Discover is designed to help groups think about and talk about mission from a biblical perspective. The programme comprises seven sessions, each focusing on a key part of the biblical story of mission. The pack includes a DVD, with seven short video introductions, a book providing background reading material, a discussion guide for each session and a website (www.discovermission.org), featuring a wealth of support material.
Some news and prayer letters recently received into the SAMS office:
Snap
SAMS news & prayer
SAMS IRELAND
* Thank God for the Christmas Cards being sold at £1.00 each to support and help fund projects of the Anglican Church in the Argentine Chaco. If you would like to buy some of these cards to send or to sell please let us know.
* We are grateful to the Lord for the South American’s who are with us – Oscar who is settling in to life in Northern Ireland where he is serving at St Jude’s Belfast, Jackie McCallum in Eglinton, and Saray in Primacy Bangor. We continue to pray for them and their families.
* We thank God too for the safe arrival of Gerardo Gimpel from Chile. Unfortunately his wife Suyai was not able to travel with him as she pulled ligaments in her ankle and couldn’t fly. Pray for Gerardo as he settles in and for God’s healing for Suyai so that she and their little boy Tomas might be able to join him soon.
* We continue to pray for Cristian Ascui, David Alanis, and Esteban Alvarez, all of whom served in Northern Ireland and have now returned to South America. We pray for them as they settle back in again giving thanks or their time here.
PARAGUAY
* Thank God for abundant rain in the Chaco over the last few weeks after a prolonged time of drought and praying for regular rain.
* The Zeballos Cue sewing group are making cosmetic bags to sell at the church`s 3rd fundraising activity for their youth activity room. We thank God for the independence, empowerment and confidence that new sewing skills and sales are giving to several church ladies and for the sewing projects that teams going over from Ireland and the UK were involved in over the years.
* In their work translating and checking OT texts Tim Curtis, Asunción, Martin and Juan note: the intensive checking, constant reading through the texts is quite mentally tiring, so we would value your prayers for stamina. We continue to encourage local Enxet speakers to improve their reading. Some of the young readers visit us in the evening when supper for them (cooked by Tim) is also offered.
* We pray for Bishop Andres and Estela and all the team working with the children and young people in Concepcion Paraguay, with grateful hearts to God for the strength He has given them to show his love and teach his Word in so many different places all through the year.
* We are looking forward to having Gwen Carlisle and Mags Southern – head teachers of St Andrew’s College with us at Friday night live. We pray for them and the other teachers with all the busyness of the end of the school year. We thank God for his Word taught to the students during their 15 years at the school, and the difference this makes in their lives and in the country.
ARGENTINA
Gemma Bankhead and Sonya Brown have been serving God alongside Cecilia in Salta Argentina. We continue to pray for them, and for God’s work in Salta.
Blog updates from:
Nick & Catherine Drayson in Juarez, Northern Argentina:
Pat Blanchard in Lima, Peru:
http://www.patinperulatest.blogspot.com/
Linn Tedman in Asunción, Paraguay:
http://www.linninpy.blogspot.com/ and http://www.ltedman.blogspot.com/
Ian & Polly Montgomery in Lima, Peru on a recent visit to see Fr. Alejandro Mesco in Cabanaconde, Arequipa
Martin & Carla Flores in La Paz, Bolivia (this blog is in Spanish):
http://www.graciasolamente.blogspot.com/
The Anglican Diocese of Bolivia also released the following video earlier this year which may be of interest:
Some news and prayer letters recently received into the SAMS office:
Some news and prayer letters recently received into the SAMS office:
Alf Cooper was at the mine in Chile as the miners emerged last week and was interview on BBC 5 Live just after 5pm (13/10/2010): you can listen to it here.
Andy and Rose Roberts write with a brief message:
Dear friends,
Hope that you’re all well. Just a quick update about our Christmas Fund 2010 which we’ve now opened. Last year we managed to raise a fantastic £1665 with which we were able to buy a full set of new clothes for each boy (including a trip to the Shopping Centre and Macdonalds so that they could choose the clothes/shoes they would like), presents for the Christmas stockings, a Christmas party for the boys plus their friends from school and even money left over to put on a few trips during the holidays in January.
We’d love to be able to do as much of that again this year as possible! So, if you have some lose change left over or would like to contribute however much to making Christmas 2010 one to remember for the boys then please do get in touch with me. As always, we’ll be documenting and filming our activities so you’ll be able to see the difference you’re making in these young lives. Anything you have, no matter how small, will still be able to make a difference this Christmas.
I said in our latest newsletter that I was looking into the possibility of opening up a business account exclusive for the Christmas Fund 2010. I use to have one and in hindsight shouldn’t have closed it because unfortunately I wasn’t able to open one this time around. The banks have clamped down on who can open up a business account, plus the fact that we’re not actually a UK business thwarted my attempt! We didn’t have a business account last year and still managed to organize the money fine, so rest assured we’ll be able to do the same thing again this year. So if you’d like to make a contribution you can do that by an online transfer or cash/cheque deposit at your local Nationwide Bank. The details are – Nationwide Sort code – 07 01 16 Acc num – 09924296
Please do email me if you’re going to make a donation so we can keep track of things this end. Thanks again, Andy & Rose Roberts
An interview between Peter Allen and Rev. Alfredo Cooper, chaplain to the President of Chile. Recorded on BBC Radio 5 Live during the successful rescue of the miners. Rev. Cooper speaks of the way God has been at work, and gives a solid answer to Allen’s challenge about how God could have allowed it to happen in the first place. Rev. Cooper also speaks of the perspective of the miners, who felt like there was a 34th person down there – Jesus.
