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.

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Audio Bibles for Paraguay (San Francisco) [Part 1]

On Friday afternoon I was asked if I wanted to “go tomorrow”.  I took this to mean church as Tom has invited me to go with him to church on Sunday.  “Sure!” I said.  

“OK, we’ll be leaving at 1:30 tomorrow morning.”  

Something didn’t quite sound right about that.  I didn’t realise I was a day early for church.  What I had immediately said “Sure!” to was a 1-day mission trip.  Various church members from a couple of local churches had signed up to go by bus to San Francisco to hand out Audio Bibles, and now I was going, at 1:30am.

They had hired a bus to do the journey in.  It needed to be a tough bus as it’s only tough ones that make it down the dirt road segment of the journey south of Cazaapa.  At 12:30am it arrived, and I was taken aback as it was a regular Asuncion city bus, all brightly painted similar to Jeepneys in the Philippines, only 3 times the size.  From what I gathered this was the bus of a church member, one which would for the rest of the week be used circling some route in the city.

The buses here are great.  You stop them by pointing a gun-like finger up across the road.  You pay the very reasonable sum of 3,000G (something like 20 pence).  When you want to get off you need to get to the back of the bus and pull a string attached to the ceiling that runs forward to a bell near the driver.  Once I was heading to church and I squeezed past the people standing in the middle of its wide aisle, and went to pull the string only to find there was none.  I couldn’t signal the driver, and I couldn’t shout to stop without using the kind of vocabulary that would cause a mass panic as I’d be announcing an emergency.  I had to wait for the bus to slow down, then I jumped and hit the ground running.  In hindsight this was rather foolish as there could have been a telegraph pole right there for me to crash into.  Paraguayan buses: Adventure.

On early Saturday morning, about 20 people were on this bus and we set off into the night.  And my goodness, I regret wearing just shorts for the journey.  This was the coldest night not only of my stay in Paraguay, but also the coldest in my life I think!  As soon as we were out of the city a thick mist fell, and it was freezing.  In fact it probably wasn’t freezing, or any worse than in Scotland, only I was in shorts, which wasn’t wise.  At times the visibility on the road was reduced to about 30ft, and I imagined little reports in next weeks Asuncion newspapers mentioning a bus crash of Christians.  To fill us all, or perhaps just me, with dread, we passed a car fully engulfed in flames on the lay-by!

Someone must have checked weather reports and it turned out there was a big collection of blankets available which were passed out.  I wrapped myself into a sort of breathless cocoon inside my felt blanket as I perched on my chair, hoping it really wouldn’t take 6 hours to get there.

I don’t sleep on bus journeys, no matter how comfortable or warm.  Yet somehow, by God’s grace, I managed to sleep about 3 hours!  With me, I tell you, this was impossible, but with God, all things are possible.

We arrived in San Francisco with the thick mists still hanging in the air.  It made such a peculiar, otherworldly sight.  This was a town I’d only ever seen in the blazing sun, but now it seemed about as miserable as a dreich Scottish morning.

We were met at the Forest Door church (the one that has walls and roof made of swaying trees, and a carpet made of grass) by local believers, some who had been on the Audio Bible distribution over a month ago beyond Yuty.  This was a much bigger group than then.  Back then it was about 25.  This time there was about 50.  It was amazing to see!

For some the journey had been made to participate in their first form of evangelism, for others they had done this kind of thing for years.  Some were young (even a couple of pre-teens), some were old, yet everybody was part of the same family.  They were all out to put into the hands of every resident of San Francisco, a full Genesis to Revelation Audio Bible in Guarani that they could fully understand, which would mark the day when everybody in town could for the first time have access to the Truth of God directly, no longer relying on superstitious understandings of the Bible, or what had been twisted and handed down, or by the few incorrect things the locals priests would have offered in their own blindness.

I’ll write some more about the day of delivering them next, but first here are some pictures of the day up until that point.

To learn more about the Audio Bibles for Paraguay project, visit the website: http://audiobiblesforparaguay.org, and to support the work from a distance, donate via the project page on SIM.org: http://sim.org/index.php/project/91039

The city bus that safely got us there.

The unloaded precious cargo it carried: hundreds of Audio Bibles.

The volunteers start gathering at Forest Door Church.

It really was that cold!

Sorting out the boxed Audio Bibles.

During a lesson on how to work the Bibles.  The instructions would have to be explained to each person who received one.

What always surprises me is the number of Christian youths who turn out to assist these events!

One of the youngest volunteers gets help with his deliverer's bib.

Another youngster helping organise the pens on the chair for everybody.  "Always work enthusiastically for the Lord, for you know that nothing you do for the Lord is ever useless." (1 Corinthians 15:58)  

The courier bags the volunteers will carry, each loaded with about 20 Audio Bibles.

A group photo before heading out.

A prayer by a Forest Door Church elder before leaving.

Dr. McKissick and David looking over the maps the latter had prepared so everybody could be reached.

