This updates page is moving...because it is rather difficult to update. So for future updates on JAPAR, please see my old updater.

Dear Brothers, Sisters, Parents, and Friends,

These last few weeks have been a whirlwind of activity, testing, weakness, and discovering the power and love of God in every situation. I feel as if God had a checklist of tests that Iīve failed back in the US in high school or in my family life. He reinitialized them here, in various forms, and so far He has passed each one with me. It seems like He wants me to experience almost every possible scenario in order that I might really understand what it is like to serve in His Will in Paraguay. He has shown me that every scenario has its grace and each day its miracle. We say things like this very often, but Iīm not just saying it. I am so priviliged to actually SEE His work here!

We finished the bathroom at el Renuevo, the main church, just before the team from North Carolina came. They showed up two Fridays ago and left last Friday. It was rather awkward switching suddenly to English after speaking Spanish only for so long. God mercifully blessed me as an English Spanish translator, and I also helped out with administration and organization of the NC team. They came to dig a four meter septic tank, begin the floor, finish two more walls on the church in Barrio Parque, and run a wonderful Vacation Bible School here at the Renuevo church. We had an average of 120 kids each day. I have to say I didnīt really understand what people talk about when they say digging holes and ditches is heavy work. Now I know.

A lot of the work with the church here revolves around praying and more spiritual ministry. I have been priviliged to accompany the pastor on some of his visits and to start a few mini ministries of my own to different families here. This has given me a chance to understand some of the Vision of the church and see it played out in the lives of the precious individuals here. The Vision for the church here is to start four more churches, the first of these four being Barrio Parque, and the other two plants start in January. The dream of outreach here is desperately ambitious and the people are desperately needy. Itīs hard to motivate believers to serve their church when they can barely provide for themselves, but Godīs Spirit works wonders here. Every person here has a job in the church and everything revolves around bringing people into the fold and keeping them there. The culture here is also much more open than the culture in the United States, making door to door evangelis m and shepherding that much easier. Spiritually as well as physically the people are hungry for truth.

Lives here change dramatically after being exposed to the Gospel. I have been helping one of the women here through her discipleship homework on Thursday nights. Apparently before knowing Christ she used to scream at her neighbors, try to kill herself with poison, hear voices, and hurt the people around her through her alcoholicism. Now she is one of the most loving human beings on the planet. Within the first few weeks of getting to know her she told me, with wonder in her voice, īyou know, I think I loved you before I even met you.ī Only the love of God working in someoneīs heart can produce that closeness. One of my other friends here used to be part of a gang that would beat people up after soccer games if the gangīs favorite team didnīt win. He used to be heavily alcoholic and in high school he was a notorious troublemaker. Now, he is a university student and church intern filled with Godīs Spirit and bright dreams of the future. He used to have no patience or love for anyone, but now he is known as a confidante to the Christian teens here. Every single person has an incredible story of the love and grace of Jesus Christ that would take hours to tell in full. I wish I could expose you all just for a week to the power and love at work here.

My desperate hope is that every single one of you could get somehow involved with Paraguay, be it through prayer or through more direct ministry. In many places in the world the work of God is not readily available like it is here. Sometimes hearts are harder or money doesnīt go as far or there simply isnīt enough work for unqualified people. Here, any Spanish speaking teenager with no other qualifications than two arms, two legs, and a heart of service can do nearly anything. They need people who know how to pray and learn. No resumeī necessary and nearly no age limit. Financially, here seven bucks a day is a construction workerīs wage, and 200 a month is all a kid needs to go to school and gain a future. Here the hearts are ready to be broken and plowed and seeded. Agh, I wish I could show you how this is not just some landlocked South American country. This is one of the most strategic evangelistic centers in South America, if we can reach the people here, because geogr aphically Paraguay has easy access to nearly every other country in South America. Culturally, Paraguayans are among the few people groups that are welcome nearly everywhere, and resourceīwise this country has incredible potential to be a blessing to the entire world.

I left my heart here last time I visited. These two months of vibrant life with my heart in the Will of God have been an intense confirmation of the call to missions here in Paraguay for me, as well as a touching revelation of the glory of the will of this romantic God we serve. My God is immensely powerful, immensely holy, and immensely loving, and He wants me to let all of Him pour through me in every area of my life. I have seen a glimpse, a sparkle of what itīs like to live letting Him move through us, like the wind through the waves, and once again I have to thank all of you for making that possible. I would like to ask you to continue to keep me in your prayers as God works to bring me back here in the future, that I might have His strength, which I desperately need for the upcoming barriers in my educational and financial pathway, and for His love over my future in missions.

August 16th is the National 24 Hour Marathon of prayer for Paraguay. I invite you to pray for Paraguay, for workers who will reap the bountiful harvest that is almost past ripe, and specifically for the vision of the Iglesia Renuevo here in Luque. Please e'mail me if you can commit to a half hour time slot (for example, six thirty to seven, please specify AM or PM).

Much love from Paraguay, the country of my heart, and from me, honorary Paraguayan,

Jen Veldhuyzen

Because the limit of God's Love for me is the limit as x approaches 0 in the function 1/x.

Dear Friends and Family,

This is actually my first `formalī update from Paraguay. I wish I had pictures to show you, but something happened recently to show me that there are some things that pictures just canīt cover. Those things are the things I want to share with you.

