They are associate mission partners with CMS (SAMS)

After serving God in both Paraguay & Northern Argentina, they are now based in Asuncion, the capital of Paraguay. Chris is involved in advising on rural development & Bible teaching among the local Anglican Ameri-Indian congregations. Alison is teaching English & science at the Asuncion Christian Academy.

Family

Chris grew up in the Paraguayan Chaco where his parents were missionaries.

Alison grew up in Exeter & was a member of St Leonard's.

Their older son, Samuel, a civil engineer, is now studying for a PhD in Sheffield.

Hannah was a pastoral assistant at All Souls, Langham Place, last year.

Pray for her as she looks for work in London.

Their youngest, Benjamin, is at university in the USA.

Pray for Alison as she teaches at Asuncion Christian Academy & studies for her Open University degree. Now all the children have left home pray for her on her own when Chris is away in the week with the Indian communities .

Work

In Asuncion Chris is on the council of their local church & preaches once a month. 

Chris's main work is among five Indian communities in the Chaco advising & supporting pastors & community leaders. He travels each week from Asuncion to the Rio Verde Anglican Centre - a multi-purpose centre for holistic mission - where he assists in Bible teaching, when pastors & pastoral assistants come for courses.

Chris is skilled in agriculture & development, so he provides technical advice & training in subsistence level farming & cash cropping, so these Christians can support themselves & help their communities.

A team of 6 volunteers came from the UK in August to help on various projects & were able to bring £21,000 of funding towards digging 2 wells, constructing a water cistern, building 2 houses from adobe (sun-dried) bricks, roofing an area for TB patients & making latrines!

Give thanks for the team & pray for Chris & the local people as they complete these projects.

Chris helps the local people to analyse, evaluate & prioritize their needs, & then write up their own projects for the government, NGOs & international aid donors.

Pray for these institutions to be more speedy in replying & pray they will not keep asking for more information.

This year he has been working with an NGO, Global Chaco, to provide projects sponsored by the International Develoment Bank. Global Chaco is run by a Christian friend of his who is keen to help strengthen local churches by these projects. 

Two communities will benefit from having a filtration tank added to their water systems.

Pray the communities will be diligent in maintaining these water filters!

Two communities have been provided with beehives. Some have already been loaded with wild swarms.

Pray  they will be able to help support their families through the sale of honey.

They are also encouraging cattle production projects because cattle can use the grass which grows even when there is not enough rain for cash crops. In May they began fencing land ready for the keeping of cattle. On the health side of the project, dental care will be provided and medicines given to the health posts.

Pray that Global Chaco will continue to help these communities on a longer term basis.

Chris has trained Estaban Galeano as an extension worker.  He lives in one of the communities & works in agriculture, beekeeping, water supply & making adobe (sun-dried) bricks for house building.

Pray for Estaban as he helps another NGO, wishing to construct houses in the communities Chris visits, train people in adobe making

Pray Chris might be able to set up brick-making courses in all the communities so the church workers & others might build themselves stronger homes, & pray the government housing programme in the area might buy the extra bricks.

Pray Chris will continue to be a great encouragement to the Indian pastors, churches & communities & they will grow in confidence & ability to organise self-help programmes eg. to dig hand-dug wells, rather than sit back & expect others to supply them with water.

Give thanks that the rain came, which was needed for re-filling the wells & the reservoir tanks for drinking & washing,  but also for their subsistence farming, cash crops, making bricks  etc, etc.