The Latest Adventures in the Lives of Ted and Sarah Voigt

So.. we (and the kids) survived our week together! And, we were quite happy when their parents got home and we were able to go back to our quiet oasis, the "cabana", where there are no children. This small little place has become a wonderful place to read, relax, reflect, listen to music (and last night we downloaded Car Talk!), and enjoy being together. Even though it doesn't have all the amenities of being inside the house, we were pretty happy to move back in.

We wanted to share with you our weekend adventures, since this is the most places we have visited in a 48 hour time period since we got to Paraguay. On Sunday we were able to visit one of the other local Nazarene churches in the Asunción area - Maka'i. The people there were really friendly and I was surprised at the number of children that were there. All of the pews on the left hand side were filled with children. Maka'i is somewhat out in the country - there are more dirt roads there and cows wandering around on the roads. I am continuing to enjoy the songs that are sung during worship - sometimes we have words, sometimes we don't but each time I amazed with the humility and awe that comes with praising God in another language. When we do have the words in front of us, I pay more attention to what they are saying than when I know all the words to the songs. After traveling to Maka'i, we went to Nueva Asuncion, which is quite a bit further out into the country. We left the rock roads and traveled on all dirt roads for about 30 minutes until we got to the home of Sergio and Francesca. Sergio and Francesca had been in contact with another local pastor about the need for a church in Nueva Asuncion. Apparently there are about 3 families who would like to see a church get started and there really aren't any churches nearby. So, we went out to talk to the family about how this could happen and when there could be a "test" to start to plant seeds for a church and invite the neighbors to take part in it. It was quite a trek out there, but it was very interesting to meet and spend time with this Paraguayan family - they were incredibly hospitable. A couple of days ago Ted blogged about the yerba mate that the people pass around, all drinking from the same cup. It was amazing to me to see these people, who we had never met, willingly fill and pass around the drink as we all talked together - incredible hospitality!

Today we had the best Chinese food that I think we have ever had - anywhere! We met up with the Carrs at a Chinese buffet/Mongolian barbeque just about a fifteen minute walk from here. The food was amazing!!! Ted was really excited that they had some spicy food too - he was able to put garlic in his food and some red chili peppers. I had some amazing sweet and sour chicken that had these big chunks of peppers and onions in it. Incredible! And the best part was dessert!! There was an entire table filled with desserts and fruits - we tried several and they were all incredible. I'm beginning to enjoy flan more and more. (There is an ice cream store a block from our house that has amazing flan ice cream.)We just finished perhaps our most exciting and dangerous adventure yet - shaving Ted's hair! A couple of days ago Ted decided that his hair had gotten too long and he needed to do something about it. So, at the grocery store we found some clippers that were battery powered. But, when we tried to use them the batteries burned out in a couple of minutes. So.. then we decided that we would just shave his head because it would eventually grow out, right? Who knew that it would take so long to shave his hair! But, we eventually got it done and it looks pretty good. Plus, it is a lot cooler (the temperature today was pretty warm for a winter day).

Enjoy the pictures!
Grace & Peace - Bendiciones!