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I can't really visit Paraguay without visiting the famous Falls of Iguassu. And having visited, this log would be incomplete without a couple photos of this amazing site. It was overcast and foggy during my visit there, so I don't have the rainbows that you might find in other photo collections. It is one of the most amazing sights I've ever seen. The photos cannot do justice to the massiveness of the reality.
Well, the travel for this trip continued to be exciting. Argentina was experiencing a major forest fire resulting in a thick smoke settling in around the airport in Buenos Aires. My flight was delayed by 5 hours, causing me to miss my Delta connection to Atlanta. So I got to enjoy an overnight. The fun part was that the lady at the taxi place did not speak English, so I got to put my fledgling Spanish to the test and was able to ask for a cheap hotel close to the airport and even found out what was causing the smoke. So I enjoyed an extra day in Buenos Aires prior to finally getting home this morning at 6:00am. The hotel was nice AND both my bags arrived with me.
My final few days in Paraguay consisted primarily of meeting with our missionaries. I come away from the trip with a great respect for the caliber of people we have working there. They serve in diverse ways - teaching in a seminary, drilling water wells, teaching at a Christian school for expats, working in a poor community, developing children's ministry, construction, etc. All do it with passion for the people. In the image to the right, missionary Alica Grey prays with an elderly woman who lives in a small 1-room squatters shack, about the size of a typical living room.
My meeting Tuesday with Pablo and Claudette went very well. Pablo serves as president of the Methodist denomination and his wife the educational work. They have served from the beginning. We had a good discussion about the future - vision and challenges - and how our missionaries can assist. I enjoyed being hosted by the Carrick family this trip. They have really made Paraguay their home, speaking Spanish fluently, navigating the nutty traffic, and building close friendships with the people. Their three teenaged kids are delightful. By the end, I was even friends with the two enormous dogs they own. On my first day, I think they wanted me for an afternoon snack, but by the end I was able to pet them.The challenges of our work in Paraguay along with the Methodist church there is to keep finding ways to share the faith with the people that will address their lives. Many are very poor. The risks of unhealthy dependency are very great in church work, especially with the abundance of mission teams who come with good motivations, but sometimes with money and attitudes that end up disempowering the local folks. But the church is established and will grow as people live out the grace and truth that is the Gospel.
Today I headed out early with Christian Dickson to visit a church camp run by the Methodist church. We were joined by Mary Jo and her daughter Rebekah Phillips, two fellow Kentuckians who have been engaged with the work in Paraguay for many years. Christian's daughters Camila (9) and Ann Belen (1) were also with us. The camp was great and I had the chance to see the swimming pool that was built using funds from Redwood Christian Park in California, where I'll be speaking in two months.And we had ice cream on the way home. Wuhoo! Second round. And my luggage arrived - oh happy day.This evening we attended the big celebration of the 20th anniversary of the Evangelical Methodist Church of Paraguay. I was able to share on behalf of The Mission Society, which has been part of this work from the start. About 1000 people attended from the various Methodist churches that have been planted throughout. (It was really, really hot, but I managed to wear a sports coat and tie in spite of it. I figured that should be worth several spiritual points and earned me another round of ice cream.)It was good to see the relationship our missionaries here have with the people. Lots of hugging and laughing that made me sense the depth of the history that has been made over these 20 years, and the commitment required by those from all over (Brazilian, Korean, US, Paraguayan) who have been part of the work.The celebration lasted over 3 hours, ending in a consecration service for four new pastors. We got home late, stopping for empanadas (sp?) on the way home.
Friday I went (dressed in Christian's shorts and t-shirt and Ian's sandals) with missionaries Ed & Linda Baker and our field leader Christian Dickson to Yrybucau (sp?) - a small town about a 4-hour drive into the interior from Asuncion. It was a chance to see some of the church plants in the more rural area, a school that Christian's wife Angelica directs, the agricultural center the mission is developing, and several of the wells that the Bakers have drilled. There obviously is great need in this area and it was good to see the needs being addressed by the various people in ministry there. I told Ed and Linda that if I had to make a short list of what I've learned in the past year or so of travels with my new role at The Mission Society, somewhere in there would be the importance of water in so much of the world. It is amazing to hear the impact that is made in many parts of the world simply by providing access to water.
When we got back, we had ice cream - which was high on my agenda for this trip. Hopefully not for the last time!
Well, I got here. Long flight, on an exit row next to a window/emergency door that I think they forgot to insulate, so it was really cold all night. Overnight flights are the worst - even though the time zone in Asuncion is the same as Atlanta, the overnight on an airplane guarantees jet-lag like symptoms. But it was a nice, safe flight. My connection from Buenos Aires to Asuncion was delayed an hour, but got here fine. But, no luggage. Ugh. I've beaten the odds (sorry for the gambling language, but really it's mathematical probability language) over the years - only once having had a bag delayed. And that was a trip home to Kazakhstan, so no big deal. But now it's happened. I have a nice dinner meeting tonight and only the couple things I tossed in my carry-on "just in case" to show for it. Sigh. Main concern is whether all the chocolate goodies I brought for the missionaries will still be there when it arrives and will not have melted in the heat if it does make it! But if some delayed luggage is the worst thing that happens, I'll count it as joy! I had a missionary colleague in Kaz tell me when we first came there in 1996, "If you get here with your passport, your kids, and the shirt on your back, consider everything else a bonus!" Good attitude.
Evangelical Christians sometimes get spooked by the word "ecumenical" - and for good reason. Often it has reflected a sort of least common denominator approach. And the "least" part of it was pretty low. But what I call true ecumenism is something we are commanded by Scripture to seek. Finding true unity - and that unity only exists as we together seek the Kingdom. We see the Kingdom and the King (Jesus) as the absolutes, but we recognize also that the Kingdom may play out in various forms through history and through culture. The Kingdom of God tends to break out from within rather than invading from without. Jesus showed up inside a specific culture at a specific time, ushering in the Kingdom. But neither that culture nor that time could contain it. It continues to break out over the world in many different ways. How tragic when we miss out on this due to a mistaken assumption that when it breaks out there it should look like it did when it broke out here. True unity occurs when we sense and celebrate the commonality of God's Kingdom in its varied forms and ways.
