NTM - New Tribes Mission | Planting Tribal Churches

So often when someone (like us) comes from a single culture society, we take traditions for granted. They are just things that you do, and no one really knows why, and you can’t really imagine another way of doing it. Why do we paint egg shells, only to then peel them off and eat the egg? Why do we eat turkey at Thanksgiving, but ham on Easter? Our Paraguayan friends are amused and fascinated when we explain what a traditional Easter is like back home.

So what is Easter like here? Well, being a Latin American country, its not just Easter that is celebrated, it actually starts 40 days earlier on Ash Wednesday. This period of time you may be familiar with. Its called lent. Starting 40 days early people will put ashes on their head and go to mass in a sign of mourning. During this whole period of lent the idea is to remember Christ’s suffering and to also, in a way, suffer a bit yourself by giving things up, such as meat (except fish).

On Palm Sunday many of the churches (not Protestant) will perform a procession. It’ll start in some pre-determined place and a Jesus doll and a donkey will be marched all the way to the church building while all the bystanders wave palm branches. Many people will put a Coke bottle full of water on the steps of the church so that it will be blessed when Jesus passes by. They’ll save this water to be used for when they are sick, or they will sprinkle it on their car to ward off accidents, or use it against bad circumstances in general.

All of the week leading up to Easter is big deal. Most people will travel out of the capital and visit family in the country. Although the only technical nacional holiday is Friday, many people have Wednesday till the Monday after Easter off from work. Wednesday and Thursday are very special family days. We got to experience this with some good Paraguayan friends on Thursday. We arrived early Thursday morning and the men got the fire going in the brick oven while the women went to work on a traditional soup called Bori-Bori. The bori-bori isn’t exactly easy to make, it took all morning.

After lunch we got to the main event: making Chipa. Chipa is a traditional bread made from tapioca flour, cheese, corn flour, and lard. Chipa likewise, is not quick and easy. It takes quite some time to get it mixed up to the right consistency. Then it gets cooked in the brick oven. Its eaten immediately and also a pot of Cocido, a hot traditional drink, is served with it. While the Chipa is eaten right away, the idea is to have lots of leftovers so you don’t have to cook on Good Friday, or as it is called in Spanish: “Holy Friday”. Good Friday isn’t for working and cooking, it is for reflecting on Christ’s suffering.

Since we have a vehicle we are borrowing right now we took advantage of the transportation and made a little trip to the next “state” of Paraguarí, to a town called Yaguarón (which translates from Guaraní as “the Big Dog”. Maybe one day I’ll write a blog on what the big dog is all about, but for now I’ll just keep you guessing) where religious pilgrims go to climb a famous hill. It’s not the easiest hill to climb with a lot of steep uphills, which proves their devotion as they climb. At the top is a very old prayer building where the faithful can pray. The point of Good Friday to many Paraguayans is that Christ has suffered and died. It is a time of mourning, self reflection, and penance.

Sadly, many people in this country see Friday, the day of his death, as more significant than Sunday, the day of his resurrection. To many the cross was a tragic accident, a consequence for our shortcomings. For understand what Jesus said ɾeɡɑɾdinɡ his life “No one takes it away from me; I give it up of myself. I have power to give it up, and I have power to take it again. These orders I have from my Father.” (John 10:18) Christ’s didn’t die at man’s hand as if it were some accident. May we always remember that He laid down His life. Events had been set in motion back in Genesis when God told Adam and Eve “in the day you eat it you will surely die.” Adam was alive when he was created. God had made Adam in His image (Gen. 5:1) and then had breathed life into him. But Adam ate of the fruit and died. Later Adam had a son in his own image (Gen 5:3). If your bloodline goes back to Adam (and it does) I’m sorry but “dead” is the proper way to describe you (Romans 5:12). And its there, right there, the beauty of Easter comes out. The truth is, the only reason we as humans have any value, is because God has decided we are valuable to Him. Let’s not forget, we’re just dirt physically. But God, being rich in mercy, laid down his life to pay the necessary price (Rom 3:23, 1 John 2:12) for our sins. But it doesn’t stop there. He didn’t just pay for your sins, He gave you life. (Rom 5:12-21, 1 Cor 15:22)

