Cuba Appeal - September 2021 Update

With gratitude for your generous response to our Cuba Emergency Appeal, we have been able to share more than $38,000 to meet the urgent needs of our partners at this critical time on the island, due to the pandemic and the collapse of the economy.

On June 21 at the Seminario Evangélico de Teologica (SET) in Matanzas, the school opened an annex ward of the local pediatric hospital which had been overrun with COVID cases. 120 patients and their accompanying relatives were received along with 20 medical personnel. For 47 days, ten SET employees and an onsite manager provided meals for 140 people. This included their daily breakfast, lunch, and dinner as well as two snacks and food for babies under one year of age. Disinfecting cleaning, internet access and electricity had to be supplied by the seminary, along with the staffing of the kitchen and maintenance.

Gifts for the Presbyterian Reformed Synod of Cuba were sent with our wish that the funds be divided equally amongst the three Presbyteries who could then disburse resources, as needed, to their congregations which were in great need of assisting families to purchase food and medicine. Most of these congregations are found in small towns and villages and you can meet some of your Presbyterian family here, whom your gifts have both helped and encouraged…

Latin America, Projects, PartnershipElizabeth CarterSeptember 13, 2021Cuba Appeal, Cuba, Matanzas Evangelical Theological Seminary

Todd Luke - September 2021 Update

Dear friends,

The 2021 cistern building season is over. We thank God for working through our American and Mexican partners to bring year-round rainwater access to hundreds of families in our neck of the subtropical jungle. Thank you for your prayers, time, and support of all kinds. In 2022, we will build cisterns with as many new families as the generosity of our American partners will allow. $2,200 for one family-owned rainwater catchment tank which can collect, store, and distribute up to 15,000 gallons a year for decades is a solid, long-term investment. As a testament to that, I share with you the following:

36 Cisterns Built in 2021 – 609 Cisterns Built Since 2002

Thirty-six family-owned cisterns were built this year: 8 in Carmen Dos, 8 in Unidad y Trabajo, 8 in Caña Brava, and 12 in Quiché Las Pailas. That brings our grand total to 609. Our Mexican cistern-building partners continue to lead the way.

Global Workers, Missionaries, Latin AmericaThe Outreach FoundationSeptember 10, 2021Todd Luke, Todd and Maria Luke, Mexico

José Carlos Pezini - September 2021 Update

Dera brothers and sisters,

Greetings to all of you in the grace and peace of the Lord Jesus. Once again, I would like to express our sincere gratitude to you for participating in our ministry here in Brazil. We really appreciate your financial support and your prayers. Just like the apostle Paul's experience with the Philippians, Odete and I have also felt the bonding experience with you as our partners in the Kingdom of God: " And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus." Philippians 4:19.

Despite living in a time of pandemic, our ministry must go on. In order to continue, we have been following the required sanitary protocols. Most of our meetings have been done through online services but whenever we find the opportunity to be among others, we gladly do it. In the city where we currently live, we have been going to a Presbyterian church and fellowshipping in person.

San Pablo Presbyterian Theological Seminary - August 2021 Update

Despite the COVID-19, pandemic, we continue training leaders and pastors to fulfill the Great Commission.

We Were Impacted as a Seminary by COVID-19

· Although just three members of our personnel were affected by the coronavirus and are now well, some friends and pastors around us died.

· We had to change some things about the way we train our students. The most important change was to establish online courses. We will continue providing courses online until the COVID situation improves.

· In the midst of this situation, in October 2020, we suffered the onslaught of a tropical storm. There was extensive damage to our facilities. So far, we have repaired six classrooms and two bedrooms. Unfortunately, we have not been able to repaint the buildings of our facility due to high humidity levels.

Matanzas Evangelical Theological Seminary (SET) - August 2021 Update

Below are excerpts from a recent letter sent to us from one of our strategic partners in Cuba:

Dear sisters and brothers:

We greet you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and at the same time, we thank you for your prayers and your expressions of concern related to the current situation in our country. We are living in an acute economic crisis and a crisis of values since the “special period” (decade of the 1990s) when the Soviet Union and the socialist bloc collapsed; we have not yet recovered from those times. The crisis has become worse …

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought negative consequences: the sad death of loved ones, which has produced a great emotional impact on the people. Furthermore, the State lost millions of dollars due to the fall of tourism. Despite that, it invested millions of dollars to try to heal and save the people.

