Guaraní Ñandeva Survey from Bryson White on Vimeo.

In order to reside here and pursue a ministry, we need to follow the correct paper trail.  When we first got here we had to apply for a temporary visa.  They’re good for a year, and about 1-2 months before they run out, we’re supposed to apply for a permanent visa.  They went through and we received them last January.  So right now, we are in the process of applying for the permanent visa.  Upon receiving that, we can apply for our cedulas.

This is not a cheap process.  The permanent visas will cost just as much as the temporary ones did:  $400 per person.  And we are six—no discount for the kids!  We will probably receive the cedulas pretty quick after the permanent visas, and there’s a charge for them, too.  But thankfully it’s only about $100 each.

Of course, we are excited about completing this process. With the permanent visas and the cedulas we can live and work here for years to come.  Thank you for your continued prayers throughout this process.

We are so grateful for God’s blessing in our lives. We believe that God wants all believers to be involved in taking the Gospel to every corner of the world. The corner in which we’ve found ourselves is Paraguay, and we believe that God will provide for all that He thinks we need to fulfill His purpose here. About six months ago, we started looking for the vehicle that would be necessary for our work in the interior of Paraguay.

God has blessed us with both the finding of a vehicle and the funding to purchase it. She even has a name: La Suprema! We are so thankful that through the prayers and generous giving of supporters we have been able to buy the vehicle with cash leaving no monthly payments. We do, however, continue to trust the Lord for the funds to cover the high gas prices and even higher maintenance costs.

This paragraph is for those that care about the details. It is a 2004 manual 4×4 Nissan Patrol. This vehicle is not sold in the States and it is much more rugged than the Pathfinder and Armada sold there. It was originally designed specifically for the Middle Eastern desert and is a perfect fit for the Chaco desert of Paraguay. It is a 4.2 L motor without turbo, which also makes it better for withstanding the dust of the Chaco. It easily seats up to eight adults; we’ve fit ten people, but I’m sure we’ll squeeze more than that in sometimes. When figuring its mileage (“kilometerage” here in Paraguay), we do it the way the Paraguayans do it. They calculate how many liters it uses to go 100 kilometers, and they call it liters per 100. Driving around town we use about 13.7 L/100 and out on the open road about 9.9 L/100. This translates to about 17.4 mi/gal in town and about 24.1 mi/gal on the open road. That’s better than any other vehicle we’ve had! As for the fuel, it is a diesel. The price of fuel is government-regulated, so it’s the same no matter what station we go to. With the current exchange rate, it’s about $5.13/gal.

The kids (and we) have been so thankful for God’s provision in this. Now, instead of the normal hour-long one-way ride on a crowded bus to go to the mission, we get to ride 25 minutes in our own vehicle. Of course, this will have a huge impact on our ministry when we live where public transportation is not as available, too. And we are already looking forward to how it can fit into what we are doing now as we plan trips with Paraguayans out to the countryside. We anticipate La Suprema taking us many miles in whatever ministry God has for us in the future!

Chaco Trip from Bryson White on Vimeo.

Ed Camp Program

Ed Camp – April 2011 from Bryson White on Vimeo.

Following the education camp, we had the neat opportunity of visiting a missionary family in their tribe.  It was awesome to really see the work in action!  We were somewhat able to communicate with the tribal members in Spanish; however, being that it was both of our second language, communication was somewhat limited.  I cannot imagine how it would be to try to learn the tribal language with no common second language, however limited it may be.

Also during this trip, we had the opportunity to talk with some of the translators on our field.  It was neat to see translation really happening, and we got to ask more specific questions as to how it works in a real life situation.  As we talked with these translators, we began to get really excited about what happens next for us.  We were really encouraged to press on and finish our studies here in Asunción, as people are dying without having had the opportunity to hear of Jesus’ death and resurrection in their own language.

So, we have returned, thankful for the opportunity to see what lies ahead for us.  We are excited and encouraged to press on in the work that God has for us while we are here in Asunción.

–Mindy

PS from Bryson.  Here are a couple short videos of our trip.  The first is an overview of the whole trip.  The second is the part of the Ed Camp program that our kids took part in.  Hope you enjoy them.

So let’s look at these factors again:

• The “road” on which you will have to drive is some of the worst terrain for driving with dust, mud, and ruts.
• It will be 3-5 hours of driving one way every time you need to go to town for any reason—groceries, mail and e-mail, emergencies, …car repairs.
• Your entire family will be with you living in those harsh surroundings hours from town.
• During your drives into town and back, along with your family you will be bringing one or two months-worth of groceries or some visitors.

What would you do?  Really.  Put yourself in that situation and think of what you would do.

