Passion for Paraguay

One of the greatest joys and rewards over the past 20 years, has been seeing hundreds and thousands of paraguayans transformed by the various ministry we have had the opportunity of pioneering, connecting and joining. 1. Radio Alternativa 2000 - to date. (thousands daily hear the good news) 2. Children of Promise - 2005 to date. (hundred of kids impacted with God's love and are today men and women with a influence) 3. Fifteen Church and classrooms buildings raised up with teams from the USA. (These buildings have ranged from small classrooms to sizes seating 300 +) 4. Leadership training programs (Icci Obligado was one of the efforts to establish a bivocational training school) Today the Bethel Bible Series is an effort to continue these trainings. 5. CMA Paraguay 2005 to date. (Today CMA Paraguay has been established in five states thanks to an incredible team of men and women in Paraguay that love bikes and Jesus) 6. CMA motorcycles donations. (We have given away 80+ motorcycles ...

10 months of grieving and healing All to You, I give it all to You. I lay my life before You. Lord, I surrender all. All that I have been through, I give it to You now. And though I have some questions, things I'll never understand, I come into Your presence, and I place them in Your hands. I know that You are faithful. Your mercy will sustain me, and Your grace will see me through. I cast my cares upon You, and I come to You in faith . (From the album, Thank You Lord, by Don Moen) Ten months ago, my life changed forever. I still wish so badly that I could go back to my former life, connected to Julie and Timothy. I struggle, I wrestle, but at the same time I am aware that I have to embrace and accept the new life God is giving me. It’s so easy to think that we are in control, and that life as we know it will last forever. Nobody lives expecting tragedy. We avoid it. But there is an appointed time. This alone should give us purpose and direction. I want to make mine ...

This Thursday was our annual Children of Promise Christmas party.  This is one of the favorite activities of the kids and they have to wait the WHOLE year for the day to arrive!     What beautiful children God has created!  Some of these children have gone through so much....from abuse to abandonment.  This boy, R,'s mom committed suicide this week.  Please pray for him and his two year old sister, that were left behind.  We played, "How low can you go?" Tug of war is a COP tradition.  Thankfully the weather was beautiful this year, so we could go outside and have a ton of fun. We had a raffle and each child took home a gift and a fruit cake.  One of the favorite items was this space shuttle, won by little Mauricio. Special thanks to the CMA group for donating some of the prizes!!  Muchas gracias to our new director, Sandra, for all her work in coordinating the fiesta.  And mostly, thank God for each of the sponsors of th...

We have been with the wonderful people of Children of Promise this week as they check on all the kiddos in the program.  This year, they brought Dr. Bob, who gave a health check-up to every child (and a few more) being served by the ministry.  He discovered the severe state of oral hygiene among the Paraguayan children.  The great majority have cavities and since cavities in Paraguay are not filled, dentists just typically pull teeth.  So, there is a great need for dental work.  He also mentioned how important it is that we are providing fluoride for the children, since it is not present in our water.  Since he also specializes in tropical diseases, he is giving us information on the best deworming meds to administer on the kids. Sandra, the new director, is doing such a great job with the children (now 80 are in the program)!   Sandra's goal is to continue growing.  We are grateful for all the sponsors, for the staff at Children of Promise an...

Norma came to me in tears.  She collapsed in my arms as she told me that her son Jorge has been missing for over two weeks.  My heart stopped for a second.  He's only eleven, but so small that he looks more like an eight year old.  She has no idea where he could be and she's very, very worried.  You see, this is the second time that Jorge has run away.  The first time was in February when he wanted to visit Carnaval in Encarnacion, which is certainly no place for a child.  He was found on the street of the big city seven days after leaving home, filthy and hungry.  This week the local radio has been announcing the physical features of Jorge and asking for any information and so far there have been no clues to his whereabouts. This little boy weighs so heavy on my heart.  He has been in our Children of Promise ministry for five years.  He was diagnosed with learning disabilities and ADHD a few years ago after troubles focusing in cla...

Children of Promise child sponsorship started up in Itapaso!  We teamed up with Light for the Nations Christian school to help the needy children in this depressed area. After seven years of serving the ministry, I no longer am the director for this fantastic program.  A wonderful young lady named Sandra (pictured left) is the new leader and she is doing a great job!  Here she is meeting with the new site coordinator for Itapaso, Diana.   The difference between Light for the Nations and the other public school in the community is night and day.  The desks are broken and there are not enough for every student, the windows are broken, the fans don't work.  While students here receive TOP NOTCH education. There are 25 children currently attending the school and currently, five still need sponsors.  Sponsorship gives each child a wonderful education and a snack and lunch every day.  The cost is only $25/month to change a life. Click HERE to t...

