It has gotten late.  The lobby outside our room as two computer that are free to use, but they have been busy most of the evening.  Josh and I have been journaling, talking, and playing games.  Because it is late, and I am tired, this will be a short post.  I hope that I will have some time to fill in more details of what we are doing, but not tonight.

We have been warned to be careful about drinking the water.  Any time that you travel to another country, there is a risk of getting sick if you drink the water.  It is not because of unclean water most of the time, it is because the bacteria is different than your body is used to fighting.  Of course, there are some places where the water isn´t clean.

We were told about a couple of local customs.  There are two drinks that friends share.  One is called yerba mate, and is common in southern South America.  The other is tereré, and it is unique to Paraguay.  They are both made by taking a cup with a metal straw.  They put a mixture of herbs into the cup and then pour water over the herbs, and then drink from the straw.  They usually use a thermos to hold the water, and refill the cup repeatedly.  The difference between the two drinks is that yerba mate is made with hot water, tereré is made with cold water.  When someone is drinking one of these drinks, it is very common to share it with friends, drinking from the same straw.   We were told that it is a symbol of friendship to be offered the drink.  We were also told how to politely refuse.

In church this morning, one of the men offered us tereré.  Josh and I both decided to try it.  It has a moderately strong flavor, but is not bad.  After church, I was offered tereré again, and I tried some more.  I have decided to try some small drinks, because I am thankful to have the drink offered.  One of the guys who has been to Paraguay numerous times has said that he has not heard of anyone getting sick from the water here,  so it is somewhat of a calculated risk.  So far, it has not affected me.  I guess we will find out in the next day or so if it will stay that way.

Thanks for praying for us.  Please continue to pray.  We start going house to house tomorrow to talk to people about Jesus.  The goal is to spend a long time talking to people so that understand about Jesus, not to try to collect as many numbers as possible.  They want to have deep Christians rather than large churches here.