Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Open house in Mt. Hermon, Santa Cruz this Friday PM!
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Abegg ELL - To CA this weekend!
The Abegg’s Electronic Love Letter
To those who have been called,
who are loved by God the Father and kept by Jesus Christ;
Mercy, peace and love be yours in abundance.
-Jude 1:1
***For those in SF Bay Area & Santa Cruz CA, please note that we will be there starting this Saturday. See below.
In this Issue
Project: Recursos Pastorales Update
Waiting on the Lord: What we anticipate for the coming year
Abegg Family Update: In CA starting this weekend!
Missionary Support and Gifting for the Abeggs
Project: Recursos Pastorals
As you know we have been working on a project to provide materials (Bible dictionaries, concordances, Greek textbooks, commentaries, counseling aids etc). to pastors in Cuba. This has been slow going due to the difficulty in getting permission from Cuban authorities to enter religious materials into Cuba. We have been literally mailing in individual books but due to the expense involved are looking at other possibilities for the coming year as well as contacting publishers asking them to partner with us by providing their literature free or charge to a market that they don’t have access to anyway. Please pray for this program and that the anticipated changes would bring greater fruit to the pastors and their congregations throughout Cuba.
Waiting on the Lord
Over the past year I have been doing lots of praying and thinking through my beliefs on missiology, the church and the parachurch’s role in missions. I believe that the primary intuition that the Lord has given us to accomplish the Great Commission is the local church. Though I highly value LAM I have actually been wrestling with my involvement in a parachurch ministry when my heart is with the local church. Thankfully Claudia, the boys and I are intimately involved in a church that takes seriously our call “to make disciples of all nations” and has a heart for Cuba, the Caribbean and Latin America as a whole. After much scripture searching and prayer we believe that the Lord has us at LAM for many purposes, especially to encourage and assist the local churches in Cuba as they seek to fulfill the Great commission in a very difficult place. Please pray for us as we end this year and look forward to what the Lord has in the coming year for our family, Latin America Mission, our home church in Miami and the many churches and pastors we seek to encourage and assist in thiere own ministry to and through their own local church.
Abegg Family Updates:
we’ll be in CAlifornia this weekend!!!
For those in and around the San Francisco Bay Area and Santa Cruz. We are headed your way starting this weekend and we’d love to see you!
This Saturday (10/24) Walnut Creek
Walnut Creek Presbyterian Church: Missions Celebration Weekend
Saturday: We will be presenting a ½ hr. seminar and taking part in a Q&A session on missions and our current ministry to Cuba. From 3:00 pm. – 5 PM
This Sunday (10/25) Walnut Creek
Walnut Creek Presbyterian Church: Missions Celebration Weekend
9:00 1st Worship service & missionary interview.
10:00 - 10:45 Global Village Missionary Experience
10:45 2nd Worship service & missionary interview.
This Monday (10/26) Walnut Creek
Open House with the Abegg Family. 5:00 – 7:00 PM. We want to see everyone, but simply cant visit each of your homes. So we have reserved the parlor at WCPC (between the library and the sanctuary). We’ll have a few snacks and drinks so stop by on your way home from work or even feel free to pick up your dinner and eat it there.
Friday (10/30) Santa Cruz / Scott’s Valley
Open House with the Abegg Family. 5:00 – 8:00 PM. We are thankful for Walnut Creek Pres that is flying us out for the missions conference which also allows us the opportunity to sneak down to Santa Cruz and see people there. Although we don’t know the exact location yet (watch the website next week for details), we plan on having a similar open house at Mt. Hermon. As before, we’ll have a few snacks and drinks so stop by on your way home from work or even feel free to pick up your dinner and eat it there.
Back to top
Missionary Support and Special Gifts
Through the generosity and prayers of partners like you, we are able to continue ministering to the Churches in Cuba.
If you would like to make a tax deductible donation please take advantage of the links below or simply send checks to Latin America Mission with a note indicating “For the Abeggs” to:
Latin America Mission P.O. Box 52-7900 Miami FL, 33152-7900.
