Brothers Resisting Relapse in Paraguay

Dear Family and Friends:

Picture a drug addict-delinquent finding Christ and getting clean through a prison rehabilitation ministry.  Now imagine the same young man being transferred to a minimum-security prison—for good behavior—to share a cell with an inmate who consumes crack-cocaine daily.  This describes the situation in Paraguay’s Esperanza Penitentiary where about 80% of the population uses drugs, according to inmates.  Thus, perhaps as many as 8 of the 10 on average participants in our discipleship program there struggle to resist the constant internal and external pressures to relapse.  We thank God for the core group of inmates who stay clean, and for the church with a support group ministry who began visiting the prison every Sunday last month.  We also thank God for you because your support and prayers provide hope for the Esperanza inmates to experience Christ-centered transformation.  Please keep them and the ministry there in your prayers.     

Participants in the Esperanza Discipleship

The Evangelism and Missions Ministry, which coordinates the prison discipleship, also organizes monthly evangelistic events in strategic locations.  Unfortunately, we had to re-schedule May’s event in the city of Luque due to rain.  On Saturday, June 10^th we’ll visit the people who attended the previous events there and invite them to a family night in a local church.  Pray for the people of Luque.

 

In addition to providing English and learning disability intervention for hundreds of students, your support and prayers sustain the discipleship of about 100 teenage boys at the New Horizon School.  Some of them are going through tough seasons right now: parents with life-threatening illnesses, divorce, poverty, robbery, and at least one case of extortion by police.  At the same time, there are high school seniors planning for bright futures, others making the cut on select soccer teams, and many deciding to put their faith in Jesus.  Pray for our students and their families, in particular, for Teodolina, a mother with cancer, and Julio, a former student with leukemia.   

Mother’s Day is a major holiday in Paraguay with no work, no school and lots of barbequing.  We celebrated that day with Margarita’s family where she, her sister and her mother were the center of attention.  Ana, Antoine, Gabrielli and I thank God for Margarita, who is a wonderful mother.    We’re grateful for her mother, Agustina, who helps us quite a bit.  We’re also thankful for my father, who visited us last month and attended his new granddaughter’s dedication.  Please continue to pray for our family, as well as for the completion of the construction on our house.

Gabrielli was Dedicated in my Grandmother's 105-year-old Dress

Seeds of hope for new life are planted in rocky places and among thorns where growth is strained.  There are also seeds being planted in extremely good soil, where growth and multiplication occur.  Your partnership with Margarita’s and my mission work in Paraguay enables workers to be sent to and mobilized in this plentiful harvest field.

Thank you,                  

Tim, Margarita, Ana, Antoine and Gabrielli