Passion for Paraguay

First things first. We're home. We couldn't be happier to be in our own beds. It seems like breathing is so much easier now that we are back at sealevel. Thanks for all of you that prayed for us. We felt those prayers. Continuing our adventures....we left Puno after a great breakfast, one of our first good ones so far. As we were leaving the hotel, the bellboy tells us that there are strikes on the road we are traveling and it might make our journey difficult. Great. We continued on our journey to arrive five minutes later at a huge road block. We were told it would be difficult to pass before night fall. Okay, now what. Norberto went to investigate the situation and talk with the people. A student approached us and told us since we were tourists we are exempt from the workers' strikes and should be able to go through. We were ecstatic. We jumped into our car and drove past the strikers, the lines of buses and trucks and angry drivers who were picketting again...

We started out for Oruro, Bolivia early in the morning, but we didn't get too far. We stopped to ask directions on how to leave Santa Cruz and a cop stopped us for doing a wrong turn. He told us that the fine was 1000 Bolivianos! ($142). He was going to take us downtown to book us and fingerprint us, which would take us half a day. We settled with him (he wanted lunch money) and we continued on. We finally got out of the city when we arrived at stopped traffic at a bridge. We found out that the bridge was in repair due to the floods that week. Of course, the bridge broke just five minutes before we got there. We were told we would need to wait 4 hours until it would be fixed. Unfortunately, there was no other way to continue our journey; we were stuck. We went to see the damage that was done, and it was pretty bad. The men were working hard stacking crates of rocks. An hour and 15 minutes later, we were able to cross. We continued on toward Cochabamba and passed close ...

It's Sunday night and we're just getting our first chance at internet access. Our apologies to family and friends. To recap: We're in the city of Puno today and should arrive in Arequipa some time tomorrow afternoon. We've had no car problems or mishaps. Thank God! Here's part 1 of our Andean Adventures (Thursday and Friday's events). We started our journey at .m. We drove 866 km on our first day, stopping half way in Asuncion to see cousin Mateo and treat him out for his 5th birthday next week. The Chaco Paraguay is divided into three regions. The "bajo" or low Chaco, the central and the "alto" or high Chaco. Web_chaco_paraguay_2 Here's a picture of the high Chaco, right before crossing the border. The further north you travel, the more barren and desolate. We spent the night with a friend in Philadelphia, the Mennonite-pioneered region. They settled in the 1920s amidst doubts from the Paraguayan government of their survival. ...

Ever since we’ve arrived in South America, we’ve dreamed about some day visiting the great Incan Ruins of Machu Pichu. We are attending a conference for missionaries in Arequipa, Peru next week. We'll have the opportunity to share about what God is doing in Paraguay . Since, Machu Pichu, one of the recently named seven wonders of the world, is only a day’s drive away, we thought we’d take advantage of this limited opportunity and spend Easter weekend hiking the Sacred Valley. So, we’ll be taking off on Thursday for our 4 day road trip to Arequipa and eventually, Machu Pichu. Due to our fear of contracting sedentaritis, an unfortunate disorder linked to couches and remote controls, we simply thrive on these types of expeditions. However, we know that there are risks involved and we are asking you to pray for our safety on the road, for our old, but reliable “Blue Cruiser”, for Timmy and for our health. We'll be traveling for a total of 2 weeks. We'll try and post frequ...

This week my dad came to visit and we took advantage to hike at our state's only national forest reserve. As we began sharing with the caretakes, they told us that caretaker's wife was shot at last week, by poachers. Every week the rangers risk their lives to preserve the small piece of natural rain forest left in the country. They are relatively unprotected and unprovided for by the government and rely mostly on nonprofits to keep their efforts going. Here's more on the San Rafael Reserve. This European family came to Paraguay in the early seventies and have made it their life's mission to preserve God's nature here in the heart of South America. Certainly, a worthy and challenging mission in my eyes. I'm studying Genesis right now and I'm reminded once again how one of God's first mandates to mankind was to care for and cultivate the earth. Admittedly, we are not risking our lives to care for the earth like these courageous folks at the reserve....