share magazine 2008 - issue 3 summer

1SHARE issue 3, summer 2008

Also in this issueravaging people to feed the world

feeding 1000s to build God’s Kingdom

The magazine of the South American Mission Society. Issue 3, Summer 2008

Peru: Peru: opening opening for youthfor youth

Registered Offi ce: South American Mission Society, Allen Gardiner Cottage, Pembury Road, Tunbridge Wells, Kent TN2 3QU. Tel: 01892 538647 Fax: 01892 525797 e: fi [email protected] www.samsgb.orgSAMS is a company limited by guarantee. Registered in England, No. 65048. Registered Charity No. 221328. SHARE is published four times a year. Issue No. 3, 2008 ISSN 1367 6741. Editor: Robert Lunt. Design & Print: CPO

Pain and promiseSAMS’ Executive Director writes:In my personal Bible study I have been looking at Lamentations. I don’t know about you, but I have to force myself to read books like this. I prefer those Old Testament books with a happy ending, like Ruth or Nehemiah!

As I read Lamentations I was reminded again that the Bible never shies away from speaking honestly about the numerous ways in which we fail God, or the trials and tribulations that occur from time to time in this fallen universe. And of course in the world of missions we can expect nothing different. One only has to read a couple of chapters from a SAMS missionary biography to see that things sometimes don’t go according to plan. There are personal failures and disappointments along the way.

As you look through this issue of SHARE you’ll fi nd stories of God’s faithfulness in prospering the work of the Society. It’s good to celebrate and be thankful for these blessings. But we try also to be realistic and not to paint an overly rosy picture of life in South America or Iberia. From time to time there are personal situations affecting mission partners or Latin partners which are very painful for those involved and for the people they serve. We can’t say very much about the situations for reasons of confi dentiality. So we fi nd ourselves not being able to communicate well with supporters during these times. If you are supporting someone who you believe may be experiencing personal diffi culty of one kind or another, please bear with us and keep praying. We promise to communicate with you as soon as we can.

Lamentations is a long, sad wail of despair over the fall of Jerusalem. But even in the midst of this darkness, an occasional shaft of light penetrates. In 3:22 the author reminds himself, and us, that there is always hope in affl iction. He calls to mind that ‘the Lord’s compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.’ In the history of SAMS there is abundant evidence of the truth of these verses. We look forward to calling on this promise in the months and years to come as we journey together into the exciting future that God has in store for us.

Bill Lattimer

The church, the ark and the Premier LeaguePaul and Sarah Tester have been mission partners in Lima since last September. They serve the Diocese of Peru and worship at San Juan Evangelista.

The church began as a Bible study group in the Pamplona Baja area 15 years ago. As numbers grew, a building was bought and current pastor Luis Villalobos and his wife Teófi la moved to the church. It has about 50 adults and a good number of children and young people. There’s a morning Sunday school and Sunday evening service, when “prayer times really impact us. People are so enthusiastic and fervent in their prayers (in Spanish and Quechua) that it can be diffi cult to get a word in edgeways!”

A younger teenagers’ group meets on Saturday afternoons. Paul (pictured on cover) helps lead this and hopes to be involved in getting a group for the older teenagers and 20-somethings going. He has written a vision and strategy for the diocesan youth work and is helping start Youth Alpha in Ventanilla, a mission yet to begin a youth work. And wearing his engineer’s hat, he has prepared a couple of building work estimates for projects so that new buildings are available for churches and missions to use.

As one of her tasks, Sarah (left) was delighted to take on the Playbus scheme, the mobile toy library developed by former mission partner Mavis Crispin to help children develop creativity, imagination and thinking skills while having fun and learning about God. Renamed ‘El Arca’, the ministry is blessing many children – it’s been a real hit with the children at Santísima Trinidad School and with mums and children in Ventanilla - and Sarah is looking to use it more widely.

Whilst there are frustrations at times – for instance, children’s and youth work is often seen as not as high a priority as work with adults – Paul and Sarah are thrilled to be part of God’s work in Lima and are enjoying the challenge of growing these ministries.

Paul also plays rugby in the Peruvian Premier League – one of two leagues with four teams in each!


