: Paraguay

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

Click to view the Paraguay Prayer Calendar for September & October 2010.

Pray for Bishop Peter and Sally Bartlett as they pastor a church in Paraguay and help leaders and potential leaders to mature in faith. Pray for all who teach God’s Word, that they themselves may be teachable, and for each member of the church to understand the spiritual battle they are engaged in and to use the spiritual resources God has given.

Pray for Teodosio Rivas and assistant Donald Brooks, working together in the diocesan administration, for wisdom in the setting of priorities. Teo is also Provincial treasurer for the Southern Cone. Thank God for gifting him to serve the church in this way.

Lift to the Lord the two schools, St Andrew’s and the Annexe: head teachers, staff, pupils and parents. Pray for good relationships between parents and teachers, and for parents to learn new parenting skills through special classes. Pray that high academic standards and clear Christian teaching may be maintained.

Pray for the work of Gloria and Ana as they lead FEISA, that they will be granted the Holy Spirit’s anointing as they head up the training of teachers for early years. Thank God for Ruth Maidana’s secretarial help, which has speeded up documentation on the academic side.

Ronald and Nicky Irene praise God for his faithfulness and provision. Pray for Ronald in his role as chaplain in St Andrew’s School, helping with Sunday services and also studying, for wisdom and discernment and good time management. Remember Nicky as she teaches and their family, all pupils in St Andrew’s.

Dear Friends,

 
At the beginning of August we have a volunteer group of 6 people coming from the UK to help on various projects in the Chaco. Pray for this, that all goes well. I have lots of work for them and they have raised around 21,000 pounds for the funding. We want to dig 2 hand dug wells, construct 1 water cistern for rain water harvesting, build up to 2 adobe houses (of the 4 proposed), divide our guest house (bunk house) into 2 apartments in order for it to be more practical, also, close in a roofed area for TB patients, recondition a deposit and make some latrines for distribution. Quite a lot! The work will continue after they have gone.

Pray that the documentation for my vehicle gets sorted out quickly. The customs made an error when it was cleared for importation. I need the right papers in order to take it out of the country that is, into Argentina. I went into the notary office this morning and they showed me that it has been corrected now and that they need to rewrite the title deeds for the vehicle to include the corrections.

The work with the NGO, Global Chaco is going very well and the beneficiaries are very pleased and enthusiastic with its development. The NGO is implementing the same model in another area as a result of these results. I have been helping Indian communities present their projects to 2 government institutions for help with bee keeping, small livestock, cattle and fish farming. Pray for these as they are slow going in responding. These institutions also ask for lots of information on the communities. I’m also helping another NGO, technically, for the construction of adobe houses, as they may be administering some housing projects in the communities I visit. Pray for Esteban Galeano who will be training them with the adobe making and for Dacio Martinez who will train people in the use of adobes for construction of their houses. It is quite exciting that what we have been doing with the adobe houses is being considered as a viable option for housing projects. It came because of the work of 2 of our pastors making their own adobes. Alison keeps busy with her Open University courses for teaching. Ben is with us for another 3 weeks before going back to the USA to continue his studies. Hannah comes out to visit us for 3 weeks in August. Pray for her getting a new job, she wants to work in London. I was congratulated by the guy who came from the Inter American Development Bank who funds the cattle projects via the NGO. He commented on all the hard work the Anglican Church has done over the years with the Indian groups to prepare them for these projects. I want to thank you all for your support and prayers for the work. It isn’t often churches get congratulated for their work. He has also asked me if I’d consider forming part of an NGO he’d like to start as he has seen that the ideas I’ve been working on are beginning to happen and that I have the knowhow to solve many problems facing poor communities.

  
Love and greetings,

Chris and Alison

This is a prayer request for nurse Beryl Baker who works in the Chaco and has been rather unwell for the last week or so with a very high fever and bad headache and yesterday was diagnosed with pneumonia. We saw her nearly two weeks ago in the Chaco and she wasn’t well then. Beryl is now in the Baptist hospital in Asuncion. I visited her at lunchtime today. Beryl’s temperature had dropped down to 36 which is good. She is looking very weak and seemed quite sleepy although she told me that she has been sleeping very badly the last week or so due to a very bad headache. She’s of course worrying about all her patients, but I told her that just now she’s going to have to trust that the Lord is looking after them.
 
