May has been a month with many blessings.  The Holy Spirit has been at work here in Paraguay…let’s begin.

We now have a permanent new roommate.  The young lady, Sintia, who was taking care of our house while we were in the states, is now living with us full time.  Our problem was finding someone to stay in the house while we were gone.  We are generally in Asuncion or Yrybucua at least 2-3 nights a week, so we always needed someone, part time, to move in.  Sintia has been very convenient for us as we could not do our ministry without worrying about the house.  However, we have lived alone for nearly 6 years, so adjustments are being made.

The first week-end in May, we had a wonderful Spiritual Healing seminar brought to our Northern District.  This was the first time all 8 of our pastors and their wives had ever been together.  The program was brought to Paraguay by Eric & Santa Owens in April, but our pastors were unable to attend, since it was in Asuncion.  Bringing the program to our district enabled the presentations to be in Guaraní.  It was a joy to be with all of our pastors & wives. 

The next week-end The Billy Graham Crusade, with Franklin Graham was in Asunción.  The last time the Crusade was in Paraguay was 43 years ago!  What a blessing for the country of Paraguay!  We attended a pre-Crusade meeting where the Crusade workers told us we were the best prepared country ever.  Franklin also warned us of “strange things” that happen to prevent a good Crusade; light bulbs popping, etc.  That night, the electricity for the entire country was out for 1½ hours.  It seems a major cable at the Itapú Dam had exploded.  Satan’s handiwork? 

There were 240 churches participating in the preparations, representing 47 different denominations!  We were able to bring 35 folks from the Northern District to Asunción for one of the nights.  We had 13 in our Land Cruiser, and 22 took the bus – paid for by our wonderful supporters.  Below are some photos to enjoy.

Franklin at our Pre-Crusade meeting	Yes, we had 11 people in the back of the Land Cruiser, plus us 2 in front!  The girl second from the right was a non-believer, but went “down front” during the invitation to receive Jesus in her heart!
Hungry? Buy a chipa!	Crowd coming down, after the invitation, for prayers

In Spanish the Crusade is named Festival de Esperanza, which means Festival of Hope.  We all have hope for a Spiritual Awakening here in Paraguay.

We have spent many days traveling, which is normal for us.  We’ve driven back and forth to Asunción to complete a mountain of documents.  Since we had been in the States for 4 months, we have had to renew lots of things – inspection stickers for all 3 vehicles, renew our document to reenter the country, etc. 

Unfortunately, we have not been able to begin drilling.  Our scheduled project has been put “on hold”.  It seems the government moved the property lines at one of our churches.  This means the property line now goes through the middle of our church!  If we drill before this dispute is settled, the person who formerly had “donated” the land to the church may very well change his mind once a water well is located on “his” property.  We may have to change our schedule and put another location ahead of this church.

Tuesday, May 24^th, is National Pastor’s Day.  The Methodist church at Primera Linea wanted to have the dedication of their water well on this date.  What a celebration we had!  Nearly 250 attended.  We began the evening by showing the Max Lucado film “Hermie”.  These folks seldom get to see a movie, and everyone loved it.  After the movie & singing, Ed got to preach on the water of life only coming from Jesus Christ, not from this well.  Then, we showed the movie “Joseph the Dreamer” while the women of the church provided grilled pork, chicken, cooked beef, rice, salad, and a drink for all those attending.  We sometimes feel as if we are walking in the pages of the Bible as we recall verses specific to certain situations – as in Luke 14:8-11 – we were asked to move to the “seats of honor” at the head of the table.

One of our Methodist missionaries will be leaving us on June 1^st, Blaine Nicholson.  For the past year, he has been working with our mobile medical clinic as the “eye doctor”.  He returns to his home in Maryville, TN, to pursue a master’s degree.  Paraguayans never miss an opportunity for a party, so we had a “despedida” party for him at the home of the Eisenbergs

Since we have already made this a longer than normal monthly update, we'll include a few "road scenes".  For those of you who haven't had a chance to get the family car to the body shop after that little fender bender - take heart!  Add some Saran Wrap and just drive it anyway!  And for those that don't like to wait for traffic lights, how about waiting for a "cow crossing"?  A little more interesting!

And you thought this car shouldn’t be driven!

Road crossing

On a personal note, Linda’s sister, Martha Cole, has been diagnosed with kidney cancer.  She is currently scheduled to have surgery to remove her right kidney on Thursday, 6/2/2005.  Please add, Martha Cole, to all your prayer lists!