· Link to a Printable Donation Form. (click link for mail in donation form)
· Link to Online Donation page (click link for online credit card donation)
How to Contact Us
E-mail: kabegg “at” lam “dot” org
Website/Blog: http://www.abeggloveletters.blogspot.com/
Office Mail: P.O. Box 52-7900 Miami, FL 33152-7900
Office Phone: 305-884-8400 x25
Monday, October 12, 2009
Sunday's Crash




Sunday, October 4, 2009
Baah We're Lambs
Friday, August 14, 2009
LESSONS WE'VE LEARNED FROM OUR KIDS #13
Benefit to having a 4 year old: you don't need to purchase a paper shredder. Drawback: he's self serving. - It's a blessing to see that the boys want to serve by washing my car. It's also a blessing when it rains that evening to re-wash what they washed.
Jeremy: "If God is everywhere at once, wouldn't we bump into Him any time we move?" - Jeremy: "Can I pour my own juice when I'm older, like 50 years old?"
Exaggeration happens -Nico to a friend: "Daddy says that if you shake a soda can and then open it, it will blow up the whole house!" - Note to self: the next time you have Jeremy and Nico help with gardening, be VERY specific as to which plants are weeds to be pulled out, and which plants should stay in the ground. P.S. buy Claudia some new flowers.
- 23 story apartment buildings are for throwing paper airplanes or water balloons off of. (OK, Daddy already knew that one).
Jeremy: “Worms live in dirt so that's what they eat. We live in air so that's what we eat… Wait, that's not right!" - Faith of a child -Jeremy: "I can't wait to die." Daddy: "Why would you say that? Don't you know how much we would miss you?" Jeremy: "Yeah, I’d miss you too but then I get to be with God!" (See Phil 1:12-26)
While at Disney for Nico & Grandpa’s Birthday, Jeremy got to take part in "Jedi Training" and is now convinced he can
use the force on Mommy and Daddy: “You don’t want to discipline me”. So here’s some for you Star Wars fans:- Nico: "If knights had to fight dragons today, they'd use light sabers!"
- Nico: Ham Solo is captain of the Mañana Falcon.
- Jeremy: "If I feed a worm a lot, would he get as big as Jabba the Hut?"
- Nico: "If a bad guy came to our house I'd spin around and around with my light saber and he'd just run away!"
- Jeremy: "Chewbacca needs to shave like daddy."
Waiting On the Lord
I first got my missions feet wet 22 years ago. Over the past two decades, my passion and labor for foreign ministry has not changed but literally multiplied as the Lord provided me a wonderful missions minded wife in Claudia and the chance to teach Jeremy and Nico about being “strangers in a strange land” no matter where we are (Heb. 11:13-16). We anticipate always being focused on fulfilling the great commission and foreign missions in particular, yet for over a year now we’ve sensed the Lord stirring our hearts toward a new path. We believe strongly that the Church, and specifically “local churches”, are the means by which the Lord has given us to “Make disciples of all nations” (Mat. 28). For that reason we have made a point of being intimately involved in a local church wherever God has planted us (California, Chile, Florida and Cuba by extension), and sought to use our gifts and abilities in these churches while receiving the benefit of being under the direct spiritual authority and guidance of pastoral leadership.
Lately we have found ourselves hungering to be more intimately involved in missions work from the ground floor, or “grass roots” level of the local church as they partner with other local churches in various parts of our own countries (U.S. & Chile) and around the world. This may sound strange from someone who has been involved with the parachurch ministry of Latin America Mission for many years now, so I want to carefully emphasize that we have the utmost admiration and love for LAM as a whole. We actually joined LAM because we saw in them a respect for Latin leadership, and a desire to work alongside of churches in Latin America, so please understand that as we consider what steps the Lord would have us take next, it is not due to any difficulties with LAM. Instead, any future changes will be as a result of a God given burden for the local church on both the sending and receiving ends of mission and a continued desire to see the fulfillment of the great commission.
