January 22, 2005

Good Morning! This past week we had a few mild days but today it is already warm early in the day. I want to thank everyone who has been praying for our different requests here. The Lord has been so faithful.

My Mom underwent a number of tests this past week and her doctors have cleared her for surgery. We are just waiting for all the specialists to be able to coordinate their schedules. Please continue to thank the Lord for He has my Mom in His hands.

The mother of Zulma and Aurelia (two sisters that work in the school) is improving and the tumor the doctors removed and thought was cancer has tested to be benign. Her recovery has been slow but the family is now seeing how God has been working in their Mom and in their family to draw all of them back to him.

The Lord has provided Herman, the young man in Caaguazú with a sponsor so he can go to the pastoral seminary.

Our school administrative staff has been praying for a long time about a particular situation and the Lord has revealed this past week how we need to proceed. It is challenging but God has given us peace about the what action to take.

Every day is a learning experience for me in the realities of life. Yesterday morning Patrocinia called that her husband, Pedro, was near death from battling the final stages of cancer and they have no way to transport him home from the hospital. This family is from Caaguazú about 3 ½ hours from Asunciòn. After school, Janete and I went to a hospital in Capiatá, a town about 45 minutes to an hour away, to visit them. However, during the day, I asked my secretary how does one get a beloved family member home? I learned that hospital provides, if the person is still alive and the family has insurance, an ambulance service to their pueblo (town) and the family just has to pay for the gas. If the person passes away, then there is an additional expense plus the cost of the casket. The cost equals for the folks in the interior several months' wages. We helped her with about half of the expense, the rest she will be able to give to the ambulance driver upon arrival in Caaguazú. While with them we prayed and sang hymns of God's love and hope.

That little lady even in midst of all her problems has such a deep abiding joy and her and her husband's faith has been such a testimony to their children and to all who come in contact with them.

About 20 of our youth from our church plan to go next weekend to meet youth from all over Paraguay for a weekend retreat. Thursday night we used our new modified school playground for the first time as the youth hosted a film festival for children of the barrio. They hosted a cantina and raised funds to help cover some of the retreat expenses.

Our school currently does not have a bank in Paraguay. Our funds are kept in a bank in the US and we are able to cash checks at a local Christian travel agency. The one problem with that system is I can only cash checks up to $2000 a day. The lady at the agency always explained they did not to have too much money at one time in their business due to the high rate of crime. In order to handle the school finances over the break, our school treasurer, before leaving for the states for a few months, wrote me checks so I could get funds from this agency. Well, this past week I had several large expenses for payroll, the children's workbooks books and furniture all due at the same time. I needed $10,000 in one day. The travel agency told me rather then coming every day, if I gave them checks for the amount I needed, they would issue me a check that I could then cash at their local bank. It sounded like a good plan. I took Janete with me and we planned to get the money discreetly from the bank, put it in my book bag and then quickly go pay for the books and the furniture before going back to school.

In case you missed my important word in the last sentence, it was discreetly. Why? All over Paraguay people are being robbed especially if people see them withdrawing large sums of money from the bank. When we got to the bank, I expected 5 to 15 people.... no we had to wait in a line of over 50 maybe 75 people with more being added every moment. Then when we arrived at the teller, I told him we wanted the money without attracting attention and I asked if we could go some where in private to receive the cash. He said no, he had to give it to us there. All right but let's be discreet.

What did he do next? First, I think it was the largest check he had every seen in his life...it was for 62 million guaranies. He showed it to his fellow tellers. Then when he came back from the vault with the money he carried it high flashing it around for everyone in the bank to see. I asked him to be more discreet...then instead of handing me the money through the normal deposit slot in the window...he handled me the bundle of 50 million guaranies over the top of the glass, then again the other 12 million guaranies. (The money was in 50.000 guaranies totaling 1240 bills.) I was so angry I was ready to scale the glass partition and choke him but there wasn't time. We had to get out of the bank quickly and escape before anyone had time to think to follow us. Thankfully we prayed for God's protection before entering the bank and thankfully that protection was extended to saving that teller. I must confess that is the maddest I have been in a very long time that he would even risk a customer's safety with such stupid actions as that. Be assured, I will not be using that bank ever again.

We had over first official staff meeting yesterday and we discussed many of our plans, goals and expectations for our 2005 school year. Each year we are expanding our services in different areas and we expect to continue to grow this year. We are now up to fourth grade with the children and we plan to open an accelerated high school program along with a number of seminars and workshops for the community. Please continue to pray for us as we expand.

The South America tropics and sub-tropics are known for having millions of varieties of bugs and retiles. Our area is no exception and many of these little creatures want to be our personal mascots. However, we must draw the line when they begin invading our homes and schools. Yesterday evening I had both schools and the church next to the school professionally fumigated. One person who was outside the church said you should have seen the mass exit of geckos from that building. I hope their exit is permanent because they had overrun the church and apartment above. They have become such a nuisance besides seeing them everywhere; they leave their "mouse-like" droppings everywhere.

As I close and the temperature is now 100 degrees in my bedroom, I pray you are keeping warm in your cooler temperatures. Please join me in special birthday wishes for Tregenia, Margaret, Sandy, Celina, Manuel, and my niece Alyssa as they have or are celebrating birthdays this week. Thank you for your continued prayers that God will keep us and you serving Him as it is His will.

Love,
Sue

Mailing address:
Sue Givens
C.C. No. 24078
Lambaré, Paraguay, 2420

Check out our web page that is on the web. Every few weeks, we will be posting to new pictures of the school progress and of our various programs and activities. http://paraguaynewhorizons.lam.org/

We are partnering and assisting the local Paraguayan churches in all we are doing in Paraguay. Friends and churches that are praying for God to work through us are making this Paraguay Outreach possible. All of our programs are made possible by donations that we use to cover different expenses.

Tax-deductible donations can be made to help cover my living expenses, my auto which is used for the church and the school, newsletters, and for helping with other mission expenses such as buying food, medicine, clothing, or helping in other ways can be sent to either and need to be specifically earmarked:

Latin America Mission
Earmarked on an attached piece of paper for:
The Paraguayan Outreach/Sue Givens
P.O. Box 52-7900
Miami Florida 33152-7900

High Mill Church of the Resurrection
Earmarked for: The Paraguayan Outreach
1920 Schneider St. NE
North Canton, Ohio 44721

If you would like to help our school or sponsor a child for 2005, please contact Mable Love Brown 865-984-4111. It costs $30.00 a month or to make donations to our school new multipurpose building construction fund, please contact:

Samaritan Hands Paraguay School
% Fairview United Methodist Church
2508 Old Niles Ferry Rd.
Maryville, TN 37803