November 2003 Adventures

November was a busy month, we never spent over 4 nights in the same bed!  Let’s get started…

On November 1^st, a member of our church in Asunción was laid to rest.  She was Ruth Segovia, who leaves a husband and two boys, 5 and 7 years old.  A missionary friend of ours once told us to understand a culture, we needed to attend a wedding and a funeral (we would also add a Baptism).  We have now done all.  Bodies are not embalmed in Paraguay, so funerals have to be held within 24 hours of death.  Ruth died 2 weeks after learning she had pancreatic cancer.  The funeral was in the funeral home, with all her loved ones standing around the very small, open coffin.  We heard a brief message, then sang praise songs.  Afterwards, the funeral home personnel inserted the casket drapes, and put the top on the coffin.  While we continued to sing, the personnel soldered the lid closed on the coffin.  Family followed the coffin (driven in a car) to the cemetery for more praise music and a short message.  During her brief illness she had a great testimony.  Doctors and nurses would comment about how happy she was.  They were told she had Jesus in her heart and was going home.  The faith of Ruth Segovia!

The next day, we picked up a team from Living Water International.  They are a group of trained well drillers who spent a week with us drilling a well here in Santaní.  We worked at the Brethren church camp, Ñu Poí.  While drilling we encountered rock about 17.5 meters, but still set the casing.  We hope to re-drill this well deeper once we get a rock hammer.  We visited Iguazu Falls in Brazil with the team.  They were a fun group, and great to have working with us here in Paraguay.

The following week-end, Linda had the opportunity to attend the 2003 Annual Women’s Congress, held at our Methodist church camp.  She went with the intent of not volunteering for anything for the next 2 years, but was elected National Treasurer.  Another hat to wear!

We returned to Santaní, directly into another meeting of the North District pastors.  They meet monthly, with Ed, to discuss issues, see what is needed, and pray together.  This is a group of strong Christians, dedicated to their small congregations. 

We then began mobilization of our equipment for our next well at Arapyahú Methodist Church.  This is one of the newer churches in our district, and is only about a 2 hour drive from our house!  What a blessing!  We encountered a few problems with this site, and ended up breaking our winch drive shaft.  We have ordered a replacement, but it will be January before we are able to return and complete this well.

During November, we dedicated our newest church at Tacuapí.  We took a few days off from drilling at Arapyahú, joined the Mobil Medical Clinic, and had a great service of prayer at the dedication.  Pastor Pablo and Claudette joined us as we welcomed this newest church into the Methodist family.