Many indigenous people, such as this young ranch hand, are coming face to face with massive changes.

There is a shift occurring in many tribal groups across the world. Technology and “civilization” is fast changing life for many peoples across the globe, and Paraguayan unreached people groups are no exception.

Cellphones are owned by some in even remote areas here, as they work on ranches or keep in touch with family (this doesn’t necessarily change the rest of their life, such as sleeping on the ground and cooking over open fires!). Battery-powered radios blare popular music until the batteries run out, and the people sing along although they hardly know a word of Spanish. Pants and other western-type clothing are often worn instead of traditional costumes.

Underneath all this change is a massive shift. The people see the prosperity of their Paraguayan or foreign neighbors and begin to doubt what their forefathers have told them, such as that following certain chants and taboos will bring them success, and begin to quickly forget the reasons and stories behind the traditions. Many of them, disillusioned, turn to drugs or alcohol to escape a life they see as empty. They are on the brink, in some ways, of entering the world of today. 

It’s a window of opportunity that should not be missed! Research has proven that groups in this type of transition are some of the most open to hearing and receiving the Gospel message. They have many times already seen the futility of their old belief system and are ready to listen to the Truth. These are exciting times here and across the world among many unreached groups, and we delight to see the Lord working among them! Won’t you join us in prayer that He will reap a great harvest among the remaining tribal groups in Paraguay?

A young girl serves terere, the cold tea drink that is so popular in Paraguay

The day we arrived in the tribal village we were met by some grave news. An eight year old girl had died in school that day; she had complained of a headache and a while later began screaming hysterically before she suddenly became unable to talk and later died. All the parents were summoned to the school with these words: “Did you send a child to school today? Come quickly, someone has died!” No one knew the exact cause of her death, but already the rumors attributing it to witchcraft were circulating heavily. This was what one of the chiefs told Luci, the single missionary with whom we were traveling. 

   “What will they do when someone is accused of witchcraft?” we asked Luci.

   “Oh, it’s a very serious charge,” she replied. “If they think there is enough evidence, the person could be put to death. Usually the person they blame it on is old, or a woman, someone who cannot do much to defend themselves. Normally they run away, to another colony, before the punishment can be carried out. Most people here still attribute sickness, bad crops and many other things to witchcraft.”

   We knew that this chief was a Christian, one of the elders in the tribal church we had come to visit. So we asked Luci what he would do about this situation.

   “Oh, he will try to protect the person even though he faces so much pressure!” she told us. “I am always amazed at how the Lord gives him so much wisdom to deal with these kind of situations. First he will ask if she was taken to the doctor, and what the autopsy said, and then he will tell the others we have no proof of witchcraft. Also he will say that he could not punish an innocent person, if there was not enough proof, and he will drag his feet if nothing else works, and somehow he will find a way to avoid punishing them.”

   She also told us that probably the unbelievers would keep their children home from school for a long time out of fear of witchcraft, but that the believers are not afraid of this anymore and their children will continue to go.

   It was amazing to hear of this one man, a small and lightly built older man, leading his people according to his new conscience as a believer! What wonderful things the Lord is doing in the lives of the people of this colony! There is a church packed full every Sunday, five elders to shepherd the flock, and a room full of materials to the believers who teach their neighbors, once a week, to read and write and share the truth with them from beginning to end of the Scriptures!

   “There is so much to do, so many ways the believers need to mature,” said Luci who worked among them for 10 years, “but God has done so much in their lives and He is working through them to change so much, even in their weakest points!”

5. Ants

       Smoke, not steam, began to rise from the iron as I ironed clothes one morning for church. A slight odor, like that of toast, filled the room. When I depressed the steam button, out shot a small pile of wiggling, roasting sugar ants with all their eggs – then more, and more, and more…hence the toasting smell. After a couple of weeks of this, the ants apparently decided to move their colony. 

Look Dad, it's my pet!

This toad hopped back into our yard three times before meeting his end...

4. Toads

    Yes, they are poisonous – only if you hold them and then touch your eyes or something, but the “gross factor” is worse than that. Large, fat toads covered with warts seem to enjoy hopping around our yard…

3.  Rats and mice.

   The “stream” a few blocks from our house is home to huge settlements of rats who feed on all the trash people throw in. In fact, my kids call it the “trash stream”! Occasionally a rat will wander into our yard, but our hero dog Luky kills them when he finds them.

