Yes, you read that correctly. It says "research." That is because not only have we been traveling around to visit our supporters to give our annual mission report and getting to visit our families, but I have also been trying to complete all the assignments from the classes I took last month: six books to read, with five book reviews and two 20-page research papers to write! Whew! It has been a little challenging while traveling, to say the least! But all is going well and we have been blessed with generous hospitality and good travel conditions. It has been a great furlough. We hope you enjoy this month's Paraguay Mission report. God bless!
Baptism
Marcos Dominguez was immersed into the body of Christ after Enrique Albera (one of our former Bible Academy students), taught him the Gospel. Marcos is the boyfriend of our sister in Christ, Silvina Gimenez. He has been coming to services with Silvina for several months. We are excited to see the Word of God working in his life!
Visiting My Alma Mater
What a joy it was to get to visit with our dear brethren at my alma mater, Southwest School of Bible Studies in Austin, TX! I had the opportunity to speak in chapel and then several of us enjoyed fellowship over lunch.
Developments at Ave. Sacramento
Our annual CONGREGATIONAL RETREAT was held this past month. Around twenty people went to Itacurubi, (located about 90 minutes outside of Asuncion), on a Saturday afternoon to enjoy fellowship with each other and a night of camping. On Sunday, the church hired a bus for anyone else who wanted to attend the event, which left the building at 6:30am. It turned out to be a great day of worship, study, and fellowship, including a baptism! The theme for the retreat was “Worship,” and consisted of four Bible study times (pictured below, with Enrique teaching), followed with worship to God to end the event. There were sixty people present on Sunday. The Paraguayans did all the planning and executed the event without the mission team's involvement. We praise God for an active and working church!
Asuncion Bible Academy Update
Studies, studies, and more studies! The students have already completed several short courses for this quarter. Some of the classes have been via video including Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon which I taught from here in the USA this past month (pictured below). There will be another campaign coming up that will have the students going out to the new church building location in San Lorenzo. They will be door-knocking the surrounding neighborhood, visiting the brethren in that area, and also shadowing the local evangelist, Eliezer, in his weekly ministry.
Troy and Andrea Spradlin
To see the Spradlin’s report with pictures, please click here.