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.

Read More

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:

Read More

SIM MK Adventure 2012!

Last weekend I got to go along with the sometimes annual Missionary Kid Adventure SIM puts on for its collection of boys.  The last one they did was a river-rafting adventure and there were swarms of mosquitos which covered them and turned them black.  Fortunately this time they weren’t doing something so unpleasant as venturing into mozzie territory, instead it was a mountain hike/camping trip in the wilds somewhere close to Villarrica.  I’ve pointed out before how there aren’t mountains as such in Paraguay, but occasionally there’s hills which on the otherwise flat expanse do look like mountains.

Despite being 30 minutes from a city there were scarcely any people on the hike route, and the path up through the hills wasn’t quite well-worn.  It’s surprising how few locals seem to explore their own country, but at the same time it was nice to be close to isolated for me having spent the last few weeks mainly in the busy city.

We climbed the major hill on the first day and were blessed with hot weather instead of the forecast clouds with the possibility of rain, for with rain the track would have been unclimbable -in fact parts already almost were due to some steeper parts of the path turning into little streams.  From the top of the hill was a quite amazing view of Paraguay.  As it had rained the night before there was little in the way of mist in the air so we could see for miles.

From there we hiked down the other side of the hill in a long valley which was dotted with little farms, and reached our campsite.  It was a field by a stream with a lot of brightly coloured chickens running around, and at night it was very cold in the tents -at least for me.  I’m not sure why I’m struggling so much in Paraguayan winter, because it’s around 16C most days (I should add that this cold snap is meant to just last a couple of weeks, then it's back to mid-twenties again), and I’m used to running around Edinburgh’s 5C in a t-shirt.  I think I just became too acclimatised to the strong heat of Paraguay’s summer.

Next morning we did cliff diving into a deep river pool whose depths haven’t been plumbed.  As I can’t swim and don’t seem to float very well, and since I had the good excuse that it was my job to film the adventure, I didn’t jump the cliff myself!  But it was great to watch.

From there it was up another lesser hill towards a large yet largely unknown waterfall.  At the top of it we could stand on the huge rocky outcrop next to it, not quite realising how dangerous it was.  Part of the river at the top of the waterfall had a small levee thing which held back a vast quantity of water which the local would release once we reached the base of it.

We all had to shout and give the thumbs up to the guy at the top of the waterfall.  The amount of water that spilled over the edge was quite amazing and we were hit by a fast-moving wall of spray.

Waterfall prior to spilling.

Waterfall spray

In the dense 'jungle' next to the waterfall.

We had one more night in the wilds, well, almost wilds, for next to our 2nd similarly deserted campsite was a small place for parties and a birthday party was getting underway when we arrived around 5pm and the music boomed out until around midnight when the forecast heavy rain that was meant to hit us all that day finally came with a long lightning storm.  Epic.  It was a very blessed 3 days, good Bible studies, and everybody had great fun, except poor old Hannes who couldn’t come at he had teaching duties on the Friday.

Read More

Audio Bibles for Paraguay (San Francisco) [Part 2]...

Continuing from where I left off in an earlier post…

The fog that had enveloped us on the road down from Asuncion lifted and the sun came out as we all got suited up with logo-ed aprons to reach every isolated corner of the spread-out community of San Francisco.  It seemed very fitting that the mist that was heavy upon the town and reduced visibility was lifting to be replaced by blue skies as the Holy Bible was being taken to every home.  The group of 50 or so Christians made up of believers from otherwise unconnected churches as far apart as Asuncion and Yuty, were split into various smaller groups and given several town blocks to hand out Audio Bibles in the native Guarani language to after being given some training in first how to use the custom-made Chinese devices so they could then explain to those who they were giving them to how to work them.  It seemed to be a case of men going with men, and women with other women, with each group having a leader.

Last time I filmed an Audio Bible distribution I spent most of the time with a group of two (Dan Hough and a Paraguayan believer), so this time I tried to get some shots of the others.  So first I joined a group of Paraguayan girls that was led by Jean Floyd (an SIM worker who’d previously lived in San Francisco whose planted trees a decade ago now are the canopy that is the church’s roof).  The younger girls started off a bit shy, them being 15 or so, and from the city now in a totally different world, but soon they were filled with courage.

Jean's team of Paraguayan girls.

The girls at a farm shack.