   One exciting day was the day a mouse ran under our couch. We all circled around, waiting to stomp on the mouse as soon as Elijah moved the sofa; “See if you can stomp the mouse before Mom does,” he told the kids, winking at me. “Mom’s not afraid of mice!” That’s the truth, but I wasn’t disappointed when the mouse ran out like a little gray streak and Elisha stomped it good and hard! I’m not afraid, but maybe a little squeamish? J

2. Creeping eruption

   Does that sound bad or what? This condition is caused by an animal hookworm. The good news: since it’s not a human hookworm, it will never reach your liver. The bad news: it will keep crawling around under your skin until you find a way to get rid of it! I knew something was wrong when the kids complained of itching, burning “mosquito bites” and like something was “crawling under their skin”. The topical cream we bought at the pharmacy didn’t touch the parasite, but garlic was a wonder! The thing dies hard, but it’s finally gone. That’s why it’s not the worst vermin we’ve encountered here. 

The threadlike red line on Elisha's hand shows the path of "creeping eruption"... The best cure (as selected by the victim): poke the wormtrail well with a sterile needle, add crushed garlic, and leave on for 1/2 hour.

1. Cockroaches

   Yes, they’re the worst. I came home (to our old house) one day and asked the neighbor what he was smiling about. “Parece que Elías está bailando (It seems like Elijah is dancing),” he commented smugly. I went in with the kids and there, out on the back patio, was a huge commotion. Elijah WAS dancing – on top of thousands of huge cockroaches that were pouring out of the sewer lid. “Come on!” he said. “Help me!” We all took up positions and began stomping as well. Once I ran out to a scream and saw Elisha jumping up and down as an enormous cockroach tried to take refuge in his ear. By the time we finished, the patio was full of a kind of cockroach soup that took Elijah all day to clean up.

Yes, that's how we all feel about cockroaches. Especially after they try to crawl in your ear, right Elisha?

   You can’t get rid of the things! Our old house was full of them, with cockroaches in every stage of development, running across the dinner table or over our feet at night, in our silverware and refrigerator (don’t ask me how they get by the seal!). We tried everything – trapping, poisoning, fumigating – nothing worked. Thankfully, our new house is seemingly cockroach-free…at least for the moment.

   Not to make anyone feel sorry for us though! The laughs we get out of this as a family are more than worth it .

Israel recently fell asleep - or went to sleep - or put himself to sleep - during a meeting.

We all know about figures of speech: the obvious ones, such as “It’s raining cats and dogs”, immediately come to mind. But what about everyday expressions? They’re all literal, right? Or does it depend on how you look at it?

    In English, we “take a walk”. In Spanish, you “give a walk” (dar un paseo)! In English, we “fall asleep”. In Spanish, you “put oneself to sleep” (dormirse) – the word form indicates that you are both performing and receiving the action.

    In English, we “are” cold, and we “are” so many years old. In Spanish, we “have” cold (to be cold: tener frio) and we also “have” so many years (tener años). To think about it is a little mind-bending: we don’t actually “have cold” (as in tangible possession) but can we really say that we “are” cold? Will we be that way forever? Suffice it to say that each expression makes perfect sense in its context.

    Does it matter how we say things? Or is the meaning the important thing? Yes, and…yes.

    In English, one word for “you” suffices for everyone. In Paraguayan Spanish, we have three words for “you”. Vos is used for people you know (more informal), Tu is mostly used for praying and singing to the Lord, and Usted is for anyone you don’t know or one who is in a position to be respected (teachers, people with high status, etc.) Each word for you has its own verb form for every verb, and one is expected size up the social situation and use the correct form. For a native English speaker, that seems complicated! Even this is a reflection of the different needs of the culture that formed the language…where status means more, there are according ways of expressing the distinctions, and so on.

    In some cultures, there are very few color terms. In English, we have a myriad of names to describe specific hues (maybe because interior decorating and matching clothes are important to us?) In other cultures, there are specific words to describe how far one threw something. In English, we must use a phrase to express that meaning (“I threw it about three yards”). Generally, what is important to the people who live in a group with shared experience and culture shows up in their language.

    If seemingly simple expressions like this are so different in different languages, what about terms like “faith” and “salvation”? Is there a word in the language that carries anything close to the Biblical meaning? If so, can we use that word and re-teach the significance to cover the Biblical area of meaning? Or do we need to use a phrase? What if the very idea cannot be found in the culture? Where do we go from there? Many missionaries have wrestled with these questions for years.

    Why should this matter to us as missionaries, as believers? Of course we aren’t responsible to save anyone or do the work of the Spirit in people’s lives, but we should care about communicating to the best of our ability. Sharing the Gospel should involve using words, phrases, terms, etc. that communicate the message to the hearer, not just words that mean a lot to us as the speakers. It’s about finding out what our audience understood and taking the time to re-word, re-communicate and re-check until the true meaning of this most important message is not only spoken, but its significance understood!

A pesebre, or manger scene, with watermelon and coco flower for decoration.

