T.I.M.E update #5

June 16-22, 2014

CULTURAL LESSON: Any time you visit with someone you drink terere together.  It’s a sign of friendship and it is just what you do all the time here.  Since it has become such a normal occurrence for me, I got worried when no one offered the interns and me terere on our visits last week and this.  Time and time again we’d visit and the host would have terere but not offer it to us.  One time I invited myself into the terere circle and got an odd look and was reluctantly given the guampa to drink from.  I didn’t know what was going on….until one day I received a visitor and offered her terere.  With a confused look she denied saying, “But we’ve just been eating mandarins.”  I asked her what would happen if someone ate a citrus fruit and then drank terere.  She said they would get sick and could possibly die.  We are deep in citrus season now and at every house the interns and I visited we ate loads and loads of mandarins and oranges.  So, what I took as being rude (not being offered terere), the Paraguayans were actually saving my life. 

 THIS WEEK:

Unfortunately a lot of interns and McKissicks have been sick this week…and our team mates and our neighbors.   Thankfully the worse of it seems only to last 24 hours. 

With the cooler rainy weather we’ve unfortunately seen a lot of these much to the dismay of the girls.

A quote from Daniel Benson: When I stepped on that tarantula it felt like a water balloon.

This week:

We celebrate Benson’s 20^th birthday with brownies, a cool spaced themed banner and boxes of yerba.

This week:

The groups had some interesting clinic cases.

And we had good visits in the community and class time.

helping plant onions

 pulling mandioca

 even Julia helped pulled mandioca

And we even pulled off a wedding over the weekend.

Mariza gave her life to Christ a year ago after she attended a 6 week Bible study.  A week later she decided to get baptized and that’s when we first met her boyfriend, Cesar.  Cesar then began coming to Bible studies and eventually gave his life to Christ.  Cesar began attending the Timothy Trainings and attending both Bible studies.  He began sharing memorized Bible stories with the group (even when we were out of town) and he even began a new Bible study group.  While studying God’s word he became convicted of his sin.  You see, weddings here are very uncommon.  It is very normal for a couple to live together for years and have a kids together but never talk about marriage.  That was the case for Mariza and Cesar and their three year old son.  In November they told us that they wanted to get married and Jeff and I did about a month of pre-marital classes with them.  We wanted for them to set the date, save up their money, and for the weather to cooperate.  On June 21^st all those things happened.

The interns helped transform our house porch into a wedding chapel.  They helped with decorations and cleaning, music, cake decorating and the bride’s hair and make-up.  It was very simple and very nice.  And even though Mariza and Cesar had never seen a wedding and weren’t expecting much, I’m pretty sure we exceeding their expectations.

Wedding prep.  I don’t think the bride-to-be ever expected her eye brows to be plucked.  Ouch!  So thankful for Dalia and Payton who helped with the beautifying process.  Mariza looked great!

    This is something that is done differently here.  The couple has a civil service where the justice of the piece makes them and their 4 witnesses sign official documents saying that they are legally married.  Normally the couple goes to his office in town but we hired him to come to our house and made it part of the service.  I thought it was interesting that Mariza wanted to wear something different to the civil part.  After everyone signed the needed forms, she changed and we then began the religious service.

 Jeff officiated and even included a time for them to commit publicly to bring their 4 year old son up in the ways of the Lord.

the three of us worked hard on this cake.

 As nice as the wedding was, I laugh at these next two pictures because after all, we are still in Paraguay….

ONE: formal events doesn’t necessarily mean formal attire.  Julia were her rubber rain boots to the wedding and Josiah was barefooted.

 TWO: where there are children, there is futbol.  This game was being played in our yard just meters from the service.  When it came time to include Cesar and Mariza’s son in the service we all discovered he was no longer in his seat.  Where was he?  Kicking a soccer ball, of course.

I remember 2 years ago when I first saw the house we’d be living in in Jataity.  I thought my hosting days were over.  The house was too small and too rustic to be of use in that way.  Since I enjoy hosting, that was an area of ministry I had to be willing lay down.  BOY WAS I WRONG!  I am continually amazed at how God has used our place for numerous events – from 80 plus people at all day church events to a weekly Bible study with sometimes 15 plus people crammed into our kitchen, from all mission Thanksgiving parties to team mates birthday parties or baby showers, from hosting overnight guests ALL THE TIME to having interns at the house ALL THE TIME, from a yard full of kids playing soccer to our neighbor helping with cookouts….and now a wedding.  I love how God works!