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.

Our main ministry at this point is to learn the culture and language of Paraguay, to meld into the Christian culture of Paraguay, and to build lasting relationships with our Paraguayan friends and brothers and sisters in Christ. Please pray that we will find language helpers willing to help us out and that we will build relationships in the process with Paraguayans who can be coworkers down the road. Please pray for wisdom as we weigh what things will be the best to pursue.

Besides our culture and language study, we have had opportunities to minister in other ways as well. Please pray that God would work in the hearts of the unbelievers that we interact with and that we will gain the language proficiency necessary to share with them the good news of Jesus Christ.  Please continue to pray for the tribal people of Paraguay that have yet to hear of this good news.

A few months ago, I posted some specific prayer request for these previous months.  Now, I’d like to give you an update on these and other prayer needs.  Before, I mentioned the need to fit everything with us on the plane.  I think we fit everything we were planning on bringing.  At least, so far we haven’t come across anything we’re missing yet.  Several people have mentioned the desire to help by sending something down if the need arises.  So far, we have not come across that need.  If you ever do want to send something, please check with us first to figure out the best way to send it. As for prayer in this area, please pray that we are able to set up a comfortable home and that we are able to find the tools that will help the most with our ministry. We have had lots of help from our Paraguayan friends and neighbors to create an environment of language learning. Sometimes that involves having them into our home, but often it involves visiting them in their homes.

Our visas did come through very smoothly.  From the time we dropped off our passports at UPS to the time we received them back from the Paraguayan Embassy it was two weeks.  As for the legalizing of our documents, I drove down to Los Angeles when we were in Pomona and actually walked right into the Paraguayan Embassy to take care of it there.  I was only in that office for about half an hour.  The only thing that’s missing through all this is our Identification Clearance.  This is something we need for a more long term visa here.  We had the applications sent to the office on the first business day of the year; we were originally told 6-8 weeks, then 10 weeks, then 13 weeks.  The last time I called, they said it would be the middle of April.  So, right now, we’re still waiting to find out if the fingerprints were even any good.  If they weren’t, it will be much more difficult to get this done from down here.  Please pray that these initial prints go through and we are able to get our clearances fairly quickly. Our Identification Clearances came to the address from which we left in California one week after we left the country. So, it was too bad that we didn’t get them before we left, but it was very good that they did go through. Again we were reminded that God is in control and His timing is impeccable.  Those ID Clearances were mailed to us and we were able to get them submitted for the next phase of our visa paperwork.

We did raise what we considered to be adequate support to step out and head toward Paraguay, and here we are.  So praise the Lord for that!  He has been faithful to meet our needs all along the way and I am confident that He will continue to do so.  Now that we are here, we don’t want to just survive; we want to be able to do well the ministry that we have come to be a part of.  Please continue to pray for increased support toward the recommended support level so that we can be as effective and efficient as we can be in the job that we are here to accomplish.  Please also continue to pray for wisdom in the use of our finances, tools, and gifts. God has been very faithful to supply all that we have needed and provide for our life and ministry here.

One more prayer request, and perhaps the most urgent, is that we would be able to find a house soon that is near our host church.  Our hope was to move directly into a house and be thrown immediately into the culture and language as this is the most critical time for bonding and becoming part of the culture.  But, apparently God had other plans.  So please pray with us that we will have the house that God desires for us when He’s ready for us to move into it. After two months of living in the guest house, we were able to find a house to rent close to our host church. If you missed the news of this house, click here to read about it.

As always, please pray for more laborers and your own involvement in joining Team Paraguay. It is encouraging to be among 12 new missionaries to the field of Paraguay in this culture and language study. In 2011 we are expecting five more. As for your involvement, your interest, financial support, and encouragement are answers to that prayer.

Here are some other prayer requests.  We cannot ship anything by boat or air freight.  Everything we bring with us to Paraguay has to fit on the plane with us in whatever baggage we’re allowed to bring.  Please pray for wisdom as we go through our stuff and determine what is necessary to bring down, what might be able to be replaced down there, and what we might be better off not having there. Also, we so appreciate all of you that are sending monthly support, and we really do consider you as part of the team.  We could not even attempt to bring the Gospel to a tribe in Paraguay without you.  We realize that it is a sacrifice for you and that you are giving unto God.  We consider your support as provision from the Lord to fulfill the work that He has for us.  Please pray for us that we would be wise with the finances and tools that God has provided through you and other supporters.

