Mi vida en Villarrica

Missions Conference 2011

My Paraguayan Family

An interview with the owner of Olimpia (one of Paraguay's soccer teams)

Denny, the Stirlings, and I after Paraguay's loss in the Copa de South America

Hello friends and family,
Life has been fantastic, after missions conference I had 4 more days in Asuncion then I headed on a bus to Villarrica to live with the Stirlings and teach at the International Christian school. Before I talk about the present I’ll give you some of my highlights from the past...

Missions conference was definitely one of my highlights since coming to Paraguay. It was fantastic to meet all the missionary families and to hear about what everyday life is like. During missions conference we had meals together, joined together in prayer for the various ministries and for each other, had sessions with a guest speaker, sang songs, played volleyball, and had meetings. For me it was such an eye-opening experience to sit in the meetings and hear the missionaries talk about topics like homeschooling, family life, ministry, cultural differences, etc, and how they were handling them. In school you learn about many aspects of ministry but it was good to sit down with them and hear them discuss questions that we never went into at school like how to help your kids adjust or learn about the culture. Or how do you strike the balance of helping people and making sure they aren’t friends with you for the wrong motives, etc. During the sessions with the guest speaker there were also great discussions about the differences between North America and South America and how you can effectively minister to people in this culture. It was fun to see all the different personalities and perspectives discuss these things with one thing in mind: reaching the people of Paraguay with the Gospel.

After missions conference I had one more week with my family and I spent a lot of time seeing different places in Asuncion that I had not seen before. Kelly and I had a couple adventures, one included visiting a house where one of the family members was just taken out of the hospital because it was getting too expensive. As a result they had set up their living room as a hospital room and we were able to visit and pray for them. It was such a God-given moment as we were able to help them out financially as well and just that day they had run out of money for medicine.

This brings me to the present. I am now in Villarrica and loving it. I enjoyed Asuncion as living with a Paraguayan family was a good learning experience, but I am enjoying Villarrica because I am living in a guesthouse on the property of an amazing missionary family, I have more independence and more things to do.

For my first week here I watched Greg and Renee (the missionary family) teach the grade 5-7’s but last week I started teaching by myself and I have been loving it. So far my routine is: 8am teach Grade 6, 10am teach Grade 5, 11:20am teach Grade 7 (who I have only Mon/Thurs/Fri) then go home and hang out with the family, prepare lessons, mark exams, or sleep! On weeknights I have been going to a Bible Study at the church where they are doing the Truth Project in Spanish and I have also gone to a Intro to the Bible class that Greg teaches. Since I am teaching English and living with a Canadian family I have not been able to use much Spanish on a daily basis so these studies help me out. In the next couple of weeks, Stela, the academic advisor, has offered to teach me a hour a day of Spanish for next to nothing, so I have been so blessed. We are also working on a volleyball program as the girls here are in love with volleyball and that’s a sport that I love and can play.

As far as prayer requests, please pray for:
1. Patience, as Paraguay classrooms are very different than Canadian ones as far as listening or respecting the teacher, motivation, and classroom control goes.
2. Love, that I would have a increased love for the students that would be evident in how I teach and play with them.
3. Joy, that I would have joy and peace even when classes are out of control and all havoc breaks loose.
4. Friendships, that I would be able to initiate and have good friendships with the locals here.
5. Devotion, pray that I would have an increased desire to study God’s word and further develop the most important relationship of all.