Today Paraguay Makes History!

After 90 minutes of regular time, 30 minutes of overtime and finally 5 penalty kicks, Paraguay defeated Japan by 1 goal and qualified for the quarter finals to face off against Spain next Saturday. This is the first time Paraguay has reached this position in its soccer history! Eight teams of 32 remain to claim the trophy.

After the game our entire town (and every city in the nation) began festivities with fireworks, spontaneous caravans and red and white decorated jubilee.  

We immediately jumped into our car, grabbed our flags and joined the caravan.  Timmy got into the excitement saying "Paraguay, Paraguay!" joining the thousands on the streets.

Children, bikers, motocyclists, people driving Mercedes and anything that barely moves celebrated the big win.

Zach and David, our interns cheer between the blasting horns.

The President has declared the two-hour Paraguayan games to be national holidays!  Almost all businesses allowed employees to halt work during the game and for an hour after to watch the parade.

At the local hardware store the owner says, he does not remember such a massive, spontaneous celebration in the history of our town.

Today was a momentous day for Paraguay! For a few hours, the people of Paraguay put aside color, social class, political parties and points of view to agree, and cheer for one nation's victory.

Forget Everything Else

Good stuff to chew on this morning:

Nowhere in Scripture do I see a "balanced life with a little bit of God added in" as an ideal for us to emulate.  Yet when I look at our churches, this is exactly what I see: a lot of people who have added Jesus to their lives.  People who have, in a sense, asked Him to join them on their life journey; to follow them wherever they feel they should go, rather than following Him as we are commanded.  The God of the universe is not something we can just add to our lives and keep on as we did before.  The Spirit who raised Christ from the dead is not someone we can just call on when we want a little extra power in our lives.  Jesus Christ did not die in order to follow us.  He died and rose again so that we could forget everything else and follow Him to the cross, to true Life.  

-Francis Chan, The Forgotten God.

Guten Morgen

Taking a break from the usual to show you a video of Timmy at preschool.

He attends a German/Spanish bi-lingual school, because there are many Germans and Europeans that live in this part of Paraguay.  Since Timmy's paternal grandparents speak German and his "Papi" speaks German, and Mom only knows 5 German words, this school would help him learn this important language.



This is a Father's Day program and they are each singing a short verse.  Here are the words translated:  "Hello good morning, hello good afternoon, my name is ________, hello good afternoon."

Wish I could have grown up bi-lingual. Timmy taught me how to say "Guten Morgen"

Party Week!

It's party central here this week.  With Father's Day on Sunday (and Paraguay's big World Cup win), Norberto's birthday today and Zach's birthday on Thursday, we've pulled out the fireworks!!!

This is Norberto's Father's Day gift.  I'll bet no one else got a machete like this....

Happy Birthday to the best husband and "papi" ever!  We love you Norberto and we thank God that he has given you another incredible year of life serving our Lord.

World Cup as an Evangelism Tool

On the eve of Paraguay's second World Cup game, the entire country is looking for a win against Slovakia this Sunday morning.

As our country gears up with excitement for the games, we've been preparing as well...

 We cut down a bamboo post from the lake area nearby to add some meters to our tv antennae! 


Also, we've been praying over various people that we hope to invite over to watch the games.  One of the first neighbors we invited was someone we've felt burdened to pray for.  While he talked a lot during the game; he started sharing with us about one of his friends who is having a lot of problems.  Norberto told him he'd be happy to go talk to his friend and the next morning he went to visit Mr. Morales.

The man immediately acknowledged how he needed God to take control of his life and he shared how he wanted to start a relationship with the Lord.  Now, Norberto is starting discipleship with Mr. Morales and we pray that we continue to reach out to those around us using the World Cup as a great reason to bring people together!

This Week in Pictures

We are winding down the chicken project for the winter season.  It is too hard to keep the chicken warm and they don't grow as fast during the cold months of the year, so we're slaughtering what's left of the batch and will pick up again in the spring.  Here's us transporting one of the chicken coops.  Notice the Paraguayan flag in the background?  People are hanging flags from their businesses, from their cars and even wearing them as capes as World Cup fever has struck Paraguay...more on that in a future post (game 2 is this Sunday).

Zach and Erin have been busy preparing a great lawn game called cornhole, (if you are from the midwest, you know that this is a serious sport!) for our family day at church.  Zach made the wood board and Erin sewed the bean bags.  Now, Zach is painting the boards and getting them ready for a tournament.

Here we are peeling mandioca in preparation for company.  It has several names including: yuca, manioc, cassava and mandi'o.  It is a Paraguayan staple which provides needed carbohydrates for the population.  It is a very versatile food and can be prepared in a variety of ways. 

