From September, we will be spending a year doing voluntary work with SAMS (South American Mission Society) in Uruguay. We will be working alongside the Anglican church in Salto, a city of about 80,000 in the north of Uruguay (map). We will probably be working in a poor neighbourhood, getting involved with the nursery and youth group there.

SAMS have put us in touch with a couple of missionaries, Mark and Carolyn Gilmore, who have just returned after spending 11 years in Uruguay. They have been very helpful and encouraging to us and we intend to meet them in June. The bishop of Uruguay (Miguel Tamayo) is coming to Chichester in June, so it will be good to meet up with him as well. Ricky has just applied for his ‘leave of absence’ at work, which needs to be approved by higher management, but there shouldn’t be any problem with it, although we’d value prayer on this. We’ve agreed to rent our flat to some very close friends for the year, so please pray for that as we finalise the arrangements.

There are no other missionaries in Salto so it will probably be pretty lonely until we get a bit more fluent in the language and make some friends. We have decided to spend a month in Montevideo first, to get some Spanish lessons and to get into the culture. Hopefully Laura will be able to get some research for her dissertation out of the way then as well. We will have to arrange accommodation during this time.

This is obviously going to be a very big step for us as relatively newly weds and we know that it’s not going to be easy. We also know that through having to cope in a new culture, living in totally different circumstances we will get to know each other in different ways and we are certain that we will come out stronger as a couple and as Christians.

Some of the ways you can support us are:
We are going to have to raise about £8000 which is a scary amount of money! A lot of you have supported us financially in the past, we are very grateful for that, and we don’t want you to feel like there’s any pressure to do so again. However, if you can make a donation, no matter how small, it would be a big help. Please write to us or email us; this would especially be appreciated while we’re actually out there. However the most important form of support is prayer, because we can’t do it without the help of God. We believe that God listens to and answers prayers. Please pray for our preparations over the next few months.

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