Mission Network News - South America

Venezuela (MNN) — Venezuela’s disputed presidential election has made daily travel dangerous as demonstrators take the streets.

Incumbent President Nicolás Maduro was declared the winner on July 28 for his third six-year term. Then, the opposition party called foul.

Protests in Caracas against the re-election of Nicolás Maduro, July 2024.
(Wikimedia Commons)

The European Union, the United States, and other Latin American nations have joined in calling for election rolls to be published. Annabel Torrealba with Trans World Radio says, “Our partner office in Venezuela was closed for four days because it was impossible to go anywhere.”

TWR’s partner in Venezuela shares the same mission and vision: to create radio programs sharing the Gospel of Christ. More about that here. Youth programs, Bible studies, lessons on prayer, and more reach people across the struggling nation.

This isn’t the first or last time TWR has served the nation amid unrest. Today, they need your prayers. “You want a change, but we cannot change people. [Only] God can change hearts,” Torrealba says,

“My prayer request for Venezuela is that this government can be reached for the Word of God because that’s the only thing that can make a difference.”

Praise God that Venezuelan pastors have stayed in the country in the past decade, and the Church is still present. “Pastors in churches in Venezuela are resilient [and] they’re still there. Nobody left,” Torrealba says.

Finally, pray for the TWR team. “They are facing [hardship] like everyone else,” Torrealba says.

“Pray for strength, for them to continue what they are doing joyfully and know that God will give them the reward.”

Header image depicts protestors in Venezuela in August 2024. (Wikimedia Commons)

Ecuador (MNN) — The JESUS Film Project celebrates its 2,100th translation of the JESUS Film. This historic translation brings the Gospel to life in the Waorani tribe’s language from Ecuador.

You may recognize the Waorani tribe; their spearing party killed five American Christian missionaries back in 1956.

“We were requested about a year ago to do the Waorani language,” says Chris Deckert, JFP’s Language Studios Director. “They’ve been in the spotlight of missions for many, many years after what happened with Jim Elliot and Nate Saint.”

Redemption comes full circle on multiple fronts. First, the Waorani warrior who killed Nate Saint – Mincaye – later came to Christ.

Deckert poses for a photo with Mincaye’s grandson.
(Photo courtesy of The JESUS Film Project)

“I got to meet his three grandsons, and his older grandson helped translate the Gospel into Waorani at the end of the film premiere.”

Members of the same tribe who martyred five missionaries decades ago are now preparing to introduce their neighboring tribes to Christ.

After premiering the JESUS Film last weekend, JFP staff equipped Waorani believers to be local missionaries. “Twenty of the local leaders receive training on how to show the JESUS Film with a tablet so they could go from village to village on a weekly basis,” Deckert says.

Now, using new tools in the Waorani language, “they can go through Bible studies and understand more about who Jesus is from the Gospel of Luke.”

It’s illegal for Western missionaries to share Christ with certain Amazonian tribes, but the Waorani have full access. Pray they will yield to the Lord’s calling and direction.

“They asked for prayer for God to give them strength and vision to present the Gospel and reach out beyond their own tribe to other tribes,” Deckert says.

“They now have been resourced to go out and share the Gospel [with] other language groups of the Amazon jungle.”

Header and story images courtesy of The JESUS Film Project.

Brazil (MNN) – In northern Brazil, Scripture is beginning to be shared in a language that millions of people speak. Ed Weaver with Spoken Worldwide says these language speakers are often overlooked and humiliated by others in their country. They are marginalized, underserved, and lacking the Word of God.

An oral Bible translation team recently visited a remote village of the people group. They wanted to learn about the village life and meet some of the local people. Learn more about Oral Bible Translation here.

Weaver says, “They knocked on this one guy’s door. And the guy let them in. His name is Jackson. And they came into the house, and there were empty liquor bottles everywhere.”

They shared with Jackson an oral Bible recording of the Christmas story in Luke chapter two. As he listened, he was overwhelmed with emotion.

“It was the first time he’d ever heard his language in any kind of recording,” says Weaver. “His response was cursing and saying, ‘Oh, this is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever heard.’”

He was excited to hear more, and the team promised to return with other recordings of God’s Word. When they were leaving on a river ferry, they saw Jackson come down to the shore on a motorbike. He excitedly waved and shouted thanks to the team. They hope that he may be a person of peace on future visits who will help to share the Scripture recordings with more people in the village.

Weaver says, “Here’s somebody that, you know, is not a believer, never had heard the gospel, and now all of a sudden he says, ‘Okay, this God is somebody who cares about me, cares about my language. I want to learn more about this God.”

Pray for the Brazilian translation team and that Scripture would reach more people like Jackson. The team is currently working to finish translation of the Gospel of John.

“We’re fans of oral Bible translation, because we believe that we’re getting to the people who have been truly forgotten.”

Weaver says, “There’s at least 1500 languages that haven’t even been started yet. And these are truly the last and the least of these, and those are the people that it’s clear God wants His word to go to them.”

You can learn more and support the work of Spoken Worldwide at Spoken.org.

“Whether you want to be part of the prayer team, whether you want to be part of our donor crew, any way that you can help, we need that help,” says Weaver.

Photos courtesy of Spoken Worldwide.

Argentina (MNN) — Under decades of socialism, Argentina’s public school system has seen more and more secular ideals and anti-biblical values pushed into the classroom. Additionally, the nation now faces a teacher shortage.

