Argentina: baptisms

Mia Byrne, who is on a short-term mission trip in Salta, shares that six baptisms have taken place in local churches over the past few weeks. Praise God for the children and adults who have publicly declared their faith in Christ and for what he is doing in Salta.

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Argentina: women’s group

CMS short-termer Mia Byrne, who has just completed her first month in Salta, asks for prayer for a women’s group based in the north east of the city. The group provides a nurturing, supportive space for women to come together in fellowship and to study the Bible. Praise God for the way he is working in these women’s lives and pray for each one of them to discover new depths of God’s love as they delve into his Word. Please also pray for Mia’s confidence and fluency in speaking Spanish to continue to improve so she can connect more deeply with people around her.

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Argentina: women’s group

CMS short-termer Mia Byrne, who has just completed her first month in Salta, asks for prayer for a women’s group based in the north east of the city. The group provides a nurturing, supportive space for women to come together in fellowship and to study the Bible. Praise God for the way he is working in these women’s lives and pray for each one of them to discover new depths of God’s love as they delve into his Word. Please also pray for Mia’s confidence and fluency in speaking Spanish to continue to improve so she can connect more deeply with people around her.

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Finding enough leaders for churches and church groups is a challenge familiar in many parts of the world. Yet in the vast Diocese of Northern Argentina, with 187 churches among five people groups who speak different languages, equipping people willing to lead is another major hurdle.

A CMS-facilitated indigenous mission group identified training as a key priority for mission among indigenous peoples in Latin America, and CMS has been supporting the development of a new training centre in the Diocese of Northern Argentina.

The Centro de Formación Anglicano (CeFA) launched in March 2024 to offer leadership and ministry training for students from indigenous communities.

Alongside dealing with long distances to travel, students are learning in their second language (Spanish), are from oral storytelling cultures and have received varying levels of education prior to this course. Students travel to the centre in Ingeniero Juárez and stay for two to four weeks, before returning to their communities to see family and put learning into practice for one or two weeks.

In the first year nine men from the diocese completed the course – and in March 2025 a cohort of 13 women began studying together. Three of them shared with Paul Tester, CMS mission manager in Latin America, how they came to join the course.

“Why me?”

Etelvina is 26 and from the Toba community. Her family is Christian, her dad is a pastor and she has always participated in church. When she was 14, Etelvina started to take her faith more seriously and within a year was helping with church activities for women. She also started studying nursing in the city of Formosa, leaving her rural community when she was just 17.

In autumn 2024, Etelvina received an invitation from Daniel Lescano, the vicar general in the Diocese of Northern Argentina and a key leader at the CeFA. He asked if she would like to start another type of studying: the year-long CeFA course to learn more about the Bible and serving the church.

When she received the invitation, Etelvina had questions: Why her, not other young people? Was this God’s plan or just a human plan? She shared the invitation with her dad, who warned her that studying would not be easy. Etelvina took time to pray and reflect, and came away encouraged that this was God’s purpose.

Since her teens, Etelvina has learned to speak in public about the Word of God, which she found very hard. Etelvina is now a leader in her community, even though she doesn’t always feel confident.

Etelvina wants to know more to be able to help the church and says that this type of study is needed. She wants to use what she learns to help others – to be a spiritual nurse as well as a medical nurse.

A change of plans

Amandina, from the Wichí community of Barrio Collins in Potrillo, had originally planned to study computing, but missed the deadline to sign up. Then a friend told her about a different type of course that would equip Amandina in her role in the church.

Having lived with her grandparents after her mother died, Amandina was discipled by them as she grew up. As a teenager she helped in Sunday school, and she continues to serve there. Yet over the years Amandina’s church responsibilities have grown.

Now 28, Amandina’s community trust her and she has become a leader. Together with her aunt, Amandina is responsible for the AMARE women’s group and she helps lead the church.

Alongside former SAMS mission partner Chris Wallis, Amandina has become a tutor on the SEAN Abundant Life course on the foundations of the Christian life.

Although Amandina sees other people who she thinks are more capable than her, they don’t want to serve, whereas she does. She says she really wants to serve and that she loves God a lot.

So when Amandina’s friend told her about the course at the CeFA, Amandina mentioned the idea to Gladys Garate, an Argentine missionary based in Potrillo. Gladys and Amandina discussed the course with Daniel Lescano, and found out more about what was required.

