Interesting things about this place!----> There are birds here that have orange dagger like spurs on their wings. They dive at you when you are on their territory and try to stab you. We know a guy that got cut open on the thy it left a scar. I was attacked several times they are the size of a chicken... Imagine a flying chicken that wants nothing but to kill you and has mini swords...

Apperant...ly my name directly translated into Paraguayan spanish means (someone whos wife cheets on them with their best freind) everyone laughes at me lol.

Someone was making fun of sam and how he doesnt speak spanish to their freind and then he looked up and said "yeah but I understand spanish" HAHAH I laugehd so hard.

The frogs sound like little girls screaming off in the distance here it scared sam and I when we first heard it.Super funny.

The tea here is AMAZING for those of you who know my infatuation with tea you realise how big a deal this is to me.

My Spanish is getting better and so is Sams! I am very proud of him.

We realised that you dont need a gym if you just use small children as weights to work out with like curls and a squat rack... Basically free gym memberships are perks to having kids in the future I realised.

Some times butcher shops are ironicaly used as vetranary hospitals here

We get lost all the time its really frustraiting.

Also... you have to watch your back when you buy water. I just bought a bottle of water. What I though was a regular bottle of water was actually just fizzy water with out flavor... it alwasy scares me when I think I just bought a bottle of water but NO its all of a sudden scary fizzyness in your mouth!!!! AHHHH. Any way this place is awesome inspite of the weird water

Something that is really sad is that its hard for people to get books here because the mark up price is so high. Bibles here cost like 50 to 100 bucks.. whichto someone who works in the field for 9 bucks a day... thats a big deal. My heart breaks for the people thave the desire to educate them selves and simply read a book but cant. Even more so for those who want to read Gods word but have a hard time finding it as easily accesable as we do in the US. We have a lot to be thankful for in the US.

We talked with the director of the refuge for kids with aids (gardin de esperanza) He was basically the coolest guy I ever met. He told us about the tragedy and blessings that God had placed in his life that inspired him and his wife to open Gardin de esperanza. I hope to share the story with you guys when we get back. These kids have HIV and aids and God has blessed them with helth and a loving comunity. Most kids with aids get dumped by their family because people are afraid to touch them their entire families abandon them because of something that they cant help. When they started Gardin de esperanza most of the kids they took in were on the virge of death and alwasy in the hospital because of their am immune system. HE said that God had blessed them and that none of the kids have needed t go to the hospital for 4 years. These kids are amazing and so full of energy and joy working with these people and these wonderful kids has been life changing and inspiring. The director talked about following Gods calling for your life. In paraphrased Spanish he said "My wife and I werent qualified at all but over time God taught us about Aids and HIV and he gave us resources and funding and the blessings we needed to make his calling for us happen. If you follow what God has for your life no matter where you come from or who you are God can use you for his glory and his kingdom. God puts it on the hearts of many people to donate and love these kids and with out God working like this the home could not function and this is how we know we are doing the will of God" SUPER RAD! I was so inspired. Love you guys.

coicom and things to come

Hey y´all we are helping out at the home for kids with aids and having a lot of fun there and with Sams family im sitting next to his cousin alijandro and he is rad. Any who pray that we dont get stressed out because of the language barrier and that we dont get lost any more... thats been happining a lot and for health. Any way we love you guys and thanks for the prayers. Also we wont have access to internet after we are done at the aids home we will be starting working with Jesus Responde al mundo de hoy which is a cool organization that evangelises  to lots of people in different cities. With Jesus responde we will be working on a huge event that will happen in asuncion called coicom where several influential speakers will be presenting theological ideas such as Josh McDowell whos books have inspired both Sam and I.  We are doing well though and will try to update when we can. 

123

Today God answerd a prayer. We were hoping to find a place to pass the night while Sams aunt was out of town. We arrived in Asuncion and had a meeting with the director of the hogar del ninos con hiv and she said we sould stay with her. As soon as I opend the car door I was flooded with the most adorable kids they hopped on my lap instantly and called me tio (uncle in spanish) The next week is goign to be so awesome playing with kids and helping them with home work. No one here can pronounce my name so I guess my new name is tio cornelio and sam is tio samuel. Any way God is workin in our hearts a lot and in our conversations. I got a chance to share my testimony with some cool 20 something guys the other day and make some new freinds. Gotta love divine appointments. Any way I love you guys and thanks for your prayers. -Corey

