Ciudad Del Este (the City of the East), is the second largest city in Paraguay.  On Monday of our current mission trip in this country (yesterday) we traveled the 300 kilometers from our initial home base – the capital city of Asuncion – to Ciudad Del Este where we will be spending four days.  It took us six hours of drive time, and a total of seven hours factoring in a picnic at a scenic lookout, a quick trip into a store for a few necessary items and a stop at an ice cream stand run by Paraguayan Mennonites.  (The Mennonites have been living freely and peacefully in this country since the Communist revolution in Russia.)

So why does a trip between a country’s two largest cities require a pace of only 50 kph?  It seems that there are no Interstate-style roads in Paraguay.  It was a two lane road the whole way, slowing down as we passed through various police check points and towns.  We saw a couple of gauchos driving a small herd of cattle, lots of roadside fruit stands, flora of all sorts, and even some decent sized hills… Asuncion is just plain flat.

We arrived in Ciudad Del Este at 6:30 PM and went to the home of some Chilean missionaries; Erwin and Octavia.  The Christian Missionary Alliance started a work in Chile 100 years ago.  The missionaries have long since turned the churches over into the hands of national pastors and leaders.  The Chilean church is now at the point where they are sending missionaries to Paraguay and elsewhere.  So, with our trusty friend and translator, John, we had supper with these missionaries and another missionary couple, also from Chile.  We had the most amazing evening, sitting around the dinner table and talking about anything and everything.  We even go to the point where we tried to communicate without John’s translating.  Octavia, one of the missionaries, has had some (apparently not many) English classes and I know only a handful of vocabulary and none of the grammar of Spanish, so the conversation was pretty comical, but we had fun.  Occasionally John’s 11 year old daughter and Rose’s traveling buddy, Megan, tried her hand at translating.  How cool that people who have never met and don’t speak the same language can be quick friends.  “Blessed be the tie that binds.”

Since Irwin and Octavia’s apartment is kind of small, we drove into a suburb and stayed with a couple who have been career missionaries to Latin America.  Clint, the husband, is originally from New Hampshire.  Since we’re Mainers,  that gave us some common ground. Most of their career they were in Venezuela until Hugo Chavez declared that all Venezuelan children belonged to the nation’s military.  Since some of their kids had dual citizenship, they had to leave or lose their kids to the Venezuelan military.  They are now serving the Lord here in Ciudad Del Este.  Megan and Rose shared a room with the youngest daughter of this family, an 18 year old.  Apparently they all stayed up talking late into the night.

We are currently back in the city after having done two shows at two private schools.  This morning we were in a Catholic school that has several students who are Muslims from North Africa.  This afternoon we were in a Baptist School which has an enrollment that is majority Catholic.  You gotta love life in a multicultural, metropolitan area.  In both settings we talked about a living relationship in Jesus as opposed to religion for religion’s sake.  More importantly, it connected the schools with our Chilean missionary friends so their ministry in these schools can continue. 

As for Ciudad Del Este, it seems to be a fascinating place.  It is a city of 800,000, and it was the fourth largest commerce city in the world last year.  Much of the money that changes hands here is illegal: drugs, arms, human trafficking, etc.  You can actually buy dynamite from street vendors here!  It is strategically located for legal and illegal commerce because in is adjacent to both Brazil and Argentina.  It is also a more international city than Asuncion.  A large mosque is under construction diagonally across from where one of the missionary couples lives.  The other Chilean couple told us that their neighbors include Pakistani, Chinese, and Korean families.  We are now in that apartment having a bit of a siesta, minus the actual sleep.  We’re currently hearing stories from John, in both languages simultaneously, about mistakes he made with Spanish over the years.  He once offered a friend freshly baked cookies.  Unfortunately what he said translated into, “Do you want some freshly urinated-on cookies?”  We’re all laughing and enjoying an afternoon with no further shows to do today.