Spiritual Retreat Conference

This past week I was at the SIM Spiritual Life Conference in the wilds beyond the town of Paraguari.  It was great gathering together everybody as well as teachers from the United States.  It was 4 days in mid-winter in a collection of little huts that had no heating.  It was, in the freezing conditions in the woods, what Calvin's dad from Calvin and Hobbes would have labelled 'character building.'

We had great teaching from from the life of Saul's son Jonathan and his belief in God despite overwhelming odds whereby he and his shield-bearer scaled a hill to attack the Philistine army by themselves as Jonathan's father Saul worried and procrastinated.  It also was a good time for the missionary kids as we had games of rugby (instructed by the South Africans) and soccer, as well as airsoft shooting games for the teens and adults.

Here are some pictures of the week:

Teaching and worship time at the conference.

Hannes playing airsoft using pistols which shoot small, hard, plastic pellets.

Dr. Jeff taking aim.  He later shot me perfectly in the back of the head when I stormed his base.  It jolly well hurt!

Geoff, one of the teachers, wearing a hat as protection the day after I shot him in the side of the head.

Hannes led the MKs in a grub-hunting mission, here breaking open a rotten tree trunk for grubs.

Tyler, happy after finding some huge grubs which were later eaten at the campfire.

A fallen telegraph pole was converted into a game for the MKs.

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Paraguay's Forgotten Railway

As you drive through Asuncion you sometimes cross all railway crossings and there's an old station near downtown where old trains and carriages litter the side of the road.  Heading out of the city to the southeast you frequently pass solitary station buildings which sit in once-thriving villages but what now seem like little ghost towns.  Paraguay used to have a great railway system with the kinds of early 1900's steam trains people these days love to see due to their rarity, however the railway was shut down several years ago.
In the typical lack of foresight, most of the train tracks were pulled up, and engines left to corrode where they last stopped.  Although it was all working just 7 years ago (including a tourist train until a bridge on its small route recently collapsed), it looks now like it stopped in 1910 such is the scale of the decay.

This past week I got to head out of the city along the route of the old track towards Paraguari, a town southeast of Asuncion where SIM Paraguay had it's yearly Spiritual Retreat.  The retreat centre was out in the wilds, but not far off was one of the lonely old stations which also had a museum to Paraguay's forgotten trains.  Here are some pictures:

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Children's Centre

Last week I was able to join some of the Stout family as they helped out at an Asuncion children's centre for kids from a low-income area where parent(s) work most the day and can't provide enough time at home to look after their little ones.  It was really awesome!  The band of children were so sweet.  They sang, listened to stories, did crafts, ran around like mad things, and had a good day.  There's just so many ways to get involved in community projects here, and it was such a delight to see this one.

Here's a couple of pictures from the day:

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River Audio Bible Distribution (prayer request)

For a few months I have mentioned the 14-day Audio Bible distribution to be done up a major river to the North to reach some of the remote communities (inaccessible by car).  I was very excited at the prospect of being able to film the American Bible college team and others doing this amazing work of bringing the Good News of Jesus to the ears of people who maybe had no access prior to God's Word (and certainly nothing in the native Guarani language to listen to for those who can't read).
It was set to happen this month, but for several reasons including crew overlap, and boat rental problems, it has had to have been postponed for several months at least, though hopefully not forever.

The closest I got to the river was driving over one of its bridges.

When we try to do things for God, sometimes He closes the door through circumstance.  God also raises up others to do the task.  So could you pray that if it's not God's will for SIM to do the river audio Bible distribution, that He in His might may raise up another group to do something similar, that native Paraguayans may hear God's call to evangelise their countrymen and women, that they may know that the time is short and desire to invest everything they have in reaching their brothers and sisters in this beautiful country.

It is only the work done for Jesus that lasts, for everything else in life that people spend their lives toiling over will be burned up come the end of the age.  Please pray that Paraguayan Christians would understand this truth, gain an eternity perspective, understand the time is short, and set about their work for Him joyfully and with much eagerness.

To know the time is short, consider Jesus' warnings about the coming of the end of the age (Matthew chapter 24) and the signs that will signal it: the increase of wickedness, natural disasters, and wars and rumours of wars.  The world is being gradually set for that one-world economy and currency Daniel saw as we see nations fail under their own around Europe and America.  We see prophecy about Egypt and Syria from Isaiah 17 and 19 coming to pass these very months, and the joining of Iran and Russia against Israel just as Ezekiel records in chapter 38 and 39.  Don't be asleep, but be alert and look into these things.

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