Tampa Florida -- Local and Global Gathering

During the week of June 18th-27th, 2023, I participated of the annual Church of God convention in Tampa FL. Along with the conference a series of meetings took place. We meet with missionaries from around the world and at the end of the conference participated of a global dialogue. This event was a discussion on a new way of meeting and organizing international events associated with the Church of God, Anderson IN

Besides, I was able to reconnect with friends from my college days. I even got to run a 5K fundraiser for global disaster and relief funds. These and other events made this conference a truly engaging and packed time of worship, fun and social-spiritual interactions.

The covid years, kept us isolated. This post-covid time is reenergizing, making us more present with people and probably more eager to be a part of events face to face.

Here are some pics that better describe this event and the week in Tampa.

With pastor Keith and Nora Wilkins in Orlando

With pastor Robert Confer in MI

With pastor Steve Wimmner and brother Steve at South Meridian Church

With pastor Steve Wimmer and Scott Green at South Meridian Church.

With leaders of the CIID (Inter American Conference)

With Joe and Jill Keenum, my prayer warriors

All in all, I traveled for three weeks, after covering some two-thousand miles on ground and about and about twelve-thousand by air. It was so good be back home with my loved ones. I really missed my family.

Comments

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

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!

Fighting Discouragement in the Busyness of Life

Hubby and I have made an agreement not to talk about sensitive issues after 10:00 p.m. It’s a rule in our household because when we were first married our late night talks would turn into fights and we would say hurtful things, because we were tired and our reasoning senses were shot. We eliminated almost all arguments with that simple rule. Exhaustion takes the best out of a person. Another new book on the market,talks about the high burnout rate among pastors. In reading reviews of the book, the author says that lack of sleep is one of the main causes of burnout. I’m reading this book that also deals with the correlation of sleep deprivation and discouragement. It’s a book for overactive people who are seeking to strengthen a love relationship with the Lord. Being in the ministry, I feel the demands of people’s needs constantly. Daily, we hear claps at the door to pray, to chauffeur people around, to do weddings, funerals, to lead Bible studies, to counsel just about any pro

Passion for Paraguay

Search This Blog