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mission in crisis

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Argentina - in need of a miracleArgentina’s latest casualty. A report just in from Latin Link’s Mike Terry in La Plata highlights how the economic crisis is affecting the health service:

‘A young surgeon in our church travels 100 miles to work. He was last paid in November. Ana has just qualified as a doctor. The three jobs she applied for had 300 applicants. The successful candidates will be paid a small salary – the others will be offered unpaid work. The top teaching hospitals have no food for patients. In the regional hospital they are washing disposable gloves and there are no disposable needles. The most prestigious private hospital cannot run its theatres; the X-ray department closes at 10.30 am, when the daily ration of X-ray plates runs out. Ambulances have no fuel.’

Please join your prayers with Christians in Argentina. Those below are featured in the Spring issue of Latinfile:
  • Latin Link’s Paul and Wilma Davies in their develop-ment role with the Argentinian mission sending movement; and as lecturers at Buenos Aires’ Bible institutes, training people for mission – please pray that ways will be found for students to continue their studies during the crisis.
  • New graduates Héctor and Sandra Moreno and family as they seek God’s provision and the next step towards working in cross-cultural mission.
  • Daniel Bianchi, director of the AMI, the Baptist Convention’s mission sending agency, trying to continue to support people in mission around the world.
  • Churches — Pastor José Luis Cinalli’s in Resistencia and Carlos Scott’s, La Puerta Abierta in Buenos Aires, as they try to maintain their mission giving and commitment to social action in a time of great financial hardship.Carlos and Alicia Scott
  • Carlos Scott (right with Alicia)as he travels with wife Alicia to Britain this month to learn English, and to take part at the Mission for the Third Millennium conference in London in June.
  • International support for churches in Argentina, and Latin Link’s role.
  • Latin Link Argentina team members as they develop their respective areas of work throughout the country.

10 No peace. Following the hijacking of an aircraft in February, Colombia’s President Andrés Pastrana has broken off three years of peace talks with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). FARC rebels have been ordered out of their ‘safe haven’ and troops ordered to retake the region, the size of Switzerland.

  • Please pray about the outcome of this new approach to resolving the 38 year old civil war.
  • Pray also for new Latin Link member Simon Walsh, preparing to go out to Colombia in May, initially to study Spanish, and then to join a project working with people who are the casualties of the subculture of drugs and violence.

Linda Bethell15 Vet in mission. This month new Latin Link member Linda Bethell (right) will head out to Bolivia to start language training in Santa Cruz before working in animal husbandry with the rural Yapacani communities.

  • Please also remember in prayer Martin Bone and Clare Churnside, who continue to raise their support for Peru and Ecuador – for the necessary funds to roll in!

20 New business. In the Christmas Latinfile we featured Strider Jo Heywood, who has returned to her craft groups in Lima, and is gaining some experience working for a craft exporter. She asks prayer that sales would pick up, both in Lima and outside. Jo is working towards setting up a company as soon as profits are higher. ‘Many opportunities have arisen for training in new areas,’ she reports, ‘so we are now making new things in leather, macramé and metal.’ Please pray for the success of these projects designed to provide a regular income for shantytown residents. (Further info from jeheywood@hotmail.com)

25 Please pray for the Letra Viva network of publishers, co-ordinated by Latin Link’s Ian Darke in Costa Rica, but administered from an office in Buenos Aires. The economic crisis has deeply affected not only the network, administered by Silvia Chaves, but also many member groups of Letra Viva, based in Argentina. In particular, remember Beatriz Buono, director of Certeza Argentina, a key member of the Letra Viva committee.

30 The drop-in unit at the Rescue Mission, Goiânia, Brazil has re-opened. Latin Link’s Alison Worrall asks prayer for the new staff team and the 15 street children attending — the hope is to reach 50 and to start to work with families.

diary

Recife Baptist Seminary1 Fools for Christ? April 1st is the centenary of the Recife Baptist Seminary, Brazil (right), one of the oldest Protestant seminaries in Latin America. Latin Link’s Glenn Every-Clayton suggests we use this date to thank God for the hundreds of seminaries, Bible colleges and institutes now in existence in the continent, and remember those who teach and study at them.

James Jones2-7 Latin Link is exhibiting at Easter People in Llandudno and Torquay – James Jones (right) from the London office will be on the stand at Torquay.

20 Step Co-ordinator Laurence East is at a selection and briefing with Liverpool University CU, who are forming their own Step Team this summer.

27 The first of four consecutive Saturdays of KidsGames, taking place in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Latin Link’s Néstor Cornara and former team leader Pauline Hoggarth (both with Scripture Union) will take part. Pray for their input into making these fun days good events, where the person and message of Jesus will be clearly communicated to under-14s.

More ways to pray

Prayer Guide, sent on request by post, or by email with a link to the full-colour online version, is one of a number of Latin Link prayer resources:

  • The 2002 Prayer Calendar features all current Latin Link members, with a brief description of their country, team and work. With pages dated 1 to 31 and prayer points for each day of the year
  • Latinfile —our full-colour news and information sheet, mailed three times a year
  • Members’ prayer letters – an insight into their work and country of service, as well as personal and family news – on request
  • Prayer groups – an opportunity to join Latin Link’s praying network. Ask for your nearest group, or we can help you start your own
  • Prayer cassettes — recorded news and interviews, produced bi-monthly to provide additional material for prayer groups
  • Prayerline – prayer pointers for the week ahead, on 020 7939 9018

For further details, please telephone or email us.

If you would like to make a donation to the cost of producing Prayer Guide, we suggest £5 annually.

One Minute Window with Ruth Green in Peru

Ruth Green‘The Refuge’ in the city of Arequipa is a home for adults with mental illness. It’s officially run by the local council, although water and electricity were never properly installed, and food consists of market leftovers.

One Christmas Ruth Green and a group from church paid a visit, thinking it was a home for the elderly. What they found came as a shock. They hastily adapted their programme, and Ruth set about forming a regular visiting team. ‘The whole set-up got to me,’ she says.

Through games, songs, and Bible stories on God’s love, the team has gradually formed relationships. Says Ruth, ‘Most of the residents have been abandoned by their families and miss our visits. We had wondered whether they even recognised us until, one week, having had to postpone a visit, we were greeted with, ‘Where were you last week?’

Many suffer from schizophrenia, like Angelita, currently going through a bad patch and spending time in a hospital psychiatric ward. Previously the team helped her get some surgery done, one lady donating the blood she needed to take in with her. Martin, with Parkinson’s disease, used to spend most of his time on the floor, until a wheelchair was obtained for him.

Ruth says, ‘Our vision is still to continue to teach God’s Word to our friends in the Refuge. We believe what the mind cannot grasp the Spirit can. We’re convinced of the truth, to use the words of an old song: Everybody ought to know who Jesus is.’ Please pray for:

  • The small visiting team: María, Lucero, and Angela, leading the team, while Ruth is on home leave in England and Australia.
  • Other helping hands to join the ministry
  • Better care for those for whom The Refuge is home.