June 2004 Adventures

We started the month with another new purchase – a cow! We bought Reina (Queenie) from the next door neighbor to our

pastor in Ara Pyahú. Normally, cows and such are not given names, so when we asked “what is her name”; the owner laughed and said, “Reina”. This cow was pregnant, and was bought to provide milk for the students at the Susannah Wesley School in Quinta Linea. Since we bought her on June 1^st, she has now delivered a female calf, which we named Princessa (Princess). Buying a cow is like buying a car; you have to transfer the title!

From buying cows, we drove back to Colonia Guarani, which is on the eastern border adjacent to Brazil. You may remember we finished their well in February, 2003. The control box for their well pump was hit by lightening, which fried the inner workings. The pump had not worked for nearly 2 weeks, which meant the family walked about ½ mile to get water. Needless to say, they were glad to see us. We got them back up and running in just 1 day – Praise God!.

The second week in June we returned to Ñemby to complete the Seminary well. Last month

we reported about hole #1 collapsing on our bit. Ed wrote the article titled “Stuck Bit” for our web site. Well…hole #2 also had problems. Fortunately, it wasn’t a collapsed hole, but this time we could not insert the PVC casing in the hole. We moved to location #3, and started a new hole. We were blessed by being able to complete hole #3 with a successful well. The well is 125 feet deep, and should provide plenty of water for the Seminary.

We finished our 2 weeks in Ñemby by driving just over 1,000 miles in a week-end. We left Ñemby Saturday morning to return our big truck with the drilling equipment to our home in Santaní. We drove directly back to Asuncion to attend the wedding of Lizzy Vargas. She is the daughter of Robert & Joy Vargas, who have been missionaries here in Paraguay for over 12 years. Lizzy was raised in Paraguay, went to the states for college, found a great guy, and returned to Paraguay for the wedding. We left the wedding, headed back over to the Alto Parana region to be the Godparents of a young girl for her 15^th birthday party. The event was on Sunday, June 20^th – during our winter. Ninfa wanted to be baptized the same day as her party. Everyone told her it may be cold, as all baptisms are “in the river”; but she was determined. The Lord blessed us with a beautiful day for a beautiful girl as we celebrated her baptism and “Quince Años” party.

Ninfa with Pastor & family friend at Baptism

Ninfa with her family.

We were able to pass by Santaní and get a few nights rest in

our own bed before heading back to Asuncion for another wedding. This wedding was for some dear friends, Alcides & Fatima. You may recall, we took Fatima to Brazil to the graduation of Alcides in December, 2003. We were asked to be their Padrinos (sponsors or witnesses), and what an honor! This time we knew we would be “in” the wedding, entering the church after the groom, just before the bride. It was fun to walk down the aisle again! They are special people as they begin their life together pastoring one of our smaller churches in an Asuncion suburb.

The day after the wedding, we picked up a team of 12 missionaries from Snellville UMC. This church is just 2 miles from our home church at Cannon. These mighty warriors for Christ got to Paraguay – but none of their luggage made it on the same day! We returned to the airport the next day to find all 24 pieces had arrived. They brought with them 5 suitcases filled with over-the-counter and prescription medications. We were anxious about these suitcases in particular since we had been told they would not be allowed in the country. God was so good as all baggage arrived and was retrieved without question!

We’ll report more next month as part of this group works at the Seminary, while others will be taking VBS to several churches in Asuncion.