JANUARY GUESTS

 


The end of December, a missionary family (friends of ours) came to visit and brought his parents along who were visiting Paraguay.  They had been missionaries in Kenya for many many many years.  It was a short, but sweet time together.

January 6-10 two of Ginny’s best friends were able to stay with us.  Ryan graciously gave up his room so the girls could have some privacy.  Before they arrived, Ginny set to work cleaning the room, making the beds, and moving in her two most prized possessions (her barn with its animals and her hamster cage).  Over the next 4 days, the girls were a bundle of giggles!  They giggled while we did some crafts, they giggled through meals, the giggled as we watched Anne of Green Gables, and they giggled well past bedtime.  One of the girls said to me before she left, “I don’t think I’ve ever laughed this much!” How wonderful it is to have such good friends!

 
January 10-11 we had our second annual visit from Josh and Leti Berry.  We met the Berry’s several years ago at a mutual missionary friend’s wedding.  They are living in the US right now and came to Paraguay to visit Leti’s parents for the second Christmas in a row.  We feel very blessed that they would once again make the long out-of-the-way trek to see us.  

We have had an intern with us through January.  Daneille was not our “normal” intern.  She has been in Paraguay since July.  She spent two months in Asuncion learning Spanish and then 4 months teaching English in another town.  Since end of November she has been spending time with the missionaries in the rural part of Paraguay.  We were thankful that she came out our way for January.  She helped me teach English classes, shadowed Jeff a bit in clinic (even though she isn’t medical), conducted interviews with several of our Paraguayan friends (school requirements), spent a day helping on a friend’s farm (milking cows, delivering calves, picking peanuts), and played volleyball each night with her host family.  She has left just today to pick her parents up from the airport.  Hopefully they will all be able to make it out this way before they all fly back to Canada Feb 10^th.Daneille, Ginny and I milked cows with friends at 5AM.  They go to their farm every morning at that time to milk their 7 cows.  They get about 30-40 liters each morning.

January 10-14 Ryan spent 5 days with 4 of his closest friends in Villarrica. He had a wonderful time playing guitar, the wii, playing board games and computer games, swimming and playing soccer.  We sure missed him around here though!

FISH DINNER

PROUD NEW LOOK

Tyler is very proud of losing his first upper tooth!

JANUARY PRAYER REQUESTS

As I look to our January schedule, I am a bit overwhelmed at all that is already on it!    Will you join us in prayer for some exciting January events?

Jan 2 -25^th we will have an intern.  She will shadow Jeff in the clinic each morning, have classes with us a couple afternoons a week, go visiting with me in the afternoons and help me teach English class.  Please pray that she will bond with her Paraguayan host family and soak in all that God has in store for her. 

We have a new intern web-site.  Check out and pass on to anyone interested.

Jan 2^nd begins English class.  Last year I taught English to 25 students during their summer vacation (January/February).  I had a number of them ask me to continue the class this year.  So, 2 days a week I will be teaching an advanced course under our quincho. 

Jan 3^rd begins a second English course that I am offering in Jataity (the community that we have been ministering in weekly).  We have felt so welcomed in this new community, that when I was asked to teach English I could hardly say no.  So twice a week I will drive out there.

Please pray as I get to know these students; that doors will be opened to speak into their lives spiritually.  These classes are great ways to get to know people and deepen already existing relationships.

Jan 10-14 is the SIM youth camp.  Although Jeff and I will not be attending, we have been promoting it in our town.  Our prayer is that a number of youth from San Francisco will be able to attend and have their life changed.


Jan 14 – our monthly kids’ club.  Pray that more and more parents will allow their children to come and hear the Word of God. 

Jan 19-21 is the very first Timothy Training.  Jeff has been working hard to put this workshop together.  The hope is to equip lay leaders to spread the Word of God throughout Paraguay using memorized Bible stories.  Pray that the men attending will have a great burden for their community and will learn how to better teach the Word of God.


We’ll probably throw a couple youth events into the month as usual – maybe show a movie or have a game night.

We are continuing to provide medical care weekly in a nearby community.  We have been so encouraged these past 2 months at the people God has put us in contact with and the relationships we are building there.  One family has asked us to start a Bible study in his home.  Continue to pray that hearts will be open to our message.

In January, I hope to invite girls over to my house to discuss purity (a HUGE need here).  It makes me nervous thinking about sharing on this topic.  Please pray that their hearts will be soft and ready to hear from me.

Jeff is working on a 40 week Bible story Bible study set.  Some stories he has written and others he has guided the believers in writing. Pray for time in the week to finish and for the believers to enjoy learning how to craft a story.

We both feel the need to regularly visit people whether for a pastoral visit, encouragement, or to those who have expressed an interest in what we’re doing.  We love to visit, but it often gets put on the bottom of the list.  Pray that we can be purposeful and in our visiting.   

Through all this, we continue to homeschool.  It is especially hard for me to balance homeschooling, plus ministry responsibilities.   Pray that we will be diligent with the tasks God has set before us.

JULIA and JELLY

These pictures of Julia and her first baby doll (named Jelly) were too cute not to post.

HAPPY NEW YEAR’S!

