We have been home a week now.

Hey Everyone,

Paul said he was going to include a link to this blog, so I thought I had better update it. The trip to Montevideo was wonderful. Here are some statistics from Paul:

5000 gospels were distributed
60 blocks were covered with prayer walking and distribution
2 children’s clubs
8 tables, 16 benches built
Roof place over two rooms at the nursing home
2 nights of coffee house with over 70 guests
20+ presentations of “The Redeemer”
800+ Gospel tracts distributed
Several prospects for follow up
2 people prayed to receive Christ…Ramon was in church on Sunday!

What a blessing to work with six different churches which brought 49 students and adults, two individuals from the states, three interns, and many missionaries along with their families. As you can see we were busy. The weather held for the first part of the week, but it rained pretty much all of Thursday and Friday. This caused our outdoor afternoon ministries to go to plan B.

Here are our crews:

Thanks to everyone. Stay tuned for what is in store for next year.

Ciao,

Jim

Tuesday

Hey Everyone,

It is Tuesday evening, and our six crews have been hard at work doing GAP and their afternoon ministries. All of the crews are meshing wonderfully. I am posting pictures from the Nacional crew, Liverpool, and Penarol crews. These crews are named for the various futbol teams in Uruguay. Nacional is one of the street ministry teams that is using the Redeemer Drama, surveys, tracts, and is passing out invitations to the Coffe Shop Thursday and Friday. Liverpool is doing GAP and hosting a kids club at a housing complex on the Rambla. Penarol is doing GAP as well and is doing some construction of tables and benches as well as doing games and sports with the neighborhood kids in the afternoon. It is painfully slow to upload photos from here. I would love to post more. Please look for your family and friends.

Nacional doing the Redeemer

Kayla, Dorotea, and Bethany talking to the kids

Only one from Liverpool so far, this is Dawn and ? with the children at their kids camp

Some unknown Cubs fan, (Sarge), doing spiritual battle while prayer walking

Penarol Prayer walking, this is Matt, Joseph, Kaitlyn, and Julio

Penarol, with their handywork at the sports club.

Leslie and friend.

Greetings from Uruguay!

Hello everyone! First off thank you so much for your prayers this week. Also thank you for those who prayed especially for me, I am feeling much better.

OK on to the update....this morning we went to the local church for worship. It was such a blessing to worship with another body of believers. Praises in two different languages were being lifted to the same God. It was such a beautiful time of praise and worship, even though we could only understand about half of it, God was moving. Where two or three are gathered He will be there. We were challenged to be intentional this week in making relationships and using our lives as the only sermon that some of the people of Uruguay will ever hear.
All of us walking to church. (not standing out at all)

The churches worship team


The pastor (on the right) and Lyle our translator. Chase leaading one song in English.


This afternoon the groups are spending lots of time in training for the week. They have already had a lesson in culture and how not to offend the people here. Some learned that lesson the hard way at lunch on Saturday by drinking from the bottle and not the glass :) Now they are in what we are lovingly calling Redeemer Palooza where they are learning how to present the drama presentation of Gospel called Redeemer. It will be a wonderful way to present the Gospel to the people of Uruguay this week. Please pray for them to have clarity as they are trying to remember how to do everything they are learning this drama.

Thank you so much for your prayers. More updates to come!

Molly

They're Here

Ok, first off, everyone is here safely. I think the flights went off without a hitch, and everyone and their luggage has arrived. Today we went through the ordeal of checking 50 something people into this hotel, which actually went very smoothly. We all walked to a resaurant and had hot dogs and fries. When we got back, played some silly games, divided them up into their work crews. and did some crew training. Tonight they'll go to dinner with their work crews, and then come back for Worship, church group devotions, and then nighty night. Tomorrow is Church with the local congregation at the seminary. Then we'll train all afternoon. Please be prayerful that our everyone gets the rest they need, and that our training goes smoothly. I spoke too soon about our work sites, as a door was closed at one site. Please be in prayer for Scott Liddell's crew as they have to shift gears with their ministry. I will hopefully post some pics tomorrow from today and tomorow.