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Audio Bible Distribution

Dan Reich was up in Asuncion for a couple of days and invited me to join the group handing out Audio Bibles in one of the rural villages outside of Yuty after church on Sunday.  I jumped at the chance as I have heard so much about SIM Paraguay’s Audio Bible work.

The idea was conceived a couple of years ago to make Bibles Paraguayans could listen to rather than read.  Whilst literacy levels aren’t really low, Paraguay is not a nation, generally, drawn to reading, instead people prefer to share information through speaking.  You could hand out written Bibles but they could, conceivably remain on a shelf unread.

Whilst audio Bibles exist in Spanish, there is nothing like hearing God’s Word in your heart language, so SIM Paraguay recorded the whole Old and New Testaments of the Holy Bible in the Guarani language (with various voice actors and sound effects to bring the accounts to life) and put them all on custom built MP3 players designed by a Chinese company they know.  You can find out more about the project here on the SIM website (and also here on the project website) and ways to support and raise money to distribute hundreds of thousands.

On Sunday we had about 160 to hand out, and it wasn’t a case of just dropping them off impersonally, but rather speaking to each recipient and explain how to work them, and share their own faith with them in the process.  To do this church members from San Francisco travelled down by motorbike and 4x4 to join others from the Yuty church to go out in teams of 2.  There must have been about 30 of us.

Getting kitted out.

When the group split up and went out two by two it reminded me of Jesus sending out the 72 followers to proclaim The Kingdom of God is near you, as recorded in Luke chapter 10.  They were heading out into the dusty, hot roads, with God’s power, a day similar to what the followers in 30AD faced.  Only here whilst some walked, others went on motorbikes.

Heading out in twos!

Whilst the town is in range to hear the Reiches popular weekly Bible radio show transmitted from Yuty, this could have been for most the first time the locals would have heard the Truth.  There is a Roman Catholic chapel in the village, but in the rural areas, whilst most call themselves Catholic, they are actually animistic as they mix in local superstitious beliefs and witch doctor teachings and drape over it a mixed-up belief of the errors that Roman Catholics believe about idolatry.

To illustrate the faulty teaching of Rome, and the melding of local beliefs, one lady rejected the Audio Bible as she said she was “close to the Virgin of Caacupé” (an ‘appearance’ of the Virgin Mary in Caacupé, a place which about 300,000 Paraguayans make a pilgrimage to a year), and she believed the Virgin would not like her accepting a Bible!  She believed the Mary, who we know only about through the Holy Bible, wouldn’t want her to have a Bible!  Such deception was heartbreaking, but the good news is that only a couple of people refused the Bibles.  Most families were thankful to get them, and seemed keen.  We’re hoping and praying many families will listen to God’s Word in their own language, and God will do great things in the village, and people will join the Bible studies put on by the Floyds.  It was great to be able to see people listen to the first verses of Genesis (“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth”) and think of them as now hearing from God through His Word besides the general revelation of Him they have had since birth.  Exciting times!

Here are some more pictures of the great day:

An older man receives his Audio Bible

He had a cross above his door, but didn't seem to know what it really meant

Hannes and Mr Floyd heading out by bike.

A man and his granddaughter are introduced to their Audio Bible.

Facing the foliage to get to more isolated huts.

A kid in the rear view mirror.

As the Reich kids and the Floyd kids were together, there was much jocularity going on back at the base!

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San Francisco and Yuty Pictures

Here's a few pictures from the past week in San Francisco and Yuty.  I was in San Francisco to be at the kids' club and for a couple of other things, then took the bus (last post) to Yuty where I got to attend my third different church in Paraguay, and went on a fishing trip with the men from the church in the flood plains...

5 on a motorbike!  A common sight outside of the main cities.  Brilliant.

The kids' club is held at the church -the church with no roof but rather a canopy of leaves.

Baseball game at the kids' club.

The church 'cinema'.  It works really well.

Ryan McK playing a local at checkers with beer lids.

The kid on the right has turned up at a few events, and he likes using my camera.  When his friend arrived they filmed a Street Fighter 2 style fight complete with actual hits and sound effects.

There was a grand river to fish in, but the locals preferred the drying-out flood waters nearby as it keeps the fish trapped and close together.

Hannes was on the trip so when a guy walked past wheeling his broken bike, Hannes fixed it for him on the spot for free!  The guy was so happy as he was about 10-12 miles from town.

There are a lot of rickety wooden bridges, and these big nails hold the planks in place, but as there is a lot of movement in the planks a lot of the nails are loose.

A truck crossing the large river bridge.

Sunset over Yuty.

