I just know that God sometimes laughs at the little things He does to us/for us. He has to get a kick out of the timing and the way we get worked up into tizzies. Just this week I'll bet He was rolling in the floor.

I told y'all that we're planning to move a few miles from here, into the town of Carapegua. The scheduled day of the big move is tomorrow, Sept 1. We found a building with an open room on bottom (plus a bathroom), and two bedrooms + a full bath upstairs. We liked the location, and even though it was a good bit smaller than we'd prefer, we figured out how to "make do" because it was the only available building in Carapegua at a price we could swing. There were a few things I particularly didn't care for, such as the fact that it had no kitchen and we'd be using the bathroom sink for kitchen purposes. (I know, that's gross, but it's the third world. We're just happy there is an indoor bathroom!) And the bedrooms opened right to the balcony walkway, rather than to a closed in hallway. Picture hotel rooms. My children would be walking out of their bedroom door into the open air, albeit behind a fence and on a second story. This is all do-able, but not ideal.

A few days ago, I was driving through town and took a side road home, after someone mentioned to me there was a "mansion" being built on that part of town. I was curious about this mansion. I never did find it, but I found a large building with a "For Rent" sign on it. We'd driven this road--and every other road in town--numerous times over the last few months and not seen this building up for rent. From the size and location of it, it seemed WAY out of our price range, but being the nosy person I am, I took the number down and had a Paraguayan friend call to ask about it. (It's sometimes better to avoid the American accent and find out the "local" price first.)

It turns out the place is owned by a storekeeper in town that I'd befriended months ago, and stop by to visit with at least weekly. I drove over to ask her about it that same afternoon. It turns out the place has been available for six months or so now, but they'd just put a new sign up. I asked her if we could go look, only for the sake of my curiousity, you know. We had a good old family prayer and headed over there right away.

This place was just perfect. A room in front like the one we were looking at in the first house--the right size for small gatherings like English classes and Bible studies and community movies and all that jazz. There were also 4 more rooms downstairs (including a kitchen), 3 full bathrooms, 4 bedrooms upstairs, a huge balcony off the bedrooms, a fenced play area, a couple large mango trees out back,and--get this--a 6-car garage/workshop that just thrills Ken to death. The garage has a concrete floor and is a good size for the future youth center, and all secured by a lovely steel bar fence with a gate.

As it turns out, this building's rent is LESS than the other we were looking at. We felt really good about it, but the truth is that we'd given our word to the owner of the first house. We'd not signed any contracts or anything, but she had been fixing things and preparing for our arrival, and we knew she'd spent money in the preparations. She knew our plans to use the building for living and for ministry, and was supportive of the vision. We didn't want to break an agreement with her and leave bad feelings for us or the ministry, so we called a few folks to pray as we drove over to her house.

She met us with a smile, and I explained about the other house. She kept her smile, told us not to worry one bit, and refused our offer to reimburse her for the expenses she'd put out for us. She said that she knew we had to think about what was going to be the best for our future plans, and she was glad we'd found something more suitable to our needs as a family as well. I just about fell over with relief, as she gave us her blessing and said there were no hard feelings at all. Phwew. God bless her.

We came home feeling good, but told the next owners we needed a night to pray about it, and we'd let them know the next morning. We didn't get any strikes of lightening, but we had peace about this next house and felt it really met all our needs. This morning, one of our best friends sent me an email, knowing nothing of the new house, about a dream she had last night. She described the new house in great detail, inside and out, including the yard and the store across the street. Needless to say, we went this morning to tell the owners that we'd be moving into their home tomorrow. They were thrilled, we were thrilled, and everyone got to work. They did some maintenance stuff, we cleaned until our arms were numb, and tomorrow we will be moving our things into a home God picked out just for us.

FINALLY! The clicking timeclock that Immigrations gave us to complete our paperwork ended up working in our favor, and we have successfully turned in our documents to apply for residency. After all was said and done, I'm still not sure that we had what they were asking for (it changed almost daily), but they didn't want to issue me another extension. So rather than go through the trouble to fill out a new form for the extension, they just told me to bring in what papers we had. I didn't even have to take that last form through the appropriate red-tape legalization and certification and visualization of the Ministry of Whatever. YAY!

I wanted to dance a little victory jig right there in the government office. The employees were as relieved as I was, many of them coming out to congratulate me and smile and wave, and ask if we'd still drop by and visit when we're downtown. Okay, when the office staff is on the personal friend list, you know you've spent too much time in that office. I think I know the life story of several of them, though, by now (you know that "flashing red sign" over my head). Now we wait 1-3 months to see if it was all approved, and each receive a lovely little card, which we take to some other office and start the application for an official cedula (a membership into the Paraguay club, which officially equates to a social security number, if I'm right).

