Passion for Paraguay

In Part 1, I shared how my first move to Paraguay was at age 5. At that time I was a minor, following my parents around. But my second move to Paraguay was at age 25 when after college, I—or better said, we—decided to move back to Paraguay. This time, the Genesis was a letter inviting us to help pioneer a new radio station there.


At the time I had just gotten married to my college sweetheart Julie. We were both enrolled in seminary, enjoying just being married and going to school. Among our hobbies at the time was traveling the U.S. and to any country that we had the funds to go to. During those days, we began running seriously and trained for our first marathons and adventure race. Our first marathon was the Flying Pig marathon in Cincinnati, Ohio. Julie and I finished together in what I thought was a pretty good time of 4 hours, 12 minutes.


One day, a letter in our mailbox got us thinking about plans beyond graduation. The letter was from Walter Franz, inviting us to help establis…

Anahi is turning seven this week. She is finishing first grade this November. Her reading level is excellent.


She has added a few inches to her height this year, but growth has happened in many other respects as well. She continues to bring joy and hope into our lives. She loves playing with her little brother and gets excited in being the big sister.

One of Anahi's favorite moments in the day is reading stories at night before going to bed. I love these moments, since they provide a chance to debrief and hear what is going on in her heart.


Anahi is always asking questions. Her mind is very inquisitive and sharp. Our daily prayer is that God continues to fulfill His purpose in her life.

Happy birthday Anahi. We love you..

It all began in April of 1977 when my parents loaded their belongings on three pickup trucks and left the city of Alem, Argentina and moved to Paraguay to become missionaries under the Church of God. They made a five year commitment with their missionary organization to establish a church in the small town of Obligado.
After that sudden move to a new country, I remember vividly crying for about a week. I was missing my friends in Argentina. I remember saying to my mom, that I did not like living in Paraguay. The roads were dusty and the place we moved in was a small wooden unfinished house. As time went on, I started school, made new friendships, only to move again, five years later to an even more remote location. 
In 1981, my parents moved to Raul Pena, at the time a settlement of about 500 people in the midst of the Alto Parana rain-forest. The calling to push further inland into the Paraguay lands was going to be the trend for the future. So for the next 15 + years, Raul Pena beco…

One of my first friends when my parents moved as missionaries to Paraguay was Donald Franz. He was a kid who grew up in a Christian family. His father wanted him to become a business man, but God had other plans. Let me share a little about him. I am seeing again how God can take a young kid, or any christian for that matter and answer crazy prayers.



At age 18th Donald felt called into ministry after reading Billy Graham autobiography. From that moment he said: I want to reach as many people as I possible can for Christ.  He went to bible seminary, graduated and soon after began a house church in his living room back in 2002.

FAST FORWARD 15 years from that moment

God has blessed him with a wonderful wife and 4 beautiful children who love the Lord.
He has been involved in five church plants, a christian TV station two christian schools




Today he is leading two churches each of  approximately 1000 + very active members.
On Saturday night he preaches in his church in Posadas Argentina, …

Again we were offline this week. Our internet service started breaking down On May 14th. We were promised it would be up the next day. Let me vent for a moment

Emails are coming in and I am not able to respond. I have to turn a big paper in, but can’t access online sources. I would like to write and post a blog entry this week. I have a few Skype appointments due, and a webinar which I have already missed.
I just got off the phone with Randy (not really his name) and was told that maybe this evening at around 5 pm, the server will be fixed and back running. The use of the word maybe, did not help. It’s been 9 days now. If you are reading this, Randy probably came thru with his promise and got the server running.
Again, being flexible is key to peace of mind and low stress in Paraguay and I would imagine in any community or country in the world where basic services like internet and uninterrupted utility service is still under developed.
Since living in Paraguay for so many years, …

For the past weeks, Anahi in her evening prayers has been asking for the sun to come out the next day. Almost every prayer in the evening ends with this personal request to God.
Last night while it was raining and I could hear the winds outside, she asked me this question: Daddy, do you want sun or rain tomorrow?. I am not sure I replied, to which she insisted that I be honest and pick one option. Ok, I would prefer sunshine tomorrow.

So she prayed, God, I ask that tomorrow you bring a beautiful sunshine over our city, in the name of Jesus amen. I kissed her goodnight and walked out of her bedroom. I could not stop thinking about her request and how naturally she talked to God.  She honestly believes God will change the weather with he r request.  I was astonished and somewhat ashamed of my grown up lack of faith.. . . so while the winds were raging and the rain was pouring out, I went to bed thinking about my daughter’s prayer.

I woke up got ready for the day and I was lost in my th…