October 15, 2005

Good Afternoon! It has already been such a hot spring with temperatures many times in the high 90’s to low 100’s.

Wednesday we had our Spring Olympics. There was such excitement for the children as they were divided into the blue and green teams and then presented many areas to complete academically, physically, and with team spirit.

I have a constant battle getting the children, their families and sometimes even the staff to use the trash cans located around the school. Part way through the day as the trash was mounting, I presented each team with trash bags and said the team with the most trash would receive 10 extra points…it was so funny the children not competing continually policed the grounds looking for anything they could consider trash. The playground and the area around the school by the end of the day had never been so spotless. You can bet I am going to set up a lot more trash competitions in the future.

The day of the Olympics was really hot and we had activities both inside and out. At lunch time, I had the Coordinator take all the children outside for a short update and a prayer. Meanwhile, the secretary and I hid on the roof and after the group dismissed, we started throwing water balloons at everyone. Then when we were out of balloons, I announced that on behalf of all the sponsors, we had frozen fruit drinks for all. The kids were so excited. What surprised me was there was no “paybacks” for the water balloons…it was my first time ever to initiate a water fight and not get soaked. I confess I was a bit disappointed as the temperature was over 100 degrees and we had been on the roof over ten minutes and I was hoping to get drenched. We had some disappointed people that we only used balloons and not a water hose. I think I need to educate my staff and children about how to have good American water fights....like the ones with my nieces and nephews.

By the way, the snail mail (via the post office) newsletter is forth coming…if you do not receive one and want one, please let me know. With my computer problems, I have lost many addresses. Also, I am hoping once the newsletter arrives in the US, it can be placed on the school’s website. If anyone wants to just go online to receive it, please let me know.

Thank for your many prayers. My Mom’s eye surgery went well. Mable is slowly recovering; please continue to pray for her. Also, please pray for two of our staff with birthdays this week, Margarita and Mario and also for Sara. Please pray for Ivanna as she works with the American Christian Academy’s High School Camp and for my staff as we all seem to be recovering from colds and battling fatigue.

Also, in our church we are working on several projects and I would like to ask for your prayers. Our Marriage Ministry is working to help many people who are accepting Jesus to make their living arrangements right with God. We have many couples in our church who have never been married …this is a social problem throughout much of Paraguay. Right now the church is planning to have a triple wedding at the end of December; however that number may expand to as many as six couples. The church is planning to have help with the wedding decorations and provide a sit-down dinner for all but we need to raise funds.

The church also wants to do a family outreach event for the community…so we are planning in mid-November for a big family festival. Please pray with us that this would be a wonderful time to share with our friends and neighbors and also that we could raise sufficient funds during the festival to host the wedding reception.

We are also planning several evangelistic campaigns in the next couple of months and would appreciate your prayers: On Oct. 29th, we are planning a special program for teens and then the following day for children in area parks. Then in November we are planning to work in another city, Luque, to help a church that currently does not have a pastor. We are planning to do some on-going evangelistic programs similar to what we did in Caaguazú. Also, some of us also want to go to another poor area in San Antonio, where many are living in shacks and sheds. We have a family from our church that recently moved there and many are asking them about their faith. We have talked about showing some of the Left Behind movies and the Jesus film.

In our classes of Intercession, we are trying to reach out those who have experienced pain and disappointments and have drifted away from the church. Today, we talked about how we need to be more like Jesus and search for the one that is lost. We also discussed some topics from the book, “Messy Spirituality” by Michael Yaconelli. He shares how God continues to love us even in our imperfections and how as Christians we need to give more grace to each other.

Well, I just remembered our time changes this weekend and here we lose an hour of sleep. I hope this is not like past years with lots of confusion. Since I have only heard it from the Pastor, I hope the information is correct. Oh how I miss regular news channels and newspapers.

May God 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.