Easter

Hello everyone!

We hope that you are doing well. Down here it’s going good. It’s been busy, and things seem overwhelming sometimes, at least to us in a city of over 15 million people who need to hear the good news of Jesus!

We recently celebrated Easter. We hope that you had a good Easter, and were able to enjoy time with family and were able to reflect on the true meaning of the holiday.

Easter feels a little like Christmas sometimes, with all its hype and commercialism. That’s not bad necessarily, unless it leads us to forget the real meaning for the holiday.

Easter isn’t all about eggs and Easter bunnies, it’s the day we are supposed to remember and celebrate all that Jesus did for us. On “good” Friday, he died on the cross for our sins! We toss that kind of language around really often without thinking of its implications. Jesus dying on the cross wasn’t neat and pretty. We recently saw the Passion of Christ movie, and it captures the essence of the suffering that Jesus endured for our sins.

The story doesn’t end with his suffering though, on the third day he rose again! That is what makes the good news good. Without it, the news wouldn’t be good!

Easter is the culmination of the events of the Bible, as the Old Testament looks forward to a Messiah, and as the New Testament tells the story of Jesus and the first church. We would argue that Jesus’ life and death is the most important event in the history of the world.

It doesn’t seem like we always treat it like that when we’re looking for eggs and eating chocolate! Or when we are attending church just because it’s what we are supposed to do on Easter Sunday. Going to church on Easter is obviously a good thing, but Easter should affect our lives every day of the year.

That’s the question we asked this year: “How does Easter affect your (my) everyday life?” Does it motivate us to know God better, or share what he did for us more? Does it encourage us to read the Bible more and know him better?

We were challenged by this question this year, to not just go through our religious motions, but to really consider what this day represents! We hope that you are impacted by Easter too, that you’ll consider what it means and how it can affect your life, every day.

Feel free to drop us a line or give us a call to let you know how you are doing!

Derek, Audrey, Andrew and Eliana Tucker

CHRISTMAS TIME!!!

Hello everybody, we hope that you are doing well. Down here in Buenos Aires we are doing great. We’ve been really busy, but well. The kids are doing great, they keep getting bigger every day it seems! Andrew is saying more words, and Eliana acts like she wants to stand up already.

One of our favorite times of year is Christmas time.   Outside of the USA Thanksgiving isn’t celebrated, so the decorations and preparations for Christmas start early! We are ok with that, our Christmas tree is already up. The only weird thing is that the seasons are opposite down here in the southern hemisphere, so at Christmas it’s summer time! We really enjoy getting to be with people we care about, eat together, fellowship and of course reflect on the true meaning of Christmas, the birth of Jesus Christ.

Another important thing that happens around Christmas time is a yearly offering for the organization that we work with. The IMB has a yearly offering called the Lottie Moon Christmas offering. 100% of this offering goes to support missionaries like us all over the world. If you have given to this offering in the past we appreciate it very much. Whether you’ve given to this offering in the past or not we hope you’d consider it this year! It’s what allows us to do what God has called us to do. For more information or to make a donation check out this link, or look at the “Lottie moon” tab on the side of our blog.

https://netcommunity.imb.org/sslpage.aspx?pid=229

We hope that each of you are doing well. Feel free to drop us a line, e-mail, facebook message, phone call, etc. We’d love to hear from you and know how we can be praying for you.

Have a good Christmas (and Thanksgiving) season!

Derek, Audrey, Andrew and Eliana

IMB

Many of you know that the IMB, the organization that we serve with here in Argentina, is going through some major changes. The summary of the situation is that finances have been tight in the last years (especially since the global economic difficulty of 2008-2009), and the organization has only been able to balance budget through selling houses and properties around the world. As there is not an unlimited amount of property to sell, a different financial solution has to be implemented, and quickly. The first step of this process is happening right now. Many missionaries, ones that are over 50 and have more than 5 years of experience with the company, have been offered an early retirement package. It’s a voluntary early retirement, and it is the first step of bringing the number of missionaries down to a sustainable number.
This has been a difficult time for us and everyone serving with our organization. Change is usually difficult. Some close friends, mentors, and bosses will be heading back to the USA by the end of the year. We ask that you pray for us, for our coworkers, and for the leadership of the IMB. We pray that God will work in and through this situation in greater ways then we could imagine.
Here are a couple of articles about the financial situation of the IMB in case you want to know more.

12 Ways to Assist Returning Southern Baptist Missionaries

http://www.imb.org/storyview-3507.aspx#.VgnLns5KTtw
Our focus continues to be on the huge amount of work to do here in Buenos Aires. We pray daily that God will be glorified through us, and that many more here in Buenos Aires will come to know the good news of Jesus Christ.
We hope that you are doing well. Feel free to send us a message or e-mail to let us know how you are doing!

