Why Paraguay?

We've already been here for over a week, in reality our time is winding down. As I sit for a moment to reflect on this trip so far... I can't help but be overwhelmed by all that I want to share. I realize that I did a poor job of blogging about our trip last year, and to tell you some of these stories without explaining the history behind them would be remiss. Where do I begin?

Some of you have been praying for us and this trip for some time. Others may be reading and wondering what in the world are we even doing in Paraguay?

In an attempt to answer that question, I'll give a brief overview of how we got to this point. It seemed that the fall and winter season of 2012 seemed to be especially dark, dreary and rainy. Brant's business at the hotel, while successful, was beginning to feel monotonous to him. We both recognized the effects of seasonal affective disorder and knew that some time in the sun would be beneficial for Brant especially. Friends approached us about going on a cruise, and though we had gone on cruises before and really enjoyed them, it didn't seem right at that time. I began to pray, asking God to provide an opportunity to do something of value with our vacation time. I prayed that God would touch our hearts with the work of His Kingdom, that somehow we could be involved in a ministry that would ignite a renewed passion in our lives, something that we could invest in. And I prayed that we could be an encouragement, help, and support to those giving their lives serving the Lord. So I prayed, and waited. And it kept raining.

And then one day in January 2013 Brant comes home from work and asks me what I thought about taking a trip to visit a friend. I was curious because he seemed excited... which friend? Judah Mooney, a missionary that our church sent out 6 years ago to Paraguay. Brant remembered a conversation he had with Judah the previous year while Judah was staying at Brant's parents' house. They had spoken briefly about Judah's ministry in Paraguay and also the Awana children's ministry that Brant directs at our church. As the conversation ended Judah said, “If you ever want to come to Paraguay we'd be happy to have you... we don't get too many visitors.” At the time he didn't think anything of it, but Judah's informal invitation came to Brant's mind in the middle of a dreary winter, knowing that in Paraguay our winter is their summer. When Brant came to me with the idea of visiting Paraguay, I knew that God had answered my prayer, so we began to work out the details. Jonathan wasn't even 1 year old yet at the time, and so my first concern was the kids. Right away we called my sister Vicki, who just so happens to be an incredibly good nanny. She also just so happened to have a week of vacation during the time we were thinking of going, and was able to get another week off to stay with the kids while we were gone. Judah was willing to have us, Vicki could care for the kids... so we booked our tickets and were on our way to South America for 2 weeks.

It was a fantastic vacation. We spent the time with Judah and Mary Mooney and learned all about Paraguay and the different ministries that Judah is involved in. Initially Judah came to Paraguay with a program of Power to Change Canada called “Tranforming Paraguay Together.” Their goal was to reach 1 million people with the gospel and plug them into churches to be discipled. Power to Change partnered with a local ministry called “Jesus Responde” (Jesus Responds) which was a well-known Christian ministry already very active in Paraguay. They planned large evangelistic events and as part of the vision to reach Paraguay with the gospel, they went to local churches and asked the pastors and leadership what they needed to reach their communities for Christ. Several of the churches responded that they needed food. The children in their communities were malnourished and meeting the basic needs of the children would help them to build a bridge between the church and the families they were trying to reach. Members of the churches wanted a place to serve their communities, and the greatest immediate need in the community was feeding their children. Originally the nutrition centers were just a part of the overall ministry, but soon the nutrition centers became the first thing that all the churches in impoverished areas wanted. And so Judah was put in charge of the humanitarian aid program of the ministry. He developed and coordinated the implementation of nutrition centers, where local churches provide a meal (usually once a week) and a program for children. Jesus Responds provides the vegetables (donated by the gleaners) and imperishable food (donated by local Paraguayan companies), and the local church provides the place, volunteers, and perishable food.

Last year, Judah asked us to bring a few of the Awana materials to show to Samira, the children's ministry coordinator at Jesus Responds. Samira explained the great need for Biblical teaching materials for the children at the feeding centers. These churches didn't have the funds to purchase books and supplies to teach the children about Christ. She spent 4 months writing a curriculum called “the Forgiveness Campaign” which was used at the feeding centers. It was affordable because they could copy it in Paraguay and make it available to the churches cheaply, who used it and were now asking for more materials. But she couldn't keep up with the demand. So when she saw the Awana materials she was very interested to see if they could get a copyright and use it for their curriculum. We said we would look into it and see what we could do.

