Pray for Rapha as we meet on Wednesday to regroup

On Wednesday we will meet to "First of all Pray" and regroup. We want to dedicate Wednesday just to prayer and then plan our next week's meeting to deal with the most urgent plans and projects at hand, including the girls' camp and two trips to outlying areas. Pray the Holy Spirit will be with us - that we will make space for Him to feel welcome and that we will feel His presence in our midst as we seek Him with all our hearts.

Trip to Brazil

Hi, Guys. This past month we were able to travel to Brazil for the celebration of "Indigenous Day" on April 19th. We traveled with the Massey family and a Brazilian missionary who works here in Bolivia. Our purpose in going was to observe and learn more about contextualization in indigenous training ministries because of the need we see for a training center here in Bolivia and the hope we have that we will be a part of something like this in the future. The trip was physically trying, but we all enjoyed our time with the people there. All the kids and some of us adults got painted, feathered and adorned for the celebration and, as Bubba Massey put it, were touched by the "commonality of the faith" regardless of culture.

Barrio Bolivar Ladies

Had a strange kind of spiritual warfare day. Leoncia really struggled to draw up the courage to teach the ladies' Bible study today, but did do it with some help from me. She was very brave and I am proud of her. She led all the singing and we co-taught in Spanish and Ayoré. It was more than just me talking and her translating, so I'm actually encouraged by the progress. The subject of our talk was borrowed from a talk my mom gave at the Indian women's conference in Brazil this past month. It centered around the attributes of God, including His identity as Creator of all things, including the spirits and even Satan. It then emphasized the "hugeness" and power of God compared to all created things, including the spirits and Satan. Finally it pointed out that we who are in God, in Christ, have no need to fear the spirits and Satan bc in God we are above them and can claim God's protection from them. On the way home, the brakes on our smaller car gave way completely and I very nearly had a pretty bad accident. Placido came to rescue me after I stopped shaking enough to call him. He brought the big clunker and had me drive behind him to the mechanic's. As we pulled up at the mechanics, the brakes went out on the white one and I slid into traffic - specifically into a small truck which swiped the front of our vehicle, breaking the headlights and damaging the bumper and license plate. Both vehicles worked fine after that. Please pray bc I believe that Leoncia can have a powerful impact on the women. You should have seen how their eyes lit up when she spoke.

AMEI conference

The AMEI (Association of Evangelical Indigenous Women, in Portuguese)conference was unbelievably great. I wish I could describe it all for you. The trip and the time at the conference was physically hard, but well worth it. It seemed that there was an inordinate amount of difficulty in getting there: we faced low funds, unexpected costs, blocked roads, weather problems, crabby border officials, lack of space on buses and boats, near misses with transportation, a lengthy wait at the bus station at our next to final destination (with no means of communication, which made it more tense) and unexpected landings in our small mission plane both ways. However, God was so good. "Ñacarangipise, Dupade" (Thank you, God), sighed Leoncia as we climbed into our taxi after a tense time with the Brazilian Federal Police on our way back. So the glory went where it belonged. He provided us with a safe arrival at the site, a merciful price from SAMAIR which enabled us to avoid the road block, people who prayed us through official checkpoints and Sunny to call and speak directly with officials, a wise pilot who was careful to land and check for problems in the plane and who landed and stayed down during bad weather, the last four tickets to the border on a bus larger than what normally travels that route, seats on the last boat leaving Brazil for the night and free sleeping quarters in a pastor's home on the Bolivian side. We were not always comfortable, but we were always safe and never hungry. Sin, salvation and consecration were some of the topics at the conference, as well as problem of alcoholism in the villages and the responsibility of women in calling the community to righteousness. My mother challenged us all to consciously choose to believe the God tells the truth and to reject Satan's lies. There were many good times of affirmation of the indigenous culture with contextualized services, singing and fun times. The two Ayoré woman and one Chiquitano who went with me expressed a renewed hope in God's love for their people and power to rescue and save. They said they no longer felt so alone and Leoncia expressed a desire to go on in Bible study to better prepare to teach the Bible to Ayoré women, especially now that Benial is gone. She says she now sees the value in her sometimes sad testimony and is asking God to give her strength to use her story for God's glory and the good of other Ayoré women. Please pray that God might preserve in us the excitement in Him.

