Asking For Your Prayers

Please pray for the Kurrle family, missionaries here in Paraguay who were involved in a fatal accident last night on the road. The mother and the 6 year old son were killed, the father and 1 year old girls are in the hospital. I don't know them personally, but many missionaries here do.


Please pray for the survivors that God and His people might comfort them greatly.


The news article about the accident is here (in Spanish) http://www.ultimahora.com/notas/520813-Madre-e-hijo-mueren-en-fatal-accidente-rutero-en-Carmen-del-Parana,-Itapua

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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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Stranded in Asuncion with New Tribes Mission

I was supposed to be travelling north into the Grand Chaco region of Paraguay from Sunday onwards, but there has been a huge rainfall (50cm) there flooding a lot of dirt tracks making it inaccessible for a few days, but there was a lot of Asuncion-based NTM work to be done the week after, so the weeks have just been changed about.


So on Sunday some of the work entailed heading to a large Baptist church in the city with connections to NTM and interviewing a Paraguayan girl who went on a mission trip with NTM recently (which is rare as Paraguayan churches are yet to really grasp hold of mission work, although some early steps are highly encouraged and joy-filled, such as the Audio Bible distribution I wrote of a couple of weeks ago).


The whole Baptist church took a step where most British churches don't go, and went out with invites to the Luis Palau crusade happening in a week at Asuncion's Jockey Club.  Luis Palau is an Argentinian evangelist, very much the Latin American Billy Graham, so it's exciting times and so great to see so many churches go out and let people know.  The Paraguayan believers don't do the job with sour faces as I know British people do, they go with joy at working for the Lord, so it's ace.


Besides filming a bit of that, I went with Mike, his wife Trisha and kids to the peninsula in the large river between Asuncion city and Argentina.  To get there you can either take the ferry, or, even drive it in a major four-by-four.  The trouble with the latter option is it means driving through one of the largest slums in the city.  The city was quite quiet as we made our way to the peninsula because the 2 big football teams in the country were playing that evening, and in the slums there was a festive atmosphere as people crowded together to watch the TVs (and everybody seemed to support the team called Guarani which is based quite close to SIM -they have a strip like Juventus and Newcastle, and I'd rather support one of the underdogs, but that's just me).


Through the slum we had a good look at the downtown area of the city from a good vantage point.  The end of the peninsula is actually a club with extensive grounds, sports facilities, basketball and tennis courts, water slides, a huge 2-storey pavilion, and somewhat typically, it had all fallen into disrepair and whilst having space for 800-1000 people, there were about 15 of us.


On the way back we stopped before the slums to photograph and film the river boats and fields swarming with dragonflies.  It was at sunset, so magic hour to the photographer (my pictures are just vidcaps, so not ideal as still images as always), and since we were surrounded by the totally placid grand river, the mosquitos came out in their hundreds and attacked in hordes.  I must have been bitten 40 times in just a few minutes, although only one bite was long enough to cause the usual pain.


In the rush out of the car to get good shots, then running back in swatting off the mosquitos, I managed to lose my mobile phone.  I had just an hour before been presented by Trisha with a month's credit for it which she then installed, so it's the ideal time to lose it if it'll be a benefit to someone in the slum.  God's hand is in these things.

Water slide across the field.

Riverboat on the peninsula.

Part of the unused park.

A boat on a peninsula outcrop.

Downtown Asuncion from the park.

The field of dragonflies.

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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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Yuty to Encarnacion Photo Gallery

A couple of weeks back I was in Yuty and one day I got to travel south to Incarnation, and as I'm editing the film I took in Yuty I thought I'd post a lot of sights I saw along the road between Yuty and Encarnacion.

Raphella's perfume smells like 'Booz'.  Not so appealing for those with UK English.

I promised my FM friend Paul that if I saw parrots in Paraguay I'd take some pictures of them for him.  Unfortunately they aren't all that exciting.

In a jungle hotel in Encarnacion there's a large tree with a shrine to Mary. :(

Paraguayan baby wanting terere.

A huge toad getting prodded into life by Dan.

Old map of the region in a Jesuit museum on the road.

Looks like he has been speared, but is carrying a huge pole for use with a barge.

Jesuit ruins.

Small fry dog. 

One of the oversize lakes created by damming.  Nearby there is a house 90% submerged.

A typical roadside stall.

A major road constructed around the perimeter of a new lake.  There were 2 cars in the 15 minutes we were there.

The sad remains of the torn-up Paraguayan railway system.  The country is much less tourist-friendly because of it.

A pup separated from its litter.

A good place to plant a bush. 

It's not uncommon for cows to roam freely in the streets, although the local fuzz sometimes escort the rogue bovine to fuzz station and farmers pay fine much like parking tickets.

A dead tree pretending to be a pylon.

One of the towns used to be named after a chief from ages past called Bobi.

The other end of the town had a different chief.

A place that looks like a coffee shop only won't sell coffee so I don't know what you call them.  Well, besides 'cafe'.

Wide Load!  Besides transporting 5ft strimmers, the most popular dangerous article to carry on a motorbike in this country is the 15kg gas canister.

A road cutting across one of the now flooded regions in the south of Paraguay.  It's quite serene.

Nice flowering bush.

A frog living in the bathroom.

Frog caught by a kid.

Frog prepared to be transported outside.

