Ali Young in Recife, Brazil

28th October 2013
Brazil, PRAY

Hello one and all!

Thought I’d send out a quick “Hello” …to let you all know that I am still alive here! Well I am still having enormous problems with technology and cannot send out a newsletter, though will continue to keep trying!

However, just to briefly update you all …

Life at Vale: was going well, until 4 weeks ago! Have been off sick since then with an infected foot/ankle that blew up for 2 and 1/2 weeks to the size of an elephant’s foot! Have taken two different types of strong antibiotics, 2 injections of antibiotics and in the end a vascular doctor took off the top crusty, dead skin! I now just have a hole in my ankle that is not healing! Yesterday I went to a dermatologist who prescribed a cream to pass on the wound for 20 days to see if this improves it! We’ll see! Has been very painful, but it a little less sore these days!

Life at the Roda: my small group has grown! Usually had between 6-8 regulars, now have between 10-13! Am thinking that we’ll have to move back to meeting at the church building, cos my lounge is a little squashed with 13 teenagers! BUT this a great “problem” to have! 🙂

Church is going well too! I don’t know IF I informed you that from May I was made the “temporary” worship leader, which was extended until August while our Pastor was on holiday. On his return it was made “permanent”! So I now am responsible for all things musical! Leading and organising music practices, music for Sunday’s, rotas etc! It’s something I really love doing and my desire is that we as a band lead our church into God’s presence!

The other biggest news is that my life as I knew it no longer exists!

I have for the past 5 weeks become “Mum” to a 13 year old girl from Vale! She came to stay with me as a result of a very traumatic, horrendous situation, that basically resulted in that she cannot return to Dois Unidos as its too dangerous! Her family (aunties and grandma) didn’t want her! Her Mum (drug addict) has disappeared again as she’s done throughout her life, so it was go and live at a shelter (which no-one deserves to experience!)  or come and live with me, as I am the only person at Vale who doesn’t live in Dois Unidos! It’s a challenge!!! Suddenly being thrown into parenthood and with a teenage girl with 13 years of baggage and trauma is interesting to say the least! After 3 weeks of trying to sort out transferring her schooling to here, since last week she’s now started studying at a school here, which is good!

So there in a nutshell is what’s happening here right now!

PRAYER REQUESTS:

1) For wisdom, guidance, patience and understanding with my new charge! And to know what is God’s will for her and me! Whether its to stay with me permanently or not?

2) For healing of my ankle wound!

3) For finances for me, as school fees, books, uniforms, food and everything is very expensive and quite simply my outgoings have increased by 100%! I am trusting God for provision for this!

Thank you for your continued support!

Love

Ali

Tester Family in Peru October

21st October 2013
Peru, PRAY

Time has flown by since we last updated you on what is happening with the Youth Ministry here in Peru. We hope that the attached news and prayer letter encourages you. Lizbeth has written the letter, I’ve just done the translating and editing!

As you will see there is much to thank God for and plenty more opportunities to serve God with young people in Peru. If you’d like to know more, would like to know how else you can help or if you know anyone who would be interested in receiving these updates do get in touch. Thank you for your thoughts, prayers and support.

God bless,

Paul

Monte Horebe Update

17th October 2013
PRAY

One of the first requests made to the founders of Monte Horebe in 1984 was that a school might be established as part of the mission. The state education system was indeed in existence in Itaperuçu at that time, as it is now, but, with poor resources and class sizes up to 60, the quality of teaching and learning left much to be desired. Despite a number of set-backs, Monte Horebe School developed from an initial 30 pupils to its current 300 plus and from makeshift classrooms to a purpose built school building. The school now teaches pupils up to 14 years of age through the employment of part-time teachers who are subject specialists. Much of this development is due to the continued generosity of supporters here in Northern Ireland as well as others in Canada.

