We’d like to welcome back Gayle Stevenson from Argentina. She returned this week from the Red Box project. We’ll be updating the web site with her reflections soon. Please pray for her as she readujsts to life back in Northern Ireland.
Here are the dates for some comissioning services for volunteers and teams going out this summer. Please pray especially for Naomi who is leaving in the next few weeks.
Naomi Francey, Red Box volunteer to Argentina – Gilford Sunday 8th June.
Love for Life team to Paraguay – Sunday 8th June in Magheralin.
La Caldrea Team to Argentina – 2nd July in Holywood Parish.
Fivemiletown team to Red Box in Argentina – Sunday 15th June in Fivemiletown.
Please remember the Irene family in Bolivia. On top of the political and social uncertainties of the country, Ronny has had to go to the city of Santa Cruz where his biological mother is in intensive care, having suffered a perforated intestine. Nicky and the 3 children remain in La Paz.
This Saturday evening (7th) a gospel concert is held in the main square of El Escorial, the town in Spain where Jonathan & Hilary Rowe and family live. The visiting choir consists of 300 young people and is the largest gospel choir in the country. Please pray for God’s hand upon this event, from the weather to the follow-up ministry of the small evangelical church there.
Over this weekend another Youth Encounter event takes place in Asunción, Paraguay. Pray for the coordinating team and for the young people invited, that God will touch the lives of many, leading them into new relationships with him and with their families.
Finally, this Sunday (8th) Bishop Bill Godfrey conducts a joint confirmation service for the churches in Lima, Peru. Pat Blanchard has a number of candidates from her church of Jesús el Nazareno, and asks us to pray for a real blessing and outpouring of the Spirit in their lives and in the lives of all being confirmed.
Here is the latest prayer calendar for Paraguay. Click here to download it in PDF format.
Another major prayer point for tomorrow. on the 31st of May there is an Extra Ordinary Synod meeting in Asuncion to make a decision over the appointment of the next diocesan bishop. Please keep the church in Paraguay in your prayers.
On Saturday an Extraordinary Synod is held in Asunción to discuss a nomination to the post of Bishop of Paraguay. Pray for Assistant Bishop Andrés Rodríguez who chairs the meeting, and ask God to guide in all the deliberations, with the possible approval of, and invitation to, the person in question.
Already underway in Paraguay is the first Bible School of 2008 held in Río Verde in the Chaco. Ed Brice asks us to pray for the delegates from the Chaco churches as they meet with him and others to study issues relating to the health and growth of their congregations.
On Monday (2nd) pastors from Sabadell in northeast Spain meet to plan a united outreach in one year’s time. Pray for Sue Woodcock and the other leaders.
Finally, early next week we welcome Jill Ball, home for leave from Ecuador, and Assistant Bishop Abelino Apeleo from Chile, visiting UK churches before going to the GAFCON gathering of bishops in Jerusalem. Pray for them in travel and adjustment.
Some prayer letters recently came into the SAMS office:
Recent prayer letters came into the SAMS House
As you may have learned through the media, Rosimeiri Boxall, the adopted 19-year-old Brazilian daughter of ex-SAMS mission partners Simon & Rachel Boxall, died in suspicious circumstances after falling from a window at a house in London on Saturday. Please uphold Simon, Rachel and their sons in their shock and grief.
Two other deaths have made this a sad week. Wichi Bible translator Juan Toribio passed on in northern Argentina after a short illness, and the grandfather of SAMS Latin Volunteer Bárbara Pino has also died in Chile. Pray for Juan’s widow, Carmen, and their family; and for Bárbara, now feeling very far from home in her Blackpool placement, and her family in Chile.
In Bárbara’s home parish in Santiago, Alf & Hilary Cooper have asked us to pray with them about larger premises for their church of La Trinidad, and especially the possibility of renting a large gym in the nearby German School. Please pray for this urgent need for a growing church.
Looking ahead to next Wednesday (28th) the clergy of the Diocese of Peru begin a 3-day retreat, and the leaders of FEISA, the Early Years Teacher Training College in Asunción, Paraguay, spend the first of two days together on a strategic plan for FEISA’s future, notably in regard to funding its expanding ministry. Pray for these two events, that God would be the director and would develop his work accordingly.
A promotional video for Red Box 2008 is now in the multimedia section of the SAMS Ireland web site.
SAMS Ireland recently published a new Inside Out booklet explaining more about the work and direction of its mission focus.
We also published a new bookmark which you can download as a PDF or order from the SAMS office.
If you would like more of these resources for your church please contact the office.
Another resource that arrived today is a leaflet for the Esperanza foster home in Asuncion, Paraguay. This is a printable resources available for download.