A group of 18 volunteers from the Missouri District of the Church of the Nazarene in the United States donated their money and vacation time to help build a church in the town of Guazucua, located 30 minutes from the city of Pilar in Paraguay.

The pastor of the mission church in Guazucua, Flaminio Colmán, along with his wife Alicia and other people from the community began to pray about the dream of providing new believers with a meeting place to praise God and learn to live the Great Commission.

The church in Guazucua began with the Colmán family's desire to share the gospel with their parents and the children of the community. After a while, his parents and neighbors accepted Jesus into their hearts and a home worship service was started. Months later, many accepted Jesus at an evangelistic campaign held in the plaza of Guazucua.

The Colemans shared with the superintendent, Pablo Tello, the dream of building a church. They prayed for a year, and the answer to that prayer was the purchase of land to build the church as well as the help of a Work & Witness team from the Church of the Nazarene in the Missouri District of the United States. The locals joyfully collaborated with the Work & Witness team from Missouri in the expansion of the kingdom of God in this part of the globe.

"I learned that every day I must wake up with the desire to serve God wherever it is,” said Shandra Clark, an associate pastor at Clarence Church of the Nazarene, and a member of the Work & Witness team. “For the first time, I shared my testimony of salvation. God had been telling me to do it, and finally, I did it with the young people of the school that we visited. There, God used (my testimony) for many to give their hearts to Jesus.”

Currently, 10 families together have become the church, and discipleship ministry is carried out among children whose parents have not yet come to Jesus.

“We are very encouraged to see the Body of Christ united working to extend the kingdom of God here in Paraguay,” said Ángela Domroes, a missionary serving in Paraguay. “The work is hard to coordinate to make the most of the team's time and resources. But it is worth [the effort] when we think about the impact of eternal life that all these efforts have and will have.”

—Church of the Nazarene South America