Return to home page Armonia is already facing a shortage of funds for the work it has budgeted to do in 1999.
There are several factors affecting this. Inflation in Mexico is running at 30%+ on average, which means that some items increase by 10% over the year, while others go up by 50 - 100%. This obviously makes setting accurate budgets far more difficult than normal. Furthermore, the price of fuel rose significantly last year, and the knock-on effect of this on other commodities is still working its way through the economy.
Secondly, in the last part of 1998, Armonia could get 10 pesos for the dollar. Early this year the rate then fell to between 9.1 and 9.4 pesos; more surprisingly, it has since stayed there. While this is good news for Mexico, it means the existing budgeted funds for Armonia's 1999 activities have been effectively devalued by 6 - 9%.
Thirdly, we are facing a substantial cut in contributions from some key donors.
Finally - to end on an encouraging note - more and more people from the communities are coming to Armonia for education on the Bible, reading and writing, health and nutrition, and vocational skills such as IT and woodworking.
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Please pray -
- for
wisdom and sensitivity in prioritising and allocating
Armonia's existing funds;
- that God will provide donors
to help fund the most valuable aspects of Armonia's work.
Armonia has supporters in the US and the UK who can send you information on how to contribute to Armonia's work. For their details, click here.
Saśl and
Pilar Cruz (and Eidi and Saślito) (updated 1.6.99)
Saul and Pilar founded Armonia in 1987 and are its principal
directors.
As the many supporters who have met them can testify, Saśl and
Pilar have an inspiring and powerful vision of what it is to be a
Christian and to walk with the poor, and they follow this vision
with a tremendous amount of dedication and commitment. They
wouldn't change it for the world, but at times they get
exhausted. Similarly, their children Eidi (22) and Saulito (17)
both give great support to Armonia at the same time as being in
full-time education.
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Please pray -
- thank
God for the vision He's given to Saul and Pilar, and for
the wonderful resources of energy and commitment, and support
from others that He provides for them;
- that He constantly renews
and enriches the vision He's given them of a Christian response
to poverty in Mexico and elsewhere;
- that He provides the resources
to enable them to take a break when they need it;
- for His guidance and wisdom
for Eidi and Saślito as they support their parents' work as well
as looking to their own futures.
Rodolfo and
Karime Buenrostro (updated
1.6.99)
Rodolfo is the co-ordinator of Armonia-Santa Cruz; his
wife Karime leads the Youth Clubs at Santa Cruz and Jalalpa.
(Karime is also Saśl's sister.) Also Karime is expecting a baby
in October (see 'Rodolfo
and Karime's Baby' on the Prayer Board).
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Please pray -
- thank
God for the joy and commitment they bring to their work
at Armonia;
- for His guidance and wisdom
on them as they seek to serve Him more and more in their roles;
- for the safe delivery of a
healthy baby to them in October.
Cheryl Russell
(updated 1.6.99)
Cheryl arrived from England on 17th May to take up the
much-needed role of Saśl and Pilar's personal secretary.
Cheryl attended All Nations Christian College in the UK after living in Bolivia for 18 months attending a discipleship training and working with street children. Her spoken Spanish is very good, although she says her written Spanish needs some work!
The first team of visiting workers from the US arrived just over a week after she got here so she's already in the middle of heavy translating duties as well as starting to get to grips with the considerable task of dealing with Saul and Pilar's personal administration. Despite the mounting workload she still has the energy at the end of each day to be very excited about being here!
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Please pray -
- thanking
God for so clearly calling her to work with Armonia and
for so generously providing her with everything she needed to
make the move here safely;
- that she keeps turning to God
as she adjusts to her new environment;
- for stamina, wisdom and patience
in finding her feet in her new role and prioritising her
workload;
- for help in improving her
written Spanish.
- that funds to cover her
salary for the year will be found (at the moment we have 70%
covered).
There is no library in the Jalalpa community. Many of the members of the community center would love to build a small library facility at the Jalalpa community center with the hope of developing it into a full library when possible.
Families and members of the Jalalpa Youth Club are preparing and selling food at the community center to raise funds for this project.
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Please pray -
- that God
will encourage and bless their work and plans to provide
such a valuable resource to this largely illiterate community.
The area of rainforest in Mexico's southern mountains is one of the most bio-diverse eco-systems in the world (one square mile has more more species of trees and plants than all of the US and Canada put together). It is currently under threat from three directions:-
- increasing
industrialisation
- a combination of old-fashioned
farming practices with periods of drought. Farmers still set fire
to the trees to clear the area for agriculture. With the very
late start to the rainy season last year, thousands of acres of
woodland were lost through forest fires, and the rainy season is
late starting again this year
- Mexican wood furniture becoming
very fashionable in different countries, giving rise to a
fast-growing export trade.
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Please pray -
- that God
will raise a strong Christian response to such
environmental issues here in Mexico and elsewhere as an
expression of respect for His creation
Year by year, many things in Mexico slowly improve - transport, construction, and industry - but the situation in the countryside only gets worse. The government is putting too little investment into it. Also, as well as affecting the forests in the south (see 'Depletion of Mexico's forests', above), the lack of rain is badly aggravating the situation for the farmers all over Mexico.
12 months ago, the head of cattle that Mexican farmers could supply for food to Mexico in a month was 2 million. That figure has now dropped to 1 million head of cattle a month, coupled to a significant rise in the volume of imported meat.
Many states in the north of Mexico are already under emergency water rationing. More and more farmers are abandoning their villages and homesteads and moving to the cities to try and make a living there. (The outcome of such a migration of unskilled labour to the cities can be seen in the overcrowded poverty of a community like Jalalpa or Huicholes.) The government claims to have a plan to deal with the drought situation should it continue to worsen, but nobody is saying what the plan is.
The rainy season is already a month late.
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Please pray -
- that the
rainy season will start soon.
- that by God's grace He will
raise political leaders who will show compassion and wisdom in
dealing with the increasing rural poverty in Mexico.
The main university in Mexico City, UNAM, is facing a severe crisis.
Recently the university authorities asked students to pay a fee for their education to help the university finances. A group from the university's 400,000 students responded by going on strike, with the protests escalating when it was revealed that the Mexican government is putting very little investment into the country's universities, while the governorship of Mexico City is putting no money into UNAM at all. (There are important elections for state governors coming up in July, and putting money into election campaigns is seen as more important than investing in education.)
The strikes have paralysed the university for four weeks now and so far there seems to be no resolution to the problem.
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Please pray -
- for a
wise and peaceful resolution to the conflict
- that future political leaders will
show wisdom and determination, and give education in Mexico the
priority it requires
The impact of Y2K is a cause for concern the world over, but many Mexicans are worried that their country will be worse hit than most. The government announced less than 18 months ago that it was looking into the problem, and since then nothing significant has been heard from them about it that would help lay people prevent future problems.
A recent incident highlighted many people's concerns. In May, a Mexican communications satellite went off-line, affecting hundreds of businesses' communications and financial transactions directly, with knock-on effects to thousands of others. Digital communication and financial transfer systems were disrupted for hours, all as a result of one satellite malfunctioning.
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Please pray -
- that God
will protect Mexico, especially the poor communities,
from the worst effects of Y2K
- That He guides and provides
for all the preparations that the Armonia communities make to
deal with Y2K