 Dearest brothers and sisters in Christ, our family, As I sit down to write this, my heart is flooded with joy! Peter has just messaged me, that a village he is taking the gospel to today, saw in their dream last night that he was coming! This is something that you and I may have read about in other missionary stories of old. It is still happening today, here in Paraguay! What blows me away is that this is at least the fifth time we have arrived at a village and the people have shared this with us. We serve a MIGHTY LOVING GOD who loves His creation so much that He is directing our steps to reach these far and hard to get to places! Today, October 1st, marks 10 years ago exactly, that we left our home in Oklahoma. What a beautiful confirmation from the Lord that we are still following His directives! In a recent conversation, Peter shared this with me: “Evi, I have seen whole villages coming out of darkness into the glorious light of the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ! It is like when a light is turned on in a room - the darkness has no where to hide. It disappears at 186,000 miles per second. (The speed of light)”  But how did this all begin? Ten years ago on the 10th of this month of October we arrived in hot sunny Paraguay! This blog is a celebration of what the Lord has done! Please join us as we rejoice and remember how faithful and GLORIOUS our Heavenly Father is! Some of you may remember how the Lord moved mightily through dreams, words and confirmations, to remove us and our 19 children (inside joke!) from our beautiful and comfortable home in the USA. Our older children still remember that final day and night of endless packing, decision making, boxes everywhere, and 16 suitcases all to somehow close. If you have not read that story yet of how, you can read it in Miss Rhonda Knox’s book, “Mama, I have fallen in love with Paraguay!” (www.yousaidgoministries.com/p/nepal-facts.html) My husband tells, “If the Lord had written with His finger in the sky, “Move to Paraguay!”, it would have been less of a display than what actually transpired over the course of 9 months in the year 2014.” I will leave you with that teaser. I will try to make a summary of our God adventures in Paraguay, as many elements are already written about in previous blogs, and why we are celebrating and taking time to remember all that the Lord has done through us as a family and a team! It is good to take time to give glory to the Lord for His faithfulness and mighty love that has birthed something so precious and hard to capture and put into words. In the Old Testament, our forefathers set up rocks and memorialized their God visitations and victories. These memories were passed down from generation to generation, as a way of keeping their faith strong in our Mighty Sea Splitting God! So in the same Spirit, I hope this blog encourages you and reminds us all that we serve an AWESOME God, able to do far above all that we could ever ask or imagine!(Ephesians 3:20). Looking back, there have been several key elements to this God story that have come together. Late 2013, Peter and I had been asking the Lord to give us a nation(Psalm 2:8), and Peter felt to look at the map of South America having this general region on our hearts. When he zoomed in to the center of S.America, he felt like Paraguay grabbed his attention. We began to pray about this nation, but didn’t share this with anyone yet. About nine months later, Miss Rhonda Knox had a dream about Paraguay on the 13th of June. She was led by the Holy Spirit to share it with Peter and I the next day June 14th, which happened to be his birthday, and invited us to go on a scouting trip together. As the Lord had already put Paraguay on our hearts, we said “YES!” We often think about what would have happened if Miss Rhonda woke up and thought, “Oh, that was weird,” and didn’t respond to the prompting of the Lord. We would not be here today! Wow! (As Miss Rhonda herself would say). Out of our precious friendship with Pastor David and Miss Rhonda of Grove Christian Center, in Oklahoma, a commitment to Paraguay was born. Our mutual trust in, and passion for King Jesus and His Kingdom have carried us through the trials and tests on this amazing journey of crazy faith, as Pastor Alcides Roman calls it. Peter and I believed God was speaking through the dream, like the Macedonian Call that Apostle Paul received, and He confirmed that in multiple ways as we pursued God’s will for us all. Without our connection with the body of Christ in Grove, and our friendship with these loving Pastors, we could not have begun this adventure! First memorial that we give thanks and praise to God for: our friendship established in Oklahoma and carried on, being a consistent source of strength, support and encouragement.  August 2014 - Pastor David & Miss Rhonda Knox with Evi & Peter Ratcliffe. Another key has been meeting dear Pastor Cipriano, his wife Carmen and their family. I still vividly remember that day, in August 2014, when we were introduced to this precious couple. Pastor David, Miss Rhonda, Peter and I, with our host P. Alcides, our translator and contact, all sitting in a circle on plastic chairs and sensing a God connection. A few months later, we were back at their house listening to their heart cry for help with their dream to reach their Guarani people with the Gospel. Tears fell from Pastor Cipriano's eyes as he shared their struggles of riding their motorbike, carrying a huge pot and supplies, through mud or dust. They felt alone and hopeless, and were facing serious health struggles when we visited them. Just as Miss Rhonda dreamed, Father God brought hope into a desperate situation. Some of you may have seen the video our son Daniel made of Pastor Cipriano as he recounts this and his gratitude for our commitment to help him (see Thank You video below). Still today, Peter and Cipriano continue to go out together, taking the precious good news of salvation to the furthest corners of this nation, as well as continuing to disciple those that are reached and eager to learn more. Pastor Cipriano has been our guide into many villages with great wisdom and awareness of how to reach his people. He also has trained us for years in order to keep us from making harmful cultural blunders. This has opened even more villages to us, as now many have heard about the special community events, and want us to come to their village also. We are so grateful for these dear friends in P. Cipriano and his wife Carmen. We remember and give thanks to how the Lord raised P. Cipriano up from his death bed, gave him hope to believe God had not abandoned him in his dream to reach his people, and joined us in a holy connection as families!
