Read about our Christmas with Mike’s family and Pai believers,

our church’s youth camp, field conference with other missionaries,

photography opportunities, and a brief update about our children

Christmas with Mike’s Family and Pai believers

Each year we look forward to spending Christmas with family. Mike’s brother and sister and their families live only a 5-hour drive away, making it easy to drop in for a couple of days. This year included a Christmas service with the Pai Tavytera church on the 25th. The meeting lasted over 3 hours as one by one people would go up front and share a testimony of God’s grace in their lives.

In 3 weeks, we will be returning to assist the Pai Tavytera build a larger church building for their weekly gatherings for worship and teaching. Pray with us and the Pai Tavytera church, as we continue to raise funds for this building project and for volunteer workers.

If you would like to have a part in Acércate 2012, you can visit our website. Be sure to indicate that this is a one-time designated gift toward the building project.

December: Youth camp, Field Conference, and Photography

Mike was given several opportunities to share on missions during our church camp. After talking passionately about the  Ayore people in the Paraguayan Chaco, he asked, “and who will go!?” to which one girl replied, “you will Mike!”

From church camp we went directly to NTM’s conference where we were refreshed by teaching in both Spanish and English.

Mike was able to serve two young couples in December by photographing their wedding. One couple started training in Brazil and will continue missionary training  in Bolivia in 2012. They desire to be tribal church planters.

Children Update

Michael graduated this year from 2nd grade in the Paraguayan Christian school this year. In 2012, he will be homeschooled by his mother.

Lea had a great time playing with her cousin Briana during Christmas Break.

Kaleb is started out the year very shy in pre-school, but he emerged very fluent in Spanish and outgoing.

>> Every day will I bless thee; and I will praise thy name forever and ever. Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised; and his greatness is unsearchable. One generation shall praise thy works to another, and shall declare thy mighty acts. Psalms 145:2-4

Thank you for your prayers and support which make it possible for us to serve on a full-time basis here in Paraguay.

Because of Christ,

Mike & Trisha Goddard

Read in this monthly Goddard Grapevine:

(1) 9 months of Bible teaching in Caaguazu

(2) Testimonies of Rural Church Leaders

(3) Intercultural Missions Conference

(4) Children Update

(5) Prayer Requests

9 Months of Bible Teaching

November concluded 9 months of Bible teaching to rural church leaders. One man gave testimony saying, “I’ve been saved for 20 years, but finally I feel like I’m getting to know God! Mike has helped us establish a firm foundation in our lives; that foundation is Christ!”

The church leaders expressed their gratitude to each of the Bible teachers by giving a printed certificate.

Trisha’s service in the kitchen alongside the other cooks, was also recognized through a certificate. Her experiences will be very helpful as she cooks for the 2 work teams in January and February 2012.

Testimonies of rural church leaders from the 9 month Bible teaching:

“The stories of Adam and Eve and about the Church had become common to me until this year. I’m understanding things I had never known.”  – Alcides

“I have always been extremely timid and backward, but God’s Word has given me tremendous confidence!” – Manuel

“Mike wrote on the white board about who we were before salvation and who we are now in Christ. All we have to do is use the tools God has given us to live in holiness!” – Saul

Intercultural Missions Conference

A Paraguayan organization called LETRA Paraguay and NTM put together an intercultural missions conference where tribal church leaders, national missionaries and expatriate missionaries were able to fellowship together and learn from one another’s experiences and ministries. There were 11 different ministries present, numerous churches, and 4 tribal groups from both Paraguay and Argentina.

Mike oversaw the organization and logistics of the conference while Trisha handled the welcome table and NTM’s display table. It was encouraging to see so many people working together toward a common objective: to see that the Gospel is preached and lived out among the least-reached people groups of Paraguay.

Children Update

Michael, Lea, and Kaleb have finished their school year in a Paraguayan Christian School and are now homeschooling.

This next year, we will be homeschooling. The kids are very excited to have mom as a teacher again and enjoy having their own assignment books to “check” of the assignments that they have accomplisted during the day.

Michael is finishing his 2nd grade English Abeka books and will begin 3rd grade soon.  Lea is finishing her 1st grade English Abeka books and will begin 2nd grade soon. Kaleb is continuing his Kindergarten English Abeka books.

Their Spanish has greatly improved over the year and often speak it in the home. We praise the Lord for our children, who have learned Spanish as well as tidbits of Guarani and Portuguese. In fact, this next  2 1/2 weeks, we will be having a Brazilian friend stay with us.

Prayer Requests

(1) to provide our children a balanced life-style in both education and ministry.

(2) wisdom as we raise our children to walk in righteousness in their faith in Jesus Christ.

(3) wisdom as we lead two Latin missions teams to build a church building with the Pai Tavytera

(4) wisdom as we live out Christ in so many contexts and cultures on a daily basis. May His Church be built up and engage efficiently in worldwide missions!

