March Newsletter

Translation.

 Translation work at the mission of La Anunciación, in Santa Elena, the newest mission in the Anglican Diocese of Belize, Central America. Photo copyright Fr. Shaw Mudge.

Answers to questions.

Why does the Province of the West Indies need a Spanish Prayer Book?

Some people have asked this question because they see Spanish Prayer Books already available at book stores.

The problem is that while there are Spanish Prayer Books available, there are no Spanish Prayer books available according to the rites of the Province of the Church in the West Indies, the rites used by Spanish speaking peoples in Belize and elsewhere in the Province.

As of March, the final-draft touches are being put on the Spanish translation, in time for advance review by the Archbishop of the Province and in time for the gathering of Bishops of the Province in June. The goal is to have the final work completed in time for the Provincial Synod in mid-November.

Who is doing the translation? SAMS missionaries (Society of Anglican Missionaries and Senders).

The lion share of the 800 page translation work has been done by the Ven. John Park, who has an M.A. in Spanish and who served in Honduras for 18 years, 12 of them as Archdeacon of the Diocese of Honduras, and then, who served as Dean of the Anglican Cathedral in Lima.

I have translated the 115 page lectionary and was the person who thought to contact Fr. Park for this work, on behalf of the Secretary of Belize and of the Bishop of Belize. 

Furthermore, Bishop Philip of Belize enlisted the invaluable editorial help of local clergy who would be using the Prayer Book, particularly Fr. Juan Peralta and the Rev. Olivia Vasquez (shown in the photo with Fr. Park). It is a wonderful team.

God bless you all, and thank you for your support,

Fr. Shaw, and on behalf of Mtr. Julie.

Examining Chaplain, Diocese of Belize

SAMS missionaries.

Support.

Please pray and continue to make checks out to: "SAMS". Put "Shaw and Julie Mudge" in the memo, to support what we are doing. Your continued support makes the work in Belize possible.

Mailing address:

SAMS,

P. O. Box 399,

Ambridge, PA 15003-0399.

Or on-line, at http://goo.gl/nll8ut  

Prayer Mail from Belize

Dear Friends, 

I hope you are having a blessed Lent

This is my prayer mail for Tuesday 3 March 2015. Have a great day celebration of John and Charles Wesley, Anglicans. Local elections throughout the country of Belize are Tuesday; prayers for the candidates and for the results would be welcome.

By the time some people read this, I may have arrived safe and sound in the United States. However, there is an air controllers strike at the International Airport in Belize City, the first ever, so I would appreciate your prayers that my flights go smoothly with a minimum of disruption. Hence, the sending of this prayer mail a few days early (for prayer).

It has been an eventful trip. An update of the translation work is the subject of this month's newsletter, attached; it is moving along nicely, one step at a time. Next deadline, probably mid-April.

Happy birthday to our daughter Ruth, last week. The Internet was down when the day arrived.

I have enjoyed texting "I love you" to Julie while I have been away. It really makes texting uplifting.

Highlights of this week: 

1) This week, Bishop Philip of Belize appointed me to the long-range task of increasing the number of full-time  clergy in the Diocese of Belize, working in conjunction with the Commission on Ministry in Belize. It is one of the 10 goals for the way forward for diocesan wide ministry in Belize. If you are interested in serving full time over the long-haul in Belize, please let me know.

2) I gave a talk on reconciliation-at-the-diocesan-level at the Lenten Clergy retreat

3) Looked into the possibility of closer relations between the Diocese of Belize and the Diocese of Honduras, concerning English speaking congregations in Honduras. The possibilities are remoter than in the past.

4) Gave a presentation on reconciliation at the Diocese of Belize lay leader retreat. 

5) Looked into the state of translation work of the diocesan and provincial canons in Spanish.

6) Looked into the state of translation work of the Old Testament and the CPWI Prayer book in Garifuna.

7) Enjoyed visiting with Bishop Larry of the Yukon and former Archdeacon John Park at the clergy retreat.

8) Attended the start-up of a men's group at All Saints' in Belize City; attended Holy Eucharist with the diocesan staff on Friday at the chapel in the Bishop's house; attended Lenten Bible study at the Cathedral on Thursday evening; ongoing planning discussions with the Bishop; served as a liaison between SAMS and the Diocesan office here to enable better communication for future short-term mission trips to Belize, and to coordinate diocesan plans with SAMS, occasional conversations, and more!

9) The Belizean Cursillo community has asked me to serve a spiritual director at the upcoming Cursillo weekend in Belize, near Belmopan, October 22-25.

Scheduled as we speak, that emerged on Thursday evening: travel with the Bishop to the ACC Staff retreat Friday afternoon (Anglican Cathedral high school staff), and traveling with the Bishop to Orange Walk to the north in Belize for services on Sunday.

Prayers:

1) Please keep our mission work in prayer, continuing as a fruitful endeavor of the Holy Spirit. It has been a good trip. 

2) Please keep the next trip in your prayers (as I write this, probably sometime between Easter and Pentecost, during vocation month). It has been tentatively scheduled for beginning mid-May with a trip to the south of Belize.

