Catching Up

Sorry that it has been a while since you have heard from us, but we thought that we would let you know that we are all alive still. But who knows how long that will last with all of the adventures that we have had. So Sunday was a great day in catching up on sleep as I(Thomas) slept in until 12:00. I know everyone who knows me including Adam and Bryan say that it´s no surprise, but I still enjoyed it. Although we were late for church it was still fun and we met new people that made fun of our Spanish and Guarani(the native language). Anywho enough with the boring stuff... over our time here we have been distributing food and showing the Jesus film in schools. This was great for learning Spanish as we had to use a only Spanish most of the time.

On Tuesday night we had a great oppurtunity to follow up on our futbol experience in the mall. We went to a Paraguay vs Venezuela game at the stadium in Asuncion with 35 000 sweaty, fat, intoxicated fans that sang the same songs over and over again. Even though we didn´t know what was said we could sing along by the end. The great part about the area we got tickets for, is that there were no designated seats so a mosh pit ensued and we stood the entire game and fought to see the game. Since Paraguay won easily, 2-0, there were no real sketch moments with the fans as everyone stayed relatively calm and was just excited about a great game.

Wednesday night we went to a soup kitchen that collected food from us earlier in the day at Jesus Responde. Here we got to play more soccer with the kids and were a part of the meal that is served every night for around 100 kids. Although there are many places that do similar programs, the church here has something special to offer. Not only did the Pastor have an amazing story about God´s call for him to Paraguay, but the church itself grew substantially in just months and now through this feeding program they are trying to make the community more self sustainable. It was a pretty moving experience as Pastor Jorge really was appreciative of us coming there, even though we really did nothing, but also he wanted to send a huge thanks to Bryan´s dad and all the work that has been done through the Gleaners. Over the next two weeks we will be working here for the dinner program after we figure out the bus system.

Then comes a grand adventure that we had on many busses throughout the city. This is why we know that figuring out the bus system will be a challenge as we got so lost going around the city selling sandwiches. You need an explanation? Well, one day we ended up having lunch at this church that is housing for around 20 people just minutes away from our house, and somehow through much confusing Spanish they communicated to us that they wanted us to sell sandwiches with them on buses. Are you still confused, so were we. Anyways long story short, Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, this church makes around 500 sandwiches and goes around town on buses selling them for about 25 cents each. This money then goes towards paying for many of the necessities that the church has: water, school, kids programs, etc. While selling the sandwiches we were split into separate groups. It was one of us with one of the girls from the church. Due to this we had to speak, and try to understand Spanish all day. Luckily our jobs were simple, we had to hold the bin of 90 sandwiches, not fall over, and be eye candy(if eye candy means getting weird looks as people curiously gave us their money).

We now have a tenative schedule for the rest of our time here in Paraguay. Over the next month and a bit we will be working in a hospital, an orphanage, with soup kitchens, and playing tons of soccer. Hopefully we will write again soon.