News from the Brownes in N Argentina 5th May 2020
Hello Jim!
Many thanks for your email. It’s good to hear you’re keeping safe and finding things to keep you busy.
We are fine thanks. Here in Argentina we’re into week 7 of our lock down. It’s more strict than in England, and we’re not allowed out for exercise, though we can walk down to our local shops to buy essentials. We haven’t had any serious shortages (nothing worse than normal!), so it’s all very easy going for us. Twice a week I take Silvia over to her dad’s house, for which we need a permit – we have it digitally on our phones – because we have to go through two police check points. Anyone found breaking the rules faces a heavy fine and even prison for repeated offenses. We also have to wear a face mask whenever in a public place (including in the car), and respect the social distancing rules. Long distance traveling has been suspended, and public transport within the towns and cities is very restricted (mainly available only for essential workers). Because our government brought in the restrictions very early, we have relatively few cases of coronavirus, with only 4 cases in Salta province where we live, all brought in from outside. Three have already recovered, and the fourth is in hospital receiving treatment.
We have seen one of your YouTube services, and we have also seen online services from our other link churches in Cheadle Hulme, St Albans and Crawley. We also watch a service from a large church on the other side of Salta, which is broadcast on local tv, which is good for us, as our internet is not very reliable, so live services on YouTube often get cut off. I also watch a service from a church in Brazil, which is interesting for me, as I have been studying Portuguese for four years now, and at last I find I can understand most of what is said!
With regard to the Toba translation work, obviously we cannot meet together during this time, and probably that won’t be possible for a few months more. As I am diabetic and 62 years old, I am in a high risk category and so will probably not travel straight away, even if the other team members do meet up. I have plenty of work to do on my own, checking work already done by the translators, and checking spelling throughout the project, so lock down hasn’t affected my work very much. Estela and Hilario have both uploaded a few more chapters of 1 Kings and Leviticus respectively, so that’s very encouraging, as it’s very difficult for them to work with the laptops where they live. In the short term the work won’t get delayed very much, but if we cannot meet together for a long time, it will begin to make a difference.
I also keep busy in the garden, with lots of tidying to do now as we go towards winter. And there are always jobs to do in the house, so I don’t think I’ll be getting bored just yet!
I hope you can get some prayer points out of all this! Many thanks, greetings to all at All Saints: God bless you, with love from all of us!
Michael.
–