Jesus plan never was never to get humanity to clean up their act. His plan wasn’t to show a “better” way to live life. His plan was to fulfill the word of the prophets concerning Messiah, to seek and to save the lost, to show humanity that they can’t clean up their act for they need a Savior, and in the end, the plan was always to lay down His life so that He could rise again and give humanity back the life they had forfeited when they chose sin. Easter isn’t about mourning, its about rejoicing. Easter isn’t about inward reflection, its about looking to Christ. Yes, he suffered unimaginable physical agony, even unto death. But if it wasn’t for His death, there would be no hope for us. It was the only way. And may we never believe that we took His life from Him. Oh no. To believe that would detract from the act of mercy that it was. “For God so loved the world that He gave…” Easter was a gift from God to humanity. An undeserved, unearned, and under appreciated gift. Remember this Easter, its not about what you decide to do or give up for God, its not 50/50. Easter is 100% of what God did for you.

Pray for us as we live here in Paraguay, home of many religious persons, but few who know Jesus Christ.

I’ll never forget a story told to me by a professor/mentor at the Missionary Training Center. He worked for years in a tribal community in South America. From time to time the locals would ask him for a job, and if he had some work to be done he would hire them to do it. On this particular day, the only thing he could think of for a job was to have the two men wash his motorcycle. Nearby was an old bucket used for mixing cement, and was pretty crusted over with cement, but still a good bucket. So, my missionary friend, told his tribal friends that they could wash his motorcycle and that they should use the bucket to help. The water source was a good bit away. The two tribal men stared at my friend with a “you have got to be kidding me” kind of glance. They then preceded to pick up the bucket and set it on top of the motorcycle and push the motorcycle, going to a lot of effort to keep the bucket from falling down.

Hours passed. Well longer then it should take to wash a motorcycle. Finally, he could see them returning pushing the motorcycle, with the bucket seated once again on the seat. As the got closer the missionary started to get a little upset. The motorcycle was just as dirty as when they had left! However, he was wise enough to ask questions first. As he approached them, he noticed that the bucket was clean as could be. It turned out that what he had REALLY said was “You can wash the bucket. Use the motorcycle to help.” The men had scraped their fingernails clean off trying to get all the cement off the bucket.

That story may be worth a chuckle (I should note, that while their fingernails were gone, the two men got a kick out of it as well when the realized what had happened), and it is worth a chuckle when we talk of things like cleaning buckets. Or when you are 19 and you remark that a girl is a pig instead of what you meant to say which was left handed…(yes that really happened to me in Argentina. In spanish cerdo = pig, zurdo = left handed (also c and z are both pronounced exactly the same in spanish.)) well it can be funny. However when you miscommunicate the word of God, that’s not funny at all. In fact, the Lord will hold us accountable.

We are very thankful for the process that New Tribes Mission has in place for developing Bible lessons. There are a series of steps with each lesson before it can be taught in a crowd. Some of the steps are writing it out in English, writing it out word for word in the language you will be teaching in, going over with a helper to get wording right, and then doing comprehension checks with various people to get feedback on what exactly they’re understanding from what you are saying. Right now we are practicing doing this in Spanish. The point is to get used to going through the different steps of Bible lesson preparation.

Our assignment is to prepare a 5 minute devotional in Spanish (note, when we teach in a tribe it can be for 30 minutes or more). It may be only 5 minutes, but I thought I’d get an early start. Boy, am I sure glad I did! I have over 20 hours of work so far, and still more to go. That may seem tedious, but it has been worth it. One example I’ll give has to do with a choice of words. I wanted to communicate my own personal “Romans 7 experience” in my devotional of struggling with sin. I wanted to communicate that I was “falling short” in my Christian life. Since we know how to say that in English and its in Romans 3:23, I thought “Why not just look in the Spanish Bible for that wording.” My Spanish Bible said “destituido” so that was the word I inserted in my devo. As I went through my devotional with a friend, he was curious why I said destituido if we don’t lose our salvation. It turns out the word “destituido” is a lot stronger than our english “falling short.” Destituido has more the sense of destitute, separated, totally deprave. Simply, because of my word choice in my first draft, I was communicating that I got saved, struggled with sin, and lost my salvation. That’s a big mistake from one word! (For those who are curious, a better way to communicate what I wanted was “errando el blanco” or missing the mark.)

