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Thankful. Hostages freed in Colombia - a reprieve for shantytown dwellers threatened with eviction - prisoners coming to Christ - a Brazilian street boy returning to rehab after months on the streets - these are just a few of the many answers to prayer we've heard about since we launched the Prayer Guide a year ago.
We want to say 'thank you' to all who take time to pray for Latin America and for Latin Link members. Together we can praise God and say thank you to him for the fresh vision of new Latin Link members and for the fruit of lives of service from those recently retired.
Through prayer, God invites us to engage with him in bringing about his answers for Latin America and the world.

This month sees a new look for the Prayer Guide, with the same ingredients but presented in a simpler format which will adapt easily for the Latin Link website: www.latinlink.org. It's a matter of using resources in the best way, as we ask God to help us adapt, improve, change, hone, refine.
If you don't already receive Prayer Guide regularly, we can send you a copy each month by post, or notify you by email. Just let us know.
3 Please pray for new Latin Link member, Martin Bone, as he completes a course at Moorlands Bible College in preparation to go to Moyobamba, Peru, as a water and sanitation engineer in October (see Latinfile, Spring 2001). Martin hopes to help minister to spiritual as well as practical needs, 'to bring the good news to people in their own language and their own culture.' Churches are strong but the level of teaching is limited.

diary

1 The church in Fundo California, a shantytown south of Lima, celebrates its fifth anniversary. It is growing both in numbers and in maturity. Please pray for the many new Christians to become true disciples.

8 Peru elects a new President and congress. Give thanks for good, moral leadership from the country's interim President and Prime Minister, following the fall and disgrace of Fujimori, and for a reasonably clean election process so far. Pray for those who will take office.

13-15 Easter church youth camp in São Paulo state, Brazil. The talks will be on self-esteem, "seeing ourselves as God sees us". This issue is a real problem for many young people, says Phil Greenwood. Please pray the young people will be open to let God speak to them, and that lives will be changed. These camps often attract non-Christian friends, so it's a chance to introduce them to Christ too.

26-28 Latin Link's Marcel Dürst has been invited to give a presentation on Two-Way Mission at the Evangelical Mission Societies' Alliance Conference in Switzerland, and talk about the way Latin Link works in partnership with national churches.

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
  • Team prayer letters - the Argentina, Brazil and Peru Teams produce their own regular prayer letters, by email only
  • 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.

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.
5 Schools in Argentina have been back a month now after the summer holidays. Please pray for Latin Link's Priscilla Breekveldt and Esther Terry, who both teach English. Their prayer is for opportunities for outreach to the middle class parents and children through good relationships and friendships. Priscilla has discovered a few other Christian parents, and hopes they'll be able to start praying together for the school.
right: Priscilla with son, Joshua, who goes to the school

9 Join with John Jameson (featured in Latinfile, Spring 2001) in praying for the people of Villa María shantytown, Lima, Peru. Pray also for John: as a GP and healthcare advisor to the church project there, his vision is to expand his practice, involve other professionals, such as a dentist and a nurse, and increase surgery hours to five days a week.

11 Know your Networkers. Ruth in Taunton, Rachel and Vi in Oxford, Paul in Cardiff, Tess in Newcastle, Liz in Durham, Ciarán and David in York are all Networkers, starting to promote Latin Link in their area. Pray for others to join the network and raise Latin Link's profile at local level across Britain and Ireland.

14 Men of God for Africa. Praise God that a recent grant will pay postage for 3,000 copies of a new book - Men of God, written by gifted expositor, Jorge Atiencia - to be sent to the Portuguese-speaking countries of Mozambique, Angola and Guinea-Bissau - a gift from ABU Publishing in Brazil. Latin Link's John Griffin asks prayer for their safe arrival.

  • John has recently handed over the running of ABU Publishing (the Brazilian equivalent of InterVarsity Press) to Fred Utsunomiya, a Brazilian university lecturer in Communications. 'We are very pleased that someone so capable has accepted the job, and see this as an exciting answer to prayer,' he says. Pray for Fred as he learns the ropes and progresses the production of four new titles this year.

18 Successors found. 'Praise the Lord we have a pastor for the church in Macafé,' write Bill and Glenice McMillan, who retire this month. 'Ivan Ramalho, with his wife Josefá, and four-year-old son, takes over the church from April. Pray for their removal from the extreme south of Brazil, and the church they are leaving. They studied with us in Vitória, and have been very blessed in a very difficult town. Pray also for Josias who takes over the leadership of the Bible College in Vitória. Pray for us as we hand over, pack up home, say many farewells and journey to Peru before going to Britain on the 23rd.'

22 Concern for the nations. 'Can we see God's concern for the nations of the world in the Old Testament, in Jesus' ministry, in the New Testament? Many would argue that, biblically speaking, a church that is not outgoing and concerned for the world is not fully a church - and this includes the Latin American church.' Ian Darke explains the basis for a new book on mission to be produced jointly by IINDEF (International Institute for In-Depth Evangelism) Publications and a Costa Rican mission agency. Pray for Karla Chaves at IINDEF as she puts the final touches to the book.

25 New Peru Team Leader. Thank you for your prayers for the Peru Team conference in February. The Team are delighted to announce the election of Eirwen Harris as Team Leader; she takes over from Nat Davies. Pray for Eirwen in her new role and in her work managing and developing the ministry of El Inca bookshop.

29 New Latin Link members Terry and Simone Lockyer plan to fly to Brazil in April. They will spend a couple of months acclimatising with Simone's family and friends before moving to Belo Horizonte. Pray they will find a good language school for Terry to learn Portuguese; and pray for Simone, who is Brazilian, as she gets involved with a local church, and with Ruth and Izaias Daniel de Assis' creche.

Ruth and Izaias praise God for progress with the foundations of the new building and pray that funds will keep coming. Ruth reports: 'The creche is going well, but we still need two more qualified teachers. We also need a good team for evangelism and for talking about the work in other churches. And we are praying for a school bus with driver to pick up more children. We praise God for some of the parents who have started going to church because of our contact with them at the creche.'