Red Box News & Prayer Update

25th August 2010
Argentina, PRAY

Sonya Brown from Carryduff Parish who is with the Red Box Project updates us on her 5 week placement.
 
I help 2 missionaries over here, Graziela and Lorena, I am so grateful to having the chance to help these girls in their work on Saturdays making lunch in one of the poorest areas here in Salta and on Wednesdays at the hospital.  This week I am helping them organise for a Bible event for the children this Saturday – busy times!
 
I help in a local school on Tuesdays and Thursdays with English lessons. The teachers and children are so welcoming and its great being there and helping in whatever way I can, whether answering questions, helping with their work, or marking exams!!
 
Your prayers are valued. Pray for the time that I have for myself, that I will reflect on my experiences and take time to refuel! The language is a barrier, in that I can’t build relationships with the majority of the people I meet, which is a tad frustrating to say the least but I’m learning that sometimes words aren’t needed, a smile never fails to get a response!!
 
Also I’m only here for a short time so I ask that you pray that I can plant seeds in the people that I’m spending time with and that I have the energy needed for the long days that I’m out and about, for safety and that my travel back goes as smoothly as arriving here.
 
Many thanks 🙂
love & prayers
 
Sonya xx

FUSION Volunteer departs for home.

20th August 2010
Chile, PRAY

As you all may know my time here in Norn Iron is almost over, as I’m heading back to Chile next Friday (August 27th), but before leaving I just wanted to say thanks to each and everyone of you.

 

In different moments of my staying here, you have blessed my life with your company, friendship, testimony, service, dedication, love and kindness towards me and our great and amazing God.

 

During this past year I’ve shared different experiences with you and all this experiences are now part of my memories and have a big piece of my heart.

 

I really hope in the future I can return to this wee island and see you all again or if you ever want to visit a great and amazing country where you can learn or practice your Spanish, you will be more than welcome in Chile.

 

I had great ‘craic’, ‘all the best’ and ‘keep er lit’! Hopefully this is not a good bye, it’s just a see you soon, God willing.


Un gran abrazo a cada uno y que la gracia y el amor de Dios los bendiga hoy y siempre, con todo mi amor. (A big hug to everyone and may the grace and love of God bless you today and always, with all my love,)

Cristian Ascui P.

Pray for Michael & Silvia Browne and the launch of the Toba New Testament

18th August 2010
Argentina

“The long awaited launch of the recently finished  translation of the Toba (Oeste) New Testament will be on Sunday 29th August in Rinconada. Pray that the consignment of newly translated copies may arrive in time from the printers in Brazil. Pray for Michael Browne and the Toba translators on this significant occasion. My (David) involvement has been to help the translators  by revising the translation and trying to make sure that the phrases flow well. Pray too for the courses that will be undertaken after the presentation, to help people grasp and understand the message of the New Testament, I have been asked by Bishop Drayson to help with these. We plan to be in Argentina for three months. Every blessing, best wishes. DAVID LEAKE”

 

Andrew & Maria Leake prayer items on environmental challenges in Northern Argentina

17th August 2010
Argentina

Meeting the Minister

Together with members of ASOCIANA Andrew participated in a meeting with Salta’s new (latest) Minister for the Environment and Sustainable Development. The Minister had invited ASOCIANA to share their views on conflicts arising from the expansion of the agricultural frontier (read deforestation). Andrew was also able to make use of the opportunity to communicate some of the major weakness in the government’s current implementation of environmental impact studies. The Minister and his staff expressed a major interest in this, and suggested we might help them to run training sessions to help their staff to be better able to evaluate future studies. We hope that this link will develop further and that it may lead to a more constructive relationship with the state.

 

Bulldozers on the move

Anta, the region we are focusing (in southern Salta) in our search a suitable area of land to purchase lands for conservation continues to be battered by the bulldozers. Andrew’s criollo contacts in the region have recently reported having to go and literally stand in front of the machines to stop them knocking down forest on land they claim as theirs. We have submitted a written request to the Minister to send an inspection team to the region to verify the situation.

Andrew and Marcelo will be visiting Anta shortly to conduct a preliminary survey of the situation, and in doing so give a hand to local criollo in their struggle protect  their rights. Later in the year we will have the additional help of Emma Parkhouse, a geography student who will be coming out from the UK as part of her study program. Though details need to be finalized, she will be engaged in gathering more detailed data on the impact of deforestation on the subsistence economy of Criollos in the region.

