Almost Famous

Let us start today's blog off with a story that you might enjoy. It was Sunday afternoon and we had just finished our first of two church services. This church service was in San Antonio at the Hope Baptist Church where the soup kitchen is located. None of us had been to the Rio de Paraguay (Paraguay River) so we were curious to check it out. It was only a five minute drive from where we were and it was a beautiful day so we drove towards the river and pulled the car over and walked down to where we could see the water. The trouble is, there was what looked like a swampy area that stood between us and the River--bear in mind we were in our church clothes. I (Adam) was nearest to the beginning of the swamp area and to my eyes, it appeared that you just had to clear small area of mud until the ground was firm enough. However, I was not really expecting anyone to take that statement at face value. I was wrong. There I was, standing and taking pictures to see Judah, the most dressed up of all of us, leap and try to clear the ONE really swampy part. Well, as I am sure you have guessed at this point, it was more than that one spot, as a matter of fact, it was probably a good 500 metres of mud/swamp that I failed to analyze thoroughly. Judah lost one shoe, then his momentum carried him and his other foot hit the next patch hard and it was buried as well. Sure enough, when he tried to pull his other foot out, his shoe stayed submerged. Well at this point, Bryan (who had taken one step following Judah and then changed his mind before it was too late), Thomas, and I were trying not to die laughing. Judah had to reach in the mud and gather his entrenched dress shoes and then got back to solid ground. So here is the kicker, the mud seemingly is a form of septic drainage or something because wow, did Judah's feet stink! Here is a picture:

Okay, so moving on, that Church service, we each had a chance to preach. We don't usually attend this church but they had asked us to be there because there was a big fifth anniversary service. Also, one of the boys that comes all the time to the soup kitchen for dinner was getting baptized so we wanted to be there--that and there was a huge free lunch after which included each of us getting half a chicken to ourselves (not even joking).
When we were asked to go, the pastor had mentioned that they might want one of us guys to get up and speak at the front. Well, at the church during the greeting time, the Pastor decided that he wanted all of us to speak. So we spent the time during the music to scramble and think of something to say. As it would turn out, we had no lack of words as we talked for about 15 minutes (translated through Judah) and we tied into what one another said quite well. We even received some "Amens" to top it off.

On top of our daily schedule here that keeps us busy, it sometimes feels like we are celebrities. Every youth that we meet invites us out to some event that we couldn't possibly miss. Also, just yesterday, Judah received two phone calls from pastors that we have never met that wanted us to come speak at their church sometime. Yesterday also included Bryan and Thomas going to a school and helping our Spanish instructor teach English at the school she works at. Sure enough, a girl asked the guys if we would come speak at her church too. Oh ya, and a week and a half ago, we snuck our way onto national TV too for a good 7 seconds. Ok, not quite celebrities but the adventures continue...

This weekend we are actually going travelling to Filadelfia (a mennonite colony) for fun, and then on Tueday we move into an orphanage for the next two weeks. We will be living there on the weekdays which will be a brand new challenge but we are excited.
Ciao!