Sometimes we think or say “God knows my heart, and will clear up whatever mistakes I make.” This is what I call the “hack approach.” Just say whatever you can and trust God to take care of the rest. While I’m not going to presume upon what God can and will do, I will say just a word from Ephesians 6:17. When Paul talks about the Word of God being the sword of the spirit, in the Greek the word translated as “sword” is more literally “dagger.” It’s not a hug blade, its a small sharp dagger. So what? Well, with a big ol’ sword you don’t need to get close to the danger, nor do you need to be precise, just swing. But with a short dagger, you’ve got to get close and you can precisely make the incision that needs be made. I believe that God doesn’t want us just to be swinging and hacking away with our Bibles, but using them carefully and precisely with the wisdom He gives. (There are many other passages that would back up my belief in the need for prioritizing clear communication, but I thought I’d share this.)

We will never be able to clear up 100% of miscommunications. Consider how many times my wife and I miscommunicate, and we speak the same language. However, by putting priority on clear communication and true understand in our audience, without doubt we can become more effective communicators of truth.

“Sanctify them in the truth, your word is truth.” – John 17:17

Pray for us as we seek to communicate Biblical truth CLEARLY to those who believe lies.

It’s been years coming. Jon first felt God’s direction to missions with New Tribes Mission in 2004. Jen felt it in 2006. After years of training and ministry with our sending churches we finally arrived to the field of Paraguay 9 months ago. When you’ve been waiting that long to get started, needless to say you can’t wait to run as fast and hard as you can. No one forced us to come here. We willingly followed the Lord here. For us being here is a joy and a privilege. In May of 2011, we were fully prepared to give it everything we got. We were committed to putting in the time and energy to learn Spanish and Paraguayan Culture as fast as we could so we could move on a tribe who is still waiting to hear of what Jesus did for them.

Nothing can take the wind out of your sails more than when you are 100% mentally ready for the task, but you wind up going slower than you’d like due to circumstances. It can be frustrating when you’re sick, or when grocery shopping takes all day, when the bus drivers strike and you can’t get across town to do what you need to, when you have a wonderful day planned of outside language study and then it rains, or in our case these past couple weeks: when your bathroom springs a leak and sinks the floor in your bedroom and then they replace the plumbing and your bedroom floor.

The fruit of the Spirit is patience. So often we only focus in on the first 3 things (love, joy, peace) and forget that also the Holy Spirit is working patience out in our lives. While our workers were fixing our bathroom, I was impressed by the work the gardener was doing in the backyard. Our landlady had hired him to level off the backyard with topsoil and then plant grass. Now I figured he would do that with sod or seed. How surprised I was to see him open a bag full of grass, and then as he proceeded to cut individual blades of grass with the roots still attached and plant them one by one. He literally planted the entire yard one blade of grass at a time. It took over 2 ten hour days to finish. Never complained once.

We had such a great schedule planned not just for the week, but for the next 10 weeks leading up to Jen’s evaluation. Jen is really pushing hard to get in as much study time before the baby comes. We lost a whole week of study do to our house being a construction zone. (A week doesn’t sound bad but for math whizzes like me, you realize that she has already lost 10% of her study time leading up to her evaluation. That’s sounds like a lot more) It’s hard humanly speaking not to throw one’s hands up in the air when life “sets you back” from what you are trying to accomplish. Humanly speaking its very frustrating. But then when you step back and look at the situation from God’s perspective, you see that God is seeking to produce patience in your life, and that when you except the situation for what it is you realize that there is a lot to learn in the moment.

This week (really closer to two weeks) Jon got to go to his first soccer game with one of the guys who was working at the house. Jon has picked a Paraguayan team to follow, and one the workers is a fan of the same team so they went to a game. We learned what a normal work day looks like for construction workers. We got to observe how our landlady handled a situation where one of the workers charged her triple what had previously been arranged. Several of the tools and materials utilized were foreign to us so we learned what they call them here in Paraguay. The week didn’t have to be a lost week, but it could have been if we dwelt in the earthly realm of frustration.

