Uruguay

Field Office Information

C&MA Field Entry in 1960

Field Director:

Duane Thiessen

Mailing Address:

Dr V Armand Ugon 677
40000 Rivera, URUGUAY

Phone:

Email:

cmauruguay@adinet.com.uy

Website:

National Church

Alianza Cristiana y Misionera de Uruguay: 8 organized churches, 1 unorganized group, 3 ordained ministers, 871 baptized members, and 1,397 inclusive members

Team Initiatives

• Plant a church among the upper-middle class in the coastal area known as Rambla, the most secular, urban area in Latin America.
• Renovate the Uruguay C&MA Bible Institute to meet an urgent need for prepared pastors.
• Establish a working model for missionaries and national pastors to collaborate in the local church, a new experience for the Uruguay national church.

Big Miracles

2006-09-28 12:42:08.0

     Doctors had all but given up hope. The patient was suffering from a condition called Guillain Barre, an autoimmune disorder similar to Lou Gehrig’s disease, which involves progressive paralysis. Lois Thiessen, Alliance missionary to Uruguay, was asked to visit the woman in the hospital. She was on a respirator to keep her heart and lungs functioning but had serious complications, and her physicians were sure they were going to lose her. 

     “But through prayer, God moved,” says Lois. Recently, the woman came out of intensive care and has been moved to the regular ward to continue her rehabilitation. Her physicians don’t know how to respond in medical terms to this miracle. But one of the doctors, who lives next door to the Thiessens, attributes the sudden recovery to the “Big Man Upstairs.” “Pray for our neighbor in his search for the Truth,” Lois says.

Demographics

Population

Population--3,415,920 Infant mortality rate--11.9/1,000 Life expectancy--76.1

Capital City

Montevideo (1,745,100) pop.

Geography

About the size of Oklahoma, Uruguay (68,039 sq. mi.) consists of a low, rolling plain in the south and a low plateau in the north.

Languages

Spanish, Portunol, Brazilero

Ethnicity/Race

White--88%; Mestizo--8%; Black--4%

Economy

Per capita income--$14,500 Inflation--7.6% Unemployment--13% Literacy rate--98% (2003 est.)

Government/Political Climate

Constitutional republic. Widespread political reforms occurred in the early 20th century. A Marxist guerrilla movement in the 1960s led Uruguay’s president to agree to military control of his administration; civilian rule was restored in 1985. Uruguay’s political conditions are among the freest on the continent.

Religion

Roman Catholic--66%; Protestant--2%; Jewish--1%; nonprofessing, other--31%