We recognize that this is big news, and as one dear friend told me when we first started considering a change: “It seems like the death of your dream of foreign ministry”. I explained to him that at this point we don't know what the change will be, but it is in reality the exact opposite from a "dream death". The very heart of what we are doing now, and wherever we will be working & serving in the future, doesn’t vary in any way from what we’ve been doing throughout our years of missionary work: following our Lord wherever He leads us. If our hope and desire is to Glorify God and make Him known, instead of seeking our own temporal “dreams”, we have nothing to lose, since the very one we want to Glorify is the one guiding our steps! “In his heart a man plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps.” (Prov. 16:9).
So where do we go from here? Frankly…I’m not sure at this point. So until the Lord opens the next door, we will continue where He has us now, including the various Cuba and other projects at LAM, Kevin working one day a week in home repair, Claudia as a Lia Sophia jewelry advisor and serving in our local church. We are hoping that by the end of summer we will be able to see God’s leading and provision clearly, but as always, we wait on His timing. My purpose in writing this is to ask you to pray for wisdom and guidance for our immediate ministerial work as well as these future decisions. Thank you for your continuing the wonderful encouragement and financial support we have been so blessed to receive over the years. When the time to step into a new job/ministry comes, we will let you, our faithful prayer supporters, our financial partners and our dear friends know with anticipation.
Thank you for your amazing faithfulness which has allowed us to do the things the Lord has called us to over these years.
If you are interested in following my thoughts in a more extensive format, please log on to: http://missionunderstandings.blogspot.com or simply send us an e-mail or give us a call.
In His Hands;
Kevin, for the family.
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Cuban economy feels heat of world downturn
By JUAN O. TAMAYO
jtamayo@MiamiHerald.com
2009 Miami Herald Media Company.
Fernando used to have a cushy job in Havana as a teller in a government bank office with air-conditioning, a nice computer and a bank-provided lunch.
Not anymore.
Amid Cuba's deepest economic crisis in nearly two decades, his office has shut off the AC and his computer constantly crashes because of the heat, exasperating him and his customers. His lunch, Fernando said, has ``shrunk to a snack.''
Driving the bulk of the crisis has been the world recession, which slashed demand and prices for Cuba's few exports, like nickel, and choked off new credits to a government already deeply in debt. Add the island's internal woes, and Raúl Castro's recent description of the problems as ``a matter of national security'' seems like no exaggeration.
After Castro replaced brother Fidel, ``most Cubans hoped for some improvements in the medium term. But now everyone is preparing for worse and worse,'' said one Miamian who recently returned from a visit and asked for anonymity to protect her relatives there.
Castro has adopted Draconian measures to survive the storm in the short term.
To cut electricity consumption by 12 percent -- Cuba imports half its oil needs -- the government has shut down many factories and ordered state office buildings, theaters and other facilities to shut off their ACs. Inspectors also are cracking down on Cubans who steal electricity through illegal hookups with $23 fines -- about five weeks' worth of the average salary.
``Banks are built to keep out robbers, not to let in a breeze,'' said Fernando, who asked that his surname not be published because of fear of government reprisals. ``Without [air conditioning] . . . my office is two bus stops past hell.''
Some hospitals also are shutting down their emergency rooms for two hours a day, and elective surgeries are being postponed until electricity services become more dependable, said Elaine Scheye, a Chicago consultant who has studied Cuba's health system.
LESS FOOD
Portions for many rationed foodstuffs have been cut -- red beans and chickpeas from 30 to 20 ounces a month, salt by half to about four ounces per month -- while food deliveries to factory, office and school cafeterias have been trimmed, according to official announcements.
Harsh police crackdowns on the food black market -- apparently an attempt to ensure that more items reach the legal outlets -- have driven up prices yet left many of the legitimate sales points with shelves oddly bare, Havana residents say.
Even foreign businesses are suffering, with the government tightly controlling withdrawals from their accounts. Castro also replaced his entire economic Cabinet in March, and just last week the legislature created a comptroller's office to attack official corruption.