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Good Friday

It’s Good Friday and the day has been marked with a 90% decrease in traffic and pedestrians in the city.  Everybody is off work (except security guards) and all the shops are shut for the religious holiday.  

To remember Jesus’ crucifixion I read the account in Matthew and then I returned to the huge church in Asuncion, the Iglesia Centro Familiar de Adoracion, as they were holding a special event to remember this central moment in human history.  Only a few buses were running the major routes but I was able to get one there on time after the owner of the ride I was meant to be going with dropped out late.

Maybe a few hundred people less than I saw on Sunday came to the event.  What the event was was a large-scale musical-drama about a modern Paraguayan girl being shown hell and then heaven by Jesus.  And oh…..my….goodness, it was totally EPIC!  It had a cast and crew of something like 220 people, musicians, actors, singers, and dancers.  The huge platform had a hell constructed on the left, and a heaven on the right, built right onto the 30ft, multi-tiered choir stands.  Between the two were 2 sets of 3 huge projection screens (one collection set high up, the other 3 from the ground up) placed end to end which showed moving backgrounds and Bible verses at appropriate times.

The story was that the girl is having some difficulties at home, and after turning to the Bible, Jesus turns up and the adventure begins.  And this was the Paraguayan-style Jesus (no beard, just stubble, and totally mighty, like Steve Reeves) which was more accurate to the Jewish carpenter truth than the milky-skinned North Western version where Jesus doesn’t look much Jewish.

The girl is shown hell, and I was actually scared and longing for hell to go away.  Hell had 6 huge screens of fire, and assorted demons jumping around torturing people the girl had known, people who had good points from a human perspective, and sometimes great achievements, such as the famous pop singer, and then others like a drunkard, a youth who disobeyed his mom and beat her, a drunkard, a sexually immoral youth, and others checking off the people in Revelation 22 whom Jesus says "outside [of heaven] are the dogs, those who practice the magic arts, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters and everyone who loves and practices falsehood."

The girl asks Jesus why each person is there, and Jesus explains the simple truth that they rejected Him, and we see their lives through flashback, and although each now calls out to Jesus for help now that they see Him and as they are being tortured by demons, but He tells them it is too late.

Now, for those who know their Bibles, Hell isn’t a place where demons are in control and torturing people, rather Hell is a place of torture to Satan and the demons, a lake of fire that humans who reject Jesus are also flung into leaving no hierarchy or people in control there, just all “weeping and gnashing teeth” as Jesus puts it, but the torture of just humans was the liberty taken in making it a narrative for the play, and it was very effective.  It was a really terrifying image, and the screams of the actors and actresses sounded so hideous.

After much heartbreak in seeing the eternally lost, the people she knew and admired, she saw the crucifixion where scenes from ‘The Passion of the Christ’ flashed over the big screens of Jesus being scourged and beaten for us, carrying His cross and then being nailed to it in excruciating pain.  The teen girl is then shown heaven and the music and the dancing really kicked into a high gear with about 40 dancers and kids waving huge flags, and the angels singing out shaking the whole stadium out, giving a glimpse of the joy of heaven.   The final song was ‘Days of Elijah’ with the words changed to fit the story, and it had everybody on their feet clapping.  It was such a fabulous performance, the best Christian production I have ever seen!  God is great!  Thank You Jesus for taking my punishment on the Cross.  Thank You Father for sending Your Son to take it.

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Iglesia Centro Familiar de Adoracion

Where I come from in Scotland a congregation of 40 is a good number for a church.  Anything over 90 is a ‘big’ church in my estimations, and Morningside Baptist Church in Edinburgh would be the local megachurch with close to 1000 members.  The church I attended this past Sunday in Asuncion had 40 people.  Those 40 people handed out the communion trays to the several thousand people in the 3-level stadium.  It was Paraguay’s biggest church, Iglesia Centro Familiar de Adoracion.

The service started at 10am and I arrived at 9:15 as I didn’t expect the empty roads going through the city or a fast bus journey.  By 10am when the music started there were only a couple of hundred people (see picture), but then this is Latin America where the concept of time isn’t held so tightly.  By 10:30am the floodgates had opened and people streamed in through the various doors and filled 2 of the 3 levels of the stadium.

One of the great things about these kinds of churches is hearing all the voices singing songs to Christ, booming them out, shaking the whole building.  It makes me wonder what heaven will be like with perhaps billions of people singing praise to our glorious King!

Besides this one day, the week has been slower than all preceding it in Paraguay as I’m stuck editing films for 2 weeks.  The good part has been that for a week the McKissicks were here after their family holiday to the beaches of Brazil which meant playing tennis, hockey and basketball most days in the courtyard.  Also the Dreilings were here holding a large garage sale so there was much activity (I bought a hammock that has the colours of the national flag).

The crew from Brazil.

Tyler, 7, in a dangerous place.

These past 2 weeks have brought about some changes for the stiflingly hot summer weather has passed and now it’s really nice mid to high 20’s most days, and one day was actually cold so that I got to wear a sweatshirt and jeans for the first time.  James, one of the missionary kids, told me I was an chump when he saw me dressed for winter because he thought I was meant to be Scottish and able to deal with the cold.  I never thought it would happen, but now I can handle the heat and can’t handle the cold.  So far one night has required a thick blanket to stay warm rather than the usual thin cotton sheet.  It alarms me that if this is autumn, what will winter be like!

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