Erin in Ecuador

the P-word

2012-01-18T23:04:00.001-05:00

Dare I say it? Dare I express it this way? My first unwanted pregnancy. When that little boy handed me the doll and said, “This is my aunt’s secret”, I didn’t believe him. I looked at his aunt, a young, Christian girl, just finishing her 2nd year of high school. All children are a miracle, a gift, an amazing creation of our God, but why her? Why now? Why why why???
“No,” I said. “It can’t be true”. She nodded her head.
“Don’t joke this way with me!” I practically shouted. “I don’t believe you!”
“It’s true.”
I don’t think I’ve ever felt these emotions before, all at once. This girl who I’ve invested in for the past two years, who I’ve loved, trusted, and believed to have a future different from her brother, sisters and parents before her, has given in. The normalcy of a teenage pregnancy in this neighborhood is as if you say to your neighbor, “I bought a new pair of shoes today.” But I truly believed it would be different with her. She promised me. I feel betrayed. I feel defeated. I feel like I messed up. I didn’t do MY job with her. I’m sad. I’m angry. And she knows it. She also knows I love her, and that I’m praying for her. God, PLEASE, rescue my dear girl from this cycle, this entrapment. Restore her relationship with You, and give her wisdom in raising the new life that has now begun.

A Month of Blessings

2011-12-20T11:49:00.015-05:00

Sometimes blessings are subtle, sometimes they smack you across the face, and sometimes they're just so unique and creative, that only God could have put the scenario together piece by piece. I've been in the US for exactly 1 month now, and as my time nears to an end, it's nice to be able to look back and be thankful for what God has already given to me this Christmas season. Let me share with you a little...
* Right after Thanksgiving, I was able to fly out to the UP (Michigan) and see family.
* Generous gifts for Ecuador: a new laptop, sponsorships for school and camp, toys for our school store, clothes for friends... and the list continues!
* Reconnecting with friends is always a highlight!

*Have I mentioned bagels??
* So I guess I better consider my 6 extra pounds a blessing as well!
* Shopping with mom
* Praying with Jonny
* Church in English
* Thrift stores & speaking Spanish
* Valley Christmas parties, parties, parties!

* I was able visit one of our students from our school in Ecuador who recently moved to Brooklyn! We went to AWANA at Evergreen Gospel Chapel, and I hope she get's plugged in at that church.

* Speaking of NYC, I've been blessed by SAFE (and extremely comfortable) public transportation. Wow. No one scared that their 1997 Nokia cell phone was going to be robbed...
*Along with the continual shock of comfort and safety in the US comes the banking experience. US Bank experience: free cup of coffee and a cookie, walk up to the teller and do what you need to do. Ecuador Bank experience: Guard w/machine gun and a 2 hour wait...

So, all of that to say, I've really enjoyed and appreciated my time at my US home. I'm so thankful for time to be encouraged by my family and friends here, as well as getting special emails from Ecuador and knowing that I'm missed there. It's extravagant that I can call 2 places, 2 countries, 2 continents, 2 languages, 2 communities HOME, and my God, that supplies all my needs, is constant in both of those homes.

May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all (2 Cor 13:14) as you celebrate this season. Merry Christmas!!

October in Ecuador

2011-10-28T09:12:00.002-04:00

So, what's been going on in October? I hear that leaves are falling, pumpkins are being picked and snow is predicted up in NJ! What's up with that?! As usual, life is different on the Equator. We're just finishing up our 2nd trimester at school, and we've been very busy. We had our 2nd Mom's Presentation or "Tarde de Mujeres". We had a better turnout this time, with about 50-60 women! These ladies below were the leaders, the faithfuls that come every Monday to the meetings. We've been going through the Dobson Parenting videos, and the Moms are really enjoying it.

Hm I can't figure out how to turn this picture! Sorry. Turn your head or computer please. This is a house that we visited on Kindergarten visitation day. One room house with a bed in one corner and a stove in the other. The oldest girl doesn't go to school (her mom has never signed her up), but came to camp this year and trusted in Jesus as her savior!! Her little sister started school with us this year because their neighbors (a good friend of mine) did all the work to register her.

Speaking of school, we recently went on a field trip. Now, the teacher in me thought "what is educational about this???" while the missionary in me thought, "THIS is what kids should do!"

Have you ever seen kids having so much fun on a see-saw? They played and played in the park before the bus took us over to the water park- basically a jungle gym placed in a wading pool.

The kids had a blast. I remember playing in parks with my brothers as a kid, and I'm glad our kids could enjoy a morning of fun with their friends. We had them all paired up, little kids with big kids, and it was so cute to see the older ones watching out for the little kids.

And finally... the bachelorette party!!

My roommate Lili announced a month ago that she's getting married! After that shock wore off, she announced that it'd be in 3 weeks!! We threw her a quick party at my house with some of her family and friends. We played "The Game of Things" and drank punch that all the Ecuadorians thought was alcoholic cause they've never had punch before (but it REALLY WASN'T). Now the first big day is upon us. We'll accompany her at the civil service this morning and her church wedding is tomorrow! I love how everyone has helped get everything together to make a great wedding for her, and it's been done all under a month. Lili's been very busy, but happy and excited. That's how wedding planning should be done!

Poor is Relative

2011-10-04T19:03:00.004-04:00

The other day a little girl asked me, "Erin, you like to help the poor, right? When I grow up, I want to help the poor too." This little girl grew up in a bamboo house, uses an outhouse, and slept in the same bed as her parents until she was 6. When she talks about the poor, she thinks about other family members that have less than her family and that her family tries to help out. It’s an attitude of gratefulness, and not of entitlement, that should be present in all of our lives. No matter how bad we have it, someone else has it worse! Goes the other way too, doesn’t it? No matter how good we have it, someone has it better!

Speaking of having it better...

Sometimes life in Ecuador can be tough. Sometimes it is just absolutely amazing!! We got a little glimpse of amazing when Nikki, Janna and I drove down the coast and saw some humpback whales! Apparently they travel up from Antartica every year to have their babies off the coast of Ecuador in July. Then, in September, they head back down south! There weren’t that many out there, I guess because it was the end of the season, but we saw a few shoot air out of their blow hole, and had a really wonderful time.

Mom's Visit! focusing on the good...

2011-08-30T17:29:00.004-04:00

I just dropped Mom off at the airport. So sad. It was SO fun to have here here with me!! I have to be careful how I phrase the description of our time together because of the incident. I won't say any more about it, since it's still pretty traumatic to describe. Feel free to read about it here. So, how was our time? Being with my mom was GREAT! We also did a lot of fun things. We did normal life and special trips. Here's a little picture show of our time...

Mom delivered some birthday presents! Thanks Aunt Mary Ann from Jose! He LOVED his new clothes, cars and sunglasses!

Mom and I went to the mountains! Below is the city of Cuenca, where we enjoyed beautiful views and had fun exploring. The altitude, 2500m or 8202ft is pretty impressive, and we might have experienced a little altitude sickness. Should've had those coca leaves to munch... ;)

The cool weather was beautiful!!

My Bastion friends treated Mom well! She got a massage at one house and a manicure at another! As well as some delicious food...

The Fruit Loop story:

Eddison won $100 in a race. He told me that all of that money went to his family for food, and mentioned, "I just wish I could have bought Fruit Loops. I've never tried them, and I bet they're good." $100 and he just wanted Fruit Loops! And there was no money left after the family essentials. After he helped me in my garden one afternoon, I gave him a box and he was ecstatic! Later that day, he told me that he finished the whole box while doing his homework. Love that boy!!

I've started a new incentive program in my music classes. Students who behave earn stars. 5 stars= a private piano lesson. This was Felix's first lesson. He was excited!!

Mom loved this 13 day old baby (Aunt Mary Ann, she's your sponsored boy's new little sister). Pray for her mom, Flor, who's having some complications after the C-section.

Oh yeah, I know what I'm doing!! I had the privilege of using Nikki's Vitara for a week and I'm proud to announce I now know where the radiator is and how to check for water, as well as drive in traffic and stop on hills with a stick shift in Guayaquil. Could not be prouder!!

Don't you love walking down the street and getting attacked with a hug that won't let go?

The COLORS at the market are so beautiful. These women next to my mom listened to us speak English and then spoke to each other in Quichoa (language from the mountains)

A Visit With a Friend

2011-07-08T17:14:00.003-04:00

I just got back from visiting my good friend, Noemi, in Block 8. I must have lost 3lbs going up and down those mountains to get to her house, but maybe I put it back on in the generous lunch that she served me. I got to her house, and found her nephews (with her daughter, on the right) sitting at a make-shift table outside her tiny house.

Noemi is generous and compassionate. Talking to my brother last night about the pair of spiritual gifts of mercy and evangelism, I was struck by the thought that these must be Noemi's spiritual gifts! She seeks out creative ways to talk to her neighbors about the Gospel. She's always ready to do a Bible study with someone and, while she doesn't feel confident on her own (being a relatively new believer), she's a willing instigator and helper. Besides her concern for her neighbors' spiritual needs, she's very aware of their physical needs as well. She considers herself very blessed in her tiny, 1 room "half-house" with the outhouse bathroom, and wants to use her resources to bless her neighbors. When a 17 year-old mom of 2 kids knocked on her door and asked for her left-over chicken bones to feed her hungry kids, Noemi split her recently bought groceries with the young mom. Today we brought the family more groceries and talked with them about Jesus.

Again, I was struck by the thankfulness that people have for God and His provisions. Even in this house full of kids, where putting meals on the table is a difficult task, the mom/grandmother praised God for His faithfulness. Noemi considers herself truly blessed, where as any North American would question her means of survival. Now, it looks like her husband will be laid off next week, so please pray for this family and for God to continue blessing them physically, emotionally (thankfulness!) and spiritually.

Kentucky Fried Chicken

2011-07-01T10:03:00.003-04:00

So much FUN! We ate, we played in a teeny tiny ball pit, we played tag, we played hide-and-go-seek… all for Brittany’s birthday at KFC. Nikki and I took our friend Lenny’s 3 kids out, and had as much fun as they did! Their smiles and laughter were contagious, but I couldn’t help but feel moments of sadness that these lovely children were living life without their mom. Their crazy, fun, joyful mom, who would have been smiling bigger than any of her kids and squeezing me in a hug tighter than her 5 year-old.

Let's Talk Argentina

2011-06-04T09:48:00.015-04:00

So, about 3 weeks ago, Willian and I went to Salta, Argentina to visit the Timothy Institute, a Christian school run my missionaries that I met at home, Doug & Martha Beargen. Willian is the Vice Principal of our school, and will probably be the Principal in the very near future, so we went to get some new ideas for our school, Esperanza de Bastion.

It was Willian's first time on a plane, so that was exciting! And it wasn't just 1 little flight. First we flew to Santiago, Chile, then toBuenos Aires, and then to Salta. The trip there took 18 hours, which was quick in comparison to the return trip!

Our connection in Buenos

Aires gave us enough time to explore the city. We wandered around, drank coffee, saw the Obelisk, took the subte (subway-also a first for Willian!) and ate lunch at an outdoor restaurant that featured Tango dancers! That evening, Doug picked us up at the airport in Salta and we went to his house.

We spent a full week learning about the mission of the Timothy Institute and how it is run. I've never really thought too much about administration, so at times I thought my head was going to explode. Everyone was incredibly helpful, and we learned a LOT. We also wrote everything down so we won't forget, and we're hoping to implement some new ideas soon.

Besides work, we also learned a lot about the Argentine culture. Even though we were still in a South American country that spoke Spanish, Willian found a lot of

cultural differences. Besides the COLD (oh i wore lots of layers and drank lots of tea!!), we learned that lunch time is at 2 and dinner is at 10! Also, while Ecuadorians usually can't survive a mean without rice, Willian had to do without for a week!

But the food was delicious. Argentinians are famous for their meet, and we went to a meat-seller's house for lunch twice. There, I ate blood sausage (AHHH! it actually didn't taste too bad, but I unfortunately knew what I was putting into my mouth and the thought was worse than the taste).

Other highlights of the trip....

Willian gave a presentation about our school at the Salta assembly.
We experienced a church conference and Willian saw how more traditional assemblies are run. He also met up with some Ecuadorian friends from his days at the Bible Institute in Quito.
We were careful not to use the Spanish word "to take" because in Argentina it's a strong swear-word. yikes!
Willian came back talking like an Argentinian with "vos" instead of "tu". It's taking him a while to break the habit that he picked up in a week!

Is this a soap opera, or am I in the hospital?

2011-05-03T18:46:00.003-04:00

Last week, the dengue carrying mosquitoes decided to start biting my friends. First one down was Janna. She was sleeping at my house for a few days and started to feel horrible. I thought I was getting sick too, but the nauseousness just turned out to be due to an insane taxi driver. Anyway, Janna got sicker and sicker, until our faithful nurse brought her to the hospital where stage 2 dengue was confirmed. Not only normal, horrible achy-body, fever dengue. Nope- she had the danger of Hemoragic Dengue- which meant she needed to stay in the hospital with a daily blood test to examine her platelets. I could get into so much detail.. I learned a lot about this disease! But that's not all. Meanwhile, Nikki, Janna's roommate, wasn't feeling so great either. Heather next took her to the hospital for more blood tests. Janna came home a few days later. Then, Heather moved out of her house and back to Canada!

Besides an insane amount of Dengue and trips to the hospital, believe it or not, that's not the point of this blog. My title is "Is this a soap opera?" and I should now get into the good part. Nikki and I went back to the hospital to get a blood test and see if she needed to be hospitalized. We're greeted by this "doctor" who seemed to think he is in a real-life

"novela" with his sleek combed back hair and intense gaze. He tells us a little about Dengue (which we already know from the Janna episode 2 days earlier), but when a nurse walks in to the ER, he blows her kisses and says "mi amor". Turning back to us, he continues pontificating. Then Nikki is directed to an ER bed where a nervous kid tries to give her an IV, mumbling "no puedo (I can't) no puedo". perfect. I gave him a piece of my mind, thinking that if Nikki has hemoragic Dengue, any bleeding can be dangerous!! the "kid" says "oh no, she's fine...." I say "oh yes, it's serious!!"... and he finds someone more capable. Some more pricks later, me getting lightheaded and dizzy from the stress, and Nikki holding up like a champ, I was informed that all 4 of the Semi-private rooms were taken. "What do you want to do?" they asked me. What could we do? Finally with a needle in her arm, we weren't changing hospitals. They plopped Nikki into a wheelchair made for short Ecuadorians, forcing her to either stick her legs straight and trip everyone in sight, or do a little prancing move to not run over her own feet. We made it upstairs to a room of about 25 beds in tiny cubicles with curtains. And there we lived for 2 days.

During those 2 days, we were visited by nurses wanting to look at the pretty gringa... and doctors wanting to talk to the pretty gringas, and more doctors wanting to take pictures of the pretty gringas.... Finally (after much pleading and begging), Nikki was transfered to a semi private room that she shared with 1 other lady. It was much more comfortable to stay there, with room to sit and talk, and a TV to see news of the Royal wedding. We waited out those 2 days, rallying for Nikki's platelets to raise, and begging doctors to read her charts and let her go home. Seriously begging. After eating some healthy meals brought from home, Nikki was able to leave with her platelets on the raise.

We just heard that Heather has spent her first few days in Canada sharing Dengue with the doctors in the hospital there. I'm hoping that these deadly little guys aren't targeting me next, and am enjoying a smelly, freshly fumigated house.

Kids teaching their parents

2011-04-26T18:17:00.004-04:00

On Mondays, I co-lead a Bible study for moms from our school. We've been having it at my house, which has really changed the environment and led to more conversation and discussion. I feel like I'm getting to know these women much better this year. Yesterday, one of the women started talking about her daughter's first communion and how her daughter, a 5th grader in the school, doesn't want to follow the Catholic traditions. This started a very interesting conversation among the moms about how their kids teach them about the Bible. Many of them are nominal Catholics, and when they talk to their kids about spiritual things, their kids show them where passages are in the Bible and they actually respect their kids' guidance! One mom, who trusted in Christ a few years ago and is just recently coming out to church and Bible studies, told us that she was a very devout Catholic, but she knew that her sons were studying in a Christian school and learning a lot about the Bible. She didn't force them to make their first communion, and now she wants to be baptized along with her sons. I know that our kids are getting a Christian education, and our hope is that it influences the homes as well; but on Monday, I found out that it really does! Hopefully we have 140 little missionaries out in the homes of Bastion, spreading the Gospel with their families.Here's a picture of one of moms with her husband and school kids. Jennifer, on the left, is the girl who does not want to do her first communion, and her mom respects her decision. Recently this family has also been coming out to church Bible studies/Prayer meetings as well.

Some Sun & Some Sadness

2011-03-31T18:10:00.011-04:00

I last left you with a Tsunami alert. I'm happy to report that we had no tsunami-related problems at or around camp this month. And rather than start from the beginning, and tell you every nitty-gritty detail about camp, I'll try to just focus on a few details of some of the news- since, WHEW! A lot has been going on.

This is one of my little girls at Week 2 of kids' camp. Week 2 was made up of kids from the Camp's immediate neighborhoods, and to my surprise, seemed to come from much poorer households than our kids from Bastion. My 8 year olds were sharing 1 toothbrush (until we gave them each their own) and most had about 1 extra set of clothes. It was a really fun week getting to know these little ones and teaching them about Jesus' love for each one of them. I used the color-Gospel bracelet in the cabin devotion times, and one day we went out to the beach to talk to God and ask Him to forgive us as we threw our "sins" (shells with some writing on them) into the waves. I hope these girls left camp with a clearer idea of God's love and forgiveness and I'm excited to see them again next year.

Our camp week ended on a

sad note. One of our good friends, a mom to 2 of our school kids, suddenly went to be with the Lord on Friday night. Lenny was fighting cancer about a year ago, and recently started to get sick again. When Jonny came to visit in January, he became best buds with little Lenny, her daughter who's hugging Jonny in the picture. When Jonny came back to Guayaquil for camp, we stopped by Lenny's house for an hour and hung out that Saturday. This picture is from that Saturday. We had no idea that she would be gone in less than a week from that day. She left a very sad husband, 6 kids (I believe), and lots of good friends. It's weird to not have Lenny to hug and talk to after church, and it was even stranger to look at my plans for our School Mom's Bible study and seeing Lenny's name on the top of the list. Things will definitely be different this year without this happy, wacky mom in our midst.

Pre-Tsunami Update

2011-03-11T14:13:00.004-05:00

You've probably all heard about the 8.9 earthquake that hit off the coast of Japan this morning. That has prompted a Tsunami warning for many countries, including Ecuador. For those of you who don't know, I live about an hour and a half from the coast, so I am not personally in danger of huge waves, yet my co-workers Dale and Janet Horst and our Camp facility are on the Pacific coast. Kids' Camp is scheduled to begin on Monday, with about 100 kids already signed up. Ecuador's President Correa has declared a state of emergency and has mandated that everyone evacuate the coastal areas. Our camp caretakers have already left, leaving our camp facilities very vulnerable to crime. The Tsunami's are predicted to hit this evening, so we'll know more by tomorrow; however, I ask you to please be praying for us and camp. Even if nothing happens, parents are going to be very nervous sending their children to the beach for a week, and, at this point, we're not sure what's going to happen.

