I had another post waiting in the wings, but I really want to do this one first.
Several of you may know that JC and I are going on a mission trip to Paraguay this summer. I am SO PUMPED! I just spent some time reading Ellen Sabo’s (from Edmonton) blog, and I absolutely can’t wait to go. For those who don’t know, we’ll be working at La Escuela Privada Adonai, which is the private Christian school that our church started near Asunción. I’m not entirely sure what we’ll be doing, but I told Karen Caballero that we wanted to help teach English. We’ll probably be working with Ben Shurance and Ellen. At some point, a crew from Kitchener is coming down as well, so I’ll probably help them with the construction they’ll be doing.
From reading Ellen’s blog, it sounds like I’ll have a lot to get used to. Even though they speak Spanish in Paraguay, with which I think I’ll do fine after a few days, they also speak a native language called Guaraní (gwa-rah-NEE) which doesn’t even remotely resemble Spanish. It’s definitely an indigenous language. I am excited about the mate (MAH-tay). It’s a fun tea that you drink through a filter; it was called chimarrão (shee-mah-ho, roughly) in Brazil. Maybe this time I’ll actually get a set to bring back. But I’m digressing. It sounds like the people are very friendly and always have time to sit and chat with you while drinking some mate, which totally reminds me of old-school southern culture. So maybe in that sense I’ll feel like I’m at home. I’m a little disappointed our trip will be so short, because I definitely think I’d love to be down there for a few months.
If you’d like to help out, send your donations to the ACC Foundation and earmark it for our trip. Jimmy knows all about it, and all the money goes through his house anyway. Any extra will be donated to the mission. I know they’re working on an addition to the school that is fairly pricey, but I don’t know where they stand financially with respect to that project.
So please begin praying now. I bought tickets yesterday. We leave Richmond on Friday, August 3rd and get back Sunday August 19th. Pray for these things for now:
- Visas come in a timely fashion
- Spanish studies bring back everything I have forgotten
- The missionaries can figure out what we should do
- We get enough funding
I’ll post while I’m there, as I hear they have internet cafes here and there. As more fun info comes my way related to the trip, I’ll post it. Thank you for your prayers. I am so excited!
[Update: I created a page to sort of contain all the information about the trip as I get it. It also has a button for you to donate to the trip.]
-j
I'm Jason, and I like to write.
I’m going there with a work team in August!