A Growing Church

One of the great blessings about being in Asunción, Paraguay is not only getting to spread the Gospel around the city, but also getting to work with some wonderful brethren who are growing spiritually everyday. It is always a challenge, yet so rewarding to see them flourishing in their Christian walk. These past few weeks they have been preparing for their upcoming congregational retreat and for a mission group coming from the USA.

Mission Report - February 2011

Here is our latest report from Paraguay. It has been a really busy month with lots of Bible studies!

MISSION REPORT - FEB 2011

God bless!
- Troy and Andrea

Andrea's First Spanish Devotional

It has been fun watching Andrea grow spiritually and culturally this past year! When we arrived in Paraguay a little over a year ago, she couldn't hardly communicate in Spanish. But, now, she has led a women's devotional all by herself! She hosted a "Ladies Tea" in our home and prepared much of the food for the occasion. She also prepared a short devotional lesson about friendship. She used Jane McWhorter's book, "Friendship: Handle With Care" for the basis of her lesson and was also inspired by another one of McWhorter's books, "Special Delivery" to add on a special activity at the end to encourage friendship among the ladies. It was a LOT of fun for the ladies and a great milestone for Andrea!

Mission Report - January 2011

In case some of you are not on our mailing list or email list, here is a link to our monthly report from the mission field. Click on the link to read it online or download a copy.

MISSION REPORT JAN 2011

"Dog Days of Summer" ...... in December?

Boy, it's hot! The "dog days of summer" are upon us. You know, the type of day when the heat just drags you down, like it does every ...... December? These kind of days are usually encountered in August, not in December! But, in South America where the seasons are the opposite of the USA, we're now getting into some hot weather. So hot, that the ice cream trucks, er .. I mean peddlers, are roaming the neighborhoods. They blow this little whistle, which is really more like a cheap, out-of-tune, plastic version of Zamfir's pan flute. I kept hearing someone blowing a whistle and thought it was some kid playing with it when I noticed it getting closer. When I looked out the window, I saw the Paraguayan equivalent to our North American "snow cone" man (ice cream, whatever your choice)!

Finally Found Our Way to the FALLS

We have lived in Paraguay for almost a year now, I had visited twice before, but, in all that time I never had the chance to visit Iguazu Falls. I always wanted to, but it just never worked out.
This past week, it finally did!!
Iguazu Falls! (also Yguasu, or Iguassu) Whether you say it in Spanish, Portuguese, or Guarani, it all means the same thing BIG WATER! That is exactly what we found at the world's second largest waterfall. There are some 275 distinct falls within the water system that is almost two miles wide and some 270 feet high, within many levels. It is AMAZING!
Legend has it that a god planned to marry a beautiful aborigine named Naipí, who fled with her mortal lover Tarobá in a canoe. In rage, the god sliced the river creating the waterfalls, condemning the lovers to an eternal fall. The first Europeans to find the falls were the Spanish conquistadors in 1541.
If you ever get a chance to visit, don't miss it!

Landscape of Elections

Election Day in Paraguay is very fascinating! All of the candidates have some very interesting ways of campaigning: from the junky pickup truck draped with political banners and blaring traditional Spanish tunes throughout the barrios to the simple "pasa calles" (banners) hanging on every street corner. They plaster 150+ posters on one wall or simply paint the whole wall with the candidate's name on it. Some even spent money on street light banners. And all of this was only for the local mayors offices!! Can't wait to see what presidential elections will be like!



This was also interesting. Because it was election day. The law prohibited the sale of alcohol from 4:00 pm Saturday until after the polls close at 7:00 pm on Sunday, Election Day. Apparently they don't want any confusion at the polls .....

Do You Remember When ..... ?

How many of you remember the days when there were attendants at the all the gas stations? I do ... but, it seems that they are very scarce to find these days. Almost all of our gas stations are self serve now.
Not so in Paraguay! I have yet to see a gas station here that does not have attendants. All the attendants that I have encountered have been very kind and helpful, will gladly check the air in your tires, and will happily write a sales receipt when asked to do so. Now the price of gas is a completely different subject ....