Thank you all for the encouragement, the advice, and the prayers. There were days that it didn't look like it would happen, and when nothing short of a miracle would push us to the next level. True to form, God always came through. (No click)

I'm thrilled to say that since that initial bout of what was probably a nasty case of culture shock, my sleeping time has been nothing short of glorious. Albeit a bit too short usually, but quite lovely. This past week, I had a night of yucky sleep, however. We'd been running back and forth to the capital on previously mentioned government business, and I was more than stressed from all of it. Understanding the legal jargon in another language is nothing short of practically impossible, and I'd been doing that for DAYS, in and out of various offices and agencies. Not to mention I'd just dropped an ungodly amount of money on the desk of someone that gave me a conditional acceptance of our applications. So when my head hit the pillow that night, I was ready for some serious snoozing. God had different plans.

I woke several times the first hour either walking or talking in my sleep. When I talk in my sleep, it's always in Spanish (I wish I could say it's Guarani, but that'd be a miracle). So I was fussing about the paperwork with Ken, who kept trying to get me fully awakened. Once or twice I jumped up to start getting dressed because we needed to be at the elementary school the next day. Ken was finally successful at waking me, and I tried to shake off the feeling of being overexhausted. I walked around the house for about thirty seconds when I heard the phone ring. That was a bit of a surprise because I have it set to turn off for a couple hours each night, then turn back on automatically. (I read somewhere that it's good for the phone...)

It was our neighbor, Francisco, calling on behalf of his sister, who really needed to go to the emergency room. Francisco has a motorcycle, but she was in no shape to sit on it for the 20 minute drive, and it was rainy and C-O-L-D! He said he didn't think we'd answer at that hour, but he was going to give it one shot. Thank the Lord that not only was the phone on (that NEVER happens), but we were both awake at the odd hour, and the phone wasn't in vibrate mode.

By the time we got to the hospital, got her checked in, bought a few needed supplies, and ran back home for blankets and more clothes (the hospital supplies a bare bed and the care of the nurses/doctors, the patient supplies the rest), we made it to bed a little after 3 AM. Thank God we didn't have to go into the capital again that next day, and that He arranged my restlessness and the phone fluke for such a time as this.

On a related note, keep this family in your prayers. We've grown very close to them all, and are waiting for God to open doors for their salvation. Just last week, Ken and Saul made an emergency trip an hour and a half away when the father fell and was bleeding internally. He's out of the hospital now but recovering slowly. His daughter who just made the trip this week to the hospital does much of the work with their animals and farming, and she is in no shape to do that right now. We're going to pitch in as we can and see what we can learn about good old hard work here, but pray that this family is able to pull together and looks to the Lord at this time.

The Hagerman family will be moving into a rental home in the nearby town of Carapegua, as of September 1. We're really excited about the opportunities this will open up for us. We've been living in a lovely little house on the church campgrounds here, working mostly in this small community. There is a definite need that keeps presenting itself to us, however, and we'd begun to feel the tug that direction a few months ago. We started praying about what we should do, and God opened a few doors for us to jump through.

There are lots of teens and young adults in this town, as it's the largest in the area and is home to several colleges/universities. On the weekends, the town park is FULL of young folks hanging around with nothing to do (but drink, mostly). We are moving into a building that has a large garage-type bottom floor, with a couple bedrooms on top. The plan is to open up the bottom floor for small group meetings, Bible studies, English classes, and then a Christian club on the weekends. We will continue to drive out to the neighborhood we've grown to love so we can keep ministry happening here, but we'll have access to a group of young people who'd been a bit out of reach before. There are tons more details to this, but for now, that's the jist of it.

We are all sad to move further from the neighbors we've grown so close to, but we're excited about the possibilities awaiting us. The girls are excited because this "home" has a flat roof that can be used as a patio area, and it just seems cool to hang out on the roof, right? Their bedroom will be a bit bigger, too, so Amber won't be so squished. Caroline is having some issues parting with her chickens, although several neighbors have offered to care for them. And on that note, please pray that we handle the move with grace. To people that don't understand work done for the Kingdom, saying that God is leading us in this direction makes no sense. So we are trying to make sure that our questioning neighbors understand fully that they've not offended us and that we've loved living in their community, and are appreciative of the way they've accepted us. Several have been offering us land to build a house on out here. Isn't that just sweet? We still want to see God move in them and are trusting that He can even use our move to draw them closer to a relationship with Him.

If any of you have questions about the move, please feel free to leave a comment or contact us by email--replace the (dot) with a . in the following... hagerman100@yahoo(dot)com

The local elementary school we work with has been expanding and improving lately. They received some grants from several charitable foundations and were able to build a MUCH-NEEDED classroom, so that the dilapidated 5th and 6th grade one could be turned into a storage shed.

