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Fredy and Celia
Missionaries to the Wounaans
Freddy & Celia September Newsletter
Freddy & Celia October Newsletter
Wounaan Project, January 2010
Freddy & Celia, along with their two daughters, are working with a tribe called the Wounaan. The Wounaan natives are located in the lower San Juan region of Choco, in 27 communities. Only 4 of these communities have a church. Freddy and Celia are equipping the believers to have a stronger faith and evangelizing in the nearby communities. Along with the preaching of gospel of Jesus Christ, Freddie and Celia help the Wounaan tribe with social concerns like poverty, diseases, lack of hygiene, and malnutrition which are factors that affect the Wounaan community. They have been with Crisalinco for 8 years.
About the Wounaan Community:
The Wounaans are located along the river in Chocó, Colombia. There are 28 communities that speak Wounaan and their economy is based on local hand-crafted work. To be able to make these crafts, the men go to the jungle to get certain palm leafs and the women convert the palms into threads of color with which they can make plates, jars, and more.
Their diet consists of fish, sugar cane and something called "papachina" that tastes almost like a potato. The land in this region makes is very difficult to cultivate crops because every day it rains and the soil is not fertile.
The Waunans also need the Good News of the Gospel. They are very attached to their beliefs which include a lot of witchcraft. When somebody dies in their community, the members of the community cannot go to sleep because they believe if they do the spirit of that dead person will come and take them too. So, that night they do not sleep at all; they play cards, eat, talk and do anything that will help them stay awake.
In the Wounaan tribes there are very few Christians. It's hard to keep the Christian faith in the tribe because parents are expected to take their sick kids to the witch doctor for healing and if they don't others in the community will pressure them to go.
Fredy, with his wife Celia and daughters Sara and Gabriela, have been living and serving in this community since 2004. They have accepted God's call on their lives although it comes with many difficulties and sacrifices.
Celia has learned to speak Wounaan and works with the kids and the women, teaching them the Bible and alphabetization. Fredy works with the men, teaching them the Bible and improving their regular labors in the community. They also work with them in the routine tasks of their day to day lives using this as an opportunity to disciple them in Christ.
Their main focus is now training and discipling Wounaan community leaders who are in turn bringing the Gospel to the other 28 Wounaan Communities.
They also are very involved in starting community projects like a kids feeding program and have plans to establish a mobile health center on a large boat pending financial resources.
