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Paraguay Missions Newsletter
The Miller Family / /
nn !! / !!
Happy THANKSGIVING!!!
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OCT-NOV 2016
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JUNE 2016

I give thanks to the Lord for many things. My favorite saying is “I am God’s favorite”. Now before you want to give me a lecture on my theology I believe we are all God’s favorite but when we make it personal we are more aware of the big and small blessings that we receive on a daily basis. I give thanks that I was able to go to Canada for 3 weeks in October, thus my excuse for not writing an October newsletter.

I thoroughly enjoyed my time with friends and family. One of my sisters lives in Alberta and I had not seen her in probably 12 years. She arranged her holiday time around me. Sheila and her 3 daughters arrived at my mom’s house the day after I did. I got to attend the wedding of my nephew, celebrate Canadian Thanksgiving (twice) and an early 90th birthday party for my mom. My oldest son’s house is attached to my mom’s house. I totally enjoyed the sound of the little footsteps of my grandson coming down the hall each morning to come and have breakfast with Grandma. After some very stressful times here my goal for my 3 weeks away was just to enjoy time at home. I did not want to travel anywhere or be running here and there. That is exactly how it turned out with friends and family popping by for tea and visits. It made me feel like God’s favorite that He gave me the desire of my heart.

While I was away there were some major changes in the Children’s Home. Five of the kids left and we received one more. Plus we received a girl right before I left. I came home to a completely different house. Peace has returned and we are all able to just enjoy living together as a family again. We have received many calls to take on more kids but we decided to not take on anyone new kids until December. We want to allow the kids some stress free weeks. When a new child arrives I generally takes a month for them to settle in and to learn the house rules. Another factor to wait until December before taking on any new kids is for me to have some time of peace.

I returned back home to Paraguay and within a few days Dan flew to North America. I arrived home on a Wednesday to a special supper by the kids. Friday night Dan performed a wedding. Saturday night we all loaded up and went to a combined youth service in town at Dan’s local church. I attended church with Dan the following day for the Sunday morning service. This is a big deal because I am the Pastor’s wife who doesn’t attend church with my husband. Here at the camp we have Sunday morning service at the exact same time as Dan’s church so I stay here with the kids. The following day the church had a party for Dan. We were joking that they were celebrating that he was leaving. The truth is they felt bad they had missed his birthday and wanted to still bless him. There was a good crowd and more food that could possibly be eaten. After everyone was full they served the birthday cake. The church people took turns saying a few words. His people are wonderful and said some sweet things. It was hard not to cry hearing one couple speak about Dan, especially when the wife choked up. They run the hardware store that Dan has shopped at for 20 years. Over the years he has spent time counselling them and other family members. The wife and kids have been attending Dan’s church for some time but now, Praise the Lord, the husband is also attending faithfully. The other special testimony was by a young Pastor named Adolfo. We have known him for 20 years also. His mother used to own a restaurant in town and that is how we meet. (His mom is faithfully attending Dan’s church and the father comes sometimes). Adolfo is a gifted speaker to young people. He often gives talks at highschools. He shared that the very first time he taught was when Dan asked him to speak at our youth camp almost 17 years ago. We had no idea that that would be the beginning of his youth ministry.

We have had really hot weather with rain every few days. This has made for excellent grass growth. It is nice to see the grass beautiful and green but it is impossible to keep up with. I am so thankful for Kyle out there everyday with his weed whipper.

While I was away they drained and cleaned the pool so the construction crew could repair the walls and paint. Then the rain came so Kyle, Dani and I were left with this project. We finally had a break in the forecast and the 3 of us went up and spent hours cleaning out the rain water. The pool was finished years ago when Dan was not here. He left instructions to slant the floortowards the drain but they didn’t do it. That means that once it is only a few inches deep we get in there with squeegees and push the water toward the drain to keep the pump going. Then the final water has to be scooped out in buckets. So yesterday after our hours of work and sunburns, we were done. Kyle arranged for the workers to start the repairs today with the hope for us to let the cement cure over the weekend and paint on Monday. Well didn’t I wake up in the night to a thunderstorm. I almost sent Dani a text message to ask if she was crying thinking about the pool. I figured she would not like me waking her up at 3:23am even more than the thought of all our hard work that was done in vain. It has now been raining for 8 straight hours. Lord willing we will try again next week. We need to have the pool operational and warmed up for the first of December becausewe have 11 straight days of camps with 3 different groups back to back.

Dan arrives home on December 1st. We have camps until the 11th and then we have a mission team arriving on December 16th until January 4th. We have never had a team here over Christmas before so this is going to be exciting. Then our full camp season starts with a camp in on January 5.

Dan has a construction crew working on the multi-use/church building in Quyquyho and his crew working here at the camp. His crew has been working hard at a few different projects on the camp. One of the projects was to remove 3 windows of the dininghall/multi-use building and replace them with 3 doors. This hopefully will help in the heat of the summer to open it up more. This also makes the dininghall wheelchair accessible. No longer will our musicians have to carry in one of our young members in her wheelchair into the service.

Please join us in praying for houseparents. We need one couple to be in the Home where we are with our 15 kids and in January we want to open the second Children’s Home so we need another couple there. The house is smaller so it will only have 8-10 kids.

Our kids are writing exams and are in the final month of school. Please pray for Alejandra and Zulma as they finish Grade 12 that the Lord will direct their paths in helping them choose what they are to study and what University to go to in February. This also means Kyle is coming to an end of his Bible classes that he teaches at the school. We pray that this has an eternal impact on the kids and the teachers.

Pastor Gabriel and Kyle have been fasting Saturdays for the youth. I had heard that they are having some great God moments so I snuck into their service. The youth played games and then once it was dark came into Kyle’s back yard around a bon fire. Kyle taught a great lesson and then they had a great time of worship. I was amazed by the number of youth there. I was looking up at the stars lost in the worship music. Then I looked around the fire to see Kyle and Dani with arms raised, the Pastor and 2 youth that came with him on their knees. There was such a sweet presence of the Lord that settled over us that even the youth that were whispering back and forth grew quiet. One of my girls told me after that she felt such a love around the fire. May God continue to me with His favorites!

Blessings,

Dan and Gwen

Dan-

011-595-981-776-208

Gwen-

011-595-985-889-983