Paraguay Visit Wrap Up From Jason

Check out his blog to see pictures and read about their adventures:
http://adventuresinorthodoxy.blogspot.com/2008/07/visit-wrapped-up.html

Paraguay Update #6

Hello Everyone,I hope this email finds you well. Today is our last full day in Paraguay and it is a beautiful day full of many of God´s blessings. This morning we were able to finish the projects we started and clean up by 10am. Jason took the group souvenior shopping and I stayed back to rest my ankle for this afternoon. I decided this morning to take off my temporary cast and look at my ankle, ice it and wrap it in a new bandage. I also decided to abandon the crutches. Praise the Lord I am able to walk. Just to send this email i have to walk two blocks and it is so nice not to have to use crutches to get here. I am confident God will continue the healing process and protect me from further injury while here. Thanks for your prayers. I was thinking last night and hoping that in my last email i was clear enough not to cause any unneeded concern regarding my situation with my ankle. i only included the details of fainting and hospital visits because I wanted your prayers and to share my experience, but i want to assure you all that i am in good health and doing very well here. I especially want to write this to my Mom who is a wonderful mother and I know is concerned for me anyway. I love you mom and dad. Thanks for your support in all my endeavors.I can´t believe this trip is almost over. But before it ends we have one more amazing adventure in going to the slums. Again I ask your prayers for that as we will be heading out there shortly after lunch (the time is the same here as it back in Ohio). So please be praying over the next couple of hours for some amazing ministry opportunities. 1st we want to be a blessing to the church and families we will be visiting today. We are installing fans and some curtains and visiting people. Hopefully we will have an opportunity to share the glorious Gospel of our Lord. 2nd that the hearts of this team will be stretched in a way that will open our eyes to our Lord in a fuller and clearer sense as we see poverty and pain in a new way. Our God is a God who is with us where ever we go (Ps 23) and I know He has gone before us and planned our steps (Eph2:10). Again I am remined of Isaiah 55 and God´s desire that all nations will hear His Gospel and that His Word will not return void, but will go out in power. Thanks for your prayers.

In His Grip, Brad Horner

Paraguay Update #5

Greetings in the Name of our Lord!
What an amazing time we have had thus far in Paraguay! i realized that i have neglected to mention some of the very basics of our trip and Paraguay! It is a beautiful country here and the weather has been fantastic. Probably in the mid 70s during the day and dropping to upper 50s each night. We havent had any rain and have been able to get much work done. God has truly blessed us as this is the winter time and apparently it is supposed to be freezing cold and rainy here. Due to the winter months, the bugs are almost unnoticeable which is a huge blessing. The land is very plentiful and there are fruit trees in abundance. You can walk down the street and pick oranges, lemons and other fruits as much as you want for free. It is truly an amazing country. The people here are very hospitable and friendly. I wish I paid better attention in my Spanish classes because it would be nice to be able to carry on a conversation with the people.

Last night I was at the church alone with Simon, a young man from Argentina who only speaks Spanish. We had a fun time trying to communicate through an English-Spanish dictionary, but just had to laugh at how silly things sounded. We at least could communicate genuine friendship and hope to be able to continue to communicate in the future.

Work is going great as we have almost finished up our projects. Tomorrow we are heading down into the slums of Asuncion. They are built along the river here and are known for getting flooded during the rainy season. Because of this the church we will be working with in the slums is nicked named the Spanish word for ¨Bath¨. We will be installing fans in the church and visiting some of the homes. Please be in prayer for our team. There is a totally different dynamic in this team then the one that went to Africa! Some of us on this team have yet had to truly depend on God for things in our life and really need to have Jesus break into the depths of our hearts. There is some attitudes and tensions that I did not anticipate but am excited to see how God transforms them. Tomorrow afternoon will be a proving time and a time of testing as most going have never seen true poverty in their life and may never experience this again. I remember my first trip to the Mathare slums only 6 or 7 weeks ago. I had a hard time keeping my composure while i was there and was on the verge of crying for several days after seeing the results and desperation that sin causes. It can still be hard to remember some of the things we saw in Africa, but I am excited because it transformed my life and i know what it can do for our team. Truly you are put in a place where you must trust God and the words of Romans 12:1-2 shine bright. "I beseach you therefore brothers by the mercies of God to present your self as a living sacrifice to God, holy and acceptible to Him which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God."

