TrewsNews

Sweden 1 -0 Paraguay.  We are out of the world cup.   Very subdued atmosphere here, everyone hoped they would do better. 

Our latest prayer letter has just been put online. We appreciate your prayers for our work in Asuncion. Please print it out and stick it on your prayer fridge. You can click on image below to download it in PDF format.

The Paraguay v England match on Saturday saw everyone glued to their televisions. The Paraguayans were dissapointed they did not at least draw with England as they played well in the second half. The English were dissapointed they did not play better. On Friday we took a photo and sent it to the BBC World Cup website. They published it : BBC SPORT | Football | World Cup 2006 | Your World Cup photos - 10 June

At this moment the students are all in the assembly hall watching the start of of the World Cup 2006. Excitement is building here as tomorrow sees the England vs Paraguay match. Paraguayans are totally mad about football - the shopping centres will be packed with people watching it on the big screen. The BBC are in town and a number of English friends will likely be on Match of the Day tonight, they like to film the ex-pats abroad. I'll post some photos when I get a chance.

It was the funeral of Esmerelda today. First we went to the Memorial Funeral Home where her coffin had been since yesterday. Funerals here are the day after the death and many of her family and friends had not gone home at all. Then we followed the hearse on a 45 minute journey out of Asuncion to a large modern cemetery. Many of the families and students from our school where there along with students from another school she'd taught in. It was quite an emotional funeral, many of her family were in floods of tears and crying out or wailing. Being buried the next day the grief is short lived, but intense. They reckon she died of a pulmonary embolism - she'd had a broken foot and a blood clot caused a heart attack. It was totally unexpected. She was a faithful Christian and not married, so we all take comfort that she is now in heaven. The photo of her was taken at the Franklin Graham Children's festival 2005 at which she was a dancer.

When we arrived at school today we heard one of our teachers had died of a heart attack. Prof Esmerelda taught home economics, she was 37.

Here is a little video of the students' trip.

Here are some photos of the Chaco trip. This trip of final year students followed one of 1st year students (5th form) earlier in the week. They started digging the water storage well beside the church in Santa Fe community, the guys in our team carried on the digging to about 2 metres. The ground was very hard and digging was pretty hard work. We broke a pick axe and a shovel trying to remove the earth. Some of the local community will finish the digging to 3 metres and then line the inside walls with bricks. Guttering will direct rainwater from the church roof into the well. This water provides a clean source of water for the dry season - it will not evaporate and being covered reduces the risk from the Dengue mosquito that breads in open water. The girls painted the classrooms of the local school and it provides a really bright and stimulating environment for the children. The community was very appreciative of the help and it is good to think that the work the students did wi...

The school trip to the Chaco sets off early tomorrow morning. On this camp we are going to dig a well to store water during the dry season. This evening it's a trip to the supermarket to buy some toilet roll, mossie repellent, and batteries. There are lots if mossies, spiders and snakes at the minute! It's also a chance to encourage the young people to make real commitments to Christ, so please pray for us.

Yesterday was Labour Day, a day off, so we had a fun day at home filled with painting, dressing up, lego building, Horrid Henry books, Angelina Ballerina books, microwave popcorn (sen't from home!) and the new Wallace and Gromit movie! (cost: £9.50 in Asuncion). Elijah spent the day scared to go up the stairs in case the were-rabbit was there! Today was back to normal school with Stephen starting to prepare for a school trip to the Chaco next week. The weather has turned cold so the duvets and jumpers are bact out in force.

Last July a team from Ireland came out to visit us and start work on a church extension at Zeballous Cue, an Anglican Parish on the outskirts of Asuncion. It was a community that suffered much in the Supermarket fire disaster in 2004. The extension was recently finished. The team were delighted to see the finished results of the work they helped to start.

We started back to school after a week's holiday. We had a very relaxing week that included a fishing trip where we actually caught one. Easter Sunday was good. The highlight was the kid’s illustration. We have a hollow stone that kind of looks like a tomb and it was used as a display at the front of church. Using a Playmoboil figure as Jesus we rolled toilet paper around it to represent the burial clothes. Just before placing Jesus wrapped body in the tomb I slipped the figure out. Hannah, being one of the women, came forward first to look in the tomb. She looks in, then turns and announces totally spontaneously, "He is not here, he is alive!". The boys came up next to examine the wrapped body. When they did not see the Playmobil figure they said in genuine surprise, "He's not here! Did you take him, did you do magic?” We think they understood the point. Afterwards we saw many of the street kids the Spanish speaking church is ministering to. Our church bought a ...

This morning Eileen went to the Toy Library run by the Teacher Training Faculty attached to St. Andrew's school. They bring loads of craft, toys, games, and dressing up clothes to the church hall and children from the nearby shanty town communities come along to play and simply have fun. These children literally have nothing - they are othen dressed almost in rags and normally play with rubbish. So to give them a chance to play with educationally stimuluting toys is really worth giving up a Saturday morning for. Some of the same children are coming along to the Spanish speaking congregation on Sundays. They are given breakfast and go to the Sunday School. If they want they can have a change of clothes and their filthy clothes are washed. It is such a great work the Faculty and church are doing for these kids. Really the kind of service Jesus would do.

Today was a half day in school - the Easter holidays start. We have all of Holy Week off. We finished with an Easter Service where each year in primary did a reading or drama. It was a great service - Patrick gave talk on how the disciples saw what, for them, was a tragedy on Good Friday turned into a victory on Easter Sunday. This is something God can do for each of us when we allow the Cross to bring a change in each of our lives. Next week we are just taking it easy and getting some little jobs done around the house or head out of the city for a picnic.

In school this week there is a poster campaign to educate everyone on the dangers of Dengue - a disease carried by mosquitoes. The students have drawn posters and put them up around the patio. The disease causes a severe fever and terrible aches and pains. In rare cases it can cause cerebral haemorrhage! We have the mosquito repellent out and mossie killer is at the ready. You can pray that none of us catch it!

We are planning a trip to the Chaco in May to dig a water storage well - an aljebe. A well is dug near a building and guttering funnels rain water off the roof into the well. It is stored in the well for the dry season. There have been severe droughts in the last couple of years and Aljebe's provide a constant supply of water in difficult times. The final years students will start digging and it will be finished off by Indian workmen. I shall be going with them to document the progress and challenge the students about their Christian commitment, so start praying now.

The other day I was taking Elijah to the opticians when it started to rain. The roads again flooded and we ended up driving through floods about 20-30cm deep. We almost gave up as we have heard of people literally getting washed away in these kind of rains.

Last Friday it was my turn to take assembly in secondary. I asked the students if they were ready to take a step and make a 100% commitment to Christ. Many of the students here come from very religious homes, most of them Roman Catholic. Lots are Christians to a certain degree, but most still lack that real total commitment. My real prayer for this year is that some students might decide to take that step to 100%, and then to stand up and testify about it. Keep praying for that.

Eileen and Hannah joined her team of helpers from preprimary to paint a shelter for sexually abused girls. Hannah just loved getting stuck in with the pink paint. The girls did a fantastic job brightening up a home that provides such a worthy service.

We just drove home in the worst tropical rainstorm we have ever seen. The water was two feet deep in places and was raging down the road like rapids. Cars everywhere had their hazards lights on and were stuck in the middle of traffic. Our wee car rapidly filled up with prayer as we surfed home. The wipers struggled to let us see the four wheel drives ploughing water on top of us. We made it home safely and came into the house to find what is in the attached photo - yes a scorpion. Eileen and the kids rapidly jumped onto the sofa while I gave it the business with my trusty DM. Quite a night...