Friendship is a Gift

Today is Friendship Day in Paraguay!  It is one of our favorite holidays here.  It is full of teas, BBQs, gift exchanges, poems and showing appreciation for good friends.

I just got back from hand delivering a bunch of pansies to our friends with a scripture verse and a hug. 

Wish we could send YOU a hug too! We are so grateful for your prayers, funny and uplifting emails and for your comments on our blog.   We pretty much feel the Apostle Paul hit it right on when he wrote about his friends far away during his missionary journeys...

"I thank my God every time I remember you, in all my prayers for all of you. I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel."  Philippians 1:3-5

Thanking God for you today, dear friends!  You are a gift from above.  

We Don't Suffer Enough

"The saving purposes of Christ among the nations and in our neighborhoods will not be accomplished unless Christians choose to suffer." -John Piper, Desiring God

I read those words this morning and I felt instantly convicted.  When do I ever choose to suffer?  Not enough.  I spend more time choosing comfort and ease instead of choosing to sacrifice or even worse, suffer.  When I think about suffering I think about great Christian martyrs like William Tyndale, Jim Elliott, Dietrich Bonfoeffer,the Whitmans and countless others.

I recently read the story of the life of John Hyde, missionary to India.  John Hyde knew sacrifice. He would pray on his knees for 8 hours a day crying out to God for the lost around him.  His doctors say that the strain of his burden for the lost drove his heart into premature failure and death. In fact, bewildering his doctors, his heart had shifted from the left side of his chest to the right hand side.  Frequently, he would invite young boys off the streets into his home and many times they would steal from him.  One winter day John realized a young man had walked off with all his winter coats, so John went to a missionary colleague asking to borrow a spare.  The other missionary scolded him for housing such rabble rowsers.  But his response was, "If we loved men more and sacrificed for them more, we'd we'd have more of a heart to pray." 

It seems like home decorating, vacation dreaming, socializing at the right places and justifying the purchase of the latest iphone are what top our priority lists these days.  Can we say, as Paul said, "I count all things but rubbish in order that I might gain Christ." (Phil 3:8)?  Gaining Christ was truly Paul's greatest passion.  Is it ours?  

Piper continues, "Without martyrs the final frontiers of world evangelization will not be crossed.  Less extreme is the simple costliness in time and convenience and money and effort to replace excessive and addictive leisure with acts of servant love."  -John Piper

I am not saying we all need to die for the sake of Christ.  But we don't even want to sacrifice a wee bit anymore.  Indeed, it takes time to reach out to your hurting neighbor whose husband just left her. It takes energy to visit the sick, to put aside your agenda to hear out a co-worker whom you don't particularly care for.  Those things may not be considered "suffering" but they might be the first steps we need to start replacing our senseless leisure with acts of love.

After reading such challenging thoughts I need to ask, "How might God be asking me (and you) to "suffer" for His sake this week?"

The Latest....

We were sitting around our beloved wood burning stove last Friday and Timmy slipped on a rug and fell right against the wood corner of the couch and sliced open his chin.  We went to the doctor and Timmy got his first battle wound, two stitches.

The Ministry of Education declared it was too cold for kids to go back to school this next week (temps are around freezing in our area), so they are extending winter vacation a third week.  Not to mention that the teachers just lifted a hunger strike, so classes were suspended two weeks before vacation started.  In response to this sad state of national education, we start setting out in two weeks to visit churches to recruit students for our Leadership Training Institute, that will launch in March 2011!  More on that later.

Lastly, we had family here for a few days and loved the warm fellowship!  Here are mom and dad Kurrle playing hymns on the accordion.  Everyone in the family had an instrument, even the littlest one (1 year old) had a shaker to praise God with.

Raining Cats, Dogs and more animals

Remember how we mentioned we were dealing with a few plagues?  

Well, there is good news to share!

The sand fleas are in hibernation due to the rain and freezing temps we've been having lately.  We haven't had to dig into our feet for over two weeks!

We never thought we'd own a cat.  I hate cats.  However, extreme situations call for extreme measures.  We killed over 40 mice and rats and we still couldn't get a handle on the problem.

Silver is here and the rats are on the run!  This little guy is only 2 months old, but he doesn't mess around.  He is a great hunter and he's very friendly too. 

So, now we have a dog, a cat (his brother is arriving on Sat), six chicken and we'll be getting two turkeys this week sometime, so we can have turkey on Thanksgiving!

It's raining animals at our house and we're almost becoming a farm.  But the pests are on the way out the door and that, friends, is a VERY good thing.

Photo of the Week

We went to visit some humble Christians about 30 minutes south of us and they offered us tea.  These folks have nothing, yet are so loving and hospitable. We were touched by their spirit.

Heat is a Luxury

It's been really cold here the last few days and today we woke up to 0 degree Celsius.  We're giving our new wood burning stove a work out; yesterday we kept it burning all day!  While we are thankful for a cozy home, the sad reality is that most Paraguayans do not have the luxury of a source of heat inside their homes.  Many live in small wood houses that have no insulation.

Our three little neighbors came over yesterday to sit by the fire (while Norbert taught them a few chords on the guitar) to simply stay dry from the damp cold. 

Our blanket campaign from Missionary Ventures' Christmas Catalog is in full force.

This year we are giving out 80 blankets (we gave out 46 last year) to those who most need them (children, single mothers and the elderly)!

It is important for us to support local artisans.  Last year we bought our blankets from San Miguel.  However, this year our blankets come from Carapegua, four hours northwest of us.

They are woven with vibrant scraps of cloth to make a very strong blanket that's like your grandma's old braided rug.  This year, the blanket project was a team effort.  Special thanks to missionary friends the Hagermans in that city for the contact; they and cousins the Martinez' family brought them to us!

Thank you to everyone who contributed to this help keep 80 needy people warm this winter. We pray for each recipient and trust that not only would they sense physical warmth, but the warmth of Jesus' love for them.

Thinking About You...

I called the adoption center last week and they told us there was no news about our case.  It was a sad day.  Even worse, they told us that some families have dropped out because of discouragement with the system.  The only consolation is that with fewer families wanting to adopt, we are somewhere closer to bringing our precious child home.  Why is the system so inefficient?  Why don't people care that little ones are living lives without the love of a family while the "system" takes its sweet time in placing them?  

This morning I woke up thinking about you.  I think about the conditions of the orphanage and shudder.  I think about if anyone is holding you or reading you stories and telling you about Jesus' love for you.  I don't even know you and my heart is overflowing for you, little one.  We pray for you every.single.day.  We have the crib set up for you already and your brother Timmy prays for God to keep you safe.  We are asking for patience, but can hardly stand the separation and knowing that you are alone.  We know that God put this love in our hearts for you and that love grows with each day that we wait for you.

It's been over a year that we knew we wanted to add to our family through adoption.  It's been over a year that we are thinking about you and praying over you.  We are holding on to the promise from Jesus, "I will not leave you as orphans forever, I will come to you."  John 14:18.  Tears come to my eyes as I dream about you coming into our arms and joining our family forever.

Would you pray with us for our little one that we have yet to meet?  Would you pray that we would find favor with the "system" and that God would expedite our case and bring our folder to the top of the pile, somehow.  The condition in government-run Paraguayan orphanages is horrendous (my sister-in-law was able to tour two facilities and couldn't sleep for several nights afterward) and we pray that all the little Paraguayan orphans (2,500 is the closest estimate) would sense God's love for them and be placed with loving families. 

Little one, we love you and we know that God is with you holding you when you cry.  We are thinking about you and praying for your safety.  Know that you can rest under the protection of your heavenly Father today and each day that you are waiting to come home.