The day of the dedication was just plain frigid, but thankfully the rain held off. Saul (with a little help from Ken) had been feverishly cleaning and painting the room to get it done in time for the ceremony. I got to choose the color, so I went with a lovely milky light brown, so that it didn't feel so institutional and didn't show the dirt so badly. Colored walls aren't the norm here, but all seemed to approve.

The flag Rhonda donated was whipping in the high winds, and several commented on how beautiful it was. It turns out that the last one was over three years old, as evidenced by the tatters and tears. How wonderful to see the rickety old chairs and desks replaced with new, solid ones. The others were wired together in places, where they'd been nailed and screwed so much that the wood then split and had to be wired. Most of them swayed LOTS when sitting in them, and sometimes they just gave way. I'm so grateful that these students will have one less distraction in their learning environment, not having to worry if they'll fall out of their chairs during the lesson!

Hopefully this school will become something the community will be proud of, and the parents will send their children to it rather than discourage them from at least getting the 6th grade education offered there. (No click)

In nine days total, we were in Asuncion six of those days. We ALMOST have our residency paperwork turned in, but we've hit a couple of snags. The Immigration Department accepted us under the condition that the two lacking papers are turned in within ten days from this past Tuesday. So we're scrambling to get those done and approved by the appropriate governmental agencies. Both are really becoming difficult, though, so please cover us in prayer. We've already had to pay the $800 to Immigrations (a portion of the total cost), so we'd like for the paperwork to go through.

They want one of our papers to be stamped by the Vice Minister of Culto (Religion, basically), but that office is lacking some other papers that are out of our hands. The nice lady in that office advises me to INSIST that the persons who have this paper bring it in immediatly, but I can only do what I can do. Our document is "in waiting" until then. Did I mention that usually it takes 7 days to process once it's started? So we call and text (and beg and plead).

The second paper is a certificate of studies from the girls' former school, which needs to be a school registered in Paraguay. I guess you know that my girls have NEVER been to school. Mind you, we named our homeschool and have always been above the board legally, but the papers from the United States don't count here. The Minister of Education and Culture needs to have something in writing from a Paraguayan school, and then they'll began processing this document, hopefully within our 10-day deadline. Once it's processed, we can turn it in to Immigrations to satisfy them. I've been contacting private Christian schools because the public school route didn't work, but nothing's turned up yet.

I don't have to tell you that the 2-hour drive into Asuncion I practically know by heart now. Luckily, my man is a masterful driver and can operate the vehicle skillfully whether or not I'm sleeping on the passenger's side. That's usually what happens. Meanwhile, our normal lives are on a sort of stand-still while we work on this legal red tape.

We'd sure appreciate the prayers you'd send up on our behalf. If we can get these two papers processed and turned in, we're set for life. They granted us permanent residency (contingent on those two documents within 10 days), which means we won't have to keep renewing our Visas or come back and reapply, etc. We'd also have some of the benefits that come with "citizenship," the biggest of which I can think of is the ability to join the grocery store frequent-buyer clubs... Haha. :) Hope your week is free of red-tape and you're enjoying your citizenship, wherever it may be! (Check back tomorrow for some updates on what's been happening on the days we ARE home.)

This past weekend was a nationwide prayer marathon. The plan was for the churches in each town come together on behalf of their country, in an event that was to last 24 hours Friday night and all day Saturday. We participated (for a couple hours at a time) in two different gatherings.

In the first, Ken played the congas while our friend Ruben lead praise and worship songs. There was a planned program for each event, with prayers focusing on leaders in government at every level, families, churches, children, the poor, the economy, etc. The organizing group had printed up a year-long devotional, with a prayer focus and scripture reading each day, so that the prayers on behalf of the nation continue for the next 365 days. Both events we attended were very well organized and it was great to see denominations united in this cause.

Today is The Day of the Child (Dia del Niño) in Paraguay. I had no idea it's such a big day, but it's been a bit like Christmas around here. Friday, we were invited to a school celebration, where a few moms cooked a yummy noodle dinner and one of the teachers made a spectacular cake. A lady from town who is unable to have children of her own, came out to deliver toys to each student. What excitement when the boxes were pulled out of their car and the children were told to line up!

Unfortunately, this holiday has a sad origin. August 16 is the day of the Battle of Acosta Ñu, from the 5-year long Triple Alliance War. Paraguay's men were almost all dead, and the Brazilian army was carrying out atrocities against the Paraguayans that remained. The Brazilians had not only burned hospitals and health posts, but also the woods wherein many mothers, children, and elderly had fled. The leader, Mariscal Lopez, called for children to fight, and 3,500 of them from ages six to fifteen fought in this battle against Brazil's 20,000 soldiers. The holiday now honors the bravery and sacrifice of these children who died in the battle. Click for pictures of the school celebration...

