day. We again sat in the box seats at the side of the stage, which helps the translator, but does leave you feeling a bit self-conscious in full view of everyone.

The service began with worship, led by musicians. There is no screen, but everyone seems to know the words. The worship leaders were different from our last visit. It is clear that both male and female leadership is encouraged. The saxophonist seemed to be of a very high standard and we later learnt that he was a professional musician.

Pastor Prein, the senior pastor, preached a message about 'Spiritual Intelligence', which was a follow on from the message given the previous day at the Go groups meeting. The Pastor was concerned that the church is not taking care of its opportunities. They have had great blessings, but they must not be complacent. The Catholic church's teachings about guilt were highlighted as an area of bondage for the whole country. Spiritual intelligence depends on the Holy Spirit, not reason. It is about developing the right environment, obtained through the Spirit, to manifest God's purposes. He referred to the mission with Carlos Annacondia coming up in early December as a key time and opportunity. Pastor Prein prayed for the Holy Spirit to be released to impart spiritual intelligence.

A number of people went forward to be filled with the Holy Spirit. A prayer ministry prayed for people at the front. As in the uk, there were two people praying, one in front and one behind ready to catch the person should they fall down in the Spirit.

The service lasted about three hours in total.

Observations:
- One again, enthusiastic worship, skilfully led, enabled the congregation to come into the presence of God.
- This is an interesting time to be here with the mission with Carlos Annacondia coming up in early December.
- The leadership of this church clearly feels that the Argentinean Catholic church is responsible for a lot of erroneous teaching and practice.

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing! The same is true for languages. We've learnt this word, 'poco', which means 'little'. We are using it in relation to speaking i.e. I speak a little Spanish.

Yesterday, however, I started to get a bit too confident. We had had lots to eat, all provided by members of the church, when one of the pastors asked me whether I had had enough to eat. I thought he was asking how much Spanish I could speak, so I replied, "poco". The next thing we knew was the arrival of two full plates of food, which we had to decline as we were so full. How embarrassing!
Paul

Had a great day today at a ranch, which is about 50 Km from Buenos Aires. There was an opportunity to ride a horse and this is demonstrated here by Mrs Larcombe. It was not so much ride, as follow the leader. It was a short trek round a field and the horses were obviously pre-programmed to follow and take the shortest route if they possibly could.

This was followed by a very delicious barbeque. This is my first taste of Argentinean beef and it was wonderful. We had a superb meal, followed by entertainment and horsemanship by the Grauchos.

Visit Report 3

Place: CCNV Church Service
Date of visit: Thursday 16 November 7 pm

Felicitas took us to one of the CCNV churches. We had a meeting with the co-pastor for evangelism, George Garcia. He is going to develop a visit schedule for us, which we will discuss with him next Tuesday. He welcomed us and asked why we had come to Argentina. They are not surprised that people come as they believe that they have been prepared by God to receive visitors from overseas. They were very welcoming and provided us with refreshments. We each spoke about our churches.

We were then taken down to the auditorium for the church service. Cell group meetings and the first service were just finishing. Inside it was like an old-style cinema or theatre, which probably held around 800-1000 people with the balconys. The worship group were on the stage. There was no screen, but everyone seemed to know the words. We sat in the boxes to the side of the stage raised up from the people slighly, which felt a bit strange. A translator, Pablo, was provided for us and he sat behind us, translating for us. Opposite sat some Spanish pastors. One of them from Alicante, preached about Jesus choosing the way of the cross. The service concluded with an encouraging prayerful response and then the offering was taken, in which everyone fills in an envelope and chooses the area of ministry that their gift is to go to.

We met some further people that would be translating for us during our stay and then we were kindly taken b ck to our hotel by Felicitas.

Conclusions:
- Once again, we have been provided with a great welcome and hospitality
- The provision of translators is good news for what we will be able to do during this visit
- There will be much to see in this 24/7 church

Visit Report 2

Go Group: Ma. Felicitas Duche (Salguero 2970)
Date of visit: 15 November 2006 11 am

The Go Group meets in the apartment of Ma. Felicitas Duche, who is a leader in the CCNV (Centro Christiana Nueva Vida) Church. The group, one of over 1,000 in the church, has been running for ten years, but it is only in the last year that it has really taken off.

On the day that we visited there were 11 people plus Felicitas, including ourselves. These ranged from one man of 90 to a young graduate working at the Ministry of Foreigh Affairs. There were three who were helpers. The apartment was on the 7th floor of the building. We were very warmly welcomed by the host, who is able to speak English.

Evangelism had preceded the group meeting. About 15 minutes beforehand the host and another member had gone out into the street to invite neighbours and others to come to the group.

When we arrived, people were already filling out a Go slip of paper, which asked for them to write down any needs that they have in their lives.

The group began with an applause for God. The host then went round each of the group, welcoming them and listening to their circumstances and needs. Several of them had only just started coming to the group.

There then followed a time of prayer during which the host went round various people, praying for their needs, including laying hands on them, praying for healing and encouraging them. This was quite tactile and lovingly done and much appreciated by those being prayed for. People were clearly touched emotionally. This was followed by listening to some worship music on tape and using it to praise and worship God.

The host then brought the word, Jeremiah 16:21, which is about God teaching disobedient people about himself. This word is provided by the pastor of the church to all of the Go Groups. It was introduced with some background into the prophet Jeremiah and applied into the people's lives with the host illustrating the word through situations she knew of in their circumstances. One lady was clearly very moved by the Spirit as she testified that her daughter had recently told her that she loved her after many years apart.

