October 2022 Prayer Letter
Dear Friends and Family,
As we write this letter, we are currently in Pensacola, Florida. In early September, we received a call that Jim’s mom (Nancy) had been hospitalized and would be undergoing open heart surgery. Jim flew to be with his mom and was able to share the gospel with her prior to surgery. However, Nancy, who converted to Catholicism in her 40’s, was still relying on her good works to take her to Heaven and was not receptive. A week later, Nancy was discharged to a skilled nursing facility for rehab, and Jim returned to Paraguay. We made the difficult decision that Kari would return to the US just two days later on a one-way ticket to help care for Nancy as she was not doing well with her recovery. The night before Kari was to leave, we received a call that Nancy had taken a turn for the worse, been readmitted to the hospital, and the doctor was not sure if she would live through the night. Jim and the girls were able to get tickets to return on the same flight as Kari. We praise the Lord that we were able to return in time to see Nancy, as it had been almost two years since the girls had seen their grandma.
After many conversations with the medical staff and seeing his mom’s condition, Jim made the heart-wrenching decision to place Nancy into an in-patient hospice facility. We continued to try to share the love of Christ with her during the few days that remained. On Saturday, five days after we arrived, Nancy passed away. Jim honored his mother’s wishes to be buried in a catholic cemetery with a simple graveside service performed by a catholic priest. Our pastor was also present and shared the gospel.
We are currently working on cleaning out Nancy’s home. As an only child, Jim has decisions to make regarding the home and possessions. Please pray for wisdom, as well as comfort during this time. We are working on purchasing our return tickets to Paraguay for two weeks from now.
We are so thankful for our small church family in Paraguay who have been so supportive during this time. Between one of our faithful men and a missionary friend, the church services and evangelism outreach on Saturday have continued. In fact, we had a visitor attend last Sunday. We are also so excited to share that we have seen our first person saved at La Victoria. One of our men has been faithfully witnessing to his brothers for years. One brother, Rafael, began attending services, and Jim had the opportunity to also witness to him. He did not get saved that night, but later trusted Christ as his personal Savior. Please pray for Rafael’s continued spiritual growth.
Your Missionaries to Paraguay,
Jim and Kari Showers
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