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.

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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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Days of a Tree, and Infrequently-Used Machetes

Isaiah 65 describes the new heaven and the new earth, and some people take it as meaning the final state where there is no longer death, or sin, but it can't be because it says in verse 20, 'he who fails to reach a hundred will be considered accursed.'  It's talking about the Millennial Kingdom where Christ reigns on earth for 1000 years after the Tribulation.  Verse 22 goes on to say, 'For as the days of a tree, so will be the days of my people.'


There are many huge trees around, and there are laws in Asuncion to protect them.  Indeed  when there is a road to be built, if a tree is in the way and is large enough, the road will be built around it, and most of them seem sturdy enough to face any prangs with buses.  There is a huge tree outside the entrance to SIM HQ, and the other say, at a time when there was not even a breath of wind, a very large branch gave way and with much noise came crashing to the ground, reminding me of the verses above.  It filled the entire street and sidewalk (a street which is relatively busy), so it was a blessing nobody was driving or walking underneath when it went.  It also managed to fall between the parked cars.

It drew a bit of an audience, and some local dudes helped shove it out the way (so that it completely blocked the SIM entrance).  This brought out Paul and the Reich kids with saws and machetes to cut and hack it up.  It was most pleasing to see a machete in use.  Prior to coming to Paraguay I was mistakenly expecting jungles so was hoping to use a machete at some point.  Since coming I have seen a lot of people carrying them, but few in use save for a guy from church cutting sugarcane on his farm.

Machetes in a shop.

Guy carrying a machete (whilst on a fishing trip believe it or not) and looking somewhat menacing to a passer-by. 

Bravely cutting towards the hand to make some chewable sugarcane sticks for us.

After no blood, some sweat, and few tears, we got the tree hacked up and pushed against the SIM fence, and the shavings and bits were brushed up and everything was close to being super-tidy.  The very second we finished the job, a truck arrived with a bunch of workmen keen to cut up the branch and sweep up everything and leave it "super-tidy".  Doh!


What made the tree fall down was it was somewhat rotten yet still living -a picture of those who are outwardly God's people, but inwardly are rotten to the core and filled with sin and close to collapse without remedy.  Jesus said of such people -those who call themselves His servants, yet they act badly (in Matthew 24:36-51)- that such people, when the master returns to find them, the master will, "cut him into pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth."  Goodbye rotten tree!

Men of action!

Machete in action, finally!

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The McKissick 'Niko' Cola Fountain

During the McKissick stay over here after their Brazil holiday, Josh got a Cola fountain apparatus consisting of Mentos sweets and a Mentos-release tube and string that attached to the bottle of Cola.  Technically you're meant to use Coca-Cola, but this is Paraguay so the local Coca-Cola-style stuff is a brand called Niko (it tastes like sugar-free Pepsi).

The event brought out two photographers and the Dreiling family as the gizmo's manufacturer's puff stated the ensuing geyser would be 22ft high.

With so many mischiefs around, it was was for Jeff to be the one to set things up, especially inside.

The bomb prepared for detonation and carried outside to the testing site, the carrier wearing a t-shirt expressing our sentiments.

Square in the middle of the lawn the explosive was readied.

Josh pulled the cord and ran as it immediately reacted and sent up a 5ft spray.

It reaches about 14ft and tails off inside of 3 seconds.

It made everybody smile, but Tyler (2nd left) summed up the events 4 seconds after the event was over (a full 7 seconds after detonation), 'Well that was a waste of coke.'

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Swords and Missing Teeth!

After rather reluctantly leaving Yuty and the Reichs, I spent a couple of great days with the Floyds in a village outside Yuty.  Like Hannes, Tony Floyd uses his God-given gift of fixing stuff to great effect so I got to go on a couple of adventures with him to the nearby farms.  The first was brilliant: it was around 10am and the farmer was in high-spirits on the porch with a small bottle of something probably verging on the stiff.  When he found out I was Scottish, he said he liked the name as it reminded him of scotch.  He spoke Guarani so I couldn’t understand anything he said, but whatever it was he was saying he was heartily laughing at the conclusion to each sentence.  He was, in the terminology of Enid Blyton, an absolutely positive scream.

After Tony set to work on his busted washing machine, he vanished off only to reappear moments later brandishing a 100 year-old sword which he did some moves with before laughing.  However, I’m not sure now how to incorporate the whiskey, guffawing and sword-wielding footage into the SIM film.

Later we headed to the iron master who set to work on some equipment.

His tap from the cold water barrel he’d dunk the worked-on iron into was a watering hole for wasps.

He also had a bunch of piglets on his land and his wife saw I was filming them without much success so she dropped some corn for them which they turned their noses up at.  She then gave them a bowl of fruit which they didn’t move for but rather surrounded her as if wanting something better.

Hannes was also by to demonstrate his reception dish for stronger internet connection.  With a download speed of 0.3kb per second, it had been taking a long time to get even emails, but the Hannes Device produced a steady 80kb per second speed which spiked for a time at 120kb!  He quickly became a legend in the Floyd household.  Like the McKissicks and the Reichs, the Floyds have super-fun kids and they got a kick out of the device.

They had started the school term last week for the first time in this new village, but one day was the first day they had the school uniform, so there was the obligatory posing in the garden photo moment at 7am when they set off.

Later that evening, Daniel refused to eat a sandwich and it was determined that the reason for this was to avoid his wobbly tooth falling out.  We encouraged him to pull it out with floss for the camera.  With the tooth suitably lassoed, he gave a firm yank and the tooth shot out across the porch to somewhere on the cluttered workbench.

…or under the workbench.

Ultimately it couldn’t be located so he went for a surrogate tooth in the form of a chunk of cement.

And to end to post, here are some random pictures of a man on a horse...

...and a helmet-cam shot of a farm.

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