B.J. Whitaker
 Dear
Friends and Family,
It’s
amazing to think that only about a month ago, I was in Paraguay on a spring
break mission trip. I am writing
you to let you know about the trip and to assure you that your gifts of prayer
and money bore fruit as we worked and ministered in Paraguay.
After
two months of preparation, on Saturday, March 17, our team of 10 people left
Wilmore, Kentucky and a day later landed in Asuncion, Paraguay.
As you can imagine, we were all pretty worn out from our traveling, but
that evening, we led our first church service in a church on the outskirts of
Asuncion. We sang Spanish songs,
performed skits, and testified about what God has done in our lives.
The following day, we began our work project at another site on the
outskirts of Asuncion. Our tasks
were to put the walls on a new church building there, dig trenches for sewage
pipes and electrical lines for the church, and finish digging a ten-foot hole
for a septic tank for the church’s bathroom. Essentially, we just followed the directions of the
Paraguayan men who were in charge. We
were very thankful for them as well as a mission team that had already assembled
the church structure and dug over half of the large hole the week before we
arrived.
On
Wednesday we took a break in the middle of our workday to travel through the
neighborhood and invite the folks who live there to church that evening.
We realized that many who assured us that they would be in attendance
told us so only because that is what we wanted to hear.
But to our delight, about 80 children and 30 adults came to our
service—the first service for Iglesia El Renuevo (Church of Renewal) in its
new building. Even though the walls
of the structure were not quite finished, we held a service that evening which
was similar to the one we had on Sunday. We
did some skits, songs, and testimonies, and I had the privilege of giving the
first formal sermon in Iglesia El Renuevo.
To make that clear, I was not the first to preach the Gospel in that
structure—we had done that all week as we worked, spoke, and as different ones
of us shared in that evening service. I
was simply the first person to give a formal sermon, and I did so through the
help of WGM missionary Andy Bowen who translated for me.
We are not sure if anyone accepted Christ for the first time that evening, or even if anyone
rededicated their lives to Christ, but we certainly gave many the opportunity to
do so.
We
finished our work on the church on Thursday, nailing the last few boards to the
structure. We accomplished all that
we had set out to do for the week: we
dug the trenches, put up the walls, finished the hole, had some church services,
and through all that we did, we proclaimed the good news of Christ’s
life-giving hope.
Thank you so much for being a
part of my life and especially a part of this ministry opportunity. Each of us was incredibly blessed, as we were able to share
ourselves with the WGM missionaries and the Paraguayans, and as they shared with
us. I realize that this short
letter hardly suffices to tell you of all that we did, but it is, at least, a
small way of thanking you for your love and generosity.
Please continue to pray for the church in Paraguay, that they may remain
strong and faithful in Christ, being a light to their friends, neighbors, and
country. God bless you as live each
day in His grace.
In Christ,
B.J.
Whitaker
P.S. If
you would like to know more about our trip or World Gospel Mission’s ministry
in Paraguay, please contact me at (859) 858-3511 x.6505, or bjwhit14@hotmail.com
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