We have been looking forward to January for weeks now, planning and anticipating the visit of Ruth "Crimefighter" Arnell.  She's a lovely young lady who spent several years of her childhood in Asuncion, as the child of missionaries to Paraguay.  She found this very blog a couple of years ago and began to leave comments, which developed into emails, which developed into a facebook friendship, and the next thing you know, it's 2012 and she's on a plane.  She's got a remarkable memory of things she did and saw here, and she came back to... well, she says it best, so check out her blog if you're curious about her reasons for visiting.

To take full advantage of showing her the face of missions in Paraguay these days, we took a week-long tour of missionaries.  We made a big circle (well, more like a triangle), beginning with a visit to the home of Julie and Norberto Kurrle in Obligado/Hohenau.  You may remember them from peanut planting, Bible training, and recently adopting a beautiful little girl to be Timmy's sister.  They filled us in on the latest projects and plans, and treated us to a wonderful meal.  I think that Julie is quite the cook anyway, as a successful homesteader, but her mom's visit coinciding with ours meant a double blessing, one that included German chocolate cake!  We also got to see our old pal Michael, and hear about missions in Bolivia and bees in Obligado.

We spent the next few nights with Justin and Allison Rayburn, a young family with three adorable little people, who work with the indigenous tribe called the Mbya.  They were so kind to let us invade their apartment, and to take us on a tour of the neighborhoods where ministry is greatly needed.  They are from southern Louisiana, so do I need to explain how tense the first night was, when LSU (their alma mater) lost the national championship for college football?  The children were all dressed in their little LSU outfits, there were streamers all over the place, and Allison had cooked pizzas with purple (beets) and gold (corn) edible decorations.  They are some serious fans!


We ventured out to the Jesuit Ruins the next day, despite the impressive (and OPPRESSIVE!) heat.  Ken, the girls, and Ruth explored while I sought shade and a bench.  It's quite a lot of walking, so my crutches gave me the excuse to hide out from the sun underneath the mango trees. We returned to the Rayburn's place to find a giant pot of Louisiana-style jambalaya.  Mmmm!

It's pretty amazing how different things seem down there on the eastern edge of Paraguay.  Germans and Mennonites (and sometimes German Mennonites) own large farms, so in place of so many oxcarts and skinny working horses, you see giant tractors, huge mega-stores where farming equipment is sold, and restaurants with German names.  Many other nationalities call this area of the country home, as well.   I felt like we were in the midwest US, with rolling hills and acres and acres of farms--corn, soy, yerba, that sort of stuff.  Unfortunately, we're in the midst of a potentially devastating drought, and lots of the green was actually brown.  It was still obvious that they have much more grass there than we do, though.

We ended our time there with a cookout at the Rio Parana, a big river that separates Paraguay from Argentina. And a great time was had by all.

That was only the first half of the week, so tune in later for the rest of our trip, where we hung out with the British and the Venezuelans in Ciudad del Este and Brazil.  And click on Ruth's name above if you'd like to see pictures and more detail of our travels.  :)

Earlier this month, we had the privilege of participating in something the local church organized--an event called Your Initiative.  In Spanish, they made a clever play on words that actually meant Your Initiative as well as Initiative You and Me.  The point was Paraguayans reaching out to other Paraguayans, their neighbors.  For the past couple of months, the youth leader Guillermo has been asking for donations from those who attend the church, and from various people in the community.  Then lots of people came together this scorching Saturday to hand out clothes, toys, baby supplies, food, and smiles to a needy neighborhood where a new work is beginning.

The children are invited back to participate in weekly Bible studies ("Sunday School" on a different day of the week, basically), and eventually the plan is to have a soup kitchen operating there.  Some old friends of ours from Carapegua are heading up this new work, and our prayers are with them as they get it going.

We decided to take advantage of Paraguayan summer vacation and invite the teenagers from the Hogar to our home for morning devotions.  It's been fun.  Every day a different little group shows up, depending on who has chores to do.  Today, we got a new one because his 13th birthday was TODAY!  What a great way to celebrate.  We sang to him in three languages and I thought about how fun it was to be able to bring a smile to someone's face with something as simple as a song, and a song done way off-key at that!

