2 for 2

This week we had two Caleb-sized events.

1st - Caleb turned 2! March 14 (3.14) - otherwise known as PI Day (Thank you Whitney)



2nd - Caleb got 2 stitches - More importantly, in the competition between the Schells and us to see which of our kids can go to the hospital most - we are winning. Caleb Rocks!

2 quick but important things

I have two things to share today... one is a request for prayer and the other is something that YOU HAVE TO SEE!

1) First of all... please pray for the Mission's Team that is coming from New Jersey. They arrive on Saturday (March 14th - which is also Caleb's 2nd birthday) and work like crazy until next Sunday. They will be working in schools, sharing their stories, preaching (the one's that speak Spanish), and constructing all sorts of things. Please pray for their health, for a loving atmosphere at all times and for the impact the God will have through their ministry and on their hearts!

2) Second... some of you know that my brother is a Missionary in Thailand. You have to check out what God is doing over there. Just a quick explanation. Thailand is like 98% Buddhist and really to be Thai is to be Buddhist. So that means, when he tries to share Jesus those who would accept are most times seen as betraying their culture and their country and will often face economic and family persecution. For this reason, there have been very, very few people who have come to Jesus in Thailand. But, recently God has been doing amazing things!!! First my brother went into a prison and led a dozen or so to Christ. Then those who came to Christ led another dozen or so to Christ. And it just kept multiplying. Now, two of the men who were in the first group that came to Christ have been released from prison and are going into villages sharing Christ. Recently, like last week, they baptized a number of people from the first village that they entered. Check out the video here: www.isaan.org

Jim and Kahty have an amazing email network for prayer requests and praise reports. Send them an email an hop on their prayer list and be apart of what God is doing around the world!

As always, thank you for your prayers for us here in Paraguay, too! We are thankful that you are on the team

Phew - finally finished!

Today I spent a couple of hours this morning wrestling with Gmail trying to get our newsletter out. Even with the frustrations of it all, the truth is today's technology never ceases to amaze me.

I remember reading letters from Missionaries while I was a teenager in a C&MA church in Brooklyn, New York. I remember reading about the adventures they were having and drifting off in my imagination to these far away lands that I thought I would never see.

Now, everything is different. The world really is 'smaller.' Most of the teenagers (and adults) I know have Facebook accounts that include friends from other countries. If you want to know about a country you don't dust off the encyclopedia (???) or National Geographic, instead, with just a few clicks of the mouse you can look at live videos from almost any country in the world. Want to see the Galapagos islands, the Patagonian Rain Forest, the Taj Mahal or the Great Barrier Reef. Google them!

But, in the end, what impresses me most about today's technology is how 'instant' our communication has become. It wasn't that long ago that missionaries would board ships and sail across the oceans to reach the foreign ports of call. They would write letters and mail them back to their families and the letters would take 2 months to arrive, and even longer for the response to get back.

I love being a missionary in THIS time period. I love being able to call my parent's cell phone and talk with them while they are eating at Dunkin' Doughnuts. I love being able to 'skype' my brother in Thailand and ask him computer advice. I love being able to shoot videos, write blogs, and create newsletters that, with one (or really 15) click of the mouse, can be whisked away to over hundreds of homes, filled with family and friends who are praying for the ministry here in Paraguay. I love that!

So, it was worth the fight. And, in the end, I won and the newsletters were sent out. Speaking of which... if you are reading this and did not get a newsletter, but would like to, just send me your email address and I will make sure that you get all the fairly recent, up-to-date, information about what is happening with our family and the work here in Asuncion.

Thanks for being on the team!

Peace!

Back on line

We are back in business. Can I tell you how thankful I am that I bought the warranty for my MAC. In the end, they replaced the hard drive and the keyboard and the casing for the whole computer. Although, we lost a bunch of pictures and videos, it is like I have been given a new computer.

More importantly, we are back on line and I will be updating the blog and newsletters again! Thank you so much for your patience. I am very thankful for the many of you who continued to pray, support and contact us even though it was so hard to get on line to respond back to you.

One quick prayer request for you. We'd appreciate you praying for Caleb. For some reason he is not sleeping. There are times when we put him in his room and he just cries and cries. We are not sure if he is having bad dreams or if he just doesn't want to sleep. We'd appreciate your prayers for him!

On a bright note, in order to help him sleep, we have found that after crying, he will crawl into bed with his big brother Andrew. We asked Andrew about this and he says, "Oh, I don't mind. I love my Caleb." God is good!

Peace!