Church Retreat, English Classes, and Orphans

The weekend before last we had an all church retreat at a place out in the country about an hour away. About 60 people came. The place was beautiful, and it was a great time of fellowshipping with everyone. The theme of the weekend was “The Battle Belongs to the Lord.” I was in charge of the kids classes and we did “The Armor of God.” Along with the lesson, the kids got to dress up like soldiers, make swords and shields out of cardboard, and even have a real battle- dodgeball style. Alba and Laura, who are both in our university group, helped teach and they did an amazing job! In the afternoons we had free time to relax and just spend time with everyone. All the kids swam, all the guys played soccer, and al the women sat around on blankets talking under the trees (typical I know). Also, we did spiritual skits one night, which were fun to participate in, even though I didn’t exactly understand them all. We also had a bonfire and got to roast marshmallows. They don’t have marshmallows in Paraguay, but luckily every missionary brings back suitcases of food when they travel to the states. Enoch and Perry supplied the marshmallows, which were quite a treat for the Paraguayans. It was without a doubt a great weekend, and everyone left recharged and encouraged. Here's some pictures:

This is Bruno with his armor on :)


Boys working on their shields


Pati, Luana, and Gabby

Emma, one of the missionary kids. She's adorable- I know :)


The Lord's Army (it's a video)

Eating yay!

This is Nora, my Paraguayan mom :) She's wonderful!!

Anyone who has ever roasted marshmallows knows that the only way to roast marshmallows is to catch them on fire and blow them out. Here Gina and I are demonstrating.


Singing (and fighting off mosquitoes) :)

In other news, my English classes, which is where I spend the majority of my time, are going great! I have loved getting to know all my students. Getting to talk with them, teach them English, and learn about their lives while sharing the Bible with them is an awesome experience. One of my students is named Maria, and she works at the federal bank here in Asuncion. She is about 45 and extremely excited about English. She always says “thank you teacher” after everything she says. I love it. Last week she told me she was telling all her co-workers about how lucky she was that she got to learn English and learn about the Bible at the same time. It was really encouraging to hear her say that. So if you are wondering what you can pray about for me…it’s for my students- that they will develop a genuine interest in the Bible, and that what they learn goes beyond the English language. My other students are named Celia, Jazmin, Daniel, Sergio, Monica, Zarita, and Nohemy. Also, every Thursday night at the church we get together with whoever of the students can come, and we have food, play games, hang out, and they are able to practice their English with us and other students. Here’s some pictures from last Thursday:


My student Celia

Lastly, the orphans are doing good, and are still as precious as ever. Here’s some pictures from this past Thursday’s visit. I’ve also included a couple of videos. You might have to watch the video twice where I spin the little girl around. It’s hilarious.








Helicopter Video :)


HOLA Video ("Yo quiero sacar" = "I want to take a picture!!")

I love you all, and I continue to thank you for all your prayers and support!!

Recently...

Another busy couple of weeks it has been. I’ll begin with a few of the highlights, of which I also have many pictures. First was our movie day with the orphans. Since the directors of the orphanage know us pretty well, and since it’s only about a 3 block walk from the church, they were nice enough to let us come get the children and walk to the church for movie day. I have never seen such excited children. You can tell that going to the movies is something they have probably never gotten to do. We also made popcorn (the old fashioned way because that’s all they have here), and had drinks for them.
This is Leticia and I making popcorn on the stove. It was crazy.


Here’s a few of the youth group boys about to serve the drinks to the kids.
The "Movie Theater"

This is Milagro (it means miracle in English), and she is absolutely precious. Every time we go to the orphanage, I get to play with her. Her smile brings joy to my heart. ☺ Mom, if you hadn’t made me promise not to bring a kid back, I might be adopting her.

Most of the kids will started school Monday (their summer is from Dec-Feb), and every year the church gives the orphans new school supplies at the beginning of the school year, so they all left really excited with new markers, crayons, notebooks, glue, etc.