sams update

So yeah, Corey has summed up a lot of the main, important aspects to our trip so far but the main thing is that GOD ANSWERS PRAYERS! And I was reminded by him that he does it on his own time, and usually to humble you and teach you something. This epiphany occurred to me while I was plucking weeds out of my grandmas flower bed on the 6th day. The reason we were doing this manual labor, was because we had just emailed a bunch of organizations looking for opportunities and had the rest of the day to do other things. So we were kind of ancy, and hoping we would get some responses and decided to finally just do some manual labor to help out my grandma who cant, because shes not able. It was in that moment of picking weeds that God taught me a valuable lesson: If I were to go to Paraguay, and the only thing I got to do was serve my predominantly non Christian family in ways such as pulling weeds, that is just as much missionary work and pleasing to God than volunteering 3 months of our time to a big, well known organization that everyone can praise us for and appreciate. If that was Gods plan for us while here, than there's nothing we can do about it. So in that moment I understood that God has plans for us and HE is in control; me and Corey are not, no matter how much we want to be. 1 hour after really meditating on this and thanking God for humbling me, we were bombarded with requests from 4-5 organizations to volunteer. I am thankful for the opportunities and will serve to the best of my ability, but I will keep what God taught me consistently in my motivation.
Since then, Corey and I have been having quite the adventure! Meeting people like Johannis who have given up a more lavish lifestyle to tell youths in a poor country about Jesus is really encouraging for Corey and me.
Apart from that, another awesome thing God is doing is allowing me to learn Spanish! With Corey here assigning me homework from a textbook everyday (I have my 1st test tomorrow) I feel like im making steady progress. I feel that God wants me at my families house for these couple weeks to learn the language, because not knowing the language- i found- really limits your potential in connecting and interacting with the majority of people here.
Also, I just want to really thank all of you that are at home and consistently reading our updates and pray for us regularly, it really is the biggest encouragement to us that you guys are keeping us in your thoughts and prayers! I think our main prayer requests are: safety (as Curry noted), a humble and generous heart, motivation to work hard in 90+ weather, and that God uses us to the best of our abilities while volunteering.
interesting stories: Corey losing some of the most important things he brought: license and iPhone, Spanish textbook, and all of his boxers.. the fact all Paraguayans call Corey 'Curry'. buying sparkling water thinking its regular water. And every bus at least 10+ people over maximum capacity.

sorry for not updating in awhile

“Dude, this whole thing is a spectator sport,” I said to Sam as I shouted over traffic. “Yeah, and no one realises it but us!” That was pretty much the dialog this morning as we waited for our new South African friend Johanas to pick us up on the side of the crazy free way Mariscal Lopez in San Lorenzo. We saw people almost die in epic car crash flames about every 2 seconds. The amount of near death experiences on the streets in south America is remarkable. Just about every turn you make there is some huge unyielding bus that is going 10 mph over the speed limit headed right toward you. or someone stops in the middle of the hi way to pull a u turn in the middle of 50 mph traffic. in the midst of all this there are people riding rickety carts pulled by donkeys and there are people running into the street; some to cross and other to do magic tricks in the road for a tip or even worse to sell you bicycle tires or chipa. The street is so fascinating it almost made our 1 hour long wait worth it. There are so many interesting things going on in Asuncion that you cant really be bored as long as your in public. While people are cutting each other off and tail gating and breaking every possible US traffic law I thought to myself man i haven't seen one person get up set this whole time. People in the us freak out and cuss at each other if someone cuts them off in the free way but here the people are so chill and relaxed that it doesn't phase them. The people are by far the best part of South America, that is besides the food. In stores in the US some times I feel as though I am being harassed by the employees as they repeatedly ask me how I am doing and what they can do for me. Maybe its in my head but a lot of times it seems ingenue and annoying. Here in Paraguay people mind their business and don't approach you. They wait for you to approach them. Just about everyone puts on real smile when you talk to them. People here are really creative with he way that they make money. You can buy just about anything you want from some random street vendor before you even get to the super market. A source of pride for many Paraguayans is their official bilingualism. Everyone here speaks at least two languages. Yep Guarani (a native language totally unrelated to Spanish) and of course Castillano AKA Spanish. While eating dinner with Sam's family in Asuncion we changed between English, Spanish, German and Guarani. That's right, just about everyone spoke three languages besides Sam and I. I felt pretty outlinguisted in comparison to them (except I just made up for it by making up my own word just now ) though, my ego has been a little crushed by the linguistically gifted inhabitants of this country I also am inspired by them and have just found more fuel for the fire of my passion for language. Basically this place makes Americans look like pansies that complain about everything like having to learn a second language or about traffic. Its pretty awesome being here amongst such interesting people while practicing my Spanish. BTW who knew that there were so many Germans in the middle of South America? I sure didn't.
This morning was an adventure to say the least. After getting picked up by Johanas we went to the main headquarters of Jesus responde al mundo de hoy which is an organization that reaches out to youth in Paraguay through soup kitchens schools and through local churches. We got a chance to meet everyone and lean about what we will be doing. We will probably rent a dorm at a local bible college in a town just out side of Asuncion called mbey (I think is how its spelled) where we will be staying for about a month to help with a giant event called coicom and then with some soup kitchens and out reach ministry where we show cool movies to kids, hang out with them and talk to them about God and their relationship to him. We applied to work with a program called servome before we left. We were going to work with them at the mental hospital in Asuncion but it turns out they had no positions available till after January. Which was totally fine because through all your prayers God has opened up so many possibilities for places for us to serve at. One of which is a children's aids hospital where we plan to stay for a few weeks and hang out with kids that have been diagnosed with aids and serve them. Apparently Aids is a pretty big deal down here and some people don't even believe that it is real. And we have a few other contacts. and places to serve as well. So any way after this week we hope to get cracking on some of our service work. Pray for us to have strength, energy, a good attitude and understanding as we gear up to volunteer.
Interesting stories: We totally missed the bus we needed to catch like 4 times. Sam walked into the door frame and banged his head on the top three times in a row. I broke a bed. Sam broke a cup of his grandmas. People stare at us all the time. The food is epicly awesome. We both have accidentally said very creepy things to people in Spanish unknowingly, and we helped a cool German lady make pickles.