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The 7:00 to Yuty

I stayed 3 days at the McKissicks again before heading further down Route 8 to Yuty to stay with the Reichs.  Route 8 is the only major road in Paraguay that hasn’t been paved yet (and when I say major road we’re talking 5 or 6 buses, and 20 trucks, per day) so travel, especially by bus, is often determined by the weather.  If it’s sunny then everything is good, the red dirt road is dusty and hard, but if it’s raining then there’s no dice because it’s like driving on butter.  I was leaving at 7pm but knew if it rained I’d be leaving the next day.  If a storm is even forecast then the buses don’t leave Villarrica further up the road (where the tarmac ends and the dirt starts), but if the bus had reached San Francisco by the time the rain started it would trudge on to Yuty rather than turning back.

It was quite overcast near 7 but nothing bad forecast but perhaps some isolated showers.  The bus came early and cost 20,000 Guaranis (£2.60 or so) for the 90-minute trip to Yuty.  I paid the driver as the conductor put my luggage in the hold, and we set off.  And everything was good for a few minutes until we left San Francisco and reached the wilds and the driver booted the bus up to between 50 and 60mph on roads where 25 was often too fast.  Lightning started to flash to the West after the sun had set and the streaks lit up the huge grey billows that covered nearly all the sky.  The flashes came every few seconds in multiple areas, some far off through a few layers of cloud, others were striking a mile or so off.  The driver was trying to beat the storm, a storm that hadn’t been expected from the San Francisco area.

By 8pm the bus was overtaken and engulfed by the fast-moving, huge storm and the rain was lashing down.  Lightning struck trees less than a few hundred yards away with a zap and a pop.  The bus slowed down to 5mph and carefully took to the slick roads like a cat on a very narrow fence.  Many times buses have slid off the road and the occupants have had to bed down for the night, or until the storm passes, before the slow rescue vehicle (tractor) rumbles out to save the day.  

Many times, especially going up hill, the back of the bus swayed a yard this way and a yard that way, and once began to drift sideways on the curved path that had been heavily cambered by the rain at each side.  On a slight upward hill we approached what appeared to be a parked truck.  As we got closer the dim bus lights began to pick up its partially spilled load hanging from the side, and reaching the front we saw no cab, as the truck had jack-knifed and the cab was rammed into the ridge 90 degrees off the trailer position.  It looked from the tire marks to have been both recent and a slow-speed accident whereby the truck had simply lost traction over the course of a dozen feet and had slid holus-bolus into the verge.  The bus drew alongside and the conductor shouted out the door to the trucker but nobody replied.  After a few minutes of nothing we continued on and the darkened truck was engulfed by the night again.

Around a corner not far from there, on the steepest hill yet, a motorbike and 2 passengers lay across the dead-centre of the road leaving no space either side for the bus to get passed.  There are stories of people laying dead in the middle of narrow, isolated roads like this, so that drivers are forced to stop and then a pack of thieves jump out of the bushes with guns and rob everybody blind, so the bus driver showed caution and didn’t slow down but flashed his lights and honked his horn.  Out of nowhere, overtaking us at that very moment was a 2nd motorbike (unnervingly we hadn’t seen anything else moving since the rain started).  The odds were heavily in favour of criminality due to the location, timing, and position of all key players, but, rather amazingly it turned out to be the nigh-on-impossible innocent happening, or maybe it wasn’t, because the driver didn’t open the door and the fallen bikers picked their muddy selves up and got out of the way of the revving, less than sympathetic bus.  From a standing start it seemed unlikely that we would get moving again, but we did.

I then got a call from Dan Reich in Yuty (who was going to collect me), and he said the bus was about to reach Yuty as he had spoken to the wife of the driver.  The wife of the driver was sitting in front of me and soon turned around and said hello.  It transpired that the bus driver and his wife are the Paraguayan mom and dad who Hannes, the young Swiss missionary I met on my first Sunday in Paraguay, is living with in Yuty!  It’s a town of 6,000 people, 3 times the size of San Francisco, yet it’s an extremely small world.

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Pictures of the Week in San Francisco

I taught 2 of the younger McKissicks how to work the camera and they made a film about getting fruit from a neighbours tree by throwing rocks at it.

This was at an outdoors meal where fancy furniture was placed under trees.

The 2 young filmmakers.

A rabbit that happily lives in a chicken house.

A baby rabbit born during the week I was there.

A chick rescued from the jaws of one of the dogs.  It had a broken wing.  It sadly died on Friday night.

The best day was when I was given an iced coffee by Amy.  I can't express how good a cold drink is.  Like cold water to a weary soul is good news from a distant land. (Proverbs 25:25)

A view of the high street in San Francisco.  As it's a main bus route companies pay the locals to have advertisements painted on their walls.

On the left is a fixed fan control, and the right is a camera cable into a US to UK adaptor, then a UK to Paraguay adaptor held in place with string.

Amy McKissick trying to lasso.

The lasso teacher.  He had 4 students and 2 managed to lasso a cow (one by the head, one by the leg).  I failed.

Pigs are great.  They stand in the middle of roads grunting seemingly oblivious to the approaching 4x4s.

The San Francisco high street.

Sugarcane getting split.

God provided an amazing sunset on both Friday and Saturday.

A hammock in the sunset.

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