Mark and Suzana Greenwood
Prayer letter, June 2014
bmsworldmission.org/msgreenwood
¡Saludos!
Greetings!
Saudações!
When looking for a different opening for our letters it
used to be an easy option to begin in Portuguese. Now
with meetings and greetings almost daily in Peru, UK
or Brazil, with the benefit of cyber-communication, it is
not a straightforward task. So let’s go for three tongues
today (and for the benefit of the proof reader – the
funny upside down exclamation mark is correct for
Spanish)!
Then again, ‘not straightforward’ seems a little
understated when you consider that in Peruvian
Spanish one would need to begin an email with
something flowery like “Greetings to our distant
brothers in the name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus
Christ”, whereas the president of the Paraguayan
Baptist Convention normally just signs in: “¡Hola
Mark!”.
Which, of course, is just a run-in for our latest news
from Hispanic America, and Brazil.
The most significant and challenging event recently has
been that Luciene, the lady who took over from Mark
at the Department of Social Action in the Brazilian
Baptist Convention (CBB), decided to leave the post
after a year. Mark had been her consultant since she
took over, and felt she had developed well. In many
ways she was already flying solo. Some difficulties had
been identified, and we were working through them,
so her decision for us was sudden. However, it seems
she had been feeling an increasing lack of personal
fulfilment with the tasks involved in the job, and has
decided to go back to working in a local project, as
resident Social Worker. Just six months before we are
due to hand over definitively to CBB for all aspects of
the department’s work, we have decided with Pastor
Sócrates, the general secretary, that he must head up
the selection of Luciene’s successor, not Mark.
In the event, this has speeded up the maturing process
of the department within CBB structure, as they will
have to grab the bull by the horns completely, and
demonstrate that the vision and drive does not depend
on us, but on themselves. A former BMS colleague,
Daveen Wilson, once quoted a former Brazilian
colleague in Ceará, Carlos Queiroz, who said that one’s
work is not truly accomplished until one’s disciple has
handed on to further disciples. So perhaps we are
now going to have time to see our work come to full
accomplishment!
Of course, the success depends neither on us nor on
CBB, but on God, which reminds us of 1 Corinthians
3:5-9a: We are all working for God. He is the one who
makes things grow, no matter who has planted or
watered. So, if what we have been doing is his will,
then workers will come and go, but the ministry will
continue.
So, please pray for Luciene in her new ministry, for
Pastor Sócrates as he selects a new coordinator for the
Social Action Department, and for the ministry of the
department, that it may bear fruit which endures.
Those of you who follow our blog (www.
bmsworldmission.org/msgreenwood) will be up to
date with most of our personal news, the biggest
being that Suzana has completed her master’s course,
and with much praise from her examiners. Now she is
fully concentrated on planning the hand-over of the
national coordination of the Space-to-Fly programme
to CBB. CIBUC (the Baptist convention we worked
with in Ceará) are putting finishing touches to a legal
hand-over of the rights to the programme to CBB, and
when that has come through we will be in a position
to appoint someone and train them in the next few
months. Again, shades of 1 Corinthians 3.
And that was precisely the passage which Mark shared
in a recent meeting of the Peruvian Evangelical Baptist
Convention (CEBP), whilst discussing the varied
contributions which diverse missionaries and leaders
form Peru and UK are contributing to the growth of
God’s kingdom there. BMS has UK workers involved
in church planting, leadership training and community
development there, alongside Peruvians in the
convention, which itself has missionaries and leaders
with many different characteristics. Such a mix can be
quite a challenge, and for each to continue to bear fruit
as they are doing in their ministries, the focus has to
be the Lord. So thank Him for their work, and pray for
each of them in their tasks.
Even more diverse was the group of Baptists from all
over Latin America who converged on the seminary
where we live in Rio de Janeiro, for the UBLA meetings
in April. UBLA is the Latin American Baptist Union (said
in reverse order in Spanish and Portuguese, hence
the acronym). We hosted, Ruth, an El Salvadorian
pastor with an amazing story of resilience in the face
of extreme adversity. She and her family lived through
some of the most harrowing aspects of the El Salvador
civil war. We felt humbled hearing her experiences
and blessed by her presence. It was also great to find
out that former BMS colleagues, David and Rachel
Quinny-Mee had ministered with her in El Salvador, and
continued a great friendship.
Micah Leitch. It all went very well, and we now have a
firm hand-over plan in place for up to the end of this
year.
Finally, our future: Since our last letter we have whittled
down our options considerably, and have a couple of
firm, concrete possibilities before us. Please continue
to pray for discernment and good advice, and then for
us to trust in God when the decision is made, despite
the many daunting changes any decision will involve.
Of course, we will let you know when we can what that
future is, and what language(s) we might be using!
¡Bendiciones!
God bless you!
Deus te abençoe!
Mark and Suzana
In the last letter we wrote of how there were plans
for CBB to take on the management of the Timothy
Project, on-line leadership training programme (now in
Portuguese, Spanish and English - http://www.timothyproject.org ). Well a couple of weeks ago John Dyer,
who has developed it, was here for talks with Pastor
Sócrates with others in the education department, and
on Skype with the technical guy in UK, BMS volunteer
If you would like to support Mark and Suzana by prayer and committed regular giving, visit
bmsworldmission.org/partners or call 01235 517617 for a 24:7 Partners leaflet.
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[email protected] bmsworldmission.org
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