This is the situation that we are expecting to find ourselves in as we move into a tribe upon finishing our Paraguayan culture and language study.  We have been putting some planning and prayer into this and have begun looking at vehicles to see what would fit our needs and address the factors listed above.

Because of the terrain, we are looking for something with 4-wheel drive.  Because of the dust and space, we are looking for an SUV, rather than an open-bed truck.  Because of the amount of cargo/visitors/family, we are looking for a larger one with three rows of seats.  Because of the distance from a doctor or mechanic, we are looking for something newer and more reliable.  Because of reliability and parts-availability here, we are considering probably either a Toyota or a Nissan.

From talking with other missionaries, we’ve found that we could get an older vehicle and still get a few years out of it, but it will probably require a lot more maintenance.  Maintenance here in Paraguay is quite pricey.  Another thing to consider here is the type of driving a used vehicle has had; many people use these types of vehicles for farming in the country.  So, our hope would be to find something with 5 or less years of city driving.

Purchasing an older vehicle would mean making maintenance payments for a less reliable vehicle, with more time in the shop.  Purchasing a newer vehicle, with less maintenance, would just mean making payments for a more reliable vehicle for driving across those long stretches of desert, with less time in the shop.  Unfortunately, even older vehicles are expensive here.

As for the timing, we have learned from Paraguayans that now through the next few months is the best time of year to shop for vehicles for finding lower prices.  So, even though we aren’t moving yet, we are hoping to be able to find something during this window of time.  I hope that you, as our supporters and encouragers, have mentally put yourself through this transition to the far side of the desert and can understand our desires for safety for our family and reliability for the work.  This work is of utmost importance and we want to be as prepared as possible for its challenges.  Would you please pray for wisdom as we look at different vehicles and want to be prudent with the resources God has given us?  If you have placed yourself in our car seat and would like to be a part of physically getting us in and out of our tribal home, please send us a note and we’ll let you know how you can do that.

Excursion Aché from Bryson White on Vimeo.

Over the years, the first Aché believers were joined by others. They have grown into a fairly large group of believers with elders. They sing, study, and preach in their own language from their own translation of the Bible. They are the evangelical church of the Aché nation.

About a year ago, by their own accord, they recognized that they had outgrown their original meeting place and began building a new church building. With gifts of money and cement from other believers in the area and in Asunción, they were able to get all they needed to complete the church recently.

Tomorrow, February 12, they are having a special event to inaugurate this building as their church. I’m bringing a young man from our church with me as I go with another missionary to see this significant moment. We’re both looking forward to visiting this Aché tribe and meeting these brothers and sisters in Christ. You can visit it too via an upcoming video.

Paraguayan Birthday Party

Rather than give you all the details of what we’ve done these last couple months, I thought I’d try to describe a typical day.  Given that every day is so different, I scrapped that idea and decided to move out to the smallest time frame I could describe – a week.  Keep in mind that at this WhiteHouse, we’re juggling at least three schedules:  mine, Mindy’s, and the kids’.

I’ll start with the kids’, because it is the easiest to describe.  All four are attending a Paraguayan private school only a block away from our house all morning.  The difficulty in this is that they are fully immersed in Spanish during that time.  Of course, that’s what makes it such a great opportunity, too.  Added to their afternoon schedule – and influencing ours – is their homework.  We can help them with that when it’s in Spanish, but it’s quite difficult when it’s in Guaraní!  Another great opportunity for Elijah right now is that he is enrolled in a soccer program that practices twice a week outside of school hours.  He’s having a great time and got to have his first game the other day.  These are great opportunities for the kids, but it’s not always easy with the language barrier.  Please pray for them.  Click here to see specifically what you can pray for.

To give an overview of what we have been doing, let me say that we have been doing a lot of fishing – fishing for men and women – but not in the evangelistic sense yet.  We have been striving to find people able and willing to help us with learning the Paraguayan culture and language.  You might be surprised how tiring it is to engage in conversation with people in a language you don’t know well.  The job, though, this work of missions, does not consist of just preaching the Gospel.  It must be built upon relationships.  So, we are doing a lot of visiting and we have to be the initiators because really it’s a lot of work for them to understand our poor language and try to communicate with us.

Macayla and Her Teachers

A high schooler has been coming to our house once a week pretty regularly.  Pedro – sometimes called Pedrito to distinguish between the other Pedro in our church – has been helping me quite a bit with Spanish.  He is studying English, so I get to reciprocate and help him with his homework.  Throughout the week, I have met with several people for some language help.  They haven’t been real regular, but they may be able to soon.  If they do, I may end up meeting with a language helper 4 or 5 days out of the week.  Another thing I’m doing is spending an hour or two per week in different stores—office supply store, hardware store, lumber yard, et cetera—learning several of the items they sell each time.  This is all to try to “catch up” with the Paraguayans who grew up in this culture and speak this language.

