Praise:

1. For the opportunity to celebrate Christmas with Mike’s siblings and their families.
2. For Mike’s parents, who came to visit their children and grandchildren in Paraguay for 3 weeks.

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 is homeschooling Michael, Lea, and Kaleb.
5. For Mike & Trisha as they lead the Latin short term mission trip called ACERCATE. to the Pai and oversee the building of the Pai church.
6. For good health.
7. For safety in travels to the Chaco and the East side of Paraguay

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

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)

In this update: Read about highlights from our ministry, an update on Elvio,

tidbits about our children, and “God is King over all the nations”.

Highlights from our Ministry in Paraguay

Amidst the flurry of activities in July, Mike was invited to share on “Missions in Paraguay” during a youth camp bordering Brazil. While there, we met a wonderful group of believers involved in church planting and equipping Christians for ministry.

Mike has felt so privileged to work through “Building on Firm Foundations” material with church leaders. His focus continues to be to assist them to “teach at a worldview level” as they  go about leading others to Christ and discipling them in Truth.  This month Antonio was the first to take a bold step and teach through lesson 5 of “Building on Firm Foundations.”

Trisha continues to serve with the women of our church in the organization of the children’s program during our first Missions Conference. She also oversees the NTM Paraguay’s Resource Dept. and is scouring for internet for good missions-related materials in Spanish.

During our travels we took time out as a family to visit one of the world’s largest hydroelectric dams: Itaipu.

Update on Elvio

Elvio (the Pai Tavytera man we wrote about last month), after much delay received his surgery on his spine and is back home in his community. It was great to see God’s people rally around him by providing walls around his house, a wheelchair, food, clothing, a bed, transportation and many other things!

Tidbits about our Children

Michael, though he doesn’t look forward to traveling and getting car-sick, is always making new friends all over Paraguay and plays non-stop all day long. Languages are hard for Michael, but it never stops him from making friends!

Lea took on the challenge of making brownies for a group of 25 people!

Kaleb loves to help his mommy make pizza each Friday for lunch. This month while Mike was gone on a trip, each one of the children got to make their own personalized pizza, starting with the dough!

Psalms 47:8  God reigneth over the heathen: God sitteth upon the throne of his holiness.

“God is King over all the nations”; a truth that encourages us as we maintain our focus to “equip the saints for ministry”. We appreciate each and every one of you that stand behind us in support of what God is doing here in Paraguay! Your faithful support enables us to focus a tremendous amount of time and energy into the lives of people in this region of the world.

Read below for the Goddard’s up-to-date Praise & Prayer Requests.

Praise:

1.   For Lea and Trisha, who both celebrated birthdays in February.

2.   For  the opportunity to visit with many of our coworkers this last month and the visit from Mike’s brother and family.

Prayer Requests:

1.   For Mike and Trisha – continued wisdom and guidance from the Lord as they raise their children and train them to walk in truth.

2.   For Michael, Lea, and Kaleb, as they continue studying at the Paraguayan Christian school.

3.   For good health. Right now, there is a lot of sickness going around as well as dengue fever.

4.   For their lives to reflect Christ and that all they do will honor and glorify Him.

5.   For Mike, who will be sharing at a missions meeting on March 4.

6.   Safety for Mike, as he travels out of the country for 10 days the 3^rd week of March to attend a seminar.

7.   For Mike, who will begin a Chronological Bible teaching series (from Creation to Christ) the last week of March. This teaching will take place the end of every month from March until October in a town 3 hours outside of Asuncion.

8.   For wisdom for the Goddards as they have opportunities to visit with, encourage, and disciple their Paraguayan friends.

9.   For the ministry of assisting other NTM mobilization ministries in Latin America.

10.   For full time coworkers to help Mike and Trisha in Mobilization.

11. For Ronald and Melissa, Maria Marta, Israel, and Leonie – Paraguayans in Bible or Missionary training in Bolivia or Brazil. Please pray for them as they study, their home churches, financial partners, and their future ministries as each have expressed a desire to be cross-cultural missionaries.

“We can\’t always be begging our wives for their chickens!” was the comment of a Pai Tavytera community leader and faithful church member to my question about the funding of their church outreaches.

“We will either have to have outside funding or stick to outreaches that are within our budget.”

After returning from a 5-day trip to the bush in northern Paraguay and just a few kilometers from the Brazilian boarder, I\’m confronted with even more questions than when I first set out. What role are tribal churches and their members to play in the Great Commission in Paraguay and beyond? Does the completion of the Great Commission lie solely on the shoulders of wealthy and educated people groups? Are the poor exempt from the responsibility to take the Gospel to the “ends of the earth” because of their financial limitations and lack of education?

While sitting on a rough wooden bench in front of Ruben\’s thatched hut, I picked up a crooked stick that was laying nearby on the ground and drew a circle in the dirt. “Ruben” I said, “this circle represents the Pai church in this village, these other circles nearby represent the Pai villages within 1-2 hours drive by motorcycle, and this far circle represents the Mbya people about 10 hours drive. The “X” right here next to your village represents the foreigners that came to plant your church, how will your Pai church plant a church among the Mbya without the logistical assistance of “X”? He thought for a second and made a very interesting observation, “Mike, if you take out the missionary\’s help, then our church would first have to be firmly established locally while organizing outreaches to the villages close by until there were strong churches planted. Once that happened, we could then form an association among ourselves to collectively gather enough finances to send out one missionary to the Mbya people.” Neither one of us had to say anything to realize that it would take many years of very hard work before the Pai could get to that point alone.

Although there are so many questions yet to be answered, there is one thing that is very clear to me as I dig deeper into mobilizing local churches to properly fulfill their role in the Great Commission: the vision and passion must come from within the fellowship of believers. Outsiders can introduce new ideas into the fellowship and prompt people to envision the accomplishment of greater things, but unless the fellowship is on board, the outsider will have to carry the burden for as long as he is present and then run the risk of collapse after he\’s gone.

Certainly the success of mobilizing, training and coordinating of tribal churches to plant other churches is going to depend largely on indigenous empowerment and assisting where there are genuine needs. In so many cases, what often hinders partnership at this level is attitude; the attitude of the expatriate, the national, and the tribal person. More often than not, we claim our attitudes are in line with that of Christ\’s, but when transferring it across cultural grids, we are at a loss as to what it looks like on the other end. A key element for successful and godly partnerships in an inter-cultural situation is the ability to listen intently and to learn from one another. You could also call that a “mutual respect” for one another\’s ideas and ideals.

Continue to ask God, the Inventor of multi-culturalism, to help His Church sort through these issues at a grass-root level, where people are working together for a common cause according to Mt. 28:19-20.