Please pray for:

Physical safety for people and homes
The camp facilities not to get robbed
Wisdom for camp directors and staff in knowing what do do this week
That God's power, love, and mercy will be clearly evident

Thanks for praying!

(Heather, Janna, and me discovering an awesome sunset)

(Other than a looming tsunami, life back in Ecuador has been good. I was home for a wonderful month in February, and now I've jumped right into camp prep since I've been back. We also had a 4 day retreat to the mountains during the holiday of "Carnival", which is basically, a country-wide water fight. You step outside, you get drenched. You drive with your window open, you get drenched... and drenched with WATER if you're LUCKY. Some of my friends got egged!)

I'll try to write more soon :)

Home #1 for a month

2011-02-14T17:14:00.011-05:00

Home in Hawthorne, will always be home; however, now being "home", I've discovered that Guayaquil has become a home to me too! And I've decided that it's very nice to have 2 very nice homes.

Since visiting home #1 in snowy north Jersey in February, I've heard the "oh it's been such a horrible winter; you must be hating this cold" comment many times. On the contrary! I am LOVING the cold and I am not at all jealous of my friends on the Equator, living in a state of constant sweatiness. I'm thoroughly enjoying my month home, visiting friends, enjoying family, and thinking and preparing for 2011 in home #2. I think, by God's grace, I have been spared the tough, emotional US cultural shock and I'm stationed in observation mode.

Things I remembered I forgot:

I haven't eaten rice yet.
Toilet paper goes in the toilet (feels like a sin, but oh so great)
Restaurants are expensive!! (except for last night, when Nick's chicken wasn't fully cooked and they gave us ALL our meals for FREE)
on that note, customer service!! You can buy things even if you don't have exact change: "Do you have $1?" "no, sorry, only a $20" "oh no problem". In Ecuador, the conversation goes more like, "do you have $1?" "no, I have $10" "We don't have change. You can't buy this."
Phone conversations last longer than 1 minute because everyone has "saldo" (minutes)
I can't run across the highway to my friends' houses, but I can get in a car!
I just uploaded those pictures in under a minute!
Buying things on sale and with coupons, makes shopping a treasure hunt
And speaking of treasure hunts... Thrift stores!

Those are some of the fun/insignificant things that stand out to me. Since I'm only here for a month, I don't really have to grapple with the difficult issues that inundate the affluent North Jersey culture. Even in the year that I've been away, needs/expectations for a normal life have changed, and I don't really understand it all- and maybe I can be thankful for that. Sometimes simple can be frustrating: Why can't I pay my phone bill online or order a pizza for dinner? Or sometimes simple can be refreshing: I don't need a car or a gym membership because my friends all live nearby and I can walk! What I have noticed, is that in both homes, my church families are seeking to know God better. In Ecuador, we meet a lot, sing a lot, and learn from the teachers. In New Jersey, we study, and read, and talk, and ponder (and eat!). Both communities love the Lord Jesus, and want to know Him more, and follow Him in life.

Poverty

2011-01-08T22:27:00.008-05:00

Hey Erin's readers!

I'm Jon, Erin's brother. Hola, if i've never met you before. I'm down here for a couple weeks, so here's a guest post for ya... (ps, this is basically the same as my Math/Science blog for my 7th grade students, so I apologize in advanced for any of you matha-phobiacs)

************************************************************************************

I’m a normal person in America. I drive a Saturn. Four doors, electric windows, stick shift, 32 miles per gallon. Nothing special, just gets me from A to B. If I’m in the mood, I’ll stop in at Dunkin' Donuts or Starbucks and grab a coffee. I go out to eat with friends at times, no big deal. I have an ipod, a cell phone, and a new computer. Normal, right? Doesn’t everyone live like that?

Not everyone...

Here in Bastion, Ecuador, I’m met with a new kind of normal. Here, its normal to have a family of 8 with no car. Its normal to raise chickens as your form of income. Its normal for a whole family to live in one room with a mattress on the floor. It’s normal to make less than $200 per month for a whole family. Its normal to work all day collecting cans and bottles to turn in for pennies.

So what’s normal? Life in Hawthorne, or life in Bastion?

Statistics tell me that more people live lives mores similar to life in Bastion. According to GlobalIssues.org, “Almost half the world - over three billion people - live on less than $2.50 a day.”

So what does that mean? Since there are 365 days in a year, $2.50 a day means...

$2.50 x 365 days = $912.50 per year

Imagine living on $912.50 per year. Thats less than my meal plan at college cost for 3 months. Thats less than I spend on gas in 6 months. Thats less then a new mac!

Check out this for perspective. Imagine making $36,500 per year. That’s a relatively low paying job in our economy. But...

$36,000 ÷ 350 days = $100 per day

$100 dollars per day for a bad job in America compared to half the world living on less than $2.50 per day!

Visiting here turns statistics into faces.

This is a house that Erin and I visited in a community about a half hour bus ride from us. This neighborhood is extremely poor. Notice that we are sitting on the floor. This was because she had no chairs to offer us. When we had lunch there, there was no table to eat from. The only furniture was one bed, the stove in the background, a hammock, and a small table with a tub on it which she used for a sink. There was no running water in this bamboo house.

Its good to know that even in this drastic of poverty, there are still smiling children.

Honestly, at times it is tough for me to be here. Things which I accept about life are being challenged. I don’t like being a rich person among poor people, but that’s what I feel like here. Its hard to spend money when I know people who are counting pennies. I guess the reason for that is my mentor was a really rich guy who gave it all up to become really poor and dedicated His life for others, and I want to be like Him.

"For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich." 2 Corinthians 8:9

Lord, please give me the grace to live like you.

Toothbrushes, Fires and Dolphins

2011-01-05T16:14:00.005-05:00

"I'M GOING TO GO BRUSH MY TEETH!"

Those were the parting words from our little friend, Alejandro. We met him when he approached our restaurant table and asked us for some food. He was sullen and reserved, and kept his eyes rooted to the plate of leftovers that he shoveled into his mouth. Jonny ordered another lunch for him and asked his name, to which he only replied "Torro". He continued to eat furiously, only stopping to respond to our questions with monosyllabic answers until Jonny mentioned Jesus. "Jesus! He's my best friend!!" Alejandro's eyes lit up and he began to smile. He started to tell us more about how he's escaped from an orphanage in Guayaquil 4 times where the older boys violate the younger kids. He told us that he sleeps on the streets of Playas and a nice family lets him wash his extra shirt at their house. Jonny and I decided to take him to the supermarket and buy a few things for him, and when we asked him if he wanted to come with us he said, "I know where that is!" So we went, and he picked out some flip flops and a toothbrush and toothpaste, and was radiating excitement. We've been praying for little Alejandro, who claims he's 14, but looks closer to 10, that God will continue to provide for him and that Jesus will always be his best friend.

On a different note, here's a picture from New Year's! Bastion celebrates with a bang, as the streets fill up with people blowing up their "Ano Viejo" or "Old Year" dolls, filled with paper and fireworks. I've never seen so many explosions/fires and had such a fun/dangerous New Year's celebration.

On New Year's Day, Jonny and I fought the crowds to get down to the beach. After 2 hours of elbowing and trying to control my bad attitude towards all of Guayaquil cutting the line, we made it out of the terminal and were off to the beach. We stayed for the weekend, and went on boat tour to a little island and saw lots and lots of dolphins! It was wonderful!

More Christmas

2010-12-20T08:14:00.003-05:00

I think this post is a procrastination excuse for cleaning my house. I'm just not in the mood! So I'll give you some more Christmasy news. We had our school Christmas play! WHEW! It went so well, the kids were SO cute and everyone did a wonderful job. There weren't even any cute mess-ups to write about. all 135 kids from the school performed and the cuteness factor was off the charts.

Last Monday, our school Mom's Bible study had a Christmas party. I got lots of useful/fun gifts and we played the White Elephant gift exchange. I thought they might be timid, but they had a great time stealing gifts from each other!

Sunday was a marathon day! We had church in the school auditorium because the POURING rain of the night before made it impossible to move the sound system back into the church. It actually worked well, because after church we had our kids club party with 78 kids! We did a Christmas skit--amazing how kids listen so much better if you have a costume on!-- all the kids did a little special number in their individual age groups, and then we fed them all spaghetti and soda and gave them goody bags. I think we all left tired and happy.We've also had some great gringo time recently. We all (minus Nikki- she had to deal with a friend's medical crisis) went out for Chinese food and then saw Narnia in 3D in ENGLISH. It was a great night, full of yummy food, delicious coffee and good conversation.

Christmas is even busy in Ecuador!

2010-12-08T13:56:00.004-05:00

People have been telling me that Christmas is just not a big deal here. It's a holiday for kids, and kids get excited about it, but the adults do it for the sake of the children. Maybe it's because New Year's is the adult holiday when everyone burns huge paper mache statues filled with fireworkes, and that explosive event outshines the Christmas spirit. I don't know. I can't judge that yet, since I haven't experienced it; but I will definitely be in the Christmas spirit at my house! First comes Thanksgiving!

I made my first turkey and had 15 people in my house. It was an International celebration as we gave thanks from the US, Canada & Ecuador. Then we played games until my neighbors banged on my wall because we were laughing too loudly during "siesta".

Forever a music student or teacher, my holidays revolve around Christmas concerts! These crazy kids (above) make up the Sound of Hope Band and had their first concert on Monday night (dec 6). We have an invitation to play at Linder (Clarinet)'s school on the 22nd, so the rehearsals are NOT done yet!!

The kids did a great job at their concert and lots of people came to hear and support them.

Tuesday, Willian came over to help me put up my Christmas tree and fix some lights that had burned out. I impressed on him the importance of Christmas music in the background and a nice Christmasy time, and it was great! We even had a bread guy pass by the window selling yummy treats that alllllmost resembled Christmas cookies!

Last weekend, at the camp training, I collected shells and made a shell garland for my tree with Janet Horst. Let me tell you, it was a lot of work drilling holes into shells! But definitely worth it! I have a Christmas tree with sea shells on it!

Shopping Trip

2010-11-24T12:44:00.003-05:00

I walked out of Mi Comisariato, with gazillions of bags from my grocery/christmas/birthday/odds&ends shopping trip. Of course I needed a taxi, and fast before my shoulder fell out of it's socket. And right in front of me were my options: an old pick up truck and the oldest most decrepit car that I've ever seen in my life. I thought, "there's NO WAY i'm getting in that car" but then i looked at the guy's shirt and realized that he was my only "safe" option since he worked for the taxi company. Safe?? uuuuuuuhhhhhh. So our first obstacle was to get me in the door and close it behind me. Difficult, but with the help of his friend, the door was shut and locked. Then there were the speed bumps. We only stalled twice, yet ever one presented a huge feat to get over. As we spent 7 minutes in the parking lot, I studied all the little screws on the floor by my feet and seriously considered what was more important: not offending the guy, or saving my life. I decided to stick it out and ride the mile and a half to my house. We only took 1 wrong turn. Turns out it was the guy's 3rd day on the job.

As we drove, I thought about the driver and how, in my opinion, he risks his life all day in his car. I wondered if he has ever trusted in Jesus to forgive his sins, and if I should open my mouth and ask him. I battled myself in my head for a while and then looked up and saw some religious stickers on his car. I used them to bring up the topic and we talked a little. I asked him if he has ever put his faith in Christ. He said that he likes to listen to the Word of God, but is not ready to make any decisions. I really hope he stays safe in his car, but more importantly, I hope he secures a future in heaven through faith in Jesus.

Every blog needs a picture, so I thought I'd let you see what will be going on in my house later today. The Sound of Hope Band will be performing in concert in a week and a half!

Birthday!

2010-10-27T16:56:00.005-04:00

My birthday was a week ago, on Wednesday. I didn't plan on doing anything special since my Wednesdays are usually filled with music lessons and Bible study, but my day went differently than I planned. At 1:00, a little girl of one of the teachers at school ran into my house. She was followed by 10 other teachers and friends from school, bringing food, cake, balloons and gifts!

Afterwards, we played Manzanas con Manzanas (Apples to Apples) and Pit

On Monday, I went out to eat with Willian and Johanna at Chilis! It was exactly the same as home, which was really kinda weird, but wonderful. It was a fun experience for Willian and Johanna who have never been to a place like that. Johanna was impressed with the excellent service and Willian got a headache from the overwhelming menu choices!

Laundry Detergent

2010-10-08T18:59:00.005-04:00

Sometimes I forget that I live so close to poverty. My house is very comfortable. I have tile floors, a roof that doesn't leak (that I know of) and an inside bathroom with plumbing. When I need something to eat or laundry detergent for my clothes, I buy it.

Life is different for my friends across the street, and it just really hit me today. I went and ate a delicious lunch at Lenny's house in Bastion. Afterwards she gave Willian a big bag of detergent. Hmm. Why this big, black, unmarked bag full of laundry detergent? Then she showed us where she got it. We walked a few feet along the dirt road and pushed open a door made of rough slabs of wood. Inside the enclosed "patio" were bags and bags and bags of garbage. Well, not really. It was all the same kind of garbage. It was used laundry detergent bags. And women and teenagers were sitting on mounds of bags, tearing open the used detergent bags and carefully wiping the excess dust into their own black bags. Later, I think the cleaned out detergent bags will be recycled, and the workers get to keep the detergent dust that they collected during those hours. Some of them wore masks and one of my friends told me that her mom doesn't like the work because the detergent eventually stings her fingers. Can you imagine going through your neighbor's garbage, finding a tossed out bag of detergent and collecting the extra? Lenny told us that they also collect salt bags as well.

I think that black bag of laundry detergent that Lenny joyfully put into Willian's hands is the most valuable bag of laundry detergent that I've ever seen.

If you think you can handle more facts of life-- check out Heather's latest post.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

2010-09-29T22:32:00.004-04:00

Well, let's start with the GOOD; and really, there is so much good!

Lots of good friends! They're coming over today to play "Manzanas con Manzanas". (Come on, pull out that high school Spanish and guess the game!)
Beautifully perfect delicious avocados: My yummy dinner last night :)
A big man helped me carry a new gas tank to my house (no way I could have done it alone) after mine ran out.
The "juramento" day... Last friday I went to this "flag thing" at my school and then at my friend's high school. In our students promised to be faithful to their country, but in the high school, my friend had to kneel and kiss the flag and swear to it. That was kinda weird, but it was wonderful hanging out with her and her family.
I'm really enjoying my seminary studies! I'm taking Systematic Theology, Church History, New Testament, Evangelism, a philosophy course, and Exegetical Methods.

The Bad...

My cell phone was stolen on the crowded metro (on the way to seminary). Obviously this is bad.
But what made me MADDER was the ridiculous process of buying a new one! "The costumer is always right" philosophy is NOT used here and it took me over an hour to convince the cell phone store to take my money and let me buy their overly priced cell phone.

The Ugly...

I'm sure you've heard about the state of Ecuador at the moment. Check out CNN International for more detailed up-t0-date reports, but I'll tell you, there was some craziness going on around here! The police were striking and supposedly trying to overthrow the president. So yesterday, we were without police, and people without police do bad things. I didn't see anything personally, but everyone was very scared and cautious. I slept over Heather's house! Things seemed to have calmed down now; public transportation is running, and the military is taking over police work. Definitely something to pray about though!

Pageant & Performance

2010-09-22T15:03:00.007-04:00

On Friday I was invited to accompany the Queen of our school to participate in a Pageant. Now, being from New Jersey, I don't even know how to spell "pageant" (I thought it was pagent-- thank you little red squiggly line) let alone actually seeing one in action. Basically it was an educational beauty/creativity pageant to win "Senorita Maestra Majestosa", or Miss Majestic Teacher. Our representative from Hope of Bastion School went as "Creation". You never knew flannel graph could be converted into a beauty pageant gown, did ya?! Well, the ocean was her skirt, the land was her top, a cape portrayed birds and animals, and a sunset-landscape scene was painted onto her stomach! 7 of us accompanied Carolina to the show and cheered her on as she waltzed down the runway. Unfortunately, she didn't make it into the finalists; she was beaten by an elaborate condor costume

The next performance for the day was with the band. Yesenia, Linder, Alfredo, Erika and Jefferson were ready for their big performance at the Alborada Conference. Although our pre-arranged ride didn't show up last minute, and we had to scramble to find a taxi, we got there on time, warmed up and were ready to go. The kids did a great job playing "Kumbaya", and people were very impressed that Jefferson's arms could strech so far on the Trombone (don't be fooled by the picture. The one with the Sax is Jefferson who really plays the trombone).

Tonight marks the last night in a 12 lesson Bible study that I've been doing with these girls in the picture below. Janina, Mayi & Kenia. We're planning on continuing with something different, and I'm hoping to get a 2 for 1 on my seminary work and use the material on them.
Oh yeah-- I started seminary. It's all day Saturdays and it looks like it's going to be challenging but good!

On a sad note, my friend Willian just had a tragic death in his family. Please pray.

Mom & More

2010-09-11T21:41:00.004-04:00

My first trip to the mountains. This was taken out of the window of the bus, on the way to Banos, a little town in the shadow of the active volcano Tunguragua.

Mom came for a visit in August! That was wonderful. She got to meet my friends and see my life here in Ecuador. She was also a great photographer and I have a bunch of new pictures of life here. Unfortunately, posting them here will take a million years, so check out my facebook if you'd like to see some more. We also went to the Mountains and the Jungle! Very fun!!

After Mom left, I had a few days to adjust back to normal life, and then, BAM! Life has decided to fall apart. Suddenly, everyone has instantaneously come to the conclusion that I am the answer, or will have the answer to their life problems. What's up with that? I don't know how to deal with this stuff. We're talking heavy issues here with families, health, education, jobs... "That's life in Bastion" say my friends. Hmmm. Is this what it means to be a missionary? All I know is that I'm being physically held together by the faithful prayers of my family and friends. So, for those of you praying for me, THANKS!

More than a Sunset

2010-08-10T15:37:00.004-04:00

Yes it’s time. Time to write a new blog. Time to update you on life in Ecuador. Time to make that bird fly back OUT of my house, off my stairs, and close the back door.

I’m looking through my pictures to see what I haven’t written about yet. Let’s start with the church retreat at camp. We’re on the Pacific Ocean here, which means that the sun sets over the ocean. This was mind blowing to me, having previously experienced only the East Coast sunrise over the ocean.

60 people from our Block 6 church went to camp this weekend, and many of those people also spent many hours in the KITCHEN. Understandably, it takes a lot of food and work to feed 60 people for 3 days, yet, it somehow seemed like we just never left that kitchen. Dishwashing alone (with out the machine) took hours.

These faithful women cooked us a lot of meals. These are plates of chifles (fried plantain chips- no, not out of a bag, but hand-made) The chifles are awaiting the fish soup. This breakfast (breakfast!!) of “encevollado” took about 3 ½ or 4 hours to prepare. It was yummy… but I happen to think a beautiful beach day spent on the beach is yummier.

The rest of my week vacation from school was spent with friends from Bastion. These girls slept over my house one night, and we tried on some of the costumes that my mom sent down for Kids’ Club. Carolina, in the hat, is also a Kids’ Club leader.

