We kicked off 2020 by attending our Southern Cone Missionary Retreat, which is held every two years. This year it was held in a beautiful city here in Argentina. The Southern Cone includes the five countries of Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay. These retreats are special times of encouragement from God’s word, of prayer and of connecting with our counterparts in these countries. We are thankful to our leaders for investing in our continued growth so that we can be better prepared to do what we do. 
It seems like only yesterday that we were free to travel whenever we needed or wanted to. Like our December trip to the states, this retreat mentioned above, a trip to renew a passport or perhaps to attend a national convention or meeting. We did take the trip in late January to the capital city, Buenos Aires, to renew my passport. We also made some trips to nearby cities to encourage and pray with pastors and to attend a wedding. It wouldn’t be long, however, before everything would change.
In February, God must have been getting us ready for what was to come because we attended several online mentoring classes on ZOOM. Of course we had no idea how important ZOOM would become to our Bible school in the coming days.
In these early months of 2020, we also welcomed new staff members Noé and Yanina. They are IBP alums and newlyweds (pictured above). Noé is serving as assistant to the director and Yanina as our administrative secretary.
In recent months we also said goodbye to IBP’s cook who served us well for six years (pictured in red at right). She and her husband are moving on to become pastors. One thing we have learned, and have probably said before, God always provides the right people for our staff at just the right time. He shows himself faithful as we place our trust in him. 
As we near the beginning of a new semester, we get busier and busier with all of the preparations. Part of those preparations this break included the laying of a new brick pathway and continuing the work on the patio flooring between the academic center and the library. Here you can see that floor being laid. What a nice surprise for the students when they return for classes in April! But will they be returning in April?
Stay Tuned … The Quarantine hits IBP!