Around the block from the church was a former neighbour of Jean’s and she happily invited a group of us into her little house where her granddaughter was running about.  I’ve noticed how much more inviting the small shack of a relatively poor person is about 10 times more inviting than the house of a well-to-do Briton.  Much of this is because Latin culture is to be around neighbours, friends and family a lot, and to have an open house, whilst in the UK we keep everybody away and only have people in occasionally.

After this I took a lift with Dan Hough’s 2 teams out into the sticks of San Francisco, out along the dirt road to almost Yataity.  Dan’s teammate was the same Paraguayan as the former Bible distribution, but his 2nd team who’d do the other side of the road (the even numbers, so to speak) was the youngest team headed by a Paraguayan teen who led 3 missionary kids, Daniel, Luke and Camden, aged between 8 and 12 roughly).  

Demonstrating how the Audio Bible works.

Seeing SIM Paraguay’s missionary kids makes me wish I became a Christian at a much younger age.  Granted God had many reasons why I’d be saved in Japan at 26/27, but I do have such regret at a wasted life which could have been doing mission trips for 15 years.  But I also remember that nothing in God’s economy is wasted, and He turns what seems like wasted times of life into beneficial things that can help others due to our knowing a number of snares of the Devil that held us back so long.

Because of the enthusiasm of all involved in the day, the whole town of San Francisco was reached, as well as the next village up the road, and also Yataity where the McKissicks have their medical clinic.  Quite what effect the Audio Bibles will have on the community is unknown and will require a lot of prayer as I’m convinced the enemy will wish to distract the community and the people with other things, so please pray that the people will listen to the Word of God and no longer be led astray by falsehood, and that the various items outside of homes which ward off various spirits will be taken down as signs of new belief and hope coming to the hearts and minds of families.

Read More

Paraguay's "Mountains"

I've written a few times about how flat Paraguay is.  For a time the biggest 'hill' I experienced was hiking the 5 meter rise from the local supermarket back to SIM HQ.  By God's grace I've been able to see a large amount of Paraguay (North, West, South and East!) and I have finally seen some hills.  Interestingly the missionaries refer to them as 'mountains' despite them being nowhere near mountain height, but travelling 200km over flat terrain, a rare hill does seem a lot like a mountain!

This first picture is from the summit of a man-made hill (the bridge West of Concepcion that heads into the flat Gran Chaco region).  Very few places offer views of the landscape like this.

These couple of hills were the first major hills I saw in Paraguay somewhere between Villarica and Caazapa, although there were a few smaller ones on the way, notably beside Paraguari further West (if memory serves me well

The same hills as Dan drives by.

Driving up a hill with a hill on the horizon!  Rare!

Small hills compared to the others, but so far the most scenic place I have seen in the whole of Paraguay.  My image was complimented by a fly hitting the bottom-right of the lens.

Read More

Angoninguíteguesáque or Pangoninguíteparitigáde

With New Tribes Mission I got to go to the Gran Chaco last week whilst it was in full bloom, its arid flatlands brought to life and various shades of green thanks to God's giving them an abundance of rain recently.  For some it was a blessing as it watered the crops, whilst for others they were flooded.  When seeing such a difference in the results I remember Elihu's words to Job (Elihu was the only friend of Job's whom wasn't rebuked by God for speaking falsehood about Him) when he said, He brings clouds to punish men, or to water his earth and show His love. (Job 37:13).  This shows me how God uses things usually used as a blessing to often speak to people by causing it to not be a blessing.  Elihu also said earlier, 'He says to the snow, "Fall on the earth," and to the rain shower, "Be a mighty downpour." So that all men He has made may know His work, He stops every man from his labor.' (37:6-7)  God communicates to people through many ways, although they don't hear it.  Earlier still Elihu said as much, 'For God does speak -now one way, now another- though man may not perceive it.  In a dream, in a vision in the night... He may speak in their ears and terrify them with warnings, to turn man from wrongdoing and keep from pride... or a man may be chastened on a bed of pain... God does all these things to a man -twice, even three times- to turn back his soul from the grave. (33:14, 15, 16, 17, 19, 29, 30).


