We trust you have had a Merry CHRISTmas, and will have a Blessed New Year!  We are grateful to our Father for sending the Son, and we look forward to His glorious and wonderful second coming even more.

What a delight to experience this time of remembrance and hope in Uruguay.  On the one hand, we see the usual secular hubbub of Santa Claus, gift giving, and fireworks.  On the other hand, we are enjoying seeing the different ways that Uruguayan Christians express themselves at Christmas:  living nativity scenes, Christmas programs, choirs, Christmas suppers with grilled lamb, and enjoying time with family in the cool of the evening.

Thank you for your time spent in prayer on our behalf this past year.

You can see pictures from our Christmas, “Here”.

Thanks to each and everyone of you who have continued to pray for the burn victims from the Secrest accident.  Pablo and Julia still have a long road of recovery ahead of them, but it looks like they will live.  The Lord has been using this trial along with some others to do a great work in the lives of the people in the church at Las Piedras.

This morning I spoke with Barry Secrest to get a little update.

He said that both Pablo and Julia are doing relatively will.

Pablo is sitting up.  In fact, he needs to move around more as the doctors are concerned about clotting due to his more recent sedentary lifestyle.  The doctors are predicting that he will be released from the hospital within four months time.  This is not bad for a hospital run on social medicine.

Julio is awake, and responsive.  On Wednesday, the doctors put her in a pool and scrubbed her.  Every time they do this it causes bleeding which requires transfusions.  When asked how she was doing she nodded her head, “No”.  When asked where it hurt, she moved her legs.

This is encouraging as she has enough strength to move them, and will most likely be able to walk.  At this point the doctors believe only the tips of two fingers on her right hand will need to be amputated.  She remains in intensive care as she is still prone to infection due to a weakened immune system.

Julia’s son Jonathan is once again at home.

As you can imagine this prolonged hospital stay is having a financial impact on her family.  In response the church in Las Piedras recently took up a good offering for her.

Praise the Lord for how the church continues to grow and how the members are seeking to encourage one another through these times of trial.  Barry has been teaching recently through the book of Revelation.  He said that when he got done teaching on chapter 2 this past Wednesday, the church strongly identified with Smyrna.

Last Saturday evening we returned from the Biannual BWM South America conference. This year’s conference was hosted in Mar Del Plata, Argentina. For you sports fans this is where the recent Davis Cup (tennis) was hosted. To reach the conference we took the Colonia Express Bus and Ferry to Buenos Aires. Then from BA we took the Condor Estrella bus to Mar Del Plata. The whole trip going took us about 10 hours.  Fortunately the Condor Estrella bus was equipped with Coche Cama seats.  Think business class on an airplane.

Missionaries Tom Eckman and Jeremy Bryd did a great job of organizing. This is no small feat considering around 20 missionary families participated in the event. We stayed at the San Remo Grand Hotel, and ate at a restaurant two doors down. The hotel had a large playroom for the children, and a large enough room to have services for the adults. Pastor John Stevens was the main conference speaker. He used different people in the Bible as the basis for his sermons. I appreciated his insights into the text and his ability to relate his life’s pastoral experience to illustrate different life patterns of these people. Two missionary ladies came down from Buenos Aires and taught/entertained the children during these services. I think they were utterly exhausted by the end of the week.

Wednesday afternoon, the entire group visited a park and a tourist overlook at Sierra de los Padres. While at the park I was able to get some pictures of a group of Capybaras. This was a special treat for me. Since arriving in Uruguay, I have really enjoyed taking pictures of flowers and animals that are new to this gringo.

On Thursday morning, the men and ladies split into separate groups. The men enjoyed an extended Q&A time with outgoing field director Jack McLanahan and incoming field director Jesse Garza. Please pray for the Garza’s as they finish up their ministry in Mexico, move to Alabama, and prepare to take over this responsibility.

Friday evening, we were able to stay in Buenos Aires at the same hotel as Roberto and Patricia Coelho. Patricia is expecting their first child in February. We can hardly wait to see the new little one.

