Dear Friends and Family:
Fields in harvest, rolling hills and thatched-roofed wooden homes provide for pretty scenery while visiting rural churches in the San Pedro province of North-Central Paraguay. Last month I traveled with a team of three young adults to cast vision and leave materials for churches to set aside one Sunday a month to pray for and talk about missions in other countries and among Paraguayan native tribes. We demonstrated this vision by presenting about the challenges faced by the Church in two African nations. Then, the wood-plank churches filled with the congregations’ clamor in Guarani for God to work mightily in those countries. Pray that Paraguayan churches catch the vision to keep on praying for all the Lord’s people throughout the world to be a testimony to all nations. Also, pray for our June 17th informational meeting for the Ciudad del Este mission trip.
In
May, I worked with two local churches in presenting in about a half-dozen of
public school classrooms over relevant issues to the current generation of
youth. After the presentations, we invited
the students to put their trust in Jesus, in whom they can find guidance
through the issues they face. In two of
the classrooms, nearly everyone responded to the invitation—approximately 60 students. Both churches are following-up with those
schools. Likewise, our youth group will host a movie night for students from another
public school in addition to local colleges on June 27th. Pray that God’s Word, which is shared
during these events, will achieve
the purpose for which it
is sent.
Like any Christian school, the
New Horizon School has its share of challenging students. One such group is in Margarita’s homeroom class. They began the year struggling in responsibility
and behavior. Margarita and other
faculty members were concerned about how to better support them. In late April Margarita started using
team-building strategies and delegated classroom governance responsibilities
among the students. Since it is a
Christian school, she also resorted to a spiritual approach to the situation. Margarita started organizing a monthly
mini-church service in the class. The
classroom climate recently turned a corner.
We thank God that these efforts have already yielded some positive results.
Furthermore,
Ana and Antoine enjoyed a week of playing with their Grandpa Bill Revett, who
visited Paraguay last month. We all miss
him and look forward to seeing him, as well as the rest of our friends and
family, when we visit the U.S. this winter.
For the time being, we wish all of
you who are fathers a happy Fathers’ Day!
Believe
it or not, there is a connection between the Church in parts of Africa, for
whom we were praying last month, and the urban Paraguayan youth, with whom we
directly we work. Both face challenges. They also are in areas where, based upon Pew
Research (2011), and, to quote Luke 10:2, “The harvest is plentiful.” Ask
the Lord to raise up and send out more of his workers from and into his harvest
field.
Yours truly,
Tim, Margarita, Ana and Antoine