We were so happy to have Erin here for a week.  She was such a huge help and made us yummy snacks.  We miss her already!  We had to improvise (something we do often) on an orange cranberry muffin.  These are made with gooseberries and turned out delicious!

 Looking forward to another week of serving God and loving others however we can.  Hope you do too!

Our Visit with the Aché

On our way to visit the Aché Indians (pronounced Ah·CHAY) this week we passed by this beautiful scene... 

We also passed by this scene.....He submerged his back tires in thick mud and abandoned his vehicle until the mud dries up. That's a bad day.

When we arrived at the village, we were immediately welcomed by our warm friends.  The Aché are hunters and gathers.  They still use bow and arrow to hunt and they have become adept in agriculture as well.  Last year they purchased their first tractor and after this year's soy harvest, they were able to pay off their tractor debt!

The 1500 Aché that are living in Paraguay do not yet have the Bible in their own tongue.  For that very reason,  a team of translators is fervently working on the 10 year project.  Right now they are translating the Pauline letters, as they have already finished the Gospels.   The goal is to finish by 2015.  If you would like to help sponsor a verse of the Bible, the cost is $20.00 and you can donate here.  

 

The children immediately ran off to climb trees with Timmy.  Their joy for life is contagious.

Missiologist/Anthropologist and respected colleague, Bjarne Fostervold, made first contact with the Aché with his missionary father in the early 1970s.  He and his family continue to walk alongside and battle for the rights of the community today.  Our intern, David, has expressed interest in Bible translation and is currently spending two weeks with the community. (Bjarne is pictured on the left, David is in the middle)

Please pray for the Fostervolds, the Bible translation project and the Aché people and the many challenges they face as they fight to maintain their culture, yet integrate in a changing, modern society.

Highlights of the Week

Thank you so much for your prayers and heart-felt comments about our last post and current frustrations.  We feel like the cloud is lifting and we are really, really grateful for God's love and grace and faithfulness even when life is hard. Here's a glimpse into our recent happenings...

 

We received an incredible donation from our CMA Son Rider friends in middle GA, a complete flannelgraph set with over 180 Bible stories and cut outs!  What a huge blessing.  The kids have never been more attentive!  I'm already loaning it out to other churches.

Our two interns, David and Zach, helped us in numerous ways this week.  Here they are opening peanuts and staying connected (we have had internet ALL week...woohoo!).  Thanks for keeping them in your prayers as they use their gifts, serve others and love God in new ways.

The last leaf on our sweet gum tree.  She's hanging on for dear life and doesn't want to admit that winter is here!

Our CMA chapter has been asked to serve as the first aid crew at all the races this year.  It's a great way to reach out to young people in our community.

Biker babes!

Sacrifice of Praise

I (Julie) just have had very little energy to write the past few weeks.  It seems like even the ant hills are mountains right now.  I'm just overwhelmed with the rats, the fleas, the cold, the sickness, the lack of energy and the amount of work around us.  Yesterday was especially heavy.

I went to visit the sick at the public health center, like I do every other Tuesday and when I asked to pray with a dying man who couldn't speak, he began to moan and scream.  It was obvious something in the prayer was perturbing his spirit and my co-worker began to intercede as I prayed.  The room smelled like death, but I cried out for this man's soul.  If you think about it today, could you lift up Renius and his relationship with the Almighty. 

Then, as we left the center, we saw a woman from town, a sister of my close friend.  As I greeted her, she excitedly told me she was pregnant.  She is not married and many times she has asked me to pray for her boyfriend, who is a womanizer.  I was trying to fake my excitement as I asked her about her due date and how she was feeling, but inside I was crumbling.  I drove home holding back the tears and asking God to give me strength and the trust to keep waiting for our own children we've been longing for so many years to arrive in our arms. 

More issues continued to mount in the afternoon and during the night I couldn't sleep because of the pain from the fleas I had dug out from my feet and the nagging cough I cannot seem to shake. 

This morning I woke up struggling to get out of bed.  Yet, I knew I needed to hear from God.  Before sunrise my devotional really spoke to me.  Hebrews 13:15 says, "Through Jesus, therefore let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise."   It is at times like these where worship is not easy for me, praise does not roll off my tongue and self-pity is right on my doorstep.  I can get focused on our issues, the daily struggles of living life on the mission field where lack seems to be our middle name.  I cry out to God for direction and answers and forget to worship the Lord in the midst of the trials and the pain.

It takes faith to worship even though the circumstances have not changed, even though you ache over a loved one, your body is wracked with pain, you have no money and you are bombarded on all sides.  I pray today that God gives me the ability to see past my situations and to rest in my Father's arms and give Him the praise He deserves.  I pray that I will honor God with my lips and my heart, even if the cost is high and the feelings are not quite there.  Regardless of what comes my way today, I choose to praise you, my Savior and my God.