February 2003 Adventures

WOW!  It’s hard to believe we’re starting our 3^rd year as missionaries, and our 2^nd year serving here in Paraguay.  It’s difficult to remember our former lives as an engineer and database consultant; however, God used that time to prepare us for our work here in Paraguay today.  We are just beginning to realize how extensive the needs are here in Paraguay.  During February, we traveled from Asuncion to Ciudad del Este, visiting churches and families.

We began the month by working a few days in the Yrybucua region.  We have a rather lengthy story on the “Stores to Tell” segment of our web site about this adventure.  It’s titled “It Was Only Two Weeks?”.  We’ll just report to you our accomplishments this month, and leave the graphic details of our travels for your reading pleasure at our web site.

We were able to finally install a working pump at the Yrybucua mission house.  We changed out the first pump and the new one seems to be working well.  This was not an easy task since the pump is 135 feet deep in this well.  Besides providing a tower with a holding tank for 1000 liters, we also re-piped the area from the tank to 2 different buildings –  a kitchen/dining facility, and a sleeping/bathrooms/devotional facility.  In the kitchen/dining facility, we also built a station to hand-wash laundry.  What a blessing this will be for the people working in Yrybucua!

Quinta Linea was completed this month.  All they lacked was a control box.  This has been installed, and the family now has plenty of water under pressure.  We also built a tower with a 1000 liter holding tank.  This area also required re-piping from the tank to all the water faucets.  We also built a new bathroom for the pastor’s family.  This location has a school for 75 students.  The only bath facility before was used by the school.  During school hours, the family (which is 10 kids plus Mom & Dad) were not able to use the bathroom.  Now, they have a bathroom connected to their house.  We also constructed 3 outside stations for hand-washing clothes.  This can be used by the local church folks as well.

During February, we also began the well at Colonia Guaraní.  We were able to drill the well and set the PVC pipe, but had to return to Asuncion to buy the pump.  We will complete this project in March.  Working in this area has been different from our other areas.  We lived in a tent, had no running water, and ate every meal with the pastor’s family.  What a blessing it has been to live closely with this precious family.  This family is filled with the love of Jesus Christ, and yet they have just about nothing.  They have no running water (YET!), only 1 light bulb in the house, live with sticky clay that is unbelievable, have no transportation, and walk to the store to buy basics – yet they gave us so much!  Eating with them has been great – talk about fresh chicken – it was running around the yard during the morning!

Friday, February 21^st, was our Asamblea, which is our yearly General Conference.  Ed was appointed a District Superintendent for the North District.  This includes 7 churches in the Yrybucua region, as well as 2 churches South of this region.  Linda was appointed to the Fiscal Committee, which monthly reviews the work of the National Church Treasurer.  Linda was also asked to be the Secretary for the North District Women’s Federation.  So in addition to drilling wells, we will both have administrative duties to fulfill this year. 

Our plans are still in place to relocate to Santaní, which is the closest town to the Yrybucua region.  We hope to make the move June of this year; however, we have yet to locate a house to rent.  Please pray a suitable house will be found.

Our March Adventures are just beginning as we head back out to finish Colonia Guaraní.  But, more about that next month.