December 2009: Margarita

December 2009

Dear Friends and Family:

Allow me to introduce you to two beautiful Paraguayan women.  The first is someone who a few of you have met and most have heard about.  Her name is Margarita Belen, and we have been dating for almost nine months now.  Margarita teaches second grade at the Nuevo Horizonte School.  She also serves as secretary at the Puerta Abierta church, where I attend.  Our relationship began a few months after the pastor appointed us to co-lead a neighborhood prayer meeting.  In addition to ministry at the church and school, we serve together in Bible studies and various other activities.  God has greatly blessed me through her company, character and insight.  I ask you to pray that God would guide our relationship according to His will.

The other Paraguayan woman is ten years old and I got to know her after a she asked me for change on the bus.  Her name is Noelia.  She wants to be a doctor when she grows up.  Her step-father, though, tells her she will be a “butterfly of the night” (prostitute).  There are obstacles keeping Noelia from pursuing her dream, namely her poverty and illiteracy.  She visits Margarita at the school after classes.  Noelia says she wants to study at Nuevo Horizonte and wants Margarita to be her teacher.  She will not be able to enroll at this time.  We don’t know exactly how we could help her, but we know God is powerful to change her situation.  Please pray for Noelia, as well as the countless at-risk girls in Paraguay, whose futures are in jeopardy, and ask God to lead His followers here in reaching out to them. 

Classes have ended at Nuevo Horizonte for the summer break.  I look forward to moments of vacation time.  Next week, my good friends Luke and Laura Williams from Seattle will celebrate their one-year anniversary down here.  Pray for their visit to be relaxing and very fulfilling.  In January, I’m hoping to travel in Brazil for a week to present to churches about the school.  There are also many ministry activities planned.  I’ll make a few visits to the Tacumbú Penitentiary.  The Puerta Abierta church is organizing outreach events to the community.  In addition, Elias and I will be working more in Cerro Gu’y village.      

Perhaps you’ve heard me say before that many times the prayer requests of one newsletter are answered by the time I write the next one.  This is true for Cerro Gu’y (Guarani for “behind the hill”), which I mentioned in October. The weekly meetings with the boys continue, and now the parents are participating.  We’re organizing a three-day vacation Bible school during the first week of January.  Please keep this event and the village of Cerro Gu’y in your prayers.

Thank you for the generosity you’ve shown all year through your prayers, support, and encouragement for my work here in Paraguay.  Recently, some of you sent school supplies for my students.  This month, a few began sponsoring Nuevo Horizonte students.  In November, members of St. Matthew United Methodist Church in Belleville, Illinois, gave their talents and skills to bless a thousand Paraguayans through medical services. The greatest act of generosity, of course, is God sending His Son to us, whose humble entry into the world we celebrate this season.  My prayer for myself, and for you, is that we give Christ control of our lives and situations now, in 2010, and in the years to come.  Also, may we respond to whatever calling He has put on our hearts in the same spirit as Mary, the mother of Jesus, who faithfully proclaimed,

“I am the Lord's servant…May it be to me as you have said…” (Luke 1:38)

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!