So, we still don’t know how long this chapter of our lives will be. We don’t know when this chapter closes and opens on a new chapter of tribal church planting. Sometimes things may not go as smoothly or as quickly as we want. But the cool thing is, God doesn’t put timetables on his kids. He simply says to make the most of your time (Ephesians 5:16) and to be faithful (Matthew 25). And to remember that He is working all things out for good in our lives (Romans 8:28-29).

We thought it might be fun, for some of you, to read a blog post on five things that are completely normal and happen everyday around here in Paraguay which you might be surprised to know. These things took us completely off guard at first, but now that we’ve been here almost six months it took us awhile to think of these things because they have become so normal to us. So without further ado:

1. Milk does not come in cartons, it comes in bags.

Also forget buying a gallon or a half gallon. You are in Paraguay and it comes in a 1 liter bag. Yogurt also comes in bags. The fun thing about these bagged dairy products is when you wake up, and are really tired and would like a glass of yogurt for breakfast. I have learned I should wake up first. Inevitably what happens is you hold the corner of the bag with one hand, the scissors in the other hand, then you cut the bag. Since you are holding the corner that you cut and NOT the bag of yogurt it goes plummeting to the floor for the dog to enjoy. Now that this scenario has played out several times I have learned to let myself wake up first. I need all my mental energy to make sure I get that bag open without spilling it until I get used to the bag situation. But as they say there is no use crying over spilled milk…

2. Recycling is a horse and buggy industry

At least here in the capital city area there are literally hundred of these guys with horse and buggy going up and down the main highways and neighborhood streets. In can be a little comical sometimes watching the rustic chariot going down the road with buses backed up behind it, although you do feel bad for the horse who is trying to keep up with the busy traffic. Basically what they are doing is going around to all the trash cans and looking for things to recycle. Plastic, glass, metal, whatever. These people are just looking for any way to make money from your garbage. Side note: be sure to separate your recyclable objects from the rest of your trash. This is not a city ordinance, but if you don’t separate them these people will open up all your bags of trash looking for what they can recycle and it’ll be messy. Do yourself and them a favor and just separate it for them. Also, to be clear, this is not an official job or industry or state project. These are just people doing what they can to make a living.

3. Fruit may be on the sidewalk

This is a missionary dream come true! Everywhere you go there is just fruit lying around: oranges, grapefruits, avocados, guayaba, cherries, coconut, mangos, papaya…there are trees everywhere and it literally just gets ripe and falls to the ground. There, in some ways, is too much fruit to be eaten. I have actually seen people burning the mangoes because there are so many of them and they attract sooo many flies that people just burn them to deal with the problem. Sometimes we pick some up. A couple houses down the cherries are delicious. But when oranges start falling, it just can’t all be eaten.

4. The bus is never full

I have actually had people tell me that there comes a point when the bus is full, but I have never personally witnessed a bus driver deciding not to let anyone else on the bus. We have been amazed how many more people can get on a bus after we think not a single person more will fit. I have seen easily 50 people get on a bus after the last seat is taken. One cool thing about having kids is Paraguayans will always always give up their seat for someone with kids, or a pregnant lady. So we always get on and get a seat. However the adventure begins when you need to get off of a jam packed bus. You stand up in your seat and look to the person next to you as if to say “excuse me sir, I need to get past you and walk down the aisle so I can get out the back door.” He looks back at you with a look that says “what do you want me to do?” He has nowhere to go. No one has anywhere to go to let you get passed. Forget squeezing through because you are holding a 3 year old and have on a backpack. So what do you do? You just push as hard as you can until you get to the door. No one cares that you are knocking them over, they know you got to do what you got to do to get off the bus.

5. Doors and windows are all left open

This one is kind of a strange one. Windows and doors don’t have screens, and are just all left open. (With the exception of nighttime. This has changed recently. All Paraguayans talk about the good ol’ days when they could sleep with the door open, but the city is too dangerous to do that now) Houses tend to be on the humid side, so if you aren’t letting air circulate then you’ll start getting mold in the house. The flip side is if you leave doors and windows open you get bugs in the house. I have to admit, after awhile you get used to bugs and kind of enjoy the fresh air that having the doors and windows opened provides.