Download a printable version here: Goddard Grapevine – November 2011

Check out our new family photos here >> Goddard family 2011

I lift up my eyes to the hills- where does my help come from?  My help comes from the LORD , the Maker of heaven and earth.  He will not let your foot slip- he who watches over you will not slumber; indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.  The LORD watches over you- the LORD is your shade at your right hand;  the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night.  The LORD will keep you from all harm- he will watch over your life;  the LORD will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore. Psalms 121

Praise:

1. For the opportunity to serve the Paraguayan Christian community.
2. For the ACERCATE 2012 project that is now in full swing >> building a church for the Pai believers in a tribal location.
3. For Michael, Lea, and Kaleb, who are finishing up their school year at the Spanish Christian school mid- Nov and looking forward to being homeschooled with mom.

Prayer Requests:

1. Wisdom and guidance from the Lord as Mike & Trisha raise their children and train them to walk in truth.
2. For their lives to reflect Christ and that all they do will honor and glorify Him.
3. For wisdom for Mike and Trisha as they serve in the different responsibilities that they are responsible for.
4. For Trisha, who will be homeschooling their 3 children. Lord-willing, she is hoping to get 3-4 weeks of school in before the 2^nd week of December and start again end of February.
5. For Mike & Trisha as they lead 2 short term mission trips (ACERCATE) for 2 weeks each with approx. 12 Latin youth (end of January and beginning of February). These 2 teams will have a part in building a church for the Pai tribal people and see cross-cultural missions first-hand.
6. For good health.
7. For safety in travels.

From the rising of the sun unto the going down of the same the LORD’S name is to be praised. The LORD is high above all nations, and his glory above the heavens. Who is like unto the LORD our God, who dwelleth on high,  Who humbleth himself to behold the things that are in heaven, and in the earth! Psalms 113:3-6

Building Project and 2 Short Term Missions Trips

The planning phase for the building project of Iglesia Nueva Cristiana, is in full swing! This is the Pai Tavytera church founded by a New Tribes Mission church planting team starting in 1996. After a lengthy period of pre-evangelism, a church was finally born in 2000 and has now grown into approximately 100 members.

The small property where the NTM Team built their houses was named “Light” in the Guarani language. Truly light has shown in the midst of darkness in this corner of Paraguay as this small group of believers grow in maturity and seek to impact their sphere of influence with the Light of Jesus Christ!

For 2 weeks in January and 2 weeks in February, we are combining this building project with the short-term missions program we lead called Acércate. We are planning for two separate work teams originating primarily from the capital of Paraguay and will be completely in Spanish. Many lives have been challenged into full time Christian work through these types of short-term missions trips. The cost of the project is as follows:

• Church building: $7,500 USD

• Cost per person for the two-week trip: $100 USD

Please pray with us and the Pai Tavytera church, Iglesia Nueva Cristiana, as we raise funds for this building project and trust God to bring the right young people as volunteer workers.

If you would like to have a part in Acércate 2012, you can visit our website.  Be sure to indicate that this is a one-time designated gift.

Neat Experience in the Southern City of Encarnacion

This month, we had a neat experience when visiting a small church in the southern city of Encarnacion. We shared with their youth group and adults what God says about cross-cultural ministries. Their response was tremendous and expressed desire to support a Paraguayan church planter! They also put us up in a hotel, treated us out to dinner, and gave us a tour of their city. What a joy to experience interdependency in ministry!

While in southern Paraguay, we took advantage of the opportunity to visit the ancient Jesuit ruins from over 300 years ago! We also stopped in for a quick visit with a missionary family working with the Mbya tribe.

4 Teaching Sessions on how to implement a Missions Program

The missions mobilization manual that Mike developed for the churches associated with an organization called FEMIPA is slowly making progress. With each step forward, there are overwhelming challenges to overcome.

In November, Mike will be providing 4 training sessions and discussions on how to implement a missions program within strategic churches.

Please continue to pray for us and with us as minds are retrained to think cross-culturally.

Thank you for your prayers and support which make it possible for us to serve on a full-time basis here in Paraguay.

Download pdf format of our Goddard Grapevine (Oct. 2011) and Praise & Prayer (Nov. 2011) here >> Goddard Grapevine – October 2011 (pdf format)

Praise:

1. For God’s continued provision for their needs.
2. That their children have a week vacation from school in October.

Prayer Requests:

1. Wisdom and guidance from the Lord as Mike & Trisha raise their children and train them to walk in truth.
2. For their lives to reflect Christ and that all they do will honor and glorify Him.
3. For Mike as he prepares for different meetings with pastors and missions organizations.
4. For safety as the Goddards travel to 4 different cities this month (Encarnacion, General Aquino, Neuland, and Caaguazu).
5. For the different meetings throughout this month with Pastors and other Mission Organizations.
6. For the different ACERCATE short term mission trips that are being organized for 2012.
7. For the Latin Mobilization conference that will be held in Brazil in April 2012.
8. For the Ache tribal church and the Bible translation being done by LETRA Paraguay.
9. For students in Bible Institute or Missions Institute: Ronald & Melissa (training in Bolivia); Leonie  (training in Bolivia).

