Praying for Argentina
- Buenos Aires is one of the world’s largest urban areas, and the gospel does not reach many who live there. The cultured upper class are harder to reach. The Jewish community (one of the world’s largest) has few believers. Some churches started work among the 500,000 slum dwellers, homeless, and street kids, but more work is needed. Chinese, Korean, Japanese, and Vietnamese communities continue to grow with only one agency reaching out to them. Pray for the many Christians present in Buenos Aires to gain a passion for sharing the gospel across social, economic, and cultural boundaries.
- Church leadership remains a critical bottleneck in further growth. Leaders who train, disciple and release other leaders into ministry and who minister in the Word and the Spirit are always needed. Pray for those involved in training through seminaries, Bible schools and TEE; there are literally hundreds across the country. Pray also for students who are hindered by lack of finance, facilities or time.
- Amerindians from the Chaco have long been a marginalized and exploited minority, their cultures ravaged by the majority. Only in 1996 did the peoples of the Chaco region gain official title to their lands. Many of these groups' beliefs are a highly syncretized blend of Catholicism and animism. Chaco peoples have become believers through the work of CMS (Wichi, Toba, Chorote, Chiriguano), Mennonites, BMS and Argentinean Baptists (Wichi) and through WV (Guarani). Pray for maturing of the indigenous Church, and for both expatriates and mainstream Argentineans to be sensitive to this. Pray also for ongoing translation programmes in indigenous languages (SIL/LETRA, UBS, CMS).