Well before I end i need to update you on an experience i have had. Yesterday i decided to wrestle with one of the guys on our coffee break and lost my balance as he fell on me. In doing so i severly twisted my ankle (i think it is a high ankle sprain). After the initial pain i was sitting in a chair getting my foot wrapped when for some reason I fainted. Because of fainting we decided to call the ambulance and i went to a Paraguayian hospital. I was concerned because my insurance isn´t international. After the ambulance ride we arrived at a hospital where I got preferental treatement because I am an American (this meant that I got a wheel chair haha). i did feel bad because there were so many people there that where in worse shape then me and i was getting treated better. After my Xrays they determined that nothing was broken but still prescribed a temporary cast, which i had to have Jason go purchase at the pharamcy across the rode and bring back so they could put in on me. After they cleared me an we left the hospital we had to take a cab to go get crutches from a different pharmacy, that was closed and then to another before returning to the church. All of which I had to pay for. The total cost ran me aroun 380,000 Guranne (Paraguayian money) which converts to around $100. That means an ambulance ride, emergancy room visit, xray, cast, taxi and crutches cost me less then $100 dollars without insurance. Wow.

Well to try to conclude this, i feel fine and my foot is progressing quickly. I really only bought the crutches because Jason said the church could really use a pair and this was a good excuse to get one. I believe I should be walking fine even by the time I leave here. I think God just wanted to teach me humility, to slow down and to provide crutches for the church. He always has a plan and I want to thank Him for His protection throughout our time here.

Please be in prayer for:
Tomorrows trip to the slums
for my foot to feel better
for sickness amongst the team members
And that our flights friday and saturday will be on time and no problems reaching home.

Thanks for reading all this and for praying for us.
In His service,

Brad Horner

Paraguay Update #4

Greetings Everyone,
I hope this email finds you well on this beautiful Sunday afternoon.

Friday Night was a wonderful evening and I appreciate your prayers for our team. As many of you remember I mentioned that I would be speaking to the teens who were at the church to play sports. I was really nervous as i knew I would have to have Jason interpret for me and I am not very good at that. Well we prayed all day and I was able to give a short Gospel Presentation and it turned out really good. God helped me stop at the right times to give Jason enough time to interpret and it went really well. I took a little from what we taught in Africa and a little Dare 2 Share and combined it for a great lesson. Emphasis was on God created us in His image so we have value and purpose. God wants us to be with Him but we have a problem with Sin (missing the mark) and cannot pay for our own debt. God loved us so much that He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to die on the cross, be buried and rise again from the dead to conquer sin and pay our penalty! I am thankful for the opportunity.

Yesterday we headed out for a day of tourism and went to the Iguazu Falls, which makes Niagra Falls look small, about 6 hours away. We left at midnight and tried to sleep on the drive down. It was a tough ride for sleeping, but we made it safely and had a wonderful time at the falls. I can´t wait for you to see pictures. The falls were formed from a lava flow and are just amazing. I think my favorite part was walking out on a catwalk that puts you right in front of the falls where you can feel the mist and hear the powerful sound of it all. I had to stand there amazed at the mighty awesomeness of the Creator of the Falls and praise Him for His beautiful creation. As Matt Vargo said when thinking about the splendor of these falls, ¨how amazing is it that God cares more for us then for these falls!¨ it was truly a magnificent sight.

We left the falls and had a wonderful lunch at a Brazilian Bar-b-q, similar to the one we went to in Africa. After lunch we headed to Iapatu Dam which was the largest Hydro-electric dam in the world until China just built one. It was pretty cool to see.

We had church service this morning and had a wonderful time of worship here. I was invited to preach about five minutes before service and regretfully declined. I don´t like preaching with no preparation and i didn´t want to do disservice to a text, but after I sat down I kept on thinking of things I could have preached about. It was awkward situation, but I am grateful for the verses that were preached to us by Oscar. The service was in Spanish so we followed along in our Bibles, but couldn´t really understand much. But the scriptures were powerful and it was neat to experience the church service.

This evening we are going to relax and play sports at the church. Tomorrow we will be back at work and hopefully can make a lot of progress on the room.

I wanted to let you know that our church has a blog about our trip and if you would like to keep updated or if I missed an email to you you can catch up at http://vesperlakemissions.blogspot.com/

