Click on the picture below to read our Christmas newsletter. God is sure doing a lot in our little neck of the woods!
PS. We've already received an answered prayer....our car has been released! It should be another month before the needed paperwork is done, making it legal to drive. As for now, it sits at our mission's guest house in Asuncion. Thanks for the prayers!
Showing posts with label missions. Show all posts
Showing posts with label missions. Show all posts
Monday, December 20, 2010
CHRISTMAS NEWSLETTER
Friday, October 15, 2010
ENCUENTRO SUNDAY
Sunday, October 10, 1010
God has been working in the lives of the believers; they are maturing and growing in the Lord. They are learning what it means to be the body of Christ, to bear one another’s burdens and have a servant’s heart. We are encouraged that several men have stepped up to help lead and teach from God’s word each week. Last Sunday we had an incredibly encouraging service. Jeff led the Lord’s Supper and did something new. He put a chair in the center of the group and said if anyone had sinned publically and wanted forgiveness could come and sit and be prayed over. Two ladies ended up confessing sins. One is a dear friend of mine who I have been praying for regularly. I was blessed that she wasn’t ashamed to confess out loud and I pray that she continues to walk in Christ. Then, one of the leaders washed everyone’s feet. What an incredible act of servant hood!
Today we had a wonderful church service followed by lunch (we do this once a month). One of the ladies of the church (who is a gifted evangelist) spontaneously told the story of Nicodemas and then gave the gospel presentation. Later she mentioned to Jeff that she did this because there were at least 3 people in the group that she knew had never accepted Christ and she didn’t want to opportunity for them to hear pass her by.
Squeezing lemonade
Making a TON of dough for the tortillas
Frying the tortillas
The finished product - Paraguayan tortillas
Eating lunch. Yum!
God has been working in the lives of the believers; they are maturing and growing in the Lord. They are learning what it means to be the body of Christ, to bear one another’s burdens and have a servant’s heart. We are encouraged that several men have stepped up to help lead and teach from God’s word each week. Last Sunday we had an incredibly encouraging service. Jeff led the Lord’s Supper and did something new. He put a chair in the center of the group and said if anyone had sinned publically and wanted forgiveness could come and sit and be prayed over. Two ladies ended up confessing sins. One is a dear friend of mine who I have been praying for regularly. I was blessed that she wasn’t ashamed to confess out loud and I pray that she continues to walk in Christ. Then, one of the leaders washed everyone’s feet. What an incredible act of servant hood!
Today we had a wonderful church service followed by lunch (we do this once a month). One of the ladies of the church (who is a gifted evangelist) spontaneously told the story of Nicodemas and then gave the gospel presentation. Later she mentioned to Jeff that she did this because there were at least 3 people in the group that she knew had never accepted Christ and she didn’t want to opportunity for them to hear pass her by.
Squeezing lemonade
Making a TON of dough for the tortillas
Frying the tortillas
The finished product - Paraguayan tortillas
Eating lunch. Yum!
Saturday, September 4, 2010
LANGUAGE LEARNING
After being in the capital 5 weeks, we have now moved to another town called Escobar for the next 4 weeks. Jeff and I have begun a Guarani (the language we speak here) refresher course. As you can imagine, we lost a lot of vocabulary while we were in the states (not too many people there to practice with).
Paraguay is a unique country in the fact that it has two national languages: Spanish and Guarani. Spanish is used by government officials and in schools, but Guarani is used in the home. It is the language mothers use to soothe their children, the language men use to tell jokes, and the language used to convey deep emotion. The farther out from Asuncion you go, the more Guarani is spoken.
When we moved to Paraguay 5 years ago, our plan was to learn Spanish during first term and then Guarani our second term. But after our first trip to the rural area (where we wanted to minister) we were easily convinced that we needed to learn Guarani in our first term in order to teach God’s word in the Paraguayans heart language. And so after studying Spanish for 9 months, we embarked on Guarani.
Learning a language is the most humbling experience I have ever had! Upon moving to Paraguay, I quickly learned that hearing the language and speaking it does not come easily for me. Seems a little unfair, that God would call me to be a missionary and not give me the gift of learning languages. So as a child, I stumble through grammar, get odd expressions from those I am communicating with and try to laugh at myself.
Language learning is (as our co-work says) like trying to drink from a gushing fire hydrant. Words and phrases come at full blast and we’re lucky to retain a small fraction of them. It is a slow process and for months and months we’re stuck talking about the weather and children and praying for the day we can move on to more important matters – like salvation.
