Mark's Notebook

Last Days in Paraguay

Thursday

On Thursday I slept most of the day because I was tired. Mary went with Brenda to pick up pottery and Mary's ring that she had ordered made for her, and they were also shopping for a house the next missionaries will live in. I had the opportunity to chat with Matthew, our son who is serving with the Marines in Iraq. He is very busy right now, and he doesn't even always have time to chat, but does usually have time blocked out on Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday afternoons. In the evening Mary, Brenda and Robert went out for ice cream while I rested.

Friday

On Friday I helped Robert work on a Powerpoint presentation for his upcoming Sunday sermon. Mary and Brenda did some more house shopping, and I think they had their nails done too. Early in the evening, Robert and I went to the mall to run some errands and find a DVD-R on which I could copy one of his DVDs. Most of the stores here carry only DVD+R which is great for PCs, but the drive on my Mac Powerbook seems to like only the -R versions. We finally found a store that had one to sell.

Saturday

Early Saturday morning Mary, Robert and I did our three-mile walk in the park. Later Mary taught Brenda some rubber stamping techniques. In the late afternoon we had Bible study at a neighbor's house. We went to this same Bible study last Saturday afternoon, so we already knew everybody there. Mary and Brenda had a smaller group of kids and their rubber stamping project (greeting cards) went more smoothly than last week, when they had more than a dozen kids. Robert taught the adults a nice lesson about the words we speak and that kind of lesson always points out our failures, since as the book of James says, the tongue is the hardest part of our lives to "tame."

Sunday

Today we went to lunch at a nice restaurant with a Chinese buffet and a Mongolian Barbecue. Mary and I found quite a few things we could eat.

Before and after lunch Mary and I packed almost everything because we are leaving tomorrow to come home.

In the afternoon Mary was able to chat with Matthew again while I read.

While I was reading the family room, the bird Julio started talking to me. She (yes, Julio is a girl) kept saying "Hello," which is sort of strange because up until now I have only heard her say "Hola." (Mary says she has also said "Hi, Bob!") Anyway, I gave her a tortilla chip every time she spoke. We have been trying to get her to speak more. She spoke to me about eight times, which is more than I have heard her speak in the entire previous week. We think rewarding her with food when she speaks is working.

In the evening we went to the San Lorenzo church where Robert taught out of Zechariah 12-14 and Daniel 8 about the role of Israel in the prelude to Christ's second coming. I understood a lot of it because I had helped Robert with the Powerpoint presentation, but my involvement was mostly in gathering the graphics, so I hadn't really paid a lot of attention to the words. The sermons in Spanish are really hard for me to understand because they go so fast, but I can understand lots of words on the screen, especially the Bible passages which remind me of the same ones in English.

Tomorrow

I don't expect to have time to post for a couple of days. We are leaving tomorrow morning to head back to California. If all goes well, we are supposed to fly out of Asuncion around 11 am and arrive in Santiago three hours later, or 2 pm. Then we have a layover for a while, but eventually we take off again and we arrive in Lima, Peru around 11 pm. Robert and two other pastors are coming with us this far ... not because they want to be with us or are worried about us, but because they are going to a pastor's conference in Lima.

When we leave Lima we head straight to Los Angeles, and that leg is about eight hours long. We arrive at about 8 am California time. Then we have to go through customs with all the wonderful gifts we bought for everyone (and for ourselves), and the gifts Robert and Brenda sent back with us. Our Southwest flight leaves some time around 2:30 pm (it's now Tuesday) and we arrive back home around 3:30 pm.

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Last updated Monday 3 August 2009