Thanks for all your prayers. God bless, Brad Horner

Paraguay Update #3

Greetings in the Name of our Lord!I am pleased to write telling you how things are going so well on our trip. We arrived on Tuesday and had a pretty relaxed day as we waited for our luggage to arrive. We checked out the town center of Asuncion and went through a museum. We saw from a distance the really poor section of Asuncion that some what resembles the slums of Africa, and we will be visiting them next Wednesday.Tuesday evening we returned to find that our luggage was here except Steve Keiper´s. What a trooper, he still isn´t complaining and is working very hard. We are all trying to share our luggage with him as much as we can. Please pray that it finds its way to us soon. We have had two days of work so far and we have accomplished a lot. Its fun to see how the Paraguians work and to make friends with them even though we don´t speak the same language. We are tileing two rooms and they are almost done. I am surprised at how fast things are moving, but am so thankful because we missed two days trapped in the airport. Some of our team even repainted the soccer field, which is about the same size of a basketball court and is concrete. Tonight there is sports night and about 70 teenagers will be showing up. They asked me to give a devotional that will last around 10 min. Please pray for this time as there are many neighborhood kids that do not know the Lord. The typical message is God wants you to be good and is supposed to be motivational. I am feeling led to share the Gospel tonight, but have to speak through and interpreter, which is very hard to do. Thanks for your prayers.Today Jason read to our team 1 Cor 13 and reminded us that everything we do needs to be centered first out of love for God and then for each other. As I read Acts 10 yesterday i was encouraged by Peter´s words as he recognized that God is not a respecter of persons, he doesn´t show favorites but calls all men to Himself. I am thrilled to be with brothers and sisters in Christ who live here. Even though we don´t speake the same language, we love the same Lord and that brings us closer than any language could. We are able to comunicate with them and are picking up a little Spanish along the way.Well my sesta is almost over. I hope this email finds you all doing well.

God bless, Brad Horner

Paraguay Trip Update 2

Hey Everybody, I am glad to report to you that we have finally made it to Paraguay. We made it into the airport about 9pm tonight safely, Praise the Lord! Lest we celebrate too soon and become to confident in ourselves, we were yet reminded of our frail nature as our luggage is a day behind us. It has been fun trying to keep all of our attitudes in check, and yet I am very proud of our team. The complaining is at a minimum and the excitement to begin our work here is great. We are thrilled to be here in Paraguay. We are thankful for friends and family back home praying for us. We arrived here and headed back to the houses were we are staying and were abled to get a shower after 36 hours of traveling. A little Paraguaian food in our bellies and are about to get some rest. We are reminded that ¨man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds from the mouth of God!¨ suppose if it wasn´t for the the verses in Daniel 2 that remind us that God ¨sets up kings and kingdoms and changes the times and the seasons¨ i might have gotten frustrated. But God reminded us that He is in control of all things, even our luggage. When we were worried about the little things, we were remided of Pastor Steve´s sermon that said ¨worrying is a mild form of atheism¨ and all we need to do is ¨cast our cares upon Christ because He cares for you¨. The lessons I learned in Africa and was reminded of several times since, when God has big plans for you and you are obedient to His call, the enemy attacks in many ways. I know that the travel delays were a spiritual attack (for we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but agains spiritual powers in high places). We anticipate great things as we know our God is faithful to us. Phil 1:6 ¨being confident of this very thing, that He which has begun a good work in you will perform it unto the day of Jesus Christ.¨

In His Service, Brad Horner

Paraguay Trip Update 1

Greetings from Argentina, yes I said Argentina and not Paraguay. It is currently day 3 of our trip and we have yet to fly into Paraguay. Instead we have become real accustome to airport living, sleeping on floors and benchs, washing in sinks, walking back and forth to get info. Wow what a time. Its always good to remember that with missions or ministry you must always keep a flexible attitude. Sunday night our flight got delayed from Clev to Atlanta because of ¨Bertha¨ the storm that blew through. B/c of the delay we missed our transfer flight to Buenas Aeres, Argentina, which only goes out once a day at 8:45pm. So we had a night in the ATL airport and a day walking around ATL. Once we finally got on our plane in ATL our flight sat on the tarmack for just over an hour. This delay caused our landing in Argentina to be late and therefore we missed our transfer flight this morning to Paraguay. So we are getting bumped around a bit, but we take comfort in the thought that with much distractions from the enemey we recognize a mighty work of God is about to happen! ¨Yeah, if God before us who can be against us!¨We are scheduled to leave Argentina at 8:10 tonight and Lord willing that will happen. This puts us in Asuncion at about 9:30pm almost 36 hours past our original schedule.I always find it interesting to see how God works and how much you can learn about your team in stressful times. Please pray that God will unite our team and that we will have good, flexible and God honoring attitudes for the remainedor of our trip. I am pleased to say that very little complaining has taken place even though we are all tired, cranky, in desperate need of a shower and a good nights sleep. Even as I have been reading in Phillipians about Joy in all circumstances I was challenged by my quiet time to keep the mind of Christ and the attitude Paul had when he penned:¨Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith: That I may KNOW him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death¨Thanks for your prayers!

In His Service, Brad Horner

Paraguay Missions Trip: Stuck in Atlanta

Crew Update: The work team is stuck in a Atlanta, Georgia for a day until the passing of Hurricane Bertha. I guess it´s better than being stuck in the Atlantic. God´s surely answering our prayers for their safety, though, just maybe not in ways we expected.

Update from Jason S's Blog: http://adventuresinorthodoxy.blogspot.com/