Although delivering a common curriculum, Monte Horebe is deemed to be a “private school”, that is one outside the state system, able to charge fees but still open to state inspection and with the capability of benefitting from some of the initiatives which emanate from state and federal governments. While the fees are far from exorbitant, and are necessary to pay teachers’ salaries, a large number of children from impoverished families, who would otherwise not be able to study at Monte Horebe, benefit from the support of “sponsors” whose gifts ease financial pressure. Parents who cannot afford to pay even a small part are encouraged to pay in kind, for example by helping with cleaning or gardening. The education offered by the school, based on Biblical principles, is in great demand in the community and has led to a number of students gaining places in high quality schools in the equivalent of our Key Stage 4.

John and Phyllis Logan have been involved with the school since their first visit to Monte Horebe in 1994 and while John now does less teaching he remains heavily involved in Principal support as well as in matters of school improvement.  They have seen continued improvements in resourcing and teacher education in the Itaperuçu school as well as positive developments in Caçador where the community centre based school nears readiness for opening.

Please pray that Escola Monte Horebe continues to be a positive force in Itaperuçu.

Red Box Project Update

16th October 2013
Argentina, PRAY

Hola SAMS Supporters!

An evolving part of the Red Box Project has been the opportunity for me to visit and run various programmes for young people in detention centres. One of the goals in this area of work is to provide the young people with the tools to change. Along with my team of volunteers I believe that God’s love can transform the lives of the young people we encounter in prison even though they are damaged and broken. An important, but sometimes challenging part of this work is to build relationships with the young people. The majority come from backgrounds where love and attention were absent; often they have never known someone to care and accept them. Through spending time with the young people, and showing genuine interest in their lives, they begin to open up, and trust forms. Several young people from the church youth work programme have become involved in the visits. The young Christians from the church have been challenged by meeting and sharing time with young people whose situation is very different to their own. I encourage them to give devotionals and share their testimonies and by doing this they have grown and gained confidence and this has had a major impact on the young people in the prison.

Prayer and action can never be seen as contradictory or mutually exclusive. Prayer without action grows into powerless pietism, and action without prayer degenerates into questionable manipulation. In service we meet people, and in them the suffering Christ.

Pray for Peter Harrison from Belfast who has recently arrived as a Red Box volunteer. Peter has settled in well and Its great to have him as part of the team. I have enclosed a photo of Peter.

I’m really looking forward to seeing you soon.

Blessings

Cecilia Valdiviezo

BEWARE OF SCAM

9th October 2013
News

Dear SAMS supporters,

I have been made aware of two mission agencies in the UK that have had their records hacked into by scammers, in order to obtain personal details of supporters, such as telephone numbers and email addresses. Scammers are then using this information to contact supporters, posing as a representative of the mission agency and have in some cases asked for money to be sent to them. Although this scam has existed by email for some time, it is increasingly likely to be tried by telephone.

If you receive a call like this, put your phone down, wait one hour (in some cases, the caller will hold your line open for some time) and then contact SAMS on a number you know (not one the caller gives you), or one you can find from the SAMS website or from SAMS literature. Please remember that SAMS will never telephone you asking for money.

SAMS follows strict guidelines to keep personal information of supporters confidential. We ensure that our antivirus software is kept up to date and information is never passed on to a third party without permission. We at SAMS have not been affected by this scam, but I wish to inform you about it to make you aware of what can happen and ask for your vigilance.

As always thank you for your support.

Bishop Ken Clarke

SAMS Mission Director

 

 

God’s Missional Agenda

3rd October 2013
News

When it comes to our spiritual lives, it’s more or less a universal tendency to compartmentalize. We recognize there’s both a personal and a communal aspect to the Christian life, that there’s a vertical and a horizontal dimension, that there are the things to be done within the walls of the church and things to do beyond those walls.

But so often we view these as competing priorities, failing to see all the ways in which they’re mutually reinforcing disciplines and practices for followers of Christ seeking an integrated way of life.

Prayer and action… can never be seen as contradictory or mutually exclusive. Prayer without action grows into powerless pietism, and action without prayer degenerates into questionable manipulation. If prayer leads us into a deeper unity with the compassionate Christ, it will always give rise to concrete acts of service. And if concrete acts of service do indeed lead us to a deeper solidarity with the poor, the hungry, the sick, the dying, and the oppressed, they will always give rise to prayer. In prayer we meet Christ, and in him all human suffering. In service we meet people, and in them the suffering Christ.

