August 6, 2005

Thank you so much for your prayers. It has been another incredible week with so many things happening. My mother is recovering; my brother, Bob’s knee replacement surgery went well and the first anniversary of the large supermarket fire passed with some demonstrations but thankfully without major violence. Besides the anger for the locked doors; reports have surfaced that the original building plan for that supermarket was changed about 60% to save money and circumvent building code standards.

On a sadder note, the mother of three of our children passes away this week. She had been suffering cancer for several years and leaves behind her husband and six children ranging form less than 2 to 15 years old. Please pray for the Nunez family.

Also, on Tuesday, a young man who works in the school office received a call his grandmother died. As he was getting to ready to leave, he showed no emotion. He shared that he had just met her earlier in the week and that he was just going out of respect. As I asked more questions, I learned he had never known his mother…she had deserted him when he was a year old and he really was not looking forward to maybe meeting her. I felt God had a purpose for this sudden encounter with his grandmother and told him that God was going to use him during the time he was with his family. Friday upon the return of him and his wife; he shared an awesome testimony. He met a cousin who was a Christian and unbeknown to any of them, they were sent there to pray and release his mother and another relative who were demon-possessed. He learned his incredible past that he and four of his sibling had been kidnapped over twenty years ago by his paternal grandfather and that his mother went crazy. He received emotional healing from his own feelings of abandonment. The Lord has given him such a profound love for his mother and all his siblings are reunited. Please pray for him as he lives in a small apartment above his father and paternal grandparents. Please stand with us in prayer that he will not become bitter towards them but can lead the whole family to Christ.

Throughout this year we have had about twenty teams from various US churches to visit our churches in Paraguay. Some may think that is a lot but when their help is divided over thirty churches and various construction projects; it really is only a drop in the bucket. We see so many wonderful things happening but also see so many more ministry needs. The various projects currently include the Agrimissions project (an agricultural project I mentioned last week); adding six new classrooms at the Susana Wesley School; installing a swimming pool at the church camp; continued construction at the seminary; repairing or modifying churches. Also there is an ongoing need for teams to specifically accompany the medical clinic to outlying towns and remote areas; and an endless need for teams to help with evangelistic and vacation Bible School programs.

A work team of thirty five people under the direction of Dr. David Stain arrived Tuesday. The team was divided into four groups with some doing construction work at the seminary; then the other three groups were sent to work in Lambaré: two for computers; five to complete medical exams on all our school children and then to go with the clinic to Trinidad; and the remainder do evangelistic programs with the children in Lambaré.

When I learned they were going to work in Lambaré, the Pastor Andres and I decided to contact a few area public schools where the majority of the children from our two Lambaré churches attend school. Wednesday we began preparing our programs with the help of many teens and adults from our local church. It was a bit of challenge together since I became the main translator for the evangelistic team and all the others could only communicate on a limited capacity. At all the schools we did morning and afternoon presentations of skits, music, stories about Jesus, games, and snacks. The first school on Thursday was “M’Ba” or pronounced A-Ban-Ba-A. We met with approximately 370 children. On Friday we visited Manual Gonzales School where we had 1000 or more children between the morning and afternoon sessions. We were well received by the directors and the children. Saturday, we had maybe 300 to 350 children attend our special program for our “Sunday School” children and their friends. We have had had lots of fun but it also has been challenging as to how to effectively serve snacks and move groups of children from area to area but God has helped us. I still marvel at how Jesus had crowd control with feeding the 5000. Please pray that these hearts we have touched will be open to receive and pray for our work next week.

We shared the basic salvation story and Pastor Andres shared his “magic” trick of how sin can bind and shackle us in sin and Christ can free us. Many children, as they shared the different types of sin, shared that their parents were in shackles. Please pray that those chains of sin and bondage can be broken.

Please pray for Felicia and my niece Katelyn as they celebrate their birthdays this week. May the Lord bless you.

Love,
Sue

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

Earmarked on an attached piece of paper for:

Latin America Mission
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

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Phil. 4:13.