Days 7 & 8

We just had an AMAZING time of fellowship... and lots and lots of food... at Dr. Miguels house. Paraguayans take their meat seriously. There was fish soup, sausage, chorizo sausage, pig, beef, fish, including piranha, fish soup, ribs.... and when they offer you more "no" is not the correct answer. I took a video of the whole set up.. it was like nothing I had ever seen before. It will make its way onto facebook one of these days.

DAY 7:

We woke up early once again and repeated the same thing we did Monday at the public school again. In Paraguay, the school system is very different from American schools. Generally, the school day is split into two: a group in the morning, and a group in the afternoon. So, because we went in the morning, we had a different group of kids. I had a different group of second graders Rebecca and I could share Jesus with. This time the group was a little bit more responsive saying things like "oh yeah I know that story" and "oh yeah that is true." It was pretty cool. At one point a stray dog walked into the classroom... apparently that is normal because nobody flinched or paid it any attention. We all generally did the same presentations as we had the day before. Janna used the evange-ball again, but this time dropped it on some little girls head by accident. Comic relief for the day :) haha.

We then went back to the annex we were working out of for Monday and Tuesday and ate lunch. For this campaign we have been a part of, there were some women from the church hired as cooks, and without fail every day they have an absolutely amazing meal prepared for us at 12. They are amazing and serving just as much as anyone or more... and I just wanted to acknowledge them here quickly.
Then.. it was time for more door to door evangelism. I dont think any of us have gone door to door as much as we have down here in our lives. The amazing thing is that it works. In America, that generally is not a very effective way to share the gospel, but down here people are so receptive and responsive. This of course is a general statement. Every once in a while one of our groups run into the occasional Catholic waving a Mary Statue in someones face (Janna) or a Canadian Mormons (Marc). Generally though, the door to door ministry is a very effective way to spread the Gospel down here. Today we worked in a poorer neighborhood with a lot of farming going on. Roaming cows, sheep, goats, and lots of dogs and chickens was not a strange sight to see while walking around.

Besides all that, in this neighborhood we had at least 40 people accept Christ!! Once again, God shows that His word does in fact not return void. Its been amazing to see people "get it" and make the decision to follow Jesus. Those who dont seem to get it just yet but want to know, we are just praying that the word of the Lord is falling on "good soil."

This night we showed the Magdalena film again for the second time in Paraguay. This time it was a little bit more out in the open. We literally set it up in the middle of a dusty old back street where kids had turned it into a very primitive soccer field. It was technically in the back yard of a man named Raoul. Raoul was a staunch Catholic man who was very religious, but open to doing community things like showing a movie in his back yard. He was very set in his ways but open to letting us use his yard/road.
Raoul gave became a Christian after seeing the movie!! It was so so so exciting. God opened His eyes to the truth of the Gospel and He humbly gave his life over to Christ. God is GOOD!!
We set up the screen and set it up on a tree. A truck came through with some plastic chairs, and we set up a make-shift movie theater. It was such a joy to see some of the people we had invited from their houses and from the street show up to the movie. Maximo said a few words after the movie, and many people decided to trust their lives with Jesus. IT WAS SO AMAZING!

It was truly an amazing night to end an amazing day.


DAY 8:

I have caught up to today finally!
Today we moved to another neighborhood. I am not even going to try to spell it... just know it was a different neighborhood. We are working out of another annex to the main church for today and tomorrow (Thursday.) We met bright and early, and set out to do more door to door. "I am so tired" was on everybodys lips, but once again I am sure God gave us all new strength to go witness to more people. 3 people who my group prayed to receive Christ. And there were more from the other groups too. After eating yet another strengthening and delicious meal prepared by the ladies, we were able to have a short and much needed break.

We went door to door again in the afternoon, and my group saw 3 more people pray to receive Christ. The awesome thing about this system is the discipleship we return to do with these people the next day. They know that this prayer they are praying is not a ticket to heaven, but the beginning of a personal relationship with Jesus. We go through key verses in the New Testament with them which are the basis of our faith. Its awesome to see people get to know Jesus personally, sometimes for the first time in their lives.

Our main tool for evangelism is the evange-cube. Its pretty awesome, and people here are professionals at it. We also use our tracks which we brought from back in the States. They are in spanish though thankfully. They show a great portrayal of our need for a savior, Jesus. And we obviously use the Bible once we get deepr into discussion, and also to back up everything we say. Its just been such an amazing experience getting to share our faith and also getting to know the community, culture, and especially our translators. We make good teams :)

And as you know, tonight we had an amazing Paraguayan cook out with everyone.

Tomorrow we are going to another school to share the gospel to middle school/high school aged kids, and thier teachers. It is also our last day going door to door.

Pray for a strong finish to the campaign for us!!!

Prayer Requests:

1. God would work mightily in the lives of those who we have shared the Gospel with.
2. Those who have received Jesus would understand the Gospel and have a deep desire to learn more and more about Jesus.
3. Those who have received Jesus would get plugged into a church.
4. Renewed strength and a strong finish
5. Continued health - nobody has gotten sick yet. Some of us have felt under the weather though, due to climate changes, busyness, lack of sleep, etc.
6. We have another great turn out at the Magdalena movie we will be playing tomorrow night too

Thank you for all your prayers!!! We love you guys!

Psalm 27 is our trip chapter/verses for the trip, if you want to look that up by the way.

Thanks again!

- Victoria