The Paraguay Outreach
Missionary Newsletter from Sue Givens
Volume 6 Issue 3
I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Phil. 4:13
"All I can do is Just Pray!!!"
How many times in our lives have we heard that expression or even said it ourselves? "All I can do is just pray". Often people pray only as a last resort. But God desires more of a relationship with us then just seeing Him as a
"Prayer Delivery Service or a 911 Emergency Hotline"; that we can call 24 hours a day. God wants us to spend time in communion with Him and to “pray without ceasing” (I Thess. 5:17).
What does that mean? He desires we share our joys, praises, struggles, and desires with Him when we get up, as we go about our day, as we drive, shower, wait in lines, in our quiet times and whenever.
In our Intercessory Prayer class, we learned the key to praying was learning to forgive others and to submit everything to God. We also learned that we must pray for others to help sustain each other on our joint journeys through life.
I would like to thank everyone who is involved with our work in Paraguay for your prayers because what is being accomplished here can not be done by human hands alone. We know the Holy Spirit is guiding and orchestrating so much of what we see and experience. Just the fact that I was able to teach the class in Spanish was an answer to many prayers. We thank God for all of you in our prayers.
Classes ended at the end of November and we finished our closing programs during the first week in December. However, before we closed our doors for the summer the school was really hopping with many different activities besides the students studying and having regular their chapel services.
The Elementary Children received a special invitation with transportation provided to tour the Libertad Professional Soccer team's remodeled stadium. What started out as a tour for one class grew with enthusiasm to include all four grades.
The children enjoyed watching the team and touring the facility but the most exciting part was all had a chance to play in the practice arena. Several children went home with bragging rights that they had scored a goal in the Libertad sports arena.
Usually people ask, are you for Cerro or Olympic? These are the two most popular teams in Paraguay. However, now many of children say they prefer Libertad.
The best part many in the Libertad organization are Christians. Praise God for their example to the children and youth in a country where almost everyone eats, breathes, and lives soccer.
For our Early Childhood department, the children went on a field trip to the airport. The children were flying high when they returned to the school, but all were disappointed even the staff because the plane didn’t fly!!!
The first and second graders spent the day at a working farm which provides many different outdoor education and recreational activities. Highlights of the day included horseback riding, donkey cart rides, milking cows or at least attempting to milk; planting trees; and playing with baby sheep and goats. The favorite activity of almost all the boys and girls was digging through soil and examining worms with magnifying glasses. On the bus ride home we learned the day was very exhausting day for some little ones.
Our third and fourth graders spent two days at a local camp. The camp activities were designed for the children to work together as teams and to have new challenges and experiences including the presence of the Holy Spirit. The children enjoyed every moment. Our two praise and worship services were awesome, but my indoor photos weren't. However, the pictures of the other activities are worth a thousand words
We wish to express our special thanks is to several churches who assisted with approximately half the cost of this special outing. The children and their families earned the other half through the Folklore festival and hamburger and hotdog sales.
To help the children prepare for their final exams, we hosted an Olympics competition where the students received points for academic and Bible knowledge, sports skills, enthusiasm, sportsmanship, and school pride which included keeping the playground area in top shape.
All the children were divided into the green or the blue team; this year the blue team won. The Score is now Blue 1 Green 1. For the staff it does not matter which team wins because all the children are really winners because they are better prepared for their end of the year exams.
The children and staff put aside art and various projects throughout the year so at the end they can have an Exposition of their work. Usually several Moms come the night before and help the teachers for hours drape inexpensive fabric around the room, then they attach or suspend the children's artwork. I am always impressed how they can decorate so much with so little. The majority of the artwork and science projects are made from recycled items. The microscope in the fourth grade classroom was a novelty for many as they inspected bugs.
Later the same day, all the special classes such as physical education, English. Christian Education and Music had demonstrations of what the children had learned. One first grader shared thirty bible verses between class acts. Another surprise of the evening featured Nuevo Horizonte's first band performances featuring four students with a flute a phones and one with a broken arm.