Bird watching

Andrew has recently met with Maurice Rumboll, one of Argentina’s leading ornithologists, seeking his assistance in designing a regional research project aimed at documenting the effect of forest loss across the Chaco. The idea is to document the presence and of species along extensive transects, both in forested and deforested areas, and especially along the transition zone between them. This will be the first time any research of this nature has been undertaken and should prove valuable in demonstrating the hitherto little understood effects that massive deforestation is having on the Chaco ecosystem. We aim to design a method which will enable members from local Churches across the region to help conduct the required surveys. If this works, it should help towards encouraging more churches to become engaged in conservation.

 

Items for prayer

 

·       Thank God for the opportunity of meeting the new Minister for the Environment. Pray that this link may be strengthened

·       Pray for ongoing work with preparing the formal proposal for the Land for Life initiative.

·       .Pray for creative thinking as we design the bird survey study.

·       Pray for our links with Criollos in Anta, that these may grow, and that whilst they help us understand the situation on the ground in that region we might also help them in their struggle to hang on to their lands.

Chris & Alison Hawksbee in Paraguay

17th August 2010
Paraguay, PRAY

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

 

Rene & Marina Pereira in Northern Argentina

17th August 2010
Argentina, PRAY

Dear friends,

 

We are looking forward to visiting many of you when we come to England in October and wanted you let you have this brief note about my recent and forthcoming activities.

 

The two weeks of youth camps has just finished. The first was held in Ingeniero Juárez from 12 to July 17 and the second in Misión Chaqueña from 19 to 24 July. We all experienced a time of great blessing at both camps. The one in Juarez took place in the Criollo church, where 57 young people met together in all, including some non-Christians invited by their friends. At Misión Chaqueña there were 70 youngsters from eight different indigenous churches.

 

Give thanks to God for the blessings we received during the camps and pray for the young people present

 

I’m now preparing for the new pastor training intensive course in Juárez which runs from 16 to 28 August. We are expecting some 70 pastors from 40 different churches to attend.

 

Please pray for the preparation, teaching and good outcome of the course.

 

Thank you again for your continued prayer and support.

 

Greetings from Northern Argentina

10th August 2010
Argentina, PRAY

We would really value your prayers over the next few weeks as we have embarked on a Youth Alpha after an invitation here at the Criollo church at Ingeniero Juarez, the Anglican church which we attend when we are not travelling to Indian Communities. They have many young people, and have just finished a youth camp, but the leadership has been quite shaky over the last few years. Hopefully, Alpha will not only lead many to a faith in Christ, but also build the team of leaders. It is  a big commitment and quite a challenge as nobody here has ever done an alpha course here before, certainly not a Youth Alpha! The Church has been wonderfully supportive and the team is really working well together. Catherine is doing the Administration for the course..

We were simply amazed when some 75 kids squeezed into a room for karaoke, video clips, choripans, and the introduction to the Course which Nick headed up. We were even more amazed, when 60 of them  turned up at 10.30 am for the first morning. It is an interesting mix too, mainly Spanish speaking Criollos, but also Wichi, and Toba young people too. Some are  travelling from a local church an hour away at Laguna Yema. Everyone is “buzzing” …as they say, but it’s a challenge, not least for the leadership…but there is much faith and we really do pray that there will be much blessing!

Could we please ask you to accompany us with your prayers over the next 10 weeks?

Thank you so much for your loving support and interest and anticipation….prayers!

Every blessing Catherine and Nick

 

BOLIVIA

9th August 2010
Bolivia, PRAY

Pray for encouragement and refreshment for Bishop Frank and Shawnee Lyons in their pastoral oversight and leadership in the diocese and in La Trinidad, Cochabamba together with pastor Walter Toro. Pray for the churches in La Paz and Tarija to grow and impact their communities, and for their leaders, Carla and Martín Flores and Sandra and Walter Barrientos.

 

Uphold Latin partners Lico and Rosa Bascuñán in Santa Cruz. Pray for the community they serve who are poor economically, that the Lord may enable them to discover his riches, love and salvation.

Prayer Request for Beryl Baker

7th August 2010
Paraguay, PRAY

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.

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