Sam has awesome stuff to say also but he is being responsible and going to bed early so you will have to wait a day or two. Ok, Im done Love you guys adios ciao ciao ciao ciao ciao ciao ciao ciao ciao ciao ciao ciao????????

What up dawg?

With in the first few moments of first being in Paraguay I now have no pity for: Washingtonians that complain about the rain, people who complain about how messy public bathrooms are, and people who say they don´t own much. After 18 hours of sitting  we stepped off the bus only to have pints of warm tropical rain dumped on us. In a weird way it was refreshing, and I guess you could say in a normal way I was irritated, but hey we made to our destination! we unpacked and had some amazing sopa y pollo and met Sams funny uncle and aunt.  we went to a sketchy grocery store and made some chipa (aka tapioca corn bread) His sweet little grandma speaks no Spanish and only Guarani which poses a communication barrier but I will figure out how to speak Guarani eventually because Im a linguist right? Also sorry If I am not suing spell check or the proper punctuation yet because I haven't figured out these tricky Paraguayan computers yet... Soon I will though and you can go back to making fun of my poor typing habits.

    Any who, Sam an I got to fly together the whole way which was a blessing for sure. I think someone told me that people in south America were short? How disappointed I was to see that I was one of the shortest people in the Buenos Aires Airport. Basically Argentina is full of giant white people. Who knew?  we stacked up our luggage at the Air port only to have it fall near some old lady who gave us a dirty look. I said Sorry! and she said ´´its ok, well its not OK but I will live I guess´´ but hey, after spending so much time on an air plane napping, eating weird air plane food and having spiritual conversations one is expected to be a little loopy and clumsy. Buenos Aires was a fun place, we met some really nice people and some guitarist Monsanto workers in the park out side the bus depot. we arrived early in the AM and had a bus to Carapegua Paraguay that left at 6 so we had time to explore. And explore we did. Buenos Aires was full of people trying to get by in legitimate means and not so legit means. We got  out of the taxi from the Air port after having a great conversation with he driver about the rolling stones and shenade O´coner and met a man with a hand cart. When I asked him his name he replied ‘’ Im the man with the hand cart that will help you,’’ we asked the taxi driver his name and he replied ‘’ I'm the taxi driver’’ at that point I was beginning to think that people weren't to big on names here. Any way turns out the guy with he hand cart didn't even work there and he was trying to scam us.. apparently it cost 16 bucks to have a guy tote your crap around... NOT COOL, also whats not cool is you have to pay people to use the bath room. Oh you need toilet paper? THAT SUCKS well if you have 2 bucks I will give you some! Oh and you need soap to wash your hands because of the really dirty bathrooms right? That will be an extra two bucks... Any way Im glad to be an a house where I don't need to pay to use the bath room. On an interesting note there were stray dogs everywhere that just walked into stores and public places and everyone was cool with it when ever we saw one we would say what up dawg, they tended to not respond. Awesome weird fruit grows here that tastes so good it makes your IQ increase. But over all I am excited to meet people make friends and serve. I got a feeling not to many people here are used to seeing goofy Americans because of all the stares we got int he grocery store but I'm cool with that. Oh and I totally got my phone jacked so pray that someone couldn't read English well enough to take it off air plane mode or I will get charged up the ying yang. At every stop the bus would open up and a parade of people would walk on board selling the phones that they probably jacked from previous passengers and old food and blankets and boot legged music. So, in light of this I'm not surprised about my phone. But Its been a rad experience so far. And we are pumped for what God has in store for us. Just pray that God gives us places to serve and people to share his love with and the energy to do it. Also that my brain doesn't melt because one day of translating for Sam and his family took a lot our of me mentally. Any way, Love Y’all and keep us in your prayers. Talk to you soon -Corey