Please pray for:• the people and ministries of San Juan

Evangelista • the church to be a beacon of light to

drug addicts who meet on the hill next to it

• the diocesan youth ministry• ‘El Arca’• Youth Alpha to start in Ventanilla• Peru’s poor struggling to make ends

meet with the global rise in food prices.

San Juan Evangelista

Feedingthe 50000How many packed lunches can you get from 5 loaves and 2 fi sh? Jesus managed quite a lot! And all nutritionally balanced, with carbohydrate for instant energy and protein for staying power.

The United Evangelical School of Theology (SEUT) in Spain teaches over 100 students. If each serves in a church of about 50 people, the impact of SEUT’s ministry is signifi cant. Jonathan Rowe tells us about feeding the 5000:

It’s exciting to help people from both Spain and Latin America understand the Bible and make it come alive for others in their own churches. Most students study our degree course at a distance rather than in Madrid. This can be tough, so we welcome initiatives like the one from a group of Anglican churches in Chile that will use SEUT’s courses as the core of their local training. Students will have regular meetings together to talk about what they are studying and, just as importantly, to encourage one another.

Many people want to explore their faith with others at a less intense level. SEUT has

launched a new pre-university course to meet this need. Studied in house-groups, the Taller Teológico (Theological Workshop) provides ‘tools for faith, community and service’. The course materials are being published so that they are available in bookshops anywhere in the Spanish-speaking world.

Another development could interest you. Taught full-time in English in Spain, Understanding Christianity is a one-year certifi cate course starting this September. It is a practical introduction to Christian Scripture, Christian Thinking, Christian Life and Christian Worship, to equip, for example, house-group or Alpha course leaders - and help people identify their vocation for a lifetime of service. Perhaps it’s what you’ve been looking for?

SEUT’s vision is to create a Centre of Spiritual and Bible Training. In this work a small

4 SHARE issue 3, summer 2008

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María, from Mexico, leads the children’s group in her church. She is also a student at SEUT. She says that what she learns with us gets put into practice the same week.

It’ iti t h l l f b th S i

It ScrLifexleavoit’s

cePedro is a pastor in Spain - in his spare time. He is also a medical doctor. His congregation notices that he is currently studying the Psalms as part of his degree at SEUT.

investment can go a long way - like fi sh and loaves. Pray for us as we continue to seek God’s will for the future. Please pray also for SAMS as it discerns how to serve the Hispanic church, including the area of Bible training.

You can be involvedPray – For the new projects and courses

mentioned above and Jonathan as he prepares workbooks for the Taller Teológico on Christian mission and Christian ethics.

Study – Come and study Understanding Christianity at SEUT and prepare yourself for Christian service wherever you are. More details at www.centroseut.org.

Support – Jonathan is seconded to SEUT as lecturer in mission and ethics. You can support Jonathan and Hilary Rowe as SAMS mission partners by contactingTim Greenhalgh([email protected];01594 542314).


GlobecrossersVisitors this quarter include bishops Greg Venables, Primate of the Southern Cone, Bill Godfrey (Peru) and Tito Zavala (Chile – pictured) who will attend both the GAFCON gathering in Jerusalem and the Lambeth Conference. Also at GAFCON will be Bishop Frank Lyons (Bolivia) and Assistant Bishop Abelino Apeleo (Chile); Abelino and Tito will also visit some UK churches. Meantime, bishops Fernando Soares (Portugal), Carlos López (Spain) and Miguel Tamayo (Uruguay) are coming to Lambeth.Jill Ball and Jonathan & Hilary Rowe arrived in the UK in June; Jill is over from Ecuador until October, while the Rowes return to Spain on 16 July.

Sue Woodcock will spend three weeks here in July and visit some link churches, as will Felipe & Sarah Yáñez and family who are here from Spain for a few weeks. In the same month Ed & Marie Brice arrive on leave from Paraguay; their youngest son, Derek, is at sixth form college in Bristol.

Making private visits this quarter are Pat Blanchard from Peru and Ruth Hollingdale Vilella from Brazil. Pat will visit some link churches.

And last but by no means least, we look

forward to visits in September from Latin Partners Josias de Souza (Brazil) (pictured with Dani) and Alejandro Mesco (Peru).

