Passion for Paraguay

This week Joby and Heather Carmody are here to help instruct and train our church leaders and public school teachers in the areas of: Inclusive education New Concepts in Mathematics Preaching Seminars Parenting Seminars We met Joby in seminary and it is a pleasure to get to know his multi-talented wife as well! Joby is pastoring a United Methodist church outside of Indianapolis and Heather teaches middle school mathematics in Indy. Thanks for your prayers for this dynamic couple. We are excited about the seminars that they are teaching and we know that they will make a difference in the lives of Paraguayans!

Last week we had our VBS program in Obligado. Our theme was, "We are Jesus' Helpers" and we talked about being His hands and feet wherever we are. We read missionary stories and encouraged the children to serve. Our fabulous AU intern, Erica was a huge help. She assisted us with games, puppets and loving on the kids. Fun with bubbles Craft time! We had 185 total kids participate this year and the closing ceremony on Saturday night packed out the church! Our hope is that our children's ministry in Obligado continues to grow and touch new little lives and their families.

I (Julie) was at a conference this week in the capital. I arrived in Asuncion in the early morning and I waited at the bus station for a few hours before I had to catch a local bus to get to my meeting. The last sentence I wrote in my journal before leaving the station was, "God, keep me safe today and protect me." 6:30 a.m. happens to be a peak traffic hour because businesses open at 7:00 a.m. I jumped on a very crowded bus and went to pay the bus driver when I felt someone touching my purse. I looked back and a middle aged man was touching the zipper of my purse! I gave him a dirty look and he threw his hands up in the air as if he was innocent. Then, the man on my left and the man on my right started pressing into me. I looked up at the bus driver in desperation and he told the men to move on back. They didn't move, they just kept squeezing me for what seemed like five minutes and I held onto my purse and carry on bag so hard that I had marks on my hands for a whole da...

We have an intern here for seven weeks from our alma mater. She is interested in missions and working with the poor and she is "testing the waters" here during her summer break. I am enjoying seeing her learn, grow and struggle with the language. I love debriefing with her difficult experiences and we struggle together trying to work through the injustices that we see and breath here every day. I see her naivety and smile, because I see myself in her 10 years ago. It's so beautiful to see her passion and her energy. I have been able to share about my multitude of mistakes cross-culturally and I am grateful for the opportunity to pour into this promising young woman. What is mentoring? Christian Mentoring is a one-on-one relational experience in which one person empowers another person by investing their God-given wisdom, experiences and resources. It's a phone call, drinking coffee together and listening to the other person share about their struggles, questions...

On Thursday a neighbor came over holding his hand. He had a very deep cut from a machete accident and needed first aid. I silently gasped when I saw he had wrapped it in a dirty old t-shirt! I quickly got our gauze, iodine and rubber gloves. When I told him he needed to go the med center for stitches, he jumped back and said, “That will surely cost a lot of money.” He was adamant about not going to the doctor, so we’ve been dressing his wound for the past three days. This man has no first aid supplies and I’m thankful he thought to come to us for help. We can’t force him to get medical attention, but at least we’re keeping it from infection. Ya never know what hat you'll be asked to wear on the mission field!

We were awoken at 11:30 two nights ago with banging at our door. We didn’t answer, thinking it could be a drunk. My heart just sinks every time we got a nighttime notification. The last two times we were jarred awake from our sleep, accidents and death were involved. Everyone has our cell phone, so if it was legit appeal, they’d call. Sure enough, five minutes later we got a phone call. Our housekeeper’s brother called to let us know our housekeeper was in the hospital for kidney stones. She would need to be operated on and the surgery would cost $1,000! We told them that they should check other hospitals (this was a private hospital and they charge a lot more than the public institutions). Yesterday, I drove Susana and six of her family members an hour south to another hospital that charges half the price for the surgery. Of course, they don’t provide blankets and gloves, so I brought those along (I learned that through a crazy experience three years ago). Her pressure was to...