Arequipa, Peru
I would like to take you on a journey with me to three different cities in three different countries. The first one is Arequipa, Peru. I was able to spend a week here with my pastor. I can tell you that it is a beautiful city that sits framed by mountains, as well as being around 8,000 feet above sea level. Let me tell you from experience that you can get winded just by going up the stairs in your house. My pastor was a church-planting missionary here for nearly 20 years, and now his son is there continuing the work of seeing churches started and pastors trained. This city has around 1.1 million people and it is still growing. You might think that it has been reached. Since they have at least one church for every fifty-thousand people, they are good, right? Wrong. I can remember being there in the city and seeing huge areas that had no true biblical gospel witness. I remember driving through new parts of this city, seeing thousands of people who had no one to tell them the gospel and no church in which to find the truth. So they waited, in need of someone to take the gospel to their part of the city because one man is not enough to reach them all.

Santiago, Chile
Now I would like to take you about 15,000 miles south to the city of Santiago, Chile, an amazing place that sits right against the Andes Mountains, with a population around 7 million people. My wife and I had the privilege to visit this city in June of 2018. While I was there, I got to visit with a missionary team that is there and see the many different churches that they have been able to start. At the same time, though, I saw parts of the city that had no gospel-preaching church. I remember being there and talking to some of the young men who were in training to be pastors and hearing them talk about the different parts of the city they wanted to go to, but I also remember their telling me that even when they get there that the city would still be in great need of more preachers and churches that proclaim the true Gospel. I remember a missionary taking my wife and I to the top of the tallest building there in Santiago. I remember being at the top,
looking out and seeing a statue, and being told that people go to it and pray to it so that they can go to heaven. At the top I remember thinking,
This city needs Jesus, and it needs more people togo here to proclaim the truth of the Word of God.

 Buenos Aires, Argentina

Buenos Aires is a city located at the mouth of the Rio de la Plata and along the Atlantic coast of Argentina. This city has a metro area close to 14 million people. In this vast area, I only personally know of a handful of Bible-preaching churches. My wife Emma and I were blessed to spend six months in this city working under a veteran missionary. We fell in love with this city and its people. Oh, but this city needs Jesus! I can remember going to different parts of the city, just exploring and seeing what was there. I saw many churches, but not Bible-believing ones. I can remember driving around the city with the missionary and talking about it, and I remember saying that the city has a real lack of Bible-preaching, Bible-believing churches, to which the missionary looked at me and said, “What are you going to do about that, Robert?”God used that moment in my life to help me realize that I needed to go to Argentina and plant churches so people there can learn about the real Jesus.

Real or Fake

Most people in Latin America are taught about a fake Jesus. They may know the name, but they don’t know the person. In many parts of Latin America, the people are taught by the churches or religions that they need to do something to earn their way to heaven, or they need to pray so many times in order to get there, or give enough money. That is what they are taught-that if they do enough, pray enough, and give enough, they might make it to Heaven. In truth, all that religion can say is, “Maybe you will make it.” I am thankful for the Word of God that says in Titus 3:5, “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he
saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;” You see, there is a great need still in Latin America because the people there are attempting salvation by their own righteousness, not knowing that theirs is nothing more than “filthy rags” before God. They have been taught about a fake Jesus who says, “Do, do, do, and maybe I will let you in to Heaven.”
They don’t know about the real Jesus, the One Who died in their place so that they might have His righteousness. The one who says in Matthew 11:28, “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” I ask that you will join me in praying for and reaching Latin America with the real Jesus of the Bible.