“I really want to praise God”, writes Pat Blanchard at Jesús el Nazareno in Lima, “for the great blessings we’re seeing in Shalom, the disabled ministry. These last months have been so encouraging.

“In February we started a Sunday morning service and now have over 30 attending; the space within

the centre is too small. Mothers come with their children and some local neighbours also. Many mums said they feel able to come along because the children are included; they play their instruments and join in. In other churches they’ve felt excluded because people complain about their special needs children who are not silent in the services!

“We also have a Sunday school class following

the service and are preparing several for baptism and fi rst communion, both mums and children. Luisa Bravo, who used to work with the duck-rearing project, is full-time with Shalom, helping the very young children in the mornings and coordinating those coming for therapy in the afternoons. There are 3 therapists and Ruth comes in weekly to oversee the professional side, checking on therapy programs and activities for each child according to their disability.

“I go two or three afternoons a week to chat to the mums and pray with them, and on Fridays I teach crafts; we’ve had such wonderful times together. Shalom has become a place where the families can feel accepted and welcomed without discrimination. Acceptance of people with disabilities is not good within Peruvian society; there’s a lot of shame, rejection and misunderstanding through ignorance and lack of integration.

“We’ve not made much progress in fi nding a place for the ministry. I’m praying that we’ll be able to fi nd some land and put up something purpose-built for the needs of those with disabilities. Please continue to join us in prayer for this.”

Shalom on a picnic


A welcome for Peru’s disabled

The appointment to the Diocese of Paraguay of a new bishop to succeed John Ellison, now retired to Hampshire, is in progress. Check the SAMS website for details.

Meantime, another bishop set aside his church role to run for President of Paraguay - and in April Roman Catholic Fernando Lugo was elected as head of state, bringing to an end 61 years of rule by the Colorado Party.

Pray for both men as they take up positions of service and responsibility in this poor yet captivating country.

Paraguay: new bishop, new president

GoodFridayWalk

Mission long and wideJohn and Linda Cobb have retired to Chile after long mission service there. Richard Crofts spoke to them during their recent visit to the UK.

John and Linda, how long did you serve?34 years! We arrived in Santiago in April 1974, seven months after Pinochet’s coup. We would perhaps describe ourselves as ‘Chileanised British’.

Plenty of political changes, I guess?Yes, Chile is totally different, with the move from a military dictatorship to a robust democracy. But Chileans themselves haven’t changed; friendship, family and fun are still strong. And they are so generous, with a tremendous solidarity with people in trouble.

Tell us about your ministry.And sum up 34 years in 34 seconds?! I (John) have taught, done administration, been offi cially involved in inter-church relationships and done some pastoring. And I (Linda) have been involved in music, worked with children and elderly, mentored and been a professional translator. Meeting interesting people in such disciplines has shown me that mission service is wider than I thought.

How have the Protestant churches changed?They have a far higher percentage of professionals and are less on the defensive these days. I think they’ve grown in numbers, but fi gures often seem over-infl ated. All these things apply to the Anglican Church,

but missionaries used to have a higher profi le in leadership than today.

What’s the secret of mission longevity?To begin with, it depends on type of job. Some folk are called to short-term work, but our roles lent themselves to long-term. But you need perseverance, a sense of humour and obstinacy. And we were never bored; there were hundreds of things to do!

So where are you retiring to?A little village called Huelquen, 30 miles south of Santiago. Apart from two Pentecostal huts there’s no Protestant church, so we shall continue to help the church in Santiago for a while until we see how the Lord leads.

What can we pray for?To know what opportunities for service to take up in retirement and to pace ourselves. To adapt to village life. And for the Anglican Church, still in transition, with many problems of growth and consolidation as yet unsolved.


Sunset over Santiago

Six-year-old Vanesa had been born into a humble Wichi family in the small village of Chofwayuk in the dry tropical forests of northern Argentina. Her early years were happy ones spent playing with her siblings. Most of all, she loved helping her mother look after her baby brother Jeremías.

Family life changed abruptly the day the bulldozers arrived. As the trees crashed down, Vanesa’s world was literally wiped out. The beautiful forest was replaced by a barren ocean of soy beans, patrolled by giant agricultural machines and bombarded from the air by crop dusters.

