God Said Move

As I talked with our Acting Field Director here
in Paraguay, he related to me his concerns for a
young, first-term, missionary couple that was
under incredible stress.

Left to pastor a growing church and direct a
small school with no other missionaries to help
on site, they were at the point of calling it
quits and heading back to the states.

When I hung up the phone and told Kelly the
story, we both felt an overwhelming burden for
this couple, and we asked God if He might want
us to go help them. The Lord impressed upon us
that it was His will to go.

We will be trimming back severly our ministry
here in Ita Angu'a as we will be moving to
Villarrica. Villarrica is where Kelly and I
first worked with youth and helped plant the
very church this young couple is now pastoring.

"Had we heard the Lord clearly on this
decision?", we wondered. A confirmation that we
had, came after spending only 3 hours in
Villarrica looking for a house.

A member of the church in Villarrica is going to
let us use for free his fully furnished house.
This house has everything all the way down to
silverware. We will basically just walk in and
settle down. In that same three hours we were
also given the use of a car for free. PRAISE THE
LORD!

Pretty Mundane

10 hour layover in Bolivia
flight delayed
then cancelled
24 hours in a hotel
4 hour flight
4 hours by bus
2 hours by car to Ita Angu'a
sleep
one day of ministry
sleep
6 hours by car to Asuncion
7 days in bed with intense fever and headache
dinner out with SIM chaplin
7 1/2 hour bus ride back home to Ita Angu'a
"ready to roll"

Sometimes it's pretty mundane,
just like that.

My Pistol

As I practiced some Guarani and had my quiet
time with the Lord, I heard a pick-up truck go
by our house on the dirt road. I thought it was
odd that someone was out so early, but I also
knew someone had been stealing cattle from the
farmers around our house. So with that a made a
mental note of the sound of the truck and the
time; 3:15.

I decided to ride my horse to my discipleship
meeting because it had rained the day before,
and the horse was a lot more sure footed than me
on muddy roads.

I was on my horse and on the road when I heard
the sound of that same pick-up, this time coming
towards me on the road. I could see it's lights
sweep out on the forest trees as he rounded the
last corner between him and me. Then with his
high beams on he came up the road and stopped
about 15 yards ahead of me.

My horse tensed up under me, and he was not
liking the bright lights. I was not likeing
the fact that these may be armed men who had
just stolen a cow! I turned the horse to the
side and as I did I heard the truck door open.
I couldn't see a thing beyond the trucks lights.

I thought about my options. Run? They'd catch
me. Ignore them? They still might shoot me,
because I'd seen them. Bluff? At the time I
thought this was the best option. I pushed my
shirt-tail to the side and reached back to my
right hip, acting as if I had a pistol holstered
at my side. (Many men travel with pistols on the
roads at night, so this seemed like a reasonable
bluff.) So with my pretend pistol held at the
ready, I stared them down. And waited for their
next move.

Their next move was to get back in the truck and
move towards me. I held my ground, ready to
pull my finger out, and use it if I had too.

As they passed they yelled out my name and began
"whooping it up" and laughing. They were all
friends of mine, going to an early morning
agricultural meeting. They knew me well and
knew I didn't have a gun to my name. They had
been watching me and laughing the whole time.

3:00 AM Bible Studies

The alarm goes off at 3:00AM, and I'm actually
getting used to it. Twice a week, and soon 4
times a week, I'll be getting up at this hour to
go to Bible studies with some key men and their
wives. These are the men I think that God will
use to continue His church while we're gone to
the States for a year.

I'm out the door and 4:00 and then the 45 minute
walk on a star lit road, next, a nice shortcut
through some very dark woods and I arrive at
Maximo's house. From a distance I can see the
firelight escaping from between the slats of his
cooking room.

He's been up with his wife for a while, talking
about the kids and the crops. They invite me in
to a small wooden room with a fire burning in
the middle of the floor. A blackend aluminum
tea pot sits among the coals. We sit near the
floor on low, short benches and drink hot tea,
chatting about how dry it is, how hard the
ground is, and and how the birds ate his first
planting of corn. Soon he'll say, like he
always does, "Let's go brother and read God's
word"

We walk about 50 yards to His father's house
because he has electricity for lights. Maximo's
mom hurriedly swats at the table with a rag to
clean off the dust and then reverendly puts down
a table cloth where I will set my Bible. It's
time to pray and get into the Word.

