Today is "feriado" in Paraguay, which means... HOLIDAY! and a LONG weekend! :) A small group of us from the CD went camping with Concordia's youth group. It was so much fun! The campsite was along the bank of a rive, and the scenery reminded me a little bit of when I went camping along the East coast for miniterm in high school. (Except there were no BOnanzas anywhere, haha.) If you're wondering, the only difference in camping in the US and Paraguay is that they drink tereré, but that's not specific to camping, that's Paraguay for ya! :) The picture below shows us drinking tereré at the campsite and some more picture of camping).

Drinking tereré.

The group of campers from Concordia. There were about 40 of us in all.

Sofí, a volunteer at the CD and I, on this really neat bridge. Once upon a time, there used to be water there I think... :)

If you're not familiar with what tereré is, it's dried yerba leaves that are cut up in small bits and pieces, and put into a guampa (a cup, which in Paraguay, is traditionally shaped like a cow horn), and then there's a specific way to prepare it (which I'm still working on). After that, ice cold water is poured into the guampa, and you drink through the bombilla (which is something like a metal straw with a sieve at the bottom. You can see it in some of the pictures. The thing that I like most about tereré is that it's a communal thing. You sit around in a circle, and drink. Someone serves everyone in the circle; they drink, and pass it back to the server, and so it goes around the circle...

I think I've mentioned before, my frustration with the German language. Concordia is the only German speaking church in Asunción, and this is the youth group that I went with. But of course they all grow up speaking Spanish as well (and lot speak English too), so that was really helpful. There were so many times where people would translate what people said, or even just responding in Spanish, as opposed to German, to steer the conversation in a way that included me. For all of you German-speaking Paraguayans out there that are reading this blog, no tenés ni idea como lo aprecio tanto!

Oh, and to let you all know, I am officially DONE with the "leben nachzufolgen!!" We'll be starting on registration soon; putting the forms in the computer. But we can't do that for a couple days yet, so I'll just be helping out in the office where ever they need me. But that's nothing too new! :)

Anyway, I hope you all enjoy your monday at work or school, where ever you are! Renate, my roommate and I are planning on going to Aregua for the day, because it's a HOLIDAY and we don't have to work! :)

Take care, you are all in my prayers!

Some thoughts on service...

Why do people do service? That's a question I've been wrestling with for a while. Why am I in Paraguay? Because I love the global church. Other than that, I can only see selfish reasons. (Don't get me wrong, service is soo important, just hear me out.) When someone is doing something exciting, we want to be apart of it, right? I think that's a lot of what's going on here: we recognize that God is moving in our world, and we can't help but want to be a part of it. Whether we're sticking on stickers or shredding paper, or doing something of more value. Someone has to do it (that's my motto, these days), and God needs all types of people to fill all types of jobs. That brings up another point, we do service because we need each other. It's impossible to live life with out relationships with people. Someone needs to put on those stickers to correct the German pamphlets, and why not me? Another example: look at the global church. Obviously money isn't distributed equally. Those in the church who don't have all of that much, need those who have, but it's definitely a 2 way street. Those who have, have so much to learn about the raw faith of those who have to depend on God for those every day needs. Any other thoughts?

On a different note, on Tuesday, Freidbert, Nahemy and I are going to start putting registration forms into the data base. :) Until then, I only have a few hundred more pamphlets to put stickers on! I should've taken a picture of all of the pamphlets I've corrected, but these will have to do:



There you can see all of the stickers that I cut and paste on the pamphlets. It's a good reminder to proofread everything before you print it! :)

I'm not sure if I've updated about my frustration the first couples weeks with "learning" German. The past couple weeks have been better. I'm learning a few phrases (emphasis on FEW, but I'm trying) in German, and everyone (including me) are improving on our spanish, or castillano as they call it here. (The only difference is the vocab is a little bit different, and they use the "vos" form instead of "tu.") But I'm feeling comfortable speaking Spanish. I can finally say what I want without having to put a lot of thought into forming sentences! :) Not that I'm completely fluent- there's always more to learn. For example, today at work I translated a pamphlet from English to Spanish, and of course I used the dictionary, but it's just a good opportunity to increase my vocab. (Am I starting to sound like Miss Optimistic? I hope not, I am trying to be more positive, but I don't want to sound like Pollyanna. haha)

That's all I have to say. Que tengan un buen dia! :)

Who would ever think it would be cold in Paraguay!? Before I came, I looked at the weather and what is normal during the different times of the year. Some how I don't think it hit me how cold it really gets until I got here. Since I've been here, the winter has been pretty mild, and even last week, it was hot. But this week was a little different: I've been PILING on the layers at night... it's really cold. Not that I'm complaining, I sleep better when it's cold outside of my blankets, I'm just saying that I'm learning what REAL cold is! (Because there's not heat, so when it's 50, it feels even colder.)

Yesterday Paraguay played Argentina in a qualifying game for the world cup. Even though they tied, it was really fun to watch, because one of my friends at the CD is from Argentina, and everyone else was cheering for Paraguay, so it was a lot of fun!

Today I visited a new church, called Raices. It was great! After singing Great is Thy Faithfullness (with drums and guitar, not in 4 parts, but that's ok. If I wanted to go to a church like I'm used to, I would've stayed in Kidron. :) ), but after singing that song, we sang How Great Thou Art- but in FOUR languages (Spanish, Guaraní, German, and English). After being a way from your home and culture, to be in a group singing a hymn in English (not just English, but to make sure that everyone is equally represented), it almost brings tears to my eyes... but then again, if you know me, it doesn't take much to do that. :)

Also, I've been receiving a lot of notes and emails from people, and I just want to thank you all for your thoughts and prayers. They mean so much to me!