Discovering that she would have to be able to speak good Spanish made Amandina a little scared, as her first language is Wichí – so for a couple of weeks she had some doubts. Yet she was encouraged by the trust of her community and the way that this opportunity seemed to fit with God’s purposes for her.

Amandina was very happy to be accepted onto the course, as she had thought since she was 16 that at some point in her late twenties she would be involved in sharing God’s Word with others – and now she is being equipped to do just that.

A dream of learning

Long before she received an invitation to study at the CeFA, Iliana, a 19-year-old woman from the Chorote community, dreamed that she was in a classroom in a house. She didn’t know where it was or how she had got there. Outside there were some young people playing; the door was open and she wanted to go and have fun. When the teacher turned his back she went out, but someone asked her, “Why are you out here? You are chosen.” The teacher came out and guided her back into the class.

Iliana didn’t know what this meant, but she kept having the same dream. She shared it with her family, including her father, who is part of the CMS-facilitated indigenous mission team. He suggested that maybe it was about her being trained.

Having always been in the church, in the last year Iliana has been more committed to following Jesus. She leads Sunday school, but other leaders had stepped back and she felt discouraged and alone. As she sat in her room one day she heard a voice say, “You are not alone.” Knowing that God was with her, Iliana decided to be a person of God, teaching the Word. Although she was sad because others were not helping, she felt joy because of God’s Spirit.

In her work with the children Iliana felt she was lacking what she needed. She had always wanted to be trained, yet something had been holding her back. Then Daniel Lescano visited her community and talked about training at the CeFA – Iliana was intrigued, and decided to find out more.

Now Iliana is studying and enjoys what she is learning. When she came to the centre, she found that the teacher from her dream looked very much like Pastor Narciso, the director of the CeFA and one of the teachers there!

Thanks to support from CMS, these women and others studying alongside them are part of the next generation of leaders in the church in northern Argentina – thank you for helping to equip them!

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Find out more about the stories mentioned in this month’s Hope from the Edges:

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Video transcript

Hello and welcome to Hope from the Edges. I’m Andy Roberts, mission director for CMS.

In the next few minutes we’ll bring you inspiring news from three edges in our world, stories that you are making possible through your gifts and prayers.

First we’ll go to Brazil where men in prison are finding new hope and freedom in Jesus behind bars. Our next stop will be a slum community in Thailand where we’ll meet a woman who received help when she needed it most. Finally we’ll go to Argentina where CMS partners have been able to make a difference to indigenous communities devastated by flooding.

We begin in Florianopolis, Brazil, where we believe God is powerfully at work in prisoners’ lives through the efforts of mission partners Andy and Kati Walsh. Prisons in Brazil have a reputation for overcrowding and harsh conditions…

Andy and others have been running a 12-week discipleship course for inmates over the past couple of years.Several men have come to faith and some have already taken the step of being baptised.

One man said: “This course showed and taught me about the true Christ…. I learned about sin but more importantly about how to be redeemed by God. After this course I can confidently affirm that I am a Christian.”

Another said: “It’s essential that this course spreads in the prison environment. The Word of God is our tool for teaching and freedom.”

The atmosphere in some prisons has changed. Now groups of inmates can be seen praising God, studying the Bible and pursuing Jesus together.

Let’s keep praying for this powerful ministry in the men’s prisons and for doors to open for this work in women’s prisons too.

Now let’s go to Khlong Toei, a slum in Bangkok, Thailand.

Two years ago a woman called Aunty Song took in her niece Manao, providing refuge from an abusive situation. But not long after Aunty Song began caring for Manao alongside her own children, she’d lost her cleaning job. She had no savings and quickly fell behind on rent. She simply couldn’t afford to feed, clothe and pay school fees for Manao as well.

A big foundation offered to take Manao. They wanted to send her to a residential school outside of Bangkok where she would receive three meals a day and a solid education. It sounded good but Aunty Song was reluctant to send Manao away from her family.

Aunty Song connected with Elise and Jon Fletcher, CMS mission partners who also live in the Khlong Toei slum. Elise and Jon come alongside vulnerable families just like Aunty Song’s through a project called Keeping Families Together. The project is run by charity Step Ahead Thailand and supports families to stay together despite poverty.

