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Project Paraguay 2005
Mission Statement


This project exists for 2 reasons:
 

1.   To facilitate the work of the Anglican Church in Paraguay, by providing monies and work force each year for practical projects, which the Anglican Church out there would find difficult, if not impossible to provide for themselves, these are usually building projects.



2.   Each year we take groups of committed Christians of all ages, out to Paraguay to work on these projects.  This gives a unique opportunity to understand the problems and joys of another culture, to see how the church is working and growing, to share fellowship, to laugh and sometimes cry with them, to receive and show the love of God.
   
   

The San Juan Project
 
This will be the 3rd year that we have been working at San Juan.  The first year we built a church, 2nd year 2 dormitories, which sleep 50 people in 8 bedrooms.  Also a separate shower block, which contains, 4 of each showers, toilets, and hand basins.

This year the retreat in San Juan has been used by young people from Concepcion who could never afford a holiday, or even the bus fare to go to Asuncion to join in with other young peoples activities.
So this year’s task is to build a Comedor (dinning room). 

This will also be used for meetings etc. and of course a kitchen to cook the meals in.

  
 
 

The Project at Karanda

 Karanda is an Indian village in the homeland of El-Estribo, 400 kilometres north of Asuncion, in the Chaco region.

 The project is to build a small church for Karanda village and for Pastor Remigio.  Although Pastor Remigio has been one of the foremost Indian leaders in the Anglican Church, he has no church in his own village. 

 This building will also have 2 aljibes (large water collection cisterns) to collect the precious rainwater from the roof of the church.  The church will not just be for worship, but as in most cases in the hostile Chaco environment, it will serve many purposes.
 
 

The Project at San Lorenzo
 San Lorenzo is situated some 30 kilometres from the centre of Asuncion.  For the past 7 years a few dedicated members of the Anglican Church have been running a children’s club on Saturdays. 
One of the helpers has very kindly allowed the group to meet on a piece of land that she owns, close to a very dilapidated area where most of the children live.
These children come from very poor families, where there is much alcohol abuse, lack of medical facilities, high unemployment and many of the fathers have abandoned their families.
In faith we have bought this piece of land for the Anglican Church, so that we may build a proper centre for these children to meet in, which will have indoor and outdoor facilities.  Rooms where they can meet in the winter and be warm, a kitchen and shower room and maybe, eventually a church will be formed there, as has happened in the Remancito project of last year.

   
 
 

The Project at Zeballos Cue

 Zeballos Cue lies in the outskirts of Asuncion, by the side of the River Paraguay. 


The Anglican Church has a very long association with this area.  It has a church and full-time pastor, Alberto Romero, and his family. 
 

You may remember during August of last year there was a terrible fire at a large supermarket, which resulted in 450 losing their lives.  Many of the families who lost loved ones came from Zeballos Cue, and Pastor Alberto has been working very hard to help the families who were affected.
 
The following is a letter he wrote to me, in which he states what he would like us to do for the people of Zeballos Cue, and the reasons why he wants it.

Iglesia Anglicana El Redentor, Zeballos Cue

“We need to replace all the corrugated roofs over the Sunday school rooms for a tiled roof, in order to lower the temperature inside the rooms, where the heat is almost unbearable for most of the year.
Outside the area used for sport needs to be grassed, as the dust is causing respiratory problems and means that often the church rooms or the church office cannot be used.
We would also like to make use of the space behind the church to construct more rooms, which could be used for community purposes.  For example, as a soup kitchen for children; in training courses to teach skills in cooking, hairdressing, electricity and literacy, as well as in Christian discipleship, and training for Sunday school teachers etc. and occasionally provide space for visitors from other congregations) eg. Concepcion, Chaco or Formosa) to stay the night.
The larger room in the project would also be used for the young people’s work and adolescents meetings.
On our own it is impossible for us to finance this project, so we would ask for help from our brothers and sisters in other parts of the world”.

 Pastor Alberto Romero and Members of the Church Council in El Redentor, Zeballas Cue.

The dates of these projects are as follows:
 
1st Teams -  Fly out Friday 1st July 2005 – arrive Paraguay Saturday 2nd
                       Return Thursday 28th July – arrive UK Friday 29th July

 2nd Teams - Fly out Friday 29th July 2005 – arrive Paraguay Saturday 2nd August
                        Return Thursday 25th August – arrive UK Friday 26th August

 You can if you wish, go for the full 8 weeks at no extra cost.

The cost per person this year will be £1,300 –00, this includes Airfare, insurance, all project transportation, food and a little holiday at the Iguasu Falls at the end, so you can ‘chill out’.

So if you are interested, please give me a call or write, details are given at the end of this document.
The actual project costs, usually come from fundraising, within the churches that people going on Project Paraguay come from. 
 
This is also the way many younger volunteers manage to cover their costs.
If you have any other queries concerning Project Paraguay please do not hesitate to contact me, my details are as follows:

Mr Phil Grainger, email: Philip.grainger@themail.co.uk or contact the church office: office@aldridgeparishchurch.co.uk