3) Please keep the Diocese of Connecticut mission conference this coming Saturday in your prayers, at Trinity, Tariffville; that it would be fruitful.

4) Please keep our translation work in prayer.

5) If you receive this before on or before Monday morning, please pray for safe and timely travel of my return voyage.

6) Please keep Julie in your prayers. She has a tooth matter to take care of this week.

7) Please keep various family members in prayer for decisions to make, for education, for fruitful labor, and for health matters as they arise.

Prayer Mail from Belize

Dear Friends, 

Greetings from Belize. This is my prayer mail for Tuesday 23 February 2015.

It has been an eventful few days, and at the moment, I have Internet access for the first time since I have arrived. However, for number of reasons, I have had to create an email account for use while I am in Belize. 

While I am in Belize, my email account is: belizeanglican75@yahoo.com, so that you will recognize it as it may appear. In the meantime, my regular email account has become accessible. You may use either email account.

Events so far, 

1) Page by page review of the translation work for the Book of Common Prayer in Spanish.

2) I preached at the Cathedral at the later service on Sunday (8:30 am).

3) Planning for a clergy retreat that takes place tomorrow and Wednesday.

4) Counseling with people interested in the ordination process.

5) Planning strategies for more translation work.

6) Planning strategies for clergy and lay leader deployment.

Please keep our mission work in prayer, continuing as a fruitful endeavor of the Holy Spirit. It has been a good trip.

God bless you,

Shaw

Belize City, Belize

I am praying for you every day.

February Newsletter

Going the Distance.

 St. Hilda’s, Santa Helena, Belize, Central America. Preparing for service. Photo copyright Fr. Shaw Mudge.

Answers to questions.

How does online distance education help students in Belize?

Our online seminary program is the only seminary program in Belize. Without us, there is not anything.

But not all students stay in Belize. Our program enables students to continue their courses from anywhere on the globe. Some students travel to visit relatives. Some travel for medical reasons, and so forth.

For instance, in the past month or so, one student has been continuing studies from California. Another student kept in touch from the UK. Back in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, another student participated in one of our interactive sessions from Harlem in New York City (the lights were on there, although not in lower Manhattan).

Furthermore, students travel around Belize, and during rainy/hurricane season or at night, road travel is not always possible or advisable. Our online seminary courses enable students to continue their studies wherever they are in Belize, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week as long as the Internet is accessible.

Online education takes into account that Belizean students may not be able to be online for any length of time because of power failure or other circumstances, and our free Global Online Anglican Theological College (GOATC) online program enables students to take courses and download notes as they have access to the Internet.

For our live courses, I post my notes online in case students could not make the classes for power reasons or other matters. And if I am traveling, I can post notes ahead of time, so that students can download them and read them off-line, as would be convenient.

It is a timely program. God bless you all, and thank you for your support,

Fr. Shaw, and on behalf of Mtr. Julie.

Examining Chaplain, Diocese of Belize

SAMS missionaries.

Support.

Please pray and continue to make checks out to: "SAMS". Put "Shaw and Julie Mudge" in the memo, to support what we are doing. Your continued support makes the work in Belize possible.

Mailing address:

SAMS,

P. O. Box 399,

Ambridge, PA 15003-0399.

Or on-line, at http://goo.gl/nll8ut  

Prayer Mail

Dear Friends,

This is our public prayer mail for Tuesday, 17 February 2015.

I finished translating the CPWI Daily Office Lectionary into Spanish (about 50 pages), and I have started the CPWI Weekday Lectionary with about 22 pages to go. Whether I finish before I go, will be interesting.

This week also included career counseling with a possible applicant for Holy Orders in Belize, and my teaching an interactive online session of the Worship and Liturgy A300 course (the 1995 CPWI Prayer Book and the CPWI Hymnal).

The grant possibilities for translation work seem to be on hold for the moment. If something changes, I will proceed. If not, the Holy Spirit may have something else in mind (Acts 16:6-10 comes to mind).

I leave later this week for Belize and return at the beginning of March.

My valentine and I have recovered nicely from our colds.

Prayer requests:

 

1) Final preparations for the on-the-ground mission trip to Belize (begins this week), the agenda, the logistics, safe and timely travel, fruitfulness of the venture, what the Holy Spirit would have me say and do. Pray that I avoid storms in my travels. 

2) For the continuing everyday fruitful mission work with Belize. I resume course preparation for an online New Testament Scriptures course when I return from Belize.

3) For the completion of the CPWI Spanish Prayer Book in a timely manner. Our team is hoping to have our draft completed by the time of my next trip to Belize this week. The person working on the Psalter could use prayer.

4) For God's provision for all our needs both here and abroad. 

5) For the sale of our dwelling in Wynantskill; closing tentatively scheduled for mid-March. Keep praying until the check clears. The prospective buyer's 31 page building inspection report gave us a good bill of health; in the works: an extension to check out a few things outside that have not been possible because of the snow.

6) For Lydia, for what's next. She has started to implement a plan.   

7) Attached is our February Mudge Mission newsletter in two formats.

In Jesus' Name,

Shaw+, and on behalf of Julie+ and Lydia

Thank you for your support, and I pray for you every day.

