April 2007 Adventures

We mentioned in March that youth from our home church, Cannon UMC, would be here in Paraguay.  Well, they left the US in March, but didn’t arrive until April.  This team wins the prize for the longest trip to Paraguay, at least by plane.  The first group left at 11:30 AM on Friday, March 30^th, but didn’t arrive until Sunday at 11:30 PM on April 1^st – 60 hours later and it wasn’t an April Fool’s joke!  The other group wasn’t able to leave Atlanta till Monday, April 2^nd, and arrived Tuesday, April 3^rd.  Problem – there was a 1½ hour traffic controller strike in Sao Paulo, Brazil – point of entry to South America for both groups.  This only affected a few planes, but those planes were our youth!  But when they got here, we put them to work.

Their “day job” was to construct a play structure at the Susannah Wesley School in Quinta Linea.  As you can see from the photos, the structure is complete with a slide and monkey bars.  What was funny was that the children in the school had never seen monkey bars before.  However, they were quick learners from their North American “monkey” teachers!  The pastor at the Methodist church at Quinta said the structure could be used for the children during the day, but it was reserved for the adults at night.  These adults had never played on a play structure either!  The children from the school started playing on the structure during construction.  The youth finished all the construction, but we finished the painting.  Fun for all.

The team’s “night job” was to take an evangelistic program of music, drama, and games to our churches in the North District.  They managed to visit 5 of our 9 churches, and ministered to over 1,000 kids, teens, and adults.

This month was also the graduation of the 9^th class from our Methodist Seminary.  This was also the largest class, with 14 graduating.  Students attend the Seminary for 1 week a month, for 3 years.  After graduation, they may become pastors or church leaders – wherever they feel God calls them into service.  We had 3 members of churches of our North District graduate this year, Augustine Vera from Y’Apy; Marcelino Recalde from Tacuapi; and Claudio from Ara Pyahu.  In this picture, the students are shown with the Seminary director, Claudette Mora.  Claudette is also the wife of the President of the Methodist Church, Pablo Mora. 

One of our churches celebrated their 10^th anniversary on the 28^th of April.  Primera Linea de Ybú Porã celebrated with lots of good music, preaching, and eating.  The women of the church made themselves blouses and skirts to match in order to have a “uniform”.  They prepared food for all those that attended, over 500 folks!

We ended the month by taking our drilling equipment south to our Methodist church camp to begin drilling a well.  In passing through Asuncion, we updated the vehicle inspections for the big Mercedes drilling truck and the Hilux pick up.  This may not seem exciting to you readers, but this was a 2 day process, involving standing in 8 lines at government offices, and we are still waiting the obligatory 15 days for the final sticker for the Mercedes.  At least it’s over for 1 more year!

Here’s hoping for good drilling in May!