TrewsNews

Last night we went to a spectular evening of Chinese dance and acrobatics. The National Taiwan College of Physical Education came and the students did some fantastic dances and physical feats - juggling, contorsions, unicycling acrobatics. I didn't bring a camera but here is a picture of the same dancers.

Last Thursday and Friday the school held a Parents Sports tournament. There were footballs and volleyball tournaments with the parents playing for their children's coloured team. Great fun was had bey everyone who took part and money was raised for more repairs on the Cubas school. Also the staff member who was shot is recovering after an operation to remove the bullet from his thigh.

Last night a member of St. Andrew's maintenance staff was shot when riding home on his motorbike. Some teachers and staff members had just been to the Paraguay vs. Columbia World Cup qualifier. Teofolo was on his way home to a town several miles out of Asunción when someone shot him as he passed by. They were attempting to steal his bike. At the moment he is in hospital having an operation to remove the bullet from his thigh. Please pray and thank God that it was not worse and the operation will be simple and without complications.

It's extremely hot here today, the official temperature is 38C. That is recorded at the airport which is outside the city. It's probably nearly 40 where we are. At this time of the year the sun is extremely brilliant too. The tropical summer is approaching.

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The school did not come first or second in the choir competition. The children really enjoyed it however, and felt they did well just to take part in a competition of very high standard. We went in our new car on Saturday morning and ended up driving through foot deep floods! Torrential rain and poor storm drains meant the water was up to the chassis. We survived without breaking down but managed to get a bit lost and a 15 minute journey ended up taking 1 hour!

SAMS Ireland have a new website and logo. Please have a look

Tonight there is a national schools' choir competition in Asunción and Eileen is conducting a primary choir from our school. Last year when they entered the same competition they came third. Eileen had a bit of a surprise when she turned up at the large Concordia church to find a thousand people and a grand piano on the stage! At least she knows what to expect this year.

The end of the school year here seems to start in September. Three months before the actual end of the year. It begins with Sports Days. It was Hannah's last week, Elijah has his on Friday. Yesterday it was Secondary's turn in the school sports grounds 20 miles outside the city centre. It was a beautiful sunny day and a perfect day for sports. Also starting this week are the IGCSE Exam practicals. Both international and Paraguayan exams continue until the end of November. It's a very long exam period. Eileen is practising with some primary children for a choir competition in a couple of weeks and gearing up for Christmas performances too. Then she has end of year reports to being to write. She has also been involved in a Purpose Driven Life group that the school is going to provide for parents soon. Last week our school also helped to repair and paint a local state school. Many of the young people and children went down dressed in old clothes and got stuck in pa...

Last week our school also helped to repair and paint a local state school. Many of the young people and children went down dressed in old clothes and got stuck in painting the Cubas School. It was one of the most dilapidated school buildings you would ever see. After a day's painting by everyone it was restored and the principal said it was better than new. They had a thanks giving service yesterday. Here are some photos Before painting After painting Elijah helping with painting

The good news is Eileen's mum is now out of hospital. After a week the doctors finally managed to sort the problem out. This week saw exams in secondary and the run up to the end of the year in school beginning. I've spent days marking exams and Eileen has started initial preparations for her Christmas plays. It's sports days soon with Hannah's tomorrow - always an excellent event when it's 4 years olds enjoying their races. We also booked our flights home for Christmas and New Year. We'll be visiting SAMS link churches and going to the SAMS Ireland conference which we are very much looking forward to having the opportunity to attend this year.

Eileen's mum was rushed by ambulance to hospital yesterday with massive internal bleeding. She was stabilized and has several blood transfusions. The doctors will investigate the cause of the bleeding after the weekend. Needless to say it was a bit of a shock to get this news, so please pray for Eileen's mum (also called Eileen) and the rest of the family.

Family photo Originally uploaded by stephentrew . Here is a photo of us outside church in August 2005.

