Capirindita village

Saturday the group left for the nearby village of Capirindita to minister with the cousin (Angela) of one of our team leaders who has been living in that village ministering as the only white person in the tribe for the last 3 years. I stayed in Villa Montes for an extra two days as we had 2 ladies sick/exhausted so I stayed behind with them to rest. It was good, a good opportunity for me to spend extra time with Jesus, journalling, spending time in the Word. On Monday we set off to join the team in Capirindita. This was an interesting time, where most of the ministry was spiritually focused. There was some weird stuff going on in that village.

The village had been suffering a fish drought (a major source of food for them) for the last couple of years so one afternoon we went down to the river to pray and prophesy that the waters would once again be full of fish.

The river we prayed over to be filled fish

It was interesting learning from Angela all the cultural ways of the people, what their beliefs were, how they viewed Jesus, etc. At different times groups of us went on foot with her to the surrounding villages where she ministers. On the last evening (Tuesday) the village had a despedida (farewell) service for us. It was so fun, we sat outside and they sang worship songs to us in Guarani, we say in Spanish together and then we sang to them in English and Macua, an African language which is spoken in Mozambique which is where we attended our missionary training school. Great fun! We also preached and taught them about how in the spirit world Jesus is bigger than any evil spirit and that when they had problems in the spirit world all they need to do was cry out to Jesus and He would deliver them. As most of us on the team have testimonies of this we shared some with them and they were greatly encouraged.

Villa Montes

We left Filadelfia Wednesday 1st August for Bolivia. Our bus was at 1am so at 11pm we left the house to go wait at the church in town. This was really a surreal journey with the craziness beginning at about 7pm during dinner with me suddenly getting really sick. Not cool considering we had a long night of travelling ahead of us. After going to the church and waiting for a couple of hours there (me in excruciating pain in my intestines), we got back in the car to go wait on the side of the main street in town for the bus. When the bus hadn't arrived by about 3:30am we got back in the car and went back to the church to rest until 6am, when we got back in the car and went back to the main road to wait for the bus again. Eventually we got going by about 8:30am. Turns out the bus had broken down somewhere between Asuncion and Filadelfia.

After a fairly smooth morning of driving we got to the border which was an adventure in itself, it was a dusty tiny shack of a border crossing, the most third world we've come across on this journey (it reminds me of African borders!!), it was completely disorganised with the officials not being particularly helpful or polite to us, not least because we didn't have visas for our 15 Americans!! Not to mention the "helpful assistant" who was in fact drunk...

Third world border of note!

Waiting...

After an hour or so of backwards and forwards with the Paraguay/Bolivian passengers getting more and more irritated with us gringos (foreigners) taking so long, we somehow managed to pass through the border with the required visas, saying we'd go to the nearest office the next morning and get them then! So back on the bus we got, with a border official who came with us to help us get the visas the next day. We'd hardly crossed over the border, plus had to get on and off at least 3 or 4 times for various military checks (actually to this day I'm still not sure what was going on but on and off we got as there were many men in uniforms asking us to!), when we turned off for a diversion straight into a very sandy off road, only to get stuck in the sand when we had a tree trunk fallen across the road. Err.

Katherine's face says it all, that knowing look of "oh... this doesn't look good!"

So then our guys got off the bus to help the driver push/pull whatever to get the bus unstuck. Eventually we had to wait until a passing truck came from the opposite direction who could pull the bus out.

Our men helping take care of the stuck bus problem!

Back on the bus we got and eventually we arrived in Villa Montes, our Bolivian destination, tired, dirty and very hungry!!

This is how we often arrive - it's dark, we're tired, hungry and have no

idea where to go to find food, accommodation for the night, and of course

the much needed ATM since this is our first stop in the new country

Friday was a day of rest for those who didn't need a visa, which included discovering a great local market with fresh fruit and vegetable juices. My heart was really happy to be back in a third world country, although I must admit that I was not loving all the associated bug bites. I just react so badly to them, I'm definitely not a natural girl!!

