by Jon Konnerup
The Baptist Bible Fellowship International has had a missionary presence in Argentina since 1960. Throughout the years, more missionaries arrived and built strong ministries — planting growing churches and training dedicated leaders.
The ministry in Argentina has not been easy. The people are content in their lifestyle and religion, not realizing just how lost they are without trusting in Jesus Christ. In addition, purchasing land and buildings for meeting places has become difficult with the skyrocketing costs. Yet our missionaries have remained faithful, starting new churches and training others for the ministry.
I had the opportunity to visit several of the churches and ministries during my recent visit to Argentina, though I wasn’t able to visit with every missionary or even see every ministry of those I did visit. I preached in churches that have been around for over 40 years and in churches that are less than five years old. Each church has the same zeal and desire to reach its nation with the gospel. There is a solid core of believers and leaders that I believe provides a strong foundation upon which they can build to make an even greater impact in their nation.
In addition to these ministries, I visited a full-time Bible institute that has been established to help churches train their young leaders. That training includes two years of internship in a church.
While in Argentina, I attended and spoke at their annual national pastors’ meeting. There were a great number of pastors, church members, and BBFI missionaries who attended. They met in tents set up on the grounds of one of the first churches started by the late BBFI missionary Jimmy Strickland.
Mark Hodges was also invited to speak, and his messages encouraging pastors were well received. I preached on missions and on how the Argentine churches were also given the Great Commission and have a responsibility to spread the gospel around the world. Although they have been taught missions and have started to send out their own missionaries, I challenged them to go even further and see how God will bless them. The music was tremendous, and I was told all the speakers did a wonderful job of encouraging and challenging each other. The atmosphere was exciting and the Lord God was lifted up and glorified.