To reach the Guarani people, we would need to learn their language. Third important key: Andy Bowen our Guarani teacher, his beautiful wife and family. Some other dear missionary friends had recommended this language course to us, so we committed ourselves to nine months of intensive studies at the Bowen’s house where they had the language school. Through the persistent effort and heavily loaded content, we basically were fire-hosed Guarani at such a standard that today we can speak with the locals fluently. This has opened many doors of ministry. Where some may have been unwilling give permission for us to speak to their people, nervous chiefs have allowed us to come simply because we can speak their language. Just the other day at a newly reached community the chief ‘greeted’ Peter with two body guards brandishing extremely heavy, hardwood batons. Seeing the color of Peter’s skin as he stepped out of the vehicle, they came somewhat nervously and angrily - ready to kick-out the outsider from their community. As Peter greeted them in Guarani, respecting the chief’s authority and complementing them on their community set up, tensions were calmed and they opened their whole community to hear the Gospel message for the first time. Praise God!! We thank the Lord for this grace upon us as a family to learn new languages and cultures, and the ability to navigate ourselves in a foreign land. We started this journey dependent on the guidance of the Holy Spirit, leading us out upon the waters, and remain fully reliant on Him everyday. A final key has been to remain in Christ as a team; to stand having done all to stand therefore (Ephesians 6:13). Deciding to remain focused and faithful through the challenges, in terrible tragedy and loss, in betrayal and heart ache, in baking heat or the damp cold - through all the extremes that have been thrown at us. Ten years of sacrifice. Of not being able to have Christmas with family, share birthdays with Grandparents etc. Ten years of juggling - sometimes Peter and I wear so many hats in one day, we feel spun around, dragged through bushes forward and back, and then some! (Perhaps one day I will write: 'A Day in the Life of a Missionary in Paraguay'!) Remaining filled with God's Word and His Spirit, and learning to allow our Father, our Master to pour Himself out through us! Working as an epic team, with precious volunteers willing to give their all! Thank God for the Body of Christ around us, our dear children, and right hand help, Esther! We are grateful for all those here in Paraguay that are a part of our lives, supporting, loving and encouraging us as we run our race, looking unto Jesus! “Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit says the Lord!” Zechariah 4:6  I have written about some of the truly remarkable fruit we have seen over the years in my last blog (blog-44-fruit.html), but here I will make a list of some epic facts and statistics of the work. We are not building our own kingdom, but the Lord’s, so to Him be all the Glory, Honor, and Praise! In 10 years in Paraguay:
Of course, I would like to conclude that without you - our dear family in Christ all over the world - we would not be able to “GO”. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! You have been the continual givers through challenging times that have kept our vehicles on the road taking the Gospel, lots of tummies filled naturally and spiritually, and our ministry supplies flowing. We are committed to keep going! Peter and I have heard the Lord calling us to expand more with the Gospel into the ‘Green Hell’ (as it is referred to), the desert of the Chaco. We have dreams of camp meetings, youth ministry etc etc, but we trust the in the Lord’s timing for these, and His provision. As time is running out, we must focus on the vast harvest fields, which are still white, abundant and just waiting to hear the good news of Jesus Christ.
Please continue to lift us up in prayer as the Lord leads you - your prayers are so valuable to us! We bless you in the mighty name of Jesus, our Lord and Saviour! Together, let us continue by His grace to be faithful to the call of God on all of our lives! Evi Ratcliffe
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AuthorsPeter & Evi Ratcliffe Archives
October 2024
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