It was love at first sight when we entered the little town of San Francisco, Paraguay, about twelve years ago. God gave us a “man of peace" (Luke 10:5-7), and we lived with his family while learning the Guarani language.

Over the slow passage of time, we began a few Bible studies. Years passed, and there was a scattering of believers. Eventually some leaders began to emerge who led the Bible studies with us. More recently, we have held a weekly meeting with the leaders to prepare together what they will teach. Those leaders then lead the Bible studies without us. Last week, we told the leaders that the next step was for them to lead the leaders' meetings. They talked about it, and Pedro, our man of peace, was chosen for a six-month term.

It has taken 12 years to work ourselves out of this job. Now it is time for us to move on, but we are by no means finished! This is merely the end of a chapter. While it will be sad and hard to leave our spiritual children and grandchildren, we know that in order to continue maturing they must depend on the Holy Spirit and not us. Seeing the marvelous ways that God has changed people's lives in San Francisco makes us anxious to see that happen again in another town.

As we have traveled to town after town in rural Paraguay searching for where God would have us minister next, we have been struck by the vast number of people still unreached with the gospel. There are so many little isolated towns with 200, 400, or 1,000 people as well as a string of houses between those towns. How can they all be reached?

Two things that we have learned in our years in Paraguay are that 1) Guarani touches people's hearts better than Spanish and 2) People are more likely to listen to God's Word than to read it. That is why SIM has started the Audio Bibles project and the Guarani Recording project. Bringing God's Word to the people of rural Paraguay in their heart language and in a way that they can listen to it instead of read it cannot help but change the whole country!

Please pray that these two projects will directly affect our next chapter of ministry. Evangelism and discipleship must be relational. It is most natural and most effective to reach our immediate neighbors. Therefore we need a Christian witness in each of these towns. We will go to one of them, but who will go to the rest? “Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.” Matthew 9:38

Pray

• for the Audio Bibles and Guarani Recording projects, that they will be well-staffed and fully funded so that the Word of God can continue to penetrate Guarani speakers' hearts.
• for God to show the Floyds where he wants them to serve next in Paraguay.

Give

SIM is almost half finished with recording the Bible in Guarani to put onto MP3 players. US$80 will bring us one day closer to completion. You or your Christian group can buy these audio Bibles for us to give to the families in rural Paraguay. For just US$15, an MP3 player will be loaded with the entire Bible in Guarani, the heart language of Paraguayans.

If you would like to donate, please contact your nearest SIM office or give online. Thank you and God bless!

2011 Update: Audio Bibles Project

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Thank you for partnering with SIM to bring the Good News to rural Paraguay.