Chris & Alison Hawksbee

In Asuncion Chris and Alison preach regularly at their local church, Zeballos Cue. The church is building a second storey on their church hall to make room for their youth work. It is going well but there is a shortage of cement in Paraguay.

Chris’s main work is among five Indian communities in the Chaco advising and supporting pastors and community leaders. He travels each week from Asuncion to the Rio Verde Anglican Centre – a multi-purpose centre for holistic mission – where he assists in Bible teaching, when pastors and pastoral assistants come for courses. He has also started preaching here once a month.

Chris has obtained the audible Bible in one of the native languages, which will complement the Bible studies he has been doing in some of the villages. He plans to give them a reading the Bible in a year programme,to encourage them to read or listen to it all. People say they listen to them in the morning siesta and before going to bed. Other communities who use another language are also showing an interest. Chris is now sorting out a charging system using solar panels to recharge the batteries. He has also discovered the Bible available in Guarani on the internet to download to cell phones.

Chris is skilled in agriculture and development, so he provides technical advice and training in subsistence level farming and cash cropping, so these Christians can support themselves and help their communities.

Chris helps the local people to analyse, evaluate and prioritise their needs, and then write up their own projects for the government, NGOs and international aid donors. Recent projects in natural herbal medicines and with livestock have begun with funding from a variety of sources. He has been investigating the use of local forest fruit as raw material for bioethanol production with financial backing from the government, and has recently had technical help for this from an Argentine industrial engineer.

Several communities have been provided with beehives, and new projects were begun in 2012. Chris has also helped some of the unpaid pastors who have done training courses with him to have a few beehives each.

Chris has trained Estaban Galeano as an extension worker. He lives in one of the communities and works in agriculture, beekeeping, water supply and making adobe (sun-dried) bricks for house building. He has been employed by another NGO to train people in adobe making in another of the communities Chris visits. When in the UK Chris asked for prayer for a cattle project in the Village of Santa Fe. The funding has been provided and the work is progressing quickly. The managing of this project by the Community organization is under the leadership of Esteban Galeano which is going very well.

Chris has been encouraging the farmers to grow moringa trees as their leaves provide a nutritious food supplement. Chris is also advising another NGO, Coopi, which is working on setting up a processing centre for moringa products, on technical details and costings.

Chris has been considering taking his ideas into Northern Argentina, where he previously worked. One of his colleagues from the Rio Verde Centre, who was in charge of the Bible training courses there has left to work in Tartagal, Argentina.