Caroline has been having a TIME this past week. She's generally in good health, but she's taken a bout with the stomach virus and now she has a cough that makes her sound like a barking seal. Our neighbors were hanging out tonight when Caroline (who was washing the dishes at the time) got rolling full-swing in a coughing fit. Francisco said his wife, Gladys, had been doing the same and he'd given her a "remedio." To Caroline's delight, he said that she should stop with the dishes and sit down to rest until he returned.

A few minutes later, Fransicso brought in a handful of eucalyptus leaves, which he tossed in a bag and began to crush. He added them to a pot of water, set it to boil, and told Caroline to get a towel. When the leaves began to boil, he coached her in standing over the pot with the towel draped over her head, taking care to leave enough space to prevent burning her face in the steam. He gave her detailed instructions on how she should not go out in the wind after a treatment like this, and how she needed to go straight to bed after all the deep breaths of eucalyptus steam.

When Caroline was saying her prayers, she thanked God that He'd told Francisco what to do for her cough, and that we had good neighbors. Ken and I did, too. :) (don't click...)

The High Point, North Carolina, mission team spent the weekend here, hosting a leadership retreat for Paraguayan pastors, youth leaders, children's workers, etc. What a wonderful time! They shared the Word and encouraged the local leaders. They brought great resources, practical teaching on day-to-day living, and timely advice. They invited the women in attendance to a special meeting, where I expected we'd have a class. To my surprise, they treated everyone to facials, manicures, and little gifts. The women were giggling and chit-chatting with their cold-cream-masked faces. It was just great!

Ken didn't get to attend as much as I did, because Caroline spent all Friday night vomitting and expelling her stomach contents in other less mentionable ways. She slept most of Saturday. Also, there was a death in the church family, so Ken ended up babysitting three extra children for a couple days and a night. It was a good weekend for movies, since it was VERY cold and raining constantly. Thanks to those of you who sent family-friendly DVDs and the decks of UNO cards recently. They were put to good use!

And thank you, High Point (and Georgia and W. Virginia and Miami) for sharing your folks with us for a short time. They were a big blessing to the Paraguayans and to our family.

Yesterday Amber and I accompanied the visiting mission team from (mostly) North Carolina on a day trip. We drove about 45 minutes and turned onto a dirt road, which we followed for about an hour. That was more fun for me as the driver than it was for the poor folks in the back seat and third row seats.

When we arrived in the little town of Quyquyho, we explored a piece of property several members of the team purchased for future ministry use. Then we visited a "soup kitchen" where around 150 children from the community are fed a solid meal each day. How beautiful to see the little smiles and the hot plates of food in front of them. The church who sponsors this project happened to have a team visiting at the time, so we got to know some brothers and sisters from England and Ireland. Neat folks!

The same couple who run the soup kitchen also house about 15 abandoned children in a lovely home, and it was wonderful to see them again and see how God is blessing them. What a joy to see the difference being made in this tiny community at the end of a LONG bumpy road!!

In our day-to-day lives, we have miracles big and small happening all around us. Lots of times I think we miss them along the way. Today's miracle, however, was hard to miss. Ken and Camille left this morning to help the house dad (Osvaldo) from the Children's Home get his truck to the mechanic's shop. This means they towed him behind our SUV for the normally two-hour trip into Asuncion.

Ken said they stopped for gas early in the journey, still here in Carapegua. He noticed then that the tow bar Osvaldo had just had made, was broken in a couple places. They took it to a welding shop to be repaired and then got back on the road. The two trucks traveled at pretty normal road speed (you know Ken) for a couple hours, and then got into the city traffic. Imagine a trillion buses, motorcycles, cars, and trucks, none of them respecting what we'd call "the rules of the road."

When they finally arrived at the mechanic's shop, Ken heard a noise and got out to walk back to Osvaldo and his truck "in tow." It was then he noticed that the noise came from the tow bar, which had broken loose and fallen onto the ground between the two vehicles. If this had happened anywhere along the road, I don't have to tell you that the results could have been disastrous, even deadly. Thank God He has his eye and His hand on us day after day.

Camille and Caroline recently made a video project for a friend back home, to show what they've been doing the last few months. I thought I'd share it with you because--well, because they make a Momma proud. If you're reading this directly off the blog page, I've included it after you click below, so as to not take up too much time loading this page. :) Hope you enjoy it!

Today we went to a "dinner on the ground" fundraiser. Well, that's what we'd call it, anyway. One of our sister churches the next town up sold Sunday dinners today, including pasta, steak and sauce, and sopa paraguaya (cornbread). We enjoyed the meal, seeing the progress in the church construction, and knowing that the people were working toward having a sanctuary sometime in the future. One of the men pulled out his harp and another his guitar, and before we knew it, we were being serenaded with Guarani praise and worship. What a treat!