Here is a pic with me and the 4 of them. I am standing next to Beto. The guy next to the couch is Allan. The girl on the left is Cristina and the other girl is Andrea.
On June 21st, Beto, Cristina and Andrea all flew into town.(Unfortunately due to passport issues, Allan wasn't able to make it until July). Although they got in at midnight, a group of us still went with open arms, ready to welcome them to Paraguay. I am sure that first week was probably a blur for them - trying to get into the rhythm of speaking Spanish full-time, trying to learn their way around, meeting everyone at church, learning about the money, the culture... I remember well my first month here, it was exhausting!
We started things off right though, the first Friday they were here we had a bible talk and then a karaoke party. Everyone had such a blast singing and dancing and just getting crazy/having fun. It was a great way for everyone to start bonding.
After that, we all headed up to a place called Marianela for a quick Monday/Tuesday getaway/retreat. (FYI: We = the 3 campus students, Frank Bedoya and family, John Hoyt who came down with the college students and stayed for 2 weeks, The Sincore Family who came down for a month to help the church, then myself, a teen named Daniel, and David Berndt from Florida - more on his visit later)
It was June, and boy were we cold! I fortunately slept warm that night because I brought my sleeping bag, used two blankets the place provided us, plus had 2 pairs of pants on and like 2 shirts and a sweatshirt - NOT exaggerating at all here....I think it was like 30 degrees in our rooms that night - remember, no central heating around here! Others unfort didn't fare so well - just due to a lack of sleeping bags really. I think Frank and Liz just threw the kids into bed with them so they could try and keep each other warm! LOL But despite the cold, we had great classes, ate super yummy food and just had fun getting to know each other since we had 7 weeks ahead of us and were going to be together a lot!
(us singing a song before a class)
(Cristina, Beto and Andrea)
One of their goals for the summer included trying to start a campus ministry. We have strong teens, singles and marrieds ministries, but we still need to work on a ministry for college students. So they frequently went out to the National University to invite people to church, and to try and start Bible studies with students out there. Here is a photo of some of them on campus one day.
Another goal was to help David Berndt get his non-profit organization going.In the photo above, David is the one on the far right with the long-sleeve t-shirt. He came down here 3 months ago to serve the church and to serve the poor. He and his friends started a non-profit organization called Live Cheap (check out livecheap.org - it really is a cool organization!). So every Saturday, they made (and still make) sandwiches to hand out to the poor on the street. (I teach every Saturday, so I was only able to join them once or twice). They were also able to help a family in a city close-by. It was a family of 10 and thanks to Live Cheap and the church, they were able to bring this family a couple of new beds and tons of clothes and food.
Of course it wasn't all work, we had to show them a good time as well!
When they first got here, we decided to have a costume party at the church - I did it up 80's style!
And of course, a trip to Paraguay wouldn't be complete without some soccer fun. The singles and teens all got together one Saturday evening to play soccer. I played a bit (this is a photo with me and my team), but I can't say that I helped them very much! LOL
They came just in time to watch the Copa de Sudamerica - apparently it is the second biggest soccer tournament next to the World Cup. The next 2 photos are of everyone watching a game together. Paraguay made to the finals, but unfortunately we lost to Uruguay. It was a fun time though!
(Analia, Belen and Andrea and I)
Of course with all of these Americans in town, we had to have a 4th of July party, despite the cold weather! I downloaded a bunch of America songs - from "Born in the USA," to "Proud to be an American." haha We ate hamburgers, hot dogs, chips. I even baked up a Duncan Heinz yellow cake with chocolate frosting (one of my fav combos!), as well as chocolate chip cookies. We had to try and be as American as possible! LOL
Here is a picture of David grilling it up right - good old hamburgers with cheese and hot dogs! (FYI: they don't normally grill hot dogs here and the hamburgers will only occasionally have cheese - although in their defense, cheese can be on the more expensive side here!)
We spent their last weekend here going non-stop, trying to get as much time in with them as possible. Friday night was a final teen bible talk. Saturday was a final party and Sunday night was the official going away party. The first pic is from the bible talk. The next two are a couple of pics from the party Saturday night.
The last Sunday service was done by the teens/the Americans! We all got up on the stage and sang a couple of songs in English for everyone (well actually we tried to make the songs half english/spanish). For those who know the church songs - we sang "I tried and I tried" and "Glory Glory"!
Here is a photo of Andrea, Cristina, Analia and Belen and I at the last church service.
The last Sunday they were here, we had a big going away party for them - there were LOTS of tears to say the least. They really did a great job impacting the teens and so many others here, that we were all sooooo sad to see them go! It was especially nice for David and I having some fellow Americans around for awhile. We can always speak English with people down here. But it is nice when you can be with people who get the American sense of humor! The 4 of them are amazing - they gave up their summer to come down to Paraguay to serve, encourage, teach...I know they walked away feeling proud of all they had accomplished while down here - both on a church level AND on a personal level.
During the party we all shared how we felt about their visit here, we ate, we sang, we played some games. The thing was that they had to be at the airport at like 3am, so all the teens just stayed at the house (most of the adults left long before that! LOL) and we all just hung out together until it was time to head out. Of course you can imagine how tired we all were!! But overall, it turned out to be a really sweet evening - despite the lack of sleep!
By the time we got to the airport, very few of us had any more tears left! We quickly got them checked in and through security. It is always tough to say goodbye - especially when you have been hanging out with such a great group of people for 7 weeks. They will be missed!
see....soooo tired, everyone!! (this is inside the airport by the way)
We are so grateful that they came and all of us hope that they can come back to visit soon!
One last funny pic:
