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Warm This Winter

It continues to amaze us how Paraguayans live with so little. In fact, it challenges us to live more simply and less selfishly as well. However, blankets are a matter of life or death for some Paraguayans. They don’t have heated homes and it gets into the 30s at winter (May-August). It’s a wet, freezing cold that chills me to the bone. We usually bundle up with three or four blankets at night.

Because of your gifts to the MV Christmas Projects, we were able to buy 30 warm blankets to keep people (mainly children and shut ins) cozy this winter. Here are the first of the joyful recipients of the blankets:MirtaManuelBetty

We know each of these folks personally and know that they did not have blankets before this week. Since 2 are not Christians, we are using this gift to try and "warm" their hearts to the Gospel message. When they ask why we chose them, we tell them that "Jesus loves them".

"Muchas Gracias" from these precious children!
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Comments

  1. valerieApril 23, 2009 at 7:58 AM

    ok, we have a ton of extra blankets. can we give them to you, or would that be just too much of a hastle to try to bring them back to Paraguay. i am sure you don't have much room- i just hate reading this knowing we have so many blankets that we don't use, and they are needed there.

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  2. Norberto KurrleApril 23, 2009 at 11:01 AM

    Awesome idea, Val! We would take you up on your offer if we were ever going to ship a container from the U.S. But, because of the cost to ship them via airplane ($100 suitcase for approx. 6 blankets), you could buy about 10 here, plus you’d be supporting the local Paraguayan artisans.

    If you have extra blankets, maybe you could donate them to your local homeless shelter. I know from mom working at a shelter for 7 years that they were always needed!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Rebecca Conduff AguirreApril 23, 2009 at 11:38 AM

    It gets really cold here in northern Mexico in the winter, too, and most homes are not heated. Blankets are definitely a must!

    Also, had a question, my 8 year old saw the post of some of the kids in your program and read that the one little boy loves soccer, but doesn't have a ball. He really wants to get that little boy a soccer ball! He offered to send him one of his own, but I don't think that's quite practical being that we are in different countries...how could we go about arranging for that if you think it would be a good idea?

    ReplyDelete
  4. ChristieApril 23, 2009 at 6:22 PM

    Fill me in on the details for this project. They make blankets here in Carapegua and I have a "connection," so we've been wanting to buy some to distribute, too. It got cold here earlier than expected, so we weren't quite ready this week. Anyway, did you go to houses of people you knew or just walk through the community? Since we're new here, it's hard to know the most needy, so I wondered how you figured that out. Any ideas?

    ReplyDelete
  5. Norberto KurrleApril 28, 2009 at 4:00 AM

    Becky, you can donate $10 for a soccer ball by clicking on the "donate now" button on the right hand side of the page. We'll make sure Rodrigo gets the soccer ball he's always dreamed of!

    ReplyDelete

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