This lovely group of girls in my living room are from my Friday Bible study in Block 7. I made a big meal of spaghetti and rice (in Ecuador, no meal is complete without its rice) and we enjoyed hanging out and having our Bible study. My friend Carlos is co-leading this group with me and we usually do have some guys in attendance as well.

I FINALLY brought my camera to music practice. These brother-sister pairs are practicing their instruments 4 times a week: Jefferson- trombone, Yesenia- flute, Erika- trumpet, Linder- clarinet. They’re doing really well, and I really enjoy spending time with them every day. They all attended the Hope of Bastion School and are now in different high schools. Jefferson told me yesterday that his music teacher doesn't know what a trombone is. I'm so proud of these kids with their instruments!! (Jefferson & Yesenina's mom is Marlene, the lady on the left serving the chifles)

Lauren in Ecuador!

2010-07-14T00:30:00.010-04:00

When I arrived at Erin’s house in Ecuador, the first thing I thought was, “How cute is this house!? I could get used to this!!” The gated community in which Erin is living is a collection of colorful establishments filled with friendly people. We put down my suitcases, made fresh lemonade, and I thought, “I totally see why Erin loves it here.” I’m laughing as I’m writing this now because 24 hours later I was sitting in the same chair at Erin’s counter, drinking the same lemonade from the night before, but now all naïve and superficial ideas about life in Ecuador had dissolved.

Across the high-way, literally a 2 minutes’ walk from Erin’s gated community, is Bastion where Erin spends most of her time since moving to Ecuador, and where I’ve spent the better part of my 8 days in Ecuador!

So this is Erin’s life in Ecuador through my eyes! I’ll start with the more light-hearted aspects. For example, I mentioned above that Erin’s house and Bastion are separated by a highway. This is not a minor detail to be overlooked. This means that sometimes in one day, one must RUN across the high-way about four times to get to Erin’s house to Bastion and back again! If you thought Ecuador was dangerous because it was a third world country you would be wrong. I maintain the most dangerous part of Erin’s day is running across this high-way stretching at least 6 lanes. One day, when fleeing from an oncoming truck, I was reminded forcibly of the old computer game FROGGER.

Another unexpected dangerous encounter was the cockroach that greeted me in Erin’s back patio my first night in Ecuador. He was inches away from the screen-less window into her kitchen so we screamed, sprayed random poisonous liquids, and swatted with a broom… we showed him. I can assure you, he won’t be coming back for round 2.

In all seriousness, when I look back over the last 8 days, it’s REALLY HARD to sum it all up in a few paragraphs, but I’ll do my best. I’m going to choose the 3 things I liked best or stood out most to me.

1.) On my first full day in Ecuador Erin wasted no time submerging me into the day to day life of the people living in Bastion. We spent the morning visiting a woman named Naomi who had her daughter Natalie when she was 15 years old. Naomi is now 20

and her daughter 6, but it struck me as I was sitting talking with her that when she got pregnant she was the same age as my sister Hannah who just finished her Freshman year of high school. At 15 Naomi was a mother and moved into a one room house made of bamboo her father built for her. She married the father of her daughter and thankfully this man is kind and good and doesn’t mind Naomi’s faith and the fact that she attends the church and Bible Study. This is not the case for all the women in Bastion. Many have children with no husbands, some are living with men but are not married, some are living with men who are not kind and won’t let them go to church. Life for women here seems to be without many aspirations. It’s not just women either. Erin told me painfully on one of our last trips to the school that many of the kids in Bastion don’t finish high school. As someone who works in a high school, I know that the incentive for our youth in America is that they can be something someday. “Anything they want,” we tell the

m. “So study, get good grades, pursue your dreams.” In Bastion teenagers look ahead and see nothing but Bastion.

In my short time here I was also able to get to know two teens, Linder and Erica. It’s crazy that I’ve only known them for 8 days and I feel so attached. I see what a jaded life in poverty and the culture of Bastion could do to them and I’m so thankful they have Jesus and the Block 6 church. It’s hope that Erica won’t get pregnant before she’s 18 and will marry a Godly man and Linder will grow up to be a good husband and a leader in the church. (First picture is me Linder, Erica, and there little brother).

2.) That thought brings me to number two. It’s not just the injustice and the poverty that makes your heart bleed for a place like Bastion. The people living in this city are possibly the warmest and most humble people I’ve ever met. They have nothing, but EVERY TIME I entered a house in Bastion I was fed and treated like a guest of honor. My first dinner in Bastion, I ate in a one-room bamboo house much like Naomi’s. This woman made me the biggest plate of chicken and rice I ever ate in my life. Seriously, the Cheesecake Factory would be put to shame with this portion I was served. I couldn’t finish. Those of you who know me… think about that statement…

As we walk down the streets of Bastion people from the churc

h and parents from the school stop and talk with Erin, kids from the school yell out the windows to her and run up to her on the dirt streets almost knocking her over with a hug. These people have so little but there is a gratefulness and warmth about them that’s astounding. I met so many people and barely scratched the surface of getting to know them but they wanted to know so much about me and the next time they saw me embraced and kissed me like they knew me as long as they’ve known Erin. Erin’s only known them for 3 months, but I felt like she’s known them forever.

Today I was able to go to school with Erin and help her teach her music classes. Every class we went into was so excited to see me! For the 7^th year students I

got to sing them a Hillsong song that they are learning in Spanish (I sang it in English of course). They were so into it!!! I thought about what would happen if I tried to sing for a classroom full of middle-schoolers in the States and almost laughed out loud. After class two of the students stayed after and were asking me question after question about myself. At recess the kids were drawn to Erin and I like magnets. Now Erin I understand, she’s been there music teacher for 3 months. They barely know me and they were hugging and kissing and asking me why I was leaving so soon. It’s overwhelming!!! (The next two pictures are Bastion right outside Naomi’s house and a picture of me with one of the kids at the school.)

3.) Finally the last thing that sticks out to me from my time in Ecuador is the church in Block 6. The leaders of Block 6 church have their hands full. It’s a full-time job in and of itself, and believe me, the leaders of Block 6 church have many other responsibilities outside of church as well. My first experience with the church was my first night in Ecuador, Erin and I went to the Tuesday night Bible Study. Even then, only in Ecuador a few hours, I saw the churches’ devotion, passion, and hunger for studying God’s word. The people who attend Block 6 church LOVE the church because they appreciate it as a lighthouse in a dark world. The young male leaders like William and Carlos were so cool to get to know. They both come from these CRAZY backgrounds and you see how God’s hand was in their life and Jesus just radically transformed them! Now, William for example, is my age and is a rotational speaker on Sundays, leads music on the bible study and prayer meeting nights, leads one of the break-out groups in Tuesday night bible study, leads Kids Club after church on Sundays (which is a blog post in and of itself Erin you need to get on that), AND teaches 4^th year and is the vice principal at the school! Oh… did I mention he’s taking college classes as well? He is pouring his life back into service for the Lord. You might picture someone who is stressed out, has no time to be with people, etc. William is the opposite, he is peaceful and joyful and content, he makes time to be with people and share in community and disciple. Service for him is not an obligation or a stress, it’s his pleasure. William is just one example of all the people who serve in leadership at Block 6 church. For example, a great deal of Erin’s leadership involvement happens through discipleship and meeting with people during the week for Bible Study or just simply checking in and building relationships. There is so much need in Bastion not just financially but emotionally and spiritually, and God is perceptively meeting those needs through Block 6 church! (Some of the people from Block 6 church outside of Block 6)

I saw the center city of Guayaquil, went to the beach, tutored a girl with her English homework, chased a cockroach away from Erin’s back window, took cold showers, slept under a bug net, ate a lot of good fruit smoothies, and found a new favorite flavor chip (Limon Plantantinos)! But the things that are going to stay with me from my time in Ecuador are not those things (Well... maybe the chips and the smoothies). The things that will stick with me most: the girl who was crying outside her house to Erin because the father of her son is leaving and taking her son with him, the 16 year old boy in Erin’s bible study who looks like he sells drugs for a living raptly listening to her every word about Jesus, Linder hugging my brains out every time he saw me on the street or in church, the fact that Erin’s students were visibly overcome with excitement and anticipation when I walked into the classroom, the fact that people I had only known 5 minutes and had no reason to like me warmed up to me in minutes, the faithful young men and women at Block 6 church in Bastion who’ve devoted their lives to service in the church. The coolest thing ever is that only Jesus could create a hope and joy like I saw in a hopeless city like Bastion.

What's for Breakfast?

2010-07-01T16:39:00.004-04:00

Nada.

The students at Hope of Bastion School come from a very poor neighborhood and do not pay tuition to attend this school. Apart from a good education, prayer and a safe environment, the kids receive breakfast every morning. Every morning except today. And tomorrow. And the rest of July since there wasn't enough money in the account.

I'd really like our students to have breakfast this month. If you'd like to help give them breakfast, send me an email (erinraeh@gmail.com) with the amount that you would like to contribute and I will give it immediately to the school. Then, mail a check to CMML with a note attached designating it to Erin Hayes (mailing and check instructions at the bottom of this blog).

Breakfast for 140 students costs $660.

We're working on creating an account specifically for Hope of Bastion school with CMML for direct donations. I'll let you know when it is up and running. Until then, I can pass the money on for you.

Muchas Gracias!!

What's for lunch?

2010-06-25T16:21:00.003-04:00

Have you ever wondered where your next meal was going to come from? You didn't even have $1 to your name to buy something to eat for yourself and your family? I have never experienced anything close to this; yet, almost all of the women at our Thursday morning Bible study have. And there we all talked about God's provision through suffering...

What a Week!

2010-06-21T18:41:00.004-04:00

Let's start off with something nice. A wedding! A week and a half ago, I went to Mayi's civil wedding. Everyone here has to be married by a judge, and then, if you want, a church service follows. Mayi's church wedding is in July. The picture: Willian (friend), Rolando (pastor), Mario (groom), Mayi (bride), Antonietta (grandmother), Me!
OK. Time for the not-so-nice-stuff...

I'm glad I'm not learning all there is to know about life in the slums at once. I think I might spontaneously combust upon acquiring all that knowledge. I'm being confronted with issues that I have never before dealt with, let alone knew anyone going through said issue. Let me give you a few vague ideas of what we're dealing with over here.

1. Babies, Babies and more Babies. Why didn't *** come to the Bible study? Oh she stayed home with her boyfriend. She wants another baby. (she is YOUNG, already has 4 kids, different fathers, and they new boy is youngER- we're talking high school age...)

2. Speaking of young, my friend's sister got married when she was 14. FOURTEEN!!!!!!!!!!

3. Erin can you help me? My sister left our house, and is now living as a prostitute. We want to get her out of that place, but our dad won't let her come home. Can she live with you?

4. My friend is part of a real family feud, involving murders, revenge, and the hope of forgiveness through Christ.

5. Finding a free screwdriver on the street at night, if you're a boy, does not mean, "hey! free screwdriver". It means, "I hope no police see me with a screwdriver since they'll assume it's a weapon..."

6. Our church was robbed. The thieves stole our sound system.

7. We (not me! I'm clueless) know who did it, but I don't think anything will be done about it.

And I'm sure I'll continue to learn more...

A Volcano & a Bat

2010-06-09T09:19:00.003-04:00

While waiting for my water to boil, I thought I'd start my new blog. And, this is not just, "let me put some water on to boil and then use it..." I used tap water this morning, so I need to let it sit there bubbling away for 10 minutes before I make my morning coffee (yes, horror of horrors, I don't have a coffee machine and I use instant. Ah. I'm confessing it to the world).

So, let me sit here with my coffee and thing of what has happened since I last left you. Oh, well, there was a volcanic eruption, about 6 hours from where I live which spewed volcanic ash over all of Guayaquil. I'm STILL washing it away. It was like it was snowing, gray flecks. It was really crazy.

Then, the next night, I walked into my house, and was greeted by a BAT swooping through my living room! I screamed a lot, got a broom and a laundry basket, and then figured, "What in the world am I going to do with these?!?!" So I snuck around the disgusting creature, and ran over to my pastor's house. He came over and got the bat out of my house, while I caught the whole thing on video. Sorry I can't upload it here... maybe someday you can see it :)

I haven't even begun to talk about daily life stuff: School, Bible Studies, Church, Instrumental Music Lessons.... Life is busy. And I'm learning a lot.
My friend, Esthella, and her husband came over to teach me how to cook fish. Then, after a "normal" fish meal with rice and menestra (beans), they also taught me how to make ceviche! YUM!
Kids club is going well. We have about 50-60 kids that come out every week. We do a drama, teach Bible verses, sing & dance, and play games in the school's gym. It's a fun group. Pray for us; that we're clear with the Message and that these kids come to know Jesus as their Savior!

Fiesta de Limpieza

2010-05-22T15:17:00.003-04:00

Yesterday was the "Changing of the Flags". It's a bid deal for the students who get to be the flag bearers. My friend Jenifer, from 7th year, was chosen to carry the flag of Guayaquil because of her high grades. Here's a picture of her, her mom Tania, and her little sister Diana.Today was a cleaning day! My pictures uploaded in the wrong order, so the before picture, is actually last. And I don't think you can really tell HOW dirty the floor was with packed packed DUST. I've had a cold all week so I decided to dress like a bandit so as not to breathe in too much dust. I'm sure I still sucked in a few pounds...
We were cleaning the upstairs area of the church for Kids' Club that starts tomorrow. Willian (picture above) is in charge of kids club and organized this "Fiesta de Limpieza" (cleaning party) today. A bunch of other people from the church showed up and did a thorough cleaning of the downstairs as well.
The after picture (w/ a wet floor) is above and the before picture is below... I wish I got a before picture of the bathroom. OH MAN it was the most disgusting thing ever.
Antoinetta, the woman talking to Willian, is also helping with Kids' Club. She taught me how to get rid of the junk that we didn't want upstairs = throw it out the window! All our termite/maggot infested wood? Out the window! The black water we used to clean with? Out the window!

a little bit of news

2010-05-16T22:44:00.004-04:00

I thought you might like to see all 140 kids at my school! This is them lining up in the all purpose room to pray and sing the national anthem and some other warm up songs.

I was hoping that a nice cold shower would hit me with blogging inspiration. It didn’t. But I owe you an update, so please pardon my lack of creativity. I’m going to blame it on my cold. Yes, I got a cold. L My first sickness in Ecuador. I noticed that the weather changed one day. It got cooler! Well, maybe not cool, but not hot! The next day everyone was complaining of sore throats. Oh these crazy Ecuadorians who get sick when the temperature drops below 90 degrees… Not so fast, Erin. And now I’m sick! I went to church this morning, and then spent the rest of the day reading books and watching movies. I’m hoping to have a functional voice for school tomorrow! I’m subbing for an English teacher.This is a family that I’m getting to know. Jenny is in 6^th grade and probably the most responsible 10 year old that I’ve ever met. She takes care of her little sister, prepares food, cleans the house and is just really, really sweet. Her little sister, Diana, took this picture.

I’m branching out of Block 6 a little and heading over to Block 7! Bastion is basically this big hill covered with houses. As you go farther up the hill and come back down the other side, you enter different blocks. A girl at church asked me to come to her neighborhood and do a Bible study with some of her friends. I went for the first time on Friday and it was really encouraging! There were 6 of us at her friend’s house and they seemed to really like the study. We’re going to go through a Navigator’s discipleship workbook together. I’m not sure if all of her friends have trusted in Jesus yet, but they’re definitely interested!

I think my NyQuill is starting to kick in. I better sign off before I get kooky. Goodnight!

Baptism and a Bird

2010-05-04T19:14:00.001-04:00

(Click on the picture to make it bigger)

We had a baptism on Saturday at the beach. 18 people got baptized from the Bastion Block 6 church. See that line up? It was a gorgeous day, and everyone was really excited. I'll point out some people... the 2 women at the top are Naomi and her mom. Naomi is a new believer and she's in my small group. The group in the right hand corner is Rolando, the pastor, Felipe, an elder, and Felipe's daughter.

The girl in the left hand corner is Jenny- she was watching her new step-dad get baptized. She's on of my students, and I went over her house today to hang out with her family. When we got to the house, she was really excited to show me their pet birds. Unfortunately one of them was missing. A few minutes later, her sister found it dead in a little cage in their bedroom. Her sister (5) started wailing, since it was her little bird. Jenny comforted her, but it was really sad :( Then Jenny proceded to clean the house, heat up the dinner that her mom had left, and serve us food. She's 10 years old!! Her mom came home from work a few hours later, and it was good to get to know her too.

Conversations from Week 2

2010-04-14T20:39:00.007-04:00

(translated)

Dina: Erin, you can make the juice. Get that pitcher out of the fridge and then wash your hands really well.

Me: (looking at a pitcher with a suspicious floating brown blob) This pitcher?

Dina: Yes. Just stick your hands in there and play with it.

Upon closer inspection, I realized that it really looked more like a brain than a brown blob. “It looks like a brain!” I exclaimed, and Dina assured me that it really was fruit. A “tamarindo” I think. I finally did stick my hands in there and mushed up that brown, brainy, blob. A strainer and some sugar later, the juice was quite tasty.

Yesterday was my 2 week anniversary! It’s pretty amazing to think about what has happened these past 2 weeks… I arrived, my house was finished, I moved in, I’ve scoped out 2 churches and a bunch of different ministries, I’ve gotten to know my colleagues at school, made some new friends… J

We spent this past weekend at the beach. We had a school staff meeting, with all of the school personnel, at the Playas camp. It was a productive and fun weekend! OH the ocean was beautiful! I think the Pacific Ocean must be God’s bathtub. It was so warm!! My sunscreen worked well and I’m happy to announce that I was not burnt to a crisp in the Equatorial sun; although my shoulders are definitely not pasty white anymore. Let me give you a little list of 10 “Wow-I’m-in-Ecuador” moments…

1. I’m getting some color!

2. I like to use my computer in my hammock on my back patio.

3. I’m eating plantain chips (platanos fritos y platons maduros= yum!).

4. I make juice with fruit and a blender- just finished off some strawberry juice.

5. I’ve eaten shrimp and rice for breakfast… TWICE.

6. I hung out of a full bus, like literally on that step that you use to get on, to go to the store.

7. I leave doors and windows wide open and don’t worry about bugs.

8. I enjoy cold showers every day.

9. I went to an Iguana Park, just a little plaza in the city that has tons of huge iguanas roaming around.

10. I ride in cars whose drivers think they are in a video game.

I’ll end with another recent conversation between Janna (picture) and myself.

Janna: Erin, do you want a MiniEgg? Someone brought them to me from Canada.

Me: Sure!

Janna: They have ants on them, but you just blow them off. You’re a missionary.

And sure enough, she handed me a chocolate Cadbury egg crawling with ants.

Janna: Blow!

And I blew. And I ate.

OTHER PICTURES: 1-Dina and I, 2-Shrimp breakfast on the beach, 3-My cabin and fellow teachers, 4- Willian and Janna

First Days in Ecuador

2010-04-01T19:23:00.004-04:00

Well, I just finished massacring 4 million little ants with Fantastic. I left a tuna can out, went and took pictures of my newly finished house, and when I came back, the counter was under attack by the little critters. Fantastic lived up to its name, and they all froze in their tracks. But enough about ants!