We had a wonderful New Year’s Day which started off by attending church, then lunch outside with Paraguayan friends. 

HAPPY 12th BIRTHDAY, RYAN!

            Ryan always celebrates the New Year with a new year (I have always thought he had a very cool birth date).  This year he turned 12!  We spent the 31^st with 2 families (team mates) who live 1 ½ away, so once again I found myself transporting a cake over bumpy dirt roads.  Ryan had requested a Jupiter plus (some of) its moons cake (since Jupiter makes a revolution around the sun every 12 years).  

We had a great day full of relaxation, fellowship and food.  It was about 9:30 when we got home and about 10:30 when we set off our fireworks.  

CHRISTMAS DAY

We started Christmas Day at church which seems very appropriate.  I wish Christmas was always on a Sunday.

What an honor we felt it was to be invited by a family in Jataity (where we have been going weekly for mobile clinics) for Christmas lunch.  They cooked fried duck, pork and chicken for us along with rice salad, cabbage salad and, of course, mandioca.  I brought a Texas Sheet Cake for dessert. 

It was a nice time of fellowship as the kids played soccer and tag.  Jeff siesta-ed in the hammock.  We played volleyball just before heading back home.

Once home again, the kids opened stockings.

The kids played with their new things and swam until bedtime.  They were tuckered out!

CHRISTMAS EVE

This past week we have had temps soaring above 100.  The heat on the 23^rd was almost unbearable (it is practically the same temperature inside our house as outside) and it left us with little energy to clean, cook, and wrap gifts.  But Christmas Eve morning we woke up to rain!  Oh how we rejoiced in those cooler temperatures. 

Following a pancake breakfast, we finished our advent story and read the Christmas story.

We watched The Nativity.

We made Christmas cookies and dog treats (to give our animals as gifts).

I surprised the kids and made Kraft Mac and Cheese for lunch.  I actually found it (for the first time) in Asuncion.  Kaft Mac and Cheese is one of my kids’ American comfort foods.  They were thrilled.

We open gifts.  In an instant the living room was littered with a hamster cage and connecting tubes, light sabers, Nerf guns, a press-pot, DVDs, Wii games, art sets, books, a new dress, a science kit, LEGOS, games, watches, and stuffed animals.

One highlight for me was watching Julia with her first baby doll.  She loved it and immediately cuddled and “talked” to her. Then she sat down and “read” her one of her new books.

The kids played for hours.

They went swimming in our new plastic pool.

I asked the kids if they wanted turkey for Christmas Eve dinner and they looked at me like I was an alien.  They don’t associate turkey and Christmas.  Just as well, I probably couldn’t have found one anyway. They did, however, ask for fish and that I did find in Asuncion.   

Then we set off fireworks.  By “we” I mean Jeff and Ryan.  Each year as I see Ryan and Jeff side by side discussing what to blow up, I am again reminded that my husband hasn’t really ever grown up and perhaps in a decade Ryan’s wife will think the same thing about him.

When everything was blasted and blown up and our roof was still in tacked (one year they caught our thatched roof on fire), we watched Miracle till midnight.

At midnight we listened to the fireworks and rang in Christmas Day.

QUOTES

Mom: What did William Booth start?
J: Starvation Army. (Salvation Army)

Mom: What was the most important invention in the history of the World?
G: The microwave. (The printing press….we don’t even have a microwave)

Me during Language Arts: Give me two words that describe a house.

Joshua: Huge and Mungous

Micah: I can’t plug it out.  (He couldn’t unplug the drain.)


Tyler: Dad’s patient had a see-saw accident. (He had a chain saw accident.)    

The kids are memorizing the books of the bible. Tyler's favorite book is "Hagga-rias", Ginny's is "Golassians", and Joshua's is "Ethesians".

Ginny and her chicken cake pop. Cute.


Crafts with friends.

Ginny making Mars' Olympus Mons.

IN-SERVICE

December 14-17

We serve with an awesome SIM team that loves getting together.  In December, we met in Asuncion for a 3 day long (we’re talking 8am to 7pm) workshop on how to more effectively teach in a primarily oral culture.  The speaker (who came from the states) encouraged us/challenged us to use more stories to effectively communicate the gospel.  It definitely gave us all food for thought.  I am thankful to serve on a team that is very committed to doing whatever it takes to see Paraguayans serving God with their whole heart.  

Here’s our SIM team with all the babies through 2^ndgraders (there were another 20 kids not pictured).

On the 17^th we had our annual committee meeting day and in the evening, our Christmas party.

The NERDS (Never Ending Radical DudeS) played a song (Ryan is in a red shirt playing the guitar).

The girls sang a song they wrote.  Julia was so cute.  She saw the girls up there and she got off my lap and joined them.

This was Ginny’s first time playing in public.  She played Tres de Mayo and a lullaby she wrote for Julia.

Oh, I made my first pot of coffee this week.

We ended up staying in Asuncion several more days than expected due to meetings.  When we finally left the city we packed all 8 of us plus a guest into the car with a pool, big fireworks, a dog ,a hamster, a harp, a guitar, 6 weeks of groceries, our luggage and 25 mattresses on top.  Half way home Ginny announced that her hamster was running loose!