Friday, July 27, 2007

Pando, Uruguay

This is a picture of Josh with a Ovideo, a pastor we met at teen Camp. He told Josh the next day that he was his new friend. He spoke a good bit of English. Josh played soccer with him and the teen boys at game time. He loved it!
This is part of the 50 teens and children at Sunday School the first week.
The teen girls begged me to come and play the piano for them to sing their camp choruses. Before long all the kids and Hector one of the teen boys were singing too. I loved every minute of it!
Joshua and I went on our missions survey trip to Pando, Uruguay from July 8-23. We stayed with Don and Pat Garwood a missionary couple from our church here in Zanesville. Don is 71 years old, yet he wore us out more with his running than do our two small children. We were able to visit several families from Iglesia Biblica Maranatha. The church consists mostly of children and teens. There are a handful of ladies who attend, but only one man. Josh was able to speak 4 times in the services there. I was able to speak 3 times. We both had to use translators of course. This was a first time experience for us both. We are definitely looking forward to being able to speak in Spanish for the lessons without an interpreter. The second week we were there a 14 girl from the church, Evelyn, was hit and killed by a bus right in front of the church. She was running to catch the bus to go to school, and failed to look the other way before running out. It was a very difficult time. She was saved as are her mother, Rosana, and little brother, Facundo. Her step-father, George, is not. He has raised her since she was a toddler and took her death very hard. He did request Don to have a funeral service. This is very uncommon in Uruguay as burials take place the same day or the day after a death. They do not embalm. He wanted there to be scripture and hymns. This was a huge testimony to the over 300 people who came to the graveside for the funeral. Please continue to pray for Evelyn's family, and that her testimony would continue to bring many souls to the Lord.


We absolutely loved it there. We are planning to begin deputation ASAP. We just received a brand new laptop computer from our home to church. This is a huge blessing as we were going to have to wait to begin deputation until we could afford one. Please pray for us as we begin to prepare our power point presentation, and deputation in general.


2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey Rebekah,

I'm so glad you found me! I enjoyed catching up on your news just a little bit through your blog. You are definitely a busy mom!
I had been trying to track people (Bonnie, Jen R, you, etc.) down lately too, but I didn't/don't know any married names! So it was really fun to have you and Shannon contact me within a day.
I'd love to continue to hear more about your pre-field process! are you going through a board? I'm praying that my pre-field is almost done, but it's not my timing that matters, it's God's!
Thanks for tracking me down!

Heather

joyfully2b4u said...

you look so very much at home there!