Just when things could seemingly get no worse, an irritation in one of Vanesa’s eyes was diagnosed as cancer. Her father, Eduardo, took her to the city where doctors

had to remove the eye. She put on a brave face, and recouped some of her beauty with the aid of a glass eye. Eduardo believes the disease was caused by the pesticides used by farmers on their crops.

Confronting the giantsThe loss of the forest made family life more and more diffi cult. Vanesa’s parents could no longer fi nd the plants, fruits, honey and animals that provided them with much of their diet. When bulldozers arrived to knock down one of the last patches of forest near her community, Eduardo decided enough was enough. He sought help from local authorities, but when this drew a blank he decided to take direct action. With the rest of his community he stood in front of the advancing bulldozers – which sure enough

A forest destroyed, a family devastatedDestruction of Argentina’s Chaco forest has featured in recent issues of SHARE. Andrew Leake now tells how global economic forces affect real people:


generated a response, but not one they desired.

Riot police came to the village, beat up the peaceful protestors and arrested all the men. Terrifi ed by what she witnessed, Vanesa grabbed her baby brother and ran off into the forest. In tears, she wandered aimlessly, dragging Jeremías as she was not strong enough to carry him. She became disorientated and was lost for several hours. Eduardo, back home after his ordeal with the police, found the children in the late evening. They were bruised and cut by thorns but otherwise in good shape.

The family recounted the day’s events, trying to make sense of the injustice they had suffered. At that same moment, in a lawyer’s offi ce a few miles away, a court injunction was being signed that would make it a legal offence for Eduardo and some other community members to go within 50 metres of the plot being deforested. In practical terms, this now means Eduardo

has to break the law in order to travel to and from his village.

Though far removed from our own reality, the misfortunes of families such as Vanesa’s are often linked to our own lives. International demand for cheaper crops fi nds a willing partner in the insatiable greed of agribusinesses that supply products regardless of environmental and social costs. Left unchecked and fuelled by our own consumer demands, these economic forces play havoc with the wellbeing of family life halfway round the globe.

The Anglican Church, with support from SAMS, is actively involved in supporting indigenous communities in Argentina in issues of land rights and preservation of the forest. This work is conducted by the programme of social justice, ASOCIANA, to which Andrew devotes part of his ministry.

This article appeared in the International Anglican Family Newsletter, Easter 2008, and is reproduced here with permission.


Praying with SAMSThe Society’s prayer resources go out from the SAMS offi ce in Sheffi eld (or “Sam’s offi ce” as one Christian magazine addressed us!). As well as the quarterly Prayer Diary, compiled by former mission partner Gill Sinclair and which accompanies SHARE, there are other means of keeping up to date with prayer needs.

Each week on Tuesday or Wednesday a Prayer Line is produced. This may be accessed in three ways:

– by email from [email protected]. Please let us know if you’d like to receive it in this way.

– on our website www.samsgb.org/getinvolved/prayer where it may be read online, downloaded as a PDF or listened to as an MP3 recording.

– heard as a recorded message by dialling 0114 269 2121.

Each quarter, with the help of IT assistant John Barnes and the distribution team at head offi ce, we produce a Prayer CD. This usually consists of interviews with 3 mission or Latin partners, together with a leafl et highlighting prayer points. Tell us if you’d like to receive it.

The webpage above also hosts the Prayer Diary and other prayer bulletins.

Thank you for your prayers. Remember: your kneeling keeps us standing and God’s purposes advancing.

SAMS standing …21 and 25 July SAMS takes over the Partnership for World Mission (PWM) stand at the Lambeth Conference.

26 July - 8 August Catch up with SAMS at New Wine in Shepton Mallet, or …

26 July - 1 Augustat New Wine (North)in Newark.

… on the road …

September A possible Roadshow in Birmingham.

20 September ‘Because of Jesus’ is the title of the South-east Roadshow at St Andrew’s, Paddock Wood, Kent, from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm. Speakers are from Brazil, Paraguay, Chile and Peru, and there will be a Peruvian meal at £5.

Further information and booking form for the Roadshows from the SAMS offi ce 01892 538647 or from Richard Crofts 01892 838301.

