It all began in April of 1977 when my parents loaded their belongings on three pickup trucks and left the city of Alem, Argentina and moved to Paraguay to become missionaries under the Church of God. They made a five year commitment with their missionary organization to establish a church in the small town of Obligado.
After that sudden move to a new country, I remember vividly crying for about a week. I was missing my friends in Argentina. I remember saying to my mom, that I did not like living in Paraguay. The roads were dusty and the place we moved in was a small wooden unfinished house. As time went on, I started school, made new friendships, only to move again, five years later to an even more remote location.
In 1981, my parents moved to Raul Pena, at the time a settlement of about 500 people in the midst of the Alto Parana rain-forest. The calling to push further inland into the Paraguay lands was going to be the trend for the future. So for the next 15 + years, Raul Pena become my home base
Over the years I left Raul Pena to attend boarding school in Argentina, then College in the USA. Going between Paraguay and other countries was always a harsh contrast. I learned to light candles on weekends home (in Paraguay) and hit the light switch during the week all those years away from home. It was not until 1993, when I was already 22 that the town I lived in, was connected to the national electrical grid. The closest hospital was 120 miles from our home. A lot of good learning took place those growing up years.
Fast forward four decades from that moment
Today my parents continue serving in different locations in Paraguay, and I am still here as well. I will share in Part II, how after college and being newly married, marked my second Genesis into Paraguay.
In my travels I have seen many wonderful places; places I very well have been tempted to settle. But Paraguay keeps calling my name.
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