We've been home from Paraguay for a couple of weeks now, but I'm just now getting around to writing this because things have been crazy since we've been home! We've traveled many, many miles catching up with family we didn't see over the summer, had doctor appointments, got ready for the start of school (both for the kids and with Trent's job with the college students), and attempted to catch up on what we missed at home during our time out of the country. We still have many things to do in order to get back into the routine of being home, but we have started settling down some.
Our last week in Paraguay was busy and emotional. We packed, wrapped up many activities, and said many goodbyes. Thankfully, with today's technology our friends from Paraguay are only a text or Facebook message away!
Trent finished teaching in the Bible Academy at the beginning of our last week completing his class on the book of Deuteronomy as well as finishing grading all the students' work for the classes. Trent also had a couple of final private Spanish lessons in the few remaining days we had left in Paraguay.
During our last week we were able to meet with all four of our English students. I was able to teach the first lesson of
Searching For Truth with two of my students, and I thought the lesson went well. I also completed lesson nine (of ten) with my other English student, and had the opportunity to talk with her about possibly doing Searching For Truth. Andrea made contact with all of our English students during the last week we were there to confirm appointment times with them as she took over all of these studies after we left. I'm anxious to hear how these studies progress!
The Paraguayans hospitality toward us continued to abound in our last week in Paraguay. We were invited to lunch at one family's home, and dinner at another family's. And, after services on Sunday morning, several members provided lunch for us before we had to head to the airport. It was nice to have a final meal with so many members of the congregation.
The Saturday before we left, Ella and I attended our last Ladies' Tea. At the tea I was able to give the devotional talk, and got to experience having my lesson translated for the first time. I was thankful to hear others' lessons translated before I did mine so that I had an idea of how to handle the situation. One of Trent's Spanish teachers translated for me! At the tea, I was also greatly surprised with a baby shower! I was completely shocked! At the shower we played a game where you go through several tests (Old Wives' Tales) to predict the baby's gender: nene (boy) or nena (girl). In the end, the game predicted nothing - equal chance that the baby was a boy or a girl. However, the ladies were asked to predict whether they thought I was having a boy or a girl, and they predicted correctly (a girl)!
I'm so thankful for the opportunity that our family had to spend in Paraguay for the summer working with the Christians there. If you would have told me even a couple of years ago that we would be spending our summer in South America, I probably would have laughed at you. However, among many things, I'm thankful that my husband had the vision for this opportunity for our family, and I'm thankful for the experience of working as a missionary in a foreign field for an extended period of time.
Read more about our time in Paraguay
