Azul, Argentina: Child Care Program

St. Luke’s Lutheran, in Bloomington, MN has taken on a project in Azul, Argentina, a community of about 55,000 people 250 miles southwest of Buenos Aires. Due to high unemployment and extremely difficult economic conditions, many children in that community are at risk for malnutrition. There is a child care and nutrition project run by Transfiguration Lutheran Church in Azul, reaching out to children from very poor families who are malnourished and who do not receive adequate care. The project will provide day care and nourishing food for children, age 2 to 5 as well as assistance in providing nourishment to infants. St. Luke’s partnership with Azul is truly a model for mission.

More about how this partnership started…

In April of 2003, 15 members of St. Luke’s Lutheran Church in Bloomington, MN traveled to Argentina to meet the children and adult members of Transfiguration Lutheran in Azul, Argentina. Besides enthusiasm for service, they brought with them money, quilts, school supplies and toys. LPGM, through the Lutheran Church of Argentina (IELU), connected them with a small child care program for preschool children. With very limited resources, this little congregation had been struggling to minister to extremely poor families who could not even afford to feed their young children. The Sol y Esperanza program cares for the children while their parents struggle to make a living in this country that has gone through extreme economic hardship in the last few years.

The mission travelers, under the leadership of Pastor Mark Schoenhals, who went with the purpose of giving their time and talent in helping with construction and renovation projects, fell in love with the children, and the entire church community in Azul became their friends. The travelers realized, after nearly four days with the children, that they were the receivers, not the givers. Now St. Luke’s maintains a strong relationship with the people of Azul, communicating often and raising mission awareness among its members and at the same time raising funds to help support the program. Plans now include the publishing of an Argentina/American cookbook that will be sold to church members and beyond. Proceeds from the book will help to bring representatives from Azul to Minnesota to share their stories with the people of St. Luke’s. More quilts are being made and, of course, another trip to Argentina is planned. This time, Pastor Mark will be speaking fluent Spanish as a result of night-school Spanish classes. The St. Luke’s/Azul partnership is a model for mission for other congregations who would like to connect with a similar project.