Saturday morning and afternoon, we backpacked around Buenos Aires. If you have ever tried backpacking with a four year old, it is an experience you will never forget. I think the highlight of her day was playing in a city park with some other children.  Needless to say we were really glad to get home Saturday night.

We walked away from this conference with a sense of camaraderie with our fellow BWM SA coworkers. For five days we enjoyed swapping ministry ideas, prayer requests, and experiences of how the Lord was working. They are facing or have faced the same challenges that we are experiencing.

Monday, November 16

4:00 pm Check-in, get settled, fellowship time

8:00 – 9:30 pm Supper

10:00 – 11:00 pm Fellowship

Tuesday, November 17

7:30 – 9:00 am Breakfast

10:00 – 12 noon Welcome, Introduction – Dr. Stevens

Noon – 1:30 pm Lunch

1:30 – 5:00 pm Free time

5:30 – 7:00 pm Service – Dr. McLanahan and Mr. Garza

8:00 – 9:00 pm Supper

10:00 – 11:00pm Fellowship

Wednesday, November 18

7:30 – 9:00 am Breakfast

10:00 – 11:30 am Service – Dr. Stevens

Noon – 1:30pm Lunch

2:00 – 7:00pm Trip

7:30 – 8:30 pm Service – Dr. Stevens

8:30 – 10:00 pm Supper

10:00 – 11:00 pm Fellowship

Thursday, November 19

7:30 – 9:00 am Breakfast

10:00 – 11:30 am Service – Dr. Stevens

Noon – 1:30 pm Lunch

1:30 – 4:00 pm Free time

5:00 – 6:00 pm Split session (Men/ Women)

6:30 – 8:00 pm Testimony service

8:00 – 9:30 pm Supper

Friday, November 20

8:00 – 9:00 am Breakfast

9:30 – 10:30 am Service – Dr. Stevens

10:30 – Noon Pack and Check-out

You can read a first hand account of the Secrest accident at:  http://33degreesbelowzero.blogspot.com/2008/11/secrest-accident-report-from-barbara.html

Thanks for praying this evening at church!

UPDATE - Thurs Morning by Jo Anna Harmon

• Pablo, the 30-yr.-old, had the trachea taken out yesterday and is still improving.
• Julia, is finally to the stage where they can begin the process of her treatment because she made it through the first 48 hours.  They began removing some of the burnt skin yesterday.  They are keeping her in a sedated coma.
• Julia’s son, Jonathan, does not need surgery on his heals because the tendons didn’t get burned.  He can’t walk for now though, because both heals were badly burned.
• Anthony Secrest, the missionary’s 6-yr-old son, saw the plastic surgeon yesterday as well.  It looks like he may not need surgery either.   I’m sure they’ll be keeping an eye on the burn that he has on his cheek.  He doesn’t seem to be in that much pain for now.  Pray that he keep his bandages on.  Anthony is a little boy who has various other physical struggles.  He’s on medication for epilepsy, is autistic, and has tubers in his head (extra growth).  I’m not sure how the tubers affect him exactly.  I was amazed at how well he dealt with having to be on a bed in the observation area of the hospital with an IV for almost 11 hours on Sunday night.  He is a very sweet little boy.

UPDATE - Wed Morning

Thank you for the many prayers, and for those of you who have taken the time to let us know you are praying.  The Secrest family is very grateful.  I spoke with Barry this morning.  He gave me the following update on those involved in the accident.

• Pablo has made nothing short of a miraculous recovery.  When he was first brought to the hospital the doctors said that he had severe internal injuries.  Now they are saying he is fine, internally.  He has been taken out of intensive care, and placed in an intermediate unit.  He is still dealing with 30% burns across his body.
• Julia is still in extremely critical condition.  When someone is burned, the burns continue to do damage for 48 hours.  The doctors are now saying that she has been burned over 80% of her body.  In addition, she has started to bleed internally.  The doctors will be performing various tests today to try and determine what internal tissues have been perforated by the burns.    Yesterday, she was able to raise her hands in response to stimuli.
• Julia’s son Jonathan has been prohibited to walk for the immediate future, until the burns on his lower legs have healed sufficiently.  He is staying with  friends from the church in Las Piedras.  They are helping him with all of his daily needs.  As you can imagine this is a very trying time for this sixteen-year-old.