I'm in Guayaquil, Ecuador!

My plane touched ground at 5:00pm Ecuador-time (an hour behind all of you on the East coast) and the passengers erupted in clapping. I love it. I also love the fact that all of these women stood up to get their luggage with perfectly curled hair after a 6 and 1/2 hour flight. When we left JFK, these same women had bright blue curlers stuck to their scalp. Arrival in Guayaquil = beauty queens. Interesting.

So I got here and Nikki picked me up from the airport in her new car! It's a cute 98 Chevy something SUV. It's stick shift, and, thanks to Jonny's car, I am prepared to take over the wheel if there's ever a need! That's right! I can drive stick! I'm very proud. But actually, now that I think about it, there are pretty many hills around Guayaquil, and I'm NOT confident stopping and starting on hills yet. K, so Nikki brought me back to her house and then I got the grand tour of my new place. It was not finished on Tuesday but it was finished today! I'll give you some before/after shots...

Yesterday I picked out the paint and the men painted the entire house today! Pretty impressive! I'm not sure how to upload these pictures correctly and blogger isn't helping me out, so I'm not going to upload any more here. But, let me tell you, my room is PINK and Yadira (my roommate who will come next week)'s room is green. They're both pretty brilliant.

But now, I better get going. I'm going to shower off my grime (it's pretty hot) and head out to a Last Supper dinner at the Block 6 church. I'll take MY new house keys and be on my way :) Thanks for reading! Happy Easter! Jesus died so that you can be forgiven from your sins, and rose again 3 days later! Celebrate!

1 Week Away

2010-03-23T10:18:00.004-04:00

Today is Tuesday. Next Tuesday, I'll be in Ecuador. That's a pretty crazy thought. I've been preparing for this for a while now, and things are finally coming together. I have my visa, ticket and health insurance, like I wrote in my last post, I've compiled a lot of Spanish music, some of which I've also blogged about (see 2 posts down), and my friends in Ecuador are getting my house ready for me! So that's all the tangible stuff.

I'm also working on the emotional stuff. I feel like I've had a lot of good, quality time with my family and friends since I've been home. My mom and I go for a walk everyday after school, which has been soooo wonderful, and, i must say, necessary, since I've been going out to eat with everyone else! I'm getting my last moments with friends over bagels and buffalo chicken (not together, bagels and buffalo chicken, together with friends, different occasions.... i'm going to miss them all!! the friends and the bagels and buffalo chicken!). And I've really enjoyed chapel, youth group, Wed nt study, Thrusday prayer meeting & study, and Dave's Friday group.

People have been asking me, "So when are you coming back home?" The easiest answer that I can give is that, I don't know! I bought a one-way ticket! The consoling thought to me, in this scary thought, is that Ecuador is really not that far away, and plane tickets are not very expensive! And I already have some family and friends lined up to visit me! YAY!

So basically, I'm going to start my dream job. I'll be teaching elementary music, in a poor neighborhood, free to love my students and tell them about Jesus' love. I'll be living right across the street from my school and church community and investing in relationships there. Please pray for me as I settle in!

Almost in Ecuador

2010-03-05T16:48:00.006-05:00

I am, enjoying the beautiful March day, with my Visa & Plane Ticket in hand! I'm leaving March 30, and got a fabulous price on my ticket. If you look closely, you can see the "CheapOair" emblem... a name that did not instill a lot of confidence, yet with a price too good to pass up!

That's it for now! I'm off to, guess where, Youth Group!

A Day of Great Mail

2010-02-25T16:08:00.004-05:00

I got my visa today!! WOOHOO! Next step: Plane Ticket! I'll keep you updated.

The other thing that came in today was a book and CD of traditional Spanish folk songs and games. I was very excited to find this material at the recent music educator's conference last weekend, and I thought the price of $24.95 was appropriate. You may all disagree with me after I disclose its unfortunate content.

Ah yes. Back to music teaching. That means, back to listening to kids songs ad nauseam. I love it! Today I sat down with my new book & cd, El Patio de Mi Casa, and this is what I found:

Song #1: The donkey is leaving, the donkey is gone, the donkey drowned, the donkey is you.

Song #2: Mercedes is already dead. It's true cause I saw her. Mercedes has died and we are in mourning.

Song #3: (to be played with a kid lying on the floor) Emiliano is not here. go see if he is dead.... he already died!

Song #4:I have a doll, dressed in blue. little white shoes and an apron of tulle. I took her to the market and she got constipated.

OK maybe you're thinking, Erin, You should go back to language school. I don't think you have as good a grasp on the Spanish language as you may think. Sorry folks. Those are the actual translations from the book that is open on my desk.

That being said, anyone have any good Spanish kids' music?

Good Video!

2010-02-18T22:43:00.007-05:00

I wish I knew how to embed this video so that you could watch it right here on my blog... but I don't. Oh well. I highly recommend that you watch the video "Stop and Think" by the author of Crazy Love, Francis Chan.

I really enjoyed it!

Let me know what you think.

http://www.crazylovebook.com/videos_stop.html

Recorders! (and an unfortunate umbrella story)

2010-02-02T20:25:00.006-05:00

I have received so many recorders! About 1 month ago, I sent out a plea for new and used recorders to my Facebook friends. I got an overwhelming response of recorders, pre-corders and flutaphones! The used instruments are currently enjoying a thorough bath in the dishwasher (see pic above), while the others are taking over my room. I'm EXCITED that all of my Ecuadorian music students are going to get to learn how to read music by playing the recorder; I'm DREADING my days full of squeaky recorder noise! Any music teacher, mom, dad, or basically any citizen of the United States understands how torturous this instrument can be on our beloved ear drums. But obviously, I think it's an important part of music education, so I'm bringing down full suitcases. My favorite part of this project has been the great excuse to reconnect with so many different friends! Thanks to everyone who's donated a recorder!!

Other than my recorder project, things at Star of Hope are going.... well, let's just say, they're going. Last week I sold a woman's umbrella to someone else. She put it down, I sold it. Needless to say, she was NOT happy with me. Actually, she was more upset with the lady who unsuspectingly bought the umbrella that she found on the ground (I sold it for $1!!). After running down the street looking for the woman, she came back to the store and called down the wrath of God on the lady saying, "I'm a spiritual woman and I DECLARE she will get what's coming to her" and then threatening, "Oh if I ever find her..." So, end of the story, we gave her another umbrella.

Old Year New Year

2010-01-16T23:40:00.009-05:00

Old Year New Year was the title of my newsletter. It was in reference to the great piece of literature Old Hat New Hat by Dr. Seuss, but I'm not sure that was picked up on by any of my readers. So I'm explaining it here to all of cyberspace. Whew. Glad that's out there.

So first news first. My visa application is now flying over Central America, on it's way to Ecuador! See me jumping for joy?! :) Well that's actually a picture from the CMML Camp of the Woods youth retreat that we all went on last weekend. It was great! So, anyway, now starts the process of waiting and praying that my visa goes through without any problems!

Meanwhile... let me give you a glimpse of life in NJ... Valley youth group is going strong! Somehow we managed to finagle the girls into helping us decorate our Christmas tree for the 2nd year in a row. I highly recommend them, for any of you out there who are as lazy as we are!

Then I get to hang out with the other youth group girls at fun places like On the Border where they like to experiment with chili peppers.

Here's a family Christmas picture for ya... The game of the year this year was Set! Thank you Ecuador (I played it there)! This was actually Jonny's first time playing, and as you can see from my mom's position, it was a riveting end to a great Christmas Eve!

So that's the news from the front at the moment. Star of Hope Ministries in Paterson, and Spanish Music curriculum research & writing are keeping my days filled up, as well as getting ready to move to Ecuador! Thanks for reading! We'll keep in touch...

Newsletter Done

2010-01-04T08:37:00.003-05:00

I finished my update letter.

I used the free trial of publisher that I found on my computer.

It was fun, but took me a gazillion years.

I'm updated out.

If you want a copy, comment with your email to this post!

Back in Paterson

2009-12-13T21:11:00.003-05:00

I always seem to be home right when Star of Hope Ministries in Paterson needs help. This works out well for everyone, since I can provide some well needed vacation time, as well as speak Spanish every day! Friday was my first day back, and it was interesting! I'm selling things in the thrift store, and making up prices as the day goes along.

Sometimes I say prices that the people accept. Sometimes I don't. One lady yelled at me (in Spanish) and said, "There's no way I'm going to pay $3.00 for a pair of jeans when I know I can get them for $2.25. " Then another lady dumped tons of stuff on the counter, and after I told her all the prices, she told me off, in Spanish, about how exorbitant they were. My supervisor walked in, just at that moment, and said, "Erin, is that just how Spanish sounds, or was she upset?" I'm really not giving bad prices; they're exactly the same as what the other woman says. This other lady came in preaching at me about how wonderful thrift stores are (I agree!) and how she'd never shop anywhere else. But then the next words out of her mouth are about how she only comes here because it's close to her house, and she really wouldn't ever come here except for the fact that it's close. Thanks a lot lady! I happen to think we have great stuff at, might I add, wonderful prices!

Ecuador!

2009-12-08T20:02:00.007-05:00

I'm in love.

I had a great honeymoon.

No, I didn't go off and get married. The honeymoon stage is the 1st stage of Culture Shock, and that's what I was able to experience in my 2 weeks in Guayaquil, Ecuador.

I was able to meet all of the missionaries that work in Guayaquil from MSC Canada (http://www.msccanada.org/) and learn about the plethora of ministries that they are all involved with. They have a school, 2 churches, a camp and a river/jungle ministry to name a few. I am particularly interested in the school and teaching music again!!

Grades K-6. It was a whirlwind of a 2 weeks, and now I'm back to the US to work on getting a long term Visa.

I am realistic. I know that honeymoon stage is followed by "horror" (not fun. I experienced it in Paraguay and I know I'll go through it again in Ecuador.) BUT I am so excited about the ministry opportunities in Guayaquil and I think it's a really good spot for me. And the fact that they have all of the seasons of the Office and Boy Meets World only adds to my confirmation. That... and the yummy shrimp ceviche, gorgeous camp on the Pacific Ocean, and mango smoothies every day...

Since I've been home, I must admit that I am enjoying the luxuries and commodities of everyday life: hot water (in showers and tap), ice cubes (that I don't have to remember to fill with purified water... I almost accidentally destroyed our bodies by filling the trays with tap water), flushable toilet paper (a luxury that I will enjoy but not get used to), heat inside when it's cold outside, wearing sweaters and coats, not adjusting a bug net over my bed, jumping in a car to go anywhere I want (this is still absolutely mind blowing), free calls and texts to Verizon customers, and hanging out with my friends and family! What a life!

Despedidas: The End

2009-11-15T18:55:00.005-05:00

I'm leaving Paraguay tomorrow. I can't believe it. I've been saying goodbye to people for about a month now, I've had about 7 despedidas (going away parties), and I'll admit, I've cried. But before getting mushy, I need to give the promised update on Nino Jesus China. We gave out all of the bags, and everyone was incredibly grateful. Here's a picture for you!

Back to my emotional roller coaster. I have made good/great/wonderful friends here in Paraguay who I've spent the last few weeks saying goodbye to. We've gone out for ice cream, slept outside in the rain, gone out to eat, talked for hours, and the time has flown by. I had my last despedida "asado" (really good barbeque)today (well, not counting tomorrow at the airport). About 18 of us went to our friend Belen's house and hung out for a few hours after church. Before we ate, Eduardo asked everyone to tell me what I've meant to them during my time here and share one deseo/desire for my life. It was one of the most special times of my entire life, as I listened to each friend talk about our time together. They encouraged me and made me feel so LOVED! More than anyone, though, I'm going to miss my best Paraguayan friend EVER, Natalia.

Even writing this is making me teary-eyed!! yikes! She has been the friend that has counseled me through difficult times, understood my intensity, grown with me spiritually and shared her little apartment with me almost every weekend. She probably won't read a word of this blog either, because the only 2 words she knows in English are "really" and "somewhere". Random, but true. But she's been God's gift to me here in Paraguay, and I'm going to miss her SOOOO MUCH!!! She's coming to the airport tomorrow to see me off, and i'll tell you right now, there are going to be some waterworks.

So this was my last post from Paraguay. I'm heading out to Ecuador in a week to learn about a ministry in Guayaquil. I'll let you know how that goes when I get back! Thank you for accompanying me throughout my year in Paraguay. I hope to continue using this blog to keep you updated on whatever happens next!

How to Survive a Paraguayan Summer

2009-11-04T20:31:00.002-05:00

I have no idea. But to survive an intensely hot spring, here's what I have...

#1. Take upwards of 4 showers per day:

a) take them in a bathing suit and just continually return to the shower

b) don't, and I repeat, DON'T dry off. This defeats all purposes of the cooling down process.

#2. Cover with water

a) besides yourself, cover the floor with water

b) sprinkle water over the bed and turn your fan on high; this creates a cool surface on which to sleep.

#3. In case of power shortage

a) go outside

b) lay on the floor/ground, preferably with as little clothes as possible; heat rises

#4. Do not touch anyone, under any circumstances. Regardless of when their last shower was, full body sweat generally returns to the body seconds after leaving the spray of the shower. Air hugs and air kisses are accepted and encouraged forms of salutation.

#5. Drink cold water. Eat ice cream (or rather, drink ice cream since it melts upon contact with air).

Birthday Friends

2009-10-30T09:00:00.003-04:00

I (Erin) am back! That last post was written by Bobby, who was here in Paraguay for 5 weeks. He left on Wednesday, we did 6 more programs, and we are now FINISHED with Tekove! It's a very strange feeling. Everything's coming to a close!
If you are not on my email list, let me give you the rundown. I had my 2nd Paraguayan Birthday party last Saturday, and that was really fun. Birthday's are a big deal here, and I received so many wonderful messages from friends. My friends from the Red (picture #1) also prayed for me and my future, which was really special.

Picture #2 is the first crowd that came to the party, but many of them had to leave early. This picture also only shows 3 of the 10 Germans who were there. I was sung Happy Birthday in SO

many languages!!

Picture #3 is round 2 of guests. 2 of them came with a car, so this group was able to stay later since they didn't have to worry about taking a bus late at night.

On Sunday, we went out for Bobby's "Despedida" (Going away party). I just thought I'd throw up another picture of my bestest friend in Paraguay!! (Natalia, in the purple)

And finally, picture #5 is God's little coincidence for me. This little girl was at our LAST Tekove show, wearing, not a uniform like most kids, but a Guayaquil tshirt- the city that I'm going to in Ecuador. I've NEVER seen someone with a Guayaquil tshirt on here, or anywhere for that matter. Of all the cities, countries, places in the world, and days to choose to not wear her uniform, this girl wore her Guayaquil shirt on my last day of Tekove as I pray to go to a new ministry in Guayaquil, Ecuador. Pretty cool.

Bobby's Adventures in Paraguay: A Summary

2009-10-26T14:26:00.003-04:00

My days in Paraguay have almost come to an end. It’s Monday afternoon, I leave Wednesday morning at 10 am and will be back home by 7 am Thursday. Lonnnnggg layover in Brazil. A lot of you probably read my last post, which I had originally intended to be the first in a series of 5 weekly posts. For those of you who know me, you are most likely are aware of my very “strict” work ethic, and can probably guess why this is my only other post. So it’s been an amazing five weeks. It really did fly by just like all of you said it would, and I kinda wish I could stay longer (and am definitely gonna miss the friends I’ve made here), but at the same time I am so excited to get home and see everyone (and text. Ohhhhhh. I get to text. I’m making my dad bring my phone to the airport when he picks me up. Seriously.). I was so mad, Wednesday night I said to myself, “y’know, two weeks at pine bush and I feel like I’ve got the bubonic plague. It’s been five weeks and I haven’t gotten sick yet. Awesome!” Guess what happened Thursday morning? I got pretty sick but luckily it was on a weekend so I didn’t miss any shows. And on the upside, mostly thanks to Kasey’s emergen-c, Dayquil and the stomach medicine Bagpipes drove me to get (loveyou), I’m still alive. So, you know. That’s a plus. Anyway, I’ve had a lot of really cool experiences here that I never could’ve imagined happening while at home. I’ve had to cook my own food almost every night,

which is almost always a hot dog or some sort of sausage. I have no problem with it, except for the fact that you need to grease the pan with oil. I try and use as little as possible, but the pan is dented and is almost a bowl so all of the oil just pools into the bottom and I wind up deep frying everything I cook without even trying. Everything is fried here. Caramel on bread for breakfast, fried fried fried for dinner. My roommate, Samuel, makes something called “Tortilla,” which is just egg, flour, salt and water, but then he deep fries it. I can’t lie, it is amazing. I also got to go to the grand opening ceremony of his church, which is built to hold 15,000 people, comfortably. It is insane. They had TWO jumbotrons, a 68 person chorus (yes, I counted), a huge band and a special singer flown in from Miami. When people applauded it sounded like Jeter just hit a grand slam. It was ridiculous. There were small children holding flags, people dancing in white masks and ripping signs that said “pornography,” Paraguayan flags everywhere, Brittany Spears-style dance routines and to top it all off, my favorite part, the ribbon cutting ceremony. First, the head pastor and his wife went up to the stage and everyone got real quiet so they could pray and anoint the pulpit with oil. As soon as everyone is so quiet you could hear a pin drop, one of the members of the band drops his huge cello and makes a loud noise that echoes throughout the stadium (or “church,” as some would call it), distracting everybody. Afterwards, the pastor and his wife both grabbed an end of the ribbon which was tied in a bow attached to two posts. They walked in opposite directions and…(here it comes)…. fireworks. FIREWORKS. FIREWORKS shot out of the posts the ribbon was attached to and out of the sides of the pulpit. I’m sorry. But that was just over the top. No offense Kurt, I love your church, but you don’t have fireworks. Actually, Valley could use some. I could totally see Mrs. Bisworm organizing a full pyrotechnic display. I’ve also been really loving Erin’s church.

There’s a big group of 18-30 year olds and they all go out to lunch after church and hang out together.