And onwards to Filadelfia

We left Asuncion early Saturday morning to take the bus to Filadelfia, arriving at 2:30pm to be met by a German Mennonite Church (connected to the church we ministered with in Uruguay).

The bus from Asuncion dropped us on the side of the road

(literally!) - this is us waiting for Rafael waiting to pick us up

This church really blessed us by hosting us for nearly a week at a beautiful farm retreat half hour out of town. Filadelfia reminds me of an Afrikaans farming town in the Karoo, very dusty and small town vibe... they even slaughtered a lamb one day and braaied it for us!

Extreme amounts of dust and dirt all the time... It took me a few days to clear out my lungs! But great community atmosphere with everyone knowing everyone. We had a bus rented for us driven by Rafael, good thing as we were at least half an hour outside of town along very dusty roads far from everywhere really!

Us being transported by Rafael!

That evening we lead the church youth meeting where many got touched and many young people got to see first hand that it is cool to know Jesus! During the following week we had many youth start coming to church on fire for God after seeing the young guys on our team who are wildly in love with Jesus, but totally cool and not nerdy at all. Our guys are good role models for the youth :)

Taylor preaching up a storm with Liney translating

On Sunday we lead the church service, it was wild with the presence of the Lord, we had a fire tunnel where we form a tunnel and the congregation walks between us and we pray and prophesy over them. This is quite "out there" for many people, but especially for a German Mennonite Church who are traditionally a bit stuck in their ways! They loved it and were stretched outside of their comfort zones which was good.

In the afternoon we ministered to indigenous kids in a village nearby. There was a lot of witchcraft for us to pray against in this village. We started by just playing with the kids before leading them in a simple service. For those who have contact with kids, I found it interesting that kids don't know how to do puzzles, they have no concept of connecting the pieces (even for simple puzzles and definitely age appropriate for them) in a logical order. It was a little challenging to explain to them what to do as they don't speak Spanish, they speak Guarani, a tribal language. It's amazing what you can communicate through sign language though!

Me helping the kids do puzzles

This was a great albeit busy time (to be expected considering we were ministering with a German church!). A definite highlight was spending time with Hedi who is a missionary in Sudan. She was home in Paraguay visiting (she's Paraguayan). There is a movie about her (called Mama Shekinah) which is worth watching, she´s on the same level as Heidi Baker, seriously.

Taylor having fun with the kids - hard to say who's having more fun!!

On Tuesday we visited a kids daycare in the morning, followed by lunch at Hedi 's with her sharing about her time in Somalia and Sudan. I felt so priviledged to be sitting at her feet learning from her, she really is a general in the faith. In the afternoon we hosted a block party for village kids in a local village. We prayed for people in their homes and invited the kids to come play at the square where we were having the block party.

Fun being had all around

A highlight was leading a transexual person we met to the Lord. This was a very spiritually dark village with quite a bit of weird stuff going on. Afterwards when the pastor came by to see how we were getting on he shared that the kids are very spiritually aware, they will come to you if you are filled with love but equally if you're not they'll know. At that time I had a bunch of kids hanging on me who had not let me out of their sight all afternoon so good to know they think I have love in my heart :) In the evening Errado (the foreman of the house where we were staying) had slaughtered a sheep for us that day which he braaied for dinner. Delicious! 

Errado braaing the lamb he'd slaughtered for us

On Wednesday a group of us went to serve the church by cleaning their church, it was SUPER dusty and dirty as it had been empty for 3 years!! The church had bought what used to be a shop and were now converting it into a youth hangout centre connected with the church.  Lunch at the pastor's house for one last visit then back home to pack up and clean.

Our boys looking proud of themselves after sweeping out the room!

