how far the Lord has brought us!

Here's what the situation was this past Sunday.....
My husband and I had just finished teaching our 0-5 year old Sunday School class.  We were ready to walk downstairs to the Worship Service when my friend walked in our classroom.  She was supposed to lead Kid's Church but announced to us, "I have to lead the singing time in the Worship Service and I have no one to stay with the kids!"
OK.... 
3 years ago we wouldn't have understood what she was saying.
2 years ago she wouldn't have hinted to US that she needed help.
1 year ago we wouldn't have been ready to jump in and sub.
But yesterday...
because of all the Lord has taught us, we were able to help!

We didn't have a lesson, of course, but we lead some songs, played some Bible trivia, and had a good time getting to know them better!
The Lord has brought us so far!!!!  Thank You, Father!!!!

Follow this link to see a video of a game the church kids played while we were with them.  (Sorry, the video is a little bouncy.)
https://vimeo.com/62117703

more new teammates!

This missionary family arrived a couple weeks ago!

It's so fun to listen to new missionaries talk about their first

impressions of the country and people...

brings back lots of memories of when we first arrived!

"Jesus said to his disciples, "The harvest is great, but the workers are few.  So pray to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest; ask him to send more workers into his fields."

 Matthew 9:37-38

We are very thankful for these new "workers" and how the Lord will use them in the fields of Paraguay!

the marriage of a young couple from our church!

 Here they are!  The sweet bride with her groom!

We were honored when they asked our littlest guy to 

be in their wedding!  They've always been so friendly

to him when we sit close to them at church, 

and he is friendly in return!  So, that's how they built 

a little relationship with each other!

And here he is...all dressed up!

He was as cute as cute can be in his little suit!

.

 

 There was no rehearsal, which made me a bit nervous!

But he did a fine job walking down the aisle with

the other kids!  We were very proud of him!!!

The Lord created marriage to be a beautiful picture of
Christ and the church. (Ephesians 5:22-33) 

We pray that this marriage will be one that shines here in Paraguay,
where infidelity, broken marriages and fatherless children are the norm.

Bibs!

Bibs is a cute little dog we volunteered to watch for a missionary family while they were on home assignment!  She was here at our house for one year.  We've never had a dog before so it was a lot of fun learning how to take care of a dog, especially for our boys!

 She was part of in-depth discussions...

and bear hugs!

 She was cuddled,

 

and hugged, 

and buried!!!!

She was laid with,

laid on,

and confided in.  : )

We returned her to her family tonight.

I think we're all going to miss her!

a Valentine!

My husband took me out on a date on Valentine's Day!

He prepared questions to discuss and 

we had a precious time focusing on our marriage

over pizza!

I'm blessed beyond measure to have a husband 

who takes time to cultivate our marriage!

"I am my beloved's, 

And my beloved is mine."

Song of Solomon 6:3

rain!

We've not had a good rain for quite a while.
It's been a very hot summer and the grass was very brown.
But today we got our 2nd good rain of the week!

 Enjoying what the rain left behind!

(You can see that we live on roads made with rocks.)

 

Watching flip flops float down the street!

our new Sunday School class!

I was voted by our church to be the 2013 Sunday School teacher for the 0-5 year-olds.  It caught me quite off guard as no one had asked me to be on the ballot, nor had I prayed about it!

But Trav graciously offered to help me and we have really been enjoying building relationships with the precious kids that come each week!