So these are five things that are really normal here. Hope you enjoy getting a glimpse of our life here. Keep praying for us as we progress in Spanish and Paraguayan culture.

¿Conocés la tortilla? This is a question we get asked often here in Paraguay. Every time I hear it I chuckle a bit on the inside because I know what they mean when they say it, but to translate it literally in my head is the funny part. What we are being asked is if we have ever tried a tortilla. However what it literally translates to is “do you know the tortilla.” (Yeah I know her, I don’t call her at home but sometimes we hang out…) Several things come to the surface with this question: 1. To ask someone if they have tried something before, you don’t ask if they’ve tried it. You ask them if they know whatever it may be. To translate directly from English wouldn’t work here. You have to word the question in the way they would word it to sound native. 2. Why does everyone want to know if we have tried tortillas? Maybe for some reason or another its important to them. 3. Just because they said tortilla, don’t assume you have any clue what a tortilla is.

Recently, with some Paraguayan friends, we learned how to make Paraguayan tortillas. This is a picture of them. Do they look like tortillas to you? I thought not. That is because the tortillas that we think of from our texmex food, here in Paraguay aren’t considered tortillas. Here those kind of tortillas are called Arab Bread. Go figure right? And even though tortillas…er I mean Arab Bread is used to hold taco filling (which really is a texmex idea. In Mexico many people eat the tortillas by themselves, and in Guatemala apparently they just mix the flour and water and drink it without ever cooking it…) here Paraguayan tortillas are eaten by themselves. They can be eaten for breakfast, for a snack, or as a side dish to a meal.

So whats the point? Is this just some cute trivia that now you can use to impress your friends at dinner parties? This situation goes to illustrate that its not just words that we are learning, its the meaning behind the words. What is a Paraguayan thinking when he says __________? It’s important that when we say a word that we are not imposing our idea of what the word means and assume that they are thinking the same thing if clear communication is going to happen. While I seriously doubt that anyone would be in danger of misunderstanding the Gospel message because I misunderstood the meaning of the word “tortilla”, the principal applies to effective cross-cultural ministry. What do the people think when I say the word “sin”? What about the word “God”? I need to know what they are thinking when I say things, so that I can predict how the message will be understood to ensure that misunderstanding is not taking place.

In the meantime, we’ll be enjoying these delicious Paraguayan tortillas. I got to tell you, you don’t know what you are missing. These things are awesome. Any southern boy would love to get his mouth on one of these babies. Cheese, flour, green onions, and deep fried. When we come back to Georgia, we may just have to fry some up for you.

This past Sunday we had the experience that was bound to happen sooner or later. We had our first family birthday since we have been here in Paraguay. It was Jen’s birthday.

It may seem obvious to us that everyone celebrates birthdays the same way, but actually they don’t. Paraguayans celebrate birthdays much differently than we do. In first place there is the issue of kids birthdays. We have had the opportunity to attend several kids birthday parties now. Some observations that we made that may strike some of you as unusual: Chocolate milk is a must, bouncy houses and music are the norm, while the kids play the adults eat a meal that is provided, gifts are given anonymously, all the kids in attendance also get gifts from the child whose birthday it is, and you should probably show up an hour late to the party to be on time. Some of these things are important to know. Can you imagine how we felt when we arrived to a birthday party 15 minutes late, only to realize that we had arrived 30 minutes before the parents of the child whose birthday it was had even arrived!

When it comes to adults, it is typical for adults to throw a party for themselves and invite people over. This to us is very different. Most adults in the States don’t have birthday parties (unless they are turning 50, or 65) and even if they do have a party its thrown by either a spouse or a friend…however, here it is the norm to throw a party for yourself. That being the cultural norm, it is also a cultural expectation from your friends that you are going to throw yourself a party and then invite them. Imagine the let down they’d have if you didn’t throw yourself a party!

