Blessed by Beauty and God’s Perfect Timing!

The long awaited post on Easter Break! We have been without internet for about a week and finally got internet back! So here it is one of several posts to come!

     “When I consider the works of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have set in place. What is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him.” As I starred at Iguazu Falls for the first time this psalm continued to play over and over in my head. Iguazu falls are 4 times to size of Niagara Falls and beautifully span more than twice the area as water truly cascades down from dozens of different falls. It is about 6 hours by bus east of Asuncion and is in between Argentina and Brazil. It is the image of the perfect jungle falls. As you gaze at them you are also surrounded by swarms of fragile and delicate butterflies that would even land on you. It was breath-taking seeing even more views of God’s incredible creativity and creation.

What can be better to celebrate the resurrection of Christ, than to survey these falls?

     While we were in Argentina, we also went to the Mission at La Aripuca. They had trees that were up to 1,000 years old! This mission was one of the first sights that Europeans first settled in to reach the guarani people in the region. The guarani people still live in the area and are able to use the mission as a way to support their tribe and show part of their history. The huge replica that you see here is built from trees hundreds of years old! We were able to even climb up inside as we learned about the different national trees that are special to the area. As you can also see, they guarani people also use the beautiful trees to make incredible furniture. These people spread from the area of the falls in Argentina and Brazil down through most of Paraguay. These people use the natural resources to make incredible products, such as Stevia (a healthy natural substitute for sugar from the regional stevia plant and first found in Paraguay) and other jams and preservatives from a flower only found at the falls! These people truly know how to use the beauty God has given us for the best that they can.

Felices Pascuas!!!!! Happy Easter!!!!

For more pictures, click on the photo gallery slideshow on the right to see all of my pictures!

School Spirit, Soccer’s Success, and Sunday’s Sundaes!

        Last week’s spirit week was a wonderful week to show a fun side and let loose before our upcoming break. Far too often at this point in a semester students and teacher hit a loll in the long stretches before a break. This week certainly has mixed things up as we turned the corner on the half of the semester and come rushing in to our Semana Santa (Holy Week). With Wednesday as grandma/grandpa day and Thursday as Character day, our students were able to take a break from their uniforms and really show their creativity.

        Spirit Week came to an end with Field Day. This events of the day consisted of different athletic challenges for the students to compete in for their team. From sack races, to dashes, and jump roping to soccer kicks, our students had a great opportunity excel in different areas. The competition was certainly close and while red and blue were tied at the last account, the white team officially won. Several students that don’t usually do very well athletically surprised even themselves and it was a wonderful opportunity for different students to excel and increase respect within my class.

     On Sunday was one of our women’s nights for my church! We always have a wonderful time getting to know each other better and having some laughs together. This night was movie night and it was decided to introduce the American Ice cream Sundae as the snack for the night. It was certainly a lot of fun loading up the ice cream and seeing their eyes get wide with all of the choices. Still the part I like best is getting to know the other ladies better, spending time with them!

Prayer Requests:
- As with last week, please pray for Paraguay right now and the spread of Dengue. This is a disease that is transmitted by mosquitoes (like Malaria), but has no preventative measure except to try not to get bit. Over 13,000 people have been officially infected and 18 have already d
ied this year. The school is taking every precaution possible with fumigations, daily empting of trash, etc, yet mosquitoes often have a mind of their own.
- Please pray for the physical strength to make it through this week as it is filled with high energy fun and busy schedules.
- Please pray for safety over Semana Santa and many people will be traveling!

Firsts:

-First time hearing a story about a mosquito in Guaraní! This week is Library week and today a good friend, Don Rosalino, who works as a maintenance worker here at ACA, came into my 4th grade class and read to us. Thankfully he paused to translate into Spanish for us! (I also went and read a Max Lucado book to 10th grade)

- First Field Day! It was truly a lot of fun!
- First time playing in a Teacher- Student Soccer game after the Field Day. The students were from the girls and boys high school teams. And… WE WON!!!!!! My several of the boys in my class even said, “Teacher, you play good!”
- First time the women of my church had ice-cream sundaes! We had a women’s movie night at the church and I enjoyed watching to other women as they loaded up their first Sundaes!

Locked In, Dunked, and Crazy Hair with Pajamas!

4th and 5th grade love!

         One night, 11 hours in a school with high schoolers, 3 movies, 4 games, Lomito Arabes, lots of sugar, and plenty of caffeine = the once a year blessing of the ACA high school lock-in! This was my first ever Paraguayan lock in and quite an experience! It was a long, but a good night! Most things went similar to a usual US lock-in. The students showed up at 8:00pm ish (we are on Paraguayan time : ) and were picked up at 7:00am ish… okay the last one left at 7:45 am. The night consisted of eating Lomito Arabes (tasty wrap like gyros), group games (shuffle your buns, gestures, eat the color Rockets (a cheap version of M&Ms), etc.), movies, Xbox, chatting, some sleeping... and lots of laughing! Still there were some differences. For instance I helped to supervise a Korean Cookout on a little gas stove top, that produced some tasty little snacks in true Korean style (Yum!). Altogether the students really enjoyed it and found it to be a wonderful time to grow closer and have some great memories.



Two of my crazy haired girls chilling
at Recess



       While I was able to catch up on a little bit of the sleep I needed from the lock-in, it then turned to a full Sunday, including my first Paraguayan Baptism! After our regular church service, a congregation (piling into the few cars, and the rest onto buses) went to some good friends home, the Macy’s. There in their back yard pool, we joined together to celebrate in a momentous step in the lives of four children from our church. Two of the children were the Macy girls, whom I have certainly gotten to know better and better from our time together, sewing lessons, and my overnight house sitting with them. It was definitely a blessing to be there for this step in their walk with the Lord. The other two were Paraguayan brothers, whose littlest brother, Josecito, is my close companion and friend wherever I go at church. It has been wonderful drawing closer and closer to this church the more I get to spend with them. While I have been blessed to serve, I have also been blessed by the relationships from the church as well.



CRAZY HAIR DAY!!!!



       Then Monday occurred... Happy Spirit Week! This week has already been filling up with crazy hairdos, sleepy pajamas, and fun times together. I have always loved watching how spirit week and other events like this truly help classes and students draw together. Each day has a theme that the students dress-up to participate in. Monday – Crazy Hair Day, Tuesday – Pajama Day, Wednesday – Grandma/Grandpa Day, Thursday – Character Day, and finally Friday Field Day. Field day is an all day event were the students are placed on teams and compete in different event to win points for their team! As I have already gotten carried away sharing other things with you this week, I will only give up a few little appetizers of some pictures to leave you on the edge of your seats for next week!

Prayer Requests:



pajama dayyy.....z z z z



- Please pray for Paraguay right now and the spread of Dengue. This is a disease that is transmitted by mosquitoes (like Malaria), but has no preventative measure except to try not to get bit. Over 13,000 people have been officially infected and 18 have already died this year. The school is taking every precaution possible with fumigations, daily empting of trash, etc, yet mosquitoes often have a mind of their own.

- Please pray for the physical strength to make it through this week as it is filled with high energy fun and busy schedules.

Firsts:

- First Paraguayan Lock –in! And my first time supervising a Korean cookout during a lock-in!

- First baptism in Paraguay

- First trip to the bus terminal with the intent to buy tickets for our Easter Vacation. Unfortunately we did not realize that you actually need every travelers papers to buy a bus ticket with a destination still in PARAGUAY!!!! Yet this is how it is.

- First Spirit Week!