Paraguay has some dramatic changes in weather during winter. Last Friday it was 38 Celsius, it dropped to 24 on Saturday and 14 degrees on Monday. This morning there was frost and it was 4 degrees. We have two jumpers and a fleece on and it still feels cold. Last Friday we wore shorts and T-Shirt. Some more visitors from Northern Ireland arrived last Friday (and commented how hot it was!). They are now freezing in Conception with our SAMS Ireland colleagues, Claire and Alison. Among the visitors is Hannah Collins. She is a great friend who worked with Eileen in preschool for a year. She returned to Ireland in February 2004 when her dad was diagnosed with terminal cancer. This is her first time back in Paraguay since then. She went up with the team to Conception on Friday and is coming to stay with us later tonight. It will be great to catch up. Secondary exams started yesterday so there is a large pile of maths papers I need to mark.

We're in the middle of two weeks winter holiday. Long overdue as the last term in school was 15 weeks without a break! Despite the holiday last week was one of 7am rises - because the landlord is repairing the leaky roof. Our prayers are answered. Hopefully our trouble with housing is over. Also this week we have a team visiting from a link church - Knockbreda Parish in Belfast. Eighteen months ago when we visited them we told them of opportunities to visit Pararguay and work with the church here. So they decided to send a team out. They are restoring a church building on the outskirts of the city and have come to see where we work. They came to church today and helped take the service. It's really great to have people from home to spend time with. We're hoping to get out to them this week and see what they have been up to. Here are some photos. Building work at an Anglican church in Zeballous Cue   The children's club Children's club.

Today during assembly we challenged the students to 'Choose today who you will serve' Josh 24:15. We asked them to decide to commit themselves to follow Christ and for it to make a difference to their lives in school. We asked those who wanted to commit more to Christ to come and pray in the school patio at 1:30 during lunch time. Thirty students from several classes came along and we all prayed for each other and for the school. They want to keep praying every Friday for the school and teachers. This was an amazingly encouraging and exciting development! Some of the other teachers said we may be breaking new ground.

Good news today, I do not have skin cancer after all. Dr. Mihm, the skin cancer specialist spent Saturday with Dr Bachetta and they examined the biopsy. It turns out to be a minor skin condition that affects 1 person in a 100. The surgeon wants to remove a slightly larger area of skin and that should be it dealt with.

Today in church we had three families leave. They are moving on to other parts of the world with their jobs. It was a time to reflect and for them to share how their lives had changed over the two years they had been with us. It was amazing actually. Jeff and Maria are moving onto Switzerland. Jeff shared how he had really come to a serious commitment to Christ. He had done an Alpha course last year and it really spurred him onto to reading his Bible daily and taking his faith seriously. They are looking for an Anglican church in Zurich now. Jeff and Maria Christine is moving back to London. She said how she had initially come simply for social contract with English speakers. Now she is leaving with a real sense of commitment and has made contact with a Christian group in her new job and wants to do an Alpha course pretty soon. It was all very encouraging. What have we learnt through this? Being a friend is the most important thing in sharing you faith. Being natural and all...

This evening was the St. Andrew's College Asuncion prize giving for international exams. Our school is the only one in Paraguay that offers international GCSE and AS level exams from the Cambridge University International Exam Board. So it was quite an occasion for the students who were obtaining their certificates. Christine Winterbun, the Charge d' Affairs from the British Embassy, was the guest of honour. It was her last official engagement for the embassy which is now sold. There will be no more British diplomats here after she leaves next Monday. The highlight of the night were two ex-students who returned from studying in the UK and USA. I taught computer Studies to Guillermo in 2001. He's now a majoring in Computer Animation at a university in Florida. They said how much they valued the international education they got in St. Andrew's and how helpful it was to them in their studies. It was nice to hear students appreciate what we do. St. Andrew's ex-s...

On Monday evening we went to the last official embassy event in Asunción.  The British government announced last year the embassy would close to save money.  It was in the Ambassador's residence that has a big for sale sign outside and furniture borrowed for the evening.  The house is normally empty as the ambassador moved on in April and all the furniture is gone.  It was an opportunity to meet the Honorary Consul and our new Diplomatic representatives from Buenos Aires, who now have charge over Asunción. It was actually a very nice evening, the food was excellent.  It's a shame the embassy will no longer be here to pay for the occasional buffet dinner.