Here's some action shots:

Another great thing about our movie day was that not only did our youth come to help out, but also parents and children from church came to help also. It was great to see everyone working together. We had about 70 people total- 40 orphans and about 30 people from the church.

Now for my second highlight. We are with the youth or university students doing activities the majority of our nights, but one night we had all the younger girls from church (the ones not old enough to be in the youth group- like 9-14ish) over to our apartment to spend the night. It was tons of fun, and it was definitely 100% energy the entire time! When they got there in the afternoon, we went swimming, then later we played games, ate pizza, watched the Chronicals of Narnia, painted nails (of course), and sang devo songs with them for about an hour. ☺ It was a great night, and the girls had a lot of fun. Here's some pictures:

Valeria and Leticia swimming

Group shot! ¡Qué lindas! :)

Don't let them fool you...they are not asleep...nor are they anywhere near tired

And here's a video of us all singing...I hope it works!



Now for the 3rd part of my update... 2 weeks ago we got to be a part of the team retreat the missionaries take every year to plan the upcoming year. The first part of the retreat we worked at the church building then the last part of it we went to a place about an hour outside the city that was absolutely beautiful (especially the stars Britni)! It was really good getting to know the families on the mission team better. I also got stung by 2 red wasps one day and cried like a baby. ☺ It was a great retreat though.

This last couple of weeks we have been busy getting prepared for our new upcoming 7 week English program that starts next week. Last week, we visited one of the main universities to meet students and invite them. So far there are about 100 people that have called and are signed up! This program is similar to the one they have taught before- it's basically just using the book of John to teach English. There will be a class every week for beginning speakers (taught by one of the missionaries), and the intermediate English speakers will be divided between us for one-on-one instruction. So I will have about 15 or 20 students total, and I will meet with each one twice a week, whenever their schedule permits. Our main purpose with these English studies is just reaching out to those in the community and getting them involved in and interested in the Bible. We still have other Bible studies with people throughout the week, but they are different than the English studies (and they are mostly in Spanish).

In addition to our current English studies, and preparation for the new English course, I have been busy organizing, planning, and helping teach the children’s Bible classes on Sundays. One of my main goals with this ministry is to teach the Paraguayan ladies how to teach Bible Class, and it’s a lot of fun getting to work with them in this way.

Thank you so much keeping all the work here in your prayers! The people here are such a blessing, and I will have even more things to share with you all when I return! Have a blessed week!

Everyday Life

This past week since we have been back in Paraguay, we have been busy getting our ministries up and going. In the afternoons we teach English using the “Let’s Start Talking” material (It’s an English Bible study that goes through various books of the Bible), and also in the afternoons and evenings we go visit different members of the church or visitors. A couple of evenings ago Rocio and I went with the missionary that we live with, Brittnea, to go visit a church member named Arminda, who had been wanting us to have us into her home for a meal. We had a Bible study with her too, and just got to spend some time talking with her. Something that is amazing about Arminda is that she lives about 30 minutes away by car, but she doesn’t have a car, so it takes her an hour or more to walk to catch a bus to get to church. But that’s how dedicated she is, and it’s really amazing to see Christians like that because I know that’s how the people of the 1st century church were.

As for our work with the youth, we are really trying to teach them about service, and one of our main projects this summer (it’s summer here), is taking them and working with the orphans at the orphanage. It is only a few blocks away from the church, and one afternoon last week, we took a group to go play with the orphans. They were some of the most precious children I have ever seen! I know that you AFC Kenya girls know exactly what I’m talking about. They just want to hug you, hold your hand, touch your hair, be spun around like a helicopter by their arms, etc… but mostly they just want to be loved. So I’m really excited about our times with them. We will be doing activities with the orphans once a week. Tomorrow we have planned a movie day (at the church) with snacks for them. The director of the orphanage is letting us come get them and take them to the church. It’s going to be lots of fun!

Our devos and activities for the youth group and university students are on Thursday and Saturday nights. We always have the devo and then some sort of activity together. This past Thursday we played soccer (people here are crazy about soccer) after the devo, and about 20 people came!