Marisol Gomez, national director of TeachBeyond in Argentina says, “Teachers have extremely low salaries, so very few people want to study to become teachers. So we are running out of teachers.

“Churches now, because of the gender agenda [in public schools], are opening their own schools. But they understand that they have to hire people who are non-believers.”

Two years ago, the Lord put a burden on the hearts of Argentinian believers to open a Christian teacher training college with TeachBeyond.

(Photo courtesy of TeachBeyond)

Gomez says, “From the human perspective, it was impossible because the government is closing these institutions. They don’t want these institutions. So that was a miracle [that] it was approved after a long process. This year, in March 2023, the teacher training college opened with about 14 students.

“This is the vision of sending teachers to the schools and equipping the schools with teachers doing missions.”

Behind this push for Christian education, Gomez says, “Parents are, for the very first time, getting involved with opening schools and…the Christian movement in education.

“I can see that kind of a revival among Christian educators in Argentina as well as that interest — especially on the side of churches — getting more and more committed to opening schools and thinking of alternatives to get their own students out of the [public] system.”

Pray for Christian education to point Argentinian students to the Gospel!

Click here to learn more about TeachBeyond.

Header photo courtesy of TeachBeyond.

Argentina (MNN) — On Sunday, December 10, Argentina will inaugurate its new president, Javier Milei – the world’s first libertarian president who has been causing a stir.

Javier Milei, Argentina’s new president. (Photo courtesy of La Libertad Avanza | Wikimedia Commons)

Marisol Gomez, national director of TeachBeyond Argentina, says, “55.7% of Argentinians voted for Javier Milei as the new president. I’m not sure whether they were voting for him. They were voting for a change.”

It’s no question that change is desperately needed, with Argentina’s economy crippled by an inflation rate of 143%.

Will positive change come with President-elect Milei?

“It has been like this for the last 20 years,” says Gomez. “With a very low level of employment, the economic situation is extremely, extremely challenging.

“Fifty percent of the population is unemployed. So we have 50% in poverty and…the reason why in Argentina is because of the high level of corruption.”

Milei promises to cut several public departments, shut down Argentina’s central bank printing money, and adopt the U.S. dollar.

Argentinians hope the new administration will repair decades of socialist damage.

On the cusp of significant changes coming to the country, local Christians are also praying for spiritual revival.

“All of a sudden, the Church started getting organized and getting involved with the Kingdom of God, but [also] getting connected with society.”

(Photo courtesy of Aqu Alvarez/Unsplash)

Churches have been organizing well-attended prayer rallies and offering physical aid to people struggling to get by.

Pray with the Church in Argentina for spiritual revival. Gomez says, “We need to pray for more strength and pray for faith.”

You can learn more here about TeachBeyond’s Gospel impact in Argentina through education!

Header photo of Javier Milei, Argentina’s new president, at a political rally in August 2021. (Photo courtesy of La Libertad Avanza Ianzamiento/Wikimedia Commons)

Brazil (MNN) – Without a full Bible in their heart language many live and die without the truth of the Gospel. Of the 293 languages in Brazil about 51 do not have any Bible translation. Wycliffe Associates works with local translators to help provide full Bibles to those groups.

Steve Martin with Wycliffe Associates explains that their team is actively working on several projects in Brazil. About two years ago they finished a Brazilian Portuguese Bible. While a Portuguese Bible existed previously, it had a copyright that meant it couldn’t be reproduced to help with additional translations.

Photo by Sincerely Media on Unsplash

Wycliffe Associates’ Bible propelled translation work for the team since it allowed them to use that base translation for other similar languages in Brazil. Because of that Martin shares, “This year, in Brazil, we’ve been able to start two projects. In January, we started an Old Testament project. Then in February, we started a New Testament translation project.”

Unfortunately, there are many languages that will not be able to use the base language so easily. For instance, Deaf communities with and without sign languages remain as some of the hardest to reach groups. However, Wycliffe Associates is excited to have several Deaf projects in Brazil.

“One of those is a DOT Project. DOT for Wycliffe Associates stands for Deaf Owned Translation. We’re currently working with a Deaf group of people – a language group – with their own New Testament. Then we have three New Testaments that we’re working with, and two Old Testament projects that we’re engaged in.”

In addition to those projects Wycliffe Associates has a program called SUN: Symbolic Universal Notations. Martin says, “It’s a language that Wycliffe Associates created for people who don’t have a language. We’ll be going in to Brazil in September of this year and having our largest ever SUN conference workshop. [We will be] teaching the population of Deaf and Deafblind this language that will reach up to 9 million people who don’t have a way of knowing who Jesus Christ is.”

They rejoice to see projects coming to completion. Martin shares that as they begin more and more translations in unreached languages, they can finally see the finish line. Fewer and fewer translations need to be started. It’s feeling realistic to actually get to all the language groups and see a partial fulfillment of the Great Commission in Brazil.

“At the end of the day, Bible translation is not about translating God’s word,” Martin asserts. “At the end of the day, Bible translation is about people knowing that Jesus Christ came, lived, died, resurrected, so that they could have life eternal, and know him personally.”

Currently Wycliffe Associates is involved in 778 Bible translation projects. They need support to continue their work among the least reached. Consider donating toward projects in Latin America or toward the DOT project specifically to help bring Gospel truth to the ends of the earth.

Header Photo by Raphael Nogueira on Unsplash