News from Paraguay October 2023

Day of the Child

For those of you who have been following our journey on mission over the last fourteen years, you would have noticed us talk about 'Day of the Child'. “In commemoration of the battle of Acosta Ñú, where children fought and hundreds of children were massacred in the framework of the War of the Triple Alliance. On that day, popular celebrations are carried out aimed at boys and girls, paying homage to the so-called “children martyrs of Acosta Ñú”, honoring their heroism and bravery.” - CIPDH International Center for the Promotion of Human Rights - Category II Unesco

Now having two children attending Paraguayan school, this means our house is experiencing double the number of parties and amount of sweets and toys as they attend these multiple parties. It is a joyful time that also coincides with sports days and national holidays.

This year, in our ministries, we did a smaller event than in previous years. Mainly due to going to so many places we are aware of the sheer quantity of badly made, cheap, and wasteful plastic toys people get through during these events every year! And also ¿do kids really need another kilo of sweets? So, in the community here where we have a large weekly Sunday School group, we went for quality gifts rather than quantity. Knowing the main core of children that come every week stands at around 50, we went to town with preparations.

Thanks to a generous gift from one of our supporting churches, we were able to buy age-appropriate gifts that should last much longer and provide a creative outlet. Although (note to self), next time you buy toys that require assembly, be prepared to spend the next half-day trying to work out how to actually put together a dinosaur, with no instructions, apart from packaging photos and Portuguese slogans. We also realised, before you do that for only one child, you should maybe just group everyone together and do a ‘group build’ at the same time, in one go, all at once. Otherwise, you will never make it home again and spend the next year, till next Day of the Child, making T-rex models and feeding, burping, and cleaning animatronic dolls!

The kids were overjoyed and it was lovely to see them playing a few small games, eating biscuits and breadsticks, and having a good laugh. The toys blew them away with how cool they were and it was lovely to allow those who come weekly to feel extra special within our church family. It was funny seeing parents, teens, and the elderly trying to help the children with building a screw-fixed T-Rex—legs going where arms are meant to be, half a jaw missing and turning up clipped-in on the tail. Joy!

We were also able to provide some toys for the Sunday afternoon outreach to use as prizes for their kids. This gave us the chance to support our church members who do that ministry outreach. In this way, they could see this wasn't just a Paraguayan Tradition that the missionaries do, but that they can hold these events, like Christmas and Easter, to show people the love of Jesus in a tangible way, have fun, be family, and love on their community.

As we grow our members to take responsibility and vision for their local church and outreaches, we don’t just do that for positions of leading or coordinating, but also in storing and rationing of ministry materials. This comes with its own challenges, but mainly it creates opportunities to hand things over and grow responsibilities. We also work a little counter-culturally and intuitively in this way as it spreads things out to many who can take individual responsibility for things, rather than a centrally given or stored project, that one person/household has ownership.

So, this month we have handed pots and pans that we use for big church meals over to one family, 6 weeks of outreach supplies to another to store at their place, and then gifts for others to another family to look after. The pots and pans obviously needed a shelf to go on and, in a Marx Brothers mixed with Barry and Paul Chuckle style happenings, what should have been a simple drilling of 18 holes became a whole, comical saga and sermon illustration in and of itself.

It all ended well and level (with the floor not just the wall), so we now have a pots and pan storage at our deacons house.

And remember: “Jesus went on to make these comments: If you’re honest in small things, you’ll be honest in big things; If you’re a crook in small things, you’ll be a crook in big things. If you’re not honest in small jobs, who will put you in charge of the store? No worker can serve two bosses: He’ll either hate the first and love the second or adore the first and despise the second. You can’t serve both God and the Bank.” Luke 16:10-13

Jesse at school sneakily wearing his SUFC jersey instead of the Paraguayan national kit (not sure it didn't go unnoticed by the Headmistress) and Alicia with her pet butterfly, named Linda, who she has 'trained' to land on her nose. Good times!

A lot of these things that we have done lately have directly benefited church members. Yes, it is to advance the growth and development of the church, but some of the things, like the Day of the Child, we did to be a fun blessing, for no reason at all, other than to love on the Sunday School kids. It won't cause them to come to church any more than they already do. It won't make them more committed or produce any deep spiritual growth. It won't make people associate coming to church with receiving. It was simply a lovely and fun thing to do. So, thank you to all those who give to our ministry, who facilitate such events. And if you would like to partner with us, click on the Donate link below.

When we first moved out to Paraguay in 2009, some of the life-verses at the time were Galatians 6:9- 10: “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.”

I had always felt encouraged over the years about not giving up in sharing the Gospel no matter how limited the results seemed, because, at the proper time, we would see people come to faith. That's a promise we held and still hold—it is Truth.

Praise God! We even got to see that harvest first hand.

And now recently, I have been noticing the other part of the verses stand out, which I have maybe been overlooking previously.

At the end of verse 10 it says, “let us do good to all people, ESPECIALLY to those who belong to the family of believers.”

How wonderful and how awesome it is that doing good is such a priority to our church family; that we can spoil them and make sure we treat each other well and this too will bear fruit for the Kingdom. How many kids that have a great time at church will remember that feeling later in life when they are adults and hopefully, at those times of challenge, they will turn to the support of other believers, remembering what they learn today.

How good does God treat us even though, more than anyone, He knows that we don't deserve it on our own merit. Yet, He went above and beyond for us to give us a perfect, un-spoilable gift.

What can you do today to those around you, especially to those who are a part of your church family?