Off to Asuncion

Paraguayan flag

We left late on Sunday evening after the church service to take the bus (at midnight!) to Asuncion, Paraguay. Foz is 15min from the Paraguayan border so shortly after getting on the bus we were getting off to pass through border control. It was one of the quickest smoothest border crossings I've ever done - crossing borders without foreign cars is soooo much easier!! I felt really bad after we arrived at Asuncion when another passenger from the bus asked me where we needed to go to pass through border control. When I looked at him blankly (it was 6am after all and I'd just woken up!!) he looked a little worried and then asked if we'd already been through border control. Err, yes, like 15min after we got on the bus. Poor guy had fallen asleep as soon as he got on the bus and slept right through the whole journey, only to wake up in Paraguay kindof illegally I guess. Another reason why it's good to travel with others, to help prevent these sorts of adventures from happening :) 

Top down view of some team members getting a much

needed early morning cup of coffee from a stand at the bus station

After arriving at the bus station at 6am first things first we needed to find a hostel and get some much needed sleep. While napping a few of us (myself included) had some very strange dreams, indicating some spiritual activity was taking place where we were.  Paraguay was an interesting country in terms of us going there with absolutely no plan, no contacts, no nothing, just the Holy Spirit to guide us. And guide us He did. We spent a few days in Asuncion (the capital) mainly just going out to the streets and ministering to the poor and the lost we came across. We experienced many salvations and healings, first day we got there we prayed for a guy waiting in the lobby of our hostel and he was healed (knee problems so he had a cane) which was awesome. While going out to find dinner with a couple of team members, we incorporated some treasure hunting (where we ask God to highlight people who we come across as people He wants to bless, they're His treasures and we look for them) with our search for good food, which was a great deal of fun - I love it when ministry just becomes part of our everyday lives. 

On Wednesday we ministered and slept in another church. This was a great service as the congregation were so excited to have us. God was there and so many people were touched by God, it was beautiful. On a practical note it was interesting having 23 of us sleeping on the floor in the church, with only bathroom!! 

I think the overall highlight for me of our time in Paraguay was ministering in Tacumbu prison with Angel, and American missionary we found online, in Asuncion on Friday. It was pretty crazy, we went in with 2 local missionaries and a local pastor. The prison is built for 1200 people but sleeps 3600 so a lot of overcrowding - it´s one of the biggest prisons in Latin America and is renowned for human rights violations. Going in we had no guards, just some inmates who formed a row of ushers around us as a barricade to protect us from the other inmates, a bit overwhelming. 

Us walking through getting a tour of the prison

Once we got to the safer area where they hold their church meetings (there´s a slightly cornered off area where some people have come to know the Lord so they meet there for daily pray and worship and bible study) the atmosphere completely changed, it was unbelievable. I could literally feel the presence of the Lord. Thick like a blanket covering us. We led a church service which was very powerful, so many men were touched by the Lord, people were healed and guys were set free spiritually. 

Angel, our missionary contact, introducing our

team, as represented our team member Kelly

Breck preaching

It was beautiful. My heart was so full of love for them - God really showed me His love for them, how He really loves us all, that these men are just people who have lost their way and need to know God´s love and that there is hope for them. Funny story, while praying for one man, I thought he said he was struggling with thoughts of suicide. No problem, I could definitely pray for that to be broken off him, when he corrects me by saying no no, he's having thoughts of homicide. Err, okay then, I'll definitely pray in faith for that to be broken off!

Inmates worshipping from their hearts

Foz do Iguazu

At Foz do Iguazo we stayed at a church retreat, provided for us by the church of one of our team member's mentor. We arrived Monday night late to a welcome dinner of hot dogs and hot chocolate, very Brazilian!

This is how we travel - 6 of the 11 people in the motorhome!

On Tuesday we participated in the community outreach project of feeding the poor at the church. It was a fun evening of just hanging out with local Brazilians. Trust us to arrive in style (our big funny looking American cars never cease to create a stir) and leave in style (when our big Suburban wouldn't start). And so began about 2 months of having difficulty getting the car to start. Thankfully that night between Stephen (our resident car mechanic in team) and half a dozen Brazilian men they managed to get us up and running. Honestly I've lost count of the number of times our cars have broken down at church!! Not embarrassing at all :)

