The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth.
Exodus 34:6
It is amazing to look out and see the goodness of God all around us. From the home and watching the kids learn and grow, to the church and being blessed to serve such a great and awesome God. We are continually humbled by the opportunity to wake up here in Paraguay and know this is where our good God has called us to be.
Hard to believe that another month has come and is almost gone. We have had a month of construction, rain and service. The home we are renting needs plenty of work, but we are comfortable making it into a home for us. We began praying and looking for a new place several months ago but ultimately landed on staying put. While the house needs repairs and we are working on those, it is close to everything we need and all the connections we have made in the first year. We are excited to get things finished up so that we will have a living room to host people in soon!
We have lost track if this is the second or third cold snap that we have had this year, but the August showers will hopefully bring out the flowers. Winter in Paraguay has been interesting to adapt to. We usually have a few cool days followed by a quick change to warm and humid. For example, the highs the last few days has been low 50 F, and tomorrow it is supposed to be back up to 75 F. The weather and seasons are one of the parts to missionary life that I imagine takes the longest to get used to, but we are thankful for a warm home to shelter us in and a nice patio to enjoy when it warms up.
We are continually thankful for the opportunity to serve the people of Paraguay and the many ways God allows us to do that. This month in Club de Niños we made some changes. Thanks to some motivation and an offering from a supporting church we have been working to help this group become more organized and focused. This led to us getting some Bibles for the group so that the kids can open a Bible to follow along as we study through the book of John. Kathleen works with the younger kids and teaches once a month while I help with the older kids and do my best to learn the language of the older kids. We also get the opportunity to teach and preach on a regular basis, and we are thankful for these opportunities.
This month I was asked to preach from Luke 18:31-34. It was a great to study and apply some of what I have been studying in the counseling courses. What lies on the throne of our hearts will often distract us from understanding.
Meet the Hernandarias group!
I mentioned previously that we were working at strengthening a small group in a city just north of us to begin a church plant. Every Wednesday we have the blessing of gathering together for a time of Bible Study Discipleship. Please continue to pray for this group as we study the Word of God together and begin to map out a future church plant.
Church Plant in Pilar:
Pilar is a small town about 7 hours from where we are located. The missionary that was sent to plant a church has been very ill all while construction for their building has begun. Please pray for Missionary Pastor Victor as he waits for some test results and recovery. Also, for Pastor Mancuello from Encarnacion as he makes plans to travel to the states to raise some support.
September 4th-7th I will be traveling with Missionary Felix over to meet up with Pastors Mancuello and Victor to connect with their ministries and to offer help where we can. Please pray for this trip and the opportunity to serve these pastors and churches. Also pray for Kathleen and the kids while I am away.
Added to the month of August is the blessed opportunity of celebrating two Birthdays! Adara-Dasha turned 10 and Jedidiah turned 12. It has been such a joy to watch them connect with kids locally and make relationships. Adara-Dasha has never had a problem making a friend even extending into the lives of those from Club de Niños. Jedidiah has been stepping out more and more as he gains confidence and has even started connecting with some kids at Kickboxing training. Please continue to pray for our kids as they allow the Lord to use them as missionaries.
Thank you for your faithful love and support as we serve the Lord. May His name be glorified in all that we do, and may we remember to stop and see His goodness all around us.
Jaha Paraguay Pe!
Loucks 2 Paraguay 