ESQUINA, Argentina
– The pastor from Arkansas and
the pastor from Argentina
looked at each other in disbelief. God was leading their hearts in the same
direction, though they’re from different continents and different cultures and
speak different languages.
“There are moments when you just don’t know what to say because it’s so obvious
that God’s in control,” said Chuck McAlister, a former International Mission
Board trustee from the Church at Crossgate
Center in Hot
Springs, Ark. “This is one of
those moments.”
Pastor Hector Barolin agreed.
“What came to my heart was here’s a friendship like that of David and Jonathan,”
said Barolin, who leads Jesus, Light to the Nations church in Esquina,
Argentina. “And that’s
what I shared with Pastor Chuck. I really feel like this is something that’s
going to last.”
McAlister, a retired pastor who hosts an evangelistic TV program for hunters,
went to Argentina
with three families from Trinity Baptist Church of Apopka, Fla., to partner
with IMB missionaries David and Alisha Holt from Mount
Zion Baptist Church
in Snellville, Ga.
The Holts minister to northern Argentina’s
Criollo people who work primarily as guides and lodge keepers in the hunting
and fishing industry.
The volunteers’ purpose was to build relationships with the people they would
encounter while enjoying the region’s hunting and fishing opportunities. The
strategy of evangelizing men through their hobbies is one McAlister describes
as reaching an “affinity of interest.” Though the hunters of Argentina
are from a different culture, he said he probably has more in common with them
than with some people in the United States.
Photo by Wilson Hunter Chuck McAlister, a retired pastor and former IMB trustee from the Church at Crossgate Center in Hot Springs, Ark., came to northern Argentina to reach the Criollo people through hunting ministries. “Whatever affinity group of interest you can find … it’s our responsibility to exploit it and use it for advancing God’s Kingdom,” he said. |
“I guess rednecks are my people group, and it doesn’t matter if they live in
south Georgia or South America,” McAlister said with a
wry smile. “Whatever affinity group of interest you can find that unites a
group of people, I think it’s our responsibility to exploit it and use it for
advancing God’s Kingdom and impacting lostness.”
On a cold, wet morning, the American volunteers and the Holts met with Barolin
and other leaders of Jesus, Light to the Nations at their church building. As
the group sat in the white concrete sanctuary, they shared mugs of hot mate —
a tea-like drink popular in South America – and
McAlister shared his heart for reaching men through outdoor activities.
“We are doing the same thing,” Barolin said. “In this church we have members
who are hunters and fishermen … and they’re reaching out to men in the same
way you are.”
McAlister was nearly speechless.
“You’re doing this for men in your ministry. We’re doing it for men in the United
States,” McAlister said. “This is no
accident.”
As the two men continued to share their hearts, it became clear that God had
orchestrated their meeting so they could work together.
“We’ve been feeling for a time that God is telling us something new is coming,”
Barolin said. “And it’s going to be big. I’m excited to begin to dream together
about what God is going to do.”
Both Barolin and McAlister have found outdoor activities to be an effective
evangelism tool because many men are more likely to accept an invitation to go
on a hunting trip than to go to a church service.
“Let’s say they show up to a church service,” McAlister said. “And what are we
doing? We’re singing love songs to a man. We’re escorting them into a small
group where someone may break down and cry. Or they’re asked to hold hands with
other men in a circle and pray. And these guys are freaking out because this is
not the world they live in. I think without realizing it, we have made much of
what we do in church today effeminate.”
One of the myths in the local culture is that real men don’t need Jesus, Alisha
Holt said.
“Sadly, the predominant icon of Jesus Christ through the Catholic tradition is
either the infant Jesus in Mary’s arms or the dead body of Jesus in Mary’s
arms. And real men just don’t want that,” Holt said.
Many men – both American and Argentine – don’t know the Jesus of the Bible,
McAlister said; they don’t know the man who walked on water or the God who
calmed the waves or threw over the tables in the temple. But when they
encounter other outdoorsmen who love and need Jesus but are still “real men who
hunt and fish and can handle a gun and a knife and a boat,” the masculine Jesus
of the Bible starts to come into focus, McAlister said.
But Barolin and McAlister have set their sights beyond just men. They want to
reach entire families.
“We see the father as the rock of the family,” Barolin said. “And we realized
if we could reach the head of the family, the family is much easier to win as
well.”
By bringing families from the United States,
McAlister hopes to model for the Argentine men that “there is a responsibility
that they have to their family, that they can come to know Jesus Christ
personally and that they can be the spiritual leader of their family.”
While in Argentina,
the volunteer families spent time with members of Jesus, Light to the Nations.
The kids attended a youth meeting where there was dancing and games, and
Barolin invited McAlister to share a message with his congregation.
The next step is to plan how American families can work strategically with
Barolin’s church. But the partnership has been established.
“I really think this is the work of God,” Barolin said. “I’ve seen answers to
prayers and have seen God’s hands in this.”
McAlister agreed.
“I have found my Latin American brother,” McAlister said. “Where do we begin?”
(EDITOR’S NOTE – Tristan Taylor is an International Mission Board writer living
in the Americas.
To view a multi-media package related to this story, go to www.commissionstories.com/stories/1313.)
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