Another ministry I’m in charge of is the children’s ministry, so I have been talking a lot with one of the missionary’s wives this week and getting the curriculum organized and planning classes. Sunday was my first class with the kids and it went great!

A few other things that we have going on include: our ladies Bible class on Wednesday nights, our mission team meetings on Thursday mornings, our intern meetings on Monday and Wednesday mornings, and every Tuesday night we meet with Vickie, one of the missionary’s wives who is our mentor. I also am continuing to take 3 hours of Spanish lessons every morning. So we stay very busy, but we have Saturday during the day off and Sunday afternoons off to rest and relax.

Thank you for taking the time to read this! Also, my internet time is very limited since I usually only have access to the internet when we are at the church building, but I will try my best to respond back to your emails as best as I can. I love you all so much and continue to thank you for your prayers and encouragement!! God Bless!!

The following are pictures from when we had all the women from the church over for tea:

Group Picture!

These are two of the girls from our university group, Alba (left) and Helena (right). Alba is my Spanish teacher, and she’s wonderful! And I get to spend a lot of time with Helena’s family because her mother has kind of adopted us while we are here, and loves to have us over.


This is Chaco. He’s the cutest thing you will ever see. Oh and he thinks he’s spiderman.

This is the sunset from my balcony window!

Summer Camp Argentina Style!

Wow, it has been a busy last couple of weeks! We took about 15 of our youth to church camp in Argentina for a week, and a wonderful week it was! There were 45 teenagers from three churches in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and about 10 from another city in Argentina. There was about 70 campers total, along with many staff members and helpers. This is a picture of our group before we left for camp.

This is me and my dear friend Gina with our excited about camp faces! She is basically the Paraguayan version of me (except with a fanny pack).

Camp in Argentina reminded me a lot of Blue Haven because it was in the mountains, and it was so beautiful. Also, we went on an all day hike one day to a waterfall, and we played games and did typical camp type activities in the evenings. We also sang a lot, had a camp fire one night, and we even played an Argentine version of capture the flag (except there was flour involved and it was kind of messy…but it’s a great game…maybe we can play it CTW…Tammy you would love it). Our speaker all week was a man named Carlos from Columbia, and his lessons were incredible. The theme of the week was “Submerge me”, and we talked about being submerged in God’s word, His love, His forgiveness, and much more. This is everyone listening to a lesson.

And this is a picture from our hike:

Here’s Brittnea and I with one of our favorite campers, Pato.

We also led small groups for the campers, and these were a real blessing. We had a lot of good conversation, discussion, and study. And on the last night of camp 6 people (all from Argentina) were baptized. The neatest thing about the teenagers at this camp was that they weren’t your typical church camp campers…most all of them that came from Argentina had no church background and had tattoos, piercings, spike collars, etc. It kind of reminded me a little of 6th session at CBH, but perhaps the greatest lesson I learned was that God works in such powerful ways that He can reach those that we have labeled “unreachable”. At the beginning of the week, I was thinking oh my…look at that kid’s spike collar or that girl has a lot of tattoos, and then by the end I came to realize that those were the kids that needed to be there the most and praise God that he made a way for them to get there! 6 people are new creations now, and so many more are going back to their homes different than when they got there. It was an amazing week!

Back in Paraguay

We returned Saturday to Asuncion from the South American missions conference. It was such a wonderful experience, and the week just seemed to fly by. The conference was held in a beautiful hotel in the town of Canela, Brazil. The main purpose of it was for the South American missionaries to meet together, share with other teams, and encourage one another. Here is a picture of mine, Rocio’s, and Brittnea’s chalet that we stayed in.


The theme of the conference was “The God We Serve.” John Willis, a professor that has been at ACU for decades, was the main speaker. He taught the 2 main classes everyday, which were all about God’s promises, commandments, forgiveness, discipline, deliverance, and more. There were also ladies classes, mens classes, and classes for the children and youth taught by various former missionaries that now live in the United States.  We spent the day listening and learning from these speakers and from each other. We also shared the meals together, afternoon fellowship time, and devotionals together.