Dr Wesley who has been Beryl’s doctor for many years is a bit concerned that the pneumonia that she seems to have is atypical (unusual – different I think that means) and wants to check that this isn’t a reoccurrence of TB that Beryl had many years ago. She also has fluid at the bottom of her lungs. Fortunately she isn’t coughing too badly. Beryl was very appreciative of the visit and I prayed for her.
 
I mentioned to Beryl that I had pneumonia & pleurisy about 20 years ago and ended up having 6 weeks off work, so perhaps Beryl should consider that she is unlikely to be up and about rushing around next week! Obviously we all hope that she is able to relax, rest and get better and I guess that the hospital is a good place to be at the moment. How good it is to know that our Lord Jesus is watching over Beryl and is her Healer.

Love, Sally.

Beryl’s latest letter tells of her neighbours in Asunción taking pot shots at her cats with a shotgun (punishable by a jail sentence), and spreading broken glass bottles on her boundary wall. Temperatures vary in the Chaco from 34° one week to the mid-twenties the following week. Local resident Miguel was working for an unqualified electrician, fell 5 m. from a concrete post, which then fell on him and killed him.

The Ministry of Health needs to sort out the ambulance service, as well as training specialised paramedics. The Mennonite ambulances can provide this service, but most of the other transport is transport only. As usual, rain is desperately needed. All the Indian communities and a good many of the ranches and other places are out of water, so the emergency services are already taking in tankers to fill up all storage cisterns. At the house and at the clinic Beryl has sufficient, but levels for the animals are low, with very little for the horses and cattle to eat. The alligators are on the move, looking for water and food.

No doubt Rhett would have allowed all the ranch workers to stop work and watch the Paraguayan football matches (perhaps others) and we thank him for being a most generous employer. The workers even have their own health service, provided by Beryl. In return Rhett requires “No alcohol on the ranch and no firearms”. Some of the workers cannot manage without their tipple and so return home for the weekend.

The Chaco covers about 60% of Paraguay and as one travels north, its nature changes. Leaving Asunción on the Trans-Chaco Highway, the Lower Chaco begins almost immediately. Here it is beautifully green at present, but about one third of the way to Bolivia the Middle Chaco takes over. This is just around the right turning to Brazil, at Pozo Colorado. Here there is less foliage and the landscape becomes one of scrub and indeterminate bushes. About 85 km. beyond Pozo Colorado one finds Beryl’s house and clinic. It’s still not halfway to Bolivia, and it will be another 200km. or so before the High Chaco makes its mark. This isn’t mountainous “high”, for until then the land rises at 1cm. per kilometer. In the High Chaco one can use the term “desolate”. We are reminded of the fine balance upon which life, especially human life, exists. Here one finds warnings such as one would find in Death Valley- walk for 20 minutes from your car without a head-covering, and your life will be in great peril. Take rations for several days, plenty of water, your mobile phone (you might just get a signal) and motor spares, as well as extra fuel.

Matters at the clinic have changed little, except that the Health Promoters in the communities are taking responsibility for the more routine work. This leaves Beryl more time to do specialised things and the laboratory work. Other tasks include cervical smears and other screening for cancer. Where necessary, Beryl will help patients to get to Asunción – e.g. for biopsies. “My health needs get sorted out in Asunción at the Baptist Hospital” was the nonchalant reply she gave to my optimistic question about who looked after Beryl. She does admit to deteriorating hearing on the right side, together with a noise like a car air-conditioner.

Beryl regularly sends names of individuals for prayer, but one name stands out, as it is someone whose future fortunes could be bound up with Beryl’s. Jeremiah has been working at the ranch for more than two years and is about 19 years old. By the age of 10 he had lost both his parents, one through a road traffic accident and one through renal failure. He has been of great use to Beryl, not only taking responsibility for the physically demanding work, but also being an animal sitter for her.

He is a proud owner of a small motorcycle, which he pays for (Beryl pays it, out of his wages) by installments. Thus he could be useful one day, as a driver, relieving Beryl to concentrate on her own issues en route. Furthermore, she can support him. He has two older brothers, one in an institution for treatment for inhaling harmful substances, and the other in prison. There are three other younger children. He went at first to one grandmother, a Christian who took him to church. All six were reunited when Jeremiah joined his other grandmother, living at the time in a typical shack in Ramoncito, in the Chaco.

