Mike and Trisha Goddard Mobilizing local churches in Paraguay 
We praise the Lord for each of you who are a part of our ministry here in Paraguay, South America.
Posts Tagged ‘missions’
Praise and Prayer Requests (November 2009)
Friday, October 30th, 2009Goddard Grapevine – October 2009
Friday, October 30th, 2009
Goddard Family Update
Tuesday, September 29th, 2009
Mike and Trisha praise the Lord for His faithfulness during their first 5 years of ministry together in Paraguay. Truly He is worthy to be served!
Mike has been very busy lately do to the Paraguayan church’s steady advance in the Great Commission. In the next 4 months, he has scheduled over 20 different church meetings, events, teaching seminars, and camps, where he enjoys challenging people to look beyond their borders to a world full of tribal people who have not yet heard even once the Good News of salvation in Christ Jesus.
Trisha loves taking care of her home and family, enjoys preparing a meal for any guest that stop by unannounced. She helps Mike by doing secretarial work and running errands downtown. Next year, she plans to home school Michael and Lea (starting in February 2010), so that they can travel more with Mike as well as be prepared for later in the year, when we will be in the USA for a few months to visit our support team and family during a Home Assignment.
Michael Dean loves people and recently asked: “When do I get to go visit my Ache tribal friends again? Because when I go back, they will know who I am and they will say, “Hola Michael!” For Michael, school isn’t easy, especially when he and Lea are trying to keep 4 languages straight. AMARILLO CAMPEÓN! The soccer tournament has begun at Michael and Lea’s school. They are on the yellow team, and Michael gets really excited when he makes a goal!
Lea is an A+ student, and she can’t get enough of languages. She is our grammar and pronunciation cop and helps Mom and Michael to conjugate their Spanish verbs correctly. She loves going to the park on the weekends, and then afterwards, she begs daddy to stop by the local ice cream parlor to buy a ½ kilo of 3 different flavors for $2.40. The dulce de leche (caramel) flavor is her favorite.
Kaleb is believed to be the cutest, little boy by all the Paraguayan ladies, and they try everything possible to get him to give kisses on both cheeks (a traditional greeting). Often he will accept a bribe of candy for the kisses. Kaleb enjoys riding his scooter and once he got it down, there was no stopping him from trying to go faster than his big brother and sister.
As our children grow older, we see each of them grasping truths from God’s Word and desiring to apply them to their lives. Michael loves to read the Bible during our story-time before bed. We are now on the life of King David.
Seeing Tribal Missions from a Different Perspective
Friday, May 29th, 2009
Filled with curiosity, I swung the door to the auditorium part way open so I could hear the fluent Spanish of the Chamacoco tribal leader.
I had been standing outside watching our three children as church nurseries are nearly unheard of in Paraguay. First, he shared about his family that lives far away in a small village alongside the Paraguay river and then described how God is drawing the indigenous churches together. They are setting aside their cultural differences so that other tribal groups in Paraguay and in the Amazon Basin can also learn of their Creator God and to come into a relationship with Him.
What happened next I had never experienced before in Paraguay. My husband, Mike, had been invited to share in that morning and evening in this church, and he gave the Chamacoco tribal leader 10 minutes of the meeting to share about his ministry. Mike went on to explain that to the congregation that the Chamacoco man had not seen his wife and family for a number of weeks and due to the nature of his work and ministry, he was dependent upon churches for support.
Immediately, the Pastor of the church stood up and put a basket out for those in the congregation who wanted to help the Chamacoco man with his travel expenses. As the first person got up to go put in some small change, many others followed. When I saw this, tears poured down my face, as I observed a local Paraguayan church sacrificially giving so that this tribal man could once again see his family!
God provides for each of us in many different ways, and I praise the Lord that through our ministry, Mike and I can have an impact in Paraguayan churches so that they too will be proactive in seeing tribal people reached with the Gospel!