They immediately took me in as part of the group, and I’m really happy for it. They’re a lot of fun. I went on a trip with them my second week and we went horseback riding

and played volleyball, it was one of the best times I’ve had here. Last night I took a bus (by myself! I know!) an hour away to a supermarket for a HUGE Bible conference. One of my friends from the church, Sandra, forced me to go. It was a good time, I made it there without any problems, except I had to stand up on the bus the entire ride. The conference had a lot of singing and really good speakers. I think. They were reading Jeremiah 32. I was reading 2 Corinthians. I’ve mastered the subtle art of pretending to pay attention in Church while actually just reading the Bible. I don’t understand anything, so it’s either Bible it up or fall asleep. (C’mon. You all know you do it. There’s a boring speaker, you can’t talk to your friends, so you just bust out Revelations and give it another shot. Maybe THIS time you’ll actually understand something.) But the people there were all friends from church and are all really friendly and all want me to come back, I told them I’d see what I could do. The programs have been…well…the programs. It’s the same one all the time. I’ve got a good amount of it memorized, and every once in a while I feed Erin or Ben a line in case they’re stuck. My Spanish has gotten SO much better, I can almost carry on a semi-decent conversation (with a six year old). But seriously, I can actually talk to people and ask questions now, except the conjugation is always wrong but I don’t care, let them figure it out. The people I talk to the most are the kids that live at the orphanage next door to me. The woman who runs it made me come over during one of the worst thunderstorms I’ve seen, just cause the kids wanted me to. She told me if I came back, I could sleep in one of the bunk beds. One time, they were having a birthday party for one of the girls and I was invited over and given cake. I saw one of the girls reading the Bible and gave her a few verses and she said she wanted to know more good ones, so I ran to my room and made up a list of all salvation verses (john 3:3, eph 2:8-9, rom 10:9-10 and such). Even today they call me over with really good questions. It’s kind of cool to do some witnessing outside of the Tekove programs. And it’d be REALLY cool to find out that the kids next door had accepted Christ. Speaking of Tekove, I couldn’t even begin to count how many programs we’ve done or how many Bibles we’ve handed out. I really love giving out the Bibles with Erin, you can just tell the kids don’t usually have brand new books like this, and they really, really appreciate it. They get so excited when we walk in with a box and Erin says, “We have a gift for you.” We pray every day that the kids read them and really take something from them. We had one school where a 17 year old girl had committed suicide the previous week, so we decided not to perform but the principal and Ben asked me to give my testimony to the 16-18 year olds in one of the classrooms. It was really sad, we spent the next few days mentioning the girl’s friends and family in our prayers. I also got to give my testimony at Erin’s church, a lot of my friends there wanted me to so I didn’t have much of a choice. We’ve been having bible studies every Thursday night at the building where Samuel and I live. We sing A LOT, usually in English and Spanish and sometimes German, we had a Brazilian missions team visit so we sang in Portuguese. That was the most fun night, because I got to play the bongos, haha. Yeah, so, all in all this trip has been amazing. Before I got here, I was still trying to do things by myself. After spending a ridiculous amount of time reading the Bible (we have around 5 hours of free time a day with no tv or anything, not including weekends or days where we don’t have programs. And I finished all of the books I brought by Wednesday of week 3) I’ve learned that there really isn’t any way to do anything on my own. I’ve become a lot more comfortable going to God for everything, something I would totally suggest if you don’t do it already. It really helps you stop worrying (Mt 6:27-Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?) about things and gives you peace, knowing that it’s all being taken care of by someone who definitely knows what’s best for you. It’s taken my distant, “He’s God, He’s out there” idea of Him and changed it to “He’s God. He’s right here.”(Deut 31:8- The LORD himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.) It’s helped me realize that no matter how far away I stray, I can always come back, and also how much it hurts him and how bad it is for me to stray and go back to disgusting, sinful habits (2 Pet 2:20-22- If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning. ²¹It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them. ²²Of them the proverbs are true: "A dog returns to its vomit,"^f]">and, "A sow that is washed goes back to her wallowing in the mud.”) Most of all, it’s made me realize that no matter how bad if a time you’re having or how depressed, downtrodden and completely broken-down you are, there’s always something better to think about (Rom 8:18- For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us). As I bring this post to a close, I’d just like to say that how much this trip has changed my perspective on so many important issues and how much it has changed my life for the better. I worry about whether or not I’ll be able to keep this up once home, but I know that with the ridiculous support of Valley and everyone else (and God, obviously) I won’t have too hard a time. I’ve also received many reports of people fervently praying for me and I’d really just like to let you know that I have been and will be praying for all of you, and to say thank you. Your support has meant so much and has really helped get through some of the rough patches. I love looking at comments on my blog from random people I never would’ve expected to read it, or messages on Facebook that are just out of the blue. They really are awesome. I also want to take this opportunity to thank Ben and Ruth. I’m not sure if they’ll even be able to read this, but they are such a blessing to this area and are touching so many lives here. The kid’s love the program and I really pray they are actually getting something out of the message, which Ben and Ruth work so hard to get across. If you actually read this far (this one, I think, is longer than the other post) I just ask that you pray for Ben and Ruth and the entire Tekove ministry to get a team for next year and just for the overall message they are trying to spread throughout Paraguay, that Christ died on the cross for OUR sins and the only way to God and Heaven is through belief, accepting and placing our trust in Him. I ask that you pray for Erin and Samuel, as they have taken an entire year of their lives and dedicated it to living here and serving this ministry and are now packing up and going home, leaving behind many close friends and good memories, and to pray for guidance for them as to what they can do now to serve the Lord. Most of all I ask you to pray for the kids. I’ve finally seen the neighborhoods Erin was talking about and she wasn’t exaggerating. Some of these people have entire families living in one room houses made out of plywood and supermarket advertisements. I saw a kid today doing math on the inside of a cigarette carton because that was all he had. They really need your prayers, and also pray that they are using the Bibles we have given them to share the Gospel with their entire family. Thank you for reading this far, I look forward to seeing everyone, and don’t worry Mary –Beth. I won’t let a little 5 week trip to a country 7,000 miles away where I wake up every morning at 6 am affect me being on time for the early meeting this Sunday. Because I KNOW I will be getting a text.

Praying for you, God bless-

Pakova

(P.S.-Ivan. Ok. In my 5 weeks, I’ve only seen one toilet where the water rotates when flushed. It went counter-clockwise. I hope this brings you some peace in your life.)

(P.P.S.-DUDE. THE FROGS HERE ARE HUGE. Pine bush ain’t got nothin on these things. This could literally attack and devour Charlie, Marie and the entire nature patch class.)

Biblias!

2009-10-16T16:44:00.002-04:00

Hey! We've been giving out Bibles! Every 6th grader in Limpio (roughly 2,000) are receiving a color, comic book style New Testament. Here are the the happy recipients from Nino Jesus China!

Pray that they all READ them!

China and a Good Weekend

2009-10-11T13:55:00.007-04:00

“What happened to your face?”

“Un machete.”

Not the answer you expect a 10 year old to give you.

On Friday we went to Nino Jesus China! Yes, if you’ve been following the blogs, this is where we’re going to give out the gift bags to the students. We didn’t give them out yet, due to many different kinds of complications (broken down cars, dishonest mechanics,

inconvenient supermarkets, unhelpful managers…) but we WILL bring them. I told the principal of the school about the bags and she was so grateful. She said, “I know there are other schools that are just as poor as we are, but thank you for thinking of us.” That’s just an example of how amazing this woman is, and what a joy it is to be able to do something for her school.

As she was talking with us, she showed us how the school is responsible for teaching morals to the students that they don’t learn at home. We saw a girl that was separated from her grade because she was being punished for stealing. She stole an apple. L So sad.

I LOVE going to that school. The kids all ran to hug me, practically unable to wait until I got out of the car. Then the “hug” grew so big that I lost all balance and practically fell on top of 20 kids. I’m excited to go back and give out the bags!

Saturday, I went to Asuncion with 3 of my German friends. And, let me tell you. German friends are good to have. They like to eat and they like to eat well! First things first. It was HOOOOOT and we were hungry. Obvious remedy being ice cream of course. I directed us to a ice cream place that I’d been to last year with my friend from Switzerland (see post from last October). It was a serve yourself place, and instead of choosing the little personal ice cream cups, my friends each chose the take-ice-cream-home-for-your-families container, and we each filled it with incredibly yummy ice cream and toppings. While we consumed our bounty, we returned outside to a concert in the park. Then we walked over to a German bakery and had us some delicious bread. What a great afternoon.

Oh but it doesn’t end there. I dropped the Germans off at their bus, and then I walked to Eduardo’s house for the red. We’ve just began a new study on God’s will and we had INTENSE discussions. They were awesome: included lots of yelling and flailing arms. Just the way I like it.

I can’t believe I only have about a month left here in Paraguay. I plan to enjoy every moment of it, and this weekend, I did exactly that.

Mariano on the Bus

2009-10-03T21:26:00.006-04:00

We met Mariano from Buenos Aires, Argentina on the bus. My friend Miriam and I were coming home from Asunción and talking to each other in English, when the guy in front of us turns around and asks us where we're from. It was a well-lit bus, there were 2 of us, and he was just a really friendly guy, so stop being worried about me. He soon came to find out that the 2 beautiful girls that he wanted to talk to were also missionaries and wanted to challenge him about his relationship with his Creator.

I have conflicting emotions about how easy I find it to talk to complete strangers, in Spanish, about their relationship with Jesus. I'm much more intimidated to talk to strangers about Jesus in English. It's even more intimidating to talk to non-Christian friends. Do complete strangers talk to my friends about the hope that comes in a relationship with Christ? I hope so!!

When I asked Mariano about his own relationship with God, and he said that he'd think about God someday. I told him that someday should be TODAY and that John, in the Bible, would be a good place to start. Yesterday, I was reading about God's perfect timing in the book of Esther. Everything, absolutely EVERYTHING, worked out in God's perfect timing in chapter 6. God's in control of the little details. In Esther's time, Haman always seemed to be right where God wanted him. I hope Mariano can look back to his conversation with the girls on the bus and open his Bible tonight, since "now is the day of salvation" (2 Corinthians 6:2).

(Photo from Buenos Aires last year)

My First Week in Paraguay! By Bobby

2009-09-25T17:52:00.005-04:00

Greetings from Paraguay! This is Bobby, Erin's newest Tekove companion. My name's actually Bobby/Boebby/Paco/Pakova. I started as Bobby, but the kids couldn't pronounce it and called me Barbie. And Boebby (long o) turned into Bobo which is a dumb person. I told Ben my middle name is Frank, so he turned that into Francisco for which Paco is the shorter version. Paco sounds like Pakova. In Guarini, the native language of Paraguay, Pakova means Banana. So we finally settled on Pakova, AKA Banana. (Such a CSSM-name story). The kids love it, they yell it the whole show and when we're leaving, or even when we see them around town. It's so funny. There are only two schools in the entire city of Limpio that Tekove doesn't do shows for, so we see the kids around alot. Anyway, I'm a product of Ashley's presentation at the Bush! So I got to Paraguay last friday, the 18th. Wow. This week flew by. Living without my phone hasn't been as difficult as I thought it'd be. I miss being able to tell someone something *instantly* but so far I've been ok. I just read, ALOT. I thought I had brought too many books, but nope. Not enough. I'm almost done with "Worldliness!" It's as good as everyone else who read it said it was. And thank you, whoever highlighted things. You guys know whats best for me muchhhh better than I do, so I took the notes to heart. Mary-beth and Deb have supplied around half of the books for this trip, so this is a shout-out/thank you to them. I'm also hitting the Bible pretty hard. I'm cheating and using my "Bible in 90 days" notecard for only the New Testament. I should, if all goes according to plan, finish it in 20 days. Basically, the only bad part of not having a phone is never knowing the time or what day it is. I usually just guess. I live in the Base, its a big building meant for like 40 people, but I share it with one guy, Samuel. He's pretty awesome, and when he isn't doing Tekove he lives in Paraguay, where he also teaches English. So alot of the time he is helping me say things in Spanish. After one week, I've been doing pretty well, I've started "thinking" in Spanish, like numbers and simple sentences and such. It's fun. We make our own breakfast and dinner on an old stove. For breakfast they have Dulce de Leche. It's pretty much caramel for your toast. Needless to say, I've been enjoying my fair share of it. Empanadas too. I've had around 2 a day since I've arrived. They're just fried amazing. The ice cream is good too. I like Passion fruit (mburucaya) and Coconut. It costs around 60 cents. I love this place. So anyway, I had a great first weekend pretty much taking in Paraguay, then Monday rolled around. The first program. We rehearsed it Monday morning because we only do afternoon shows on Mondays. I have one line in Spanish, it's in the memory verse. "Y yo le pedire al Padre." I have yet to mess it up too badly. We do the same show, every day, usually 6 times a day. For 5 weeks. Thats 150 of the same shows (if it doesn't rain. Yeah, rain here is like snow for us. They don't have school if it's raining. It's nuts.) It's pretty much some sick Beach Mission groundhog day. But it's just really cool. There's a trick for the kids that Benji does (Erin always says Ben is a Spanish Vic. I would totally agree, but he's also got an immense amount of Bumbles in him. I actually relate him to the main character from the movie Life is Beautiful. He's so goofy, I love it.) They do a memory verse, a puppet show, a dance at the end, it's like watching Beach Mission on Telemundo. I'm loving it. The kids don't get a chance to hear the Gospel like we do. It kinda makes you realize how much we take it for advantage. They really enjoy the show and it seems like they really get the Message. It's awesome when the puppets are praying (yeah.) and you look up and see the kids praying too. And the Bibles. They LOVE the Bibles. (I do too. Mostly the "stamping" and "stuffing" of the Bibles. Which means stamping the Tekove symbol and putting a small letter from us into the Bibles. Altogether they had 8,000. I was bored one day and stamped and stuffed 3 boxes with Samuel and 11 by myself. Thats 1400 Bibles. Yeah, I was that bored. But don't expect me to do this kind of work at home. Once I land back on american soil, my work ethic should probably go back out the window. Don't get your hopes up, Valley. Back to the story:) I have to keep them in the box when I walk to the 6th grade classrooms because if I don't, all the younger kids attack me for them. But the 6th graders really appreciate them. It's so awesome. And they all love the American boy. It's hilarious. One school learned I was ticklish, so I had around 12 kids chasing me around a futbol (I know, it's soccer. But I feel like if I type "soccer" a random Paraguayan will come up and kick me.) field, grabbing my shirt and holding me back so they could tickle me. Erin didn't have a chance to get her camera but all the teachers saw it and were laughing. Last night we had a small group meeting with Erin, Ben, Samuel and 3 German women who are here doing other projects. We sang ALOT, even some songs in Spanish. Very cool. Ben asked me to give my testimony, so I did, which really set the stage for the next day (today). Today was especially awesome because I was asked to talk to the morning set of 9th graders (with Samuel translating), because apparently they had been having alot of problems with drugs. I told them a brief version of my testimony and how terrible drugs are and how much havoc they can wreak on your life, intertwined with (what I hope was) a really clear Gospel message. I even used the "Good News" bracelet! Like I said, they don't get much of a chance to hear the Gospel, and apparently they don't really listen to anyone but they have a special connection with Tekove because they've been seeing Ben's programs since they were in 1st grade. At the end we gave them all Bibles and it just felt awesome. You could tell there were some who were legitimately listening and taking the Gospel to heart. It really worked out, too, because the first school cancelled on us, so we had alot of extra time to talk to the older kids. Too cool to be a coincidence. We usually have friday afternoons off, but Ben asked if we could go back so I could talk to the 8th graders of the afternoon (the schools here have 2 sets of kids, morning school kids and afternoon school kids. some only come in the morning, some only in the afternoon, kinda self explanatory.) We went and the Director (principal) told Ben that this class, on top of drugs, had some problems with suicide. So we went in, I gave a more in-depth version of my testimony, and again told the kids that no matter how terrible of a person you were, nothing is bad enough to negate fact that Christ died for your sins. For some of them, it may have been the first time they'd ever heard this. It just feels so amazing to share the Gospel with these kids and know you may actually be making a serious impact in their lives. Both times I quoted Romans 5:8 "But God demonstrates His own love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us." or Romanos 5:8 "Pero Dios demuestra su amor por nosotros en esto: en que cuando todavia eramos pecadores, Cristo murio por nosotros." It was awesome to have some of them come up to me afterwards to ask where to find the verse in the mini-bibles we had given them. I also signed autographs. When I was done talking to them, I asked them to ask me questions. I wanted to know what these kids think about! They had some really good questions, and I just kept driving home the fact that no matter how bad you are, He still wants a relationship with you. Pinebush/Awana/CSSM have trained me well. Erin keeps sneezing, I think that means she wants to go get food. So I'm wrapping this up, hopefully you had a fun hour reading this long post. I can pretty much say anything I want right now because I don't think anyone has enough free time in their day to read this far into a blog. I do the same with the kids, because they don't speak English. Look them right in the eyes and say, "I have no idea what you're saying. I don't speak Spanish. I can say anything I want and you'll just smile because you have no idea what I'm saying either, it's okay." haha I look forward to seeing you all again, your lives will return to normal on October 25th, and hopefully I can blog between now and then to keep you updated. I've got a pretty decent prayer list going and alot of the people reading this will be on it, I also ask that you keep the kids here and the program in your prayers. Thank you, God bless, and see you soon!

(P.S.: Ivan, dude. I haven't eaten rice and beans yet. Haven't even seen it. Oh! and I'm sorry, but the toilets don't flush clockwise OR counterclockwise. They just go straight down. I don't want to let you down, though. I'll make sure to check every one I come across and keep all my findings in a scientific journal. This research could change modern science as we know it.)

Project China

2009-08-31T19:09:00.006-04:00

SWAM (Socks With a Mission) had a successful end. I gave out the last of the socks on a cold day to a lot of barefoot kids. When they heard I was giving out socks, a lot of kids from the neighboorhood ran over (in bare feet) to get some. My rule was that they had to actually put the socks on in my presence so that I knew they'd actually use them, and not sell them!

Today I got an email from a friend from high school, asking how she and some friends could get involved and help out some of these kids. It's really fun to be able to help people in need, but I've found that it can also be very difficult. If you give to too many people, everyone believes that they are entitled to what you are giving and those who don't receive, get angry. Also, I like to know that the people actually need and want what I'm giving, and not turn around and sell it to someone else.

Project China

See that classroom? That's luxury compared to Nino Jesus China. They don't have real walls. Just some cardboard that the kids have painted. Read "Tears" for more info on the kids situation. Project China will make 120 gift bags for the kids in this school. We want to put together bags of non-perishable foods, toothbrushes, toothpaste, toilet paper, soap, etc for every kid in the school. Here's how YOU can be involved, if you'd like:

1) You can drop things off at my house between Sept 9-17

*but please keep airplane weight limits in mind...

(washcloths are preferable to shampoo bottles)

2) You can send a check to CMML with my name in the memo.

(If you send a check to CMML, know that I will recieve all the money, but please send me a note on my blog or email to let me know that you want the money specifically used for Project China)

P.O. Box 13, Spring Lake, NJ 07762

Tears

2009-08-23T21:56:00.002-04:00

On Friday, we went to one of my favorite schools: Nino Jesus China. We call it "China" because there are 3 other Nino Jesus's: Nino Jesus Conovi (Conovi is the neighboorhood), Nino Jesus Pie (foot, because the director stomped on Benji's foot when he didn't greet her properly) and Nino Jesus Luz, becuase they didn't have any light/electricity for a long time. I named Nino Jesus China because I thought the Taiwan flag was Chinese and because it's so far away it might as well be in China. OK big tangent. The point is, I love this humble school. And the director loves her school too. After we did our presentation, she came up to us with tears in our eyes, to tell us her pain and struggles as the director of this school. The kids are very poor. Many don't come to school with any food. Many sell little candies to make money for their families. One family has twin little girls. One girl gets up at 4:00 in the morning to organize the sales for the day. That girl gets to go to school. The other sells candies on the street. The next day they switch. They told the school that they were one girl. Other kids come to school in a canoe because another school has kicked them out. On their way, they cut down plants that grow by the river, and sell them for tiny amounts of money. Some days, their boat flips, and they come to school soaked. Another kid had cuts all over his face, and the director told us that he was kicked by a horse. He washes horses: $1 per horse. He looked about 10 years old. Kids come to school smelly and dirty and hungry; but their teachers give them love. One teacher walks an hour to school because she doesn't have enough money for the bus (50 cents). Many schools in Limpio are recieving bread and milk from the government, but, even though the director is fighting and fighting, the truck doesn't want to come out to "China". Pray for Nino Jesus China; that the kids will get enough food to fill their bellies, and be taken care of by their parents.

