Posted by: Jim Holway | October 22, 2008

Asunción, Paraguay

Although we lived “next door” to Paraguay for all our years in Argentina, we only made it once to visit, and that was only to the border town of Puerto Strossner (now called Ciudad del Este).  In Sept. I had the blessing of working a week in Asunción, the capital city.  The church was celebrating her fourth anniversary, and I was able to preach and teach in numerous settings throughout the week.  The mission team also had their fifth year anniversary while I was there, and we celebrated that joyous occasion in a Korean/Japanese/Chinese/Paraguayan restaurant.  It was great!

Paraguay is one of two land-locked countries in South America, and is surrounded by Bolivia, Brazil and Argentina.  It rarely appears on anyone’s list of “top ten tourist destinations.”  But the people of Asunción are on my list of “best people in the world!”  They are lively, energetic, and wonderfully warm and receiving.  The missionaries have done a good job showing Asunción what the church should be: a healthy mix of gender, race, and socioeconomic groupings.  I was blessed to be in the presence of this wonderful fellowship!

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Posted in Church planting, Paraguay, South America

Posted by: Jim Holway | October 21, 2008

Another wedding!

Kathryn and I are pleased to announce the engagement of our daughter, Sarah, to Bryan Kelly.  The wedding will be in Memphis next August.  Bryan is a great young man, and we are honored to include him in our family.

Kevin and Tonya, Bryan’s parents, were on hand to record the engagement.  Enjoy these pictures of the happy couple!

Striking the pose

Showing off the ring

After Sarah said ‘Yes,’ it was all smiles!

Aren’t they such a handsome/cute couple!

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Posted in Family, Memphis

Posted by: Jim Holway | October 8, 2008

New church launch!

In church planting lingo, the beginning of a new church is often referred to as a launch.  I think it’s a useful description: after months and years of preparation, the new group begins its journey as a community of God’s people on the earth.  God alone knows where this church will go and who it will reach.  There is great excitement and an atmosphere of celebration.  The kingdom of light is overcoming the world of darkness!

Such were the feelings on August 17 when the Iglesia de Cristo en Pompano Beach was officially begun.  Representatives of almost every Spanish-speaking congregation in South Florida were on hand to witness and celebrate this wonderful moment.  Carlos and Maribel Preciado were the proud hosts for the day, and it was the fruition of many prayers and hard work.

Carlos and Maribel were a part of the first LAMP-Miami church planting team that was scheduled to arrive in Miami in 2005.  That team dissolved, but Carlos and Maribel kept true to their vision.  They have been interning with the Griffin Road Church of Christ for the past two years as they waited for God to lead them to the site of the new congregation.  Although Pompano Beach was further north than they had originally planned, it was clear that God was opening a door of opportunity there.

The new church is meeting at the building of the 6th Street Church of Christ, an English-speaking group, and shares the space with a Portuguese-speaking group, Igreja de Cristo em Pompano. The inauguration included some singing in Portguese, and the two groups envision partnering in upcoming outreach events.

We praise God for his faithfulness and the dedication of his servants Carlos and Maribel!

Carlos gives a bilingual welcome — in Spanish and Portuguese!

Everyone enjoyed this day of celebration.

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Posted in Church planting

Posted by: Jim Holway | October 7, 2008

Doing the missionary thing

One of the things you notice about the apostle Paul’s ministry is that after he started a church, he would go back and visit the congregation.  I have found that experience of going back to visit a bittersweet moment.  It’s awesome to see how folks are winning the battle against sin and temptation in their lives, and how the church is progressing.  It’s disheartening to learn of members who have abandoned their faith and the church family.  We had the opportunity to experience all these emotions during a recent visit back to Memphis.

The reason we went back to visit the Iglesia de Cristo in Memphis was to conduct the wedding of Yuridia Carranza and Dacas Loy.  Yuri is the oldest daughter of Saul and Rosa Carranza.  Saul and I served as elders of the congregation, and he continues to be a pillar in the church.  The wedding went fine, but it was a bit tricky because some of Yuri’s family from Mexico spoke no English, and some of Dacas’ family from Michigan spoke no Spanish.  This was true not only for the audience but also for the wedding party.  The rehearsal was unlike any other I have ever coordinated!

While in Memphis we were able to visit with one of our supporting churches, the Church of Christ at White Station, as well as with dear friends and some of Kathryn’s family.

Yuri’s dad, Saúl, and her aunt, Kukina, hard at work during the rehearsal

The happy couple with Dacas’ grandfather

Roberto and Liz’s three beautiful children

José Manuel and Sara’s two boys, the future lawyers of the congregation

Antonio has really grown in his ability to lead worship

Elías is almost as tall as Josué!

The barrio boyz

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Posted in Church planting, Memphis

Posted by: Jim Holway | October 2, 2008

Catching Up – part 3

Whew!  This catching up stuff is tougher than I thought.  It seems that the more I try to keep up, the further behind I get!

Every summer, my sponsoring church, the Sunset Church of Christ (in Miami) conducts a mission trip to Central America.  This year we returned to León, Nicaragua to help a congregation continue its building project.  One of the things that attracted us to this group of believers was their forward-thinking attitude: they were going to accomplish this project regardless of whether we helped or not.  They weren’t sitting around for the “americanos” to do everything.  They had purchased a small plot of land, so we purchased the one next to it and doubled their investment.  Our first year, they poured the foundations and we built the walls.  This year, they had put a roof on the structure and asked us to help them pour the floor.  They had manpower to do the manual labor, but didn’t have the funds to rent a cement mixer.  That’s were we were able to help them.  So the floor got poured and we began adding two classrooms to their structure.

In addition to the construction crew, we took two doctors who saw hundreds of patients and distributed medicines worth thousands of dollars.  We had puppet shows and fun and games for the kids.  It was a great week!  Next year, we plan on focusing our energy on providing seminars and training sessions for the leaders and members of the congregation.  The clinic and the seminars will be held in their new building.

As God partners with us, we are learning what it means to partner with others (Phil. 1.3-6).  What an absolutely amazing thought: God wants to work alongside us!  As we go with God, he goes with us.

Enjoy the pics!

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Posted in Mission trips, Nicaragua

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