Latin America

Latin partner Mario Agreda and his family are settling into their new parish in Lomas de Zamora, Buenos Aires. They have moved house, schools, city and friends and would appreciate your prayers as they settle in. This year the church celebrates its 140th Anniversary so plans are afoot for many events and parties over the year. Praise God for all those who have faithfully served the parish over many years.

Latin partner Gonzalo Soria shares with us news of the group visitng the local women's prison. One of the women was baptised at Easter! Praise the Lord for speaking his word through this ministry, and pray for spiritual growth and more of the women to come to Him.

"From 9-16 May in Juarez," says mission partner Catherine Drayson, "we will be hosting a Mother's Union Parenting Course with the Facilitator coming from Guyana, but having to fly via New York and Buenos Aires to get here! Please pray for safety of travel for everyone, that the right people will attend this course, for the translation process, and that it will begin to make an impact on the communities here. It is an exciting, and busy time, but please pray that God's Holy Spirit will work in people's hearts and lives!"

A group of women, including mission partner Shelley Stokes and Isabel Vilte, are planning the next Wichi women's conference, planned to take place in Alto de la Sierra on 3-4 May. Mechi Tarragona from San Marcos in Buenos Aires will also be coming to do some teaching, in various places nearby.

Give thanks for the growing Conexao youth group, run by Latin partner Josias de Souza and his wife Danielle. january saw a camp with 200 young people, and a girls' group on Facebook started spontaneously after this, that has now had 'live' events for girls. The main youth group meetings now see 200-300 attend where there is seating for 100. Please pray that this growth can be accommodated with new facilities. One fo the young people, Heitor, says, “I arrived at Conexão through the Alpha Teen course.... What interested me most was how it explained the gospel, something I had never seen or heard. Over time I grew and gave my life to Jesus. Every Christian needs a place to meet others and worship God and the place for me is to do this through Conexão which is constantly being blessed by God and is instrumental in my spiritual growth and fellowship with my brothers in Christ.”

We recently had the pleasure of welcoming Bishop Henry Scriven here to see our new work, in a large area some 18 km from the city of Santa Cruz. We rejoice that we now have a venue for our meetings and are able to start out with children and women’s groups. Hopefully we will be able to expand the work to include young people’s activities soon. We are based in a neighbourhood where there is a great deal of poverty and many spiritual needs. Many of the children have only one parent, in some cases a mother, and in others a father. We have been holding activities for these children since July 2011 and numbers are around 50 children and 20 women. The women have started on classes to learn how to do wool weaving. We are hoping to offer medical help for the children in the near future.

Please pray for Amy Dawkins as she completes a year in Ecuador this week and returns to the UK. Give praise for the ways she has been able to use her speech therapist skills and vocation to help children from deprived areas and children with learning and physical difficulties. Please pray for her as she settles back into the UK and looks for a job here.

CMS mission partner Linn Tedman writes, "The situation in the Chaco, with all the flooding is serious. We have started a collection in St Andrews School in Asuncion to help the indigenous people, who need medicines and bottled water as well as clothes. It is another difficult time for them all. Crops that were growing well have now all been washed away. More rain is forecast. We are praying for it to pass over them without falling. Many have been evacuated. It will be so hard when they have to return home again to cope with clearing up the mess."

Catherine Drayson writes; "Just to ask your prayers at CMS for a lad called Rodrigo Ruiz, he is the drummer at the Criollo church and very ill. He is having surgery in Formosa for an appendix removal that has gone very wrong. ( Liver being re sected I think)"

CMS mission partner Ed Brice writes, "Here and in parts of the Chaco we have had a very wet end of March and beginning of April and as a result some of the Indian communities we work with have been cut off by flood water. The government is making an effort to reach them but with only one helicopter at their disposal what they can do is limited. Pray especially for the most vulnerable and those who might be in need of health care."