Tristan Taylor

SANTIAGO, Chile (BP)--Lyle and Claren Dease saw their ministry come full circle when 11 young athletes from the church they started in Uruguay went on a mission trip to Chile.

ESQUINA, Argentina (BP)--The pastor from Arkansas and the pastor from Argentina looked at each other in disbelief. God was leading their hearts in the same direction, though they're from different continents and different cultures and speak different languages.

ESQUINA, Argentina (BP)--Miche Patricia was more accustomed to hunting parties of upper-class, middle-aged men treating her like an employee at best and a servant at worst. But the laid-back, laughing Americans and their children treated her differently.       God had a plan for reaching Miche, even though her heart had remained closed to Him for years.       Tears come to David Holt's eyes when he thinks about it. He and his wife Alisha, International Mission Board missionaries to Argentina from Mount Zion Baptist Church in Snellville, Ga., had been praying for their friend Miche for months.       "It's kind of the reverse view of what we normally find here in this culture," David Holt said. "In Miche's case, she was the one in the marriage who was not attending church. Her husband had gotten back in the church and given his life to Christ, and she's been resistant."       Miche works as a server and kitchen hand in a hunting lodge in Esquina, Argentina. The town is in the heart of river country and has been built around the hunting and fishing industry. Like most of the hunting guides and lodge employees, Miche is from the Criollo people group.       The Criollo people are not the privileged descendents of European immigrants, nor are they the indigenous people of Argentina. They are a mix of the two and claimed by neither. Shunned by the discriminating immigrant class and ineligible for government welfare programs available to the indigenous, the Criollo have learned to maintain a wary distance from outsiders.       "The Criollo are very downtrodden people," Alisha Holt said. "They've been told for generations that they're not worth anything."       But the Holts never gave up on Miche. They have worked with the Criollo long enough to know that gaining their trust and earning the right to speak into their lives is a long process. So for months they prayed for her by name and did their best to develop a friendship with her.       Then the volunteers came.       Four families including six kids from the United States came to experience the hunting and fishing opportunities in northern Argentina. But they came also with the intention of sharing God's love with the Criollo people who work in the hunting and fishing industry -- people like Miche. Their plan was to share the Gospel with the people they meet casually while enjoying the outdoors.       The volunteer trip resulted from a collaboration of hunting ministries involving the Holts and Chuck McAlister, a former IMB trustee who hosts an evangelistic TV program for hunters.       "We are families helping people encounter Jesus," said McAlister, from the Church at Crossgate Center in Hot Springs, Ark.       At first Miche was shy and reserved around the volunteer families. They did what they could to make her job easier and expressed their appreciation for her service. And even when neither knew what the other was saying, smiles were always exchanged. It became clear that, unlike most of the tourists who come through the lodge, these people valued the lodge employees.       They valued Miche. And her reservations were fading.

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (BP)–Chris Alan Ingram, an International Mission Board missionary in Uruguay for 24 years, died March 25 at UNC Hospital in Chapel Hill, N.C., after a nearly year-long battle with a rare form of leukemia. He was 53. “Honestly, I can close my eyes and see his smile,” said Jackie Miller, a family […]

MOLINA, Chile (BP)--The next time Station 1 firefighters in Molina, Chile, are called on to make a rescue, they will be doing so in fireproof uniforms -- a gift from Southern Baptist Mike Lynch, a fellow firefighter from California who met the Molina crew while doing earthquake relief in Chile last year.

LIMA, Peru (BP)–Doors are opening for Baptist seminaries in Peru in light of new legislation making governmental accreditation available to non-Catholic seminaries. The new law “presents an opportunity for the Baptist seminaries, but also a challenge,” said International Mission Board missionary Phil Calvert, who works with Baptist seminaries and other initiatives to help advance theological […]

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (BP)--The Haitian witch doctor stepped into the hot, open air of his yard, his arms filled with the paraphernalia of his dark practice. That caught the attention of his neighbors, who were still living among earthquake-ravaged ruins of their homes in Port-au-Prince. The man dropped his voodoo tools and fetishes on the ground, dug a hole and pushed his things into it. Then, to his neighbors' astonishment, he poured kerosene into the hole and set it on fire.

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (BP)--A nearby explosion sent missionaries ducking for cover at a Thanksgiving celebration in Rio de Janeiro on Nov. 25.       Unharmed, the International Mission Board families watched as a dark plume of smoke rose 50 feet into the air from a bus burning on the next street. A young man had thrown a homemade explosive device onto the bus before speeding away on a motorcycle.       Ironically, the explosion interrupted IMB missionary Eric Reese as he was urging fellow missionaries to take added safety precautions amid escalating violence in the city.       "It was an intense moment," said Reese, a Georgia native. "Not just for me and my family but for all the missionaries that were there. It was pretty crazy."       Because Rio de Janeiro is hosting some of soccer's World Cup games in 2014 and the Olympics in 2016, city officials are under pressure to create a more secure environment for international visitors. Toward that end, Brazilian police recently invaded 13 gang-controlled favelas (slums).       Gangs of drug dealers fought back, though, firing on police and burning cars and buses in the streets. Reese has heard reports that gang leaders are even trying to involve slum residents in the violence by offering 200 Brazilian reals ($116) to people who blow up cars and 500 reals ($290) to people who blow up buses.

SANTIAGO, Chile (BP)--As 33 trapped miners in Chile stepped out of a rescue capsule to greet the world again Oct. 12-13, many wore a T-shirt with ¡Gracias Señor! (Thank you, Lord!) printed across the front.       Christian Maureira, national director of Campus Crusade for Christ in Chile, provided the T-shirts to the miners, who were trapped 2,300 feet underground when a partial collapse blocked the mine exit on Aug. 5. Rescuers worked more than two months to free them from beneath a half-mile of rock.       "When I saw the miners on TV [wearing the shirts], my heart was like this ... really fast," Christian Maureira said about watching the rescue. "I was really excited because a lot of people around the world were looking at that. They gave the glory to God -- wow!"       Maureira suggested his T-shirt idea to José Henríquez after meeting Henríquez's daughter, Hettez, at Camp Esperanza (Hope) ...