If we really understood this, we’d be on the whole a lot less frazzled, a lot less weighed down, a lot less distracted with endless “busywork” for God. And we’d be able to set aside more or less fruitless debates about the prioritization of evangelism vs. social action, or prayer vs. service, or community vs. mission, and get on with participating in Gods missional agenda.

Gwen & Mags Prayer & News October 2013

3rd October 2013
Paraguay, PRAY

Gwen & Mags Prayer News recently received into the SAMS office:

Dear Friends,

Spring is finally here and the sun is out after quite a few cold days lately. At the moment we are enjoying a week off school for our Spring break. Not many schools take this week off but we always find it useful in the middle of a very busy year.

We will be back in school on Monday and the year 11’s start their IGCSE exams almost immediately, The year seems to race by after that. Last week was a very busy week as we tried to fit in all the extra activities before our break. The secondary spent most of last week celebrating one thing or another! On Tuesday they had sports day up at our sports ground. They were back there on Thursday for a day retreat with Pastor Ronnie and Pastor Donald. They had a good time out and the weather was great on both days. On Friday they celebrated Youth day in school with a service followed by competitions and entertainment by their teachers. They went home at midday and so started their break. Many of the families have travelled this week. I’m pleased to report that the lower secondary boys have calmed down in the last few weeks. Thanks to all of you who prayed.

Last week the primary 5th grade class went out on a 2 day trip and had a great time. At the same time  two of their English teachers were ill and one was on a course. A third English teacher was on the trip and yet another was at the sports ground with secondary. We had three classes to cover in the afternoon and not one of their usual teachers in school…we managed as Gwen took a class and so did the head of English and a helper took the third one. By the next day everyone was back in school. There has been a lot of illness recently especially with flu and a tummy bug. I’m pleased to say that we have managed to avoid them all so far and are fit and well.

The infant classes also had their Sports Day and went out on a trip to see a school for children with special physical needs. It wasn’t the most successful trip as none of the children there turned up that day!!  Meanwhile we have been busy interviewing children for our nursery class next year. We have just about managed to see all those who have brothers and sisters already in school and are about to start on children of ex pupils.

The Secondary also had a visit from DENIDE which is a group working with kids with special needs and preparing them for work. They sang and danced and it was great when one of the older boys got up with one of the lads who was a really good dancer and danced with him. We have invited a special football team to come and play with us at the Sports ground after the holiday.

Our  school’s march didn’t happen as there was so little enthusiasm. It was as if we’d already celebrated and this was too late. Anyway, the Annexe school was able to use the same date to hold their Folklore day which went really well. We had visitors from Ireland and were able to take them to the Annexe school for the event. It was great to see our SAMS Ireland boss once more.

We’d planned to hold our staff retreat the first Monday back i.e. next week but we decided we couldn’t miss any more days of classes after having an extra week ‘s holiday in July. So, we had our retreat this last Saturday. It was to have taken place at our sports ground but the forecast was so bad that we changed venue to the cathedral and lunch in school. We had a lovely sunny day in the end and a good time together on Saturday. The storm broke later that night wreaking havoc in various parts of the country.

We haven’t taken any services in church this month but we have two lined up for October so we will be able to prepare them whilst we are off school. We offered to do two together as they are two halves on the same theme and , therefore easier to follow on with.

We realize how many parents often ask for help with their children and so we decided to try and get someone in to give talks. We chose a Christian organization  to come in and give a series of talks. We had about 100 parents at the first meeting and they were thrilled with it. By midday someone had posted their notes of the meeting on the internet. It was great to see their enthusiasm. We had the second meeting this last week  with about 60 parents there ( many families had travelled!) and, again, it was well received. We aim to have 2 more and then hope parents will sign up with the organization to do a full course.

October should be a month of normal classes as they children do their final push towards the end of year and get ready for their final exams. It will certainly be a busy month. This week we had good news about Munchie, our dog who is ill. She had analyses done and she is in better shape than two years ago as her liver has recovered. She still has some sort of skin cancer but it is under control and she’s really perked up again now. The rest of our menagerie are also well.

Many thanks for your continued support and prayers,

God Bless and love from,

Gwen and Mags

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