HELP!! Aimee's gone

So I don't know if the updates are going to go so great anymore. The time with the Janzens was excellent. We are so grateful for all of their input in regards to contextualization and also for the recordings they made of the Ayoré singers. Please pray for them as they are back at Ami and prepare for their last semester at Ammi.

Update on FUA and Santiago

We had a great time as a team out in the San José area. The kids were all troopers even through the heat, dust and road blocks that prevented some of them getting back in time for their first basketball game of the season. We enjoyed our time with the Ayoré and also with Milton Whittaker and family. It helped us start deciding what we can offer as a team when we go out with Orange Hill in June and July. It was moving to think about working on the Santiago church, founded in 1944 by George Haight of SAM. The congregation has recently been hard hit by the resignation of the pastor over moral issues and the membership has dwindled to about 25 on any given Sunday. However, it is the only evangelical church in the community and it is struggling to live the Gospel in peace with its neighbors. One of the most important things to us was that there are many, many children who attend on their own, without their parents. One of the greatest desires of the church is to build a shelter for Bible clubs for kids. Maybe we should help with this? Please pray for God's wisdom as we try to encourage our Ayoré brothers and the Santiago church and to live in such a way that we draw people to Christ.

February 2010 Prayer Update

It's Carnaval time here in SC and most of us are hunkered down trying not to get targeted by paint. It is the custom here to throw water, paint and, as people have had a bit too much to drink, less mentionable things. My sister, Aimée is here trying to usher me into the world of technology and communication. This is my first attempt at updating my own blog (designed by her). Emily is also here and will be my secretary and adviser in this venture.

This month our team has sat down several times to nail down the details of our 2010 calendar and budget. Please pray the latter will be sufficient to support the former. One major activity this month is a trip we will make as a team to the area of San José, east of SC. There is a small village called FUA in that area. We are trying to help them finish up their chapel building and perhaps help improve their schoolhouse. Please pray for us as we travel there from the 19th to the 22nd of this month. We'll also be visiting the tiny town of Santiago to see what the felt needs are there in order to decide about future involvement.

I am having a good time with the ladies in Barrio Bolivar squatters' camp. Leoncia, Benial's widow, has been very helpful to me out there and I have been working to encourage her. Please pray God would strengthen her heart and raise her up as a woman of God to serve her people in a new way now that Benial is gone. Aimée has been giving some talks in Barrio Bolivar regarding the use of indigenous worship styles. Please pray these talks will encourage the Ayoré women to use elements from their own culture to worship God.

Andrew and Aimée (who are on a mini-sabbatical until the end of February) will also be helping our team look into this subject more as they give us some workshops on Cultural Anthropology as applied to missions. Please pray that as we meet for these talks on the 17th, 24th and 25th of this month, God would help us to see ways in which we can help encourage the Ayoré church in contextualization and that we can become more culturally sensitive for God's glory.

On the 27th, with the help of SAM Bolivia's Children's Ministry Team, we will be holding a one-day retreat for Ayoré children from a couple of urban camps. Please pray for God's provision for the food and transportation and also for a time when the children will truly feel God's love through us.

Leoncia, Marina (the wife of Humberto Etacore, an Ammi grad) and I will be heading to Brazil at the beginning of March for an Indigenous women's conference sponsored by CONPLEI (National Association of Indigenous Pastors and Leaders). I will let you know how it goes. I am to speak on the effects of alcoholism on unborn children and also give a couple of devotionals. Please pray for traveling mercies, for me as I try to speak publicly in Portuguese after so long and that Leoncia and Marina will be encouraged by seeing and hearing the stories of so many Christian Indigenous women serving the Lord in their own context.

Thank you for praying!

Love,
Toni