Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!!

Wow, we have officially been in Resistencia for one month! We are still living in the Depue's home, but Lord willing we will be able to move into our own place this week. The house we hope to rent is a three bedroom, one floor house that is about 15 blocks from the church. We also have not found a good deal on a car yet so we have been doing alot of walking and taking taxi's. The house is not furnished, so along with exploring the city we have been finding out where we will need to buy things and have made some purchases and friends along the way. We are excited about getting settled in our own home and routine. We've been doing a lot of praying and talking about what our weekly schedule will look like. Steve has a lot of great ideas of different ways to get involved with the community to make more contacts. Today I was able to go with Karen, and see where the fruit stand is near us, and the closest grocery store as well. They both will be within walking distance, which will be great since we are still waiting to purchase a car. Thanks for checking in on our blog!

You might be wondering, how does Argentina celebrate Christmas and new years? So I (Steve) put together this video to give you a taste of Christmas in Argentina.

WE'RE HERE!!

"Being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ."
Philippians 1:6

Thank you so much for your prayers. After three long days of travel we have arrived safely to Resistencia, Argentina. We left our home at about 4 in the afternoon on Friday evening and arrived at the Depue's home on Sunday night at 10pm. We have spent so much time talking about Argentina and the ministry here, we can't believe the day has finally come!


We are excited to get settled in here and get to know our surroundings. Our last time here was in March of 2006.

Hoping to get a prayer letter out soon, but at least wanted to get out the basic details of our trip. We were blessed to have our friends see us off at the airport!! What an unexpected blessing. Still processing thoughts, so when we have some more to communicate we will.


Here is a video, to update you on where we have been to this point on the journey.

Making memories!

So here we are waiting for the final word from NY city before we purchase our tickets again, to avoid having to cancel them another time if there is a hang up. We do know that our letter from Argentina that was holding us up is now on the way via snail mail to NY city. Once it arrives in NY it will be about five days to process the documents to finalize the visas. So please be in prayer that the letter arrives on time, and the processing will go quickly and smoothly without any other paper work needed.

In the mean time we are making the most of our time at home. Fall is our favorite season, so we were able to enjoy some special time with friends, family, and visiting churches. We were able to go a pumpkin festival, another birthday party for one of our niece and a local fair. We are content with being here and excited to know when our departure date is at the same time. Steve is enjoying finishing some projects for his mom, and working on remodeling a house with my Dad. I'm enjoying learning how to quilt from my friend Jen while spending time with her.

Thanks for checking in with us! Becky for the Diems

Are we there yet?

For those of you who have not heard, we could not leave for Argentina as planned on October 13th due to problems getting our visa. We had our tickets purchased, our things to ready, and a send off service at our home church. We are waiting for a letter of invitation from the mission in Argentina to be processed by the government authorities in Argentina and then to be sent off to the consulate's office in New York City. This process we were told will take 10 business days. Day 10 is this Friday October 23rd. If the letter is ready to be sent to New York, in the consulate's office, the processing can take 5 business days. Which puts our departure date the first week of November, Lord willing.

What makes this a little frustrating is the BMW missionary who presented the letter of invitation to the foreign ministry department in Argentina, was told that this letter was not necessary, therefore did not sent it to us. But when we had our interview in New York, we were told that in fact we did need it. Also, we were hoping, if for some reason we could not enter into Argentina with a religious visa, we could go in on a tourist visa while the other was being processed. However, the consulate informed us that we couldn't go about it that way.

So, we feel that we have done all that we can do on our end, and all we can do is wait.

Psalm 52:8-9
But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God: I trust in the mercy of God for ever and ever. I will praise thee for ever, because thou hast done it: and I will wait on thy name; for it is good before thy saints.

In spite our confusion, and asking the obvious questions, we are not discouraged. Although frustrated at times, we been home for good preaching and fellowship. We are anxious to be on the field in Argentina, but perhaps God is using this time to sharpen and encourage our faith and cause us to lean on Him more.