Our new home in the Chaco.

 It seems hard to believe that it has been 2 months since we left Pennsylvania to come to our new home in Paraguay.  We have been enjoying our first weeks in the country. Find out more below.

Our first month was spent in the capital of Asuncion, participating in an intensive orientation program, where were welcomed very warmly by our Paraguayan host church and host family, as they helped us begin to understand the culture and way of life in Paraguay.  Even though it was only a short time of orientation, we felt that we got to know quite a bit of the history, culture, and lifestyle of Paraguay, and got to make fast friends with some of the people from our host church.  While Paraguay and Venezuela share the same language (sort of , it is amazing how different some things can be between the two countries.
We arrived to our new home in Paraguay about a month ago.  Once again we were warmly welcomed by our new teammates, who helped us paint and clean, prepared meals for us, and just blessed us in a myriad of ways. The house needed a lot of work to be made livable, but we are grateful to God for providing it for us to rent this next year, as it will meet our personal and ministry needs nicely.   It sure feels good to be in our own place after having lived in borrowed housing since March 5 when we left WA state to begin our travels east.  Thanks so much to all of you who prayed for us, and gave financially, in order to make it possible for us to get to Paraguay and set up a house from scratch.  It is amazing to see how God has provided for all of our needs, even in ways we didn’t ask or imagine.  Seems to me I read a promise from God about that somewhere . 

Thanks for praying for the new school year coming up.  Teacher inservice meetings at the school have already started, and Brad starts teaching classes on August 24.    We are excited to see what God has in store for us this coming year!

Thanks too for praying about our decsion about where to serve God next.  At this time, we feel God is leading us to continue our ministry to MK’s and their parents in Paraguay, South America.  You can also read all those details in our latest news update on this site, or in our upcoming newsletter.  If you don’t get our newsletter, feel free to subscribe under the "Subscribe" tab.

Born August 31st, 2008

8 lb. 15 oz.

21 inches long

Samuel Collin was named after his paternal great grandfather, Connie Collins Cain, whose godly influence profoundly impacted Brad’s life. Grandpa Connie has a wonderful sense of humor, always has time for people and is very bold in sharing his faith. We would be proud if our little guy followed in his great grandpa’s footsteps.

Thank you so much to those of you who have been praying for us as we have seen our lives change dramatically these past several months. It seems hard to believe that just back in May we were living in Venezuela. Now we are experiencing a completely different type of life in eastern Washington state where we have settled for the first part of our home assignment. We are bracing ourselves for a cold, northwestern winter, unlike the 95 degree Christmas times we have experienced in Venezuela. But we have really enjoyed being able to be close to Shilo’s family during this time, especially for the birth of our second son, Samuel. We have seen God bless us in many ways in providing affordable housing, a vehicle, and the company of family and friends. God has also provided the unexpected opportunity for Brad to teach in a local Christian school for part of the year. We are trusting that God will use his time there to encourage some of the students to consider missions as a viable and much needed career/ministry path.

Many of you have been praying with us as we have sought the Lord’s direction as to where He would have us serve Him next since we had to leave Venezuela. Thanks so much for your prayers. We are happy to report that at this time we feel God is leading us to pursue Paraguay as our next field of service. The NTM field of Paraguay is looking to open up 8 new tribal works in the coming years, and is trusting God to provide the necessary church planting missionaries to meet that goal. With such a potential influx of new missionaries, New Tribes Mission in Paraguay has recently started a new school for MK’s called Chaco Christian Academy. The school is only in its second year, and has a critical need for more teachers in order to meet the educational needs of all the MK’s on the field. So we feel privileged to have a part both in meeting this need, and in facilitating these 8 new tribal church plants through the educational ministry of the school.