Thankfully God has allowed us to learn with Andy, a fellow missionary and the same one we studied with 4 years ago. We go up to his house for 4 hours every week day. He has employed a Paraguayan 3 of those days to be our language helper. In each of his Guarani classes since the very first, Andy has had at least one student begin class with a brand new baby or a baby has been delivered during class (not literally). 4 years ago in our class, Micah was born (Andy’s wife and our language helper had babies too). I guess I shouldn’t have been too surprised when I found out I was pregnant just after making arrangements for this refresher course….we are the only students after all. Julia was 2 weeks when we began class and has done great. She mostly just sleeps and I nurse her during the break. For lunch, we stay at Andy’s place and eat a wonderful lunch prepared by his wife.
We are staying in the next town over from Andy’s at a seminary (it has no students yet). It is a beautiful place with plenty of room for the kids to run around outside. We will continue to live out of suitcases and lugging around our clothes, toys, bedding, towels, food and baby gear until mid-September. We then plan to move out to San Francisco and get settled back into our church planting and medical ministry.
While Jeff and I are in class our two younger boys play with Andy and Lizet’s boys. The often took walks to Abuela’s house to buy milk. One day Micah and Tyler were arguing whether it was “umbrella’s house” or “gorilla’s house”. That reminds me – please be praying for our children as they too reacquaint themselves with Spanish and Guarani.
Our class: Jeff and I, Andy (our teacher) and Norma (our language helper)
This is what Julia does most of the time through class.
The best part of language class is the lunch afterward that's prepared by Lizet!
Where we are staying
The kids enjoy the horses
We've been playing a lot of games in the afternoon
Ginny helping cook empanadas for dinner
Paraguay is a unique country in the fact that it has two national languages: Spanish and Guarani. Spanish is used by government officials and in schools, but Guarani is used in the home. It is the language mothers use to soothe their children, the language men use to tell jokes, and the language used to convey deep emotion. The farther out from Asuncion you go, the more Guarani is spoken.
When we moved to Paraguay 5 years ago, our plan was to learn Spanish during first term and then Guarani our second term. But after our first trip to the rural area (where we wanted to minister) we were easily convinced that we needed to learn Guarani in our first term in order to teach God’s word in the Paraguayans heart language. And so after studying Spanish for 9 months, we embarked on Guarani.
Learning a language is the most humbling experience I have ever had! Upon moving to Paraguay, I quickly learned that hearing the language and speaking it does not come easily for me. Seems a little unfair, that God would call me to be a missionary and not give me the gift of learning languages. So as a child, I stumble through grammar, get odd expressions from those I am communicating with and try to laugh at myself.
Language learning is (as our co-work says) like trying to drink from a gushing fire hydrant. Words and phrases come at full blast and we’re lucky to retain a small fraction of them. It is a slow process and for months and months we’re stuck talking about the weather and children and praying for the day we can move on to more important matters – like salvation.
Thankfully God has allowed us to learn with Andy, a fellow missionary and the same one we studied with 4 years ago. We go up to his house for 4 hours every week day. He has employed a Paraguayan 3 of those days to be our language helper. In each of his Guarani classes since the very first, Andy has had at least one student begin class with a brand new baby or a baby has been delivered during class (not literally). 4 years ago in our class, Micah was born (Andy’s wife and our language helper had babies too). I guess I shouldn’t have been too surprised when I found out I was pregnant just after making arrangements for this refresher course….we are the only students after all. Julia was 2 weeks when we began class and has done great. She mostly just sleeps and I nurse her during the break. For lunch, we stay at Andy’s place and eat a wonderful lunch prepared by his wife.
We are staying in the next town over from Andy’s at a seminary (it has no students yet). It is a beautiful place with plenty of room for the kids to run around outside. We will continue to live out of suitcases and lugging around our clothes, toys, bedding, towels, food and baby gear until mid-September. We then plan to move out to San Francisco and get settled back into our church planting and medical ministry.
While Jeff and I are in class our two younger boys play with Andy and Lizet’s boys. The often took walks to Abuela’s house to buy milk. One day Micah and Tyler were arguing whether it was “umbrella’s house” or “gorilla’s house”. That reminds me – please be praying for our children as they too reacquaint themselves with Spanish and Guarani.
Our class: Jeff and I, Andy (our teacher) and Norma (our language helper)
This is what Julia does most of the time through class.