Derek, Audrey, Andrew and Eliana

Winter 2015

Easter 2015- Sunrise service at a park

Hello everyone!

It has been going well down here in Argentina. As most of y’all heat up for summer up there in the Northern hemisphere we are cooling off for winter down here. We hope each of you is doing very well.

Audrey is doing well with her pregnancy. Within about a month or so we’ll be parents for the second time! This brings a rush of emotions, and we are truly excited!

Andrew is getting bigger, talking more, running around more, and getting into more things! The other day we wrote down the words he says in both English and Spanish, and right now he speaks exactly half and half! It’ll be neat to see how he continues to grow and develop.

Andrew is so full of joy and causes people to smile everywhere he goes. In a world where many people are hopeless, a precious child brings a smile to many faces. We hope and pray that long term joy can be experienced by many through a relationship with Jesus Christ.

Pray with us as we seek to try and share the good news with those all around us. Pray that God will give us wisdom in how to communicate the good news, and pray that others will be receptive to listening to us and accepting what God wants to do in and trough their lives.

We hope y’all are doing well and have a great day!

Derek, Audrey, Andrew and Baby Girl Tucker

P.S. Check out the link to our virtual prayer walk for Buenos Aires on our Prayer Requests page!!

Merry Christmas

Hello everybody!

Christmas is getting close; we love this time of year! It has been fun and interesting to see how Argentines view and celebrate Christmas. We’ve been talking to as many people as we can about Christmas, and what it means to us. Our goal in these conversations has been to share what the true meaning of Christmas is. It is not about all the presents, decorations and time with family (although those things can be good). The reason for Christmas is to remember and celebrate Jesus, his birth, and what he did for us on the cross.

One thing that is important about Christmas time is the Lottie Moon Christmas offering. This is the annual offering that the Southern Baptist Convention takes that goes straight to foreign missions (100% goes straight to the International Mission Board to support missionaries living overseas).

If you want to know more about this offering, here is a link: http://www.imb.org/main/lottie-moon/abouttheoffering.asp?PageNavID=109

If you give to this offering, we appreciate it very much! If you don’t and would like to donate, here is a link to do so: http://www.imb.org/giving/default.aspx

Without the support of this annual offering we wouldn’t be able to be on the mission field doing what we’re doing. Thanks!

If you’d like more frequent updates on what we are doing (along with our Buenos Aires co-workers), you can find us on facebook. You can search for: Mission Buenos Aires. “Like” and “follow” the page to stay in contact in that way.

We hope that you have a truly wonderful Christmas. Let’s not be in such a rush that we forget why we celebrate this time of year! One of our favorite traditions in our homes growing up was reading through Luke 2 with our family, and remembering why we celebrate Christmas. We encourage you to take the time to read the Christmas story (from Luke chapter 2) with your family.

Merry Christmas and God Bless!

Derek, Audrey and Andrew

LINKS

Hey everyone,

We hope that y’all are doing well.  Instead of posting how we are doing, we wanted to give you several links so that you can see what all we’re up to.  We’ve put some new photos on the photo page too, so have a look!

A recent story about our team and what we’re doing here in Buenos Aires: http://www.commissionstories.com/americas/

Our team’s website:  http://www.missionbuenosaires.com/

A “virtual prayer walk” that we’ve put together: http://imb.maps.arcgis.com/apps/MapTour/?appid=a65f045c4abb4858b20fca45d20c3595  You can use this tool to see some of Buenos Aires and pray for the prayer requests listed on each photo.  We’ll have more of these out soon.

Our team’s facebook page in English, with some pictures, video’s and prayer requests: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Mission-Buenos-Aires/192780034088484?ref=hl  or just search on facebook for: Mission Buenos Aires

Our team’s facebook page in Spanish, with weekly prayer requests, pictures and video’s: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Iniciativa-Transformaci%C3%B3n-Urbana-de-Buenos-Aires/263009297085382?ref=hl  or just search on facebook for: Iniciativa Transformacion Urbana de Buenos Aires

We hope each of you are doing great.

Derek, Audrey, and Andrew Tucker

La copa mundial (The world cup)

