Poverty and what can we do

"Don't look away", thats what I keep telling myself living here in Buenos Aires. When we drive by the shanty towns or I see the women in the subway begging for anything she can get with a crying baby in her arms. In America we like to think that person's own decisions put them into the place they are at; but here I lose the ability to do that when I see children living in house's that are falling apart. In David Platt's book radical he brings up the fact that 3 billion people today almost half of the world we live in live off less than $2 American dollars. This has been a stat that has greatly bothered me since I heard it in one of my first classes in college. Every time I catch stats like these it makes my heart hurt for the people living like this and the children that die on a daily basis. The other day while looking at Per Capita GDP for different country that was tagged onto an ESPN article I kept coming across African countries that my 2 week paycheck easily surpass what a person gets in that country in a year. If I was some hot shot million I might feel more detached from these numbers but I am lowly intern for a Christian Non-profit how can my income be so much greater than these people. This is one of the many things that has pointed towards the idea of working with people in need. Many times these people just need a helping hand from someone who really cares. The answer is not going to be throw more money at it. The answer is going to come from people that are living with these people and see their needs on a daily basis. I hope that myself along with others are willing to take up the idea of either getting someone to these people or being that person. I feel that if we stop for a second and look at how much we have been blessed with maybe we would reconsider what we are doing right now with the money and time we have. I hope to at some point be on the ground with these people and trying to help them to have better lives.

Vida Estudiantil(Campus Crusade) in BsAs

For all of you who are curious about our movement here in Buenos Aires, I am going to share a little bit about each part of our ministry.

Economics @UBA: I thought I would start with what I know best so I am going to give a brief run down of the movement I work with. The movement at the Economics campus is still less than a year old; but a ton has changed since last semester. We have started a Free English Club to help students learn and to practice speaking English. English club is always a good time spent with the students helping them learn English. I also feel like I am learning about my own language which is something you wouldn't expect living in a Spanish speaking country. Also we hold a prayer meeting once a week with a few students which has been super encouraging. After prayer we hold a small planning meeting with 2 of our student leaders. The campus is very different than what we think of in the states. It is basically one huge building in the middle of the city with a brand new extension that just opened this semester. The other day I was walking with a student as he was going to a meeting and went to a part of the building I have never gone before, I am not sure I am ever going to explore all of this huge building.

Agronomy @ UBA: This part of our movement is one of the most established and the STINT teams have been working on this campus for a few years now. Two STINTers, John Mark and Cari, work on this campus. They are joined by a ton of students that do not go to this campus but are coming along side them to share the gospel with the students of this campus. Andrez is a student leader who is always around and leads the movement of students on this campus. There has been a recent spiritual movement on this campus and in the last few weeks 3 or 4 students have came to know Christ it has been amazing. Also this campus started holding a weekly meeting for just their campus and had 8 students come which was a huge blessing.

Derecho(Law) @UBA: This is one of our newest movements, we were able last summer with the help of summer project to make some contacts on this campus and have used this to launch a movement on this campus. This campus has 2 STINTers, Garrett and Tiffany, working alongside some students and the leader of the Professional movement here, Richard Flores. They have gotten an English club started but are still getting accustomed to their campus and learning the best times and ways to share the good news of Jesus Christ with students at this camp.

FADU @UBA (College of Architecture and Design) This campus has two of my dear Argentine friends working on it Pablo and Etel. They are our cool young married couple that do not have any children yet. They have been on this campus for a year or two now and the movement has started to take off. They started a weekly meeting and now have quite a few faithful students coming and growing in Christ.

Mantanza, This is a private university that has also just started this year and is almost completely student led and it is taking off. They have seen 3 or 4 people come to know Christ just this semester and have had meetings with as many as 16 people coming which is super encouraging. It was amazing talking with these students at retreat at the beginning of March and seeing how much they have all ready done. It is so awesome to see students who are believers just rise up and desire to spread God's fame on their campus and us coming along side of them to do this.

Medicina@ UBA, This campus is across the plaza from my campus of Economics. This campus's movement got started when we partnered up with churches in an event called One World. These students came out and we did evangelism with them. We stayed in contact with them afterwards and encouraged them to start a movement on their campus. Then they decided they would like to have a bible study on their campus and they came to our summer camp to be trained in evangelism and to grow in their faith. Now my boss Charlie has switched from the Economics campus to the Medicina campus; him and his wife, Andrea, have started to disciple them and come along side them. They are now having a weekly meeting with about 8 people which has been super awesome to see the Lord work in unexpected places.

Quilmes, Quilmes is a small campus that is not in the city of Buenos Aires but we have quite a few friends in the area and made a few contacts on campus. A student named Marco Vila has stepped up and with Charlie's guidance is getting a movement started on this campus. I am really hoping that this campus can take off under student leadership like some of other campuses and that it would see tremendous growth.

Please keep all of these campuses in your prayers. I hope that this gives all of my readers a little better picture of everything that goes on with Vida Estudiantil in Buenos Aires.