The best part of language class is the lunch afterward that's prepared by Lizet!
Where we are staying
The kids enjoy the horses
We've been playing a lot of games in the afternoon
Ginny helping cook empanadas for dinner
Monday, March 15, 2010
the FACE OF MISSSIONS....PAST and FUTURE
March 1, 2010
Jeff and I drove to Dallas yesterday to share at an annual SIM related event sponsored by the church our SIM regional rep attends. During the 3 hour event, we ate a great BBQ lunch, heard testimonies from other missionaries, and were encouraged by so many prayer warriors. We met one of our supporters for the first time – a feisty 98 year old who told me that she supports 60 missionaries! Another lady in her 90s made a bee-line for us and although we had never met, she said that she prays for our family daily by name. She told us that she was so thankful to finally meet us. How humbling!
There were 6 other missionaries who spoke that afternoon. Since Jeff and I shared last, I used that time to silently rehearse what I was going to say. My testimony begins something like this:
I am so thankful to not only have grown up in a Christian home but in a home that was very mission minded. From a young age, I was encouraged to take mission trips, my family was always hosting missionaries and all my close friends’ parents were either training missionaries, had served overseas, or were preparing to go out. Behind the pulpit at our church hung a huge banner which stated the Great Commission – “Go into all the world and preach the gospel…” As I read those words week after week and heard incredible testimonies of real life missionaries, I thought, who wouldn’t want to sign up for this kind of life? In Jr High God sent a lady into my life who had worked in Africa as a nurse. I saw her pictures of malnourished, big bellied children, burn victims, orphans, and cripples and I just knew that I wanted to serve overseas as a nurse.
As I silently rehearsed, I looked around the table at my children who were very attentive, listening to the others and watching ministry videos. It was such a flashback to my childhood! An overwhelming joy washed over me. They are so blessed to be surrounded by such faithful men and women of God. I have always prayed use my children for your glory, o Lord, but then I realized what a ridiculous prayer that was. Being used is not an option for the Christian. Being used does not depend on Him, but on us – our wholehearted desire to be at all times in the center of His will. Lord, may my children hunger and thirst to be use by you.
There is no way to predict where in the world all my children will end up serving the Lord. It is exciting to think that perhaps one day they will be the ones speaking to a crowd and saying, “Not only did I grown up in a Christian home, but one that was very mission minded….”
Jeff and I drove to Dallas yesterday to share at an annual SIM related event sponsored by the church our SIM regional rep attends. During the 3 hour event, we ate a great BBQ lunch, heard testimonies from other missionaries, and were encouraged by so many prayer warriors. We met one of our supporters for the first time – a feisty 98 year old who told me that she supports 60 missionaries! Another lady in her 90s made a bee-line for us and although we had never met, she said that she prays for our family daily by name. She told us that she was so thankful to finally meet us. How humbling!
There were 6 other missionaries who spoke that afternoon. Since Jeff and I shared last, I used that time to silently rehearse what I was going to say. My testimony begins something like this:
I am so thankful to not only have grown up in a Christian home but in a home that was very mission minded. From a young age, I was encouraged to take mission trips, my family was always hosting missionaries and all my close friends’ parents were either training missionaries, had served overseas, or were preparing to go out. Behind the pulpit at our church hung a huge banner which stated the Great Commission – “Go into all the world and preach the gospel…” As I read those words week after week and heard incredible testimonies of real life missionaries, I thought, who wouldn’t want to sign up for this kind of life? In Jr High God sent a lady into my life who had worked in Africa as a nurse. I saw her pictures of malnourished, big bellied children, burn victims, orphans, and cripples and I just knew that I wanted to serve overseas as a nurse.
As I silently rehearsed, I looked around the table at my children who were very attentive, listening to the others and watching ministry videos. It was such a flashback to my childhood! An overwhelming joy washed over me. They are so blessed to be surrounded by such faithful men and women of God. I have always prayed use my children for your glory, o Lord, but then I realized what a ridiculous prayer that was. Being used is not an option for the Christian. Being used does not depend on Him, but on us – our wholehearted desire to be at all times in the center of His will. Lord, may my children hunger and thirst to be use by you.
There is no way to predict where in the world all my children will end up serving the Lord. It is exciting to think that perhaps one day they will be the ones speaking to a crowd and saying, “Not only did I grown up in a Christian home, but one that was very mission minded….”
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