Real Politikin' .... Paraguayan Style

There is much talk about American politics right now in the media surrounding the upcoming elections. Just so you know, there is no shortage of "politikin'" in Paraguay, either! There are two major parties (just like in America), there are lots of promises being made, and a gazillion accusations being slung around. (sound familiar?) One of the parties even gathered a bunch of supporters and made an impromptu parade around the city today. They just happened to drive by our street with horns and music blaring and their red flags a-waving! I quickly grabbed my camera (after Andrea reminded me to) and just caught the tail end of it here .....

Historic Moment for the Church in Paraguay

After several years of hard work, intense preparation, and much prayer, the church in Paraguay now owns its first property. On September 2nd, we carried the remaining funds to the "Escribania" office to complete the purchase of the property. Ike Yegros and Perry Hardin signed the papers for the deed. We are now submitting plans for the remodeling project and hope to have a special ground breaking day sometime in late November. God has answered our prayers! Now let's pray that the facility will be a useful tool for leading many to Christ and teh Truth of His Word!

ESL Classes

"Learn English Using the Bible!"
This was the approach we used to offer free English classes to the general public. We placed an ad in Facebook and quickly had 25 interested students. The campaign was for the entire month of August and we had about 15 students that went through the entire course. We studied words and passages from the book of John. Several of the students have decided to keep studying with their current teachers after the course had completed. We pray that each of them will not only learn more English, but more importantly, gain a better understanding of the Bible. Perhaps their study will encourage them to follow Christ.

Dia del Niños

It was an absolutely beautiful day and we had more than 70 in attendance on Sunday. The weekend also marked "Dia del Niños." In the USA we have Father's Day and Mother's Day. In Paraguay they have those days AND a day for children. So, after services we had a little "Midway Carnival" where we had several games set up for the children to play. If they won and collected enough tickets they could use them to get a toy. Everyone had a great time and their were lots of smiling faces!

“An open door just a few doors down”

Heidi, Maria, Faviola, and Raul after Maria was baptized

It took a considerable amount of time, effort, and money to get from Paraguay to Panama in order to meet up with my team mates for a short term mission trip. We had all traveled to the Darien jungle to evangelize the surrounding area, as well as, encourage the church there and teach some classes. We were excited about the possibilities! We stayed at the Hotel Felicidad in Metiti and traveled down the road to the church building everyday. A young woman, Maria, was a guest at the same hotel in which we were staying. She told us she was from Nicaragua and was traveling with her husband. He worked all day in the jungle while she and her daughter, Faviola, sat around the hotel. Since the ladies of the local church were preparing lunch for us, we decided to invite Maria and Faviola to join us. They really enjoyed themselves. Then, Maria started asking some questions and wanted to know more about this “church” that she was seeing. We shared the Gospel with her and she decided the next day to be baptized. It is interesting that we had all traveled from different parts of the world, but through a chance meeting in a mutual location, another soul was added to the Book of Life.

Panama Mission Trip

I was recently blessed to be able to go on a short term mission trip to Panama with a group from our sponsoring congregation, Margaret Street church of Christ. We went to Metiti and Santa Fe in the middle of the Darien Provence. It was a great opportunity to participate in another work, as well as, getting to fellowship with my brethren from the USA.

The campaign results were: 3 baptisms, 3 restorations, 25+ Bible studies, 10 Family and Marriage classes taught, 20 Evangelism and Teaching classes taught, children's classes, evening devotionals, lots of fellowship (including 1 birthday and a 15 yr anniversary) .... and a workday at a local school. God was indeed glorified in Panama!

"Prettiest" Sight in Paraguay?

It's Christmas in July at the Spradlin household in South America! To quote Andrea,

"I never thought this would be the most beautiful sight to see in Paraguay....but here it is....FINALLY!!!!!!"

Yes, we finally received our container with all our household belongings. The men unloaded everything in the pouring rain and we are happy to report that everything made it here just fine (including Andrea's dark chocolate Reeses cups). There wasn't any damage, so we have been blessed with a good, safe move.
Many of you may remember that we packed everything to go to Paraguay as I was getting ready to graduate from SWSBS. That was a year ago. Graduation for this year's students is this weekend. How's that for timing?
This is Christian Flors with Andrea. He is one of the helpers that unloaded the truck in the rain. (BTW, he is very strong).