June 2003 Adventures

We are finally comfortably living in Santaní – thank you for all your prayers regarding our move.  Here is a photo of our new house. 

As you can see, we have 2 buildings.  The building on the left was formerly a despensa, which is like a Mom & Pop 7/11.  We use it to store all our “stuff” – drilling equipment, washer, freezer, etc.  The building on the right is our living area.  We have a living room, 3 small bedrooms, 1 bathroom, and a kitchen/dining area combined.  It’s a small house, but very comfortable.  We do have electricity, but no cable TV, so we have no idea of world happenings.  We have a hand dug well, but don’t ask for a drink of water at our house!  Here is what you would get (it’s not always this dirty, only when we pump near the bottom of the well)!  We buy drinking water, and get water for washing dishes from other local sources.  There isn’t a sufficient quantity (or quality) of water to use a washing machine, so all our laundry is sent to a local laundry where they are  washed, dried, and ironed.  Maybe this isn’t such a bad arrangement!  We think God is trying to keep us humble, so that we may better understand the people we minister to!  Clearly drilling a well for our own house is now at the top of the list.

There is only 1 paved street in all of Santaní, and no traffic lights!  A trip “to town” takes about 5 minutes.  Therefore, we live on a dirt road which means our house is always dusty!  From the photo on the left, we live just after the road turns to the right. 

We do have a little bonus.  In our back yard, there is the special oven (called a tatakuá in the guarani language) used to make chipas.  These are like bagels, but made from yucca flour.  They are eaten daily for a mid morning or mid afternoon snack.  They are also the special food eaten during the week of Easter.  There is apparently an art to cooking in this type of oven.  It is heated with a wood fire inside, the coals are removed, the chipas are placed in the hot oven on top of banana leaves, and the openings closed.  Maybe we’ll leave this to the locals.

We have enjoyed being close to our district.  The pastors visit us often, sometimes spending the night when they have errands in Santaní or need to ride with us to Asunción.  We have a new church added to our group, so we now have 7 churches in our district.  The church was built by the men in the congregation, and the young lay pastor has started attending the local Methodist Bible Institute.  It is a wonderful church, and since it is the closest church in our district, we have started attending regularly.

We’ve traveled to Asunción several times this month – PTL it’s only a pleasant 2 hour drive.  God’s Taxi (our little truck) has been busy too.  A family member from one of our smaller churches had fallen and she had thought broken her leg.  Seven days later, they called us and asked us to take her to the hospital.  We arrived at the hospital on a Friday night.  It was Tuesday before she was seen by a doctor.  She was released the on the same day.  It seems she had fractured her hip.  The platinum pin to repair the hip would cost about $350, and the surgery would be another $50.  The family couldn’t afford this, so she was sent home.  The doctor told us she may be able to walk again, with a limp, in 2-3 months!  She is in her 70’s, so only with God’s help will she be back on her feet.

The Billy Graham Crusade will be coming to Paraguay.  We had a meeting in Santaní with the Crusade coordinators to plan how to provide TV coverage for our local folks.  This is very exciting for the country, as Paraguay has not had this type of country-wide evangelism project in it’s history.  Please pray for the Crusade to be a success and reach many Paraguayans.

We have hired a driller to complete the well in Puerto Indio.  He is our driller friend from Asunción.  It may be September before he can put this project on his calendar, but the people in Puerto Indio are very patient, and looking forward to summer with water.

On a personal note, Ed’s Mother, Martha Baker, has been diagnosed with lung cancer.  She had been in recovery from colon cancer 5 years ago.  They have not yet determined if the colon cancer has reappeared in her lungs, or if she has a new form of cancer.  Treatment cannot begin until after further tests.  Please pray for her, and the entire family during this difficult time.