Three people had to leave sharply, due to it being at lunchtime. The length of the group is one and a quarter hours. Coffee and cake (provided by one of the members) was served at the end. Two offering envelopes were produced and people were invited to make their offerings to the new church building and/or to the work of the church. I was asked to pray for God's blessing on their giving.

Conclusions:
- I was impressed by the faithfulness and perseverance of the host in seeking to evangelise her neighbours.
- The format of the group is deliberately lovingly-evangelistic, focused on felt needs.
- The word was applied to people's everyday lives.
- We were very much welcomed and looked after, with translation provided

What is really impressing us so far about where we are staying is the parks and places to walk.

We've been to two parks - the Jardin Botanica and the Parque 3 de Febrero, both of which we've enjoyed, and the locals seem to come to. They seem quite relaxed places.

The Parque 3 de Febrero has got a circular walkway, where people powerwalk, cycle, rollerblade and stroll. We've just been for a fast stroll around it once. The length is about half a mile - we might burn off the extra calories from those croissants at breakfast!

Here's a picture of Mr Larcombe in the park.

Visit Report

Church: Rey de Reyes (Claudio Freidzen)
Web: www.reydereyes.sion.com
Date of visit: Sunday 12 November

The Church meets in a purpose-built auditorium in Ciudad de la Paz 2330 (City of Peace), Buenos Aires. The auditorium is on three tiers and probably holds 2-3,000. Shaped like a 120degree segment, the seating is centred around the stage, which has an open platform with steps leading up to the speaker, choir and musicians area.

As the taxi turned the corner we saw peope outside the church queing to get in. We had been told to go to the front of the queue and tell the stewards that we were from the UK. Within two minutes we were shown into the entrance lobby and then introduced to Silvana, who was to be our host and translator for the evening. She was very welcoming and hospitable and was to arrange our brief introduction to Claudio and the other pastors.

We were taken into the auditorium for the end of the 4 pm service, which eventually finished at about 7.30 pm. We walked into an entusiastic and highly charged worship atmosphere. Everybody was standing and all were engaged in worship, led by the worship group together with Claudio Friedzon. Claudio Friedzon was concluding the service and encouraging people in their faith. There was an enthusiastic response of about one hundred people coming forward for prayer at the end of the service and there was a ministry team in place to pray for them. We were invited to go forward and Claudio prayed for us. The anointing of the Spirit was so powerful that we both fell to the floor, caught by those praying for us.

The second service began about 30 minutes later. The worship group led songs using words displayed on two large projector screens. The worship was passionate and enthusiastic and skillfully conducted by the worship leader, a guitarist. The worship continued for about one and a half hours with an interruption for the welcome and notices. An offering was taken for the support of a church in the north of Argentina, which Rey de Reyes were supporting by sending a container full of aid. After this the worship resumed and became even more powerful, with Claudio Friedzon directing the anointing of the Spirit as it fell upon the auditorium. He was like the conductor of an orchestra or like a helmsman watching for where the Spirit was blowing next. One of the songs, asking for more fire, seemed to capture the moment. We were the direct recipients as Claudio walked down the steps from the platform and came to Liz and I blowing and laying his hands on us saying, "More fire". He then did the same to other visiting pastors and the rest of the congregation. It soon became obvious to us that this was a powerful manifestation of the Spirit. Claudio did not hurry or push on with the programme, but watched and conducted the manifestations as they occurred throughout the congregation.

A 20-minute video was then shown of the recent crusade to Buenos Aires by Pastor Benny Hinn, which featured a number of people proclaiming that they believed they had been healed from some major medical conditions during the meeting. The congregation seemed very pleased and encouraged that this took place in their city.

Claudio then brought the message entitled, Total Blessing. Based on Micah 6:6,7, which concludes with, 'And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.' The message was illustrated with references to mercy and humility, and to supporting the aid being sent to the northern state. The service concluded with further worship, resuming the themes of earlier together and merging them with the main theme of the message. At the end an appeal was made for those who wished to receive prayer to come to the front. Again about a hundred people came forward.

After the service we were introduced to Claudio Friedzon and were able to tell him a little about where we were from. He said that he was leading services next Saturday and was then off to speak in Mozambique. He was very genuine in his welcome to us.

Conclusions:
- The style of the service was not unusual. It would be possible to find such a style and building within a number of places in the UK i.e. Peterborough Community Church.
- The welcome and hospitality shown to us was excellent and performed at a moment's notice including the provision of translation during the service.
- The leading and respect for the anointing of the Spirit was clear and evident, perhaps at the expense of the programme or time.
- The quality of the worship enabled the congregation to come into the presence of God.
- We had an insight into the gentleness of the Pastor as we watched him play with his grandson as he waited to speak.
- The welcome shown to us by Claudio Friedzon and his team was friendly and sincere.
- The manifestation of the Spirit was very powerful, of which we have seen similar occasionally in the UK, but we will observe further over the next five weeks to see if this was special to this meeting or to this church.

We had a really good flight - managed to get two seats at the back of the 747, where the plane narrows and there's only room for two seats, but space for two and a half.

Taxi journey was interesting, especially if you looked ahead. I decided to look sideways!

We had our first exploratory. We have just been on walkabout in the Jardin Botanica, which was great. Liz got some sun, whilst I stayed in the shade!

We're just about to leave to visit Claudio freidzen's church, which has a service at 7pm.

Phew! No excess baggage. We smiled sweetly. Boarding now. Speak to you next from BA.

No more checklists. No more thinking about what is still to go in the suitcase. That's it. Now awaiting checkin at Heathrow. Big question is, can we get through with slightly excess baggage?