Yet many analysts in and out of Cuba argue that those belt-tightening moves are far from what's needed to address the crisis.
``Mercurochrome and Band-Aids for deep wounds with heavy bleeding,'' Miami activist Juan Antonio Blanco wrote in his blog, Cambio de Epoca (Epochal Change). Even the official Granma newspaper called the situation ``grave.''
EARLIER TROUBLE
Cuba was already in deep trouble by the fall of 2008, after four hurricanes caused $10 billion in damage -- equivalent to a whopping 10 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP) for 2007. Imports for 2008 spiked 41 percent to $14.2 billion from the previous year while exports remained flat at $3.7 billion, meaning the island's already huge trade deficit mushroomed by 65 percent.
Food imports alone rose from $1.5 billion in 2007 to $2.2 billion last year as the government tried to replace hurricane-damaged harvests, according to official Cuban figures.
And then the world economy plunged into recession, drying up lending markets. Foreign commercial lending to Cuba fell by $1 billion in 2008, according to the Bank for International Settlements, a crippling blow to a government that for the past decade had been taking on ever larger debts to pay for imports and older debts -- ``financing by arrears,'' as one economist put it.
Russian auditors reported last month that Cuba had failed on three dates to make payments due on a $355 million loan signed in 2006. And some 80 Cuban government enterprises postponed payments to foreign creditors this year, according to Carmelo Mesa Lago, a University of Pittsburgh expert on the Cuban economy.
GRIM OUTLOOK
With remittances and tourism expected to be flat this year and the price of nickel -- 41 percent of Cuban exports -- at about 25 percent of its 2008 levels, the outlook for 2009 remains grim. Over the past month Havana cut its predictions of 2009 GDP growth from 6 percent to 2.5 percent and then 1.7 percent -- though some Cuba economists are privately predicting a .5 percent drop.
``The country is again facing a situation as adverse'' as the early 1990s, the U.N.'s Economic Commission for Latin America wrote earlier this year. Cuba's economy shrank by 35 percent after the Soviet Union collapsed and cut off its $4 billion-$6 billion annual subsidies to Havana.
LONGER-TERM REFORMS
Since Raúl Castro officially assumed power in early 2008, he has also been putting in place several longer-term reforms that he hopes will give Cuba a more productive, streamlined and less centralized economy.
In his government's most ambitious effort, it has loaned 1.7 million acres of fallow state lands to 82,000 Cubans, hoping to increase food production and slash costly imports. It also shifted Acopio, the notoriously inefficient agency that gathers and distributes farmers' products, from the Agriculture to the Domestic Commerce Ministry.
The government also has increased some salaries as incentives to productivity, allowed Cubans to hold more than one job at a time and let retirees to return to work. Castro last week predicted cuts in government spending on health and education, and said imports would be cut back this year.
Havana also has hinted that it is studying opening the doors wider to foreign investors and abandoning the costly food rationing system. One leading Havana economic analyst, Ariel Terrero, even suggested recently that the government put more of the economy ``in the hands of producers'' -- for example, allowing state grocery or clothing shop workers to run their own enterprises.
`RATIONAL SOCIALISM'
Despite early speculation that the reputedly pragmatic Castro would move Cuba toward a Chinese-like ``market socialism system,'' his reforms have remained relatively moderate.
Brother Fidel remains a powerful opponent of more profound changes even three years after he was last seen in public, analysts say, and Raúl Castro must know that opening Cuba to more market forces could fuel a potentially destabilizing increase in the island's social and economic inequalities.
In a keynote speech to the legislature last month, he prescribed a move toward a kind of ``rational socialism'' that will preserve Cuba's political system while cutting back the bureaucracy, state subsidies and waste, and increasing productivity and efficiency.
``It's a matter of defining, with the broadest popular participation, the socialist society to which we aspire and can build, given Cuba's current and future conditions -- the economic model that will rule the life of the nation in benefit of our people,'' Castro said.
Lest anyone get the wrong impression, Castro added a caution.