MINISTRY // CHILDREN // YOU CAN BE INVOLVED

MINISTRY NEWS

A tremendous blessing from the first Missions Conference in our church here in Asuncion was that it brought the missionaries closer together in unity. Recently after church, the six missionary families had dinner together and discussed ways that we can continue to encourage our church in missions throughout this year and the next.

Each month we invite the Christian community to NTM Paraguay’s Acercate meeting. This has been a tremendous opportunity to build relationships and share about tribal missions around the world!

Mike continues to meet with the members of a Paraguayan Mission Board called FEMIPA. Currently, they are working their way together through the Mobilization Manual that Mike put together for such an occasion. The objective is to assist FEMIPA to equip their church association to handle both local and cross-cultural ministries.

The Pai Tavytera church where Mike’s brother and sister are working, have been praying about a new church building. FEMIPA has adopted the church project, and therefore, several short-term missions trips are being planned for early 2012, to build a church building and to see young people challenged into cross-cultural ministries!

Mike has 2 more teaching sessions (last weekend of October and last weekend of November) to teach the church leaders of an association called CEMP. Out of 68 Bible lessons, he has taught through 12! When offered the option of moving rapidly toward the end, they said “No! We want to savor all the truths we are learning from the book of Genesis!”

Trisha recently had brightly colored t-shirts made; each designed with a missions challenge designed to show the need for more missionaries among tribal people.

MICHAEL, LEA, AND KALEB

Michael continues to plug away at learning different languages and doing really well. He is happy that they recently started their Soccer tournament at school. He, Lea, and Kaleb are on the “Blue Shark” team! When his team didn’t win, he said, “That’s alright, we did our best and had lots of fun.”

Right now in school, Lea is learning cursive writing and has been practicing a lot. She is praying that mommy will be her teacher next year, because she says “Mom is the best teacher and doing school with her is easy!”

Kaleb loves using the different languages that he knows and especially mixing them together to make new words. He has definitely outgrown his shyness. He now enjoys talking away, being his teachers’ helper, and motivating other classmates in their schoolwork.

YOU CAN GET INVOLVED!!

Would you like to sponsor a Paraguayan youth to be a part of building the Pai Tavytera church? The estimated cost per person for one week is $100. This includes transportation from Asuncion and food. Any remaining funds will be given as an offering toward the building project.

Thank you for your prayers and support which make it possible for us to serve on a full-time basis here in Paraguay.

Read about our ministry, our kids, and what “tranferral of roles” means in our latest Goddard Grapevine.

Ministry

Desiring to see additional missions mobilizers catching the heartbeat of God for His Church, Mike completed the first draft of a Mobilization Guide, written completely in Spanish. A vital part of transferring responsibilities from church planter to the planted church is through writing in the heart language.

Mike designed simple graphics for the Manual to point out the importance of sound Biblical Theology upon which are built our values, programs and practice.

Each month, our Missionary Team in Asuncion opens the door to Pastors, missionaries, regular church members, and young people through a meeting called Acercate a las tribus.  We have been focusing on different countries in southern Asia, and will share the needs among tribal groups in Colombia in May.

This past month, Mike has had quality time with key individuals in which he has been able to communicate key principles that will help the Paraguayan church become protagonist in cross-cultural church planting. It has also been a learning experience as each meeting brings about greater insight into magnitude of the Task.

In less than 3 months, we will be flying to the USA  on Home Assignment. Our dates in the USA are July 24 – December 2. If you would like to know our schedule, please feel free to request it by email.

NTM Paraguay’s Education Camp takes place twice a year and is organized by the Chaco Christian Academy. Michael Dean enjoyed his 1st  and learned all about Australia, the digestive system with Professor Cranium, Under the Sea with a Pirate, and fun crafts with marbles. Mike taught the upper grades a practical class on photography and  Paraguayan culture.

OUR KIDS

Michael turned 8 last month. He enjoyed eating homemade pizza and loved the treasure chest that he received as a gift. He is in 2nd grade and loves to read.

Lea is 6. She has lost 3 teeth and almost a 4th. She loves to color and draw palm trees and flowers, do puzzles of 100 or more pieces, and help mom around the house. She is in 1st grade and likes grammar.

Kaleb will be 4 in June. He loves playing with legos. He is learning to write his name.

In summary, what do you mean by a “transferral of roles?”