Ciao, (That's Chow)

Jim

We're Here

Hey Everyone,

The IWC staff arrived in Montevideo without a hitch. Molly's sick, so please pray for her. We have been finalizing the arrangements here. I had asked folks to pray for several of our ministry sites, and I am happy to let you know that all seems well on that front. Here are a couple of quick photos

A couple doing the Tango on the streets of Montevideo

Shopping for goodies for the participants

Folks at home, please leave comments. Thanks

Jim

Everyone it is my sad duty to post the following information. I met this young man while Cliff and I were in Montevideo a couple of months ago. Please pray as Paul has asked.

From: "Paul & Pam Sheaffer" <thesheaffers@pobox.com>Date: 2008/05/25 Sun PM 11:24:54 CDTSubject: Urgent Prayer NeedI do not even know where to start. We desperately seek your prayers for our family (especially Kaitlyn) and our church family here in Uruguay. Today while Kaitlyn was working at a children's club in the Old City with three of her friends, one of her best friends was electrocuted and died. Her friend's name was Pablo and he went to chase a soccer ball that went over a fence at the club; not knowing he was entering an electrical sub-station with high powered transformers. Pablo was electrocuted and immediately was in the presence of the Lord.Pam and I received a call shortly after the accident and went to get Pablo's mother to take her to the club. At this time we all thought he had just suffered an injury. Upon arriving we all realize what had actually happened. Because of the dangerous circumstances, Pablo's body stayed at the scene of the accident for almost three hours. Many people gathered including kids' families from the club, TV crews, family, and most of the neighborhood. Pablo's life and death made a big impact on many people; we are hoping that God can turn this tragedy into an opportunity to bring these same people to Christ.Specifically, please pray for the following:
1. We praise God that Pablo had a vibrant growing relationship with Jesus Christ. Just this morning he had played his guitar while helping with the music in our worship service. Pray that God will allow Pablo's testimony to continue and that many of his friends will come to know Christ. Just this week, Pablo had shared with Kaitlyn that he thought that several of his lost friends were close to trusting Christ.
2. Pray for Pablo's family. His mother and dad are in shock and his younger brother and sister will have many questions about why all this has happened.
3. Pray that God would provide for Pablo's funeral; Pablo's father has been unemployed from a steady job for several months.
4. Pray for Pablo's girlfriend Sadia. Though they were not officially engaged, they had begun talking about marriage.
5. Pray for Kaitlyn. Pablo has been one of Kaitlyn's closest friends here in Uruguay. Over the past week or two, they had seen each other almost every day. They took some classes together at seminary, they led our worship at our church, they worked with a senior adult home together, and worked in the children's club every Sunday. He was very much like a big brother to Kaitlyn; he was 20 years old.
6. Pray for our youth group and church family. There will be many questions and they will struggle with understanding how something like this could happen to someone with such a heart for ministry.
7. Pray for our two upcoming volunteer teams and how this tragedy will affect their work here in Uruguay. Both groups will be working with our church and we will need wisdom and strength to make adjustments with our schedule and work assignments. We have a GAP team coming from Post, TX in about a week, and we have International World Changers bringing in over 50 youth in about three weeks.
8. Pray for "Member Care" (our mission's counselors) as they will be arriving in Montevideo to offer aid to Kaitlyn and her friends.
9. Pray for the continued work in the Old City. Pray that many will be saved.I will be updating our web page before Tuesday. A week ago West Colonial Hills Baptist Church (my home church from TN) held a basketball camp in the same part of the city where 13 children received Christ as their Savior and over 70 attended the camp during the week. Many of the kids at the club today were a result of the work of this basketball camp. I will also work on a tribute to Pablo and will seek to have this posted by the end of the week.Thank you in advance for your support and prayers. We love and appreciate each of you.In Christ,Paul and Pam

