Passion for Paraguay

Many of you know the story of my accident. Ten years ago this month, I was driving when our family hit a parked truck on the highway. The truck had run out of fuel and never really got off the road. The back end was sticking out about six feet on the two-lane highway. That fatal morning the truck driver, Marcelo (*), was unloading some of his goods when we impacted his vehicle.  One of the things that made this accident so fatal, with little chance of survival, was the oncoming traffic, which blinded our vehicle. On top of that, that morning the fog was so dense that you could not see much of anything.  For months, if not years, after the accident, I did not want to have anything to do with Marcelo. I did not want to hear his name or see him. The last time I saw him was in August 2012, in a court hearing, when I won the case against me and the case against Marcelo was dismissed with certain conditions. Over the past couple of years, however, I started to think about Marce...

This past April 18th, 2020, was the first time I did not post about my accident on the very day it happened. I have done it every year since April 18th, 2012. Last year, my son had such a cool dream, which brought so much healing. See post.... This time I waited a few more days to post about a day that I will never forget. The urge to post was just not there this year.     Healing comes, and I am a witness of a long process of that healing. It is said that we go through stages.  In On Grief and Grieving, Elisabeth Kübler-Ross and; David Kessler share about the five stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. These five stages are a part of the framework that makes up our learning to live without the one we lost.    I went through all these stages, and more. The one that almost killed me was guilt. I felt responsible for the event. I was driving that day when I lost my wife and son. Also various forms of depression ensued. Th...

2014: A Year of Healing Fifteen years ago, in 1999, Julie and I were making wedding plans. We were in seminary, and the big news was about Y2K. Still in school, we wondered what the future would bring after we finished our degrees. In August 2000, Julie and I were married. We were both so excited about beginning a joint future together. A few months later, we embarked on one of the longest possible drives on Earth. We drove for a period of 70 days, crossing 13 countries to arrive in Paraguay, exhausted but excited to begin our lives as full-time missionaries. As I look back, I realize just how much we were able to enjoy and do as a family over this past decade: Between 2002 and 2010, we helped pioneer and direct what was, until recently, the only Christian radio station in southern Paraguay. Today the station is self-supportive and under national leadership, and is now launching into television. Between 2002 and 2012: ·         Dozens of t...