Argentina
PAUL HILL
Bio info
Born in Duluth, Minnesota
Birthday October 18
Age at conversion: very young
Home church Immanuel Baptist Church , Waukegan, Illinois
I was just a year old when he left Minnesota with my family for language study in Costa Rica, en route to Argentina. My parents,Jim and Jan Hill, were Converge missionaries in N.W. Argentina for over 40 years. From the day I was born, my life has been a formative call to missions. It's not just my parents (they were the single greatest influence in my childhood), nor the crosscultural environment I lived in most of my life, but God instilled in my heart from a very young age a heart for service. From birth I have been exposed to and involved in Christian service, making it always a big part of my life.
I accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior at a very young age, was baptized when I was 14 and have always heavily involved in churchrelated activities. After graduating from high school in Argentina, I attended Bethel College in St. Paul, Minnesota, majoring in anthropology and minoring in linguistics. Soccer, running and fishing are my favorite forms of recreation.
In 1980, I returned to Argentina on a shortterm missions assignment with Converge and it was in the home of missionaries that I met Ana Bustos- Cabanillas. After finishing two years shortterm service I moved to the city of Santiago and spent the next six years in a tentmaking ministrythree years as pastor of a church and also working with Theological Education by Extension, youth ministries and community development. Over the years Ana and I became good friends and after five years of longdistance friendship, we realized that what we felt for each other was more than just friendship, that the Lord had united our paths for a life of service together. We were married January 2, 1987, in Argentina.
In 1989 I brought Ana and our year old daughter Sara to the US where I attended Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. During this time I also taught four semesters at the Hispanic Bible Institute in Chicago, two of my students felt the call of the Lord to go as missionaries to Mexico.
Because of the way God has directed and shaped my life I felt that the logical and most natural field of service is Argentina. I not only know the language but have actually acquired Argentine culture as part of my personality as a thirdculture person. My heart had never really left Argentina. We were appointed Converge missionaries to Argentina in March 1993 and after two years of support team building left for the field early in 1996, considering it a privilege to bring honor and glory to God by fulfilling the calling to which He has directed us.
Our main ministry is church planting, Cabildo de Esperanza is our current ministry with a desire and vision to lead it to a key center church out of which we could continue to establish new churches. We have started a rural daughter church where poverty and margializatio have lead us to become involved in a ministry of building rainwater collection water tanks. We are also involved in discipleship and leadership development in the city and in the state.
Argentina
Ana HILL
Bio info
Born in Catamarca, Argentina
Birthday May 13
Age at conversion: 14
Home church Immanuel Baptist Church , Waukegan, Illinois
When Juan Bustos-Cabanillas, a strong Catholic in northwestern Argentina, met Jim Hill, Converge missionary, in the late 1950s, who would have thought one day Juan's daughter would marry one of Jim's sons!
I was only four when my parents received Christ, so I had the privilege of growing up in a Christian home and in an evangelical church. My father's strong and disciplined character and my mother's loving and patient personality gave me a good combination of both. I was 14 when I personally accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior. It was on Easter Sunday that the Lord touched my heart like never before through my pastor's sermon. I started to cry profoundly, because I finally recognized my sinfulness and my need for his saving grace. Things began to change for me as I gained the assurance of having the greatest ally on my side. It´s with full asurrance and gratitude that I can say that receiving Christ was the best decision I ever made.
Having an intense desire to serve the Lord, I considered attending seminary after high school, but because of Argentina's economic problems I opted to study at the Universidad Nacional De Catamarca, earning a bachelor's degree in secondary education with a teaching major in English as a foreign language.
I had finished one year of college when I met Paul Hill in the home of Converge missionaries who were helping me with English. Paul was "back home" in Argentina on a shortterm missions assignment with Converge, but he was working in a town 11 hours away, so our friendship developed mainly through letters. Inter-state youth activities brought us together occasionally and soon we became good friends. Through letters we realized that we both had the same burning flame to serve the Lord. On January 2, 1987, we were married in Ana's home church.
In 1989 we came to the U.S. with daughter, Sara, so Paul could go to seminary. I worked for two
I enjoys reading, knitting, crossstitch, and writingbut playing with my kids usually takes precedence: Sara, Amy, Paul, Mark and Laura. Sara, Amy and Paul are now grown and attending college.
After our appointment as Converge missionaries in March 1993, we left for Argentina early in 1996--returning "home" to be church planting missionaries. In addition to my primary role as mother I am also involved in our church planting ministry in Santiago del Estero, helping with discipling ministries in the lives of women and couples who are hungry to know Christ. years as secretary at the Hispanic Bible School in Chicago and then as a bilingual teacher in Waukegan, IL. From the time I accepted Christ, I have been involved in my churchplaying the piano, teaching Sunday school, even doing janitorial work. Her Argentine pastor says I responded to a call to service long before meeting her husband.