In the picture above I am with my dear friend Ali Kaiser who I met when I came to Brazil in the summer of 2005. Her and her husband Mark are two of the most amazing people I’ve ever met. They went to ACU and now they are working with the youth and university students at the church of Christ in Itu, Brazil.

This conference was a great transition period to my time here in South America. I was able to meet many wonderful missionary families, and I got to bond with our Paraguay team as we spent time together in planning and working together. I also learned a lot about life on the mission field, and saw how encouraging it was for American missionaries to be with other Americans, spending fellowship time, and worshiping in English. Some of the people at the conference were truly some of the most self-less people I have ever met.

We also got to do some other really neat things at the conference. One afternoon we were able to go visit some waterfalls in a town nearby. They were absolutely incredible! God’s creation never fails to amaze me!

We walked down 900 something stairs to get to the bottom of the waterfall. In the picture above are some of the bravest of us.

Another night, after the nighttime activities were over, we got to walk around the city of Gramado, which is famous for it’s Christmas decorations and lights. I’ve never seen such excitement for Christmas 3 weeks after Christmas. There was a singing chorus of people in a huge Christmas tree (see picture below). It was amazing ☺


The friendships we made at the conference were such a blessing. Below is Waleska Rehbein. She is absolutely precious! She is one of the missionaries in Porto Alegre, Brazil. She married an American and has been working for the Lord ever since.

This is Me, Rocio, and Brittnea with Georgia Frietas, from Continent of Great Cities. We got to spend a lot of time talking with this sweet woman .
On our way out of town our team got to stop by some other waterfalls. They were beautiful as well! The second picture is of Chris and Vicky Fry, one of the families on our team. The last picture is of me and their precious daughter Emma about to put our feet in the cold water :)



The conference was refreshing and rejuvenating for all the people there, and a good kickstart to our time too. Now it is time to begin our work here in Asuncion! Thank you for all the continued encouragement and prayers! I am beginning with 5 hours of Spanish training a day (only for this first week), so please pray that my lessons will go well so I can learn quickly! Blessings to all!

We're finally here!

After our 17 hour flight, Rocio and I arrived at the airport in Asuncion where we were greeted by Brittnea (one of the team members) and Elena (one of the youth from the church). Brittnea is who we are living with and she is just as sweet as can be. Our apartment is in a really safe neighborhood (mom) and has a beautiful view of the city! It's so pretty and green here! After we stopped by the apartment to drop off our bags, we went up to the church for a devo with the youth. I forgot how much I love singing in Spanish. I think I love it because it reminds me that even though we have different languages and different cultures, we’re all the same because we’re all praising God and we’re all one family. The group was very welcoming and excited to have us there. After that we all went to Enoch’s house, another missionary, and grilled hamburgers and played games. Interesting fact- In Paraguay people don’t eat dinner until 9 or 10 at night, and they seem to be night owls…so I think I’ll fit right in. They are also obsessed with soccer. Here's Rocio and I in the kitchen with Brittnea and a group of the girls from church.


Although we just arrived yesterday evening, we left today with the team for a South American missions conference in Brazil. It should be an amazing experience, and I’ll tell you all about it when we return. We will be there for 6 days (until Saturday), and then we will come back and jump right into our roles as interns. We will know more or what we are doing once we’ve had time to talk this week with the team, but some of the things we understand we will be doing are: organizing a university group (as of now anyone below the age of 30 or so makes up the “youth”), reaching out and building relationships with people on college campuses, and doing activities to encourage the youth and university students. We will also be having Bible studies for people that are interested, and possibly working with an orphanage that the church has connections with. It’s all very exciting and I know God is going to work in ways that I can’t even imagine! Please keep the youth, the team, and our time at the missions conference in your prayers!! And thank you all so much for your prayers and encouraging emails!! I love you all!

Good-bye Texas!

I have the greatest friends in the world!! Here are a few of them at my going away party!!