One thing we always hear, and are fully aware of by now, is that missionaries must be flexible.  It’s not because God changes His mind or spontaneously decides to do something different with us.  But it is because God knows His plans for us and we do not.  God’s plan was not for David to build the temple, it was for Solomon to build it.  And His plan was not for Paul to preach in Asia, but in Macedonia.  As we walk with Him and trust Him, His plan becomes more clear.

Last week we received some news that creates a change in our plans, but it doesn’t change God’s plans.  The Paraguayan field leadership team met for their regular quarterly business meeting and, among other things, they discussed the benefits of us going to Mexico before Paraguay.  The result of that meeting is that we no longer have to go to Mexico before we can go to Paraguay!  The field of Paraguay isn’t completely set up for this change yet, so it may be March before we’re able to go down there, but it will still be months sooner than was originally planned.  We were never against going to Mexico first, and we have been willing to go along with the leadership’s decisions, but there are so many benefits to this change that we are excited about.  Praise God with us for His orchestration of this.  Now we just have to readjust our thinking when it comes to packing over these next few months.  Please pray for us as we make the necessary adjustments to go to Paraguay early next year.

Working on Linguistics

What does a day in the life of a linguistics student look like here in Tahlequah, Oklahoma? Well, I will give you a sample of one of the busier days. We wake up at 7 to go over and set up breakfast in the dining hall for the whole group of 37 people. We eat breakfast at 7:30 and then head back to finish getting ready for the day. At around 8:30 or so, four little ones come over to be babysat until 11. So, from 8:30 to 11 we watch eight children ages 7 and under. That gets a little crazy on a rainy day—of which there seem to be plenty here. At 11:45, I head over to the dining hall to make lunch for our four kids and Bryson and me, while Bryson prepares for our Cherokee session. Bryson and I eat lunch and then head off to our language helper’s house for a couple of hours. While Bryson and I are learning Cherokee, our kids go play with our neighbors’ kids. When we finally get back, it is about 4:00 and the kids are ready for some quiet time. They work on school or play games, while Bryson and I work on filing and practicing the Cherokee we learned. Dinner is at 5:30, then it’s time to clean up the kids and get ready for bed. Once the kids are in bed, more studying happens as we try to get a grasp on the Cherokee language. Exhausted reading this? We are too! So, if you think of it, you can pray for stamina and health during this crazy 7 weeks.

That was the question that we faced when our new van broke down on us this summer. We sat on the side of the road in 105 degree weather, with no water and with groceries sitting in the van.

Being forced to depend on God and fellow believers, we learned in a very real way that none of us is in this world alone. We need to accept our need for God and our need for others. I was also amazed to realize in a more real way that God uses unbelievers as well as believers in our lives to minister to us and show us He cares. There we sat on the side of the road – hot, tired, and frustrated – when God brought along a very generous man who brought Bryson to the only mechanic open on a Sunday. Another generous man gave me and the kids some water, and furthermore, the mechanic (also an unbeliever) was able to figure out what was wrong and fix it. That Sunday afternoon, the glory of God was shown to us, and unbelievers were used by the Almighty, even though they were unaware.

It has now been some time since this all occured.  We went through three alternators last summer, but so far the van seems to be doing fine.  Praise God for his provision.

• We had a very wonderful summer visiting friends and family.
• We were grateful to be able to share about the things that we have been learning and how God has been using us in and preparing us for ministry.
• We thank the Lord also for good health and safe travels throughout the summer.

Our requests we make known!

• Of course we want to do well in our classes and take it all in, but what’s more important is that we listen to the Holy Spirit and learn what it is that He has for us. Please pray that we are sensitive to His edifying and that we grow closer to Christ through His ministry and Word.  We thank God often for all that he has been teaching us.
• We are also weighing our options concerning a field to serve in. We would greatly appreciate your prayers as we have set a goal for ourselves to know this semester. Please pray that the Lord would give us a heart for the field that we can best serve Him in.  God has answered our prayers and it seems that He is leading us to a field in South America…

As always, thank you so much for your prayers!