News from Salta
SAMS mission partners, Hugo and Techi Vergara, send news from Salta in our link diocese of Northern Argentina.
Evangelism
All the Churches need to reach out to their neighbours with the Gospel and to see their congregations grow, so in May we will be holding a Training Day for every Church in the urban area, using an Alpha course on evangelism. Please pray that our Church members will understand the importance of sharing the Gospel and that they will be able to talk about their faith to others.
Pray especially also for Tucuman, who are organising an evangelistic programme shortly, hoping in particular to be able to contact students in their city. Principe de Paz Church in Salta is well placed to minister to students too, as it is very close to the University, so pray for their work with that section of the population, and also for that of San Andres. The new academic year is just beginning, so it is a good time to seek to make new contacts. And of course this task comprises not simply urging people to make a commitment, but also helping those who do respond to grow in the faith. We want our Churches to be focused on both evangelism and discipleship.
Training of leaders
San Pablo Church in Salta has lost its pastor as José Cicka is taking a Sabbatical for a year, which highlights for us once again the need to train up new leaders. Aroldo Suarez is the leader of the congregation at present, and his son Rodrigo, daughter Alicia and son-in-law Gabriel are possible future leaders there. Emy Paterson is someone to whom we would like to give further training at Principe de Paz, a Church which is now settling down with a new P.C.C. after its recent difficulties. In fact, we would appreciate prayer for the P.C.C.s of both these Churches, and of San Andres as well. One particular need is that all the Churches will understand the importance of being self-supporting.
Potential leaders at Tucuman are Mirta and Ricardo, Paola and Pablo. At San Andres there are especially Marco Baldiviezo, Juan Aylan, Ignacio Flores, and among the young people Chano, Gaby and Maru. The need for pastors and lay leaders is going to be desperate in the future unless we are able to prepare more people for leadership now, and have those people actively working with us. Dany and Flavia will be finishing their courses in Buenos Aires at the end of the year, so they will need guidance, and so will others who would like to be more involved.
Recent Events
The Camps for young adults, teenagers and children took place at La Caldera from the middle of January to the beginning of February, with a group of approximately thirty in each, coming from various of the Anglican Churches in different parts of the diocese. The rain was torrential at times, but the young people had a great time, wet or dry. There was a programme of teaching, in small groups and in plenary sessions, appropriate for each age group, centred on some aspect of Christian discipleship, as well as some very lively worship, and there seemed to be a lot of positive response to the input. We need to pray now that what all the young people heard will bear fruit in their lives in the future, and also for the planning of the Camps in 2012, as all the organisation this year was done at the last moment, and therefore things did not run as smoothly as they might have done.
The Step Team which went from Salta to Ecuador came back two weeks ago rejoicing in everything they had been able to do, all the opportunities they had to share the truths of the Gospel with people whose understanding of them was very limited, and all the people who had made professions of faith, in addition to the way God had protected them from illnesses, dangers on the road, dangers in the jungle, etc. They had received a great welcome in the places they visited, and had also benefited enormously themselves from their experiences. All the prayers for them were abundantly answered. We hope that in future others will follow their example and other teams of young people will go with the Gospel from one South American country to another.
We send you all our very warm greetings in the fellowship of the Gospel and of prayer.
Summary of prayer topics
The evangelistic outreach of all our Churches and the discipling of young Christians.
The training of new leaders to continue our work and to build up the Churches in the future.
Wisdom and guidance for the P.C.C.s of all our Churches.
All the young people who went to the Camps, that what they learned will stay with them and help them to grow in their Chrisitian lives.
The planning of the Camps for next year.
Much fruit resulting from the work of the Ecuador team in that country, and in others too as other teams follow their example.