We are blessed by having Paraguayan friends who know that we are knew here. They helped us as we planned out Jen’s big day and what we would do. In the end it was a great time of fellowship with two families who have been very close to us during our time here. We commented that it was a great experience being so far away from our real families, to have had the opportunity to spend the day with our Paraguayan families.

Keep praying for us as we dig deeper and deeper into the culture and mindset of the people we now live among.

Well, it’s hard to believe that we have been here 10 weeks now at this point. When you say it like that it doesn’t seem so long. When you say 2.5 months, well that seems a little longer. In any case, you are probably wondering how things are going, and how we are using our time in these days. Others may wonder how we personally are doing, and what struggles we may be having.

I love this new family picture we have. It’s a great photo of all 4 of us wearing our Paraguayan soccer jerseys (a must have) and posing in front of the River Paraguay here in the capital city of Asuncion where we live now. What I love about this picture in particular, is what is in the background. Behind us in the picture is an area known as the “Gran Chaco” a large sparsely populated semi-arid wilderness where 5 of the still unreached people groups of Paraguay are located. It’s hard to imagine that just across a river from a city of 2 million people lies a largely untouched space that is home to Jaguars, giant anteaters, and flocks of parrots. It’s possible that in the future, we could find ourselves living in the Gran Chaco.

But ministry is always a process. In the beginning of 1 Corinthians 3, Paul alludes to this process. He says that in the beginning of his ministry, he couldn’t give the Corinthian church meat from the Word, but rather milk. No doubt the Corinthian church needed meaty teaching, but it wasn’t the appropriate time for that. First the milk came to allow the church to grow, and then the meat would come afterwards. In the same way we are not ready to begin preaching the gospel to the unreached ethnic groups of Paraguay. If the Lord permits we will someday, but not today.

So, what are we doing today? Upon arrival to the field we entered a phase in which we were adjusting to life here in Paraguay. We were expecting this time to take about a month, but really it wound up taken about two. What were we doing to adjust? Well, physically we were doing things like looking for a place to live, setting up house, learning where to buy things, and getting a feel for the Paraguayan rythym of society. On the mental side of things we were wrapping our minds around listening to a new language, getting an ear for the sounds and patterns, learning basic etiquette in everyday situations, and also letting it sink in that we are here to stay…we aren’t going home.

That last thing is probably the hardest. It’s easy to sweep under the rug the things that rub you wrong. While some things are the same with life here in Paraguay, there is a vast number of things that are sharply different from what we consider normal, and our list of things is growing daily. At first we didn’t notice much. But we are constantly becoming more aware of things that seem strange to us, and those things have a tendency to affect one’s attitude. Like I said, no cultural difference is a big enough deal to lose sleep over…until you realize you aren’t going home. This new culture is YOUR new culture. This foreign land is now YOUR new home.

The experience I am describing is commonly known as culture shock, and it is undoubtedly hitting us. It’s not that the Paraguayan people or the country are terrible and horrific. Quite the contrary, the people are loving and the country is wonderful, but they are different. Not wrong, just different. And different is the new normal.

Having come to the end of the stage known as Field Orientation we have begun the process of National Culture and Language Acquisition (a phrase like that reminds me of Captain Barbosa when he says “such big words, we’re not but humbles pirates…”). Basically all that means is we are learning Spanish and the way Paraguayans are. We are doing this through our friends at church and friends in our community under the guidance of our consultants.

We look forward to completing this stage of the process with excellence so we can move on to the next stage: Tribal Allocation. It won’t be next week, or even next month, but we do keep the next step in front of us to remind us that this stage is just another piece of the puzzle to see an unreached people group reached for Christ.

A just wanted to share this story with all of you. This is one of those neat stories that you’ll always remember what God did to strengthen your faith.

We had been getting a little bit discouraged in searching for a place here in the city to rent for our time of learning Spanish and Paraguayan culture. It would seem that our church here in Paraguay that Jen and I will be attending is in one of the most expensive areas in the country. Our goal was to live close to the church since the majority of our contacts and activities will be taken place there. We aren’t planning on having a vehicle during our time here, which means we use the public transportation (buses) to get from one part of the city to the other. Everything in our price range seemed to be a couple bus rides away. Everything close to the church was out of our price range.