Update

Hello Everyone,

I assume everyone received their CD’s in the mail. Please remember that I need everyone to start becoming familiar with the contents of the CD, especially the GAP training and the Redeemer Drama. I had asked that each of you send me an email to let me know that you have gotten it. To date I have heard from exactly NONE of you. The only one that I am reasonably sure got his was Stephen, and that is because I left it with the secretary. The main reason I am harping on this, is that I found out this week that one of the group leaders was not getting my emails, they were being sent to his junk mail box. I guess that is appropriate, though I hope you don’t think this stuff junk. Anyway, I would really like to hear some feed back from each of you group leaders and the individuals.

Secondly I would like to ask a favor. I need each of the church groups to obtain a working boom box with a cd player and several sets of extra batteries, for use at the ministry sites. You will be free to take this back home with you following the project, should you choose to do so. Please I need your help here.

Thirdly, I am including some cultural tips that Paul has passed along:

Here is a list of Do’s and Don’ts for Ministry Sites
1. Do try to engage people. Talk about family, hobbies, sports, and culture. Sit in listen.Do not talk about politics! Change the subject if it comes up. Do not be in a rush.
2. When using a translator, do talk directly to the person you are talking to.Do not look at the translator when you are talking.
3. Do “kiss” people when you greet them. Do not avoid “kissing”, especially people you get to know.
4. In the nursing home, ask permission to enter a patient’s room? “Permiso?”Do not wake a patient that is sleeping.
5. Be sensitive to the schedule of those you are working with.

Next, I am still waiting to hear back from a couple of you regarding Crew Managers positions. I have 4 so far that have stepped up. I still need two more, especially those that I have already contacted. Please help us out with this.

And lastly, we are about a month away from departure. I would like to encourage everyone to ask questions and to be diligent to the pre project study as well as these emails that I have been sending out. Thanks again for listening.

See you soon,

Jim

More Faces

Hey everyone. I hope you are doing well. Please be in prayer for our upcoming project. We all need to be spiritually prepared. Here are some more of your IWC staff.

This is your office manager Molly Prince

And this is your maestro, (a.k.a. the music guy) Chase Gamble

Please remember to start at the bottom of this blog if this is your first visit. Thanks

Jim

International World Changers 2008
Montevideo, Uruguay
Ministry Plan
http://www.iwcuruguay.blogspot.com

Montevideo is the largest city and the capital of Uruguay. The city’s population accounts for about half the population of the country. It is a beautiful city located on the banks of the Rio de la Plata delta, which is approximately 125 miles wide and resembles a seashore. Uruguay is the second smallest country in South America, and is situated between Argentina to the south, and Brazil to the north. Uruguay was founded as a buffer area to keep Brazil and Argentina separate.




Our Missionaries

Paul and Pam Sheaffer, (no he did not play piano for the Tonight Show), and their daughter Kaitlyn, will serve as our hosts while we are in Montevideo. Paul serves as the Field Volunteer Strategy Representative for Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Paraguay, and Bolivia, but lives in Montevideo. Paul is also the creator of G.A.P, (Gospel Advancement Program), which we will be using during our project in Montevideo. Please visit their blog at http://www.thesheaffers.blogspot.com/.

The following will help you understand the culture of Uruguay, as you prepare for your ministry in Montevideo:
Driving: What are the lines on the road for?
Eating: If you love meat, you’ll love Uruguay. Main foods: meat, meat, meat, oh yes …pasta, pizza, bread, fish, and “salad”.
The Kiss: Almost everyone greets everyone with a kiss on the cheek! (actually in the air). Yes, men with men. Meetings are often stopped for latecomers to kiss everyone in the room.
Mate (ma-teh): An herbal drink that almost every Uruguayan enjoys. Google It.
Education: Uruguay has the highest literacy rate in all of South America. Public schools, colleges, and universities are completely free. Graduating from high school (liceo) is not easy…usually takes 2 to 5 years longer than in the states.
Religion: Freedom of religion is cherished and protected. Separation of church and state is strictly enforced. Uruguayans are post-modern in their thinking. “Religion may be good for you, but do not push your beliefs on me.” More open to mystical religions than traditional faiths.
Sports-FUTBOL-with a round ball.
Government: Democracy. 3 Branches of government, Legislative (house and senate), Executive (president and vice-president), and Judicial. Recent increase in power for socialist party. President – Tabare Vazquez (socialist)