Being a Baptist Church the church doesn't believe in the Holy Spirit being for now, 2012, rather it belongs 2000 years ago, during the biblical age, in the Book of Acts, so we weren't initially allowed to minister in the church. But miraculously the senior pastor changed his mind last minute and invited us to minister that Wednesday night. It was such an amazing night, we preached, lead worship, prayed and prophesied. I had my first word of knowledge for pain in left leg with burning behind my knee during worship. What happened was during worship I suddenly felt a burning sensation in my left leg for a few moments and then it left. Later on in the service a few of us had words of knowledge so I asked if anyone had pain in their left leg. As this was my first time of getting a word of knowledge for healing I was a little nervous in case I was wrong (yes that is pride is Elizabeth!), but to my surprise the man behind me said yes that's me! So I prayed for him and he was healed in that moment! Praise God!!

Overall the week was a time of rest and admin time of getting visas for Paraguay and Bolivia. As I don't need a visa for these countries I took the time spend more time in the Word which I just loved. It was such a beautiful peaceful location and even as we were there the weather started warming up and we were able to enjoy some sunny days. We spent some ministering to the pastor and his wife and he ministered to us.

Chilling by pool - enjoying the first

warm weather in quite a while

Taylor watching Zoe

Friday we were to the Falls which was perfect timing as it was my dear friend Liz's birthday and the Falls happen to be one of her favourite places in the world (she's been to Brazil a few times before). These falls are where the final scene of The Mission was filmed where the missionary goes over the falls. A little bit sobering as we're missionaries and we've spent quite a bit of time ministering to tribes in the jungle who do not know Jesus, nor are all of them happy to be having white foreigners in their villages. 

The falls were exquisite, they border Brazil and Argentina

IHOP OneThing Conference

Tuesday we left bright and early to drive north to Curitiba for the IHOP (International House of Prayer organisation based in Kansas, America) OneThing Conference. We were hosted by a mega church, I've never been in such a big church, the first night was crazy, we arrived in the rain which meant we had to unpack all us stuff in the rain (sleeping with a wet sleeping bag is not cool), and settle into sleeping 14 girls in a children's nursery classroom. So squashed there was no space for our bags even, let alone us, we were literally lined up like sausages! Thankfully the next day we moved into a bigger (although freezing cold) room. 

Home sweet home!

This church really blessed us with free accommodation, meals, helped us with anything we needed without expecting anything in return. Wow, and they didn't even know us, the church we stayed with in Florianopolis set it up for us. We were just there to be part of the OneThing conference, no ministry from us at all. The conference was good, it was good for us to be refilled through other people ministering to us, the preachers were great and the worship was better. I haven't experienced mixed worship (Portuguese and English) to this level to this level before on all our travels, it was so beautiful and powerful, the presence of God was thick in the air. It was an interesting feeling not being up there ministering as usually it's us ministering to others, not others ministering to us.

OneThing Conference

Sunday was a church service for Internationals in the mega church, run by American missionaries so it was in English. Nice to not need a translator! The church was really small so our group outnumbered the whole congregations!! And Monday we left early to drive to Foz do Iguazo, a border town with Paraguay.

Breck (one of our team members) receiving prayer

on behalf of our team from the International church

Florianopolis

Adios Porto Alegre, oi (hello) Florianopolis. After a smooth day of driving (well, if you consider driving through a rain cloud for most of the day smooth... a little tiring but at least no car problems!!) we arrived at the church in Florianopolis who would be hosting us for the weekend. Kinda crazy as once again super crowded... how to sleep 7/8 girls in a kids classroom!! Saturday the rest of our team arrived so then we were up to about 25 people... and sleeping on the floor of the church! We lead some wild services there, Saturday for the youth and Sunday for the regular church service. It was awesome seeing their hunger for more, and seeing God faithfully meet them to the level of their hunger. A particular highlight was the worship from the youth, this was a viby group of very trendy teenagers. I'm glad we hadn't led worship that night, I don't think our hippy group of travelling gypsy missionaries would have been cool enough for them!! Beautiful youth with such a heart for Jesus. 

A top down view of the church where us girls slept