Building up a Broken-Down Community

Finishing the Floor for the Siloe Church

Dear Friends and Family:

A couple of months after the Siloe Church in Ñemby, Paraguay lost her pastor due to his misconduct she also lost her building due to political maneuvers by the local government.  One Sunday morning during that very tough season for Siloe, Margarita and I worshiped with the congregation under a mango tree.  Their songs of thanks for God’s steadfast love in the midst of trials resounded throughout the neighborhood. 

On the Saturday before this past Easter, we organized a volunteer team to lay the floor for Siloe’s new church building.  After the work was done, the volunteers prepared a special dinner and service to encourage the church members.  Thirty children were the first to show up for the service, leaving the team—most of whom knew much about construction work but little about children’s ministry—at a loss on what to do.  The guitarist improvised some children’s songs that he remembered from his childhood while I ruminated on how to condense the message into an interactive, age-appropriate presentation.  It turned out to be fun, especially for the children who watched us fumble around and try to act like kids.

Following our un-planned children’s service, we gathered about 7 adult church members.   We listened to testimonies of how the church’s hardships over the years had taken their toll on the morale as well as the size of the congregation.  Then, we let the book of Nehemiah speak about God’s history of building up devastated communities.  The same “great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love” and rebuilt his community after Babylonian exile, is the same God to whom we and the Siloe congregation pray.  Keep the Siloe Church and the city of Ñemby in your prayers.   And, on another note, please pray for a favorable response to our proposal for a grant from a Texas foundation that’ll help us finish building our house.    

18 inmates, who are our new brothers in Christ, recently finished the "Quien es Jesus?" course.

Margarita and I know that work with at-risk populations involves bittersweet moments.  For instance, Margarita enjoyed weekly “girls’ times” with three teenagers from dysfunctional families, but would frankly speak to them about the warning signs she observed in their dating habits.  Even though she tried to guide them, they ultimately made their own decisions. During Easter week we visited one of them, “Lisa,” at the hospital where she had just given birth to a healthy girl.  In spite of the difficult road ahead for the single teenage mother, we encouraged her and celebrated the life of her child.  Pray for Lisa as well as her baby.

Finally, we thank God for you.  His constant sustenance for us is just one example that he keeps his covenant of love and that he is really not far from each one of us.

Sincerely,

Tim, Margarita, Ana and Antoine

"Queen Elsa" and "Superman" recently joined us for a stroll in downtown Asuncion.