Hey Everyone!
We hope that you are doing well. Have y’all been keeping up with the World Cup any? It seems like we’ve heard more about it from the states this year than in the past.
Here in Latin America, the World Cup is a HUGE deal. It’s kind of like adding together the energy/hype from the superbowl, World Series, and the NBA championship all together, and add to it that this event only happens once every 4 years! That’s a little like what we feel here in Argentina. It’s been fun, and we’ve had to watch the games for a few reasons. First, nothing is open or happens during the games, and second the World Cup is the only thing people talk about for a couple of months, so in order to have any conversation, we have to know a little bit about it.
It’s fun rooting for your country, and it seems to bring unity, pride and excitement. It’s unfortunate that the USA is no longer in the tournament, but we played with heart, that’s for sure!
It’s amazing how much passion people have for a game. In the end of eternity, a soccer game won’t have much significance. However, as Christians, the good news of Jesus Christ, and whether we share it or not, has eternal significance for EVERY person that we know and love. Should we be more excited about a game, or what Jesus has done in our lives?
We’re not saying we shouldn’t cheer for our country, and enjoy the World Cup, but we do wish we had more passion and excitement about all that the Lord has done in our lives! We encourage you to keep your eyes focused on the goal-not the soccer goal-but on Jesus! He has awesome plans for each of our lives, and wants us to be victorious, in life and for eternity.
Thanks for thinking and praying for us!
Derek, Audrey and Andrew Tucker

Easter

Hey everyone,

We hope that all of you are having a good Easter week! This week has caused us to think about the hope that we as Christians have in Jesus. Without this week, Christianity would not exist. If Jesus had not died on the cross, and rose again, then our faith would mean nothing.   We hope that you take time in the next few days to think about what Easter means.

Here in Latin America, it is primarily Catholic. Holy week is usually pretty important for Catholics, but a lot of the time the week ends up being about religious acts instead of trusting in Jesus as personal Lord and Savior.

Last Sunday, to celebrate Palm Sunday, little branches were sold outside of Catholic churches to represent palm branches. We heard people talking about needing to buy these branches, and if they had a branch, they felt like they would receive a special blessing.

The sad reality is that many people put their faith in religion instead of putting their faith in Jesus Christ. During this Easter season especially, people attend church, whether it is Catholic or Evangelical, just because it’s Easter.

We are reminded daily that people need to know there is hope in Jesus Christ, that following him is more than a religious habit or going to church on Easter and Christmas. Jesus is ALIVE! We hope that his life, death and resurrection have impacted your life, and that you have trusted in him. We’ll be praying for you during this time, that each of us get a chance to share what Easter means to those around us.

Have a good Easter!

Derek, Audrey and Andrew

Fall

Hey everyone,
        We hope everyone has been doing well. We are doing great down here in Buenos Aires, Argentina. As you guys enter into spring in the Northern Hemisphere, down here it is turning into fall. The other day we saw leaves falling off of some trees for the first time, and the temperature is dropping a little bit! Pictured, from our balcony, is a tree that it’s leaves are beginning to turn yellow. Being from Houston we don’t really know what seasons are, so it will be nice to see some fall foliage!

 We’ve been enjoying getting to know the city of Buenos Aires more and more. It’s a beautiful city, with a lot of diversity and a rich history. We also continue to see more and more needs that are evident all around us. There are physical, emotional and spiritual needs that are obvious, and overwhelming at times.

Please pray for Buenos Aires. Pray that God will do something incredible here, that he’ll touch many hearts and that this city will be changed for his glory.

 We are getting to know more Pastors and church leaders here, and we have had a few USA volunteer teams come down and partner with some churches here. We look forward to all that God has in store for us here.

 Andrew is growing and doing well. We are blessed for sure! Thanks for the prayers.

 Derek, Audrey and Andrew Tucker

Ministry

Our Bible study group

Hey everyone,
We hope that you are doing well and having a great 2014.  Can you believe it, 2014!  January passed quickly for us as we’ve been pretty busy.  Here’s some of the things we’ve been doing:

–       Each Wednesday we lead a Bible study in a part of town called La Boca.  It’s the tourist part of town, but our Bible study is with the tourism workers, who are working class, and quite a few of which are immigrants to Argentina from Peru.  This is an awesome little group of new believers who we are enjoying getting to know.

–       Each Sunday we go to a different Baptist church in Buenos Aires.  We’re trying to get to know the Pastors and church leaders, and seeing how we can work alongside them and encourage them.

–       Each week Derek has several meetings with Argentine Pastors or Church leaders.  Right now these meetings are to get to know each other, and to learn about Buenos Aires.  This city is huge, and the spiritual needs are vast.

–       We’re also working on a few prayer initiative things.  There is a 21-day prayer guide for Buenos Aires that we’ve worked on, and we’re recording videos of local pastors giving a prayer request for their part of the city for each of the 21 days.  Soon we’ll put these things on social media and our blog so that y’all can be praying for us, and more importantly, for all that God wants to do here in Buenos Aires.

–       Time with family is of course a priority as well.  It’s been awesome to see Andrew continue to grow.  He’s right at 6 months old, and doing fabulous!  Feel free to look at the pictures page for some pictures of us!

We appreciate the prayers, and feel free to contact us through e-mail or our USA Internet phone anytime.  We’re excited about what all God is doing here, and we look forward to reporting more to everyone soon!

Derek, Audrey and Andrew Tucker