One of the things that was most exciting for me on the trip, was watching Josh interact with the rest of the team and with our friends in Paraguay. It was a great unknown for me as we went into the trip: how would Josh handling being in a different culture, where he doesn’t know the language, and is expected to interact with adults throughout the week.
The first night that we were there, we met with a group of pastors and elders to talk about the plans for the week. At that first meeting, one of the pastors referred to Josh as the “pequeño missionario.” That became a nickname for Josh during much of the week.
Throughout the week, Josh impressed me with how he handled himself. When he was with the Paraguayan youth, he was just another teenager interacting with friends. He played soccer, shot baskets into a bucket, juggled, listened to music, and just talked. When he was with adults, he carried himself with maturity and poise. When it was time to speak publicly, he did a great job talking about what his faith means to him. From what I am told, he handled himself very well doing the evangelism. During the week, he worked side by side with everything from teenagers to pastors, and he handled himself like a champ.
Since we have been home, he has been staying in touch through the internet with some of the people that we got to know. He has talked about a desire to practice his Spanish. He definitely wants to g
o back to Paraguay. Our hope is that we will be able to go back again next year. We also hope that we will be able to put together a small team from our church to go with us. It would be great for our church to develop a relationship with some of the churches in Paraguay.
At the end of the trip, Josh was talking with the same pastor who had called him the “pequeño missionario.” I commented that I thought he had proven himself to not be the “pequeño missionario” anymore, just the missionario. The pastor corrected me. He said that Josh had proven himself to be a “gran missionario.”
I think that I agree.