… and as far as Málaga

8–15 November Tim Greenhalgh hosts a joint CMS-SAMS Cross-Cultural Encounter offering you the chance to visit Felipe and Sarah Yáñez (below) and experience something of their work among immigrants to this city. An understanding both of the context of their ministry and of the history of the spread of Islam and Christianity in the region are just two benefi ts of this exciting event. The cost is £600. Contact Tim on 01594 542314 [email protected]. Please note the change of date and that a visit to Morocco is no longer included.


Once again this year teams of volunteers will spend time helping the Diocese of Paraguay. From 9th July to 1st August ten people will be based in the capital, Asunción; then a second team of 23 will serve from 1st to 23rd August, some in and around the city of Concepción, others in the rural Chaco communities of Río Verde and El Estribo.

Coordinators will be David Orritt of St John the Baptist, Burscough Bridge, and Penny Metcalfe, SAMS mission partner in Paraguay.

Mission Paraguay assists the Anglican Church in Paraguay in practical projects, usually buildings, in activities with children and youth and in a range of community-based work to relieve hardship.

Mission Paraguay 2008

During the past few weeks a number of fi nancial events and transactions relating to SAMS have reminded me of Isaiah’s call to come to the Lord. This is recorded in Isaiah 55, and verse 8 has been particularly relevant: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, and your ways are not my ways, says the Lord.”

The income fl ow to our Society had been poor for some weeks during the early part of 2008 and this, on top of net outgoing unrestricted resources recorded in our 2007 Annual Accounts, gave cause for concern. This unhealthy income position was reported as an item to be highlighted for prayer in the SAMS Prayer Line and other channels.

The Society then received two legacies which restored our income position to exceed the budget for the fi rst four months of this year.

We praise God for this provision, the result of decisions taken by supporters of the Lord’s work in South America and Iberia some time ago, reminding us of the importance of legacies - and of the sovereignty of God whose ways are higher than our ways. Please join us in praising him with thanksgiving. May we too all be obedient servants in the stewardship of resources entrusted to us.

If you would like more information about giving to SAMS via wills, please let us know. Thank you for your prayers and support. They make a big difference!

Philip TadmanFinancial & Administrative Secretary

KEEPING COUNT God does things differently


Your support is important to SAMS. Here is how you can help:

Title....... .... Christian name ...................................................................................................Surname .............................................................................................................................Address .......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................Postcode .......................... ..................................................................................................

Please complete and send this form to: South American Mission Society, Allen Gardiner Cottage, Pembury Road, Tunbridge Wells, Kent TN2 3QU, England

Thank you for your support!

By prayer – Please send me:❑ SHARE with Prayer Diary❑ A quarterly Prayer Tape or CD

By serving – Please send me:❑ Information about serving overseas with SAMS

By giving –

❑ I enclose a gift to SAMS of £ ........... ❑ I have completed a Gift Aid

declaration in favour of SAMS❑ Please send me details of ways of giving to SAMS❑ I am a UK taxpayer. Please treat this gift as a Gift

Aid donation❑ Please tell me more about SAMS

YOU CAN HELP

“We were never far from Ray and Gill’s pioneer work …”, Alf Cooper once wrote. “It was a real move of God … as their life-style evangelism led couple after couple to Christ.”

Ray and Gill Smith were SAMS missionaries in Santiago from 1971-73, pioneering work among the professional middle classes. Then for the rest of the decade they enjoyed, as associate missionaries, a wonderfully fruitful ministry at the English-speaking Santiago Community Church and among native Chileans. Gill kept a diary, out of which this book was born.

It is predominantly an autobiography, Melrose Books being specialists in such works. The title, therefore, is misleading; in fact, we have to wait 117 pages before the Smiths arrive in Chile! Yet despite its secular publisher, this is written from an unashamedly Christian perspective and uses familiar evangelical phraseology. The publishers are therefore to be warmly congratulated for promoting such a work.

History, exploration, politics are all here, with some sections functioning as a travel guide. Gill retells at some length others’ stories: the Andes plane crash made famous by the fi lm ‘Alive’; the saga of Captain Allen Gardiner; the arrest, torture and subsequent release of Dr Sheila Cassidy.