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 mud...

Just wanted to let you know that our wonderful work campers arrived safely yesterday. After a three hour bus ride to Katuete we checked into their hotel rooms, had a nice dinner and even nicer shower and they headed to bed.  Today they started bright and early on the site.  The block walls are up, but have to be plastered.  They were all put to good use on the job.  Tomorrow is the Children of Promise party for all the families that sponsor a child in Paraguay!  Sorry, no pictures today because I'm south getting ready to pick up the kids and the camera is north!  We'll try to get lots of shots of the party tomorrow.Thanks so much for your prayers!

Our annual Children of Promise Christmas party was yesterday.  I partied so hard I'm still recovering!  We started off our party with a puppet show....  then story time...  lots of games... pizza this year, a first-time favorite! I love these kiddos.... There are two important things I must share with you that made this party extra-special for me: 1.   Before, during and after the party there was a tropical storm going on with very impressive wind speed.  When it rains, Paraguayans do not step outside of their homes .  It spoke volumes to me about the love the children have for this ministry that they came out despite the bad weather.  Of the fifty-six children in the program, forty-five were present! 2.  I officially passed the baton of the directorship over to my assistant, Sandra.  After seven years leading the ministry, it is my complete honor to give the role to a bright, young Paraguayan.  Norberto and I are p...

As director of a children's ministry called Children of Promise every month, I purchase, deliver, package and distribute food for 52 children.  It is a huge undertaking and thankfully, I don't do it alone.    It takes 4-5 hours to complete the process from start to finish.  We buy the items i.e.:  flour, soap, toothpaste, fruits, vegetables, milk and rice for the families that are involved in the ministry. Here are some of my faithful helpers at work: We still have some children who are waiting for a sponsor, like Hector V.  He's 7 and loves animals.  He likes to play soccer, help his mom watch his little brother and go to Sunday School.  If you are interested in helping a child get healthy food, receive an education and learn more about God, please contact Children of Promise .

This Saturday was our second annual Children of Promise Christmas party and wow was it ever a PAR-TAY!  You can read about our first fiesta here .  Let me show you how you helped knock the Christmas socks off these little ones to give them a celebration they would have never been able to experience... We started off the day by playing a bunch of ice breaker games.  This particular game challenged the kids to fit as many on their team as possible on a square that kept getting smaller.  The littlest kids won and were delighted to beat the bigger children! Then Tia Tabita told a beautiful Christmas story about a Christmas doll and challenged us to give our best to someone in need We recognized and prayed for the committee that makes the ministry happen!  I couldn't do anything without these incredible folks. The children, including these beautiful girls, Yanina, Laura and Yanina, were so happy to receive their pan dulce (fruit cake), a traditional Ch...

This week was a child-focused week for us. We had the honor of a special guest, Paul, who directs the children's ministry we work with here. It's a child sponsorship program that helps little ones in our area get an education, have solid nutrition, shoes and proper clothing and gives them spiritual mentoring all for $25 a month. The ministry started here in 2004 and we now have 46 children. Two things stuck out to the director of Children of Promise when he came to evaluate the program, review our accounting and interview all of the children: First, there were three children who said they wanted to be missionaries and four that wanted to be pastors! Second, one of the kids tithes on his sponsorship. Of the 3,700 children sponsored in 23 countries, this is the first child to do something of this nature. Awesome! One of the joys of the visit was the opportunity to distribute mosquito nets to all the kids. Only one of the 46 children actually owed one before this week! Th...

After spending most of last week near the capital for a leadership conference, we are back home! We wanted to share with you a few of the beautiful children that have recently been added into the Children of Promise program and are needing sponsors. This is Rodrigo. He is 5 years old and lives with his mother. His father is now living in Spain and has abandoned the family. His mother is about ready to give birth to his brother. The family cooks over fire outside their home (pictured). Rodrigo loves to ride bikes and play "futbol" but he doesn't have a ball or a bike! He loves to go to church with his neighbor. Scheila (shAY-la) is nine years old and lives with her grandmother and mother. Her father abandoned the family before she was born. She loves to dance and sing, has a sweet spirit and is a good helper in the house. Sebastian is going to be 5 years old in May. His father committed suicide in December and his mother is working in Buenos Aires, so he lives wi...