May 9, 2009

A Mother's Day Idea

Ken had a great idea this past week while we were on the "blanket walk." A few of the families graciously allowed me to take their photos during our visits. It ocurred to us both that these may be the only photos of the sort in existence for these families. So many of them have babies and small children, and I just couldn't imagine these mothers thinking back to these days but having no tangible reminder of what their sons and daughters looked like.

The plan is that we'll walk around to the houses we saw earlier, and maybe a few more we already know, and gather them together for a photo. We'll go into town and print them out, then deliver them again to the homes. This "guarantees" us two more visits with these people. In trying to build relationships, seems like a good place to start.

The timing is pretty good, too, since Mother's Day is celebrated here this coming Friday. It's a really big deal here--I've been told the Paraguayans view Mom as second only to God. She is the ultimate person, to be respected and honored above all but God himself. Wow. The country shuts down to celebrate, with all offices and stores closed again. It'll be another short week at school (they sure miss school a lot here).

On that note, we have a friend who lost his mother several years ago to sickness. We've invited him and his father to spend Mother's Day with us, on a picnic in another town. There's a lake nearby and he's mentioned he'd like to check it out for the first time. Our intent is to turn what could be a very sad, depressing day into a sort of mini-adventure. This young man walked with us today to deliver more blankets and has become a good friend of ours. He needs to know Jesus, and we want to be a light to him. Please pray for his family and for those we'll be visiting over the next week or two, with blankets and photos.

And Happy Mother's Day to all of you. We pray you were blessed to have wonderful mothers, as Ken and I were (not to mention our terrific grandmothers and aunts), and that you enjoy the holiday weekend.



4 comments:

  1. Happy Mother´s Day to you as well Christie! That is a great idea you had, making those photos! I´m sure they will cherish them and it will open their hearts to you!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi there~ My name is Sarah Beth and I'm an MK in Peru, SA and I have a blog for MKs.

    I'm browsing for missionary blogs and stumbled upon this one!! : ) I was wondering, would you mind if I added your blog to my sidebar? My blog is: http://theotherside-mks.blogspot.com

    thanks!

    Sarah Beth

    ReplyDelete
  3. you know i'm lovin this! what a great outreach opportunity! wish i was there to share in the experience. maybe when the little one arrives we can visit?

    ReplyDelete

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