tapé (tah PAY), n.

a way or path
(Guarani)

Many peoples will come and say, The Hagerman Family

"Come, let us go up to the mountain Carapeguá, Paraguay
of the LORD... He will teach us his
ways, so that we may walk in his
paths." Isaiah 2:3

July, 2010
Greetings from Paraguay! This month, we made it off the waiting list and finally got our own p.o. box.
You’ll find our new address in the little box on the next page. We also made it through several weeks of
sicknesses, fevers, and allergic reactions. Thank you for the prayers you sent up for our health and safety.
God had His hand on our family.
We also began a new Bible study in July, on the topic of prayer. We have from 10-15 in attendance on
Monday nights, when we spend 15 minutes in prayer together, then studying various aspects of
communicating with our Heavenly Father. Those in attendance include youth and adult neighbors.
It’s hard to type the word “July” while wearing several layers of clothes, a coat, gloves, and a scarf, but
we’re in full-blown winter here in Paraguay. I wonder how long it will take us to get used the the difference in
the seasons, and feeling like we should be having Christmas in the middle of the year!
The temperatures hover near freezing, but the cold, wet wind makes it seem much worse. We are
Praying with an abuelita (older
blessed to have two heaters, which we put in the bedrooms. At this time of year, all homeschooling takes woman) who received a blanket.
place in the bedroom!
The cold hits hard here, since most people don’t have heating in their homes. Those who can afford it use space heaters, but unfortunately,
most families have no heat at all. Most homes aren’t well sealed, some of them with walls whose slats don’t touch each other, or walls of concrete
that don’t go all the way up to the ceiling. Homes are either dirt floors with coconut tree trunks for the walls, or concrete with tile floors. Neither lends
to much warmth.
With this in mind, we were thrilled to be able to hand out over 30 beautiful multi-colored, thick blankets to needy families this month. Thanks to
Carolina Heights Christian Fellowship’s blanket drive, lots of families with small children or the elderly are sleeping a little warmer tonight. Handing
out the blankets not only gives us a chance to meet physical needs of the community, but it also opens the door to explain that God loves them so
much, He spoke to the hearts of people thousands of miles away to see to it that they got some warmth in this cold. As a result of visiting the
homes to deliver the blankets, we found out about an elderly woman needing a ride into the next town to have some medical tests. On the ride back
from the tests, she invited us to visit and read the Bible with her. It’s always amazing to watch God open doors.

School News
Unfortunately, most of the month of July has passed without school. The school year runs from
February to December, so students should be in the middle of their studies. However, teachers’
strikes ran for a couple weeks, followed by a couple weeks of winter vacation (the equivalent of spring
break). The children should have started back by now, but the cold weather has led to the decision to
keep schools closed until the threat of colds and flu is less. Since most children walk long distances to
school, often in less than adequate clothes and shoes, they were happy to hear that classes were
further postponed.

Just before the strikes, we visited a new little school in a very poor neighborhood, quite a few
kilometers down dirt roads. The school was built by the community and is staffed by one volunteer
teacher, who has a class of 15 students ranging in age from 4 to 15 years old. She teaches them all in
the one room.

When we visited, we took a large painting of Jonah and the Big Fish and a scripture of encouragement, that some fellow missionaries
donated, and hung it on their wall. The kids were SO excited! The teacher mentioned that they don’t have any story books, so we took
some small readers and a picture Bible in Guarani, the language most of the children speak. We received an offering from Washington
Avenue Baptist Church’s VBS, which we have dedicated to this little school as soon as they start classes back. The volunteer teacher
had been buying enough supplies for them to get by, from money she made selling Avon. (Yep, even here, there’s an Avon lady!) So we
are eager to get back to the little school in Arazaty where we hold the weekly Bible classes, and also to get out to this new school in
Loma Clavel and help meet the needs of the students there.
CHAU, HOLLIE!
The last day of June, we put Hollie Cannon on a plane back to the U.S. She
spent six months here as a mission intern and made quite an impact on our
little community. Hollie put her talents in the kitchen to good use, earning
her the title Popcorn Queen. She was always eager to try out a new recipe
or make sure our guests had a fresh batch of cookies, brownies, or cake to
munch on. Her invitations to various neighbors to a cookie snack were quite
popular, and led to many late night conversations around the table. She helped out in everything from
kids’ ministry to youth nights to the young ladies’ Bible study, and was very handy with the camera.
Already, we’re realizing we don’t have pictures of the latest events because we’d gotten so used to Hollie’s photo-snapping
habits. She has moved back to Tennessee now, where she’s finding out what God has in mind for the next phase of her life.

Living on the BORDER

This month, a new outreach ministry has grown out of Friday night youth club. A group of the "regulars" here who have been digging
in a little deeper in the ministry, have started a Christian band. They really want to use their band as an outreach to fringe youth. Their
vision is right in line with ours, so we've joined forces to step it up a notch and use Friday nights as a targeted evangelism night. The
band starts things off with a mini-concert, including some songs they've written, some praise and
worship stuff that's familiar here but with a new musical style, and some music without lyrics.
Afterward, Ken has a short devotional sort of talk, geared to those who aren't familiar with
Christianity or the church. Then we have a meal together, hang out, play some games, and start
conversations with the new folks.
Normally our Friday night attendance is mostly the youth from various churches in town, with a
few unchurched kids mixed in. For these concert nights, we've had more of the "never darkened
a church door" crowd than the typical Christian teens. This is really exciting in terms of
outreach. We have had between 25-35 in attendance each night.
We've got a sort of informal group going, including the members of the band, us, Saúl, and another young couple. Saúl took one of the
band members to his radio program and did an hour-long infomercial for the outreach nights. Naming things in English is really
popular right now, so they've named this group Holy Warriors and the Friday night event, The Border. The premise is that we live
close to enemy lines, engaging in warfare for the souls of those who live over the border, so to speak. The response is great so far, and
we are praying that God uses this to reach a group of kids that are shunned and overlooked in normal ministry. We're also excited at
how God will utilize this as a means of involving the youth in the group further in ministry, as they use their talents for the Kingdom.

Thank you again for making it possible for us to minister in

this beautiful country. We certainy don’t take for granted the
opportunity to minister in this part of the world, and it’s only
CONTACT INFORMATION
possible through your prayers, support, and giving. May God
Telephone in Paraguay:
richly bless you for the part you play in the growth of His 595-985-782-928
Kingdom in Paraguay! We hope to see you in October and Skype number: 864-343-1731
November! Donations are received through our local
---Ken, Christie, Camille, and Caroline church:
Carolina Heights CoGoP
2900 Anderson Road
Greenville, SC 29611
(Please write “Hagerman Missions” on check
God bless you! memo. All donations are tax deductible.)
Mailing address:
¡Dios le bendiga! (Spanish) Ken and Christie Hagerman
Casilla de Correo 13134
Ñandejára tanderovasa! Shopping del Sol
Asuncion, Paraguay, South America
(Guarani) Email: hagerman100@yahoo.com
Webpages: www.hagermans.blogspot.com
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