Eighteen months later, life is very different for Aunty Song and her family. Through a small income generation grant she was able to set up a laundry business which is now thriving.

Manao is settled in a local school and they are both exploring faith in a small house church. Aunty Song says: “The money gave us a boost, but mostly the team helped me to find strength in myself and my community that I didn’t know was there.”

Let’s keep praying for families in the Khlong Toei slum to receive the support they need to stay together and thrive.

Our last stop today is the Chaco region of northern Argentina, where indigenous communities hit by flooding received help through a key CMS partner, thanks to a generous legacy gift. Back in March the Pilcomayo and Bermejo rivers burst their banks.

Nineteen communities were affected and eight of these were cut off by the floodwaters, leaving 800 people stranded. More than 500 people were evacuated. The government was struggling a bit to reach people with aid as great distances are involved. Many of the roads are poor and so many people needed help.

But the Anglican Church of Northern Argentina, a key CMS partner, was already on the ground and sprang into action. Local churches were able to set up soup kitchens and start feeding people.

Quickly this was followed by two weeks of food aid thanks to a legacy gift from a generous CMS supporter. Churches were able to buy mattresses, blankets, towels, toiletries, food parcels, clothing and plastic sheeting for people who had lost homes or possessions and offer spades and wheelbarrows to help clear mud as flood waters receded.

We are so grateful for the generous legacy gift that made it possible for CMS to support the church in their response. This truly is going to the edges together. Thank you for joining me for these stories from the edges and for your prayerful support which makes them possible.

Please share this video with your church, small group or anyone you think could use some fuel for their faith.

Until next time, we are so grateful for your gifts and prayers as together we go:

With Jesus
With each other
To the edges

ENDS

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Argentina: work with indigenous communities

Please pray for CMS’s work with indigenous communities across Latin America, particularly in Argentina. In partnership with the Diocese of Northern Argentina, CMS is helping to support 13 indigenous women to study at the Anglican Formation Centre (CeFA) in Ingeniero Juárez to equip them to serve the church. As a result of recent flooding, some CeFA students are unable to return to their communities for their two-week study break. Please pray for them to be able to return home soon, for their ongoing learning to enable them to join in more effectively in God’s mission and for those rebuilding their homes and communities.

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Responding to severe flooding in March 2025, CMS partners provided immediate, vital support to indigenous communities in the Chaco region of northern Argentina.

Following heavy rains, both the Pilcomayo and Bermejo rivers burst their banks, affecting 19 communities. Of these, eight were cut off by the flood waters, leaving 800 people stranded. More than 500 people were evacuated in the region.

The Anglican Church of Northern Argentina, a key CMS partner, has a presence in many of these communities, so was well placed to help the people affected.

While government aid was available, the number of communities, long distances and poor roads made this response complex and slowed progress.

The church, with a presence on the ground, was able to set up soup kitchens quickly, meeting people’s immediate need for food. This was followed by two weeks of food aid.

Thanks to a generous legacy gift, CMS was able to support the church in this response, as well as helping to buy much-needed supplies to help communities clear up as flood waters receded.

The church distributed spades and wheelbarrows to clear mud, as well as mattresses, blankets, towels, toiletries, food parcels, clothing and plastic sheeting to people who lost homes or possessions.

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Chaco communities appeared first on Church Mission Society (CMS).

Nine indigenous leaders recently graduated from CeFA (Centro de Formación Anglicano, or the Anglican Formation Centre) in Ingeniero Juárez, Argentina.

Over the past year, these nine students have grown in knowledge, ability and confidence.

One student, Jorge, says, “Through this training we realise that we have strong foundations, our faith has a firm base and a structure.”

CeFA was established last year to train indigenous leaders from across the Diocese of Northern Argentina for ministry and mission in their communities.

This first cohort of nine students completed the course without missing any classes all year, despite some having to travel more than seven hours every fortnight to reach the centre.

All the students have studied in their second language, Spanish.

This centre helps to meet the need for training identified through a CMS-facilitated Indigenous Mission Congress, and CMS has funded training places.

The leaders trained here will play a vital role as indigenous people take the lead in mission across northern Argentina.

Vicar General Daniel Lescano commented, “We really feel very blessed by everything that happened this year.”