Herein lies weakness; the book is too long and diverse. A shorter introductory section would bring the reader to Chile earlier, and less subsequent detail about family holidays and domestic episodes would help fi x the focus on two main issues: what it was like to live in a country undergoing unprecedented upheaval during the contrasting Allende and Pinochet regimes, and the way God used the Smiths to bless so many people there, especially from 1974. These sections are particularly stimulating. One day in the midst of food shortages under Allende, “we returned [from fi ve hours’ queuing] with a scrappy, fatty piece of meat, only suitable for soup, and some vinegar.” They “had hit rock bottom” and were ready to come home. Later that day a young left wing friend called, asking to start reading the Bible with them. Nico later became one of many, on both sides of the political divide, who crossed a spiritual divide and found Christ through Ray and Gill - as did numerous expats.

Crossing frontiers in ChileBob Lunt reviews “Across the divides. Chile: a different perspective” by Gill Williamson Smith.



The new school year at William Wilson School in Chol-Chol, southern Chile, began with 490 pupils on the roll and a new Head, Robinson Olivera. It’s the most popular school in the locality, the only one to offer an education that is both academic and value-centred, based on God’s Word and with each child made aware of the gospel message as they pass through the school. Daily devotions take place each morning and a service is held on Wednesdays.

For more than 110 years William Wilson School, named after a SAMS pioneer missionary who served 62 years in Chile, has ministered to educational and spiritual needs, mainly of the Mapuche people. A major fi re in April 2004 led to a radically modernised institution which opened offi cially in October 2006, complete with new boarding section and studio, both these areas having been destroyed. The studio is home to the community radio station ‘Misión Araukana’ and was offi cially

reopened in May 2007 with new equipment. The station exists to bring the gospel to the Mapuche communities, promote the cultural heritage of Chol-Chol and provide a service to the community.

The school has a social work assistant, an important role because of the vulnerability of the area and of many of the pupils’ families. There is also a chaplain, who is an ordained Mapuche.

A sought-after school

A stricter proofread would have re-moved slips such as ‘Samonsite suitcase’ (p. 316), inconsistent spelling of names (e.g. Archbishop Ramsay/Ramsey, Bishop B a z l e y / B a z e l y ) , and misspelling of Spanish terms. And perhaps it was the sheer size of the

project that led to an occasional clumsiness of style, such as: “it wasn’t long before on

her arrival to Chile with Gordon, that she made her way to the Church” (438).

But if you can overlook these things and also breeze quickly through the ‘England’ sections, you’ll share with Gill and Ray the piercing pain of Chile in its turbulent and scarred years, and the immeasurable “joy of seeing the harvest God’s Holy Spirit was reaping” (443) there.

Across the divides. Chile: a different perspective, is available in hardback from bookshops at £14.99 (ISBN 978-1-906050-49-8).

Welcome to the new school year

… who with her fi rst husband, Ted Jenkin, gave the original Allen Gardiner House (pictured) to SAMS, died in February, aged 92. Bishop Pat Harris, speaking at her Thanksgiving Service at St Clement’s, Oxford, recalled how in the 1960s she could not get out of her mind the Lord’s words to King David, “Take heed now, for the Lord has chosen you to build a house for a sanctuary: be strong and do it” (1 Chronicles 28.10).

Simultaneously, Ted told her he wanted to give up their thriving building business and do something different. Contact with Harry Sutton, then SAMS General Secretary, led to their purchase and gift of the house in Tunbridge Wells as a centre for the Society with excellent accommodation for conferences and facilities for orientation courses for the many called to work at that time in South America. It was a period of exciting expansion and the provision of

SAMS’ new home contributed signifi cantly.Ted and Marjorie were the fi rst wardens, moving to Tunbridge Wells with their young family, and Allen Gardiner House was opened offi cially at Whitsun 1966. They lived alongside in the Cottage, now the Society’s head offi ce, but their work was in the house. As one future missionary said, “Ted and Marjorie not only gave Allen Gardiner House to SAMS, but in those early years fully gave themselves in its running. They established a family feel and by extension contributed greatly to the family life of the whole Society.” Marjorie subsequently fulfi lled a dream by visiting South America in 1970.We give thanks to God for her life and the wonderful contribution she and Ted made to the work of the gospel in South America.

