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 20th 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 21st 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!
