Something from the dead

This tree caught my attention initially because of its size.  It towers above my head and the branches slightly overhang the dirt road.  It is also dead, yet has stood through the very destructive spring storms when other alive trees have fallen.  As I looked closer at this dead, towering tree I saw something else.

 

 

At the very center of this tree grows a cactus, a completely different plant coming from what is now dead.

What came to mind was...

"But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 

made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions--

it is by grace you have been saved" Eph. 2:4-5.

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation;

 the old has gone, the new has come!" 2 Cor. 5:18.

Everyone has sinned and because of our sin, we are spiritually dead.  We have no way of giving life to ourselves because we have no way to cleanse ourselves from the sin which has killed us.  There is only one way to become alive, a new creation, and that is through believing in Jesus: believing he is God's Son, that He lived a perfect life, that he died on the cross to pay the penalty for each and every one of our sins, and that he rose from the dead three days later.  Call upon him for the forgiveness of your sins, and be made alive by his forgiveness and grace.  Become a new creation.

Art Class

Early Saturday morning the girls and I walked a mile to a woman's house to check out an art class.  I thought it would be a good time to do something pleasant while improving our language skills.  We weren't sure what to expect, but the woman had assured me that all we would need was what we had: colored pencils, paper, and crayons.

When we arrived, we were sweetly welcomed, introduced to the other children, and offered Terrere (a cold tea), which was very welcome after our long, hot walk.  The girls sat down and began drawing.  That is when there was a shift in the room.

The other children stared at what the girls were drawing.  I figured it was because the girls were using colored pencils, while the others were painting.  Here is their artwork.

Rebekah said this was where she wanted to camp. 

Gabby thought a game of tag would be fun, and those black rectangles on the tree are steps so you can pick the pears.

The following day I learned something.  The teacher of the class told me that she had never seen a child sit down and draw mountains (these were the first things on Rebekah's paper).  They don't have mountains here, let alone snow-capped peaks with pine trees sprinkled around.  

So as my girls practiced and learned more Spanish, they were also teaching (unbeknownst to them) the other children about landscape in the States.

Science class

We are so blessed to have a teammate whose calling is to help with home-school.  Once a month Miss Karen comes to our home and helps me with whatever I need.  She brings books and prepares art projects for the kids.  It is wonderful to have her come.

One of her main activities is doing Biology with the older boys.   She even organized having a microscope sent down.  In the last class they had a chance to study mold.  (We had been preparing this specimen for four weeks in our fridge.)  As you can see they are a great group of hardworking teenagers.

Timothy Training

This past Thursday, Friday, and Saturday I drove about 2 hours north to the town of San Francisco.  A church which was recently planted by SIM missionaries was doing some training for the leaders of their church and a few leaders from some other churches.  They were going through various Bible stories and practicing telling them.  Then they would talk about what lessons they could draw from the stories.  Almost everything was taking place in Guarani so I wasn't able to understand very much.

We ate all of our meals together, and those of us who were not from San Francisco spent both nights outside sleeping under the trees.  The first night I learned that mosquitoes can bite you through a sheet.  The second night I woke up at about 1am to feel a little mist on my face.  I began to pray that God would hold off the rain.  I woke up again at  3am to feel a little more mist, but that was as strong as it got.  God held off the rain for us so our bedding just got a little damp.  I was awoken several times each night as cows crunched and munched their way through the area, and the roosters in the area had choir practice.

On the way back I drove the long circuitous route in order to take several people home since I was the only person with an automobile.  We were pretty overloaded at the start and I could feel the truck's suspension bottoming out with every rut and hole.  The 2 hour return trip turned into 6 hours, but it was a good opportunity to see where the men were from and how far they had traveled to get there.

Our hometown (for now)

For the last three months we have been living in the town of Yuty in southern Paraguay.  The kids had a fun time doing some light painting by the sign on the main highway coming into Yuty from the north.  Yuty is a town of about 5,000 people, but it is the largest town for quite some distance.  It is where people from the area come to do any significant shopping.  We live on the extreme north end of town and our driveway is the last driveway on the dirt road before it becomes cobblestone as it heads into town.

Sometimes life here seems a little like an oxymoron.  There are things around us that are very modern mixed in with things that make us feel as though we have traveled back in time nearly 100 years.  We will see things such as a man on horseback herding cattle through town while texting on his phone.  Overall there are many things about life that I would compare to rural life in the US 50 or 60 years ago. 
First off, everyone knows everyone else, and all of their business.  There are no big stores that sell everything.  Our biggest "supermarket" is less than half the size of an average pharmacy in the US, so the selection is quite limited.  Many times you have to go from place to place looking for what it is that you need.  One of the things that has been difficult for me is that at the places that sell hardware type stuff, everything is in the back, so you have to ask them for what you want.  This is difficult when you don't know the name for what you want in Spanish.  It is even more difficult when you don't know exactly what it is that you want and you are just looking for something to solve a problem that you have.  There is no browsing.
There is also a level of trust being in a small town.  Several times we have been in a shop and didn't have enough money on us for what we purchased, and they just tell us to bring the rest of the money later.  This situation can be caused by simply not bringing enough cash, or just having bills too large and they don't have change.  The largest bill here is the equivalent of a 20 dollar bill.  Many times people don't have change for a bill this large.  Sometimes they will go to another shop to ask them if they have change, or they will just tell you to pay when you come back later.  You don't really hear that at Walmart. 
Of all the streets you see on the map of Yuty above, only the two main streets going through town have asphalt.  One is asphalt all the way through town and the other one is only asphalt only about halfway through town.  The rest of the streets in town are either cobblestone or dirt, with the majority being dirt.
Around here everyone, (I repeat for emphasis) everyone, rides motorcycles everywhere.  It is rare to see anyone walking, and not a lot of automobiles.  They are almost all little 150cc Chinese motorcycles and mopeds.  Most of the people cut the silencers out of the mufflers, so they are extremely loud.  We see kids as young as 10 driving around town on motorcycles.  Many of them are texting while they are driving.  Accidents do happen as well.  There was a motorcycle accident right in front of our house last week.  We have seen as many as 5 people on a single motorcycle.  There is no age too young to be a passenger.  We have seen many mothers holding infants as they cling to the seat.  I even saw one mother nursing a baby while she was hanging on the back.  I believe she was multi-tasking.

Visiting

This afternoon we headed out of town to visit some of our friends.  As we headed out of town, the road kept getting smaller and smaller.  Finally it turned into a dirt single-track for motorcycles.  Eventually we had to stop, park, and head out on foot.  After a short walk we arrived at the family's land. They have an amazing view across the river and the valley.  After spending an hour sitting under their mango tree drinking Terere, they gave us a tour of their fields and showed us the various crops they are growing.  It is always so humbling to see people working so hard to simply survive.