In every church planting ministry there is always a transferral of roles from the church planter to the local church. A church planter is often a visionary, highly self-motivated, and hard working. Some cultures in the world have handled this kind of driven person better than others. The goal of the church planter is not only to see people come into a saving knowledge of Christ, but also to walk with Him and carry on the work of multiplication.

The Goddard’s ministry in Paraguay can be characterized as facilitators to the transferral of roles between the original church planters and the existing local church body. Many of the models left behind by foreign church planters has unwittingly lent toward foundation-less churches, whereby allowing high levels of syncretism, resulting in an identity crisis so devastating that cross-cultural church planting is the furthest thing from the mind and heart of the Church.

The Goddards believe that God’s heart for His Church in Paraguay (and around the world) is to “grow in maturity so as to plant mature churches both locally and cross-culturally.” They believe this was the heart of the early church planters that lived among the Paraguayan people, but before and after the transferral of roles, there was a breakdown in the clear cross-cultural communication of Biblical principles.

Please pray with us for the local church in Paraguay. Pray also for our family as we carry this burden with God’s Church.

Please read below for our latest Personal and Ministry prayer requests. We appreciate your prayers!

Praise:

1. For a restful December. We only had one ministry commitment, and the rest of the month, they enjoyed their annual NTM field conference, time as a family, and visiting with Paraguayan friends.

2. That Michael, Lea, and Kaleb are recovering quickly from chicken pox.

3. That Trisha’s mom is coming this week to be with us for a little over 2 weeks.

Personal Prayer Requests:

1. For Mike and Trisha as they train up their children in the way of the Lord.

2. That Kaleb will understand the Gospel.

3. For Trisha as she homeschools Michael and Lea starting in February.

4. For Trisha, who will be taking an in-depth 30 hour course in Spanish starting in February with Nidia, a Paraguayan lady. Please also pray for Nidia’s salvation.

5. For good health.

6. For the Goddards as they look into buying airline tickets for their Home Assignment in the USA (end of August 2010 to early January 2011) and also for a vehicle to use during this time.

Ministry Prayer Requests:

1. For Mike and Trisha as they continue to plan out the 2010 ministry calendar for Mobilization.

2. For coworkers to help Mike and Trisha Goddard.

3. For the ACERCATE meetings on January 5th and February 2nd.

4. For Mike and Trisha as they prepare for an International missions event called CIMA2010

5. For Mike and Trisha as they travel the 3rd week of January to Argentina for CIMA2010.

6. For Mike, who will be teaching a 6 hour module on “Animism 007” and Mike and Trisha will have a Stand for New Tribes Mission Paraguay in CIMA2010.

7. For Mike and Trisha, as they lead a 10 day ACERCATE trip the end of January after the international missions camp with 10 youth from different countries. They will be taking the team to a Pai tribal village.

Please read below for our latest e-mail newsletter!

4 DAY VACATION IN BRAZIL

In November, we were delighted at the opportunity for a brief vacation in Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil organized and funded through the Christian Hospitality Network and very generous donors. The children took swimming lessons and had a blast in the game room. One of the highlights was a trip to the Iguazu Falls between Brazil and Argentina. We returned home rested and ready to tackle the year-end responsibilities.

MINISTRY OPPORTUNITIES

Mike was invited to speak on “Animism in the Paraguayan culture” as training for a large group involved in evangelism and church planting in rural Paraguay.

Attendance for the monthly Acercate meetings has been encouraging.

Another invitation that Mike received in November was to teach a course on Narrative and Chronological Bible Teaching in a Bible Institute 2 hours from home. The students were 3 Ache, 2 Ava Guarani, and 1 Paraguayan.

KIDZ KORNER

Lea graduated from Kindergarten. She is also pictured in the above header with her best friends from school. Michael graduated from first grade. Next year, Trisha will be homeschooling the children.

Kaleb will often dress up as either Batman or Superman, drawing the smiles where ever he goes.

Michael Dean learned to play checkers from some Paraguayan Bible students and now just can’t get enough chess! He’s been teaching Lea and Kaleb how to play too. When no one is around, he’ll challenge himself to a game and always win!

THANKFUL HEARTS

Each year, a Paraguayan women’s association that cares for missionaries organizes a Christmas party and gives each missionary  a care package.

In December of each year, our mission board organizes an annual missions conference for 5 days.  We were blessed by a church group from Wisconsin.

LOOKING FORWARD to 2010

- Youth Missions Conference in Argentina

- Linda (Trisha’s mother) will be visiting us for a couple of weeks in January.

- Trisha will take an in-depth Spanish course starting in February.

- Mike will take part in a mobilization conference in Columbia.

- Home Assignment (Lord-willing, late August to early January 2011).

A Merry Christmas from Paraguay!

Mike & Trisha Goddard