My Final Days

VBS
2 weeks before I left I got the opportunity to organize and put on a Vacation Bible School for the orphans. Everyone from the church took on a role or helped out in some way and it was a huge success! The theme was about God keeping his promises, and we used the story of Jonah. There were puppets, arts and crafts, games, snacks, a skit, and tons of singing! We even built a whale for the kids to go in. ☺

Puppets!

What kids don’t love fishing out of the baptistry…

Kids going inside "The Whale"

Arts and Crafts time!

Mateas eating a snack

And last but not least…it’s not booster booster, but I think you’ll see it has the same spirit ☺ Click to watch...




WOMEN’S CONFERENCE
The weekend before I left we had the annual Women’s conference Mujers de Fe (Women of Faith). There was about 60 or 70 women total. Carla Borja was our guest speaker and she came all the way from Texas. She was a blessing to the women of Paraguay, an incredible speaker, and such a joy to be around. It was a wonderful rejuvenating weekend for the Paraguayan women.

Helena and Brittnea working hard to prepare

Carolina and Maria Jose at the conference sign – in table

During the conference

Small groups


Waiting to eat some delicious food

The Whole Group

Smilce, a woman who attended the conference because she saw the advertisement in the newspaper, was baptized a few days later.
GOING AWAY PARTY
On my last night they threw me a going away party and it was great! We sang my favorite devo songs, ate brownies (thanks Rocio) ☺, and I just got to spend time talking and sharing a few last moments with everyone. The amount of love that I felt from the Paraguayans was overwhelming. I got a box full of letters and cards and so many gifts. My desire was to go to Paraguay and be a blessing to the people, but instead they blessed my life. I will always have special place in my heart for the people of Paraguay, and Lord willing I will be able to return someday.

Brazil and happenings here...

As you can probably tell from my lack up updating, we had a super packed month of April, but it was incredible! It’s hard to believe my time here is almost over! Here’s a few highlights from the past few weeks.

Brittnea and I went to Itu the beginning of this month and we had a blast. We have to leave the country every 90 days because we have tourists visas, and almost 90 days had passed since we returned from church camp in Argentina, so it was time for us to leave. We chose to go to Itu to visit Mark and Ali Kaiser (some of the missionaries that we spent a lot of time with at the conference back in January), and to get ideas of they types of activities they do with their youth and university students. We had an exciting full weekend! We ate a lot of delicious Brazilian food, walked around the city, attended a Brazilian birthday party, went to a chocolate factory, and we even helped them take their youth group to an amusement park. This amusement park was surprisingly a lot like American amusement parks… minus all the safety precautions you would find at Six Flags. Whoever dreamnt it up definitely traveled around American amusement parks a lot. And Sunday morning we got to worship in Portuguese, which if you didn’t know, is absolutely beautiful. I also got to see the family that I lived with in 2005 when we went to Itu with Aggies for Christ. It never ceases to amaze me with the body of Christ that it doesn’t matter what country or culture you’re from, we’re all family. Here’s some pictures from our wonderful weekend:

Me and Brittnea with two of our new Brazilian friends Karina and Soraya. Soraya is in the university group at church. We got to attend her birthday part that night ☺

Here’s part of the youth that we got to take to the amusement park…notice we’re a little wet... who doesn’t love water rides?

Here’s another shot from the park of a few of us before we left

These are two beautiful parrots I saw at the chocolate farm
…speaking of parrots, my host family here in Paraguay's neighbors (well the people that live directly above us) have a parrot and every morning they put it out on the balcony and it sings and talks. It’s a wonderful way to wake up every morning ☺

Now here’s a few pictures of our church family here in Paraguay one Sunday during and after worship:

Yes, there are potlucks in Paraguay…and yes they are just as great ☺

Eating some delicious food!

Me and Luanna! She is precious!

Here Luanna is feeding Emma. I love this picture!

Update on my English studies… We finished our LST English course a couple of weeks ago, and 4 of my students decided to keep meeting with me to study the Bible more, so praise God for that answered prayer.

This is my student Zarita. She is so sweet and super smart! She comes from a Catholic background and has some knowledge of the Bible, but never before has really read it much for herself.

This is Sergio and Monica at the English graduation. They have been dating for 8 years, and they are really interested in the Bible. We have great conversations in our studies. I think they are the ones I look forward to most each week.

Now I just ask your continued prayers for these and my other students, as I am about to leave…that they can feel welcomed by this church family here, and that they’ll continue to grow and decide to become Christians. It’s one of the hardest things to know that I’ve just planted the seed and I can’t stay here to water it or watch God grow it. But I know that God's in control and has a plan for these children of His. Thank you for your prayers and I'll update again before I leave...have a blessed week!