Denny's Car & Travels South

When the Stout family left for America late last month, Denny left his concept car which he’d been working on for a few years.  From what I gather it was initially a VW Beetle which had then had its shell removed and its frame built upon to include a roll cage.  As he’s going to university in America he’s left the car for the other missionary kids to continue to build up.  It was driven from his house to the Asuncion HQ under the strength of the van that dragged it with its 4 flat tyres, and was left at the crest of the hill to be later put by the garage.  The 2 Dans and the Reich kids were given the tricky task of moving the car down the steep hill one night just before the Reiches also left for America.  Worried that the brakeless Beetle would pick up momentum on the hill from the initial shove and crash through the garage we decided to attach it to Dan Reich’s truck and gently back it down the hill.  This proved to be not as easy as expected because the 4 flat tyres made the car overcome the power of gravity and momentum as we pushed it over the crest.  Despite the hill being a good 35 degrees, the car just would not move.  It took a heap of shoving and straining to get the anti-vehicle into place, a place it may remain in until the dozen MKs get it fixed up and able to drive up such a steep incline.  Quite a task!

On Friday I headed to the south on another 7 hour adventure by bus.  The last bus journey I had taken was in a climate-controlled posh bus and at the height of the day the air con unit failed causing an elderly lady to make a fuss and call the police to report she was being essentially cooked inside the bus which had no openable windows.  Because of this I was thankful that this latest journey was in a regular old city bus whose air conditioning was provided through curtained windows.

I got to stay at the Floyds’ house for 6 days to start with, and I was able to see a bit of the school teaching Mrs Floyd does at a local rural school, and got to attend a screening of a Christian movie on the side of their house which 2 dozen locals attended.

They had recently picked up a new pup, a Rottweiler cross which is as yet unnamed (although its 2 most popular possible names are Samson and Genghis and is currently affectionately called Chubster due to its size -it being as wide as it is tall), and the poor pup got savaged by their collie and required stitches.

Also, I got to meet a disabled man who’d been benefitted by the Audio Bible distribution from a couple of months back.  He has club hands and feet which has left him unable to lead what we’d consider a normal life and spends his days sitting in the shade by the main road where passersby sometimes stop and give him money which he’s able to survive on.  A local carpenter had made him a special wooden cart which he was able to get around with that looked somewhat like a longboard with very large wheels.
He was given an Audio Bible in the Guarani language and he listens to it sometimes while sitting by the road.  Mr Floyd told him the account of Adam and Eve and he said he’d never heard it before.  It’s amazing really, because it’s a Catholic area yet even the most known of stories had never been taught.  But now he knows.  You can pray for him that he’d continue to listen to his Audio Bible and that God would continue to teach him and that He may lead him to a saving knowledge of His Son Jesus.

I’m now staying at the Houghes with their 5 kids although our travels for today have been scuppered due to thunderstorms leaving the roads a bit treacherous.  Last night the power went off and it left the whole town in a thick darkness like I haven’t experienced in a long time.  It was quite awesome to experience as lightning occasionally flashed far out beyond the trees of the church.

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Concert in Catholic Church

I was invited to a concert put on by the youth version of the Paraguayan Philharmonic Orchestra who were to play the music, from what I gathered to be, the first Paraguayan opera.  It took place in a Catholic church and as we all got there early there was a service still going on which was interesting to watch.  Unlike Catholic churches in Europe which are known for being extraordinarily lavish in design and filled with idols, the Paraguayan ones I've visited are generally quite ordinary structures and a lot less dark and mysterious, and their relatively few idols are set against bland backdrops.  Whenever I see places like these I wonder how many genuine believers are there, no matter how few, who believe not because of the Roman Catholic system but rather in spite of it, people who act like those God deems "noble" -the Bereans in the book of Acts who didn't just accept what they heard taught about God and how to worship and live, but actually searched the Scriptures to see if what they are being told is true.

How tragic it is to have a Bible, the guidebook God Himself has given to humanity in order that we may know Him, but to simply hear many things about it and to never even check if what we've been told is true.

After the couple of idols were bowed down to by much but not all the congregation, the musicians quickly set up and put on a marvellous performance.  Much of the lyrics of the songs were addressed to God, and it was very good to hear.  Here are some pictures:

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British and Chinese and Korean Food!!

Having made do with my poor-quality cooking for ages, there has been a recent glut of wonderful moments when I haven't had to eat my own less-than-sprakling usually oil-based creations.  First it was MK Daniel's birthday a bit over a week ago and I was invited to his B-day meal at a major Chinese Buffet place in the city.  Smokes! it was expensive, however.  G64,000!  I almost fell off my chair when I heard the cost!  It's about half of my weekly groceries cost.  It turned out that's it's about £8.70 in British pounds, so it wasn't so bad.  I'm glad I ate a lot of cake, however.

Yesterday I got a double blessing in that I was invited to two different folks' places for lunch and dinner.  Firstly the new British couple (doing English teaching short-term) invited me for the quintessential British meal, toad-in-the-hole with gravy.  Then the Lee family took me to a Korean place near Downtown for a meal!  Yay!  It has been half a year since I last had any of these kinds of things, so I'm so thankful.

On the way back from the Korean restaurant, we encountered a street performer.  The city's major intersections are alive with them.  As the traffic stops at the lights for nearly a minute, a  performer will often jump out and do a 45-second performance of juggling or balancing, and then spend the remaining 15 seconds going from car to car for coins.  Sometimes it's not so great as the performers are little kids and their parents are forcing them to do it -although some give the impression of enjoying performing.  But when it's a skilled adult then the acts can be very entertaining.

David at the Chinese buffet.

The Lees

Kimchi!!  YUM!

A talented Asuncion street performer.

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