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Jorge hadn’t studied for 25 years. Luis only completed the first year of secondary school. Both needed training to confidently serve as deacons of indigenous congregations in the Diocese of Northern Argentina.

Thanks to your support, a new centre in Ingeniero Juárez is equipping them. The diocese is vast, containing 187 churches among five people groups. Since missionaries first shared the gospel with the Wichí people in 1911, many people have become Christians.

But in the last four years, 80 older pastors have died, so training younger, indigenous leaders has been identified as a priority by a CMSsupported Indigenous Mission Congress that brought people groups together to plan a way forward. Vicar General Daniel Lescano says: “Training is needed for good biblical teaching… biblical knowledge and understanding is necessary. Furthermore, widespread drug use and alcoholism are demanding relevant pastoral responses.”

The new Centro de Formación Anglicano (CEFA) offers training designed for students like Jorge and Luis. Trainers like CMS local partner Marcos Humacata understand the leaders have limited formal education, are studying in their second language, Spanish, and come from oral storytelling cultures.

The leaders in training travel great distances to study at the centre (co-ordinated by CMS local partner Mirna Paulo), staying for two weeks, followed by a week at home – so families needn’t be uprooted.

The 10 students at the centre focus on cultivating character and growing in knowledge and abilities. Coming from different cultures means students learn to resolve conflicts and collaborate.

Confidence is building among the newly trained leaders – Luis comments: “When I first got here, I was fearful… now I trust the other students and I enjoy all that we are learning.”

Jorge adds, “Through this training we realise that we have strong foundations, our faith has a firm base and a structure….”

Pray together

Please pray for students to be strengthened and equipped as they take learnings back to their communities.

Pray for safe travels for students between home and the training centre, and pray for their families while the students are away.

Pray for good relationships between students, and that this will help them to build bridges in their ministry.

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Sandra was living what she calls “a dark life”. Then one night she had a dream that was impossible to ignore.

Sandra is a thoughtful, quiet woman from the Toba people group and lives in Vaca Perdida, a small town in the Chaco region of northern Argentina. The Chaco is home to the indigenous Wichí, Toba and Chorote communities among others, who have long been marginalised by the majority society who are of European descent (criollos).

Life in this vast rural area is tough. The indigenous people are traditionally hunter gatherers, but with the forest depleted through deforestation livelihood is more dependent on the nearby towns, reached on roads that are often impassable due to flooding or tremendous heat.

And life seemed to have dealt Sandra a particularly difficult hand.

Broken romance, violent revenge

As a young woman, she fell in love with a man from a rival family. Despite strong opposition from her own family, Sandra and the man persisted in the relationship and she became pregnant – but then the man denied the child was his. Left alone to raise a child, and to try to rebuild the relationship with her parents, Sandra moved on.

But when she was engaged to a man from the majority criollo community, the father of her child decided he wanted to be with her. After some soul searching she left her fiancé and got back together with the man who would become her husband. Sandra’s jilted fiancé was furious. He bought petrol and burned down Sandra’s father’s house where she and the family lived. They lost everything: the house, all their possessions, all their documents.

Starting afresh, Sandra and her husband had four more children, but more pain was still to come. The eldest of these children died aged four after an accident at school and the third died at the same age when she was given the wrong injection by a trainee nurse. Both are buried at Sandra’s home.

In the midst of this suffering, God seemed distant and irrelevant.

Since the turn of the 20th century there has been an Anglican presence in this region, first through the work of SAMS missionaries walking with the marginalised peoples of the Chaco in northern Argentina and neighbouring Paraguay.

Generations of people in mission have campaigned alongside indigenous people to keep their land, translated Scripture into native languages and shared the love of Jesus, resulting in many church congregations across the region.

But this meant little to Sandra – while she participated in the local church, she didn’t really feel a part of it. Sandra kept away from people, feeling very ashamed as she had lived a “dark” life.

Finding forgiveness

One night in 2016, Sandra had a dream in which she saw two possible options, to follow others like a now deceased pastor, whom she recognised, who were calling her to the light. The other option led down to hell. This prompted her to look for God at church, but she didn’t get much from the service.

Soon afterwards she went to a meeting of AMARE, an Anglican women’s network affiliated with Mothers’ Union. AMARE gathers women together and helps them understand God’s love for them so that they can love and serve others.