First, though, I want to thank you and praise God for your prayers towards the work here. On Wednesday the California team went to go and perform their Gospel Drama at two schools in the area while Mr. Steve, from Virginia, and I worked on the church building at Barrio Parque. Perhaps one of the funnest, most memorable things about being here is throwing bricks to (or at) my overseer, Miguel, on a make shift wooden scaffold with my dusty t shirt dripping with cement, the sun gleaming through the cocao trees, the strange birds hissing or squawking in the background...I love construction work so much. We finished the back wall and smoothed out the others nicely. The California Team will be here for two more work days (Saturday and Monday) and then the rest of the church building will be the responsibility of the North Carolina Team coming in late July. The Gospel Dramas have gone well and lots of kids committed to Christ. I really wish I could have done something like that beca use not only do they look really cool (which is always a plus =p), but the entire message of their Christ drama is always so poignant and fresh, even after the fourth time seeing it. The VBS went well and finished strong and the church is going to let me help out with kids at the church in Barrio Parque (which is made up entirely out of kids) on Sundays. Today I spent all morning 'grading' papers at the school. I was stamping the principalīs approval on every single paper and writing in what the kids still need to correct during summer break. Not the most exciting job in the world, but I enjoyed in a lot and look forward to doing more secretary work for Senora Alcira, the principal or directora of the school here.

In the coming weeks I am going to be teaching Computaccion or Computer Information Systems at the school...I think...and maybe helping out with English. I really donīt know...in Paraguay you donīt find out until youīre actually doing it, it seems. At this point, please pray that I would always be kept busy, and yet that I would take the time that God seems to force me into and talk to and bless the people around me just by being a friend. It seems a little silly, but when preparing for this trip I totally didnīt think that I would be making any friends at all. I was more focused on the actual projects I had planned here. I still want to be totally dedicated to the work around me...but I also want to be a loving sister in Christ to the people at this church.

This place feels like such a home to me. Every little thing, from our bus (tetanus waiting to happen) to my moisture enhanced bedroom (the brick holds in water really really really well...way too well) to the night sky chock full of stars Iīve never seen before somehow just welcomes me. The people are so real here--the world is awfully dark, and to hear the stories people have about their lives is to cry inside (one of my friends here was very surprised to find that both of my parents attend church...thatīs not normal here), but God is working in the church here, and that is absolutely amazing. I really would like to live here as a permanent missionary after medical school.

Now to the pictureless picture. The team went to visit Iguazu falls, the biggest waterfall volume-wise in South America, and I did not want to go. Thank God my parents encouraged me to tag along. We went and looked down into this huge Sarlaac pit of water just pouring into it by the tons, thundering so hard that a huge white mist arose to be seen from at least a mile away. We went and stood practically underneath one of the falls, and I got soaked just by the cloud that rises from the impact of the water hitting itself on the bottom. Being there I almost felt I was going to collapse with wonder...on the way back I couldnīt speak, or even really think. On the little train away from the falls we girls rode in the back, and they asked me what I was thinking. I started crying. This was and is quite embarrassing, but I am sharing it because I want to let you know what the waterfall asked me.

If this massive, immense, majestic, powerful, simply awesome moving formation came from the hand of God...and if compared to Him it is as nothing...than what is He? We are told so much about who He is, but compared to the reality itīs so obvious that we know absolutely NOTHING of His Holiness, His Power, His worthiness to be feared above all things, and so loved! And what of me? What of His relationship with me? If just the MIST of the waterfall could soak me, what of just the slightest nearness to God? As I write this I wish you could see how hard it is for me to find words, because this is so much more than I can possibly express. There is absolutely nothing that I can give a God like that. If I tossed a cup of water into the fall, it would make more so little difference...how much less can I add anything to God!!! I have nothing to give!

Except my heart. My heart is everything that I am, all my life, all my soul, my strength, the way I move when Iīm working, the steps I take when Iīm dancing, the vibrations in the air when Iīm singing, even how I sleep...To me, it seems like it would just be His due. To me, the miracle is that He would accept it as the most precious gift in the world.

I feel like a thousand gazillion tons of water shattered everything I ever thought I knew yesterday. I want this more, so much more...I want to know and serve the God of the waterfall, here, and now!

And THAT is what I need you to pray for.

Much much love,

I made You promises a thousand times
I tried to hear from Heaven
But I talk the whole time
I think I made You too small
I never feared You at all
No
If You touched my face would I know You?
Looked into my eyes could I behold You?

What do I know of You
Who spoke me into motion?
Where have I even stood
But the shore along Your ocean?
Are You fire? Are You fury?
Are You sacred? Are You beautiful?
What do I know? What do I know of Holy?

I guess I thought that I had figured You out
I knew all the stories and I learned to talk about
How You were might to save
Those were only empty words on a page
Then I caught a glimpse of who You might be
The slightest hint of You brought me down to my knees

What do I know of You
Who spoke me into motion?
Where have I even stood
But the shore along Your ocean?
Are You fire? Are You fury?
Are You sacred? Are You beautiful?
What do I know? What do I know of Holy?

What do I know of Holy?
What do I know of wounds that will heal my shame?
And a God who gave life it's name?
What do I know of Holy?
Of the One who the angels praise?
All creation knows Your name
On earth and heaven above
What do I know of this love?

What do I know of You
Who spoke me into motion?
Where have I even stood
But the shore along Your ocean?
Are You fire? Are You fury?
Are You sacred? Are You beautiful?
What do I know? What do I know of Holy?

What do I know of Holy? What do I know of Holy?
--Addison Road, What do I know of Holy
P.S. Please PLEASE buy or rent or hear or something this song. It expresses what I mean about the waterfall much better than I ever could have.

`Take off your sandals...for the place on which you are standing is Holy ground.` --Exodus 3, 4-6

Today I reached over $3000 dollars in donations. Everything goes to either my trip or Project Paraguay's funds to serve that nation that holds part of my heart. Thank you everyone for contributing. Your love and care is truly inspiring.

Love, Jen V.