Prayers for Haiti-Updated August 18, 2021

Our partner Haiti Outreach Ministries just shared this important information concerning relief efforts. Please continue to pray for brothers and sisters in Haiti:

Dear friends,

HOM is now accepting financial contributions for earthquake relief in Haiti. We are working with our partner staff at Mission Communautaire de l'Eglise Chrétienne des Cités (MICECC) to provide food and medical supplies. Our medical staff is interested in making a trip in September to provide much needed care. Longer term, we are exploring the possibility of rebuilding homes and drilling a well to provide clean drinking water to the community. All this is possible through the relationship our Terre Noire church has with the church community located in Cavaillon, near the earthquake's epicenter. We will be working through that relationship to provide assistance.

Financial contributions will help us to meet needs in the earthquake ravaged area as transportation and safety considerations allow.

Latin America, Projects, Partnership, Important NewsThe Outreach FoundationAugust 18, 2021Haiti Outreach Ministries, Haiti

José Carlos Pezini - August 2021 Update

Please join us in praying for Pezini and Odete as Pezini undergoes shoulder surgery August 9

Dear brothers and sisters,

“I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” Philippians 1:3-6

Brothers and sisters, may the blessings of God the Father be with you all for the expressions of affection and generosity that you have shown to us. As the Apostle Paul prayed for the Philippian brothers and sisters, Odete and I pray for you.

Matanzas Evangelical Theological Seminary in Cuba News

News has reached me that our seminary partner in Matanzas, Cuba, has been asked by the government to open one of their facilities (students are not yet allowed back on campus) to receive children (and their caregivers) who are suspected of having COVID-19. This comes as the local pediatric hospital is overwhelmed with cases. They have agreed to do this—an extraordinary act of service, as you can imagine. Please join me in prayer for this, that Christ may be glorified and that the seminary community is kept safe…

Don and Martha Wehmeyer - June 2021 Update

Dear friends,

Martha and I are now fully vaccinated and starting to move around more. Martha has been in Wichita Falls and Dallas to help with the grandchildren and will be bringing Guillen and Sahia down here with Valerie. The other two will follow when their school year gets out.

The little church I am pastoring in Sitpatch is doing well. We have both in-person and online services although there is the possibility that in-person church will be closed again as the number of COVID cases is going up in Merid

Haiti Outreach Ministries - May 2021 Update

Dear friends,

I hope you and your loved ones are well as we continue to navigate these unusual times. Friends like you are at the heart of our ministry, and we have greatly missed seeing you in person and serving with you in Haiti.

I am writing today to share a status update on volunteer teams returning to HOM mission sites in Haiti. We currently expect team travel will resume no earlier than March 2022. This decision has been made with the guidance of our Haitian leadership, with two main factors informing this timeline.

First, the COVID-19 pandemic – which thankfully has not hit Haiti too hard – is resulting in certain requirements by the Haitian government for those who wish to enter the country.

COVID-19 Appeal Mexico

We recently received the following COVID Appeal update from our partners in Tabasco, Mexico. The Rev. José Juan Garcia Hernandez, rector of Sureste Presbyterian Theological Seminary, recently shared this information . The first two photos are Sureste professors who had COVID. The remaining photos include seminarians affected by flooding.

Sureste Presbyterian Theological Seminary - April 2021 Update

Dear friends,

My name is Francelia. I am married to Christopher McReynolds. We live in Del Rio, Texas located five minutes from the border city of Cd. Acuña, Coahuila, Mexico. I was born in Mexico City in 1977 but moved to Villahermosa, Tabasco in 1985. There, at age 21 while I was still in college, the Lord saved me at an evangelistic campaign on March 28, 1998. I then started my walk in the Presbyterian Church.

I am amazed by God’s grace, thankful for where I am, and thankful for The Outreach Foundation for playing such an important part in the story – God’s story. Here is how I was called to do what I am doing today, thanks to sponsors like The Outreach Foundation.

COVID-19 Appeal Brazil

Here in Brazil, we are now totally isolated. Cities are closed, no one can enter or leave if they don’t live there. The government decreed a curfew. If someone is caught walking around the city at night, they will be arrested. Almost 3,000 deaths were recorded yesterday (March 18) from Covid 19. Hospitals are in precarious states. There are no more empty beds, there are not enough doctors to serve all those who need care, and there are no medications to treat those who are there. As if this were not enough, politicians do not understand each other and try to take political advantage of the situation. Many pastors are hospitalized and a few are intubated. Please pray for the Brazilian people,

José Carlos Pezini - March 2021 Update

Dear brothers and sisters,

The Independent Presbyterian Church of Brazil, like any Christian denomination of historical tradition, has faced difficulties in its healthy growth in the fulfillment of the Great Commission. There are hundreds of stagnant local churches whose pastors and leaders are calling for a path of awakening and new life for these churches.

