Greetings from Paraguay! November 12, 2014

We have been here for 3 months! It is hard to believe.  We are jumping into different ministries here, and more importantly getting to know the people.  It is taking time but through helping people, who are sick, encouraging them, serving with them, hearing people’s dreams, taking one who is cut to the ER and living daily life we are starting to make more meaningful connections.

Our big news is that we are expecting our 4^th child in May!

These are some of the youth that we are blessed to hang out with.

Praises:

Lily got to be a part of a women’s encounter last week where God spirit was at work!

Prayer Requests:

We are asking God to give us in roads with the people. Would you ask Him with us?

We are needing to purchase a vehicle for our family. Would you pray for this financial need and possibly considering giving toward it?  We are needing to raise about $15,000 to purchase a used vehicle here.

If you would like to give you can do that online! Go to https://secure.cmalliance.org/give/      Type in our names in the area where it says give to international workers.  Three big needs that we have right now are our “outfit” which is all we need to set up a home in a new country, a vehicle, or our “work” which is ministry expenses.

Greetings from Paraguay!

We have been here for 2 months now and it feels like we just arrived.  There are many adjustments that have been made and many still to be made.  We have rented a small row home.  It is in the center of the city; in between the school our children are attending and the church.  We have been in our home for 2 weeks now.  The second day we were in our home Carlos’s brother Richard and his girlfriend arrived.  We had houseguests for a week! We have had to furnish the house from scratch and are still in this process.  It has been challenging to look around for household goods and fun.  We have been very surprised how expensive things are here in Asuncion.

There have been many challenges and many joys.  It seems like it takes a lot more time here to get the same things done.  Cooking by scratch has also taken up more time than it did before.  If you have some favorite from scratch recipes please send them on to me : )

We have been spending time building relationships with people from the church, parents from our children’s school and neighbors. 

If you would like to give we have several needs. One is called an “outfit need” to furnish our apartment with the basics.  The next main thing on our list is to purchase a water filter for our home.   We also will need to purchase a vehicle in the near future.  We have heard that a decent used vehicle here will be around $15,000.  (Vehicles are imported here and the cost is higher…..)  The city is large and a vehicle with a family really is a necessity.  You could also give to our ministry expenses.  This involves the expenses we have as we actively engage people with the Gospel.

Thank you for your prayers as we adjust!

-Please pray that we would make key relationships and that people would be willing to trust Jesus as Savior.

-Pray that each one in our family would adjust well; pray for special friends for our children.

-Pray that we would have God’s heart for those around us, and that we would be ministering through His power.

-Pray that our family would experience God’s love in specific and special ways in this tough adjustment.

-Pray that God would provide the finances we need to set up a home and purchase a vehicle.  This can feel overwhelming, but we know our God owns everything.

Hola from Paraguay!

It is hard to believe that we have been in Paraguay for 1 week!  We have been walking through lots of transition as a family.  We are staying at another mission’s guesthouse while we look for a home to rent.  Our children have been enrolled and are attending Asuncion Christian Academy.  The school schedule is new for us homeschoolers and we are trying to adjust!  This means lots of early mornings! (For mommy this means getting up at 5am!)  The good news is that we get to see a beautiful sunrise each day.

Transition is hard and the truth is we are being stretched.  There have been challenges…but we remember that OUR GOD, OUR LOVING FATHER is the one who called us here. WE ARE TRUSTING HIM.   We are struggling yet we trust Him.  We are walking in a new dying to ourselves as we trust OUR GOOD GOD.

This week God has been speaking to me through this passage

Acts 17: 26 “From one man he made all the people of the world. Now they live all over the earth. He decided exactly when they should live. And he decided exactly where they should live. 27 God did this so that people would seek him. Then perhaps they would reach out for him and find him. They would find him even though he is not far from any of us.”

In God’s goodness He decided that people would live here in this city, in these days so that they could hear from us the good news of the gospel.  The people of Paraguay are a needy people without much hope, and we have the greatest hope to give them!

-Please pray for us to find a place to live so that we can settle in.

-Pray that we could raise funding to quickly set up a home with basic needs and buy a vehicle.

-Pray that we would have God’s heart for the people around us.

-Pray that our children would experience God’s love and grace in this transition.

-Pray for John Saapia and family (one of our teammates who is headed to the USA today for surgery to change his pacemaker battery and lead.)

Thank you so much for your emails and Facebook messages! They have been encouraging! Love Carlos, Lily, Carly, Elia and Lucas Saavedra.

If you would like to give you can do that online! Go to https://secure.cmalliance.org/give/   Type in our names in the area where it says give to international workers.  Three big needs that we have right now are our “outfit” which is all we need to set up a home in a new country, a vehicle, or our “work” which is ministry expenses.

Hola family and friends, we are so overwhelmed by the ways of how God is shepherding our hearts during this transition time. Colorado Springs is the place that God appointed for us to be training at Mission Training International.

There are many changes happening in our lives these days!  We have sold and packed up our home in Waveland.  We have traveled to NJ and West Virginia to say tearful goodbyes to our family.  We have been sharing what we are doing with people and churches as God has given us opportunity.  Currently we are in Colorado for a missions training with about 20 other families.   It has been both an encouraging time and an overwhelming time. 

On August 5^th we will be going to the airport and saying goodbye to my parents and our lives in the USA.  We will be boarding a plane to Paraguay and starting a new chapter in our lives.  Please pray for us! We are excited to go and feel that we have been called clearly to move to Paraguay yet there is also much pain and grief as we take this step of obedience.

WE NEED YOUR PRAYERS!

-Please pray that God would speak to us clearly and that we would know what people and things to invest in.

-Please pray for safety over our family

-Please pray that our children would transition well and make some friends quickly.

-Pray that God would direct our steps in where to live (we are certain that there are neighbors who God has ordained for us to love and share the gospel with)

-Pray that we can make some good friends

-Pray that our lives would speak the Gospel clearly.

-Pray that Christian Life Church in Waveland, MS (where we have been for the last 6 years) would continue to grow and experience the Spirit of God.

-Pray that God would provide another couple/family to work with my parents in Waveland, MS.

THANK YOU FOR WALKING THIS JOURNEY WITH US! We are convinced that the Lord has put you on a team with us to make the Gospel known to lost people in Paraguay! 

Please drop us some notes, we want to know how we can be in prayer for you too! We want to hear how you are and what God is doing in your lives!

Love,

The Saavedra family

Carlos, Lily, Carly, Elia & Lucas

If you would like to give you can do that online! Go to https://secure.cmalliance.org/give/      Type in our names in the area where it says give to international workers.  Three big needs that we have right now are our “outfit” which is all we need to set up a home in a new country, a vehicle, or our “work” which is ministry expenses.