Diapers, Bananas, and Fun Weekends

2009-08-16T18:02:00.001-04:00

Wow. Where did I last leave you? Ah yes, swine flue. I'm happy to report that everything is pretty much back to normal. We're in the middle of our 4th program where we're talking about sin and forgiveness. How else to do that than by using a freshly made poopy diaper, asking a kid to smell it, and then say, "that's what our sin is like!" We also make kids smash bananas in each others' faces, and then make them forgive each other. Beautiful! It's really amazing to be able to talk about sin and Jesus' forgiveness in all of the schools! At the end of the program, we even pray with them, and I like to sneak a peak and see which of the hundreds of kids seem to be seriously talking with God during this time. Many are! Pray for us!!

Weekends have been busy and fun. 2 weekends ago, I went to the Red retreat.

It's crazy to believe that exactly 1 year earlier, I went to this same camp with the same people (but i couldn't really talk to many people or understand most of what was going on around me. This year was a BIG improvement). It was an awesome weekend. There were probably about 60 of us- I think EVERY friend I have in Paraguay was there. It was awesome! The theme of the retreat was "Entrega Absoluta", like, "Give it all up". The music was really really fun and well done. We stayed up late playing lots of crazy games and drank lots of "mate" (a cultural loose tea that you drink through a shared straw... wonderful for building imune systems) cause it was really really cold!

Some amigas from church

Natalia, ?, Diana, Anita

(I sleep at Natalia's house every weekend)

lunch time

This weekend, was the 72nd anniversary of my church here in Asuncion. The weather changed just for our weekend, and the sun is hot, the mosquitos are biting and my loose fitting, coolest possible clothing is coming back! I packed up my stuff and headed into Asuncion for the weekend. At 9:00am Sat morning, we were practing with the music team. We played for HOURS and it was really fun. I sang 2 solos by Chrystal Lewis: "El Cordero y el Leon" The Lion and the Lamb and "A Dios Sea la Gloria" To God be the Glory. She definately has a different style than me, but it was fun to be challenged to sing these songs. I think I did well, cause my friend told me that I made Chrystal Lewis sound like a "poroto"- a bean.

Now I'm off for Sunday night tradition w/Ruth: Guacamole, salsa, chips and Gilmore Girls!

La Gripe A

2009-07-28T17:44:00.002-04:00

Kids with "tapa bocas"

Remember back a few months ago when everyone was pretty concerned about the swine flu? Well, we finally agree that it's a big deal down here in South America. Schools were canceled last week to help fight off new infections and now that school has started again, everyone is being very cautious. Since we go into ever school in Limpio, we get to see their different techniques. 1 school sprays every kid with disinfectant hand gel every 40 minutes. Another school takes each child's temperature before entering the school. A principal of another school welcomes every incoming child, teacher, or Tekove member with "are you sick?". All the schools send home any students with runny noses or any other hint of a cold. (This made my 2 sneezes during my conversation with Pedro-the Puppet very embarrassing!!)

We're doing our part with puppets, too. Pedro won't give me a kiss or a high five at the end of our conversation because of "La Gripe AH1N1 (pronounced Ah-a-che-uno-e-ne-uno)".

SWAM update

I gave out the last of the socks today. 180 kids may have warmer feet tonight. --very important considering it's been veeeeeeeeeery cold lately! The 2 pairs of pants I'm wearing at the moment are just 1 indication...

Tired of a Toilet?

2009-07-19T17:47:00.005-04:00

I'm so sorry that I've had a bathroom post up for so long! I'm really just waiting for some inspiriational material to upload to you interested readers. And my other excuse is that since my computer died about a month ago, I can't upload any new pictures... only pictures that i take with the camera on this computer...

Life in Paraguay... WINTER VACATION! That's right all of you who think it's summer all over the world. Think again! Some days, it's cold here! Other days, I can sit out in the sun (or in the hammock) reading a book. can't complain. **Highly reccommend "Hadassah- One Night With the King" Story of Esther**

But don't worry, i'm not just sitting on my butt. We are working! We've prepared all of our next program- all about sin and forgiveness. Good stuff!

I've also met a lot of Americans. They're invading Paraguay!!! It's funny to be living here and have groups of Americans come for a week or 2. I'm glad they come, it's just interesting to be here and see the interactions. I translated for a group helping out at a Baptist church on Friday night. That was a fun, but difficult experience! It's a weird mind game to hear in one language and change it into something more or less comprehensible and keeping the same meaning in another language. **Jose- You do this EVERY WEEK in your church! SO TIRING!!**

It's All Perspective

2009-07-09T14:19:00.005-04:00

So my last post promised some bathroom talk. I'll get to that. First I'm going to talk about perspective.

#1. I'm walking down the middle of the road and I think, "ah man, I have to move to the side to make way for the car." That's not a normal thought, Erin.

#2. Same road. I stop to get a closer look at a herd of sheep that are hanging out doing their thing (eating grass- for those of you who don't know what sheep's thing is these days). Huh. Sheep are dirty. I'm wearing a wollen scarf. hmmm

#3. Brr! it's cold out! Oh wait, I'm smack in the middle of winter, it's been 70 degrees for the past 4 days and today, when it drops into the 50's, I'm desperate for my sweatshirt and cup of tea!

#4. Back to the

bathrooms. When my wonderful visitor Ashley was here, we discovered how quickly (thank You Lord) that our perspective changes. After returning from a bathroom visit in a school, I asked her how it was. She replied, "Good!" Then she said, "well, good meaning that the door closed, their was a light and the toilet flushed." That about sums up a "good" bathroom. We do not EVER expect toilet paper. A sink is not a must. I just don't like it when the door won't close all the way and I'm in plain view of the entire school. Worse, is, a murky brown floor with a door that DOES close all the way, yet the light is broken and you're in pitch blackness- at which point you do business with the door open, in need of the stream of light from outside. Rule #1- NEVER breath through your nose! I keep my Purell on hand and hope that it wars agains the swine flu that's now sweeping our southern South American countries.

pic- yucky floor, no doors, unflushable = bad

oh Paraguay...

2009-06-28T14:56:00.003-04:00

I came home to a rooster in my yard. Oh Paraguay.

Paraguay is a very small country. VERY. Let me explain.

When Ashley was here, we walked around the downtown market of Asuncion (capital of the country). Then as we left and wandered some random side streets of the city, a car stopped and someone yelled something. My general rule is "ignore everyone and look like you know where

you're going". Well when this person yelled my NAME, I paid attention and it was someone from my church. WEIRD!

Then Ashley and I decide to hop on a bus to get downtown quicker. The first one to come was #26. Sounds like a good #, we thought, and hopped on. After I pay the driver, someone taps me on the shoulder. Another general rule "ignore people who touch you on the bus", but it happened to be my best Paraguayan friend Natalia! CRAZY!

Now, 2 weeks later, I'm shopping at a store in Asuncion and I hear an American accent. I ask the big blond guy where he´s from, and he says Missouri. When he hears that I´m from NJ, he asks, ''Did you have a friend come visit you 3 weeks ago?" UMMMM why do you know my life? He met Ashley on the plane ride down to Paraguay from the US. REDICULOUS!

Be on the lookout for my next post: Buenos Bathrooms!

Entitlement

2009-06-24T17:23:00.004-04:00

Entitlement is bad, right? As Mary Beth points out ever so gently, "we really only deserve hell". We really can't feel entitled to anything, but we do. And we feel entitled to feel entitled. AHH!

Entitlement is disgusting, yet is there anyone who doesn't struggle with it? I think it comes in the form of

A) pride: I did such a great job that I deserve blah blah blah

B) self importance: I am the most important and should therefore get blah blah and blah

C) selfishness: I need blah blah and blah... Not you, because of.. see points A and B

Obviously, I've been confronted with this lately, so it's on my mind (ARGH and it makes me mad! Buth then again, imagine how God feels when he sees it in us all the time...). It's definately easier to see in other people (their speck, rather than my plank- Matt 7:3), but I guess it's good to identify in others so that I'm more aware of my own entitlement issues.

Thanks for reading my serious pensamientos!

2009-06-23T14:16:00.005-04:00

Here are some life in Paraguay pictures.

1) Rock/Paper/Scissors

2)SWAM (Socks With A Mission)

Today it's raining, so I thought I'd take advantage of a little time to upload some news. Ashley has left the country and I had a GREAT 3 weeks with her. We had programs every day, without ANY rain cancelations and she also helped me a lot with all of my worksheet counting. BESIDES all the work we did together, it was just really really fun to have her here! :)

**Wow-I'm-in-Paraguay Thought of the Day**

There's a guard at the supermarket entrance. He has a rifle bigger than my arm. Is that really neccessary?

Iguazu Waterfalls- Argentina

2009-06-15T20:17:00.004-04:00

I don't know where to begin in my description of my incredibly crazy fabulous weekend in Argentina. The Iguazu Falls are the largest waterfalls in the world- not the highest, but the most water flowing over them. The "Garganta del Diablo" or the "Devil's Throat" is the most powerful, beautiful, amazing creation of God that I've ever seen in my life. Here's a little run-down of my weekend with Ashley.

Thursday night- we catch a bus leaving for Encarnacion, Paraguay at 1:30 AM. 5 hours later, we arrive in Encarnacion, and hop on another bus to take us accross the Argentinian boarder (a bridge --about 10 minutes).

Argentina says, "You left Paraguay without an exit stamp. Go back and get it." So we go back to Paraguay and ask to leave. They stamp us and we go BACK to Argentina.
Argentina: we take a taxi to the bus terminal and hop on another bus that brings us the next 5 hours to Puerto Iguazu where the waterfalls are located. THIS bus, by the way, was the nicest bus i've ever been on in my life- seats layed almost all the way down with comfortable pillows and coffee and snacks. We were on the 2nd level too! very fun.
Next comes the hotel/hostel search. After a quick look at a skeevy place, we found a nice looking hostel for CHEAP and booked a private room for 2 nights. The cross-eyed, but amazingly helpful and nice hostel man told us where to change our money, and what to do on our first night in Puerto Iguazu.

We went to a crazy tree museum thing- very fun! then we went to Tres Fronteras (3 Frontiers) where Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil all meet in the same corner.

Next, yummy yummy italian dinner, booked jungle adventure tour for the next morning and hit the beds.

Wake up! Iguazu Falls time! Jungle 4x4 tour was fun, yet no monkey sightings. Next motor boat ride into the falls. Ashley and I were prepared with plastic bags for everything, extra shoes, and heavy duty ponchos. We were the only non-soaked passengers on that boat. (Let me remind you that it is WINTER down here in South America...)

Now time to explore on foot. Well, kinda. We found a natural bathroom. Then we explored the island in between Brazil and Argentina. We were stalked by two Brazilian men who turned out to be a famous Brazilian soccer player and his agent. We exercised the gift of tongues and actually understood their Portugese better than they understood our Spanish. Ahsley told them about Jesus and we subsequently lost them in the jungle.

The waterfalls were absolutely amazing. I can't describe them.
Back to our hostel at night. We walked around the town, meeting more Brazilians, understanding Portugese (WHAT?! yes! true!), eating more yummy yummy food and then went to bed.

We left Argentina at 7:30am and arrived home at 9:00pm. Argentina-Paraguay bus was lovely and beautiful (5 hours). Paraguay bus... well, let's just say that our frugality surfaced, and when we found a cheap bus was leaving immediately, we jumped on it. The 6 hour ride was.... umm not as comfortable: weird man stared at us for an obsene amount of time and the bus filled up with fat men who stuck their bellies in Ahsley's face for a few hours (she was on the asile and handled it with patience and grace!)

And that was my weekend! It's hard to believe that I've been to another country and back in just a few days. I really loved Argentina. The people were incredibly helpful and nice. We had no trouble communicating with anyone and I highly reccommend a trip to Iguazu Falls!

Socks and Love

2009-06-10T20:40:00.005-04:00

What a week! Not only is Ashely such a huge blessing to everyone on the team, she's updating my blog for me! woohoo! I'm getting a lot of work out of this girl! Great to have you here Ashely!

On Monday we went back to the Nueva Asentamiento that Ashley wrote about on her post. I was able to put Project Socks into action! So, we noticed that a lot of kids do not have socks, and it's getting COLD now. (see-your-breath-wear-4-layers-of-clothing COLD!) On Saturday, I bought 180 pairs of socks to start my project. My project consists of giving socks to kids who don't have any on their feet. At the Nueva Asentamiento, I literaly gave socks to every kid there. Today, I only found 1 sock-less nino and called him over to the pickup truck, "Hey kid, are your feet cold? Come here." I felt like I was smuggling drugs or something...

Yesterday, I started to feel sick and yucky. We got to one of the schools and I just laid down in the car, not wanting to move a muscle. My friends offered to cover my parts of the show, but I have some long lines that no one else has memorized, so I knew I had to do it. I stayed horizontal until it was absolutely starting time. When I walked over to our stage, the kids started clapping! WHAT?! It made me feel so loved to see that these kids cared that I was there! A gift of love when I wasn't feeling well...

Finding Joy in Unlikely Places =)

2009-06-05T22:30:00.005-04:00

Hi! My name is Ashley and I’ll be blogging on Erin’s page today! I’m from NJ, but Erin & Co. have graciously allowed me to serve in their Tekove Ministry for a few weeks. What a joy it is to be here in Paraguay! Although I’ve only been here for a few days, I had a difficult time deciding what to blog about. God is doing so many things through this ministry!

I decided to write about my visit to the school in Nuevo Asentamiento yesterday. This school is located in what American’s would call a shanty town. Due to the town’s poverty, this school seriously lacks resources, as evidenced by the classroom pictured above. (Yes, that is a classroom.) If your heart aches for these kids, take heart, because yesterday these kids got a top-notch presentation which brought a message of ‘Tekove’ or ‘Life’ to the asentamiento.

I’ve visited 9 schools with Erin and the team so far, and the students were most receptive at the Nuevo Asentamiento. They hung on to every word that came out of Pedro the Puppet’s mouth…and they were on the edge of their seat for the Good Samaritan drama. These kids aren’t always surrounded by the best role models, so I’m especially glad that we could come into their town and share God’s love and truth with them. I’m grateful that the presentation’s theme is a message that Jesus shares throughout the Gospels; God’s love enables us to love our friends and our enemies.

After the presentation, we had an opportunity to spend time with the kids and show them God’s love...and I was so encouraged by these kids. I couldn’t stop laughing! Erin and I were surrounded by kids who wanted to talk to us, hug us, and most of all…tickle us! I was tickled so hard by a group of kids that I collapsed to the ground. Their smiles are etched in my mind =) (And there smiles were captured in the picture below. That’s their school behind them!)

I thank God that He let me share at the Nuevo Asentamiento…the kids heard truth, I was blessed, and God was glorified.

Thanks for sharing in this moment with me!

Love from Paraguay,
Ashley

No Snow Days

2009-05-24T21:39:00.003-04:00

Did you ever think "oh those poor kids in South America. They don't get snow days." Well think again! We're heading into winter, and rain days make up for snow days. Rain=no school. Kids are programed from birth appartently to think that rain is dangerous. And, well, I guess it can be. I sat next to a 10 year old on the bus yesterday who told me that it was dangerous outside. Thinking we were passing through a rough neighboorhood full of bad guys just waiting to jump on the bus and take all my belongings, I asked, "why?" "The roads are wet," she replied. Ah yes. Hence the empty schools at the hint of rain.

I can't judge too harshly. I didn't go to church this morning. I woke up at 6:59, considered getting into the shower when my feet hit an inch of water on the floor and my newly awakened profile was illuminated by a crack of lightening. The rain continued to pour through the roof and my Paraguayan roommate convinced me to go back to bed. The peril of flooded streets and swaying electric lines keep sane people indoors. And life is just more complicated (and wet) without a car... Just 2 minutes ago I was comforted by her text message that reported 7 people in the church this morning. My piano playing wasn't missed by many!

Life in Paraguay

2009-05-22T15:51:00.002-04:00

Last weekend, a girl from the Red and my church was baptized. Here's a pic of all of us church/Red friends. Afterwards, we went to the mall for something to eat and then we couldn't find a bus home. We ended up taking 3 busses to get closer to Limpio, and then a taxi the rest of the way, arriving WAY too late to have energy for Tekove programs the next day. Oh well! It was an adventure!

Last weekend, Ruth and I went on a book hunt. The American Christian school in Asuncion was selling it's old books for 20 cents each, so Ruth wanted to suppliment her already huge library. We came back with 150 books- many of which are FAVORITES of mine from childhood: Boxcar Children, Babysitter's Club, American Girl (yes, British Ruth bought this for her daughter on my reccomendation)... We also got some good adult fiction and I already finished reading John Grisham's The Testament. It was great!!

Here's a picture of my church, for those of you interested.....

I was a little worried about electricution with that mic going into the baptismal!

My Video!

2009-05-15T07:35:00.005-04:00

Brrr! Paraguay just got cold! It's crazy to think that 3 days ago we were dripping sweat and now I'm snuggling into a sweatshirt. But it is kind of nice to smell the cold air and get out my jeans and long sleeved shirts.

I've finally finished my Tekove video! Take a look, and see a little bit of the daily events down here! It's 3 min and 55 sec! If you can't see the video here, go to www.youtube and search Tekove 2009 or my name: erinraeh

Cow, Chinchulin, Clinic, and a Close Call

2009-05-07T16:26:00.005-04:00

What a day! I'll start with the cow that used to live outside our front door....

He got mixed up with the bad crowd of dogs that live behind our house. Apparently the Doberman got loose and scared the cow right into a poll where he broke his neck. The owners had to then kill the cow and get it's meat (this is definitely bad news for the owners, because it was a Hollandes cow which gives about 25 liters of milk a day! very valuable!). For those of you farmers out there, a huge slab of bloody, bloody meet being wheelbarrowed across your yard isn't that big of a deal. Pretty disgustingly fascinating for me though. Then i got to see its lungs hanging over the fence. Then, I got to see the Paraguayan delicacy, "Chinchulin" being prepared. Those with queasy stomachs.. please skip to paragraph 2. "Grandma! You have cow poop all over your hands! That's gross!" said a little boy. I agree. She told them she was cleaning the chinchulin, which is apparently delicious! (I'll take their word for it, thank you very much.) She was methodically squishing the green poop out of the cow's intestines, and saving the intestines (chinchulin) for a nice treat. I don't have a picture for you... but picture lots of sausages strung together, and squeezing out the mushy insides of the sausages...