That was just a short meeting during our trip last year. At the time we didn't really think too much of it. And, we unfortunately didn't get the chance to go to a feeding center last year, though we were busy learning all about the other ministries going on in Paraguay. Alongside of the humanitarian aid program, Jesus Responds is involved in several different kinds of ministries, including theological training for pastors, clown and street ministry, church planting, Athletes in Action, marriage seminars, showing the Jesus film, and vocational training for the poor, just to name a few. They received grants from the government for the vocational training programs, which seemed to be a great program, until the graduates from the program were unable to start businesses because they lacked the resources. While continuing to work with Jesus responds, Judah saw this need and started a new micro-finance ministry called Diaconia. So while we were in Paraguay last year we learned all about Diaconia and how it works (more about that in another post), visited orphanages and foster care homes, participated in a dental outreach, went to see Iguassu falls, met Mary's parents and learned about the Mennonites here, and basically had a fabulous time in Paraguay.

It wasn't until we came home last year and were talking about our trip that we remembered Samira's request for materials. As we looked on the internet at Awana International we watched a video about the new leader-based model that Awana started using around the world in 2007 with great success. And right then it clicked for both Brant and I, like a light bulb going off (or rather a lightning bolt striking us!) we realized that Awana was exactly what Judah, Samira, and the volunteers at the nutrition centers were praying for, and that Judah's work with Jesus Responds had paved the way, laid the groundwork perfectly, for Awana to come to Paraguay. For those of you not familiar with Awana, this is from their website:

“Awana is a global non-denominational ministry leading kids to know, love and serve Christ. There are 1.8 billion children around the world. Millions have never even heard the name of Jesus. Awana's passion is that every child, everywhere will have the opportunity to hear the gospel, respond, and grow in their faith. To reach more kids for Christ, we equip leaders. Awana provides the training, tools and resources they need to be effective in children's ministry. In most cases, for every leader we train, 60 kids are reached with a weekly club-style program. Kids love it...and it works.” Awana International Website

The partnership with the local churches and pastors was already established. The volunteers in the churches were already willing to give of their time and energy to reach the children in their communities with the gospel. And at that time, there were already 350 nutrition centers feeding an average of 50 children each week! So right then we prayed for Paraguay, the nutrition centers, and Awana, not knowing what would happen, but praying in faith that God was going to work.

And work He did! Fast forward ten months: Brant, Alex Snyder (a good friend from our Church), Jack Eggar, CEO of Awana, together in a fishing boat on the Parana river in Paraguay.  

Dona & Jack Eggar, Brant & I, Susan & Alex Snyder

Susan caught 3 Dorado on this fishing trip!  I would do well to learn to fish from her. 

Brant just recently, as in the last couple of years, has become a fishing enthusiast. It began when Alex invited him on a fishing trip with his friend Jack, who also happened to be the CEO of Awana. So it is fitting that we started out this trip in Paraguay with a fishing trip. The last 10 months have been spent praying, e-mailing, skyping, budgeting, fundraising, coordinating and communicating between Brant, Judah, Awana International and Jesus Responds to bring the Awana leader-based ministry to Paraguay. Ordinarily the process would probably take considerably more time, but being able to present the idea directly to the CEO and having him jump on board, combined with the foundation laid by the work at Jesus Responds with the nutrition centers, and here we are. By the time Brant and I arrived, Jack and a team from Awana International had already presented to a group of local pastors, inspiring them with the mission of reaching children for Christ. The next weekend there was a 3-day “train the trainers” seminar where leaders were strategically selected and trained to teach others how to implement the Awana program. And beginning Friday, 2 representatives from 50 churches will come to be trained how to start Awana clubs in their churches. Brant and I are so excited to be a part of it all!

It took us 7 hours in a van to get to the remote fishing location on the Parana river, and the whole way we were inspired and encouraged as Jack shared with us the vision for Awana, success stories and challenges along the way. He shared how Awana has changed over the years to meet the challenges of global evangelism and discipleship and shared countless stories of lives changed by the good news of Jesus Christ.

There are times in life when I want to pinch myself to make sure I'm not dreaming. This is one of those times. As I float down the second largest river in South America fishing for Dorado, I look out over the water and see Brant, Jack and Alex standing with their poles (not catching anything at the moment but losing a lot of bait to Piranhas!), and I can't help but praise God for how He has orchestrated all of the details to bring us to this point.