Then the first week of December, we had two more evenings where the children shared their many talents of dancing, singing, poetry, and drama in their end of the year closing programs. God has blessed the children with many skills and with our vision to prepare future leaders for Paraguay - we are seeing the majority children have no problems with stage fright.
I won't fib not everyone in our barrio lives in conditions like these but many do. In the school the majority of the families have monthly incomes below $180. The Lord has given us the vision to help the people in a certain barrio of Lambaré, Paraguay.
Each year our school admits 54 new students and we now have approximately 350 children. We search for sponsors for each child. The sponsor provides $30 a month and we ask the children’s families to also invest approximately $3.30 in their child’s education. Our goal is to provide these children with an excellent education based on Biblical and Christian principles so these children will develop personal values such as love for their neighbors, honesty, self-discipline and respect for God. Our desire is that these children will become the future leaders of Paraguay; a country that has been racked for years with poverty, corruption, and crime…a country currently with only 8% of the population evangelical Christians.
For more information, write me at: sue@paraguayschools.org
If you would like to sponsor a child for 2006 or make a tax deductible donation, checks may be mailed to:
Mable Love Brown/ Samaritan Hands Paraguay School
% Fairview United Methodist Church
2508 Old Niles Ferry Rd.
Maryville, TN 37803
In a country where the majority of the people have a 6th grade education or less and where 50 % or more drop out of their studies, we are encouraging many to seek God’s help to preserve, study and achieve their goals. Many are studying… some are returning to school to complete their elementary, Junior High and High School studies; to seek college or technical school careers; to study in the church; or to improve their personal skills. God gives us strength to meet our challenges.
In Latin America countries, the celebration of a 15th birthday is one of the biggest events in a person’s life and a sign of adulthood. This past year we had many youth in the church turn fifteen. The celebrations varied from just family gatherings to a special church service to a couple full sit down dinners. Andy, our pastor's daughter, had a grand event which all the youth in the church participated.
The Women met for their annual conference for the first time ever in the remote area of Yrybucuá. Over hundred women spent the weekend together learning how to seek and serve God at all times no matter what the circumstances. I participated in the conference in the morning but by the time the group had their afternoon business meeting, I was so sick and with the intense heat, I had to seek refugee outside under a shade tree.
The majority of the ladies traveled to the conference in a crowded, run down bus and on the way home, they were stranded overnight when their bus broke down and no help was to be found. However, in the midst of their challenge, they remembered the teachings and began to praise God and asked how they could serve Him. The women began sharing with the two bus drivers and within a short time the men were crying and open to accepting Jesus into their lives. Praise God for daily giving us practical life application lessons. Pray that we can each see our challenges and problems as opportunities.
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There is never enough pages in my newsletters to include all the awesome things God is doing but let me just share a glimpse.
With their permission, I'd like you to meet Teresa, on the night of her baptism. The Lord took her and live-in boyfriend, Rolo, out of the pits of hell and has blessed them so much as they are learning about Jesus’ saving grace and how He sets captives free. Through the prayers, fasting, and support for several months of our congregation they were both freed of demonic possession; baptized; have a new very small two room home; are studying the Word of God; learning to walk by faith; are working to get themselves debt free; and they were married with three other couples in a special end of the year church supper and wedding ceremony…a wedding feast. Satan continues to attack their family with doubts and problems, please pray for them as we believe God can use them to set many others free from Satan’s snares of the occult, addictions, and abuse.
From the end of June until the first part of December, I had the opportunity to work closely with Ivana DuBose. She is the daughter of one of my high school classmates. That brought back a few memories. Ha! Ha! God has blessed her with a powerful ministry of discernment and she is quite a prayer warrior as we worked well together ministering to others. She was quite a spark plug with our youth as she challenged them in their walks with God. Please pray as God directs her future steps in missions…maybe even back to Paraguay.
In the fall of 2000; we began working on a plan to ship needed items to Paraguay. Although not all the items donated from many areas got shipped, we received in December educational supplies, donated computers, clothing, and fire fighters gear to donate to our local fire department. Praise God for everyone who helped with their prayers, hard work, and financial support.
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Sue Givens 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 |
Email Sue: sue@paraguayschools.org
I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Phil. 4:13