Gross stuff over! You can read again! On to the "clinic" part of today's post. We arrived at our first school of the afternoon, and after we had unloaded the truck and were preparing our stage, the school principal told Benji that they had an emergency. A girl had collapsed on the stairs, was unconscious and needed to be taken to the nearest medical facility. We all carried her, trying to wake her up as we climbed up into the bed of the truck. I sat in the back of the pickup with her and another teacher, and she did wake up enroute. We don't really know the cause of this attack, but it could stem from an overdose on pain medication that she may have taken just prior to coming to school. We're so thankful that we happened to be at that school right when she needed to be taken out for medical care. The only other vehicle at the school was a motorcycle, which would NOT be able to transport an unconscious teenager. Thank You Lord!

The "Close Call" was my run-in with a fan. Remember me mentioning that ceiling fans are basically helicopter propellers when they're set to their highest setting? Anything that's not properly secured flies away.... Well, during our rendition of the Good Samaritan, I become a vulture for about 2 seconds when I stand on a chair and flap my arms, looking like I want to devour the dying man in the story. Today, we happened to be inside a classroom, directly under a fan. When I stood on the chair and started to flap my arms, my hand hit the fan. My hand was fine, the fan was fine and I laughed (along with all the kids who saw the vulture hit her hand). Later, I found out that the fan was on the highest setting, and it's actually really really powerful. I must have hit my hand exactly at the right place on the fan so that it didn't break any bones or cut me at all! The principal told me that an angel must have pushed my hand right out of danger.

cows, clinics and a close call...

Now THAT'S an extension chord

2009-05-06T18:51:00.003-04:00

These are all the kids in a new little school in a developing area. See that one building with the roof? They've divided that into 2 rooms, and different grades meet in the morning and the afternoon: Kindergarten-4th grade.They don't have any electricity so we need to get it from the neighboors...

Do you see that white house

in the background? Do you see that house BEHIND that house? That's the

closest house we could find with electricty. 5 extension chords later (and we're talking big,

heavy-duty extension chords) we were able to reach our sound system!

Here's

a picture of my friends from the "Red de Universitarios y Profesionales Cristianos", or the "Red" for short. (Net of Christian University Students and Professionals, or the "Net" for short). Last friday was Labor Day, and we spent the whole day on the soccer field! :)

Does Jesus make YOU smile?

2009-05-01T20:19:00.003-04:00

Our kids definately smile as they hear about Jesus through fun dramas and silly puppets!

But the smile I'm thinking about was on the face of a heavily tatooed 24 year old. Last week, a few of us were walking from our church to celebrate a friend's birthday at his house. The heavily tatooed guy in the group started talking about how he's been given many opportunities to share his testimony recently. I turned to him and asked him when he trusted in Christ as his Savior.

He looked at me with the HUGEST grin that I've ever seen and exclaimed, "Hace 3 meses!!! Three months ago!!! I just had my birthday on the 25th!" He continued to tell me how much his life has DRASTICALLY changed. He said that life has not instantly gotten easy, but he now has joy and a purpose in life. He wants to make up for lost time, get his high school diploma, and most importantly, tell everyone what Jesus has done for him.

I saw him again today as we had an all day soccer tournament (My team ALMOST won!! grrr. I was the goalie and I loved it!!). He still had a big smile for everyone and seems to be involved in every church activity that presents itself (this was a soccer tournament for all the churches in the area).

Jesus makes big tough guys with tatoos smile.

Y tu?

THOUSANDS of kids

2009-04-24T19:40:00.005-04:00

My goal this week was to somehow invest in individual kids. This is so overwhelming for me when we see 700 kids in one day... but somehow, I was able to. At one school, the teenagers started to try out all their English on me while the younger adolescent girls were

just so affectionate and looking for attention. I was able to hang out with them in the few minutes before and after the program. The week ended with a school where the kids actually remembered my name! 5 weeks, after I had seen them, they remembered a wierd, foreign name! That's amazing!! (If they pronounce it "Eren" they can say it and remember it. "Erin" just produces confused, blank stares.)

Missionary Biographies: My other goal at the moment. Amy Carmichael

was incredible! I'm loving her so much! She was constantly on the move, never wasting any moment of her life to tell people about Jesus or help someone in need! Even on her long, treacherous boat rides to other countries, she formed Bible studies and people were saved. She lived with the people that she was trying to minister to, regardless of bugs, dirt and disease. I haven't even read about the ministry that she is famous for yet, but I'm so impressed by her!

Paterson's Preparation

2009-04-21T19:09:00.003-04:00

I was a teacher in Paterson. I know how to handle loud kids. Any of my kids out there reading this blog, I love you! But you can definately be LOUD! So, we learn some handy teacher techniques to quiet an insane, bouncing off the wall, I'm-going-to-scream-just-cause-it's-fun group of kids. Today I got to use those here in Paraguay! yay!! It was our last school of the day. The kids were tired and wired. Excitment=Loud for those of you not too familiar with kids. And today we had the luxury of being under a roof... which means the sound was amplified! At one point, the kids were just NOT listening to my conversation with the Pedro the Puppet, so I put down the mic and tried to do that special clap we did in Paterson to get the kids attention. The kids had no idea what I was doing, and in their confusion, stopped talking! Mission accomplished.

A List

2009-04-19T17:21:00.006-04:00

I made myself a list. I love lists. I kept thinking about things to write about in my blog. Some are serious, some are not!

Ruth told me, "This school is very poor,; the kids may not even have shoes." She was right. The kids loved the presentation, and some middle school age girls came and talked to me after the show. That was great too!
Ben was asked to talk about the true meaning of Easter at this school! The head teacher said that her students did not know what Easter was about and asked Ben to explain it to her class! What an awesome opportunity!
Good Friday- we had a barbeque (called ASADO here) and ate outside. There was a lot of yummy food!
Speaking of yummy... German iced coffee! My German friend offered me some while I was at her house and they use ice cream instead of ice. I think that is a GREAT idea.
I got my hair cut. It was a great experience all around. The "peluqueria" is on the corner of our street. I had a great conversation with the woman cutting my hair (all about Jesus!), I love the cut that she gave me, and it only cost $2.80, including tip!
Our new program is called "Amigos Ayudan". The program is for kids, but I'm learning from it every day. Why can it be so difficult to help someone out? It's much easier to think about what I want... and not initially think about the needs of someone else.
Today I was sooooo smart. Bus #44 goes directly in front of my church. Why do I always take #24 that my Paraguayan friend told me to use, when it makes me walk 4 blocks uphill? TODAY Bus #44 came and I hopped on! No walking for me! Yeah. no walking. an hour and 15 minutes later =( that's a half hour longer than the #24. not so smart afterall...

Can you really complain?

2009-04-13T17:26:00.006-04:00

I know what goes on in the teachers' room. Yup. I taught public school for 2 years, and we teachers can complain about what we don't have and what we're expected to do with it. Sometimes, those complaints are completely valid. Definately. Not enough paper, not enough chairs, too many students in the classroom... and you expect the students to pass the state test?! ;)

Well, I must admit, after being in every school in Limpio, Paraguay, 64 schools to be exact, I'd say we US teachers have NOTHING to complain about. Let me try to help you picture a Paraguayan school... a normal, good one... mid-economic level: The students have chairs with a tiny writing desk attached. Enough room for the 1 notebook that they will use all day. They don't have any textbooks, and they copy everything that the teacher writes on the board. Photocopiers do not exist. Class sizes are about 20-35 students. Teachers teach their first group of students from 7:00-11:30 and their afternoon class from 12:30-4:30. Some teachers teach a night session as well.

This is one of the schools in Limpio. See 4th grade? They're the ones under the first mango tree, looking at the chalk board. Each mango tree provides shade for a different grade. No school when it rains! This is obviously a very poor neighboorhood. Another interesting thing about this school is that the students were much more comfortable speaking Guarani than Spanish. Since Samuel, on our Tekove team, is Paraguayan and can also speak Guarani, we did a total bilingual Tekove presentation. In our drama of Jesus and the 12 disciples, Jesus spoke fluent Guarani to His disciples who only spoke Spanish! :-)

Viaje a Paraguay

2009-04-01T16:04:00.001-04:00

Aqui Estoy

2009-03-21T08:22:00.002-04:00

Cooking, cooking, cooking. You have to eat, so you have to do it. This is a picture of Natalia and I making some food for 25/30 people. Last weekend we went on a retreat- a group called the Red. "Red" means "net" and it's the group of Christian universitary students and young professionals here in Paraguay. It's a big mix of denominations and everyone in the group is really great (except for the guy who thinks I'm a spy-- because all American missionaries are spies apparently--and I'm bringing back information about Paraguay to the United States government- yes, I ACTUALLY had this conversation with someone). So anyway, the retreat was at a beautiful campsite about an hour by bus from where I live (about 3 hours from Asuncion, so I got lucky!). We played volleyball and ping pong and lounged in a gorgeous pool as well. My favorite part about the Red is the worship time. We take out these packets of songs and call out whatever one we want to sing. Many of them are Spanish translations of well-known English praise songs. My favorite, though, is "Aqui Estoy" by Jesus Adrian Romero. The chorus goes like this:

No tienes que buscar a nadie mas yo quiero ir/ You don't have to look for anyone else, I want to go
Aqui esta mi tiempo, aqui estan mis horas/ Here is my time, here are my hours
Aqui estoy yo/ Here I am
Mi vida es para ti y en ti la quiero yo invertir/ My life is for you and in you i want to invest it
Aqui estan mis manos, aqui esta mi voz/ Here are my hands, here is my voice
Aqui estoy yo. Aqui estoy yo./ Here I am. Here I am.

Welcome (kinda) to our church.

2009-03-18T18:04:00.005-04:00

Today we had the pleasure of being INSIDE for one of our school presentations. That's a good thing because it means we're not searching for the best tree to provide enough shade for our theater and all of the students and teachers. We were given the keys to the school's Catholic church!

One teacher was very upset that an evangelical program was taking place in the catholic church. Everyone else seemed to really enjoy the program and the relationship with this school is still very good!

Vos sos titere?

2009-03-16T17:57:00.003-04:00

Oh what fame we have here in Limpio, Paraguay. Everywhere we go, kids recognize Benji's truck and yell out a greeting. Many times they just yell "Titeres!" which means "puppets!" Sometimes I think they thing we ARE puppets since they ask us, "Vos sos titere?" "Are you puppet?" It's kinda strange. Ben told us that when he called a principal's house this morning that the little boy who answered the phone ran to tell his parents that the puppets were calling his house! He recognized Benji's voice! After the first week in April, all 18,000 kids in Limpio will be able to say the same!

and we start March 2!

2009-02-28T09:59:00.003-05:00

Opening day is quickly approaching! Que gusto! Our days have been filled with planning, practicing, and creating. We now have a 5 week schedule for Program 1 where we will visit 65 schools. We had to talk to each individual director of each school, introduce our topic and ask for a date to come. Some days, I went with Benji and other days Sam did. When we´re home at night we have THOUSANDS AND THOUSANDS of worksheets to count and organize into school piles.

VISITS
I was really impressed by one particular director this week. Benji told me that after a few years of coming to this rough rough neighborhood, this director really changed the dynamics of the school. When we met her, she was just letting her first graders out for recess. She took us to her office which is in the old boys’ bathroom. The stalls and a lingering smell are still there. She told us that she moved her office here because they were short on space (can you IMAGINE a principal saying, “Well, we don’t have enough room, so, I’ll just move my office to the boys’ bathroom.” ?! That would never happen!!) AND she moved her office because in the past, that was where all the trouble happened. Now, she keeps an eye over this area of her school- very selfless move! The changes have taken place and now her school has one of the best reputations in the area.
PRAYER
Prayer is so important!! We know this, but do we know this?? We try to pray before every meeting that we have. It really makes a difference!! The catholic priest has welcomed our evengelical team into his schools to teach the Bible. One supervisor over all of the public schools has signed our letter, giving her permission as well. The doors are open!
HEALTH
Little pieces of me have been getting infected and it´s not fun. First my thumb nail, which is starting to grow back, and now my nose. Thankfully antibiotics are easy to find and buy and I think they´ll know me by name pretty soon at the pharmacy! Hopefully I won´t have any new health issues to report in my next update!

Cows Frogs & Mosquitoes

2009-02-14T08:16:00.004-05:00

Good morning friends! I’m reporting that all is moving along nicely here in Limpio Paraguay! I apologize for my lack of Blog posts— getting out to the internet cafes is a little harder than I expected. I’ll try to give you a picture of where I am…

If my fan is not blowing at full speed, I wake up to the sounds of birds, roosters and cows. Nope, I’m not on a farm, but everyone seems to have their own cows, chickens and other animals roaming around their property. The missionaries that I’m living with do not, but every immediate neighbor does. Yesterday a rooster was blocking my path to the little plank bridge that I needed to cross. This is so weird for me.
We’re in a pretty small town- one traffic light- but it seems to have most of the stuff you need in a town. I can walk to change money or go to the grocery store.
Bugs- not as bad as I suspected! There are a lot of blood sucking mosquitoes but we have these cool mosquito repellent things to plug into the wall while we sleep- and that seems to keep them away! The cicadas are incredibly noisy at night. I’ve never heard such a sound!! The only cockroaches that I’ve seen have been outside and dead. That’s how I like them. There are 3 frogs that live in the pathway between the house and the fence that I have to use everyday. I’m not too fond of walking through that space at night- one of the frogs is a little bigger than a softball! Eww!
It gets really really hot during the day- almost unbearable if you're in the sun. Surprisingly, it doesn't seem that hot inside though, with the helicopter-speed fans. At night we can cool off in the above ground pool that Benji and Ruth have in their backyard.

Well that’s it for now! I hope you can “see” where I’m living! We’re keeping really busy with preparing for our presentations that start in March. We’re writing and practicing skits (where I have to speak some Guarani! Yikes!!) and I’ve been doing a lot of secretarial paper work for the program. We’re pretty organized and work really well together! Thanks for reading my blog :)

***Since I'm not too frequent with the blog updates.... if you'd like, you can enter your email address into the space that says "subscribe" and the blog will send you a notification when I update my blog. Then you don't have to be continually checking!***

First Fotos de Tekove!

2009-02-05T15:44:00.004-05:00

Bumbles & Cricket (for all of you Beach Mission people) gave me some puppets... The one on the left is from them. The one on the right would probably scare all 20,000 of our children away.

Here´s a picture of where I live! It´s in the backyard of the missionay´s house.

I´m Here!

2009-02-04T13:22:00.004-05:00

Greetings from sunny Paraguay! I arrived on Monday night without any flight problems and I was greeted by Benji, a director of Tekove and team member SamuK (Sa-moo-ka, short for Samuel). I haven´t taken any pictures yet, so I can´t upload anything for you all! I just wanted to let you know that I´m here and I´m frog free! :) I´m living in Benji y Ruth´s guest house and we´ve already started preparations for our program. Today we wrote a drama about Jesus and His disciples... tomorrow we´re going to rehearse and make more preparations. Things are moving along quickly and I´m already enjoying my time here. My spanish has returned, but we use a big jumbled mess of English and Spanish on a daily basis. In our team meeting last night we realized that all 4 of us are from different countries- US, Paraguay, England and Spain and we all speak at least English and Spanish (I´m actually the only one who speaks ONLY 2 languages. Everyone else speaks at least 4. AHH! I´m so behind). So that´s all for now! I promise to get up some pictures eventually.... next internet cafe experience.... :)

Paraguay Report

2008-12-01T16:30:00.003-05:00

Hello blog readers!

Last night I gave a report on my time in Paraguay. I think I figured out how to upload the picture presentation to this blog, so have a look if you'd like!

Valley Presentation

Paraguay to Paterson to Pine Bush!

2008-11-17T16:53:00.005-05:00

I've been in NJ for almost 2 weeks now, and I can't believe it! Life has NOT slown down, no matter what I intended... but that's a good thing!

I'm helping out at Star of Hope Ministries in Paterson every day. This is not only helping them fill a current vacancy, but I get to practice my Espanol EVERY DAY! No quiero olvidar mi espanol!!! ;-) I love working in this Christian, ministry focused atmosphere and I love being back in Paterson. I even bought some Terere (Paraguayan tea) at a local supermarket!

Youth Group! It's great to be back at youth group. We had a retreat this past weekend (at Pine Bush) and it was really fun to reconnect with all those crazy kids.

Grad School. That's eating up the biggest chunck of my time at the moment, but I'm hoping to finish everything except the internship in December! Can't wait!!

Despedidas (Goodbyes)

2008-11-04T08:56:00.004-05:00

It's been a week of goodbyes.

On Tuesday, I went to Gladys and Benedicto's house. Gladys is Mariana's sister and Benedicto invited the musicans from the church to play music with him at their house. He plays the flauta dulce (a professional recorder) and we had a jam session :) Eduardo on piano, Brain on Guitar, Me on flute and Natalia cheering us on :)
Wednesday was my last meeting with my girls small group. Used our time to go door-to-door in 2 villas (kindof like a shanty village) advertising our Saturday program. I was very impressed by how bold one of my girls was. She didn't let a single person get past her and invited everyone from babies to grandparents.
Thursday was our last Tecove presentation in San Lorenzo. It was a success and it was very fun to listen to the team talk about how their year was as a whole. I only experienced the last 2 months, but they've been doing this since February or March. They only had 1 rain day in all that time! WOW!
On Friday we had an all night prayer vigil. The main purpose was to pray for the ministry of the Red (the College Christian group here in Asuncion). I've never spent a whole night praying and I didn't think I'd be able to make it without falling asleep! It was a great experience though! We sang a lot, prayed a lot (obviously), talked a lot, and ate a lot.
Tecove came to San Vicente on Saturday! (Tecove is my Bible drama group and San Vicente is the group that I work with on Wednesdays and Saturdays.) We had about 200 kids show up and they LOVED the show! It was really special for me to mix my 2 worlds here in Paraguay. Afterwards, the team came over to Mariana and Dany's house and we ate together and had a great time :) Here's a picture of the kids watching the show...
Sunday was my last day at Iglesia Independencia. They dedicated a song to me and then asked me to come up and say something to the church. I got stage fright and couldn't think of anything to say! oh well. Then at night, I sang a duet with Eduardo, "Te Veo" by Jesus Adrian Romero. It's one of my favorite songs. Afterwards, we all went out to eat (the group of friends in the picture at the top of my blog).
Monday was a vacation day! We went to San Bernadino, a resort town about an hour away from Asuncion. Since Paraguay is land locked, the people go to San Bernadino to swim in the lake or go to a hotel with a pool. We were able to swim and go for a boat ride in the lake. It was an absolutely GORGEOUS day and really fun!
Monday night was another goodbye party. We (the same group in the pic + Kaite & Rodrigo) all hung out at Eduardo's house and they all told me what my time here has meant to them. It was a really special time together!
Tuesday--- TODAY --- I'm packing! I'm driving to the airport! I'm getting on a plane! I will be in New York City at 5:30 tomorrow morning! I can't believe it...

Tormenta!!

2008-10-29T10:54:00.005-04:00

Dear faithful readers,

I'm very sorry I haven't written in so long! I'm going to blame it on the internet, ok? Don't be mad, be glad i'm alive! On Saturday, I survived the worst storm of my life, in a car without windshildwipers and headlights, among other things. It only lasted 7 minutes, but we were in the eye of the storm for those 7 minutes... on the same street, within 1 block (or maybe right underneAth this, we couldn't see a thing!!!) of this:

Can you see the tower bent in half?? THIS WAS THE STREET WE WERE DRIVING THROUGH!!! WE PASSED THIS DURING THE 7 MINUTES WHEN THIS TOOK PLACE!!!
HUGE, OLD trees were uprooted all over the city of Asuncion. We lost power for a few days, and even had church in the dark with candles and flashlights!