1. Horse carts can be heard clipping by on the road almost any hour of the day or night: their drivers selling produce, stopping to pick through trash, collecting old batteries and scrap metal…how does the traffic handle it? In very scary ways sometimes!
2. People decorate their manger scenes at Christmas with watermelons and coco flowers while they sweat in 110 degree heat.
3. Your kids say, “Oh mom, can we please get apples instead of pineapples this week? We almost never get apples because they’re so expensive.”
4. You kiss someone on both cheeks to greet them. Except, of course, man to man! (We’ve heard that’s only something they do in Argentina).
5. Soccer is more important than almost anything. Tereré (the national drink made with dry yerba mate leaves and cold water) is more important than everything! Except maybe your friends, but drinking tereré is what you do with friends, so…
6. Milk, yogurt, mayonnaise, olives etc. come in bags at the grocery store. Juice, tomato paste, etc. all come in boxes!
7. Everyone is happy to pass the tereré around to their friends and drink off the same bombilla (strainer straw). But to be polite, one should always drink their soda with a straw and use a knife and fork to eat their hamburger! One doesn’t “eat” their breakfast, one “drinks” it, because the drink is what’s important, not the bread. A sandwich isn’t considered a meal, a “meal” is meat, rice, pasta, etc. – always hot!
8. Clean tennis shoes are considered a must.
9. There are no limits to how many people you can squish into a car. Just hope you’re not on the bottom!
10. “Late” depends…for some occasions, it could be more than two hours after the scheduled time. Don’t worry, everyone is happy to wait for you, so what’s the problem?
Bottom Line: In this culture that often seems so strange to us, there are 5 tribes still waiting to hear the true Gospel preached in their own language!

Kids in class with "Tía Cony" (Aunt Cony), learning the days of the week in Spanish via puzzle.

    So you’re the mother of 4 small children all still at home – your new home, that is: a foreign country where most things are new and strange and you are all spending most of your time learning how to talk to the people you want to minister to.
    The months go by and your hours studying the language begin to pile up; you can understand more Spanish and handle common situations, but you realize that your children are still looking blank and confused when people greet them and are struggling to have good attitudes about spending so much time with other people when they hardly understand anything. It begins to worry you a little when they burst into tears at the very thought of visiting someone. Oh, what’s a mother to do?

    How can I teach my children something I don’t know well myself?

    This is a question I found myself asking over and over since my arrival in Paraguay. Elijah and I prayed about it and it seemed as though the Lord took us back to square one. How were we learning the language? Wouldn’t it be best for the kids to learn the same way, right along with us?
    We began. We asked a sweet Christian Paraguayan lady to come be the kids’ “language helper” for two hours a week, and every day we reviewed words and photos in the language program with the kids. We learned our phrases and planned to practice them before we went out. Slowly we tried to talk in Spanish in the home, saying what we could back-to-back with English: first words, then sentences…
    We talked with them about cultural differences and about our purpose here in Paraguay, building them up as part of our team. We talked with our two oldest, who are believers, about the struggle between the flesh and the Spirit in each of our lives, and how we can practically learn to follow the Lord even though it can be uncomfortable and downright hard sometimes. Extra effort, extra time…
    Slowly and haltingly at first, I began to see the results: less apprehension, more involvement, more words spoken. As we now pass a year in Spanish study as a family, the children understand a lot of Spanish, sing songs in Spanish, and try to communicate with people even when they don’t know how to say something – smiling as they do so! Even more rewarding is to see my children growing in the Lord and in their faith!
    The Lord was faithful to give me the counsel of my husband, the tools to accomplish the task, and the perseverance to continue on to this point, just as He promised. Isn’t it wonderful that we can live confidently in Him?

     “Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God. Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, who has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit…for the Spirit gives life.” 2 Corinthians 3:4-6 ESV

Panteon de los Héroes, a memorial to the historic persons of Paraguay

What war?

   March 1st in Paraguay is “Día de los Heroes” – “Day of the Heroes” – and commemorates one of the bloodiest wars ever fought in the Western hemisphere. Fought between 1864 and 1870 (about the same time as the Civil War in the States), the Triple Alliance War had complex beginnings but resulted in Paraguay fighting against the neighboring countries of Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay. Many in Paraguay felt their national sovereignty was threatened. After some early Paraguayan victories, the war became a national disaster. Paraguayans fought fanatically under their leader Francisco S. López, who conscripted all Paraguayan males over the age of 10. When the war ended in the battle of Acosta Ñu, most of the Paraguayan soldiers were children, some as young as 8, who lost the battle while their mothers reportedly watched from a nearby forest. Afterward, cholera and starvation took further tolls as over half of the population of Paraguay ended up dying, including a loss of up to 90% of the males in the country.