The coronavirus pandemic that has persisted for more than a year has only made the struggles and difficulties of the survival of these local churches even more evident.

Since 2013 the SARA Institute has supported pastors and churches of various denominations both in church planting and church revitalization. SARA has now partnered with IPI do Brazil's theological seminary and they are offering a master's degree in Church Revitalization. The program aims to be a promoter of ideas and also offer strategies and tools to students to cooperate with their local churches in strategic actions of revitalization.

Children's Bible Ministry in Guanabacoa, Cuba - March 2021 Update

The Children’s Bible Ministry of the Reformed Presbyterian Church in Guanabacoa, Cuba, began as a pastor’s dream shared with a group of visiting American missionaries from Thomasville, Georgia. Guanabacoa, a suburb of Havana, is a poor but proud and bustling community teeming with young families with children. Pastor Yoelkis Sierra Gonzalez knows this neighborhood well, and he saw firsthand the great need for a safe place for young children while their parents are at work. Pastor Yoelkis imagined the day when his church would welcome those children, feed and care for them, and teach them about Jesus.

Now, nearly three years later, Pastor Yoelkis’ dream is becoming a reality. Soon after the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding, construction began on the building that will house this ministry, and fall 2020 was set as the projected launch date. Unfortunately, the plan and timetable did not factor in the effect of a worldwide pandemic.

Todd Luke - February 2021 Update

Mexico

Dear friends,

Our partners in Mexico are very busy even though we do not plan to send American mission groups to build cisterns this year. Victor, Raul, and Isaias are leading a team that will work with at least twenty-two families to build twenty-two family-owned cisterns during the next couple of months. Generous financial support from our American church and family partners makes this possible. We hope to build up to forty cisterns in 2021, but that number depends on the response we receive from our American partners.

We are also doing something new and exciting. In addition to the many support tasks he already performs to support the cistern process, our associate in Xpujil, Felipe Torres now leads a small crew that visits each of our cistern partners who have repaid at least $2,000 pesos of their cistern materials loan. The purpose of the house call is to:

José Carlos Pezini - January 2021 Update

Dear brothers and sisters,

Grace and peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. I hope that this year, we will find more peace and freedom to carry out the work for which we were called to do. We mourn with those who lost their loved ones to COVID-19. We pray that with the arrival of the vaccine, life will get better.

Many pastors in Brazil were infected with the virus. Some recovered and others succumbed to COVID-19. Many churches are suffering financially and cannot pay their pastors. But, we must continue doing our ministry. That is why we need you, faithful ministry partners, to continue to pray for us.

Even during the pandemic, our ministry continues, training leaders and pastors for revitalizing and planting new churches. We had to adapt and readjust our courses, which are now offered virtually, but we obtained good results. Here is testimony from Rev. Marcio Tenponi about a church that I helped to revitalize:

COVID-19 Appeal Brazil

The Outreach Foundation is in regular contact with partners around the world, many of whom are sharing with us the upheaval that they are experiencing as the COVID-19 virus and the response to it burdens their ministries of medical outreach and compassionate service. We recently received the following COVID Appeal update from our partners in Brazil:

Friends and partners, I hope that everyone is well in the midst of the pandemic year. This year was a year of great challenges around the world. It was no different in Brazil. Since the end of March, when COVID-19 started killing people everywhere, churches have interrupted their face-to-face services, avoiding crowds and by order of the government maintaining social distance. Here in Brazil, many local communities have not yet returned with their regular face-to-face services. And others who have returned are suffering from low attendance because many are afraid of being infected. Sadly, the number of people infected with COVID-19 here in Brazil has increased again and people are in a panic. This situation causes uncertainty, and many pastors have no idea what the situation will be like for their churches next year.

COVID-19 Appeal Updates, Latin America, Partnership, ProjectsThe Outreach FoundationNovember 24, 2020COVID-19 Appeal, Brazil, COVID-19

Partner Updates

Please join us in praying for Pezini and Odete as Pezini undergoes shoulder surgery August 9

Mexico