Latest Updates from Argentina, Chile, Peru & Uruguay
News and prayer letters recently received into the SAMS office:
New Chapter
The Church of Ireland Theological Institute is a small but growing community who pray and study together both residentially and at a distance. Its purpose is to serve the whole Church and in so doing, to further the Great Commission. It is committed to striving after excellence, and in everything to emulate and honour Jesus Christ. We warmly congratulate Titch on being recommended for training in the ordained ministry for the Church of Ireland. We assure him and Jill of our prayers and support at this time. He will commence training in September this year.
+ Ken
Prayer letter from Claire
Prayer letter from Claire received into the SAMS office:
Latest News and Prayer Letters from Argentina, Brazil & Paraguay
News and prayer letters recently received into the SAMS office:
FEISA Update
Recent FEISA update received into the SAMS office:
Beryl in the Chaco
Beryl in the Chaco update recently received into the SAMS office:
SNAP
Gwen Carlisle and Mags Southern Pray that the Lord will bless Gwen and Mags in their leadership and give them wisdom as they deal with the staff and pupils. Pray for the secondary pupils who often take time off to go travelling, as there are no restrictions on school attendance. Pray that the pupils will settle and take school more seriously and know the Lord’s hand on their lives.
Peter and Sally Bartlett Pray for Peter in his role as Bishop of Paraguay, for wisdom and guidance. Pray for Sally and Peter especially as they think through children’s ministry in the diocese. Pray for Sally in her role as president of the Esperanza Foster Home. Pray for the children there, for a new helper in the house and for Teresa and Maidana, the 2 mothers from St Andrew’s school who help.
Claire Holmes Pray for Claire and the youth ministry she is involved in, that the youth will continue to attend church and know the love of God. Pray too for San Pablo church that it will know God’s guidance in the coming months with Bishop Andrés’ retirement drawing closer. Give thanks for the ministry of Bishop Andrés. Pray too that God will raise up leaders in the church who will take on the responsibility of sharing the gospel in their community and beyond.
Cecilia Valdiviezo Pray for Cecilia and her work in the detention centre. Pray for every girl she meets, that they will come to faith and follow Jesus every day of their lives. Pray that the possibility of Cecilia taking one of the girls out for visits will become a reality. Pray also for Peter Harrison this month as he concludes his gap year with the Red Box Project on 28th April.
Alec Deane Give thanks for all of the families who are now involved with the Garden project, there are now over 100 families benefitting from the project. Pray for government support, both financially to provide more seeds and drip irrigation to enable more families to be a part of the project, and also for an improved water infrastructure to create better growth for the plants.
The Tester Family Give thanks for the youth camps in Lima and Arequipa and pray for the youth that attended, that they will be strengthened in their faith. Pray for Sarah, specifically for health and strength throughout her pregnancy. Pray too for Paul in his work with the youth.
Chris and Alison Hawksbee Pray for Chris as he has been doing more pastoral work, pray for his visits to La Patria which aim to cover 17 villages, encouraging pastors and leaders to meet together. Pray as they prepare for a retreat for the pastors, deacons and their helpers in Rio Verde in May. Pray too for Alison and her responsibilities as academic director at the Asunciόn Christian Academy.
Dany Alvarez Give thanks for SAMS Fusion volunteer Dany, from Chile. Pray for her as she spends a year volunteering with the church and sharing the gospel with those around her. Pray that Dany will be blessed in the work she is doing and also that she will be a blessing to those around her.
Gwen & Mags in Paraguay
Gwen & Mags Update recently received into the SAMS office:
Dear Friends,
It seems that Autumn has arrived as we have had some welcome low temperatures this last week. One morning we got up to 13ºC which made a nice change. We have also put our clocks back which means it is once more still light when we get up!
School has been busy but we have been able to get down to a lot of work so far…except for today! School is closed for the day as there is a general strike. Many people feared it would be violent. Roads are also blocked off although their efforts don’t appear to have been too effective! Anyway, with staff coming from far and wide we couldn’t risk opening school with the majority of staff unable to get in. We were also concerned for the children’s safety and know many parents wouldn’t send their children anyway. Even so, we did have a number of complaints about closing. Many other schools also closed.
The lower secondary managed to get away for camp the other week. The 7th and 8th grades went to our sports ground and camped in tents…until the rain came. Mags reckons the rain came just at the right time as they had the children playing games that left them very muddy so the rain managed to wash a lot of it off before they went for a shower. It was a very good camp and Pastor Ronnie and one of the teachers, Ariel, spoke on Noah. Mags came back saying how well it had gone apart from the lack of sleep!! 9th grade went to camp and climbed a hill where they had to cook their own food once on top. This involved a walk of 25kms altogether. Pastor Donald went there and again, spoke on the theme of Noah. That too was also a very good camp.
Last week we had our school anniversary service in which we also remembered our founder, Auntie Thea, who died in January. It was a lovely service and everyone seemed touched by it. The pupils listened well. Pastor Ronnie spoke on Zephaniah 3:17 which was the verse from Auntie Thea’s funeral. Ronnie spoke well with a great visual aid which involved a few of the children. It made them all laugh but he got his point over.
It’s been hard getting the secondary pupils to settle after the holidays. Many of them are not motivated to work hard as there are no national exams to pass to get to university. There are, of course, some who do work hard. The National University requires an admittance exam but many others just require fees! Many of our pupils know they’ll go to university and they’ll have a job afterwards which doesn’t urge them to work hard now! They also have an active social life and this also affects our school routine. The Ministry of Education doesn’t have a legal requirement of how many days the pupils attend school nor fines and punishments for those who miss school. Many of ours go off travelling in term time. We’d love you to pray for our secondary pupils, that they would settle and take school seriously and that they would know the Lord’s hand on their lives.
We were missing Munchie ( the dog who died in November) and this week we welcomed the new arrival. Splash, came all the way from Uruguay, brought by friends coming from Argentina. He’s now 6 months old and still finding his place in the family. I think he hoped to be the Alpha male but Viking has put paid to that!! He’s very sweet and cuddly and loves water…hence his name!
Well, we’ve had a very profitable day. Both of us have managed to get quite a lot of school work done and were glad of the time to do it. Mags is now baking with Splash tripping her up at every turn!
Thank you to everyone for all your support and prayers. They mean a lot to us.
God Bless, Love Mags and Gwen