MISSIONARY PROFILE
Joe
& Janice
Merlo
Missionary Update 06/30/2022
June 30, 2022 Dear Pastor and Church, I am in Oklahoma City as I write this letter. I arrived on June 16 and have tickets to return to back to Argentina on July 7. It has been really nice to spend some time with Janice. She is doing much better, but the cardiologist doesn’t want her to leave the country before the end of November. The Bible Institute is going really well and the students have been really faithful and are enjoying the classes. The three subjects that they are studying are: The doctrine of the Sacred Scriptures, the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, and the Pastoral Epistles. The construction upstairs on the church building is coming along well. We have completed putting the stucco on all of the interior walls, and have also built the classrooms and restrooms. One of the next steps is to do the heating of the entire upstairs. We are planning on doing radiant heat, which involves putting in the tubing that will carry the hot water to heat the floor. That will be a fairly large expense. We should be getting some estimates for that important installation soon. There is a young married couple coming down from Buenos Aires the middle of August to work fulltime in the ministry with us. They are Nicolas and Sara Martinez. They both graduated from an Independent Baptist Bible Institute in Rosario, Argentina several years ago and have been serving in a church on the outskirts of Buenos Aires. If the Lord is in it, Nicolas will be the future pastor of our church. Thank you for being so faithful to support us financially and to pray for us regularly. You are a blessing and encouragement to us. Your missionaries, Joe & Janice Merlo
Missionary Update 04/28/2022
April 27, 2022 Dear Pastor and Church, Everything is going well at the Iglesia Bautista Biblica here in Comodoro Rivadavia. The attendance has been up and most of the people are involved in the activities of the church. We had our missions conference in March. Our son, David, came down here from Bahia Blanca, Argentina where he serves as a missionary. He preached the conference and the Lord worked in the hearts of the people. Our faith promise commitment is up by quite a bit. By the grace of God, we had more mission’s offerings come in this month than what was promised. After a few setbacks, Janice is recovering much better now from the bypass surgery that she had in December. She is just about finished with the rehabilitation and feels quite a bit better. We were hoping that she would be able to come back to Argentina in August, but her cardiologist told her to wait until the end of November to make sure that she is completely recovered. That was really disappointing news to us. He needs to do more tests on her. She developed atrial fibrillation (a-fib) right after her surgery and has been taking medicine for that. It seems to be much better so the doctor cut her dosage in half. I will take a three-week trip to Oklahoma in June to be able to spend some time with her. Last night we started up our Bible institute again for the first time since the pandemic began. We have nine adults that will be studying this year from April through November. They all seemed to be excited to be able to study in the Bible institute. The classes are on Tuesday nights from 8:00 to 10:15. Thank you for your faithful prayers and financial support. We really appreciate your much needed prayers on our behalf. Your missionaries, Joe & Janice Merlo
