I just wanted to let you know that we have all safely arrived
at the Yoshizaki house in Paraguay. We just arrived almost two
hours ago, fresh off of the Amambay bus in Brazil. It was a
grueling fifteen hour ride, but other than desperately needing to
take a shower, we are all in fairly good spirits. It is difficult
adjusting to the vast contrast Paraguay is from Brazil. We are
in the boonies, in the middle of an agricultural town where
donkey-drawn carts pass by old, forlorn buildings. The house we
are staying at is very homey, cozy, and a lot like living in a
quaint little cottage. I cannot imagine how all of us are going
to manage to live in
such close, tight quarters, but I guess God and His grace will be sufficient. Please pray for another easy
adjustment, we have switched to trilingual mode, speaking in all of our different languages. I know it will
be a challenge, not making anyone feel left out as we are all conversing in our second language of choice. I
hope that we can bond with the youth group here, switching to ministry to youth and young children, instead
of college age Brazilians who are fairly Americanized. Over here, there is much less materialism,
urbanization, and the desire to become westernized. I think we will have to be much more open minded and
flexible as we adjust to life here. I am pretty tired. The bus ride seemed very long, and after fourteen hours
I was getting pretty ancy. I think after a hot shower (or at least lukewarm. . . showers are tricky lil things
out here, heated by small temperamental electrical units that heat the water as it passes through) I miss
having a steady stream of hot water instead of sporadic little blessings of warmth. The weather here is much
more pleasant, we have changed time zones and I guess weather zones. It is mild and sunny, and it makes
me happy to be in the sun again. I should go now, thank you for your prayers for the long travel day.
Pastor Joe has joined us for one day, so tonight we are going to launch into the first youth group meeting.
Here we go! Thanks for really supporting me, our team is really blessed by your prayers, and I know that
everything that has gone well thus far is a direct testament of God and His goodness. It is very difficult to
write on this computer because it is in Japanese. We have not figured out where the apostrophe is, so I
cannot use contractions. Sorry if this is so formal sounding! You can forward all mail you sent to the other
account to this new address. It is the son of the Yohizaki family, Sadato, and he speaks Spanish very well.
His address is mktyoshi@worksystem.com.br Please write my name on the subject line. Thanks
everybody. I love and miss you all--
Mom and Juj, thanks for the gloves and the happy note. It was a blessing to receive word from home.
Dean, thanks for your letter. I received the first one upon
arriving here at the Yoshizaki store.