When we would find a place, we would call and it would already be rented. This can be hard for our United States friends to imagine, since back home houses for rent can sit vacant for a year. Here is Asuncion Paraguay, I’d say the average wait time for a renter is about 5 hours. I honestly don’t feel like that is an exaggeration. We would see a home listing on the internet listed at 8:00 in the morning. We would call before noon but many times the house was already rented. Actually, we only called in time to go and see 2 houses. One was out of our price range, the other the sewer backed up when it rained. Yeah…

I came across an add online that I missed before. It was about 7 blocks from our church, and the price was only 2/3 the price we had budgeted for rent. In this neighborhood homes typically rent for about 2.5 times the price that this one was renting for. The add was 12 days old. It’s common not to take the add down. Since normal turnaround is 5 hours, I was sure an ad 12 days old was gone. I exited out of the ad. I stopped and thought. I pulled the ad back up and took it to another missionary with New Tribes Mission who has been helping us find a house.

When my friend saw the ad, he concurred. The house was surely gone by now. No point in wasting our time by calling. After a few minutes of talking about other things he said, “aw, what harm is there in calling?” He picked up the phone and called. The house amazingly was still vacant and we could come see it in two days. I talked to some friends at church about it the next day. They said “wise up. Any house vacant for that long has a good reason.”

We went and looked at the house. It was small, but there was nothing wrong with it. Good neighborhood, park down the street, fruit trees in the yard, 2 bedrooms, and 7 blocks from church. As the owner was showing us the house her phone was ringing off the hook with people calling and wanting to see the house. She kept telling them that she was there now and to come on by. We couldn’t believe what we were seeing. A perfectly good house, in a good neighborhood, for an incredible price, and currently a phone full of potential renters.

We had to know. “Ma’am, are we the first to see the house?” “Yes,” she said. “How is it that the ad is 2 weeks old and we are the first to see this house?” She began to explain that right after she listed the house online, she came down with a terrible virus. She couldn’t get out of bed. Her phone had been ringing off the hook the whole time, but her daughter was instructed to tell people that she was sick and to call back in a few days. We were the first to call once she was better.

As she told us this story some other people arrived to see the house. We could clearly see that God was in this. Before the other people had even seen the house we went ahead and told the owner that we would take it, and gave her a deposit. We didn’t have to step back and think and pray. We had already been thinking and praying. Then God answered, we were sure. Sometimes there is no question that God is in something.

We stand here shocked at what God has done. We went from feeling that we would never get out of the mission guest house. But now we see that God just had to do something pretty amazing, just to remind us that it was Him. Really we shouldn’t be shocked at all. These are the kinds of things God does.

We should be able to move in soon. The owner is a great landlady and is fixing up a lot with the house, and will turn over the keys as soon as she’s happy with how the house looks.

Earlier we were able to share how we spent our first Mother’s Day in Paraguay. Now with joy we can share with you how our first Father’s day in Paraguay went.

Last week a man in our church here in Paraguay came up to me and said he had something to ask me after church. That can be kind of a nerve racking statement sometimes. You see, we are new here to Paraguay. While people are people worldwide, everywhere people have their own distinct cultural assumptions and expectations. As newcomers to a culture, you don’t know the culture and therefore when someone asks a question, sometimes it can be hard to determine HOW to answer a question to get the desired result.

This may be hard for some to conceptualize. Imagine, my American friends, if you invited someone over to your house for dinner. Imagine if they showed up an hour late. Would you expect an explanation? Yes. Would you ask for an explanation? Perhaps, but you would word it carefully. You might feel the person very rude if he didn’t give you a reason why he was an hour late. And you would assume that the late person would know that you would think him rude if he didn’t give an explanation. That’s culture at work and a newcomer to America wouldn’t know that an explanation was expected. He may simply say hello, not give an explanation, and not realize that the relationship had been damaged because he behaved so “rudely” as to not give an explanation.

So needless to say I sweat a little when someone says they have a question to ask me. After the service the man asked if we could come over to his house for Father’s Day for a traditional Paraguayan BBQ. That’s an easy question. Duh, Yes Please!

