september leaders striders
teachers
helpers
How a school is helping the earthquake homeless in Peru — see the One Minute Window below
Leadership. What makes a good leader? Both in and outside the church, different styles of leadership have become a hot topic for debate. We need leaders, but how much faith do we have in them? Do they always merit our trust? Latin Link believes in a ‘servant leadership which refuses to abuse power, listens, and gives consideration to all, relying on God for wisdom’ – in short, leaders who care for their people. If we expect them to care for us, then we should also care, and support them in prayer.
2 Latin America’s leaders. ‘Everyone blames the government,’ writes Latin Link’s Wilma Davies of the economic decline in Argentina. Everyone in Peru is waiting to see whether new president, Alejandro Toledo, who follows Alberto Fujimori’s decade, will deliver his promises. And after 42 years in power, people are wondering when Cuban leader, Fidel Castro, will retire. On his 75th birthday recently he vowed to remain a revolutionary until he dies. Memorable leaders... those quickly forgotten… spare a prayer for the governments of these and other Latin American countries you know.

diary

1 Viv Whitfield, SE England Co-ordinator, will be manning the Latin Link stand at the Missions Expo on Logos II at Thames Quay in Docklands. Pray for Viv as she introduces visitors to the work of Latin Link.

3-6 Orientation days at Sunbury Court for this year’s Striders and new Latin Link mem-bers. Pray that those leading sessions will help to allay any anxieties and give a clear picture of what to expect in Latin America.

5 Pray for Britain & Ireland Team Leader Alan Tower as he flies to Argentina to visit Latin Link members in Bahía Blanca, La Plata and Buenos Aires, and prepares to attend the meeting of the International Executive later this month.
7 Year on. Latin Link members Geoff and Rachel Low, with Thomas, have completed their first year in Peru, and Geoff is beginning his ministry in theological education in the Cusco area. He is due to teach at the Horizons Night Bible Institute at the beginning of the month, and then he will be in Sicuani teaching Missiology at the Bible Institute during the last week — a course shared with Nat Davies. Please pray for Geoff as he tries out his new, ‘but far from wonderful’, he says, Spanish skills. Their new baby is also due this month — Rachel would welcome prayer.
Geoff, Rachel and Thomas Low
11 Leadership training. Like Geoff, above, a number of Latin Link members are involved in training and developing leaders for the growing number of churches in Latin America. There is a great need for leaders of honesty and integrity, who will resist the temptations that follow in the wake of power. Take a moment or two to remember those you know of, who teach. Pray for teachers and students alike, that both will grow in the knowledge and love of Christ.

One Minute Window with Rosemary Gibson, Peru

Rosemary is head teacher of the International School in Arequipa, which mounted a relief effort following the earthquake in June. Ruth Green is a teacher, and both are Latin Link members.

‘Our visit to the town of Chuquibamba and Yanakihua village has made a lasting impact on us all. Twenty-five teachers and pupils travelled in the school bus, with Ruth, myself and another teacher ahead in the pick-up. We were able to give cement, corrugated iron, wire and nails, sufficient to build a room 4m square, to 71 families we’d identified on an earlier visit. We also gave leather trainers, socks and underwear to 139 children, as well as clothes and food to other families. In every case we gave appropriate Christian literature supplied by El Inca bookshop. While people queued, Ruth and I did a little evangelistic presentation with some children's songs. People were so grateful, some almost in tears.

‘On the way to Yanakihua, three endless hours further over a dreadful road, a woman flagged us down. We were by now at high altitude, with little adobe houses dotted here and there. Her home had collapsed and she was surviving with her five children, one mentally disabled, under sheets of corrugated iron lent from the local school's latrine. Her husband had long since abandoned the family. There must be so many similar families, and the sense of frustration in not being able to help them all is very real.
Alan Tower
John Chapman

10-15 Latin Link’s International Executive meets at the Kairos Centre, near Buenos Aires. The Executive will be considering candidates to become International Team Leader when John Chapman steps down a year from now. Pray for wisdom and courage to appoint the right person.

15-16 The Chain Event, a sponsored cycle ride in aid of four projects in Latin America, takes place around Britain and Ireland this weekend. Pray for safety for cyclists, and that their efforts will be rewarded by raising wider support and interest in Latin Link.
The Prayer Guide is designed for flexible use and the points may be used at any time during the month. We include a Diary of events, and for those who prefer to pray systematically, suggested dates against each prayer point.

More ways to pray:

Prayer Guide, sent on request by post or email each month, is one of a number of Latin Link prayer resources:

  • Latinfile is our regular publication, with news and stories from Latin America
  • Members’ prayer letters – an insight into their work and country of service, as well as personal and family news – on request
  • Prayer groups – join with others in praying for the work of Latin Link. Ask for your nearest group, or we can help you start your own
  • Prayer cassettes, with recorded news and interviews, are produced bi-monthly to provide additional material for prayer groups
  • Prayerline – call 020 7939 9018 any time, updated weekly
  • 2001 Prayer Calendar features all current Latin Link members, with a brief description of their country, their team and their work. With pages dated 1 to 31 and prayer points for each day

For further details, please telephone or email us.
Earthquake damage, Chuquibamba

‘We feel very grateful to those who have given from abroad and in our school here. All our staff donated a day's wages, and parents gave clothes and foodstuffs. As donations come in, we can help some of the many others who still don't seem to have received any of the vast amounts of foreign and local aid being administered by local authorities.’

Rosemary and Ruth ask prayer for:

  • a return visit in September to see the newly-built homes, and to hold evangelistic meetings for different age groups – Ruth will take her puppets for the children.
  • the one tiny evangelical church in Chuquibamba, way out of town, which seemed discouraged and lacking in dynamic leadership.
  • the village of Yanakihua, where there is no church at all, that some may become believers and that a church can be started.

Latin Link’s earthquake appeal has raised £12,000

17 Water at a premium. This month anti-capitalists, People’s Global Action (PGA), hold their third international conference in Bolivia. Latin Link heard of this through a past Stepper who plans to attend, and to visit the church she was with in Quillacollo. One of her concerns is about the recent privatisation of water in Cochabamba, and problems of supply. For people on a minimum wage, clean drinking water now costs a fifth of their earnings, and campesinos fear for their customary rights to water for irrigation. Please pray for just solutions through non-violent means.

21 Outgoing Striders. Please pray for those setting out to use their skills on the Stride programme, starting this month: Paul Sheriffs going to Argentina; Chris McBruithin and David Hore to Bolivia; Gill Bedford and Mary Hands to Brazil; Zannah Poulson to Costa Rica; Catherine Mark, Deborah Quinn, Pamela Pilkington, Claire Simmons and Matt Viles to Ecuador; Ruth Finlay, Caroline Brugière, Claire Lovell and Emma Simpson to Peru. Each will work with a project from six months to two years.
25 New Brazil Team Leader. Phil Greenwood (pictured left, with student leaders) has been elected leader of the Latin Link Team in Brazil, and will take over from John Griffin next year. Pray for them both as the role is passed on.
29 Praise God that renewed attempts to evict residents from Fundo California shantytown, Lima, Peru, have been thwarted — by prayer! Pray for Margaret Saunderson, who hopes to extend church planting into two new areas this Autumn — Las Conchitas and Vista Alegre.