Scripture Prayer

Psalm 90: 16-17

Let your work be shown to your servants,

And your glorious power to their children.

Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us,

And establish the work of our hands upon us;

Yes, establish the work of our hands.

We pray Lord for all the work that Father Shaw Mudge does to advance your kingdom in Belize.  Let this work be fruitful and well established, dear God.  Please send special blessings as he travels once again to Belize at the end of this week and keep his family safe while he is away.  Thank You, triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Prayer Mail

Dear Friends,

This is our public prayer mail for Tuesday, 10 February 2015.

Thank you for your prayers!

Happy Valentines Day this week! Happy Cyril and Methodius Day! (I get excited about missionaries, what can I say...)

I have been preparing for my trip to Belize as well as working on a course this week. I finished translating the Triennial Lectionary (about 40 pages) for the Spanish version of the CPWI Book of Common Prayer, and now, I am working on the CPWI Daily Office Lectionary (about 50 pages). 

A student completed an online course this week.

Julie and I are well on the way to full recovery from our colds.

Prayer requests:

 

1) For preparations for the on-the-ground mission trip to Belize (begins in about a week and a half), the agenda, the logistics, safe and timely travel, fruitfulness of the venture, what the Holy Spirit would have me say and do.

2) For the continuing everyday fruitful mission work with Belize. Several things have come up this week which have been good related to Belize.

3) For the completion of the CPWI Spanish Prayer Book in a timely manner. Our team is hoping to have our draft completed by the time of my next trip to Belize in another week and a half.

4) For God's provision for all our needs both here and abroad. 

5) I am looking into the possibility of obtaining a grant for translating my course materials into Swahili (Tanzania) and Garifuna (Belize; one of the three national languages in Belize; I am also exploring the possibility of translating the CPWI Prayer Book into Garifuna, even though Garifuna is primarily an oral language). Several factors play into that, one of which is getting the right translators, and another is how the funding stream might work, in addition to what kind of funding might be available for such a venture. This needs prayer that the Holy Spirit might open doors at the right place and the right time. Putting a feasible proposal together is the first step, which is what I am exploring.

6) This week, a person from Food for the Poor contacted me, expressing an interest in possibly getting involved with the Anglican Diocese of Belize. I have made the request known to the Bishop of Belize. I ask your prayers that God's will be done. 

7) For the sale of our dwelling in Wynantskill; closing tentatively scheduled for mid-March. Keep praying until the check clears. The prospective buyer's 31 page building inspection report gave us a good bill of health; in the works: an extension to check out a few things outside that have not been possible because of the snow.

8) For Lydia, as she plans for what's next. Julie and I have been helping her consider various options.   

9) For continued prayers for our recovering from the bug that we had. We are really doing well. I'd like to finish the job this week.

In Jesus' Name,

Shaw+, and on behalf of Julie+ and Lydia

I pray for you every day.

Scripture Prayer

Ephesians 2: 10

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus, for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

Thank You, Father God, for Father Shaw Mudge and his family.  Thank You that they, like us all, are your workmanship, created in Christ Jesus.  Thank You for their obedience in performing those good works, which You prepared ahead of time.  Thank You that You walk with them and us as we perform good works in Your Holy Name.

We thank You for Lydia’s safe return from Honduras.  We pray that the Holy Spirit guides her into the next chapter of her life.

We thank You for all of Father Shaw’s efforts in the ministry education for Belize.  We pray for the courses that he creates and teaches and in particular for the new course that was started last Saturday.

We pray for his travel plans to Belize at the end of this month.

We ask for continuing financial provision for the Mudges.  We thank You that the home in NY has a buyer and we pray that all goes smoothly until the closing in mid-March.

Thank You, Lord, for all the blessings that you bestow upon the Mudge family.  Amen.

Prayer Mail

Dear Friends,

This is our public prayer mail for Tuesday, 3 February 2015.

Church in the Province of the West Indies Lectionary calendar: Anksar, Missionary Bishop in Sweden, 865.  

Lydia returned on Saturday evening from Honduras. A great trip. Saw her photos and videos, with commentary. Had an excellent time catching up.  

Julie and I came down with colds over the weekend. We are on the mend.

I have been preparing for my trip to Belize as well as working on courses this week. A new course began on Saturday. 

I have been working on the 100 or so pages of the lectionary for the Spanish version of the Church in the Province West Indies Prayer Book. 

Prayer requests:

 

1) For preparations for the on-the-ground mission trip to Belize, the agenda, the logistics, safe and timely travel, fruitfulness of the venture, what the Holy Spirit would have me say and do.

2) For the continuing everyday fruitful mission work with Belize. 

3) For the completion of the Spanish Prayer Book in a timely manner. We hope to have completed as much as we can for presentation at the time of the Provincial Synod in early April.

4) For God's provision for all our needs both here and abroad.

5) For the sale of our dwelling in Wynantskill; closing tentatively scheduled for mid-March. Keep praying through the building inspection and until the check clears.

6) For Lydia, as she readjusts back to the US.   

In Jesus' Name,

Shaw+, and on behalf of Julie+ and Lydia

I pray for you every day.