It's only in surrender that I'm free

I only have 4 and a half days left in PY… that is insane!

Paraguay has been like nothing I expected, it’s been a hard year… a really hard year. I cannot even begin to tell you the number of times that I have cried, been pushed to my limit, and just wanted to walk away and give up. Yet God pushes me through, it hasn’t gotten easier but God continues to push me. And I am so thankful for this struggle and the past 5 months in this country.

Last week I went to Cerro Moroti, one of the six Ache Community’s in PY. Although it was insanely stressful and overwhelming with how I was getting to this community and no one communicates any details with me, I arrived. I am glad for the time we were able to spend with these people.

The entire week was full of home visits with women and church services. We stayed pretty busy the whole week and it was hot, like oppressively hot with thick humidity. The places I have been living have no AC and the way the homes are built makes the building like little ovens. Thursday the temp got up to 99 and by midday the wind died out. My normal siesta time I spent trying to plan a (surprise) devotional for the women’s meeting I was giving that afternoon, which there wouldn’t have been sleeping anyway with how hot the room was. At 3 we walked through the narrow paths through the bush in the oppressive heat to get to the house where the women’s meeting was going to be. The man of the house led us around to the side of the house that had a bit of shade then the four of us sat down to wait for the women to come.

4 older ladies eventually came to the meeting and we began with singing. One thing that I love about the Ache communities is that they sing with all they have. After the worship time I led the group in a devotional about prayer and praying for each other to speak truth into each other’s lives. Using Philippians 4:8 as my base. I then encouraged the women to break into groups of two and to speak truths into each other’s lives, things that are true but they don’t hear often, things that are honorable that you notice the other woman doing, things that are just, lovely, commendable, and excellent. I then asked the women to pray for each other in truth and love. The women took off with this task and did it without hesitation (it’s always a fear that you’ll hear crickets) but God really used this time and by the end there were tears, laughter and overall joy despite the oppressive heat.  

Right after that time we had to begin setting up for the youth program for the night. We cleaned out the little one room church and decorated the room with balloons and set up the games. They loved the games one of which got a little crazy where they had to run around and pop balloons from the others feet. (It was like a crazy stampede of stomping teens that moved ridiculously fast)

Finally after the crazy stampede the scheduled activities were over and we could go back to the mission house. By this point I was pretty spent… well, beyond that. I was disgustingly hot, with a thick layer of sweat and grossness on me from spending the whole day out in the heat. I was dirty, Cerro Moroti means “White Hill” it’s called that because the entire place is covered in white sand…. And sand gets you pretty dirty.  I was hungry, we hadn’t really been eating the most nutritional rich foods while we were there since we had to carry it all in with us and we had limited supplies. We had enough to get by, but we were all hungry. And I was tired so very tired… I got in to take a shower and just broke down (for the first time in a while I would like to add) but I really cried that evening.

As I let the cold water cool me down, I just kept giving God a mixture of “I am so ready to just be home” and “I’m so sorry I am so bad at this and that I am so weak” and “I’m just so tired Lord”. But I felt God replaying the day for me…. That morning I had helped a man and teenage girl carry a huge heavy mattress through the bush to their house… (Random, but I love Random) Then we spent the morning drinking Terere with two women and a little girl named Jenny who just yesterday was deathly ill and hadn’t eaten or drank anything for 4 days, we had prayed for her yesterday and for her mother, then that day that same weak little girl was sitting in her mother’s lap eating bread and drinking water and looking so much healthier even smiling.  Then after the women’s meeting the women opened up about how in their community they aren’t free to go out and actively share with each other about the gospel due to shame and their husbands not allowing it, but they were so thankful for us young girls (I don’t look 30 lol) that would come and share His love with them. Then the excitement of the youth that night and the way a few of them got all dressed up to come and learn. It dawned on me then if I had been somewhere else more physically comfortable, I would have missed all of the blessings that day held (and this is only a few of the highlights of that day). Given the choice to re-live that hot and tiring day over again or to be back in the states, I would chose that day. I dried my tears, thanked God for once again reminding me that he was in the very core of this day, and thanking him for once again pushing me back up.

When I got out of the shower Lucho had finished the dinner. He had went out and bought little bitty chicken wings and made rice to go with it. To the American standard it still would have looked like a poor dinner, but that night the 5 of us felt like kings with our rice and little bitty chicken wings. It was still hot that night but around 3am a cool front came in so Friday Morning we traveled back to Luque in crowded buses we had beautiful fresh (even chilly)temperatures. <3

Our first day in Cerro Moroti was met with giant live worms to eat, spiders the size of your hand (or face) and then a late night rat hunt that was just complete chaos... 

                                                            But it all makes for a great story!

Please be praying

• For the Ache Community in Cerro Moroti. For the spread of the gospel among the people.
• For Jenny as she continues to recover from her sickness and for her mother Rosa who had a very scary experience. Pray that God continues to get the glory in this healing.
• For the continued translation of the old testament in Ache
• For my health. Unfortunately I have been pretty sick the past week (drinking dirty water while drinking terere with the women) the last 2 days have been better but I am not 100% at all and still having a lot of stomach pain.
• For the next 4 ½ days here in Paraguay, every day is still a fight but God is working. Pray that I continue to follow his lead and that I continue to say yes to him and finish well in this country.
• For the upcoming travels. October 3^rd at 5am central time I will be flying to Cusco Peru to meet with missionaries in the city and later I will travel into a small village in the Andes to visit a missionary hospital that a few of my Mission Academy friends have worked at. Then On October 18^th I will fly to Quito Ecuador to visit a KM missionary and his project. Then I will be heading back to Missouri October 26^th! So slowing down is out of the question! Be praying for safe travels and also for my time in each of these places and for the connections God will give me during this time.
• For my time in Cusco I will be at a very high elevation and I don’t have a lot of experience being in high elevation. So there is a risk of altitude sickness which the severity always effects people differently. Be praying over that, my body isn’t fully better from working with the Ache and getting a severe case of altitude sickness probably won’t be the best way to get better.

Thank you all for going with me on this journey, for your prayers and support. I am looking forward to being back and seeing you all in LESS THAN A MONTH! The plan is only to be home for 2 months before heading back to start year two of MA. So if you are wanting to meet with me while I am back in the states please send me a message soon since my schedule is quickly feeling up!