One of the grandmother’s neighbours asked if Jeremiah would help out at his bosses’ ranch and that, says Beryl, is how he came to be in the Chaco and through  a lost lamb, came to Rhett’s ranch looking for it. At the time of Beryl’s last message (9^th July) she was heading back to the ranch with all speed so that Jeremiah could go in the opposite direction, for a big youth outreach in Ramoncito, taking his brothers and sisters along. Jeremiah is a young man who faces great pressures. The “macho” image is very common.   Drink and “noxious substances” are readily available and very much a part of the limited social life of the young men of Paraguay.

He needs our prayers, as much as do the elderly and infirm of the Chaco. In the hands of countless Jeremiahs lies the future of a country which is Third World in a number of ways, where corruption and dishonesty are a way of life.

Pray for Ed and Marie Brice: “Just weeks before the main political parties chose their candidates for the Municipal elections and with many Indian communities being targeted for ‘special’ attention, we held our first Bible study week of the year in Río Verde.” Pray for the pastors they work with as they play an important role in keeping the peace, in advising the community leaders and in pressuring the politicians to keep their promises at times like these. Pray that the Lord will bring healing in some of the communities affected by division and renew Christian commitment.

Linn Tedman asks for prayer: “Please pray for the children and staff of St Andrew’s as we return to school. Pray for good health and for stamina to see us through a busy term. Also, please pray for Mauricio, Bieto, Diego and Rodrigo, recovering addicts. Pray that they will gain strength through the Lord and his Word to remain free of their habits. Pray for them to tangibly feel the Lord’s love. Gwen Carlisle and Mags Southern also ask for prayer for more staff for St Andrew’s school in Asuncion as they are currently short staffed.”

Please pray for Beryl Baker as we have heard that she may have Dengue Fever. Pray for resources for Beryl as she works in her Health Clinic in the rural Chaco. Pray for Jeremiah who helps Beryl with odd jobs and with her animals. Pray for the Mission Paraguay teams as they spend time in Paraguay. Pray for Babs Owen as she co-ordinates the running of the English church services on top of her already heavy workload in the school. Pray for her to have stamina and wisdom. Pray that the Holy Spirit will guide her well. Pray for good support from those around her.

Please continue to pray for the group and for the work of the church in Concepcion. The 2^nd  group are scheduled to arrive on 7th August for a three week visit which features a range of building work in the Chaco. We ask for your prayerful support as they make their final preparations and for their safe travel.This year we have once again been greatly blessed by the Lord and we thank Him and so many friends in SAMS Ireland and other supporters who have once again generously donated towards our work and given clothes, spectacles and sewing materials all of which will help the people of this needy country and promote the work and ministry of the Church here.

Blessings,

David

Pray for Beryl Baker and her Chaco clinic. Beryl has worked tirelessly for four years without a break, and is reluctant to leave people with such overwhelming health needs. Pray for Jeremiah, who helps her with the more physically demanding jobs, that he would be able to resist illegal drugs used by many around him.

Chris and Alison Hawksbee ask prayer for good rains in the Chaco to fill the reservoirs, cisterns and to be able to plant subsistence crops. Chris gives thanks for the NGO, Global Chaco, providing projects sponsored by the International Development Bank. Two communities in the El Estribo settlement will benefit from these, with a filtration tank added to their water systems. Pray the communities will be diligent in the maintenance these filters require to be effective.

Give thanks for the work of Chris’s helper Esteban Galeano, teaching the making of adobe bricks. Pray for more people to be encouraged to make bricks and improve their houses. Chris hopes to help the pastors in La Patria build adobe houses for themselves this year.

Praise God for the encouraging visit of Bible Society consultants and their work with the Enxet translation team in Rio Verde. Pray for Tim Curtis and translators Juan, Martín and Asunción as they work on Psalms, I Kings and Esther, using the recently installed Paratext computer programme. Give thanks for the projector, which enables groups of Enxet readers to read Bible texts together in the translation office.

Thank God for Nelson Aguilera’s input into staff training and project work at St Andrew’s School. Pray for Head Gwen Carlisle and Deputy Mags Southern, for fruitful meetings with parents leading to good relationships and a clear understanding of expectations. Pray for a good break this summer after this long term.