 |
| Don & Julie Flower |
We arrived in Paraguay for the first time January 1974 with our one year old daughter. Since then we added three more children and have moved 5 times, worked with 3 different tribal groups, taught literacy, served in the clinic giving out medicine to those in need, made supply trips by tractor and truck, over seen work project & taught Firm Foundational Bible lessons and served in anyway to see the Gospel message preached to those who have never heard.
New Tribes Mission began a work with the Pai people at a place the Pai people call the middle of the earth. After 10 months of language study, November of 1974, we flew out to the mission compound to join the team already there.
Our first month was quite an introduction to living out in the jungle. Our first house had a roof made of grass & board walls with a wood burning stove & oven. While the men took an 8 hour trip to town to pick up our belongings I decided to invite my new co-worker over for lunch. So while I was cooking lunch and the oven was hot I also mixed up home made bread and baked it. I was setting the table and had taken the bread out of the oven when a Pai boy outside the window said to me, --Okai la oga! I thought, "Okai la oga!" what does that mean? Then it came to me, ‘The house is burning!’ He was pointing to the roof & sure enough a little flame could be seen in the grass roof. Well the short version is that we were able to remove most every thing from the house before it burned but because of a strong gusty wind it also caught an outhouse on fire which jumped to another outhouse to a small storage building to the clinic. They all burned to the ground. So when the men returned form town there was just hot coals where a house had been.
Then a week later a strong storm blew through, blowing down15 tress all around the houses & then because of all the rain that came with the storm the river flooded. The flooding river carried trees down river & knocked out the bridge. And yes, we lived on the other side of the river so we were cut off from town. A new bridge was build from logs & two rows of planks nailed down to drive across on with the river showing between the planks which the truck tires drove on.
After that things did calm down & we began culture and language of the Pai people. As we got to know the culture and the Pai People I began to think "Who could love such deceitful people." They lie to us even when it would seem simpler to just tell the truth. When I would see them coming I would wonder "What are they going to con me out of this time?" They looked up to someone who could cheat & lie his way into getting something for nothing. Or a person who could steal & not get caught is thought to be very successful.
I often wondered when they would hear the Gospel message who they would admire most, Jesus or Judas? Judas benefited from deceiving Jesus as he gained 30 pieces of silver. The Pai People’s hearts have been closed & eyes darkened for years with no interest in change. The old people said it depends on us to keep our old ways to preserve the forest and to ensure through our prayers that the crops will grow. We can not leave our ways.
 That has all changed now and we have many brothers and sisters in Christ from the Pai nation. |
Indonesia
(July 2, 2009)
While learning to laugh at their language bloopers, missionaries Nathan an LaNada Tag are building good relationships among their Indonesian neighbors. Please pray that the couple will make good progress learning the culture and language of Indonesia. Find out more --
read
the story >> Badyaranke tribe, Senegal
(July 2, 2009)
Ten Badyarankes were recently honored for learning to read their own language. Others have expressed interest in taking the literacy course. Please pray that the ability to read will enable them to gain more understanding of God's Word. Find out more --
read
the story >> |
GET INVOLVED
_img.jpg)
_img.jpg)