Summer Missions 2026 (Final): Paraguay

Hi everyone! This is mission co-leader Tayt writing. Thank you so much to those who have been following along for our mission updates. Unfortunately, this will be our last update.

Thursday after our last mission update, our women team members went to the women's jail. Here is a paragraph from Jamie about that experience. 

“I was really happy to meet Latissia, whom Peri had told me so much about. Latissia will be living at Cofre (Treasure Chest), the house where our team had stayed for most of the trip, when she gets out of jail in July. Before entering the jail and finding Christ through the ladies at Kuña Mimbi, Latissia had spent a lot of her life on the streets, addicted to drugs. Now, she knows that it is her turn for good. God has given her so much joy. She was hugging us, dancing, and singing once she had read and signed the papers agreeing to live a Christian life at Cofre. Me and Peri both teared up as she exclaimed to us in English, “I have a home. I have a home.” We spent most of our time at the prison on Thursday just worshiping and rejoicing with Latissia.”

After the women returned, we went shopping for souvenirs for our family members and friends.

On Friday we had an asado to say goodbye to most of the people we had been working with. There was lots of good food, mostly cooked by Devonna. She used to run a well known Mexican restaurant in Asuncion, and it showed. We also watched a slideshow put together by Christi and Susi of a lot of the memories we had on the trip. After that, each member of our mission team said some things about what impacted them most about the trip, the people they had met, and what it was like being in Paraguay. The women and men we worked with and met also recalled some of the memories that we all shared now and how we had impacted them, speaking encouragement and wisdom into our lives. After all this, we gathered closer together and our team was prayed over. We said goodbye for the last time to a lot of the people we had met this trip. All in all there were nearly thirty people there.

Saturday we delivered some supplies to four siblings whose mom was in jail and whose father had recently died. Some of the older siblings were working to take care of the family. We spent the rest of the day cleaning and writing letters/notes to the staff of Kuña Mimbi (The Woman Who Shines). Susi and Christi also gave us parting gifts to remember them by, including yerba cups, straws, and bracelets.

Early Sunday morning we left Cofre (the Treasure Chest house) and went to the airport where we said our last goodbyes to Christi and Susi. It was very sad. We flew to Bogota and went to our hotel where we slept for the night. While we were sleeping, the other mission team checked into the hotel, and in the morning we greeted each other for the first time in over a month. We were on the same flight back from Bogota, so we stuck together through the airports and flights for the most part. When we got to Dallas, we then drove home to Ruston. Luckily, there were no complications, except that Earl, one of the Chile team members, had hurt his leg and needed special accommodations and procedures.

Although this has been the smallest mission team I've been on, this has been one of the most fun, least stressful, and most intimate mission trips I have been on. It was also the saddest one to say goodbye. We were all crying and saying how much we loved Devonna, Susi, and Christi. 

Oftentimes on mission, we come with the intention to be a blessing to those we serve and those we serve with, but a lot of the time it feels like it happens the other way around. It was the same on this mission. 

There are so many ways we were blessed on this trip. Devonna herself was a blessing to our entire team for being there to support us and to actually find the work we could do. Devonna even personally blessed all of us with what she had seen from us on the trip and for blessings after. Susi and Christi blessed us with wonderful friendship and a willingness to live alongside us for an entire month. There were so many other experiences and people that blessed us. Serving at the orphanage and meeting Patricia, working at Fundacion With a Smile, Guillermo guiding us through the men's prison, being taught by the prisoners, making crafts with prisoners, Vanya volunteering her time to translate at the men's prison, and just so many other people and experiences.

This will most likely be the last mission trip that me and Jamie will be on with the ACF, as our internship ends July 3rd. It was a real blessing for me to be able to live and serve in the same country that my parents lived and served in, and it was amazing to be able to do that with people that are dear to me. This trip was a great experience, it was an amazing opportunity to work alongside other believers, a humbling chance to serve others, and an awesome time to grow closer to one another. I look forward to reading these posts as future ACF mission teams go on their trips. 

Mission accomplished, 

Tayt Thomas