July 25, 2025
Susan Hoover
Dear family and friends,
Greetings once again in the wonderful Name of Jesus!
Winter in Paraguay has some variety. Yesterday it rained, and rained, and rained some more. At any time during the day, majestic rolls of thunder sounded from above and all around, with bright lightning flashes. The trees bent and waved in the wind as they received the showers of blessing -- I love to watch the weather patterns! Every place has its own beauty and its own patterns of weather and nature.
Probably the best news around this place is that Angelica is back! I had mentioned earlier that she was diagnosed with cancer and needed surgery. (She is one of our nurses here.) She was off work for a month afterwards, to recuperate, but all is well, and she is back in the work force here. Things just are not the same without her. Her quiet ways have a wonderful effect on everything. Things can get a bit chaotic around here.
I should be doing laundry and I would love to be doing just that, but the electricity is off again. I had started a load and actually hung one out already, but now everything is stopped. To make matters worse, we have only one washer right now. The other one had a problem, and so they took it away yesterday for repairs. We will either get it repaired, or else buy another one, new. So, laundry is backed up from yesterday, because the power went off for a couple hours yesterday too, in the storm. I could get stressed out about the pile of laundry that isn't getting done, but I have decided not to allow myself to worry or fret. (Worrying never does any good anyway!!) We will do the best we can, and it surely will get done sometime. Needless to say, a washer (or two) is a very necessary piece of equipment at this place!
We've been busier than ever, a few new residents have been added here in the last week or so. Two new ladies, Lucia and Ramona are now here, as well as another man by the name of Anibal. (And we already had two Anibals! :-) Besides daily duties, care of the residents, making up beds with fresh bedding, etc. etc. we have also had trips to town to sign this paper or that paper ... we bought a used car and so there was some paperwork involved in that. But we are thankful to have our own means of transportation now. We were able to use the Home vehicle when it was not otherwise in use, but it so happened a number of times that we were not able to go to church on Sunday because the vehicle was not available to us. So that problem should be solved.
One of the new ladies, Lucia, has caused a bit of stir at times. She is very concerned that her clothes are returned promptly from the laundry. It's as if she expects them to be instantly washed, dried, and returned to her as soon as they are in the laundry bin. When the clothes are out on the line, she anxiously walks along, searching for what is hers. I tell her it needs to dry before she pulls it off, so she leaves it there. But especially the first few days she was here, she was constantly after me, complaining about her clothes not being there. If she cannot find something, she is sure someone has stolen it from her. It could get annoying, but it helps to remember that she is an elderly lady, mixed up about a lot of things, and then breathe a prayer for grace, and a prayer for her too while I'm at it! (She's 89.) But last night, she was a night wanderer! She got out of her room and started wandering around the yard. At midnight she was at our door, calling "Buenos dias!" and then a string of Guarani. This morning some of the other workers were saying they found her wandering around the yard with her walking stick, and put her back to bed.
So, things don't always go quite like one would expect, at a place like this! I guess we need to learn to expect the unexpected.
And now, as I am writing this, Hein just arrived, with a brand new washing machine! Another Speed Queen, just like the other one. Now all we would need yet is for the electricity to go back on, and we could get a lot of wash done in a hurry! Talk about expecting the unexpected!! :-)
Yesterday, in spite of the blustery weather, was birthday party day! In the afternoon the town mayor and his wife, and a few others, came. There was food, music, and a big cake with sparklers lit. There were two birthdays celebrated, although both of them actually had birthdays a few days ago -- Coronel, and Librada. It's always special for the elderly folks, and they always receive a bag of gifts too. Just simple little things like special snacks, etc.
Then in the evening, the Giesbrechts, Erdmann and Gertrude, invited Peter and me to join their family to celebrate their 26th wedding anniversary, and it was Erdmann's birthday as well. We had a nice visit with them and a lovely supper of chicken noodle soup (Russian Mennonite style, so delicious!) There was also a fancy cake there, so we've had plenty of celebration cakes in the last little while! Erdmann is the president of the board of directors for the Home here.
And now -- the electricity is on, but the new machine needs a different cord end put on. So I'm still waiting on that, but in the meantime I am able to wash with the one machine, and so that is what I'm doing! Slow but steady will win the race, I suppose.
Well, here it is late afternoon, or early evening on Friday. I'm glad to see this day come to an end. The last two days have been more trialsome than usual, it seems! I already wrote about the washer problem. I think now I can finally say I am caught up with the laundry, (for today!! Tomorrow there will be another bin full) but it was late afternoon till we could use the new one, because Dennis Hildebrand (an electrician) had to come and do the change on the cord end. In the meantime we worked on it as best we could with the one washer. And what a blessing, today was sunny, warm, and breezy and the wash dried fast. So in the midst of it all, there were definitely blessings too! And the Lord gave grace for everything that He allowed to happen, and I am thanking Him for that. Peter and I also took a little trip to town in the afternoon. Joel decided the other day that we staff members should exchange names and get a small gift for the person whose name we draw. Just for a little interesting change of events. So we did that, and today we went to the El Sendero bookstore here in town and got gifts for the names we drew. The name I drew was Tina's! I was thinking about what I could get her, and so I considered what would I like someone to get for me? A pretty mug, of course! So that is what I got for her. The bookstore has a nice selection of very lovely ones.
Peter has come down with another cold, or "grippe" as they call it here. He has gotten a cold about every three weeks since we are here, and it takes about two weeks to get over it. :-) I wish I knew where I could get a good immune booster around here. This is not exactly a germ-free place to work... He didn't mingle with the people a whole lot today and rested a good bit. I'm hoping it is short-lived and have a feeling he'll be feeling better tomorrow even if his cold takes a few more days to disappear totally.
Next Sunday, August 3, we are invited to attend the wedding of Rufus Hildebrand, Hein and Tina's son. He's the youngest of their 9 sons, but there are two younger daughters that are married already, and so this is the very last of their 14 children to get married! So they've "done" lots of weddings in their lifetime! We look forward to the occasion, and feel honoured to be invited, as we have not known the Hildebrands for very long yet. Although, we have worked with them a lot since we are here and we feel like we know each other very well!
And so, the day is drawing to a close, and this letter will need to draw to its end as well. Thanks to all who are praying for us -- it is appreciated and felt!
Let everything that has breath praise the Lord!
Because He lives,
Susan for the Hoovers