Some news and prayer letters recently received into the SAMS office:
Some news and prayer letters recently received into the SAMS office:
From Alf & Hilary Cooper in Chile;
“Please pray for us as we are now directly involved with the Government to put an end to the Mapuche hunger strike. Bishop Abelino Apeleo has been named as part of a Dialogue Group. Alf and Hilary”
2 updates on Terry Barratt’s health;
“Dearest friends,Terry is doing very incredibly well considering they took away half his stomach a piece of bowel and 4 tumours! He is still full of tubes and can only take a sip of water once an hour, so he told me he is beginning to long for a cup of tea and a good breakfast!! But I think he’s happy it’s going to be a crash diet for him and a way of losing some weight! He has started to walk along the corridor and sit up. He can only take very short visits as he gets tired quickly and finds it sore to talk due to the tubes. He is so grateful to the Lord for the excellent care in the hospital and all your prayers supporting him. Yesterday wasn’t such a good day, but this morning he sounded chirpier. Much love and God bless you all, Pancha”
Dear Friends
We hope you have had a good summer holiday, and are getting geared up for the autumn. We are just emerging from an unusually cold spell, and adjusting to warmth and dust!
Training
As we write, we are in the midst of a school of theology run by our colleague Rene Pereira for present and future leaders in the Indian churches. Over the fortnight, almost 100 students will have attended. Some of these will return to rather difficult home situations, so we are praying they will be inspired by the time with others. Training and ordinations have been rather haphazard in recent years, leaving many in positions of responsibility with no training at all, with resulting mayhem, so we are trying to get to grips with some of these issues. There are many younger people, and not many alternatives at present to the “dance” craze and the lure of other more “exciting” churches.
It is easy to feel rather overwhelmed by the needs in this area, but hopefully the arrival of David and Shelley Stokes (due to be joining the theological education team in November), both fluent Wichí speakers, will make a big difference.
Travels
After almost a year of travelling throughout the area, in an attempt to try and visit every community and get to know the people and their leaders, it is encouraging to feel that we not only recognize but also have a relationship with many of these students which we can now build on. We are also frequently asked about women and children’s work. It is complicated, as the area is so large, and funding so poor. Catherine is writing a project proposal at the moment involving a five-year plan involving women and children’s education in the broader sense. She is trying to do this in a way which empowers them, rather than them just waiting
for the next mission partner to do it all!
L
Weather
We have been astonished how cold it has been over the “winter” months here, considering how hot it is the rest of the year. If you thought the English talked about the weather, try living here! It is a constant factor in our plans and, of course, weather-related things like flooding or drought can affect people’s lives hugely (and not just our travel plans and living conditions).
Youth
The unusual cold spell didn’t stop the youth camps in Juárez and Misión Chaqueña, and following on from these we have started a Youth Alpha in the Criollo church here in Juárez. With about 90 at the “supper” and between 30 and 50 turning up each week (an interesting mix of Criollo, Toba and Wichí and some travelling from a nearby town), the administration is causing Catherine some challenges! The leaders are taking it very seriously, but there are many challenges, not least letting the young people do the talking in the small groups! The course is also a challenge economically for the church, which has a meagre income, but they are being faithful and generous and are excited to see results.
Language
In the above context, language isn’t a problem but in other areas we continue to be challenged by the vital need to learn Wichí well. Nick is having to use what he understands and “wing it”, but still needs some more thorough study before he can speak well.
But elsewhere language needs are being met, as the Toba New Testament is finally ready and will be presented to representatives of the tribe by the Argentine Bible Society on 29 August. Mike Browne, the translation coordinator, will now face the challenge of helping the communities with literacy.
Land
Another “handing over” will take place later in the month, when the title deeds of land bought by the church for the purpose of resettling displaced communities will be given to those who now live on it. Unfortunately there are still many unresolved disputes over land, and often great dangers involved in trying to protect the rights of the vulnerable Indian communities, and the environment. We rely very much on our colleagues in the Asociana (land-rights) team for this, as well as Andrew Leake who is researching some of the wider questions of saving the forest. Talking of land, we have been alarmed recently to discover that many properties in the town, including the one we live in, are not safe from legal corruption, and some have been
expropriated. This has given us a greater urgency to sort out proper fencing (and papers) and to start looking seriously at developing some sort of conference centre for the area. This is time consuming, expensive, and the departments who are supposed to do the paperwork are actually in dispute… nothing is ever straightforward! Nothing is ever straightforward… an amusing example The telephone line connected to our house shortly afterwe arrived has failed to work for most of the year, and we have been unable to persuade the telephone company to fix it. Inadvertently, while felling a tree to make space forthe fence, we bought down the telephone cable which serves our neighbours – the military barracks! This may be
one way of getting the phone company to turn out… (not intentional of course!)
Points for prayer:
Our family; Stefanie and Sam are starting final years at college and university and Stefanie hopes to do a gap year (2011) somewhere in this hemisphere.
The right choice of leaders for the Indian churches, with appropriate training.
Development of the women and children’s work.
Growth of Alpha.
Continued protection and insight as we travel. Stamina to cope with varied and extreme weather!
Good relationships both within the communities and with those who visit and support.
Memory and ability for learning Wichí.
The Tobas as they get the Scriptures in their language.
Wisdom in the land issues large and small.
Give thanks for our very capable team of mission partners, both Argentine and European, for whom we also have pastoral care.
Many blessings,
Nick and Catherine