Today I went into our church office in order to pick up a check. It was a large check from donations the church was holding for us that we have received over the last year toward our upcoming mission trip to Paraguay. Our trip will be August of this summer (probably the 9th through the 19th or 20th). Sue, Rose and I will be working with the Broughers, a couple who are working on a church plant in the capital city of Asuncion. This check will allow us to order our airline tickets tomorrow once it clears the bank. Just last week we renewed our passports.
Several weeks ago I was doubting that the funds would allcome in, and I began to explore missions to Indian reservations here in thestates. We’ve done this type of missionwork before, and it’s a true cross cultural experience for minimal cost, however,the day I first inquired about an opportunity on a reservation in South Dakota,we received an e-mail from Bob Brougher. He wanted to know how our plans were coming along. I decided to give Paraguay a little more timebefore giving up. Then the money seemedto pour in.
We received a check from a couple from the White RockBaptist Church where we performed on New Year’s Eve. We received another large check from theNorth Livermore Baptist Church, where we had already gotten a nice offering fora show we did in January (a rather poor performance, too). A local show that has been a freebie every time we’ve gone since 1990this time gave us a check when we were there earlier this month. Someone we’ve worked with in ministry for thelast several years sent us a check. Itseems she grew up in Paraguay, the daughter of missionaries with TeenChallenge.
But it’s not just the checks. People have been praying for us faithfully. A local church has made 700 bracelets using beads that match the colors of the ‘Wordless Book” (http://berean.org/bibleteacher/wb.html ) , and churches are already scheduling us to come and speak about our trip after we return. Dozens of people in our home church donated items to be sold at a yard sale last summer. A teenage girl faced with the task of emptying the home of an elderly man who had passed away gave us free picking of items from the home to sell. Funny story: We held the sale on our church’s parsonage lawn, and one customer was perusing the old guy’s wallet only to find some nude photos in one of the pockets!
When God’s people work together, His plans come together, and literally hundreds of people have contributed to this trip. With my students in school today we read the verse where Jesus said, “Pray the Lord of the harvest will send out laborers into the harvest.” Thank you everyone who has helped get us to this point in being sent to work with the Paraguayan church this summer… well,winter for them. We still need to raise funds for visas and incidentals, but it looks like the trip is becoming areality.
Thank you!