The Mocovi Tribe

This morning around 5am, I got back from a weekend trip visiting the Mocovi Indian tribe. They are a native Argentine tribe with which the Donells have had some connections via a mutual friend. A family from the church, Nathan and Kelly Hammond, were going up to see the tribe and invited me along. They were a blast and great encouragement to travel with. (Here is a picture of their family at our "bus stop.")What an incredible experience! I had no idea I would learn so much in one weekend. The purpose of our trip was to visit/encourage an Argentine missionary family who had recently moved into the Indian village to bring the Gospel to the people. The Hammonds met this family through a friend (Omar Gava).

The entire trip was about nine hours by bus going and 10 hours coming. Since most people don't have great cars, buses are the typical means of long distance traveling. It was actually pretty nice. We were on the upper level of a double-decker bus for the long rides. The only negative was changing buses through the night and the screaming babies (Kind of embarrassing when they're your friends'/own).

This map gives you a general idea of where we went. Our city, Carlos Paz , is the red star. We stayed in Crespo, the blue star, about 8km from the Mocovi village and then spent Saturday afternoon in Santa Fe, the green star, touring.
We visited and encouraged an Argentine missionary family, Walter and Sandra and kids, for most of Friday afternoon in the village. This was an incredible blessing to see the sacrifice that they are making in spreading the Gospel to these people. The "missionaries" who have been in this village before have not taught the people the Gospel nor the truth of the Bible so this family faces multiple discouragements. For example, when our family came to visit the Donells the last time, we brought a lot of clothes for these people. Talking with Walter and Sandra, I found out that this caused a lot of problems in the village. The people would come only to the missionaries for what they could get from them physically instead of what they needed spiritually. Along with this, the people fought and bragged over what or how much they got from the North Americans. This along with the people's beliefs in multiple gods in various aspects of nature just give some examples of the challenges that these missionaries are facing.

We then walked around the village and made an obvious North American parade - not what we wanted. Here are some pictures from our walk.
We took this family into town for dinner and enjoyed their fellowship. It was such a joy and privilege to translate for the Hammonds this couple's genuine love for the Lord and sense of His calling. Please pray for encouragement for this couple as they are often lonely and feel unsupported. Mr. Donell is looking forward to connecting with this family from what he has heard from our trip.

The next day, we went on a 3 hour bus ride into Santa Fe (green star) and toured around. Kelly and I had a great time fellowshipping and talking the entire trip back. Seriously, I think that we were both so starved of Christian English fellowship that we talked the whole trip back, until 4am! Reflecting on our time with the Mocovi and listening to her wisdom and heart for missions made the trip a blessing and great learning experience.

Exhausted but blessed,
Kristen