God speaks to us through difficult events, through illness, through creation, though we don't often understand it, and we remain in our rebellion and even get angry at God for brining calamity when He is actually bringing it to get their attention, 'For when I called, no one answered, when I spoke, no one listened.  They did evil in My sight and chose what displeases Me.' (Isaiah 66:4)


While in the Chaco we visited the Ayoré tribe who are having the complete Holy Bible translated into their language, and as I looked over a book of their Bible, I saw a very long word which caught my eye, Angoninguíteguesáque, and I asked what it meant so I could learn a Ayoré word.  The Bible translator said it meant open-eardness, and its antonym is Pangoninguíteparitigáde which is closed-eardness.  Who has their ears open to God's voice I wonder in the Ayoré tribe, in the Gran Chaco amidst its recent difficulties, and around the rest of the world I wonder?


Here are some other pictures from the tribe and other places I saw last week.

Tribal pastor

Pastor teaching.

Bible translators.

Ayore dolls.

Tribe guy with an awesome face.

This man was kind enough to do an interview for us.

People from a different tribe to the West.

Kids from 2nd tribe.

Smiles.

Heading out of a tribal community.

Anthony found this outhouse interesting as its throne was sideways...

...so he demonstrated the angle a person should sit!

Read More

Gran Chaco With NTM

This past week 4 of us have travelled to the North West of Paraguay into the sparsely-populated, arid Gran Chaco region.  The Gran Chaco spreads into Bolivia to the North and Argentina to the East.  SIM works south of Asuncion with subsistence farmers whilst a lot of NTM’s work is North with the tribal people out in the wilds.  As I’m working 2 weeks with NTM it gave me the only opportunity to see this part of the country and visit some of its tribes.  I’ll write some more about the tribes we saw at some point later, but as much of the adventure was set on the epic road trip there and back, I’ll talk of that first.

Much of Paraguay is totally flat with the occasional hillock, and when we reached the bridge over the river beside Concepcion it really struck home just how flat the country, especially the Chaco, is as there was not a single hill in sight.  What it lacked in hills we hoped it made up for in wildlife since there was such a huge area of scrubland with so few hunters/people, as the rest of the country has been disappointing in the lack of wild animals.

Exiting the bridge we found an immediate decline in traffic (from medium to almost zero) and a steep falling away in the road -literally as huge, 0.5ft deep potholes littered the tarmac road as it cut an almost straight line through the low, thorny scrubland.  Long grasses reached out onto the road and made the 2-lane highway seem long-abandoned, desolate and narrow.  After the bridge it took about 20km until we passed a house, and each further house or settlement seemed to be separated by a similar distance.

As it was extraordinarily flat, the slightly raised road often had long patches of floodwater on either side, not more than 1ft deep but covering large areas.  Some shacks we passed were surrounded by these low floodwaters, but life inside them seemed to be continuing.  Last week we were supposed to have driven out here, but the Chaco was hit with torrential rain which left much of the area flooded this way.  The local news had called it a disaster zone, which sounds extreme until you know how very tranquil Paraguay is with its weather.  It is never struck with the kind of storms the southern states of America get, so what is a bit rough for us in the UK or USA is extreme here.

We drove about 300km over bad roads, through the vast prairie, but in all this distance we scarcely saw anything in the way of animals besides the small herds of cows and goats which crossed the roads, and various vultures and storks.  We were, however, blessed with an encounter with a groundhog who posed for us and bit Jeremy’s leather boots, and later he and Anthony jumped out the car and captured an armadillo.

Here are some more pictures of the things we saw on the roads between Concepcion and Filadelfia.

My rather poorly made 360 of the Paraguayan horizon from the vantage point of the bridge outside Concepcion.

Anthony and Jeremy catching an armadillo

The snared beast.

Set free.

The groundhog photoshoot.

It wasn't afraid of anything.

A dear old tribal lady who hitched a lift.

A field of flowers by a small hut in the middle of nowhere.  Reminds me of how God grows beautiful plants on distant mountains and places no human eye will ever see, all for His glory.

This truck slid off the road into thick mud.

A flooded Chaco hut.

Harvest.

The unloved guard dog who jumped into the car when we stopped at a peanut butter farm.

Windscreen.

The black dots are horrid, big-butt spiders in vast, 20ft webs.

Flowers in a flooded field.

A vile, big-butt spider.  Its tread was like nylon.

A stork hiding in the grass in a rare area of meadow.

Due to the floods and amount of unmoving water, the Chaco was teeming with mosquitos.

Read More