This network began in northern Argentina with support from former CMS mission partners Shelley Stokes and Catherine Le Tissier, alongside a team of local women from different ethnic backgrounds and Bishop Nick Drayson (Catherine’s husband) who firmly believed in the potential of women.

At this meeting, organised by Catherine and the AMARE team, women from the community explored the subject of forgiveness. Sandra heard about the importance of learning to forgive, and the release that could bring. The night after the session, 14 August 2016, Sandra and her husband both woke unexpectedly at 3am. They both felt that it was the Holy Spirit waking them, and they were prompted to spend that time talking about all that they had gone through, their pain and struggles. That night Sandra and her husband were finally able to forgive each other for the ways they had each caused pain.

They wept as the Holy Spirit brought the power of God’s forgiveness into their lives in a way they had never felt before. Sandra remembers that John 14:6, where Jesus says “I am the way, the truth and the life”, was so important to them. They decided to put Jesus at the centre of their lives going forward.

No longer left behind

Since that day, thanks to God’s work and the involvement of AMARE, Sandra’s life has been transformed as she follows Jesus. She has found a new peace in Christ, and a new strength for each day. Catherine, along with others including CMS local partner Mirna Paulo and the AMARE team in the Diocese of Northern Argentina, listened to Sandra and helped her to move forward, putting her faith into action.

Sandra’s involvement in AMARE has grown over the years, and she is now a strong, consistent and respected leader. Sandra is the coordinator of AMARE in Vaca Perdida, helping other women in her Toba community to discover how Jesus can transform their lives too. And beyond Vaca Perdida, Sandra helps to lead AMARE across the Diocese of Northern Argentina – part of a team of local women who now steer the group after Catherine returned to the UK in 2023.

Sandra’s whole life is now different. Her family are united in a way they never were before, with Sandra and her husband encouraging the whole family to play music and sing to worship God. Her husband is wonderfully supportive and collaborative. He often does the cooking, and acts as a chauffeur on his motorbike to ensure that Sandra gets to where she needs to be, in a culture where women are often left behind.

Sandra’s faith has awakened and strengthened her desire to help other people in her community in different aspects of their lives. Alongside her involvement in AMARE, Sandra leads the work of a non-governmental organisation that helps over 160 women to sell their traditional weaving handicrafts, providing them with an important source of income. Sandra manages four workshops producing items to sell. That role even took her thousands of miles away to Italy to share and learn with others from around the world.

Learning and leading

Though many women her age in her community are resistant to new things, Sandra is keen to learn, including mastering technology that can help communities connect and thrive. She cares about her people, and seeks to learn in order to find the best for herself and for them. Sandra is very keen to help young people take part and lead, and supports young and old to make this possible, as youth participation is still new. She asks for space for the young people to take part and includes them whenever she can in church and community life.

Sandra’s commitment to the church continues – and her role as a trusted leader was recently emphasised as she was chosen to be part of the commission seeking a new bishop to follow on from Nick Drayson when he retired in 2023.

After a century of mission presence in the Chaco, more and more efforts are being led by indigenous people like Sandra, with CMS continuing to walk alongside these communities. Sandra now represents the Toba people on a newly developed indigenous synod that helps map a new future.

What a difference – a woman who lost everything, in a remote community not noticed by the wider world, bringing the hope and light of Jesus to change lives around her! Jesus never gave up on Sandra – and he doesn’t give up on all those like her who are pushed to the margins.

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After decades of loving service in northern Argentina, mission partners Catherine Le Tissier and Nick Drayson shared poignant farewells at recent celebration events.

On 7 May a farewell service was held at Cristo el Señor church in Salta, northern Argentina, to thank and celebrate Nick Drayson, retiring from his role as Bishop of Northern Argentina and as Primate of the Anglican Church of South America, and his wife Catherine Le Tissier, who has led the AMARE women’s movement in the diocese and wider province.

Friends and colleagues gathered from across the Chaco region, including people from all the indigenous people groups with whom Catherine and Nick have lived and worked.

As well as marking the 14 years that Nick has served as diocesan bishop, the celebration looked further back across the more than 50 years since Nick first responded to God’s call to serve in Latin America. Among the people groups represented were the Chorote, among whom Nick worked as a linguist back in 1976 (playing a key role in the publication of the New Testament in Chorote in 1997).