I'm honesly grateful that I survived this storm. Thank you for praying!

Check out Mariana's Blog http://enzoyalessia.blogspot.com/2008/10/sabado-25-1008-el-peor-de-mi-vida.html for a more complete update and the Paraguayan version of this story (there's a translator on her page if you want to read in English).

How my life has flashed before my eyes this week...

Storm: you know the story
Electricution: Hint. Don't try to take a broken piece of your charger out of the socket. 220 volts of electricity is not a pleasant feeling.
Darkness: I came home late; took a bus that dropped me farther away; my neighborhood had no electricity; I walked in pitch blackness!

Thank you Lord for Your protection!

Conciertos

2008-10-19T11:26:00.003-04:00

Concert #1 was a Christian youth festival in San Lorenzo. It was held in the futbol arena and a lot of different groups played. I brought my girls from the Annex and they really enjoyed it. We jumped around to the music and then listened to a preacher give challenging message. Thousands of people heard the Gospel and many people decided to trust in Jesus for forgiveness of sins. After the concert we went out to eat :) Here are my chicas...

Concert #2 was at el Conservatorio de Musica "Franz Liszt" in the Teatro de las Americas (Music Conservato "Franz Liszt" in the Theater of the Americas). It was a Piano concert of all the students of this conservatory. My friend Eduardo asked me to accompany him on my flute for the intermission. We arranged and played "Great is Thy Faithfulness" (I'm trying to upload the video... but it's not working) Eduardo ended the concert with "Sueno de Amor" by Franz Liszt. That was absolutely incredible.

Dios Todopoderoso

2008-10-16T18:26:00.002-04:00

1. We had 2 shows at Roosevelt School- they went well! (7:00 and 8:00)
2. Our 3rd show was at Heaven's Kingdom, a Christian "Hermanos Libres" school. Hermanos Libres is name of the non-denominational "denomination" that I am from. I love this small world stuff! I talked to some of the teachers and an Argentine missionary and we knew a lot of the same people and all went to the Anniversary Converence in August (see august posts...).
3. It started to POUR at about 10:30 while we were starting our 3rd show. Thankfully we were inside; however, we couldn't transfer our equipment to our car when we were done without it getting ruined in the rain. When it pours like this, the country practically shuts down. Kids don't go to school and people stay inside. I found out today that it's actually dangerous to be outside in the rain due to a lot of live wires (a lot of deaths have happened this way), and/or many kids can't get their school clothes wet so their parents keep them home from school. We decided to cancel our afternoon shows.
4. We ate an awesome lunch at Mirian's house and when we sat down to eat, her sister gave thanks to God for our food. While she was praying she asked the Lord to give us strength and wisdom while teaching our kids for the afternoon. After her prayer, we said thanks, but we're not having any programs! oh well. Let's eat! After lunch, we looked out the window and found a beautiful day. Ah man! We were ready for a siesta! Off we went.
5. When we arrived at our second school for the afternoon, we found that ALL of the kids had stayed home because of the rain. The principal of the school (public school) asked us if we could stay and talk to her middle schoolers (6th, 7th and 8th graders). We didn't know what we should do. We don't want to use puppets with them... our show is for little kids. We prayed about it and decided that we should take the opportunity. We each gave a short testimony about God's faithfulness. We told the students that God loves us so much that he sent Jesus to die for us so that we can go to heaven! When we have a personal relationship with God, through Jesus, he is a best friend that we can count on for everything. Talking to teenagers is a lot more scary for me than talking to little kids, but I survived and they really listened! God really is answering my own prayers about my Spanish fluency too ;)

I live with doctors.

2008-10-14T22:22:00.003-04:00

The tumor
The surgery
The explanation: doctor to doctor.

Vote!

2008-10-11T07:43:00.004-04:00

I was very excited to go vote in the US Embassy! On Monday, Katie and I made our way from the language school to the Embassy. I thought it would be like being welcomed into my home country: "Welcome, Erin! We're so happy you could come visit the United States for the day! Feel free to look around and enjoy your time here. Oh and thank you for being such a great citizen and voting in Paraguay." NOOOOOOOOOOOOPE! It actually felt more like trying to get into Rikers Island. We waited in the entry way. Then a guard accompanied us to security where we were metal-detected. Then we handed over all our belongings. Then we were turned over to another guard who brought us to the building where we would vote.

Voting! Why was it so complicated? Katie and I consider ourselves to be relatively intelligent people, and we spent our time in a state of utter confusion. We walked up to the window and said,

"Gustariamos votar (yeah, we're in the US.. but we're still speaking Spanish)". We would like to vote.

"mm no puedes votar aca" mm no you can't vote here. "Quieres una aplicacion a estar enviado a tu casa?" Do you want an application to be mailed to your house?

"No. Yo llame y alguien me dijo que puedo votar aca". No. I called and someone told me that I can vote here.

"oh, dejeme ver si hay alguien aqui quien sabe" Oh, let me see if there's someone here who knows..

She left, another man entered (the man I talked to on the phone) and said that we could vote here (thank you!!). First, he handed us a telophone sized book. "Look up the absentee voting rules for your state and fill out this form." AHH. I think we would have understood the book better in Spanish!

Anyway, we did the best we could. We wrote our votes on the absentee form and sealed it up tight. They're probably flying over Mexico right now. Mine's headed to the Passaic County office in Paterson ::nostalgic sigh:: and Katie's is going out to Missouri. We both voted for the same people.. now we'll wait and see if our Paraguayan votes make a difference in Novemeber!

We all scream in the same language.

2008-10-04T12:00:00.002-04:00

We went to an amusement park yesterday. Well, actually it was like a carnival, and the rides were SC-AR-Y! On our first ride, I looked at Eduardo and said, "Te vere' en el cielo." I'll see you in heaven. Our second ride was this....

I didn't take this video; I found it on YouTube; but it gives you a good idea of what we went through last night. I'm happy to report that even though I thought we'd all be speaking Spanish together in heaven, I'm still here in Paraguay, alive and well. Look at those prayers hard at work!

Tecove

2008-10-02T22:16:00.004-04:00

Tecove is the name of the Bible program that I help out with every Tuesday/Thursday. We started a new show this week and the Bible story is Esther. I'm Esther (as you can see from the photo) and we act out the entire skit to a pre-recorded story. It's great! I don't have to memorize lines- just act! Ok let me start from the beginning....

The program has 7 different parts: Superhero skit, Bible story, Game, Puppets, Bible Verse, Trick, Superhero wrap-up. Everything is really creative and fast paced. The show lasts about 30 minutes and we perform it for the entire school on an outside stage. Then we sign autographs (yeah, every time!! I'm now famous in Paraguay! hahah), pack everything up, and head to the next school. Our first show is at 7:00am (I leave my house at 5:45!! Yikes!!) and we do 3-4 shows every morning. Then we have an awesome lunch at a house in San Lorenzo (the town with all the schools). The pastor's wife of a local church cooks a huge Paraguayan meal and we restore our strength for our afternoon shows. In the afternoon, our shows start at 1:00 and we usually have 3. We get done around 5 and then head home, utterly exhausted, but happy :)

Tecove is so fun and comfortable for me.. and tonight I realized another reason why. The director is a Spanish Vic Myers. Yup. He's absolutely crazy when he's acting in front of hundreds of kids and they love him. (He also runs adventure/survivor camps in the South American jungles... I'm sure Vic would do that too if he lived in S.A.). So basically, I'm doing Beach Mission 6-7 times a day with a team of 4 people. Challenging, but fun!
I ate mondongo soup. It wasn't bad.
Mondongo=cow intestines

Meat

2008-09-26T13:16:00.002-04:00

If I haven´t already told you, Paraguay is the land of meat. Meat meat meat. Corn and variations on cornbread are popular too, but save room for the meat! I´ll especially order a hamburger with lettuce and tomato to get my veggies for the day or Mariana kindly offers me a salad of lettuce and tomato.

What an exciting moment when I walked into the Panaderia (bread store) today! There, behind the counter, sat a tray of rice and chicken and PEAS! cooked peas! I couldn´t believe my eyes. Without glancing at the other options, I ordered a salad and a huge serving of rice and chicken and peas.

I returned to IdiPar (my language school) and ate my salad while conversing with the other students. Then, excitedly, I opened my main course. But wait. Why does this chicken look like octopus? Profesora... ¿qué compré? What did I buy? ¿No es pollo? It´s not chicken? Es el intestino grande del vaca. ¡Es muy rico! It´s the cow´s large intestine and it´s deliscious!

So I tried it. Really, I did. And let´s just say, I won´t be ordering it next week, even if it does have peas.

language language language...

2008-09-21T16:35:00.003-04:00

I don't think I wrote about my first Bible study with the teenage girls from the Annex. That's probably because I was trying to block it out of my mind... Giving a Bible study is hard enough at home (but we make it look easy, right Valley YG?!). Here, in Spanish... AHH! Let's just say that the girls didn't understand my Spanish, I didn't understand their Guarani and I returned frustrated, discouraged and upset. Then I went to Argentina for the week (Talk about not understanding!!! I realized that I was "translating" everything that everyone said INTO Spanish in my brain. For example "Yo fui por alla" sounded like "show fui por asha".). In Argentina, I spoke a mescla of Spanish and English all week and I didn't go to Spanish school either. I came back to Paraguay on Friday evening and couldn't understand again. BUT I had to give my Bible study again. Yikes!! I prayed a lot... I prepared a lot... and it went so well! Thank You Lord! Also, we gave out the clothing that Valley sent down. Here are some of the girls with the clothes :-) THANK YOU AGAIN!

Oh and one other weird thing that I discovered today. Accent makes a big difference. Danny, Mariana, Adrian and I were having lunch and Adrian was talking to me. I understood him perfectly and responded to what he said. Mariana and Danny started cracking up. Mariana asked me if I understood everything Adrian said. "Yes!! Finally!!" I said (I give Adrian a lot of blank stares.. I don't always know what's going on when he talks to me). Then Mariana told me he was talking with a Mexican accent. For the rest of the day, whenever I didn't understand something Adrian told me, he repeated it with a Mexican accent and I understood COMPLETELY. There really is a big difference between a North/Central American Spanish accent and a SouthSouth American accent! Now the real test is if I'm able to understand you Dominicans....

Hanna & Erin's trip to Buenos Aires (and Uruguay)

2008-09-20T11:42:00.006-04:00

I arrived in the Ezeiza International Airport in Argentina on Monday afternoon and made my way to the B.A.Stop hostel in Buenos Aires via bus and subway. I met Hanna there and we began our adventure!! Enjoy the pictures!

A New Adventure

2008-09-14T13:57:00.004-04:00

Setting: IdiPar Spanish School
Characters: Hanna, Erin

Hanna: Hoy es mi ultima dia aqui.

Erin: Ah que lastima! Cuando vas a Argentina?

Hanna: Creo que vaya Domingo por la noche. Voy a llegar en Buenos Aires el lunes por la tarde.

Erin: Que emocionante! Ojala pueda hacer algo como esto, me gustaria a ver otros paises en sur america... HANNA! Why don't I come with you?! It's close! I'll practice Spanish there! I'll make it back in time for my youth group meeting on Saturday!

Hanna: I'll look up the plane tickets for you!

Erin: I'll go home and finish alllllllllllllllllllll my grad work for the next week! I'm going to Buenos Aires!!

(notice the switch to English after things got exciting? Sadly, this is how it happened in real life too.)

To all my faithful readers, I will report back after my quick trip to Argentina! Hasta Luego!

Pictures

2008-09-10T17:51:00.002-04:00

Hello again, from sunny, hot, Asuncion, Paraguay. I uploaded some pictures of the activities of the past week. Saturday was the dinner at the Annex. Sunday, I went to another annex of Independencia Church with Mariana's sister and brother-in-law. They were having a "despedida" (going away) for a Paraguayan missionary woman. They gave her gifts and talked about how important she has been to all of them. Then we ate rice and sausage and sopa paraguaya (kind of like corn bread). Monday, I went to the market with Hanna and bought some random things that I need (like tissues cause it was winter 4 days ago!!) and a shirt that doesn't fit. Tuesday, I went back to the Bible club in San Lorenzo. We had a total of 3 programs in the afternoon, and I actually took part in the dramas! I helped with the sound system, the memory verse, and was the lion in Daniel-in-the-lion's-den. The kids were very attentive. The last school we visited was in an extremely poor neighboorhood and Mirian told me that most of the kids in this school do not have dads at home. We stayed for a little while after the program and the kids jumped on/wrestled/played with Benji, the director of the club. That was a great time for them. Tuesday was also Ruth's birthday and a bunch of her friends came over for a barbeque. We ate hamburgers outside and I continued to practice my Spanish :)

Random Thoughts

2008-09-09T20:09:00.004-04:00

I realize that I haven't posted anything for a little while, so I'm going to give you a quick update on life in Paraguay.

After wearing all of my clothes at once, the sun has returned and I'm back to flip flops. Love the flops.
I went to the public school Bible program again today. I was the lion in the Daniel skit. I absolutely love this program that they do. I'll have to write more details later. I went to 3 programs today, and I think I'm going to do it again on Thursday.
A man was selling toothbrushes on the bus on my way home, and I almost bought one.
Today is Ruth's birthday. We are going to have an "asado" (barbeque).
Don't see the Happening. It's worthless.
I played the piano at church on Sunday!
Sometimes I am a Spanish genious. Sometimes I can't speak Spanisg or English.

2008-09-05T15:49:00.002-04:00

A Winter Week in Paraguay

Green and pink trees,
Not a snowflake in sight;
Flowers blooming everywhere,
The sun's hot and bright

Winter week in Paraguay
What will you get?
Some days are hot
And some days are wet.

Day number one
is a beautiful day
Tee shirt and jeans
It feels like our May.

Day number two
gets hotter yet.
Break out the shorts
And don´t get upset.

Day number three
hit 40 Degrees
For all you in Fahrenheit
That's like 103!

And just when you think
You can´t take anymore
Here comes the rain
A crazy downpour!

Thunder and lightning
storms into the night
But I LOVE storms like this
They don't give me a fright.

Day number 5
I can't remember hot weather
All the clothes that I brought
are as light as a feather.

Friday let's go
Buy scarves, gloves and a hat
At school today a moth
was as big as a bat!

Saturday day seven
the sun has returned!
It's back to the flip flops.
See how much you've learned!

Hanna and I (from my Spanish school) stopped to warm up with
a cup of hot chocolate during our recent excursion around Asuncion.

Bible Club

2008-09-04T16:59:00.002-04:00

Different Kids

Same Message

On Tuesday, I accompanied Mirian (I met her on the camp... see blog #2) to her Public School Bible Club. She goes to about 6 different schools every Tuesday and Thrusday and presents an exciting Bible program to all of the students. This week, the kids learned about God's power through a Super Hero, puppets, Daniel and the Lion's Den, and a Bible verse: Dios puede hacer muchisimo mas de lo que nosotros pedimos o pensamos, gracias a su poder que actua en nosotros. Efesios 3:20.

A Busy Week

2008-08-31T22:11:00.012-04:00

On Sunday, I went to my first choir practice. I played the flute with a few songs, and sang with some others. I took video of this song, since it was in Guarani! Guarani is the other official language of Paraguay and while it's not always spoken in Asuncion, practically everyone is fluent. Do you know what song they're singing? (http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1624564689522081707&hl=en)

In Paraguay, it's customary to greet someone with a kiss on each cheek. Pedro Bu (photo) is not Paraguayan and gave me a great big NYC bear hug! He was here for the 100 year anniversary celebration and spoke on Monday night at Iglesia Independencia. It was great to see a familiar face and listen to a New Yorker here in Paraguay!

On Tuesday, we had another meeting at Independencia with 2 guest speakers. The first speaker was the trumpet player from Argentina. He was a little difficult for me to understand, but I got bits and pieces of his message. That's more than I can say about speaker #2. I heard the words "New Jersey", "Elephant" and "Iron". Then I decided to read my hymnal. When we all got back to the house, the family asked how I liked the 2nd preacher. I said, "Why did he preach in Guarani?? I didn't understand a thing that he said!" Everyone started cracking up. "Erin, he's from Argentina. They don't speak Guarani in Argentina." WHAT?! That was Spanish?! And what was that about Elephants ironing in NJ? Apparantly he visited Mariana's family in NJ, he told a joke about an elephant, and I still don't have a clue why he was talking about ironing.

Wednesday, the choir sang and the grandson of the founder of the Assemblies in Paraguay spoke. That was really interesting! Alan Smith made his first trip from New Zeland to Paraguay in 1908. His son, Gordon Smith continued the work after him, and all of Gordon Smith's children were here this week. We heard their stories and saw some pictures of their time in Paraguay.

Thursday, day of rest.

Friday we went to a huge Christian school auditorium where the conference/anniversary was officially held. My German friend Johnny from the language institue came with us and had his first Christian church experience (even though it wasn't in a church). We listened to a lot of different musical presentations and the Independencia Choir sang here as well (I played flute). The first speaker spoke about the "Identity of the Assemblies" and Pedro Bu spoke about "Service as a Way of Life". Pedro was really easy for me to understand and I really enjoyed his messages. He's very dynamic (loud!), creative and interesting.

Saturday, whew! full of plenarary sessions and workshops. They were all really great! I should be a pro at Spanish now with all of the vocab that I listened to this weekend... Hours and hours of messages! I hung out with the young people from Independencia during the breaks, but I also met a lot of missionaries and visitors. Joel Hernandez from Emmaus Bible College in Iowa was there (small world). Dale Konkol, missionary to Paraguay from NJ was there with some guys from his church out in the "interior" (about 3 hours from Asuncion). I really enjoyed Saturday. I got to know people from church a lot better since we spent all day going to workshops and meetings together. It was also really interesting to see all the different assembly families come together in a huge meeting. The above picture is with Dale Konkol, a CMML missionary that I met before coming to Paraguay. He works in the "interior" and these are some guys from his church.

Sunday: La Santa Cena
If you're not familiar with all my "assembly" lingo, I appologize! One of our major characterisitcs is the fact that we have a "communion service" or "breaking of bread" every week. This is where we specifically focus on the fact that Jesus died and rose from the dead to take the punishment for our sins. This meeting with 500 people was amazing! Ushers were scattered around the gymnasium with microphones. When a man wanted to give out a hymn for everyone to sing (the musicians were all ready with a list of hymns that they could be asked to play), read a passage from the Bible, or pray, an usher would give him the chordless mic. They laid out the "ground rules" before the meeting and told the men to keep their talkes to under 5 min so many people would get opportunities. I understood a lot, except for one man who spoke almost completely in Guarani! The Independencia choir sang while ushers passed around the bread and the wine. We sang 2 songs... I played flute for 1 and sang alto in the other. Fun times!
Finally, our busy, but fun week has come to an end. Tomorrow I start my graduate classes again (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages, online at Grand Canyon University) and go back to my Spanish Institute.