8/8/2019 Hagerman May 10 Newsletter from Paraguay

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May-June, 2010

May is officially the month of

mothers here, and also the month to

celebrate Paraguays Independence Day. Because the colors of their flag are red, white, and blue like ours, it makes us

feel like were celebrating the 4th of July all month long. May includes many celebrations because not only are the

Paraguayans very patriotic, they also hold their mothers in high regard. This isnt always obvious from the sometimes

witnessed mistreatment of women in this society, but practically every child and adult will tell you that Mam is the most

important person in their lives. Some of this is because the Virgin Mary is such a focus here, and in a way I cant really

explain, all women get honored or placed in higher regard because of HER status in society. Another reason is that the

women of Paraguay are hard-workers (they use the word guapa-pronounced GWAH-pah, to describe someone who

works hard). Many of them are hand-washing their clothes, cooking from scratch, tending a garden, raising farm animals,

caring for their children, and sometimes also working an outside job. Sal did

a special radio program the weekend of Mothers Day, with call-in (well, text-

in) comments and giveaway prizes. He was able to share scripture ofthe

virtuous woman and Gods idea for womanhood.

June was pretty much overtaken by the FIFA World Cup, aworldwide soccer tournament being held in South Africa. Thishappens every four years, but I have to admit that Id only heard of it

since moving here. Teams from all over the world qualify to enter thetournament and prepare for years to come against some fiercecompetition. When Paraguay is playing, the world here shuts down.Class is over, theres no one driving around, and if you enter abusiness, they are likely to have a TV set up and all be gatheredaround it watching. This has created a great opportunity for us toopen the doors and meet more folks in the community, bybroadcasting the games and sharing popcorn and kool-aid.

May and June have been two months full of ups and downs personally. We found out recently that Ken has a valve in his

heart that isnt functioning correctly, and will have to be replaced surgically if God does not intervene miraculously. He is currentlytaking medicine to combat the side effects of the heart defect, but the medicines are almost worse than the condition. Your prayers areappreciated for Gods healing hand in Kens body. We also learned that Christies dad was in a very serious motorcycle accident.Once again, God spared Phils life, and he is recovering in Minnesota with Christies brother, Dino. We celebrated Kens 40th birthdayhere with 50 of our closest Paraguayan friends, and with Christies mom and her husband, Tommy. They happened to be here on ashort visit, and we enjoyed the time we spent with them. Hollie is finishing out her 6-month internship with us this month, so its abittersweet time of watching her soak in every activity and opportunity to enjoy Paraguay and minister to the people here.

We are getting excited about the two months well be visiting the U.S. and hope well be able to touch base with those of youin the South Carolina area. If youd like to schedule us to come speak, please contact us soon (email addy on next page). We arereally looking forward to the time well have to reconnect with everyone there in October and November!

tap (tah PAY), n. a way or path(Guarani)

Many peoples will come and say,"Come, let us go up to the mountainof the LORD... He will teach us hisways, so that we may walk in hispaths." Isaiah 2:3

The Hagerman FamilyCarapegu, Paraguay

8/8/2019 Hagerman May 10 Newsletter from Paraguay

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Thank you again for making it possible for us to minister in this beautiful country. Its hard to put words to

the feeling of doing what you know God has called you to do, but theres such satisfaction in living in His

plan, and we know we couldnt do itwithout the prayers, support, and encouragement of you all. We really

appreciate the honor of serving God in Paraguay andlove that youre a part of that, too!

---Ken, Christie, Camille, and Caroline

CONTACT INFORMATION

Telephone in Paraguay:

595-985-782-928

Skype number: 864-343-1731

Donations are received through our local church:

Carolina Heights CoGoP

2900 Anderson Road

Greenville, SC 29611

(Please write Hagerman Missions on check

memo. All donations are tax deductible.)

Email: hagerman100@yahoo.com

Webpages: www.hagermans.blogspot.com

www.tapemissions.org

GOD DOES WORK IN MYSTERIOUS WAYS!

Material and physical needs are very common and plenteous here, and its easy to be overwhelmed by the amount of people that live withoutwhat wed call basic necessities. Its been a process for us, learning what really IS a necessity and what is a creature comfort in a developing

country. The reality is that we cant meet every needwe cant clothe every person, we cant bring every street child into our home, we cantbuild a home for every family. Learning to live with that realization isnt always easy.

There are times, though, when God uses His ways to provide for a need, and we get to bepart of seeing it come to pass. Recently, this has happened several times. Juancho, the cute littefellow at the left, lives in our neighborhood. He usually runs around barefooted and has been given

grace by his school to be allowed to come even though he doesnt have the proper uniform orsupplies. His grandmother came to us one day to ask if wed help him get shoes for the cold

weather, and a backpack, and I told her wed try. We honestly didnt have the money when sheasked, but this is a family wed been praying for, and this was their first friendly contact. It

seemed like God was up to something.Within a couple of days, a business man in town asked us to do him a favor. He needed

some help navigating ebay, and well, we Americans know our ebay. The bottom line is that Kenhelped the man save a lot of money to get anautomobile part he needed, and the maninsisted on giving Ken 100,000 guaranies($20)--EXACTLY the amount of money weneeded to buy Juancho some tennis shoes,socks, and a backpackthe Mickey Mouse onehed been wanting.

A couple weeks later, my mom andstepdad arrived with an envelope for us. It was an offering taken up by a small churchnear where I (Christie) grew up. We decided to use the money toward something to help

youth or children here, since it was an offering from the young folks at their church.Wed planned to buy gloves but the store that had them on sale was all sold out. I wasdisappointed that we couldnt afford enough of them at the normal price. So we went toweekly Bible class at the little school that was going to receive the gloves, and there weretwo little girls there (in the picture at the right), who walk quite a long distance to schooleach day. Neither of them had shoes. They were borrowing a broken pair of flip-flops from their aunt, and trading them off every so oftenthroughout the day. I looked at the little envelope with the offering, ran to the store, and had just enough to get a pair of socks and tennisshoes for each of them. God never ceases to amaze us with His provision.

God bless you!

Dios le bendiga!

(Spanish)

andejra tanderovasa!(Guarani)

**(If you are receiving this through the US Mail and have an email address, please send it to us

so we can get our newsletter to you in that way. It is much quicker and more efficient. If you

dont have an email address, or if you just prefer the regular mail, dont worry. Well keep

sending it to you that way.)

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