We love days like this. But for some of our readers, prayer team, and supporters it may seem like we came to have a good time and eat steak (good steak today I might add). Today was so much more than a good grill out. Today we continued the process of becoming somebody we’re not, in order to effectively reach them for Christ. The entire day revolved around relationships, the basis for all ministry. These aren’t just Paraguayan folks. They are people. They are friends. They are a family. They’ve been married for over 25 years. They have two kids. We made friends today. Granted, our world’s of experience are world’s apart (literally), but we truly have become friends. As the relationship blooms, we will have an avenue into their life that we never could have without the relationship (and since they are brothers in Christ, they will have inroads into our lives as well.)

Inside of relationships we can then pursue other ways we are becoming somebody new. As the grill heated up, George and I walked around the yard as he was happy to tell me what every single plant in his yard was called. He showed me his house and the kind of wood that was used. Jen was shown how some things are cooked here and also learned some words for around the kitchen. As we ate our meal the conversation shifted from things about the weather to glimpses of how Paraguayans think: their culture. As we discussed an upcoming Paraguayan holiday, and the current national infrastructure, we got glimpses into their minds. We may be only seeing through the glass darkly, but some things were seen.

What for some would be a simple meal, to us was a process unraveling before our very eyes. We were learning a language and culture in a real life context, all with relationships as the center. Be it ever so small, we became a little more Paraguayan today than we were yesterday. I pray that God will use this process to make our ministry in Paraguay more glorifying to Him.

This is really no different from what we will be doing in tribal church planting context. We will have to become “as one of them” so we can reach them for Christ. If we can’t speak to them, we can’t communicate. If we can’t speak Like them, they won’t be able to track with us. If we don’t understand them, our ministry will likely be irrelevant. And if we don’t build relationships, there will be none to minister to anyway. If we cannot “become” Paraguayan, there is little hope that we can “become” tribal. But if we can “become” Paraguayan, we can take what we have learned from this experience and apply it to a similar situation in the tribe. With God’s strength we can see the gospel Go further than ever before, and we can see the gospel be Received once it gets there.

One of the fun things about being in a different country is the local currencies. It’s amazing how diverse and unique some currencies are in comparison to our own dollar. Some of our readers might suspect that the monetary system of Paraguay would be the “peso” like other countries in the region such as Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay. But the system in Paraguay, in fact, is not the “peso” but rather something unique to Paraguay called the “Guarani”.

Indeed, even in the naming of the currency, we see reflections into Paraguayan culture. Paraguayans, generally speaking, love their country. But they also love their uniqueness in South America. While some countries in the region celebrate their European heritage, Paraguay (again generally speaking) celebrates its indigenous heritage. Guarani is actually the name of the name given to the indigenous population of Paraguay when the Spanish were settling here. Guarani also refers to one of the indigenous languages spoken here back then as well. The pride comes in because despite the coming of the Spanish and their language the Guarani survived. The people are still here, and so is the language. The national variety of Guarani is co-national language alongside Spanish, and the great majority of Paraguayans speak both languages. In fact they speak them so well that they mix them both together sometimes in normal speech (making language learning fun right? Um…what language was that?)

So as we carry around the new currency, we are reminded of this glimpse into the culture. The exchange rate between the dollar and the guarani at the moment is around 4,000 guaranis per dollar. It feels kind of funny to have a 100,000 bill. But really that is about $25. So maybe you are wondering, what can you do with $25 dollars in Paraguay?

In all honesty, $25 goes about the same here as it would back in the US. Food is roughly the same price, with the exception of a couple items such as Yucca, Oranges, and Bananas. These items grow like crazy here, so there is definitely more than enough supply to meet the demand. Housing can cost the same here depending on where you live. Getting a car here is a lot more expensive than in the US. But probably the most affordable thing to do here is ride the public transportation bus. Currently it costs 2,300 Guaranis per person one way. Kids ride free. So for just over a dollar, you can ride round-trip on the bus. I think that’s pretty cheap in comparison to owning a car and putting gas in it.

Thanks to all who’s prayers and giving have enabled us to come and live in Paraguay.