Today's lesson is about John 1:12, 1 Peter 1:3
and John 10:28. Maximo struggles to use his
pencil which is barely an inch long, his
handwriting and spelling are like that of a
second grader. Later I will work a little in the
fields with him, clearing brush with a machete or
hoeing weeds in his field. Then it will be me
who works like the second grader. In the field
Maximo will guard my pride and encourage me in my
work, even though I am slow and weak. Now, I
will encourage him.

Pencils, hoes, and machetes are but rough and
primitive tools compared to the Word of God and
the work it is able to do. We are not asking
God to change our handwriting or our fields, we
are asking Him to change our hearts.

The sun has yet to come over the horizon, but it
is light enough to be in the fields, so Maximo
must get on with the work of feeding his family.
As I rise to leave, we pray that God would
continue to guide us, and we pray for rain.

I love this man, and how I love to see him
growing daily in his knowledge of the grace of
God.

Being Foolish

"Get ready to feel foolish." That's one of the
things I'd tell people if they wanted to
minister in a rural area of Paraguay. I grew up
in a suburban neighbourhood and my contact with
life on a farm has been limited to "hogs" and a
couple of friends with 4-H projects. Here in
rural Paraguay there is a whole body of knowledge
which it seems everyone knows, except me. Here
are a few examples of my "foolishness."

If your going to hang meat outside over night,
hang it REALLY high. Dogs can jump over six
feet to rip a bag and get the prize. (Recently
lost 24 pounds of beef by hanging it too low.)

Chickens only look fat, but are able to
squeeze through seemingly impossible spaces.
(After loosing all my beets to a marauding
band of neighbourhood chickens, due to improper
spacing of picket fence boards)

You don't try to cook a whole 64 pound pig
over an open fire. (Pigs here are raised for
the fat that can be rendered from them, and so
nearly 32 pounds of pure fat dripped into the
fire, worth about 5 days wages for the men in
our village.)

Don't ask someone what time you are going to
light your self on fire. (A language slip up
when I meant to ask What time we are going to
start the fire.)

My egos can get bruised pretty easy when I
forget that who I am is defined by Who I know,
and not by what I know. When we feel foolish,
inadequate, or out of place, my we all find
comfort in knowing our Lord Jesus.

Rolf and the Joy of Giving

Rolf is a German baker, who was won to the Lord
by the patient discipleship of our former
co-worker Mark Johnson in Villarrica.

Last year when Rolf heard that we needed a place
for our next youth camp he volunteered His
property as the site. He has a small farm where
he used to raise cattle and raises pigs and runs
his bakery now. When we agreed to use his
property, he went into "high gear".

He tore down the infrastructure of his milk barn
to make a dining area. He emptied his feed
mill and storage area to make a place for the
girls to sleep. He felled a 20 foot pine tree to
use as the center post for a huge 45 foot in
diameter building with a thatched roof which
would serve as the main meeting room.

He built bathrooms, installed showers, and lit
the area completely with florescent lights.
Except for about 80 dollars, all the expenses
were paid for out of his pocket.

Everytime I would see Rolf, I would tell him he
didn't need to spend so much to improve the
property. He always answered the same way.
With a broad smile and a "bear hug" he would say
he loved to do these things and if just one
young person came to know the Lord at camp it
would all be worth it.

Rolf knows the joy of selfless giving.

Our Car Was Stolen

Apon waking this morning I found that our car had been stolen.  We have reported this to the police and informed our neighbors. Our greatest treasure continues to be Jesus Christ and we know that God has a purpose in everything he allows to happen to those who love Him.

It will truely be a miricle if our car is returned to us.  Many are stolen, few are ever recovered.

The Man and the Machette

Unlike the city, there is very little night life
in the village where we live, and even less
movement when it is pouring down rain. However,
it didn't stop the two men who were calling
outside our front door on this particular night.