Barry went back and visited the scene of the accident.  He said that there are only little twisted pieces of metal left from the van.  In addition to the van, he also lost a laptop and video projector that he used in the church services.  A Christian policeman recovered the hard drive from the laptop, but it is unlikely that the data will be salvageable.

When giving his statement to the police, the police confirmed that he was not culpable for the accident.  The brakes simply failed.  When he turned at the T-intersection to avoid going into a ditch, the wheels went off the side of the road, and the van rolled over on its side.  At that point the van caught fire.

Barry’s prayer through this accident is that the Lord will be glorified.  He has said that the church in Las Piedras has shown tremendous unity.  They will be having a special prayer service this evening.

UPDATE - Tue Afternoon

There is much for which to praise the Lord.

Barry Secrest went to give his statement to the police yesterday.  He was told that the forensic team had already investigated and the evidence proves that all Barry gave in his statement is true.  This is a tremendous relief as none of us was sure what would/could happen legally.

The news on the people from their church (sorry I didn’t clarify that in my previous emails) is good as well –

• Pablo is out of intensive care, his lungs are healing.  He still has a long recovery ahead
• Jonathan’s ankles are healing as well.
• They are not sure about Julia other than that the doctor said she is getting better.  She also has a long recovery ahead.

Barry and Barbara are thankful for your prayers for them and the people injured in the accident.

——————————————

UPDATE - MONDAY PM

• Julia has been placed on a respirator to give her body a rest.  Right now the concern for her is the burns over her body.
• Pablo has been given a 50% chance of survivor at this point because his internal burns are so severe.
• We don’t know about Jonathan.

Thank you for your continued prayers for them.

——————————————

Original Post - Monday AM

The following is taken from our Debbie Borrmann’s blog.  She did a great job giving the facts so to save time. . .

Last night we received news that fellow BWM Uruguayan missionaries, Barry and Barbara Secrest, had an accident in their Volkswagon “Combi” van. The vans brakes went out near a T intersection. Barry attempted to make a wide turn and the van tires went off the pavement, casuing the van to roll onto the roof. They thought that was the worst until they heard someone in the back yell that the van was on fire. Everyone was able to get out.

Though they have some injuries - Barry’s hand is cut, Barbara’s feet have small cuts and their youngest son Antonio has burns on his ear and hand -the Secrests are all ok. They are extremely concerned for those injured last night.

• Julia has 2nd degree burns over 50% of her body. She also inhaled the flames. She is stable but in critical condition.
• Jonathan -17 year old son of Julia - has burned ankles, was released from the hospital last night, but is going back today because he can’t walk.
• Pablo - 21 years old - has 2nd degree burns over 25% of his body. He also inhaled the flames. He had to have a tracheotomy.

We know they will appreciate your prayers.

This morning after language class I visited the National Directorate of Civil Identity.  No, I was not having an identity crisis.  I was merely completing the final step in obtaining my Uruguayan ID.  I expected I would have to wait in line for at least a half hour, pay a fee of some sort, fill out additional paperwork, and then show my passport before receiving my ID.  Instead, I went up to the desk to report in, asked if my ID was ready, and was promptly handed my very first cedula.  Yeah!

The ID is the equivalent of a US Driver’s license, and will greatly help me in daily business transactions.  Anytime you use a credit card the cashier always asks for your ID and a phone number or home address.  Before I always had to explain that my US Driver’s License was more or less same thing as their cedula.  Depending on the cashier they would then allow me to use my credit card to pay for the transaction.

This ID is tempory and will be good for one year.  After one year, I will apply for another ID which should be good for three years.  All in all, thanks to Jo Anna’s dual citizenship and your prayers, our paperwork process has gone very smoothly.

