The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve
(Matthew 20:28)
Go into all the world and preach the gospel
(Mark 15:15)
MissionsSeptember 2018
Paraguay: God is Sovereign (in spite of human error)
Dear family and friends,
In each mission trip that I am blessed to participate as leader or worker, I like to put before God a desire to hear something special from Him. On this most recent trip, I asked God again to help me with my understanding of His sovereignty. And that is where the title of this report comes from: “Paraguay: God is Sovereign (in spite of human error)”
Dr. Bill Fowler’s devotional thoughts to us the first two days were to just be the cracked vessels that we are so that the Fragrance of Jesus can slip through the cracks to the people we encounter, and he reminded us that the collecting of the leftovers in the miracle of the feeding the 5000 was so that nothing (and no one) would be wasted. What a theme for this trip these turned out to be!
The Paraguayan church that we went to work alongside has a prayer chain every Tuesday, but for our visit, they added another week of prayer for our trip. I’m sure that is why our trip was such a success. We had a little trouble getting the glasses through customs – but God made a way. While the local pastor and I talked with the customs officials, members of his church and our team prayed. Suddenly, the official agreed we could go through and all of his helpers turned and walked away. We all grabbed our things and quickly left the area with everything!
My numbers show that we saw a total of over 420 people for glasses and for the salvation message in two different locations with approximately 82 decisions made to follow Jesus. Two hundred fifty people had lined up at 5:00 a.m. to be fitted for glasses. No person was turned away. We fitted more than 215 pairs of glasses and gave out more than 322 readers and numerous beanie babies.
We witnessed in 12 homes; shared in 4 cell groups and in 12 classrooms at school. We taught 46 children at the Saturday afternoon Bible class – we shared with them 50 stuffed animals and 46 snacks. No child left empty handed. We handed out over 100 t-shirts and pairs of shorts. No elementary child was left out even though we had not heard numbers before arrival. Crafts were needed for 166 children. By my human error I had accidentally left the major supplies for crafts back in Texas. We had exactly enough! No child was left out. No craft was left over.
Our team shared messages in 4 services and sang 5 different special music presentations in church. Part of our team presented 4 messages of encouragement to approximately 80 national pastors. We gave out and received too many hugs to be counted. Truly, Paraguay was impacted. Our team was impacted. People prayed! God moved! No human error went without Divine intervention. Even an airline error allowed 9 of us to see the capital of Argentina as tourists. And a tour driver heard of hope in Jesus.
And we worshipped our Master Creator as He showed us His creative beauty not only at the Falls of Iguazu – but also in the faces of those He sent us to love for Him.
We worked really hard! And we loved every minute. God used our individuality to love on the people of Paraguay in very unique ways! Even when we did not find a fit with glasses for a very few, God used His testimony of love through us to show them His love. The people could not believe that we would still be patient dealing with them after standing from 8:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. to be sure that all those folks that had lined up at 5:00 a.m. were taken care of and with much love and patience.
At our cell group on the last night, one of the teachers was there that we had fitted for glasses. She was young with a small baby. She could not contain her tears of gratitude that she could now see. She was about to have to give up her job since she could no longer see to make lesson plans, grade papers, or even read her Bible. She cried the entire night with tears of joy and gratitude.