Brasiguayo Missions

Below is an email i sent to some family and friends that were instrumental in supporting our missions to Paraguay/Brazil. It is basically a short play by play of some of things that occured while we were there. The trip was truly an incredible experience and nothing less than a testimony of God's greatness!

1) The travel time from Austin, Dallas, Buenos Aires, Asuncion, to Pedro Juan Caballero was was almost 30 hours. Not only was this a huge piece of our time from there to back but was also about 75% of our expenses. We ate Brazilian steak/chicken almost everyday for next to nothing while we were there! Everyone on the team stayed in relatively good health the entire trip.

2) After arriving on Saturday night we spent the next day at the Japanese sports complex. We went out there to just meet some of the people and see what was going on....the next thing we knew 3 of our guys (including myself) had been asked to umpire for a Little League baseball game! Luckily Jeff played college baseball so we threw him behind the plate as home plate umpire while Danny and I took 3rd and 1st base. You've never experienced baseball until you've umpired a little league Japanese baseball game in Paraguay with Brazilian/Paraguayan/Japanese kids on the field all yelling, "ehhh pitcha!!!" to taunt the pitcher.........this was an introduction to the fact that things outside of the U.S. function a little different.

Later that evening at the Brazilian church the pastor asked me to share with their congregation why we were there and what we were doing. It was an awesome opportunity to share that we had come for one reason, to share the faith we have in Christ for the forgiveness of sin and the hope we have for eternal life in His heavenly kingdom, and how we should all be active in sharing this message with everyone we meet.....

3) As we started the "pool play" on Monday morning for the 3 on 3 basketball tournament, we had the opportunity to play basketball and get to know "Brasiguayo" kids, mostly ages 10 - 18. They call themselves Brasiguayos because they live on the border of Brazil and Paraguay and they don't really identify or consider themselves Brazilian or Paraguayan, so they call themselves Brasiguayo. It thoroughly complicates things as you try to determine whether you should speak Spanish or Portuguese with them......

AfterMonday's activities on the basektball courts, we had shared the gospel through Bible Storie books and testimonies and led 20 kids to pray to receive Christ as saviour. Later that evening two of our girls went to an orphanage where they were able to lead 5 kids to faith in Christ!

4) Tues - Wed we had the opportunity to spend time with about 150 kids as the word got out about the tournament. We were going on to schools and telling them about the tournament, and made a great acquantaince with a coach at a school named Hugo. Hugo is a Christian guy that coaches about 60-80 kids on a dirt court with 2 "pop up goals" (something like you'd see in a cul de sac). It was amazing to experience the "openness" of the people in this area, and how grateful they were to have us there helping to host a tournament like this. He explained that our presence there as Christians and as basketball players helps him tremendously in his goal to lead kids to keep kids off the streets and to share his faith in Christ.

5) Thursday was our tournament day. It was such a site to see all the kids come out in their best basketball clothes.

Those that played for the school team all had on the jerseys and shorts that Hugo had helped them to buy. It was a little sad to see that the best some of the other kids had was jean shorts and sandals to play basketball in......The fascinating part to me was that they didn't even seem to notice or care. Their contentment and joy with ABSOLUTETLY NOTHING was amazing and incredibally challenging. Beth and Jeff shared on tournament day and we saw 15 more kids pray to receive Christ.

6) We took the names of all the players and were able to give all the new believers a Portuguese New Testament. We left the names of those who followed Christ with the local church and with Hugo to follow up with.

7) Most of our days started around 6:30a.m. and finished around 10:00p.m. Needless to say by the end of each day we were completely exhausted and ready to crash. On Friday we turned an 8 hour bus ride into about a 12 hour bus ride to Iguacu Falls. On Saturday we had the chance to tour this is amazing park where natural waterfalls on teh Brazilian and Argentinian frontier creates a natural border between the countries (they are trying to vote it in as one of the natural wonders of the world). That afternoon we had quite a fright as our flight from Sao Paulo was delayed, which meant our connection to Buenos Aires would be delayed, which meant we might miss our flight to Dallas, which meant everyone would be VERY UNHAPPY because they would miss work. By God's grace all of our connections were also delayed and we made it to Dallas with only an hour and half delay. We were able to catch the next flight to Austin and crash the rest of Sunday!

8) Mon, Tues, and Wed. have been pretty fast and furious as we've tried to catch up and reacclimate to Austin. The experience of God's presence and using us in this trip was truly a blessing. It has challenged and emoldened me once again to remember the importance of sharing the message of God's love with any and all we meet in order that they might turn from sin and selfishness and turn to God for love and eternal life.

Attached is a link to a Picassa web album with more pics: http://picasaweb.google.com/beth.haddox/ParaguayOct2008