Youth Rally and Caroline...

The youth rally hosted by community churches and a mission agency here in Paraguay was a success. It took place this past Saturday night, in a soccer field at the edge of the town of Carapegua. There seemed to be a lot of local people just "dropping in," including the drunk man who honed in on me and commenced a yelling fest in slurred speech and unintelligible phrases. How do those folks find me in a crowd? Never fails. ANYWAY, our youth group did an awesome job on their drama presentation. The crowd "got it" and responded well. I wanted to share a video of them performing it with you, but it was too dark. After the Gospel presentation, several people made commitments to the Lord! Thanks for the prayers. I can't share all of what God's doing for the sake of people's privacy, but He's up to good things here!

On a personal note, please pray for our younger daughter, Caroline. She's just turned ten this past December. You can see from these pictures that every house we visit, she finds the pets right away. She's doing very well at learning the language and making friends, but is struggling a little lately. I really didn't think much about what they call "culture shock" before we got here, but I've learned it's very real, and it's not what you'd expect. I was the first to be hit--should I say SLAMMED--by it, and had a really tough time. Ken had a couple weeks of the not-so-fun times, too. A little different manifestation with his turn, but he has been doing well and is moving past it pretty quickly. Caroline has just started with her version of it.
Where Camille and I live on social interaction (even at my WORST, I felt best when I could get around a bunch of people), Caroline gets overwhelmed sometimes by crowds and loud noise. She's sensitive and sweet and prefers cuddling up somewhere with a book or playing with a friend or two at a time. This past week, she started showing some of the signs that she may be past what is termed "the honeymoon period" of moving to the mission field, and stepping into a bit of her own culture shock. Nightmares (one hot night she dreamed she was in a fire), wanting to be by my side anytime we leave the house, clinging to me in public, wanting us to lie down with her at night and hold her a lot during the day, a general crabbiness and inability to be satisfied, a little change in her diet, ...this sort of thing. Needless to say, Saturday night was a little much for her. She stretched way out of her comfort zone and chose to stay for the youth rally, though, and was very proud of herself afterward. She's come to view the adults we work with as aunts and uncles, acting a bit clingy with them if we're not immediately around. I see that as a good sign. She also has enjoyed spending time with our new MK, Abi (2 1/2 years old), who calls Caroline her sister already. Caroline's a tough gal, but she's still my baby, so please pray for God to hold her closely while she walks through this time of adjustment. And pray that Camille just avoids it altogether! ;) We really appreciate your prayer support.

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