Nick’s sermon on “Glory, Gratitude and Service” from 2 Corinthians 4 was greatly appreciated. And after singing together old songs and hymns, the event was rounded off by singing “Happy Birthday” to Nick (who was also turning 70) in the different languages represented, as well as presenting him with a cake.

Those present prayed for Catherine and Nick, as well as sharing food, fond memories and farewells.

Catherine commented: “It was a marvellous occasion – love and gifts and kind words just showered on us! We felt very humbled and so blessed.”

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In 1851, a group of British missionaries starved to death at the southernmost tip of South America without having shared the gospel. So why would a group of CMS people in mission working across Latin America choose this location for a gathering? CMS personnel lead for Latin America Jo Anthony reflects on mission past and present.

It wasn’t a promising start to mission work – Captain Allen Gardiner and his six colleagues had felt called to take the gospel to the Fuegian indigenous peoples at the very “end of the earth”. However, fierce weather, isolation and a series of errors led to disease and death, and the whole party perished within a few months. Despite these beginnings, it was from this endeavour near the modern-day town of Ushuaia in Argentina that the Patagonian Missionary Society (later the South American Mission Society (SAMS), now part of Church Mission Society) was formed.

Indigenous focus

These first missionaries were followed by others from the Patagonian Missionary Society, who connected with the Yaghan people by bringing small groups of them to the Falkland Islands, where the missionaries were initially based. However, the missionaries’ first attempts to settle in Tierra del Fuego (islands at the southern tip of South America) resulted in eight of them being killed by Yaghan people in 1859. But in spite of this harrowing setback, the mission continued and relationships improved. Bishop Waite Stirling established a mission station in 1869 that effectively founded the city of Ushuaia. And one of the first missionaries to live among the Yaghan people, Thomas Bridges, learned their language and put together a grammar and dictionary. He and his family settled in Ushuaia at the mission station, where he lived for more than 20 years.

Yet as the area attracted more settlers from further north because of a gold rush and a boom in sheep farming, the indigenous groups came into conflict with the European way of life and were exposed to new diseases. The population was devastated and eventually mission endeavours among them came to an end. But that wasn’t quite the end of the story….

For nearly two centuries, indigenous groups have been a focus for SAMS and later CMS. While these peoples were often marginalised by many of those of European descent and experienced an almost unimaginable loss of lands and traditions, SAMS people in mission have walked alongside them through providing access to education, preaching the gospel, translating the Bible and teaching resources, equipping leaders and campaigning alongside indigenous groups for land rights.

The CMS group who visited Ushuaia included indigenous bishops Mateo Alto and Crisanto Rojas from the Diocese of Northern Argentina, where there are now more than 150 churches with around 15,000 members in total.

Coming full circle

As we discussed holding our first ever in-region conference of all CMS’s people in mission currently based in Latin America last year, someone suggested we meet near to where SAMS began. So, we arrived in the beautiful town of Ushuaia on 2 January 2023, to talk, listen, pray together and seek God’s will for our work, ministries and lives in Latin America and beyond.

We all knew that there was historic significance to the stunning surroundings, but we hadn’t necessarily anticipated the warm welcome we would receive from a local church community. While there are no Anglican churches or CMS work currently in Ushuaia, the pastor of the local evangelical church of El Gran Rey in the town centre was invited to our conference. He delivered a very moving account of the history of SAMS.

It was humbling and inspiring to see that he knew more about SAMS’s beginnings than most, if not all, of us who work and volunteer for CMS. He told us that he and his congregation felt much gratitude towards those first pioneers who went to the edge of the world to share the gospel, in what was then considered a difficult and inhospitable place.

Later, we visited a midweek church service at El Gran Rey and spent time sharing testimonies with each other of God’s work across Ushuaia and across Latin America. During the church service, congregation members and some of our own group had tears in their eyes as the pastor again spoke about those first missionaries who came to try to share Jesus with the Yaghan people. The church presented our group with a painting of Allen Gardiner and Ushuaia by congregation member Mónica Kizur, which is now in CMS House in Oxford.

Take part

Take part Keen to hear more about CMS’s work in Latin America? Save the date on 23 September 2023 for Adelante, the CMS conference exploring mission in Latin America.

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