June 2005 Adventures

June 2005 Adventures

June began our “Team Season” here in Paraguay. We have had 2 wonderful groups working with us, and have more teams coming in July. To get ready for the many miles of driving, we had to have the Hilux engine rebuilt – for the 2^nd time! This also means we had to drive it 1000 kilometers (610 miles), without passengers at only 50 mph. Off we went on a Wednesday afternoon, ending Thursday night and then we had to leave Friday to pick up our first team. It has been a good truck but it’s 14 years old and has over 250,000 miles – maybe a new one is in order!

These two teams started the construction at the Susannah Wesley School which is located in our Northern District. You may recall that this school currently has 100 students, 2 teachers, 2 ½ classrooms, and needs to be enlarged. The Lord touched the heart of a supporter, and funds were made available to add more classrooms.

Our first team arrived June 4^th. They are from The Memorial UMC in Fernandina Beach, FL; which is the church of Ed’s Dad, Jim Baker. We had a full week of “moving stuff”; dirt, sand, gravel, and water. The team worked hard and much was accomplished. All the footings were dug for the first 4 new classrooms, rebar was tied, and concrete poured.

Moving sand, we get the sand from the road, the team

referred to this as "free range sand".

The team shared some free time with the children,

here the girls are having their nails polished.

We sent The Memorial team home, then spent an extra day in Asuncion gathering up our paperwork we had started last month. We had a few days to order materials, and get ready for our next group – our home church Cannon UMC and Duluth UMC.

The Cannon/Duluth Team continued with the construction at the Susannah Wesley school. In addition, some of the women brought VBS. We took VBS to 4 of our Northern District churches in 4 days. During this time, the group attended to 1,275 kids, youth, and adults! We heard Bible stories, made projects, played, and had a great Diá Feliz (Happy Day). We also made banners with the women at 3 of the churches.

Building the foundation

Even the school kids helped carry bricks

Día Feliz at Oga Lata

The Cannon Team brought a team cap to all our North District pastors

After 5 days of HARD work, we headed to Brazil to visit Yguazu Falls. The team had a rainy day at the Falls, but we think they still had a great time. We said good-bye to our many friends on the 27^th, and came back to Santani. We’ve had a few days to get ready for our next groups coming in July. We also had a dedication of our new church at Oga Lata, but that was in July – you will just have to wait to hear about the celebration.