Cooking a few things that feel like home

Making cookies with the girls has given us special time to talk.  I'm guessing that by the end of our term, we will have perfected our recipe. 

These pizzas look different, and they taste different, but they were totally tasty.

Back to Asunción

After spending two weeks in Yuty getting settled and setting up our house, we found out that our criminal background check papers from the US had arrived in Paraguay.  Somehow, and we still haven't figured out how, instead of delivering the package to the PO box in Asuncion, our papers got routed down to Yuty.  After waiting for several days, we then heard they had been routed back to Asuncion.  We made the decision on Monday afternoon to quickly pack up and make the drive to Asuncion, with the assumption they would arrive on Tuesday.

We were able to get in the car and on the road in about an hour.  The drive to Asuncion is about 175 miles by the most direct route, but takes 5-6 hours with good weather.  The first 2-3 hours are on dirt roads if it is dry.

Holly and the kids standing in the middle of Highway 8, about an hour north of our house.  Highway 8 passes right by our front door.  This road is actually traveled by semi trucks and fully laden buses.

Here is another short video of the road as we are driving.  This is about an hour past where we stopped to take the above photo.  Most of the landscape is flat and wide open like this.  When the ground is dry, there are just clouds of dust as other vehicles pass.  A lot of the dirt is just like red powder and it coats everything.  As you drive around Asuncion, it is very obvious which vehicles are from out in the country.

Back to Asunción from 5Larrabees on Vimeo.

After much prayer, our FBI background checks finally arrived at the SIM guesthouse in Asuncion! 

We are now madly running all over Asuncion to various offices.  The goal is to get resident cards for Paraguay.  We also have a few other things we need to purchase and we already need to get some maintenance done on the Toyota, so we will be without a vehicle for at least two days.  We are planning to be here for at least two weeks, but we would definitely like to be headed back to Yuty sooner.

Running

This is a little road about 100 yards from our house that Holly and I have been running down.  This landscape is pretty typical of what is seen around here.  Wide open grasslands, very flat, with a lot of cattle.

The fact of life in Paraguay

I have spent the last three days attempting to settle into life in Paraguay.  Unlike the states where I can run to Wal-Mart or Lowe’s and find exactly what I need from the smallest screw to the largest lawn chair, life runs differently here.  I visited three stores before finding the hook from which I can hang my laundry line.  

I’ve also experienced a different kind of help.  In my quest to locate an adapter for one of my appliance’s cords, I was told to break off the third prong that didn’t fit into the two prong outlet.  Problem solved..Hmm.

As the days have passed, I’ve had to do some soul searching.  Two questions keep bouncing around in my thoughts.  First, why does comfort equal possessions?  Am I really more comfortable if I have a string to hang my bedroom curtain on instead of using two nails?  Do I need to saturate my house with things just to be comfortable?  And why do I think I have the right to be comfortable?  Where in the Bible does it promise comfort to believers?  What passage encourages believers to pursue comfort with all their energy? 

I do know Paul mentions suffering, persecution, hardship, and grief, and come to think of it, Peter and James also use this vocabulary.  So where’s comfort in the list?

So I ask again how many possessions does it take to achieve a quality of life that the Bible never promises the child of God?

Maybe the problem lies with making comfort and contentment synonymous.  To have comfort is to be content and to be lacking comfort is to be lacking contentment.  The Bible exhorts believers to live contentedly, but that isn’t the same as living comfortably.  Does that mean that contentment can stand alone?  Can I have contentment while living uncomfortably?  What does that look like?  Certainly it doesn’t equate to more possessions.

My second question: does, “keeping it real,” and “calling it like it is,” justify complaining?  The Bible clearly states “do all things without complaining or arguing.” (Phil. 2:14) This verse is written as a command and thus to complain is to disobey a command, AKA sin.  In my attempt to be honest with friends and family, have I stepped over the line into sin?  Have I made complaining permissible because it paints a clear picture of reality? 

Jesus said, “But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these make a man ‘unclean’. (Matt. 15:18).  Is what’s coming out of my mouth, sin disguised in a trendy phrase, “keeping it real”? 

So in my attempt to be honest without complaining, here is life over the last few days.  Hard, challenging, and at times, frustrating as all get out, but it is also filled with jewels of encouragement, a greater awe of God’s majesty, and a depth of communion with the One who called us here like I have never known. 

Oh for a thousand tongues to sing

My Great Redeemer’s praise

The glory of my God and King

The triumphant of grace.

Moving day

Packing up our moving truck at the guesthouse in Asuncion.  I am doing an outstanding job of supervising.

 Still hard at work supervising.  We are so thankful for the help of our colleagues who all showed up to help us move in.  When we got into the house, we realized there was mold all over the ceilings, so we worked on getting them wiped down with bleach.  Fortunately we had help because my shoulder still does not enjoy doing anything overhead.

Some of the other MKs helped Samuel get his room set up.  He is so lucky because his walls are kind of pink.

 Our backyard.  The round thing in the middle is a well.  The water table is only about 8-10 feet down.

View from our front door

Life in a suitcase

We have now been without a home and living out of suitcases for almost two months.  This is what life on the road does to your keen organizing abilities.




The general feel of our room.  Note the trail to the bathroom door.

 Our pile of totes and other valuable items.

There are no words for this picture other than, I can't wait to move into our house.