So im not gonna repeat everything Corey already explained about the trip, it would take to long. But basically- between a night spent on an airplane and a bus -we´ve gotten a solid 6 hours of sleep total. When i don't get sleep i get irritated and i´ve definitely been challenged on this trip so far! Whats cool is that the only person i can rely on when i get discouraged and start to question this trip is God. In the past when ive been on trips, ive had many people around me for comfort and to talk to. Like the Indonesia trip i went on with new heights last year. When your pooped and dont want to think BAM theres 12 people around you to talk with, encourage you and play games with. This trip, not so much (well i guess Corey is here but... ya...) so i have to constantly depend on the Bible and all the promises in it. As Corey said, the happiest moment on this trip was stepping off of that bus knowing i didn't have to run to another gate or haggle my way around downtown looking for a bus to catch. Meeting my family for only the second time in my life has been so awesome! They are the nicest, most genuine and generous people i´ve ever met. Ive picked up a lot of Spanish in just this one day and i hope i learn enough to plant some seeds in their life so that they can live for an eternal purpose. That is one of my goals on this trip. For those reading this, I ask that you keep Corey and me in your prayers for tomorrow that God can direct us to the lost souls in Paraguay so we can be the ´beautiful feet´ that you send us to be when we bring them the news of Jesus (Romans 10:15). Anywho, I´m going to get some must needed rest. Adios!

Whats the story?

Hello Friends and Family,


I hope you are doing well, and I would love to reconnect with you sometime soon, as it might have been a while since we chatted. There are some exciting new things happening in my life, and I would like to include you in them. A few years ago, I was dramatically transformed. Jesus Christ entered my life and asked that I serve him and that I give my entire life to him. This is not an easy task, but I am doing my best. God has blessed me in the process by putting wonderful people in my life, by ridding my soul of guilt and shame, and by helping me to heal and to become a man whom I never knew I could be. Because of Him, I have developed a passion for serving others and for using my skills and abilities to acknowledge his presence in my life.


Recently, I was presented with an opportunity to serve abroad and to share the good news of Jesus with the people of Paraguay. My good friend Sam Loewen informed me of his four-month trip to Paraguay to serve and to grow spiritually and invited me along. After much prayer, council, and consideration, I have decided to take a leap of faith to go fulfill this task that I am confident God has given me. I will be in Paraguay from September 15th to January 1st and will be given the opportunity to volunteer at multiple places. Some of the ministry options include serving at The Mennonite Volunteer Service of Paraguay, at an elementary school, and at a mental hospital. I will get the chance to live with and serve a family of missionaries named Bill and Ita Williams and learn what it is like to be a missionary while offering my assistance to them in their ministry. There will be opportunities to lead talks, to help lead youth ministry events, to lead in worship sets, and to care about people and share Jesus with them. The first stop is Asunción, the capital city of Paraguay. Afterward, I’ll head to Carapegua and will stay there for a month. After that, I will travel around to stay with a few different people, including Sam's family, who has offered to let us stay with them.


So why do I want to go to another country in the middle of South America? For a lot of reasons! As a Spanish language major, I can use the education that God has given me for His purposes. There, I will be completely immersed in Spanish, which is the best way to refine language skills. I will be able to advance my education while serving God and others at the same time. When I return, I am confident that my Spanish will have improved to the level required for my career as an interpreter. While in Paraguay, I will be accompanying Sam, helping him learn Spanish, and acting as a translator to connect him to his family and share Christ with them. Once I came to faith in Jesus Christ, I realized that I am great at making friends (both from within and outside our culture) and introducing them to Jesus. God has blessed me many times with successes in intercultural ministry and He has given me a passion for evangelism and for serving others. People in Paraguay tend to admire the United States and its people. Thus, as an American, I have the chance to draw interest to myself, which I hope to turn into opportunities to share the gospel and to humbly serve others by showing God’s deep love for them. I see this trip as a rare and momentous opportunity to serve others, to perpetuate the gospel, and to grow, both in my faith and my career field.
I believe that I have found the ministry I am being called to, and your support can make this happen! The entire trip would be slightly under $3000 for tickets, a visa, food, transportation, lodging, and living expenses. If this is something that you feel like you want to be a part of then I encourage you to pray about what you could do to support this trip. You can donate by sending a check or money order to the following address:

Corey Mitchell
2700 NE 111th Street
Vancouver, WA 98686

....or you could call me up and we could meet somewhere. My phone number is 360-909-4639. In reality, your prayers are the thing that will fuel this trip. Please pray that God opens doors for communication with people and that He brings me as much ministry as I can handle.
Thank you so much for your time, your contributions, and your prayers, and I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Sincerely,
Corey


Prayer requests

• To make my trip successful, you could be praying that:
• God uses me to reach others 
• God gives me the wisdom I need to be effective 
• I improve my Spanish 
• God keeps us safe and healthy 
• We get opportunities to serve people and impact others.