Itagua is a city in which we worked last year, out of the Velazquez family's house, which doubles as a local annex church. We are here today doing another medical clinic! Before I go into that, I'll tell you a little bit about our rest day yesterday...
We went to a new mall in the area and pretty much did nothing. It was wonderful. We all definitely needed that time to de-stress and gain a little bit of energy. Since we literally started work here as soon as we landed, we were a little worn out and really enjoyed some down time. We had a riveting time at a supermarket, drank some amazing coffee, and then headed to downtown Asuncion (the capita of Paraguay), to look around. Since last year's adventures down to Asuncion, they have apparently relocated most of the squatters that lived by the river, and built a beautiful walking area on the water instead. We stopped for some ice cream, and then headed off to the soccer game of Cerro vs. Chile. It was pretty incredible, and nothing like any major sports game any of us had ever been to. The energy and intensity of the fans there is something that really can't be described in words... I'll have to show you in a video later on. Although it was a little bit stressful because of crazy fans afterwards, we all had a good time.
Yesterday, while we were doing nothing at the mall, Lou spoke at two different hospitals on infectious diseases. We haven't had time to coordinate him being able to write out some of his stories on here, hopefully we can do so soon. I just was able to briefly talk to him, and he's shared a couple stories I am going to attempt to cover here.
Lou has done about 5 house calls in the 3 different neighborhoods in which we have done these medical campaigns. The most interesting has probably been today... he visited an elderly lady who is completely blind, and I guess wasn't sure who they were when they entered. He wanted them to make sure they knew that he was there to help her and not harm her, mostly because on her bedside table she had a giant machete. I'm not sure what happened between then and now, but I know it ended well because he is still with us unharmed continuing to help patients! He Has many more stories, but I cant give too much away now as he will expound on these during our service next sunday.
So, as I said, in Itagua, we are working in another medical clinic. Something pretty exciting happened during lunch today as well. A teenage boy, Cristian, came up to Andrew and told him that he had shared the story of Jesus with him the year before. Casey took his blood pressure at the medical clinic we did here last year, and he remembered her too, as she also shared the Gospel with him later on. He was telling Andrew that in the year that we have been gone, he had surrendered his life to knowing Jesus, had been baptized, as well as joined the church and attends regularly. All because we were going house to house sharing why we came so far in the first place - because our lives have been changed by the work that Jesus did on the cross for us so many years ago. Hearing these stories from the people themselves who we come in contact with is incredible. This is why we come back, and LOVE coming back and being a part of these campaigns. God goes before us, and keep working after we leave through the people we come in contact with. These stories get us SO EXCITED! I hope you are as happy reading them as we are when we talk to the people who we have contact with here, and who's lives have been changed by our Savior.
We are so happy to be serving the one true God, who is alive, moving, working, and who is active, and actively loves people!
Please be in prayer for health for our team at this time. Jim has been very sick all day with a high fever, and others are feeling under the weather as well- most likely from all of the sicknesses we are exposed to every day. We really appreciate it!
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