``I was not elected president to restore capitalism in Cuba or surrender the revolution,'' he said. ``I was elected to defend, maintain and continue perfecting socialism, not to destroy it.''
Monday, August 10, 2009
In all my trips there, I've always had to bring my own.
|
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Hands Off Honduras by Philip Giraldi
Hands Off Honduras by Philip Giraldi
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Stop me if you've heard this one: An Imam, a Priest, a Monk and a Rabbi walk into a Turkish game show…
Today I’m praying for the wisdom to recognize the opportunities that the Lord places before me however strange they may be, and then to respond to them in faith, trusting the Lord to bring the fruit.
Link to Reuters Article on Turkish Gameshow
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
'We the people are glad he is not in power'
Page last updated at 01:11 GMT, Monday, 29 June 2009 02:11 UK
Mr Zelaya wanted a referendum so he could seek a second term
A new president has been sworn into office in Honduras, hours after the ousting of President Manuel Zelaya.
Congress speaker Roberto Micheletti will serve as interim president until polls are held, Congress said.
The removal of Mr Zelaya by the army came amid a power struggle over his plans for constitutional change.
BBC News website readers in Honduras have been telling us their views:
Daniella Pineda, Tegucigalpa, Honduras -The event this morning should be taken as an arrest against a Honduran citizen, Manuel Zelaya, who broke the constitutional Honduran law in multiple occasions over the last few days. This SHOULD NOT be taken as a coup d'état. The vast majority of Hondurans firmly oppose Manuel Zelaya and are in favour of his arrest. The events happening today were caused by an attempt by Manuel Zelaya to manipulate our country and its constitution to fulfil his ultimate goal of remaining in power indefinitely.
Kennya, San Pedro Sula, Honduras -I live in San Pedro Sula in Honduras, the second biggest city of Honduras. There is no military action around here, things are running smoothly. If it was a resignation or a coup, good thing Mr Zelaya is no longer in power since he was doing everything illegally and trying to stay in power. Thank God that he is no longer here. Now we may be in peace.
Katherine, San Pedro Sula, Honduras -I am writing from Honduras to inform all foreign Honduran residents abroad that everything is calm and normal. The overall emotion is of joy, and we are proud that we have stood up to a leftist. This was not a coup d'etat as some media reports, it was done following the laws of our constitution. I do hope that the international community stops calling this act a coup, because it was not, and the militaries are taking order from the judicial branch, no on their own.
Jorge Suazo, San Pedro Sula, Honduras -I am a Honduran and although I don't approve a "coup", Zelaya violated Honduran laws and acted as a dictator (with Hugo Chavez being his "mentor"), so we the people are glad he is not in power anymore. The Congress already restored Constitutional normality and the military have all the approval from the people. Is not just four or five persons that are against Zelaya (as he said), it is the majority of Hondurans.
Kenneth, Tegucigalpa, Honduras -My name is Kenneth Bustillo, a Honduran, living in Tegucigalpa, capital of the country, there no military movement of serious concern, ex-president Zelaya violated the constitution of the country, his primary goal was to continue in power breaking all the laws stated by the judiciary branch, the majority of the people are happy and relieved of this burden called Manuel Zelaya.
Laura Eyl, Tegucigalpa, Honduras -I am Honduran, and it is quite confusing to understand why today's events have received an "international condemnation". 80% of Hondurans support the so called "coup". Zelaya's supporters belong to a communist party that admires Hugo Chavez. Zelaya's own party "Partido Liberal" turned its back on him after he sold out to Hugo Chavez. This was not a coup. It was the only way Honduras could try to stop an unwanted dictator to turn the country communist. Please help us communicate this to the international community. Chavez continues to threaten us with his military. We need some sort of intervention not condemnation!
Estrella, San Pedro Sula, Honduras -No military movement has been observed here in the city, just a few planes where observed flying in the morning. Here the great majority of people are happy to see that Mel Zelaya is no longer our president, because he created a terror environment in which we all feared loosing our rights with his plans of handing out our country to Chavez, who has been the greatest sponsor of the poll that Mel pretended to have today, without the approval of congress and the national election authorities. With the only objective of him staying as a dictator. Do not condemn us to a socialist government reinstating Mel Zelaya.
