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

• July 1 [pdf]
• July 2 [pdf]
• July 3 [pdf]

Dear Friends,

The sun has finally made an appearance after almost 3 weeks of rain and cold…. most unusual for Paraguay! It’s not been easy in school when it’s too wet to go out for days on end and now we have a lot of children off ill. In first grade only 7 pupils out of 28 came today and most of the others have flu. We have closed the class for a couple of days but I doubt they’ll come back this week as the holidays start this weekend.

June was a very busy month. We had an inter schools sports competition planned where we would be the hosts and invite other schools. We had a press launch as well !! We had a visitor to that… a Paraguayan footballer who was obviously well known as all the children wanted his autograph. Gwen found herself sitting next to him without knowing who he was ! When Mags came back from the sports ground she wasn’t happy to know the Paraguayan goalkeeper had been in school and she’d missed him…she seemed to think it was all wasted on Gwen! In the end the day had to be postponed due to very bad weather and it is now planned for the end of July.

The third form held a dance competition for all the school from 4^th grade upwards. The pupils took it very seriously and practised for months. We had a very good evening watching them and the quality of the dances was exceptional. The year 11’s won yet again ..they’re a group with a lot of dancers in it.

For Father’s day we invited the dads into school for breakfast. We must have had a record number of dads in this year. When we first came we rarely saw the dads, now they are much more involved in their children’s education.

The secondary went out on their visits to the different children’s homes and schools they support. It is great seeing them setting off with such enthusiasm for their children. 7^th Grade went to the home which last years 6^th form had visited for 6 years and played happily with the chidren who have HIV. They build up relationships with them all over the years. 8^th Grade came back full of plans to paint the Preschool they visit.

We also had the last two decade shows. The 90s and the 2000s. The 6^th form had organized all their show brilliantly. It was a multimedia in every sense. 7^th – 9^th Grades were much more self-conscious in front of the older ones – typical teenagers!

As you know, June was also the month of our celebrations. We were blessed to have  Bishop Greg  (Venables) from Buenos Aires and Bishop Ken Clarke from SAMS Ireland and UK along with Eileen Murphy (head 90-98) Molly Cooper and Pat Chapman . We also had some of the ex Paraguayan staff with us.The first event was a school march down the main street in Asuncion. We had all the permissions we needed and were very organized for this and then, 3 days before the date, we found out there was also to be a Gay Parade in the same place at the time we would finish. We decided not to go ahead as we didn’t want a clash. We tried to get permission to march near school but it was too late. We had a quick change of plans and invited everyone to breakfast in school and to see a film  of the history of school and to chat with the visitors. About 200 people came to that, mostly ex pupils, and we had a really goodtime. Many thought it was probably even better than a march. The march is postponed until September now.

The ex pupils’ service was on Tuesday with Bishop Greg as the main speaker. It was a very good service and many had tears especially as they sang the school hymn. It was a special time for many of them.

The next day we had a Gala evening where the pupils did their dances from the decades. This was planned for outside but we had to change it rapidly and finally had it in the gym and the food stands in the secondary patio. It was a great evening, lots of people came  and money was raised for the annexe bathrooms.

On Friday we had our school service with a number of invited guests. It was good to see a representative from the British embassy which is about to return to Paraguay. Bishop Ken from Ireland spoke and was very well received giving a very clear message for the children. In the evening we had our School dinner which was  amazing. It was beautifully prepared and decorated with a fantastic atmosphere. Everyone had come to enjoy themselves and enjoy the evening. The outside was decorated to look like Buckingham Palace! There were over 800 people there and it was quite a job trying to fit names to people especially when they might have left over 20 years ago!!

Now we have one week left in school before our winter holidays although quite a number of pupils are already away. We are quite tired after all the events and a long term.

One of our dogs is quite ill with cancer and probably won’t last much longer so that’s something we’re not looking forward to. Also the lady who cleans for us has been ill with pneumonia for the last 6 weeks just at the time when we have been busiest in school. Hopefully she’ll be back this week.

Thank you for all your prayers and support.

God Bless, Love Mags and Gwen

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

• June 1 [pdf]
• June 2 [pdf]

Dear Friends,

Thankyou for praying so faithfully for us. We are aware of how much you help to support us in that role. This last month has been a very difficult time and we have been even more aware of our need of prayer in these times.

We have had a few very difficult issues to deal with in school which have resulted in us having to ask two people, in two separate incidents, to leave. These situations are never easy and we all feel the loss of a member. Even so, we know our battles are not really with flesh and blood and know that this is a spiritual battle and one that God can use for our good and also for the good of the school. These situations make us even more dependent on the Lord and our desire is that we should act fairly and with Christian principles so that the Lord can work in us making us even more like Him and so strengthening our testimony to those around us. Please continue to pray for us and the school.

There have been some good moments too! We have continued to celebrate the decades and the top primary classes depicted the 80’s with a fantastic show which was enjoyed by all. This next week we move to the 90’s with the new century coming a few weeks later!!
As part of our celebrations we want to redo the bathrooms for the children in the Annexe school which are as they were built 40 years ago. We had a jumble sale at the beginning of the month and despite the rain raised over a thousand pounds.

Mags has once more been to the sports camp in Brazil, this time with the younger secondary pupils. They took over 50 pupils to play sports with some Brazilian schools. Amazingly they won quite a lot of their matches! They had a fantastic time and returned to school this week. The 9th Grade boys even beat the monitors in Basketball.

The primary and secondary pupils are now coming to the end of exam time and now reports are due! Gwen is pleased with the way her infant class are progressing and enjoys her hour a day there. She also takes a 6th grade group on Tuesday afternoons. This will increase a little in this new month as Rachel Rudman is going to England to get married before returning with her new, Paraguayan, ex pupil, husband!
Mags is busy with her maths classes and very thankful for the help of Sarah Clarkson who, somehow, arrived in Paraguay at just the right time!!

Preparations are well under way for our 50th anniversary celebrations. The children are all practising marching for our school’s march down the main street in town on June 22nd. It seemed an odd idea to us but something people here do! Anyway, we hope to use it as a time of witness with singing and then a talk. This coming Friday we are all going to our sports ground to practise marching and this time it will be the whole school and staff!!!!!

Our big school supper will be on June 28th in the evening. This will be a big event and there will be room for over a thousand people including ex pupils, parents and staff and some of the older pupils. Some of the ex pupils who are parents are organizing this for us. Please pray that our celebrations will be honouring to God and might reach out to others. During the week of June 22 to 28th we will have other events too like an ex pupils’ service where we hope Bishop Greg will speak, a school service where Bishop Ken Clarke from SAMS Ireland will speak, the supper where Bishop Peter will speak and also a Gala night.

Thankyou once again for your prayers. We are planning to come to England at the end of the year and hope to visit some of our link churches in January. If you would like us to visit please get in touch with us via e mail. We won’t make it to everyone but hope to see as many as possible.

God Bless and Lots of love,

Gwen and Mags xx

Beryl Baker Update recently received into the SAMS office:

• Beryl Baker Update