Passion for Paraguay

Where did the summer go?  As we're packing up Timmy's backpack for him to start school tomorrow, I look back and am stunned to think how fast these past few months flew by.  Although we haven't been blogging much we've been so busy with visitors, preaching, teaching, visiting the sick and needy and traveling. Here are a few highlights of the past few weeks: Last week Norberto went to visit a family about 20 minutes south of us and they all  (four people) wanted to make a life change and start living for the Lord!  Someone from the church will visit them twice a month to follow up. We went on a road trip to beat the heat (it's almost 90 degrees INSIDE our home) and visited beautiful Cordillera Paraguay.  Here are a few pics:  Watching the boats on the Ypacarai Lake  Mommy and Me  Enjoying the falls in Piribebuy  The big catch! National Historic Reserve Vapor Cue Our two treasures We made Valentine's day cookies with Grammy (Julie's mo...

This is part two of our trip to Ñeembucú .  Since we are fascinated by history (Norberto's masters is in History and Intercultural studies) we took the opportunity to visit four different museums in this historical part of the country, where the bulk of the Triple Alliance War was fought and where Jesuit ruins are preserved. These are the Humait á ruins.  This Catholic church was bombed for six months during the Triple Alliance War because it was thought to have held Paraguay's weapons. From inside the ruins you can see the beautiful Paraguay river.   This is in front of the museum of Isla Umbu , where General Lopez had his military base.  A new monument is being inaugurated for Paraguay's bicentennial on May 14-15 in Paso de Patria .  Along with the battle scene of the Triple Alliance War are General Mariscal Fransisco Lopez's famous words "Defeat or Die"  This is at the war museum of Paso de Patria.  We spent two hours in this tiny museu...

We took a short trip to visit a region unfamiliar to us here in Paraguay.  This is the scenic drive west into the department of Ñeembucú.  It is characterized by swampy wetland, beautiful birds and wildlife.  Here are a few of our pics from our trip last week. This is a milanesa napolitana (breaded beef cutlet with white and red sauce).  It happens to be one of Norberto's favorite meals.  We enjoyed lots of fresh fish and great hospitality from the Paraguayans residing in Pilar and its surroundings. The yata'i palm is the one common in this region.  It's in the center and looks spikey. The hybiscus grows so well in this part of the world.  The flowers are vibrant and so big. Drinking mate in front of the yerba mate momument in Pilar.  Some vultures are feeding off a carcass. A garza blanca (white goose) in the wetlands. Timmy loves the camera and he took over 700 photos on this trip ...and that is not an exaggeration....

We're leaving today for the Land of the Incas!  We will be near Lima this week for the South American Missionary Ventures conference and are really excited about.  Unlike the last conference in Peru 2008, we will not be driving ( a 9 day adventure and four part blog post !).  We will both be sharing this week at some point on accountability (J) and serving cross-culturally (N).  We're looking forward to some great fellowship, worship and growth!  There's just one bummer....  our camera broke this week so hopefully we can snag a pic or two from someone else. This is the first time we'll be away from our little guy for more than one night, so pray for him.  He is in wonderful hands, with abuela/abuelo and his sweet tia , thank you for your love and care.  Also, pray for spiritual and emotional renewal and for safe travels. The day we return we receive international guests who will travel up north with Norberto to plan out all the details f...

While we were in the U.S. this summer, one of our talented college friends, Cliff Ritchey , who's an amazing photographer, took these shots of our family, free of charge! The cool thing is that we were needing a new family picture and God took care of the details. Here are some of our favorites: Not only are we thankful for our family of three, we are so thankful to be a part of a great family that takes care of us!

These folks are like family to us. Celebrating Norberto's birthday with a cookout and ice cream cake (a big favorite here) Preaching at the church of dear friends who are pastors in Kendallville, IN Speaking at the NAC 100th annual convention last night. We had a fantastic Children of Promise directors training. Here you see over 30 directors from all over the world. Our close friends, the Wagners after church at South Meridian During the week-long training, we had a few outings like visiting the Indy Children's Museum with all the directors. Another fun outing with the directors and Timmy's first bowling experience. He scored a 35 (without bumpers!) We've really enjoyed our time in Indiana. After the NAC conference ends, we'll be speaking at Church at the Crossing this weekend and will head up to Michigan right after the service.

So, we're excited that we got to see Machu Pichu, we had a great conference and we're ready to go home, right. We decide that we're going to squeeze 5 days into 3 and return by a "safer, more secure" route, through Argentina. Day 1- We start our return trip and continue getting stopped by Peruvian policemen. It's getting really annoying by now. Whatever. We're on our way out and focus on La Paz as our Day 1 goal. We arrive after crossing only one river to La Paz and stay with our dear friends, the Quispes, once again and talk until way too late. Since we only see each other like every 7 years, it's worth the lack of sleep to catch up! Day 2-We head out toward Potosi. We made great time to Oruro and THEN the mountain portion of the journey started. We're getting good at passing semi trucks in the mountains now. We got to Potosi at 7:00 p.m. and we didn't find a hotel until 9 p.m. Ugh. Prices were high and standards were low. Our favori...

First things first. We're home. We couldn't be happier to be in our own beds. It seems like breathing is so much easier now that we are back at sealevel. Thanks for all of you that prayed for us. We felt those prayers. Continuing our adventures....we left Puno after a great breakfast, one of our first good ones so far. As we were leaving the hotel, the bellboy tells us that there are strikes on the road we are traveling and it might make our journey difficult. Great. We continued on our journey to arrive five minutes later at a huge road block. We were told it would be difficult to pass before night fall. Okay, now what. Norberto went to investigate the situation and talk with the people. A student approached us and told us since we were tourists we are exempt from the workers' strikes and should be able to go through. We were ecstatic. We jumped into our car and drove past the strikers, the lines of buses and trucks and angry drivers who were picketting again...