Mindy also has one somewhat regular language helper, along with several other ladies that are willing to help.  She has been able to get together with a mom of

one of the kids’ classmates.  There is also a lonely old lady from church that she is beginning to visit with and practice what she’s learning.  Helping the kids with their homework is also a source of learning.

Once a week, our missionary culture and language learning advisor comes to our house to help us in our endeavors.  On Friday afternoons we then have a meeting with everyone else in the culture and language study.  During this time, we discuss things like current events in Paraguay, the state of tribal church planting, and language learning strategies.  Most people look forward to the weekend as a time off from work.  For us, the weekend is when work really picks up, because that’s when the Paraguayans have more free time, and our work is very dependent on their schedules.  Besides these weekly events, there have been several other things that we have been able to attend to get a glimpse into the Paraguayan culture and to practice speaking.  We have attended the Paraguayan Expo—which is like a county fair, only on a larger scale.  We’ve also been to a typical Paraguayan birthday party, wedding, and funeral.

Visiting Church Friends

It is with the people that we learn the most and solidify what we have learned through practice.  Therefore, we try to never go blind into an experience or event.  We plan in great detail what we expect to learn in each encounter.  Then, upon leaving an encounter, we process the information that we have gathered in a way that can be easily recovered, studied, and practiced.

This is all working together to tie up about 45-60 hours for me and 20-30 hours for Mindy per week.  Please pray for us in these endeavors.  Click here to see specifically what you can pray for.

Outside of our culture and language study, we have had a couple other opportunities of ministry.  One lady that Mindy is trying to get with regularly is our neighbor across the street.  She and her family are Roman Catholics, and Mindy is hoping for an opportunity to share the Gospel with this lady when she knows the language much better and can do it out of a developed relationship.  Down here, living in Ascunción, the capital of Paraguay, we had two non-christian “missionaries” from the U.S. come by our house.  One is from Arizona and the other has family in Klamath Falls, OR.  We have been able to share with them some and we are expecting one more opportunity.  Of course, something else is on our minds as well:  the tribes of Paraguay.  Please pray for all of these.  Click here to see specifically what you can pray for.

Our family in front of our house

Our plan was to land in Asunción, leave the airport, and go straight to our house—fully dependent on our Paraguayan host church to set up house. In that way, we would emphasize our role as learners, we would show our need of our local church, and we would foster friendships with our host families.  This was not meant to be.  A missionary here was trying to find a house for us six weeks before we came.  For some reason, God saw fit to provide a house for us to move into 54 days after arriving in Paraguay.  It wasn’t our plan, but it reassures us to know that God has a plan.

And we are so blessed to be in the house that He has provided.  Come to our photos page to have a look around the place. It is a nice house and it seems so big for us.  It also has a very nice front and back yard for the kids to play in and for having guests.  This really is a wonderful house for this stage of our ministry as it will be our center of operation for our Paraguayan culture/language study.  We have already been able to have an asado (Paraguayan barbeque) with several people from our host church.  These same people were key in bringing us to the point that we are at now.

There are a few good places within walking distance of our house.  Our church is six blocks.  Two supermarkets are within three blocks.  The barber shop is three blocks.  A mini market is half a block.  And several of the members of our church are six blocks or closer.

In the meantime, we have been able to enroll our kids in a Paraguayan Christian school that is only about a block away from our house.  Hannah just finished homeschooling 2^nd grade and is now in 2^nd grade here.  Elijah just finished homeschooling 1^st grade and is now in 1^st grade here.  Macayla and Daniella are in Kindergarten and Preschool, which happen to be together in the same class.  The school year here is from February to November, so they’re coming in about 1/3 through the school year.  They are fully immersed in Spanish, as none of the teachers speak English.  Hannah’s teacher even seems a little nervous about what she’s going to do with this non-Spanish speaking kid!

We’re not too worried though.  We put them in the grade that they just completed so that they wouldn’t have to work too much about the academics and they

The kids in their school uniforms

could just soak in the Spanish, which they seem to be doing quite well.  This is a wonderful opportunity for the kids to learn Spanish.  Right now they’re listening really well and picking up on the sounds.  I know that when they start speaking, it’s just going to come flowing out of them!  Our hope in this also is that it will give us opportunities to get involved with the school and the other kids’ parents.  These opportunities have already started popping up, and we’re just trying to take advantage of all that we can.

Thank you all so much for your prayers.  We’ve been through a lot while we’ve been here, and we’re excited to be where we are at now learning the language and culture of Paraguay.