   The struggle left Paraguay in an economic, social and political ruin, and its recovery was slow. The war’s effects on the culture still linger, according to some of our language helpers: for example, the mother is often regarded as the cornerstone of the family to this day and promiscuity is often overlooked, as the custom of one man having many women was actually encouraged in order to repopulate the country after the war.

   History is important as a means to understanding the people we live among, so that we can more effectively witness to them. As we are learning more about the people we are here to minister to, there are many sobering reminders of the desperate need for the Gospel. This need exists through all generations, but this is the generation we can help reach!

Elijah drinks tereré with our neighbor and brother in the Lord, Lucho

Homesickness: an almost daily reality in the life of every new missionary. Perhaps we will never be completely cured (perhaps we don’t even want to be) – but here are a few remedies we’ve found that help. The best is last!

1. THANKFULNESS

Taking every homesick thought (“Oh, I miss my family so much today!”) and turning it into a thankful thought somehow! Yes, at times this means doing some mental gymnastics, but it is possible (“I’m so glad I have a family that is lovable enough to miss! Besides, I know they miss me too, and it’s much better to be missed than not.”) We thank the Lord for our families and friends and enjoy remembering all the wonderful time spent with them. Of course, it always helps to recieve letters from home and we enjoy the wonderful blessing of Skype! 

         2. KEEPING THE VISION IN MIND

At this stage of our work when we are still working so hard just to communicate simple concepts, it’s tough at times to remember the bigger picture of why we’re here. Thinking of the Lord’s heart for the tribal groups of Paraguay and what a privilege it is to be here serving Him, and the goal of planting a vibrant church in an unreached people group, helps us remain motivated to learn.

          3. RELATIONSHIPS WITH PARAGUAYANS

Our friendships with Paraguayans – other believers, neighbors, etc. are a big help, and not just because we need to learn Spanish from them. For us, it helps put faces on language and culture study: I need to learn because I want to talk to Ricardo or understand why Graciela sees things the way she does. It also gives Paraguayans an avenue to bless and welcome us, and when we let them know we are missing home, they are amazingly creative at finding ways to comfort us!

             4. MAKING THE UNFAMILIAR FAMILIAR

Everything here was unknown – to us. But millions of people call this country “home”! What do they enjoy? What says “home” to them, or is a part of life they take for granted? For Paraguayans, tereré (made with cold water and yerba mate tea leaves) is not just a refreshing drink, but a social necessity almost. It took a while to get used to the taste, but now we carry our thermos of cold water and our guampa filled with yerba leaves, pass it around the circle and sip this drink with everyone else! (“Oh, you like our country!” We’ve heard this more than once as Paraguayans see our acceptance of them through our acceptance of the tereré custom). Exploring by ourselves – the river, different parks, historical sites, etc. as a family on our time off helps us feel as if we are not just here because we have to be, but because we want to be.  

                  5. AVOIDING DAMAGING COMPARISONS

Yes, things are not done the way we are used to – but then again, this isn’t the United States! Even joking in our home can add to an attitude of superiority that is damaging, both in us and our children. So we try to ask ourselves: will this comparison help me learn better how to model Christ in this culture, or will it build negative feelings toward those I am supposed to be serving? God sent us to Paraguay not to compare it with our home country, but to show His love to the people here.

              6. THE AWESOME GOD WE SERVE

When we think of the greatness of our God and His love in sending His Son for us, everything else pales in comparison. Our sacrifices are real to us, but they are small and they will pass. The sacrifice of the Lord Jesus in His death for us is a reality that encompasses eternity! We earnestly pray that the Lord will use us for His glory and that by His grace, some who do not yet understand Christ’s great sacrifice on their behalf will receive the salvation He offers.

• in the word-by-word inspiration and divine authority of the Holy Scriptures.
• in one God, eternally existing in three persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
• in the Lord Jesus Christ as true God and true man; His virgin birth, spotless humanity, vicarious death, bodily resurrection, present advocacy; and His personal, imminent, bodily, visible, pretribulation and premillennial return for His Church.
• in the fall of man, resulting in his complete and universal separation from God, and his need of salvation.
• that the Lord Jesus Christ died and shed His blood as a sacrifice for the sins of the whole world.
• that salvation is a free and everlasting gift of God, entirely apart from works; that every person is responsible to receive salvation by personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; that a soul once saved can never be lost.
• that the Holy Spirit regenerates with divine life and personally indwells the believer upon his faith in Christ for salvation.
• in the bodily resurrection of both the saved and the unsaved.
• in the unending life of the saved with the Lord, and the unending punishment of the unsaved.
• in the responsibility of each believer, motivated by the love of Christ and empowered by the Holy Spirit, to witness for Christ and to live sacrificially for the proclamation of the Gospel into all the world.
• in believer’s baptism by immersion.