Happy New Year!

I want to let everyone know that Scott has made it home safely. He had a really good trip. He didn't have any problems with any of his flights.

Scott had some really neat experiences. He preached just about everyday he was there. He fixed several computers. He even brought back a Guampa (pronounced "wampa" - a type of cup), Bombilla (a metal straw with a spoon shaped filter on bottom) and a Termo (a thermos), which he is continuing to use. The picture is of a guampa with the bombilla on top, and a morter and pestal type of dish which I believe they use to crush the leaves and herbs they use to make the terere. Scott even brought back some of the terere which he had taken a liking to since it's a healthy drink. However it hasn't caught on here in Texas yet. He has mostly been greeted with some funny looks like "You want me to drink that?"

In Paraguay they share the drink with others, kind of like a sign of trust. They put the bombilla (metal straw) in the guampa (cup), then they put the terere on top of the filter part of the bombilla. Then they just add cold water from their termo for terere. They do have a hot water version which is called mate (pronounced mah-tay).

They had a 4 hour Christmas eve service. Scott preached during part of the service, which ended around mid-night.

Scott also got to preach on the national radio there in Paraguay, he also preached at a women's prison there.

On Sunday, Dec. 27, he preached at the church in Paraguay which has their services at 8:30 in the morning.

Then he went over to a Chinese church that met at 10 a.m. He said that was a really neat experience. At the Chinese church he preached in English while someone translated his sermon in Chinese. Then after the service they ate real Chinese food which was prepared by the members.

That afternoon he and Bro. Barker visited a family of the Paraguay church who had a family member die. They do not embalm people there in Paraguay. On Monday, he attended the funeral and he said it sure made a bigger impact to attend a funeral where you can smell the loved one decaying.

Sunday evening they had to go through a couple of border crossings in order to go to the Church in Argentina. The traffic was bad and they actually made it to the service when they had just let out. But that didn't phase the people there a bit, they just said, "Hey, let's go back inside and have services all over again." So they did! They went back inside started the song service and asked Scott to preach.

Then Monday they attended the funeral. The family had prepared the body, and they had a service in their home and then a burial service afterward.

Then on Tuesday, Bro. Barker took Scott to Iguacu falls. Scott took some beautiful pictures which I'll have to get from him. He took a lot of pictures but they are on his camera. I didn't get them on my computer yet. When I do, I'll have to post some. While at the falls, Scott got pick-pocketed by a coati (a racoon looking critter with an attitude). The coati took his bread that he had in a bag on his belt. It ran off before Scott could get it back.

Wednesday, he preached again for the Paraguay church. I got to speak with him on Skype on Wednesday as well. He told me about how many computers he had fixed during those two weeks. He also learned not to touch any metal parts on the computers. He got shocked about 6 times during the first week, then he remembered to be careful.

Then Thursday, he got on the plane in Ciudad del Este, Paraguay, and flew to the airport in Brazil. He had a 9 hour lay over there in Brazil where he worked on some of his Portuguese and was able to talk with quite a few people there.

Friday, Morning he arrived in the Dallas Fort Worth airport right on schedule. It was so good to have him back. He was glad to see me and my Dad in the terminal waiting for him to come out the door. He had been afraid he was going to have to call us and then wait an hour for us to arrive, but we had looked at his flight schedule and were there at the perfect time.

We came arrived back at our home Saturday evening. It's nice to be home and have our family all back together under one roof. I've started the kids back on their homeschool schedule and am working on my plans for this year. I'll try to finish my list and maybe in my next blog I'll post about my plans for 2010. Maybe I'll have some more pictures of Scott's trip by then.