Passion for Paraguay

In Part 1, I shared how my first move to Paraguay was at age 5. At that time I was a minor, following my parents around. But my second move to Paraguay was at age 25 when after college, I—or better said, we—decided to move back to Paraguay. This time, the Genesis was a letter inviting us to help pioneer a new radio station there. At the time I had just gotten married to my college sweetheart Julie. We were both enrolled in seminary, enjoying just being married and going to school. Among our hobbies at the time was traveling the U.S. and to any country that we had the funds to go to. During those days, we began running seriously and trained for our first marathons and adventure race. Our first marathon was the Flying Pig marathon in Cincinnati, Ohio. Julie and I finished together in what I thought was a pretty good time of 4 hours, 12 minutes. One day, a letter in our mailbox got us thinking about plans beyond graduation. The letter was from Walter Franz, inviting...

I drove for about an hour to a location where I met with some pastors. Most people in ministry that I work with in Paraguay, have their support networks, but that is often not enough. From the outside everything seems ok, but underneath challenges and difficulties are always present. Whom to share this challenges is often the question? As a neutral person in some of my circles, I have had the chance to connect with many of these leaders. They just open up when they get the chance. Caring for those that are caring is such a huge need. i learned that again today. During our conversation, some tears where shed, and questions were raised about ministry in the local church. I was glad to be there and just listen in to hear them speak. I learned again today, how important it is to care for each other as pastors and missionaries. Many of you do that for me and my family.

My brother Marcos, who lives about an hour from our town, invited me and Mark, to go and see early movie this afternoon. He came with his son Matthew. Since there is only place to see a movie in our whole state, he drove my way to get some father son time. We had a blast. After the movie, we had some tea at our apartment and then had a bite of Nancys cookies. Mark, Matthew and a friend played their video games. Mondays are days I try to take off whenever possible. Since weekends can be pretty packed with trips and ministry activities, Mondays are a chance to sleep in a bit and catch up with running errands, hanging out with the kids and some home activities.   Mark loved it, so did Matthew my nephew. In my 30s I would not have considered taking a Monday afternoon off, just to be, and hang out with a family member. I was very, very focused in getting the next thing crossed off my list. But today, I am in the process of changing those patterns. I think the first miss...