Christmas 2008!

Merry Christmas!

As we come to this year's end and celebrate the season of Christ's Birth, I want share with you some of the amazing wonders that God has been doing throughout this past year. And likewise, I want to thank many of you who have supported me through much prayer and support, which moved what would have been "mountains" for me, and permitted me to move ahead throughout this year's journey. I am very thankful to God for giving me such a supportive team to work along side of. I hope that you are blessed as you here what God is doing here in Paraguay.

As I look back on this year alone, I am stunned at the work God has done in my life. For being my first year on the mission field, I can definitely say it has been a busy year. Let me run through with you a little bit what the things that have happened this year alone.

Together with the mentorship of seasoned and competent missionaries at Power to Change, I started the first 7 months of this year with a great opportunity to grow and learn what God is capable of doing through me when I depend on him.
During those months, I became fully involved in coordinating the supply of food that was shipped to Paraguay. A total of 8 contains with up to 8 million meals of food needed to be pledged to feed the kids in Paraguay. I was asked to promote these massive need and help resource this food. At the time I had no idea where in the world to start! But now three of these 8 containers have already reached Paraguay!

In May, I also was able to help with the coordination of the East Asia Leadership Conference, in which a group of East Asia's spiritual leaders (who had more than 15,000 Christian workers on the field) came together at Power to Change to learn innovative ideas of leadership and how to work together to reach Asia for Christ.

In July, I was privileged to coordinate with Athletes in Action a team of Fathers and their 13-15 year old sons into Nicaragua where the gospel was courageously shared at every level of society including: hospitals, schools, government workers, Police officers, fire fighters, and especially on the soccer field. This was a tremendous trip where every father that went grew closer to God and become closer to his sons.

I want to especially thank Faith Community Church and all the people who opened up their homes to me and helped me with everything I needed to get started as a full time missionary!

In August, my long awaited desire of living and working in the country of Paraguay became true. It's funny because even a year earlier, I didn't know that the country exited, but now it was where God had called me and there was nowhere else in the world I would have wanted to go. On the 9th, I left Lynden with my two suitcases which held all my life belongings + my guitar to start a whole new life again. Paraguay sense then has become my new home, and God has blessed me with a bed I can call my own, I house to live in, friends that accompany me, a new church I have grown to love. Plus I have a great team of people I serve along side of with a vision of seeing Paraguay transformed with the love of Christ.
Working with Transforming Paraguay Together has been a thrill, every day with new challenges we face but great opportunities to share the gospel using every means within our reach. I feel like in Canada I learned some of the things that God could do through me as an individual, however here in Paraguay, I have learned what God can do when a team of us commit our every effort to expand the kingdom of God and reach people's needs.

To start out my journey here I must first explain to you who Alexis Aquino is. First of all he is my boss, but more than that, he has become a mentor who has come along side of me with the desire to train me and challenge me as a leader. He is nothing less than a General in the kingdom of God (literally the only thing missing is his uniform), but he is someone I have come to appreciate and respect greatly. The first duty he asked me to take on was definitely the biggest project I have ever coordinated in my life.

October 16, 17, 18th we held an evangelistic event in a large soccer stadium outside of Asuncion in which more than 40,000 people attended! I was asked to coordinate the transportation of these people to and from their neighborhoods. Together with a team of 36 people for 6 weeks we coordinated with hundreds of church leaders across the city and used over 560 buses to transport people to the event. To say the least, it was a logistical nightmare to organize, but thanks to God and a great team, we moved everyone safely without any accidents (a true miracle in Paraguay.) But the real miracle is that 4051 people came forward to receive Christ for the first time! Plus these people are now being followed up with and getting plugged into the local churches. I can only imagine the celebration happening in heaven right now!

After this event, I have continued to work with the "Children of Promise," who are the 17, 260 kids who now receive love, a plate of food, friendship, and Christian values across the poorest areas of Asuncion. Now in 156 different churches, humanitarian aid is being established as a means of sharing Christ within the community. We help the local churches by giving them the basic bulk of the food including rice, vegetables, noodles, cookies, and even clothes. Many of these kids live on the streets or in abusive homes, and the soup kitchens are the only place they can come and find shelter and love. For example even today I met Ivan, an 11 year old orphan boy who was already addicted to cigarettes and living out on the streets before he started going to the soup kitchen ran by the a church in the neighborhood of Capiata. This Church started with the soup kitchen with the desire to reach out to their community, and besides many of the children who now attend sunday school, 21 of the parents have also started going to the church through and are now going to start a dicipleship program. I love it! Every day I meet new people like this who are being blessed with the food.
In addition to helping resource the food, I am also coordinating different practical training days to teach all the soup kitchen coordinators with practical ways to reach the children's spiritual and emotional needs, how to administrate a kitchen, and even teach some good recipes to feed many mouths.
I believe 2009 will continue to be a year full of excitement and challenges. In this year alone we were able to reach 490,000 people personally with the gospel. And we continue to believe God that next year we will be able to reach even more. I want to assure you that each one of these people represents a person who's life has been touched with the gospel this year. And in the next few days I will be sending you the stories of some of these people who were impacted throughout this year.
So as the countdown to Christmas begins, lets start thanking God first for the people who have come to know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior!

From Paraguay, I wish you a merry Christmas and I pray God's continual blessing be over you and your families.

With Love,

Judah Mooney