GAP

GAP stands for “Gospel Advancement Project”. It is a gospel saturation ministry designed specifically for an urban setting. Its goal is to place the Gospel of John (and/or other evangelistic materials) in every household along the coast of Montevideo to the coastal city of Punta del Este, and to provide a clear presentation of the Gospel to these areas.

The Four Waves of GAP

Prayer Walking
Scripture Distribution (goal 2000 to 5000)
Marketplace Evangelism
Evangelistic Events

Putting it all together

Ultimate goal – lead people to Jesus Christ and start NEW works.
People will hopefully be a part of Comunidad Cristiana.
Follow-up is key – pray that we will find “people of peace” to help in establishing new work in your target zone.

IWC Uruguay Proposed Ministry Activities

Many of you may not be familiar with International World Changers. So at this point before I go into the actual ministry activities, I think I’ll give you rough outline of how this thing called IWC works. We will have church groups and individuals from all over the US. We anticipate about 60 people participating in this project. Participants, (adults and students), will be divided into Crews, based on where an individual will best fit into a certain crews needs. We try to have at least two participants from a particular church group on a crew so there will be some familiarity. We will have approximately 6 crews with, you guessed it, roughly 10 people per crew. Participants will very quickly become close to their crew mates, and form a cohesive group.

Each crew will participate in two activities during their ministry days. In the morning every crew will proceed to a certain geographical area within walking distance of the hotel and participate in GAP, (see above). You will be receiving training over email as well as live training after you arrive in Montevideo. After lunch each crew will proceed to their afternoon ministry site. Our proposed afternoon ministries include:
Nursing home ministry, which could include bible study, relationship building, and light construction. Please lose any and all pre conceived notions about what a nursing home is. This will not be like any you are familiar with.
Sports Club ministry, which could include light construction, general clean-up, community ministry, sports ministry, or bible study.
Street Ministry, which will include performing The Redeemer drama, as well as ministry surveys, and personal testimony time.
Kid’s clubs, which will look very much like a VBS, or back yard Bible club.
School Ministry, which could include, English as a second language, personal testimony time, and relationship ministry.
An Evangelistic Event. This is the culmination of GAP. We hope that it will take the form of a party or coffee shop event that will draw people in and allow for a clear presentation of the Gospel. This location will then hopefully serve as the initial meeting place for a new cell church.

As time goes forward we will continue to refine these activities. In the future you will be receiving additional information regarding The Redeemer drama, information to help you to prepare for the afternoon ministry activities, as well as some supplies that we may ask you to bring. I will also be letting you known about what goodies and supplies that the missionaries might need or that they can’t get in Uruguay. Please check out the websites listed above, (or below), and feel free to contact me regarding any ministry questions. You can reach me at 901-606-3455 or can email me at jameshutchison@bellsouth.net.

http://www.iwcuruguay.blogspot.com/

http://www.thesheaffers.blogspot.com/

Half of your IWC Uruguay staff:

L-R: Jim Hutchison-Ministry Coordinator, Paul Scheaffer-Field Representative, and Cliff Norville-Project Coordinator

Greetings

Welcome to the inaugural post to the International World Changers Uruguay "official" blog. The purpose of this site is to provide anyone and everyone associated with the upcoming IWC project in Montevideo, Uruguay, the latest information regarding the project. Please come back often and post comments relating to the project.