Skip to main content

When Hearts Unite

This weekend was our Children of Promise reunion.  Several sponsors are here on a work camp and their sponsored child made the long trek north to spend time together.

There is nothing more special than sponsors being able to meet or reunite with their sponsor child.  Mike has three sponsor boys: Oscar, Alex and Diego.  He writes them and encourages them in their studies and in their walk with the Lord.  None of these boys have a father and Mike's love and affection means more to them than anything.
Our plan once we arrived in Katuete was to spend the afternoon at a beautiful park with pools and waterfalls, but because of a heavy rain right when we arrived, the dirt roads were impassable and we had to change plans.  In fact, one of our vans got stuck and the sponsors had to get out and push!
We had an excellent BBQ at a church member's farm.  He pulled out all the stops and slaughtered a lamb for us.  We barely made it there because of the very muddy roads, be we had a memorable time, mud and all.  Here's a pic of all the kids having fun at the farm.

And here we are washing the mud off our shoes so we don't get kicked out of our hotel!


Joe has been sponsoring Heidy since 2006.  He met her when his church went on a work camp to her town in Bella Vista.  Now he came back to work on the Katuete church building and he brought his son with him.  They got to see how Heidy has been growing and maturing as a young woman.  They brought her a small gift and prayed with her. She was glowing the whole day.

After we had a wonderful time in fellowship together, we said tearful goodbyes to our sponsors and headed back home.


On the way, we did a few special outings...like the zoo! 

I'm not sure what the kids liked more, the trip to the Itaipu zoo or the lunch at McDonalds (both a first for all the kids), complete with happy meal "cajita feliz" and a toy!

 Thanks so much to the sponsors for making this unforgettable experience a dream-come-true.  The kids love you and talked all the way home about how special you are to them. 
Labels:

Comments

  1. ChristieJanuary 31, 2011 at 5:28 PM

    This is just SOOOOOO cool!!!! So glad to see that these guys got to connect this way. :)

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Christmas in Paraguay!

If you're wondering what Paraguayans do at Christmastime, they have some great traditions , including the " noche buena " meal on Christmas Eve at midnight.  They eat lots chipa guasu (a type of corn casserole, stay tuned for a recipe), asado or grilled meat (some eat it cold), salads, especially fruit salad, watermelon and drink mucho terere . Families travel from all over the country, many even return from working in other countries like Brazil, Argentina, and Spain, to celebrate with loved ones. This is us at last year's Kurrle celebration in Asuncion. Festivities are anything but a silent night with fireworks, loud music and drinking cidra (hard cider).  Most Paraguayans do not decorate Christmas trees (we decorate ours in shorts!) or emphasize Santa Claus.  Instead, they put beautiful nativities " pesebres " in their yards and in store fronts.  Kind of novel to focus on Christ at Christmas, isn't it! To beat the heat, many Paraguayans g...
4 comments
Read more

Paraguayan Weddings

On Valentine’s Day, we had the joy of attending the wedding of Sandra and Anastacio, young leaders in the church. Sandra is my assistant with Children of Promise and Anastacio, apart from his carpentry job, has a popular youth-focused radio program every night at 8:00 on our station. We’ve been to quite a few weddings, and these are some of the uniquenesses of southern Paraguayan wedding celebrations from our North American culture: 1. Nothing is fancy. Emphasis is placed on the act of marriage and not on the decorations or food. 2. It is not an expectation that parents help pay for expenses. Most families just make it each month with regular expenses and cannot afford to pay for eleborate feasts. Most couples have to spend months saving for their own wedding. 3. Borrow as much as possible. Many times wedding dresses are borrowed 5-10 times, because few women can afford their own. Flowers, decorations, shoes and ties (Norb loans out his ties often...since he never wears them!...
2 comments
Read more

How to make Rosella (Roselle) Juice and Tea

This is rosella (not to be confused with grosella, which is gooseberry).  Rosella is from the hibiscus family. It's harvest time here, and we use the rosella to make juice and tea.  It's properties are absolutely tremendous.  It helps sooth colds, coughs, helps digestion, promotes healthy kidney function, is a treatment for cancer, and reduces a fever and that's just a few of its benefits!  To make rosella juice, first de-pit the fruit and wash the skin thoroughly. Put the fruit into boiling water until the water is bright red (about 15 minutes).  The color is so vibrant, Roselle is sold to make dyes.  Strain the fruit (which can be used to make a delicious jam) and refrigerate the juice.  Add a few squirts of Stevia for a healthy drink. The finished product looks exactly like red Kool-aid, but is entirely full of nutrients.  We can't get enough of it. We dehydrated the petals for hot tea.  All you need is two dried flowers to infus...
3 comments
Read more