The men were soaked with rain and had been
running for about 3 miles to get to my house. A
friend of theirs had slipped and fallen
backwards onto a machete he was carrying in a bag
on his back. They said he had lost a lot of blood
and needed to go to the hospital.

We got the men some towels and jumped in the car
to go get the man. The roads were not pretty
and the man who had fallen lived in a hilly
area, so we were unable to make it all the way
to his house. I stopped the car and turned off
the lights and immediately we were surrounded by
the blackness of the night. In the distance,
from the direction of the injured man's house I
could see the light of flashlights bobbing up
and down as they moved closer.

As the lights got closer I could see they were
carring the injured man on a cot type bed. The
man was on all fours like a dog and his fingers
gripped through the strips of raw hide that
laced the cot's surface. He grimaced as they
sat the bed down. The machete had been driven 3
inches deep underneath his shoulder blade.

The rain poured even harder as we left for the
hospital, but we arrived with out incident.
After the doctor cleaned and sewed up the wound
we started for his house. I felt the road back
to his house was now impassable and didn't know
what to do. Then about a 1/2 mile from his
house the man said that he could not ask me to
take him on such a difficult road and told me he
would walk the rest of the way.

In the heavy rains and darkness my headlights
barely reached 20 yards and the barefoot,
shirtless man quickly faded from view as he picked
his way down the path looking for the best
footing.

I will visit this man in the coming weeks to see
how he is doing, read the Bible and invite him
to our men's Bible study on Saturdays.

Mourning and Communittee

"Oh, Tomas!", a woman mourns, as she hugs me and
meets me at the gate of her sister's house who
had died 9 days ago. It is the last day of 9
days of reciting the rosary, and it is time for
the "Tupa Mba'e".

This is a meal that is served to the people of
the community in honor of the person who has
died. Traditionally the meal was served to gain
God's favor on behalf of the deceased loved one
in order to help him move out of purgatory and
into heaven.

To many the traditional reason has been lost,
and it is now done as a community service.

I am here at the request of the family, and
after shaking 30 men's hands, I am seated at the
table in front of an alter adorned with black
cloth, flowers, candles, and a picture of the
woman who has died.

The meal starts with a beef soup, followed by
another kind of soup with spiced corn dumplings.
In turn another plate with rice and milk is
served for dessert. It is almost more than one
person can eat.

While I eat inside the house, some 350 other
people are being served by family and friends
outside in the yard.

When our meal is done, we stand together behind
our chairs and recite a Catholic prayer. I am
asked to lead the prayer this time, but have to
tell them I don't know the special prayer. An
older man tells every one that I will pray in my
own way. After nods of agreement all around I
pray for a blessing on the household and thank
God for the food.

I go back out into the yard to shake more hands
and chat with people. I sit next to Juanita, an
old woman whose son died in my car last year as I
rushed him to the hospital. I put my arm around
her as she cries and remembers her loss.

Three and half hours have past and it is time to
go home. Being part of a community means
weeping and rejoicing with those who live around
us. It means giving to the needy and receiving
the generosity of these same needy people.

Stuff on the porch

We get many things left on our porch at night,
and they're left for many reasons. We have had
vegtables left in order to thank us for some
kind thing Kelly and I had done. We have had
puppies left because they were so sick that
nobody wanted them. But recently we had our
biggest suprise yet.

We told you last prayer update that our house
had been broken into twice while we were away,
but we didn't tell you that they stole both our
digital camera and our video camera. This was a
discouragement to us because both of these
things were purchased with special gifts that we
had recieved from supporters. We knew that God
had provided and God had allowed these things to
be taken from us.

Well, the other morning we opened our front door
to find both cameras in a plastic bag on our
porch.

The people around here say the thieves
"repented". I think that's a pretty good use
of the word. They not only felt sorry for what
they had done, they changed the way they were
going by giving back the stolen items.

It remains to be seen if the cameras are in good
working order and it remains to be seen if the
thieves will repent of their "sins" and not just
of their "sin".