Marjorie Morley…14 SHARE issue 3, summer 2008

News has come of the amazing rediscovery and preservation of the headstone erected by Bishop Waite Stirling to his fi rst wife Louisa Jane in the cemetery at Carmen de Patagones (now Viedma), in Río Negro province, Argentina. Stirling, a SAMS missionary, later became the fi rst Anglican bishop of South America, with his base on Keppel Island. Louisa died young on the mainland after a period of ill health.Journalist and writer Raine Golab d i s c o v e r e d the stone among others removed from the cemetery and piled up as rubbish. She worked to preserve it, and despite an apparent lack of interest from the Anglican Church, the headstone is now in the Provincial Museum of History and Anthropology in Viedma. She had always considered Mrs Stirling as one who rose above her background and beliefs to be a part of the history of Patagonia. Hers was the fi rst Protestant burial in the area, in spite of opposition from local Catholics to this ‘invasion’ of their cemetery.

Bishop Stirling, who remarried, is recorded in his biography as saying that 50 years after losing her he could no longer fi nd either the cemetery or the headstone.

The article which tells the story (in Spanish) is at http://rionegro.com.ar/diario/cultural/2007/10/27/9476.php

Rescued:a piece of SAMS history


People SHAREJo Hazelton has joined the Society for one year as Personnel Administrator. Jo has been a Youth Trustee with SAMS, having fi rst become involved with the Society through the youth n:counter programme. Her interest in Latin America grew out of love for the Spanish language and a Spanish degree. She has lived in Peru, Argentina and Nicaragua, and is fi nishing a Masters in Globalisation and Latin American Development at the University of London. She joins part-time, but will become full-time in September.

Jo replaces Sarah Brown who served as John Sutton’s PA since 2005. We thank Sarah for all that she has brought to the Society and wish her well for the future.

SAMS is also appointing a new Short Term and Youth Coordinator, for whom a work permit is being sought.

Revd. Andrew Tweedy, from the Diocese of St Albans, has been appointed Chaplain of St George’s, Barcelona. He begins work on 1st September following marriage to Billie in July. Peter Jordan, who offi cially retired on 31 March, remains as full-time chaplain until 31 August. Then he and Barbara will take a short sabbatical before spending fi ve months travelling around Catalunya to look at possibilities for the development of English-speaking ministry.

St Michael’s, Newton, Chester …… is the latest church to send a team to South America to visit their link partners. On 13 August ten people, guided by local SAMS secretary Dr Rory Miller and including incumbent Rev. Bob Toan, will fl y to Salta in Northern Argentina for 2-3 weeks to learn more about, and assist in, the ministry of Hugo and Techi Vergara.

the back page

‘Explosion in Tarija’ was the title of an article in the last SHARE. The new Anglican church plant had made a dramatic impact in this Bolivian city as the Lord blessed the dedicated ministry of Rev Walter and Sandra Barrientos.

He continues to do so! The explosion is felt in the Barrientos’ home, where the congregation of Jesús el Buen Pastor (Jesus the Good Shepherd) meets. The house is packed for services, a 50-chair space for over 70 people leaving standing-room only for some, with the Sunday School under canvas in the garden. “People keep coming and the congregation is growing”, rejoices Walter.

Outreach into a poor area has planted the mission of La Santa Cruz (Holy Cross) where 180 people meet on Sunday afternoons, sitting on simple wooden benches under a huge canvas.

The need is clear: a permanent build ing where the congre-gations can meet, a place of worship and witness which in time would be used as a school

for the locality. This, therefore, will be the SAMS Harvest Project for 2008, for which a pack will be available in August.

Walter writes: “We are certain that God will lead us to a day when we have a building to house us as a congregation and to assist in the process of Christian formation and growth which our community longs for. We are working towards it; and our prayer is that many brothers and sisters in the UK may give us a hand.”

A church for Tarija:SAMS Harvest Project 2008

P.S. Thank you very much… to all those readers who wrote to us or emailed to give their views on the possibility of a link-up between SAMS and CMS. All the re-sponses were read carefully and then summarised in a paper which went to the SAMS trustees for their meeting on 21 May.

share magazine 2008 - issue 3 summer

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