Before we got started on the devotion, the kids wanted to show us what the kings brought them.  SIDENOTE:  The kings (aka the 3 Wise Men of the Nativity story) come on January 6 much like Santa comes on December 25.  Somewhere in the night, these guys covertly sneak in and leave gifts for the children, who have prepared for the visit by putting their shoes outside.  I guess that helps the kings know how many children are in each house?  Back to the story.... the teens of Hogar Ganar received cute little mp3 players, which are all the rage among the youth of South America.  These came pre-programmed (thank you, wise kings!) with a dozen or so Christian songs.  The kids were so excited!

We spent about an hour filling up their players with other songs as they requested certain artists, and listened to the songs as we worked at that.  I went back to deep thought about the power of music as I watched the shy ones do a little jig and the sometimes awkward ones sing out loud.  It was like the pretenses of normal life were dropped for long enough to enjoy the songs.

As we loaded the songs, I prayed that the music would be a powerful influence in their lives, as I know it can be.  I remembered all the times that, as a teen, a song would drive me deeper into angst or sadness over the latest drama or anger about someone who "did me wrong."  (Yeah, you guessed it, I went through a country music phase.)  I didn't listen to much Christian music back then, even though I was a Christian.  Knowing what I know now about the power of music to influence my attitude, my spirit, my state of mind, I had to thank God that these young people have access to the positive side of that influence.

As we read scripture a few minutes later, I could hear Caroline on the porch having her guitar lesson, and I flashed back to Christmas day when she played "Silent Night" for a Skype call.  Sure made her mommy proud.  And then an hour or so later, Camille was mopping the floor and threw some loud music on to "make her mop faster".

How wonderful to think of how far Christian music has come in so few years.  I know there are those who complain that the Christian music industry is just a knock-off, a cheap imitation of the real talent, but I remember where it started.  I remember who made it originally.  And I'm so thankful that an infinitely loving God gave us a gift that's basically unnecessary, just to make us happy.  Thank God for artists who use their talents to share that gift with us and draw us closer to Him.

Justin was a little fella in kids' church with our girls in Greenville, a young man we remember as always smiling, always trying to make others smile, and really close to his family.  He was killed in Afghanistan last week, after serving only 19 days there.  Thank God he was able to speak with family and friends via Skype just days before his death, and that I know they have many, many happy memories to draw on. Knowing their family, I am grateful that they won't be ones who'll have to live with regret.  They brought Justin up in church and demonstrated a life of service, joy, and love for the Lord.  Justin's parents, Donnie and Jennifer, have always seemed like those who enjoyed their children, and were thrilled to be very involved with their lives.  Lots of smiles and laughs and good times when they're around.

Justin was truly a good guy, and now he's a hero.  Our prayers are with Jennifer and Donnie, his brother Craig and sister Jessi, his girlfriend, his church family at FROC, and the many friends he left behind.  Below I am adding a post from his pastor,Terry Rogers, whom we've been privileged to work with for years.  I know that he and Angel, youth pastor Stephen, and the entire church family are pulling alongside the Whitmire family.  They're good that way.  :)  Please keep them all in your prayers as Justin's body arrives in Greenville tomorrow and his funeral proceedings begin.
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We had a great time last night spending New Year's Eve in a very different way from probably almost every other person in Paraguay.  There were parties on every street we passed last night, and firecrackers in the hands of every child we saw.  The New Year is a big holiday here!  We went to church until about 9:30 PM, then played a game of Pictionary back at home.  Around 10:30, we moved out to the driveway in front of our house in lawnchairs, where there's a great view of the lights of Asuncion--about an hour and fifteen minutes drive from here.  A kid and a house dad from the children's home came down to sit with us, and we all watched the fireworks for the next few hours.  Fireworks are a huge deal here, and there were "bombs" going off in all directions.  Around midnight, the view of Asuncion and her surrounding towns was just incredible.

I can't say I'm sad to see 2011 go, since it's not been my favorite year of all time.  I am very thankful, though, that God has used this year to teach me more about His faithfulness, about the strength that can only come from Him, and about relying totally on Him.  I have thought a lot about how many people out there are praying for us, and how grateful we are for the love and support that those prayers communicate... not just love for our family, but for the people of Paraguay.  Despite this difficult year, we still feel very, very blessed that God would allow us to live for Him here in this wonderful country.  We feel very blessed that you have faith in Him and in us, and that you partner with us in prayer and financially.  We know He has great things in store for 2012, and I for one am very excited about that!

How did you spend your New Year's Eve?