Carlos Rivera, San Pedro Sula, Honduras -I am sad for what has happened in my country, but I am afraid that this all has been a necessary action. I am an 19-year-old student that has no tie whatsoever to political ties. I have been witness to many things happening in my country and many evidences of ex-president Manuel Zelaya of clear disrespect to the laws of my country with the sole purpose of extending his mandate and changing the constitution and the democratic system. I feel the need for the international press to know this and listen the voice of the population. What has happened today is not a "plot by a voracious elite" like ex-president argued, it is the inevitable consequences to the constitutional infringement that this person has done in our country.
Warren Post, Santa Rosa de Copan, Honduras -President Zelaya did not respect the Honduran Constitution, Congress, Hondurans or the Supreme Court. He was imposing his views, he was warned of the illegality and unconstitutionality of his acts. His dismissal is a fair one. Alma Garcia, Olancho, Honduras
Here in Santa Rosa de Copan there is an atmosphere of festivity following the military removal of Honduran President Manuel Zelaya this morning. Citizens here strongly oppose Zelaya and are asking one another "What took the Armed Forces so long?" The only anger I saw was in a coffee shop where Hondurans expressed indignation at what they perceived as pro-Zelaya bias in international news reporting.
Original BBC Page:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/fr/-/2/hi/talking_point/8123529.stm
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Coup, coo, coo-coo
Thoughts on Honduras from friends there.
In His Hands / En Sus manos;
Kevin S. Abegg
From: Friends
Sent: Monday, June 29, 2009 12:26 PM
Subject: coup, coo, coo-coo
Howdy all,
Mmmm, where to begin?
Well, we are safe here in .......... and our streets are fairly quite, for Latin America because no one told the chickens and the dogs!
We now have a nationwide curfew from 9pm-6am. It was effective yesterday and starting again tonight. It really was a good thing that Mel (our ex-president) left, as he broke the law. He and his buddy Hugo Chavez from Venezuela just did not want him to stop being president at the end of the year when his term limit was over. We think this is a good thing.
We have decided to not move tomorrow and not load up the trucks today.
It is not that we enjoy living in an empty house with not fridge, no stove, no washer, no dryer and only 3 office chairs to sit on, it is just that we are unsure of driving across the country and since there is no rush to get there other than some comforts, we thought better safe than sorry.
It is not many times you are given an extra day to pack up a house, so that is good.
We had a HUGE thunder and lightening storm last night which knocked out the electricity around 5pm. It has not fully recovered, as we are in a brown out, but we get electricity a little here and there. Lucky us, it is only our neighborhood.
So, really the fridge, stove, washer and dryer probably would not work anyway!
We had eaten most of our food so we could eat out our last days here, as we love to eat out, but that did not work out so well as everything was closed yesterday. Our great neighbors fed us lunch and dinner!
Our US phone has worked on and off, so we have called the grandmas and the grandpa.
....... said:
Putting 100 monkeys in a room with typewriters for 10,000 hours may not produce Shakespeare, but it will almost certainly produce the international news coverage of the situation in Honduras.
Well put my dear.
So, keeping on praying for us down here. For wisdom when to move, for safety for so many missionaries down here, for Mr Chavez to stay in his own country and not come and visit ours with his army, and for Mrs Clinton to get her facts straight.
Hope your day is dull and boring. It is much more fun.
T.......
Friday, June 26, 2009
Honduras moving toward Chavez and the Castros?

Thursday, June 25, 2009
Cuban Oil and the Embargo
For full article see: http://www.glgroup.com/News/Cuban-Oil-and-the-Embargo-40236.html
Which is an analysis of the original article: "Cuba could become U.S. oil supplier at embargo's end" located at: http://www.glgroup.com/News/Cuban-Oil-and-the-Embargo-40236.html




