Kids Small Groups

SADDLEBACK KSG TEAM ARGENTINA 2018

Blog Post June 16, 2018

Whew! We are still recovering from our first day in Argentina. But let’s back up. Our day officially began Friday morning, June 15^th bright and early (6:30 am!) at Saddleback Church. We loaded our luggage, climbed on the bus and began the first of many legs of our journey, from Lake Forest to LAX. Tracy dubbed those of us who get motion sick Team Dramamine, and we received choice front seats on the bus.

Once we got to LAX, we discovered it takes time to get a group of 16 through the check in and security process. But we did have time to get coffee and breakfast in the airport before our 3½ hour flight to Dallas. We also met our parrot, who is going on the trip with us and will be featured in many of our team photos. Somewhere between LAX and Buenos Aires the parrot was named Tina.

Our flight was delayed to Dallas, so we ended up with only about 50 minutes to eat lunch/dinner in Dallas before boarding our flight to Buenos Aires (fortunately for Katia, DFW airport had a Starbucks). Then our flight to Buenos Aires was delayed due to some sort of mechanical problem (don’t worry – once they fixed whatever was wrong, there were no issues with the plane). Then it was movies, dinner, more movies, and attempting to sleep on the 10½ hour flight to Buenos Aires (most of us didn’t).

At the airport in Buenos Aires, we got through Customs without a hitch and then looked for our driver Jose. We were able to get 32 pieces of checked luggage and the same number of carry-ons (and us) onto the bus. About 45 minutes later (and over 24 hours, even including the time change), we arrived at the hotel. Traffic was light because Argentina was playing Iceland in the World Cup right when we were arriving in Buenos Aires. We knew when Argentina scored a goal by all the honking cars on the road.

Even though we were all tired, we didn’t want to sleep. Instead we went to La Popular, a nearby Italian restaurant for lunch. After lunch we took a walk, had some coffee to keep us awake and visited a street market on the way to the grocery store. We bought breakfast food for each of our families and split and shared coffee. Then it was back to the hotel and time to prep for the week.

We started unpacking craft, skit and game supplies. It took a while to find the tennis balls and foosballs, which were packed in with the winter clothing and blankets we are giving away. For the skits, the kids cut out frogs and made gnats and flies for a skit about the 10 plagues. Everyone had something to do.

After prep time, which took a couple of hours, we shared our testimonies. Everyone went around the room and shared. We have been getting to know each other on the trip, but learned more through testimony time about how we came to know God.

We created a count-off sometime during the trip to make sure we weren’t missing anybody, which has helped us stay together. There are 16 of us. We are 5 families, 1 KSG leader and Saddleback staff member (Jessica) and our fearless leader, John Caputo. The Bremer Rhodes clan is made up of Tracy, Myra and Addison. The Oftebros are Kris and Kyle. The Justus League is Joy and Jack. The Milams are Sean and Morgan. The Gomezes are Liz and Ariana. And the LOW clan is Tim, Lisa and Katia.

Some of us have specific roles. Tracy and Ariana are our Spanish speakers and translators. Joy is our team photographer. Lisa is the blogger. John and Sean have both been to Argentina on a PEACE trip before, so they know all the good restaurants and “vegetable” shops.

We ended our day with a serving of vegetables. There are vegetables we don’t have back home, and some of their names don’t translate from Spanish, but they are all really good.

Blog Post June 17, 2018 – Father’s Day

8:20 am – Bright and early team devotions. We each went around and shared what “your kingdom come, your will be done” meant to us. Everyone had different but insightful answers. Then we had a few minutes to get to the bus to Tigre con Proposito (TCP) Church.

We were greeted as we got off the bus by Gabriela, and as we walked in, we were greeted several times by many church members. All greetings in Buenos Aires come with a hug and a kiss. At TCP, Liz and Jessica went with the kids to Childrens’ Church while the rest of us went to the main service. Childrens’ Church had about 30 children of all ages. In Childrens’ Church, they began with a few worship songs, then different age groups had different craft projects to prepare for the Flag Day Fiesta on Wednesday.

In the main service, we sang several worship songs in Spanish, including “I am a Child of God” and “How Great is Our God”. John introduced our team to the church and explained what we are doing in Argentina. Then Gabriela gave a message on how to know God as your Father. Even though the message was entirely in Spanish, we had notes in English, and were able to follow along pretty well. At the end of the service we were invited on stage to be introduced to the Tigre Church.

After the service, we were taken to the top floor of the church, which happened to have a full kitchen, with an open barbeque. On the barbeque, beef and chorizo was roasting. We had lunch with several church staff members, including the pastors and some of the worship leaders. It was great getting to know the Tigre Church members better over a fantastic meal, followed by an amazing flan made by Gabriela.

We learned that 17 members of the Tigre Church are coming to Saddleback in Lake Forest at the end of the week for the Purpose Driven Church Conference. They have never had that many members attend the conference before and are very excited. Gabriela is also the Head of Celebrate Recovery in all of Argentina and will give her testimony next Friday June 29^th at Celebrate Recovery in Lake Forest.

Right after lunch we were whisked by bus to Saddleback Buenos Aires for the 4 o’clock service. Most of the kids and Kris were with Saddleback Kids, while the rest of us (and Morgan) were in the main service. At Saddleback Buenos Aires, we could either watch the service (Tom Holladay and Sam Yoon) which had been translated into Spanish, or could listen to it in English on headphones. At the end of the service, there was a contest for fathers, and our own John Caputo took third place.

Before the 6 o’clock service, we went down the street to the disco and that’s where JHM and HSM for Saddleback Buenos Aires are meeting until their own Refinery floor is completed. It was an interesting venue, with games, music and a mechanical bull that both Sean and Tim were thrown off of.

During the 6 o’clock service, most of us helped in Saddleback Kids. Lisa, Jack, Morgan and Katia were in the infant room with 6 children aged 8 months to 2 years old. It was fun to hold the babies and get them interested in toys and bubbles. Some went from crying to laughing and clapping in just a few minutes. Myra, Liz, Addison and Ariana were in the 3-5 year old room, with 16 preschoolers. Other members of our team were with older children.

We are learning that worship is the same no matter where you go in the world – people praising God in song. And somehow we were uplifted by the messages even though most of us don’t speak Spanish.

After church, we had a brisk walk. Just before we got to the hotel, some team members went to a sandwich and salad restaurant and the rest of us went to the empanada store. It was getting late, but after dinner, some team members still had room for a serving of vegetables. It was a long day, but an uplifting one.