Update from Argentina
From Dan Lancaster
We bring greetings to all our brothers and sisters around the world from our little community in Bariloche, Argentina! I just returned from spending a week there with Brothers Eric Stanton and David Anzaldua from Texas, along with Brother Eder Badillo from Mexico.
It was quite a climate shock to fly from toasty Texas and muggy Miami (where we were delayed overnight) down to the bracing winter winds of the Patagonia, where snow blanketed the Andes mountains as far as you can see! But the joyous greetings of our brothers and sisters there were as warm as ever.
I’ve never encountered such difficulties in air travel as we faced in trying to actually make it to Argentina. It’s a long story, but we ended up arriving two and a half days later than expected. Yet it was immediately evident to us that we had arrived just in time, as we had an unexpected encounter there on the very first day.
An Unexpected Connection
A friend of a friend had recommended that a Brazilian family connect with Brother Gustavo while in Bariloche on vacation. So they came for a visit shortly after we arrived. It turns out they are Spirit-filled believers who homeschool their three children. We had a blessed time of sharing and ended with worship and a powerful prayer together at their request. They belong to a group in Brazil that seems to be serious about their faith and in pursuit of Christian community, so we’ll see what God may unfold through this connection! We felt we had encountered long-lost family in the Lord, and we promised to keep in touch.
I was also deeply encouraged by the maturing that was evident among our own brothers and sisters. Watching them love and serve their visitors and one another, and share the anointed Word of the Lord in its various forms, was a great joy. Several connections with other visiting families were renewed during our visit, and we pray that God continues to grow the church there according to His will.
Community Land Possibility
The Argentine brothers asked us to look at a piece of land that they feel a lot about as a potential community hub and outreach to the area. It’s 10 acres, with abundant spring-fed water, a small apple orchard, two old but serviceable little homes, electric and gas infrastructure already installed that will accommodate expansion, and stunning views of Lake Nahuel Huapi and the Andes.
Location and access is excellent. While its topography affords privacy, the property is right off of Route 40, the main highway heading into Bariloche. This city of around 150,000 is the gateway to the Patagonia region and home to excellent trout fishing and the most renowned ski slopes in the southern hemisphere. So the potential for attracting traffic year-round seems really good.
There is, of course, a catch: the owner is asking $1 million U.S. dollars. Although this is apparently not a high price for land in the area, it is at least three times as much as our Argentine brothers could possibly scrape together, even if they liquidate and pool all their assets. And then more money would still be needed to develop the property into the destination they envision.
Nevertheless, the brothers feel a lot for the place, and some events that unfolded while we were there have led us to believe that the Lord is somehow in this, maybe even for purposes we didn’t anticipate.
The original owner is an almost 80-year-old widow who still lives alone on the property. She is in poor health and feels it’s time to sell and move to Buenos Aires to be near her extended family. The neighbors warned our Argentine brothers and sisters not to connect with her directly, due to her reputation as a very difficult person to get along with. However, she saw them looking at the property one day and invited them in to visit. They had a wonderful time together, and ended up sharing with her all about our community—and she loved it!
This lady is not a believer as far as we know, but she was very supportive of homeschooling, home birth and healthy agrarian life. It turns out that she and her husband ran some kind of organic agro-tourism operation on this same land many years ago (though it’s now so unkempt that it’s hard to tell).
When the lady heard that some community members from Texas had also come out to see the place, she asked to meet us. Shortly into our visit, a remarkable story unfolded.
No Greater Love
After introductions and various questions and answers about the land, its history, and potential, Brother Gustavo suddenly asked the lady a seemingly off-topic question: Might she possibly have been attempting to purchase an inhaler some years ago during the volcano crisis?
The shock of recognition flashed on her face as she replied that yes, in fact, she had! Might he be the one that had helped her that day?
The pieces came together as we came to understand the following background: On June 3, 2011, the Puye-hue-Cordón Caulle volcanic complex in Chile cracked open, shooting a thick brown ash cloud nine miles into the air. Though Bariloche is 130 kilometers away, it was nonetheless blanketed in a foot of ash. The brothers who lived there at the time remember that so much ash fell that they could actually walk out onto the lake on the ash layer. A single estancia in the area lost 4,000 sheep in the disaster, their digestive tracts lacerated by the ash they ingested trying to graze.
Bariloche’s municipal water treatment plant was fouled and the sewage system failed. Ash conducts electricity, so power lines short-circuited, causing the grid to collapse. And all of this in the middle of winter!
Health officials warned people to stay indoors and use face masks. The Latin American publication Science Friday explained: “The health risk was immediate: volcanic ash contains crystalline silica, a fine powder chemically similar to glass. Inhalation or contact with the skin and eyes produces irritation, which can especially exacerbate pre-existing respiratory conditions like chronic bronchitis, emphysema and asthma.”
Shortly after the eruption, Brother Gustavo, who suffers from asthma, was in a local pharmacy purchasing supplies. An elderly lady in line in front of him was trying to purchase an inhaler to assist her fragile breathing. But the pharmacy was completely sold out.
The clerk explained that it was Saturday—they would be closed Sunday, so the restock order couldn’t be placed till Monday, and the inhalers wouldn’t arrive until Tuesday. The lady panicked, weeping and crying out that three days was too long under the severe conditions—she was going to die if she didn’t get help.
Gustavo then approached this complete stranger and offered that he had a personal inhaler for his asthma at home—if she were willing to wait a few minutes, he would rush home and get it, sterilize it, and give it to her. She was extremely grateful, but also so rattled that after he returned and gave her his inhaler they didn’t exchange names, and he never saw her again . . . until our meeting at her kitchen table last week, when he suddenly recognized her face.
She said she had always wondered who it was that helped her that day, and she had always wanted to thank him for risking his own life to save hers.
So it was that a selfless act of kindness to a stranger re-emerged thirteen years later as undeniable evidence of the moral character of the man now representing our community vision to this woman.
The lady continues to send Brother Gustavo messages, telling him that there are “just too many coincidences” unfolding and that really she wants them to get the land. “If you are going to live out your dream,” she wrote, “I believe this is the place for you.”
Her son, who lives far away near the southern end of Argentina, is the legal owner of the property at this point. Though the financial aspect seems all but insurmountable, please pray with us that the Lord will somehow open the way for our brothers to obtain this land if it is His will! And in any case, pray also for this connection, as it seems the Lord is reaching for the heart of this elderly lady through these events.
Conclusion
Thank you all for you prayers for our trip—they were felt and appreciated! And please continue to support our brothers and sisters in Argentina as they seek first His kingdom in that region.