A ladies fellowship recently took on a project for us.  They took up a collection to buy THE authoritative Spanish dictionary for Uruguay.  The dictionary is the 22nd edition put out by the Real Academia Española.  Now whenever we have a doubt about what a word means or how to spell it, we have a way to check it out.  This is an invaluable tool for language study, sermon preparation, and Spanish Scrabble!

The last six months Jo Anna and I have been studying Spanish, while Felicia has had fun playing at home.  Daddy and Mommy’s Spanish has been progressing, but Felicia’s has not.  There have not been young children for her to play with in the neighborhood.

As a result we recently started checking into preschools for her.  We decided to send her twice a week in the mornings.  She had her first day of preschool this morning.  It was a rough morning for mommy to see her little girl go off to school for the first time.  Daddy is sad and glad that his little girl will quickly pass him up in language abilities.

Just a quick post to let you know about a new blog.

Pastor Daniel Rojas has recently started posting about Faith Baptist Bible Church in Paysandu.  I have added a link on our sidebar.

Enjoy!

Believe it or not, this entry is by Jo Anna (for those of you who asked me to write again). Here goes . . .

Since we have gotten to Uruguay, our family has not had a car. We have chosen to use public transportation for various reasons. One of those reasons is to be able to rub shoulders with the people more often. In doing so, Paul would be able to observe more and glean a greater understanding of the culture and customs of the people. Also, as we rub shoulders with people, God gives opportunities to be a testimony for Him. As the months have gone by, we have had multiple opportunities to direct people’s thoughts toward God, and for this we are grateful. Most of these opportunities have been brief however, due to the nature of public transportation.

One time while waiting for a bus on a Sunday afternoon, a lady was watching Felicia play tag with her Daddy. This lady commented on Felicia’s dress saying that she didn’t see little girls in dresses very much anymore. Of course, that opened the door to tell her that we had just been to church . . . We ended up sharing the cost of a taxi with this lady that we had just met. She lives right off of the main avenue that we go on to get home. Before she got out, she gave me her address and phone number. She also told us about a pre-school in her neighborhood that we could look into for Felicia.

Well, my motivation for sharing all this with you is because God once again gave us the opportunity to share. Tonight, while waiting for the bus after church, a lady asked me if we live close to a main road that is close to our house. She said that she recognized Felicia. Evidently, we had been at the bus stop close to our house some time ago, and this lady was there too. The neat thing is that she said that one of the reasons she remembered Felicia was due to the fact that she was well-behaved. J We all know that a three-year-old can’t always be well-behaved. Anyway, I was able to tell this young lady that we did, in fact, live in the area and I found out that she probably lives within ten blocks of our house. She just kept asking me questions, so I had the wonderful opportunity to share with her what we believe. Since the bus was taking so long, I was able to go into more detail. It was so exciting to be able to implement the evangelism training that we received through Baptist World Mission. What a blessing to see her eyes get misty as she listened to the Gospel! Eventually the bus did come and because we live in the same area, she got on too. This gave me time to get a tract from my Bible with the address of a church in town. When the seat next to her freed up, I asked her if I could sit next to her and gave her the tract. I also gave her our address and my first name and told her that if she had any more questions, she was welcome to come by. She also has a church close to her house and was very interested in visiting that church. Please pray that Loreley will visit this church and that she will come to know the Lord as her personal Savior. She told me that she has both Mormon and Jehovah’s Witnesses relatives so there is much room for confusion. She was baptized as a Catholic when she was a baby, but no longer attends.

Once we got home, I shared with Felicia that because of her obedience, God was able to use her as a little missionary. She looked at me with big eyes and said “Mommy, I didn’t know that I was able to help the lady at the bus stop know about Jesus”. It seems like so many times we’re teaching her that sin (i.e. disobedience) has consequences. I was so happy to be able to share with her that obedience has consequences too, good ones. Our little Treasure has certainly opened doors for us to witness to people. As you pray for our ministry here, please don’t forget to pray for her spiritual condition. Let’s not forget that she is also part of our mission field!