Passion for Paraguay

Hey, thanks for sharing your ideas on the characteristics of a missionary !  Feel free to keep commenting.... These are my hallmarks right now, or what I view as really important to keep us sane:  Prayer warrior-  Our first weapon when we are without a clue and without strength (which is pretty much every day). Resilience -or just being really thick-skulled and not quitting even when things are very tough. Major Flexibility- and I’m not talking ability to do the splits (thankfully).  I’m talking about the ability to go to the bathroom in really gross conditions. The ability to change plans at a moment's notice and welcome in an uninvited guest for lunch.  A deep love for people of different cultures, beliefs and perspectives.  MacGuyverish  -That's being ingenuous and creative with few resources, for those of you who are too young to have watched the show.

Remember when the group came to help build the school last month?  Well, " Luz para las Naciones " (Light for the Nations) school was inaugurated this weekend and classes start today!  The church rallied around the project and different people donated their services to make the tables, sew the curtain and smocks, paint the walls and decorate.  Doesn't it look fantastic!   The school will start with kindergarten and the goal is to add a classroom each year. Norberto shared a few words at the dedication service.  Here's the ribbon cutting.  This is a very exciting time for us, because we believe it is crucial to invest in the lives of children and youth if we want to see any lasting change in Paraguay.  ICCI leadership school for youth is set to open next month and our hope is to open another Christian school in San Lorenzo next year.  Keep praying with us that we will be light to the nations!! 

***As a missionary friend noted... "It seems like the guy on the right is showing Jesus' love to the stone-faced man on the left" So, we were just asked by a leader in the church what we would consider to be the top five "hallmarks of a missionary." Honestly, I didn't really know what a hallmark was.*blush* Our trusty dictionary.com told me a hallmark is " any distinguishing feature or characteristic."    Hmm, sounds sophisticated. Okay, I just got my top five.... BUTTT, before I share mine, I'd like to hear yours! Go on, don't be shy... and certainly don't be stone-faced like the guy on the left!

I just got back from the Public Health Center and am feeling sick to my stomach. It's not that I had some bad meat for lunch, I'm sickened about health care for the poor in Paraguay. Our neighbor had a varicose vein hemorrhage which was squirting out blood like a hose.  Her daughter and husband ran to our house for help and I told her husband that I'd take her to a private clinic.  He insisted that I take her to the public health center.  With the years of (bad) experiences I have had with public health centers , I knew that it would be a waste of time, because they have few supplies and very rarely is the doctor in.  Nonetheless, he wanted to go there because it's very cheap.  I complied and just as was expected, no doctor and no supplies. We ran her into the emergency room and the nurses sat her on the operating table and just looked at each other.  They didn't even have bandages!  They applied pressure to her gushing vein with her own dirty towe...

We can hardly believe the day arrived... Our little guy is growing up and yesterday was his first day of kindergarten!  He's been asking us for WEEKS when school would start and yesterday was the BIG day. School here starts at 7:00 a.m.!  We got him to bed earlier and told him he'd have to get up extra early for school.  He informed us there were three ways we could wake him up: 1.  By gently saying, "Wake up" in his ear 2.  Pulling his big toe 3.  Doing a combination of yelling "Wake up!" and pulling his toes.  What a comic.  Thankfully, he jumped right up after we did number 1.  Here's the family rallying around our champion to give him hugs (and licks) and send him off! He's not excited or anything.  Hopefully he still has that same smile at the end of the week!

Yesterday wrapped up our national Youth Convention Weekend here at our church. The theme was "Heroes in 3D". Every session dealt with Heroes of the faith and what it takes to be a hero in today's culture (our testimony, our decisions, our willingness to be set part and be courageous and prepare for what's next).  Our speaker was Youth Specialties Paraguay director, Paulo Lacota  Here is our youth ministry leadership team The worship team was incredible! Praising with all their hearts  Games at the river Norberto was in charge of rappelling Sat. afternoon.  So much fun!  Terere time! Concert with Christian rock band "Extremo" on Sat. night These are the young people who feel that God is calling them into ministry!  We talked to them about ICCI and pray that they continue to take steps of obedience toward preparing for their calling.  These are the young heroes that will change Paraguay!

Here are more pics from our second week and the third team that arrived on site Saturday.  They came in two days later than planned due to the ice and snow delays from O'Hare airport. Here's the floor team grouting....  It's a very clean job where no one gets dirty at all. Last Sunday we had a church service outside and Pastor Demetrius preached. The group presented the church with beautiful puppets and did a special workshop on the facets of puppet ministry.  The landscaping team... Painting, painting, painting... This has been our home since Jan 23.  Did I mention how much it rained?  We thought we were living in Noah's ark! Isn't is just beautiful?  Here we are cleaning and preparing for the dedication.  Here's the church set up for the service...  and then it started to pour and pour and we wondered if anyone would come.   Despite the bad weather on Tuesday afternoon, there were at least 250 people present for the cele...

Tonight is the dedication service for the new church sanctuary!  We have worked extremely hard the past 17 days and we today we are wrapping up the last minute details and cleaning up and packing up the tools for our departure tomorrow around 7 a.m. The service starts at 7:30 p.m. and already many pastors and leaders from around the country are arriving for the huge celebration, which will include all kinds of special music and fanfare. Please pray that God be glorified in the service this evening. Again, we apologize for the lack of photos, since the internet connection is so bad here.   We will hope to post some pics of the dedication service and the group when we arrive home on Thursday afternoon.

Sorry it has taken us so long to get more pictures up.  Internet service is very limited and extremely slow here (it takes 20 min to upload a photo).  We are progressing very well and looking forward to the team that arrives this evening!   Here are some pics of the last week...just look and see all that has been accomplished.