: Countries

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

• October 1 [pdf]
• October 2 [pdf]

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

Most recent FEISA Praise & Prayer news and prayer letter received into the SAMS office:

• FEISA News September 2013

Dear friends,

Thank you for your faithful praying. My apologies for the delay in getting the Calendar sent out. To say that life has been hectic would be an understatement. This last couple of weeks have seen me very busy with several complex pastoral situations including the health and practical issues that retired missionary Sharon has been going through following a stroke. Please could I ask you to pray for her continued improvement and the preparations for her travelling back to the States in an air ambulance, hopefully later this week. In order to deal with the all practical matters I have involved as many other people as I can as so often two heads are better than one! Although sometimes its would have been quicker to have done things myself I am confident that working in group usually leads to much better solutions. It has been great to see how the Lord has opened doors and met so many needs. Amongst the properties that Sharon owns here in Paraguay she has a house where we have been having to deal with a difficult situation involving a member of one of our local congregations. Protection, wisdom and patience are required!

Blessings, Sally

• Paraguay Prayer Calendar Sept October 2013

News & Prayer Update from Gwen & Mags in Paraguay

• Sept 1 [pdf]
• Sept 2 [pdf]

Dear Friends,

Thank you for all your prayers and support for our work. It’s been another busy month and the temperatures once more dropped and we have just had a week with temperatures barely above freezing! This is “sunny Paraguay”! I am pleased to say that it has once more started to warm up but we are still in jumpers.

We had a sad start to the month when one of our annexe pupils was killed when she was knocked down crossing a road on the way to a sports competition. She was in 9^th grade( 15 yrs old) and the top pupil who was working hard to get into a good secondary school. She was the adopted daughter of a single mother. The mother is a Christian  and it was very moving to see her so firm in her faith. The girl was also a Christian.

The month has ended the same way as, on Monday, we heard of an ex pupil and her husband who were killed in a car crash. Again they were strong Christians but leave two sons of 20 and 17 years old.

The lower secondary boys seem to have been on a roll recently with bad behavior and we have one boy hanging in by his teeth! I feel sorry for their families  and, in this case, the mother, who has made herself ill with worry. She’s an ex pupil. Still, I am thankful that we are able to work together with the parents and quite a few have been called in in this last week. Many cases involve the mis-use of their cell phones and they fail to realize how dangerous this can be. We have called in an ex pupil who is a fiscal to talk to them. He came in today to talk to us first and it was great to see this professional, responsible man, a strong Christian as I remembered him as a naughty 10 year old! He actually said how he had regretted many of the things they had done as kids.

We have had some tough moments recently but in among them the Lord has sent encouragements. We have seen ex pupils who are strong in their faith and active in their church. In many cases some of these people have been pupils we never thought were listening or interested in spiritual things. It’s so good to see how the Lord’s word doesn’t return void.

Celebrations this month included Children’s day when the infants and primary celebrated with a morning of games and fun. The  day before that we saw the new president inaugurated . His name is Horacio Cartes and he promised lots of things in his inaugural speech. If he is able to fulfill his promises it will make things so much better for many people and especially the poor. There is optimism  for his term of office although he also inherited a teachers’ strike which finally ended yesterday. Many children in state schools haven’t had classes since the beginning of July. Needless to say, we have gone on as usual!

After two postponements, the Primary enjoyed their Interschool sports competition, with eight other schools taking part up at the Sports Ground. It was a cool day but brightened up later and the kids played their socks off. It was all very exciting with the under 8s winning their cup.

Our pupils sit the Cambridge IGCSE and AS level exams and on Friday we had the Certificate ceremony to which came the new British ambassador to give out the certificates. It’s great to know that the embassy has returned after 8 years absence. The ambassador also asked if he could come into school the day before to see what he was coming to and to get to know us. It’s good to see him interested in education and wanting  to send students to the UK to study. The embassy has offered Gwen the chance to go to Ecuador at the end of November to a British University exhibition

At the moment we have a new house guest. Deborah goes to the English chapel and works in the American school and recently was knocked off her bike by a car. She had to have a knee operation and has her leg in a splint and so was unable to climb the stairs to her flat! She has come to stay until she is able to return home.

We are both fit and well. Our animals are fine although we had a fright on in the middle of the month when our dog, Munchie, was ill and we thought it was the end. We took her to the vet’s and left her. It was remarkable to see how well she was when we returned two days later.

Thanks for all your prayers and support.

God Bless and love from,

Gwen and Mags