John Simons

Happy night, sad night

Today was the last day of visiting with our new friends in the barrio.  It was fun to sit and talk with new friends like Jorge and the Valiente family.  I really like how social the people are here.  When you show up unannouced and say hi, the pull up a chair and ask you to come sit down.  If they are drinking terrerria or mate, they offer you the guampa.  It is a wonderful culture for relationships.

Tonight, there was a special service.  It was a time to celebrate the formation of a new church, but also a time for goodbye.  Two of the women that I have met with all week got up to speak about meeting Christ, and how happy they are that we came.  It was very emotional.

I spent a long time with Alé  and Jorge.  Jorge was telling us about how he used to be addicted to drugs, but that once he had his son, he new that he had to change.  He described all of the violence near the neighborhood where we have been working.  He said that he is glad that we have come, and that he hopes that the church will help change the neighborhood.  He has invited me back to visit.  I hope that I am able to return some day.

Tomorrow, we will not be in the barrio.  We get to sleep in a little more.  We will go shopping in the morning.  In the evening, we will have dinner with Pastor Alcides and the translators.  Josh and I leave on Saturday.  I am sad to be leaving behind all of the friends that I have made, but I am looking forward to being home and catching up on some sleep.

Tags: goodbye, mission, Paraguay

Travel Health - Information Overload

Yesterday was our appointment to go to the health department in Gainesville so that we could get our Yellow Fever vaccinations. It is probably a good thing we didn’t go there before we signed up for this trip. Otherwise, we might never go. We spent more than two hours talking to the nurse, who specializes in infections diseases for travelers. She was very friendly and had a lot of information. Maybe too much information.

We learned about Yellow Fever, the vaccine, how effective it is etc. We also learned about the following diseases that have vaccines: Typhoid Fever, Hepatitis A, Hepatitis B, and several others. We learned about Rabies. (Josh: don’t pet the capybaras.) We learned about illness from food and water (dysentary, typhoid, hepatitis A). We learned about deep vein thrombosis. We learned about diseases that come from mosquitoes: yellow fever (there is a vaccine), dengue fever (no vaccine, no cure), malaria (you can take pills, but we don’t need to). We learned about fungal infections and parasites (schistosomiasis - stay out of the water). We learned about a few more, as well.

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Tags: Family, Health, mission, Paraguay

Learning about Paraguay

I am beginning to turn my attention to the upcoming missions trip in April.

First, I need to turn my attention to the fundraising part of things. The goal is to raise a significant part of the cost from friends and family. This serves a couple of purposes. First, we really don’t have the funds for Josh and I to travel overseas sitting in the bank. Second, if people contribute to the trip, they will be more likely to pray for us while we are preparing and traveling, but also will be more interested in our adventures.

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Tags: Asuncion, mission, Paraguay