Quite often, people want to know a bit more about our background. Perhaps the following information will be of help.

1960-1965: John's parents were missionaries in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) in southern Africa. His father was a pastor at the mission station where the Africa University has been constructed.

1984: Colleen involved with a summer agriculture program in Jos, Nigeria.

1985-1986: John and Colleen met at SIFAT in Lineville, Alabama and were married.

1990-1993: John and Colleen served with the Methodist church in Anamabo, Ghana, West Africa. This is a coastal fishing village in which they established a vocational school.

1995-1998: John, (with Colleen's help), established a vocational school in Sunyani, Ghana teaching carpentry and masonry to youth following a national curriculum. The program has since expanded to a full four year National Vocational Training Institute school.

PRESENT MINISTRY:

2000-2003: The Eisenbergs; John and Colleen; and their children: (now,) Daniel; 22, Elizabeth; 20, and Faith; 16, arrived in Asuncion, Paraguay to work with the Communidad Evangelica Metodista Del Paraguay to establish a carpentry and forestry program with the Toba Indians.

They helped the rural pastors by providing grinding mills to further evangelism (while people were grinding their grains, the pastors led them to Christ) and other self-help programs. They helped mentor the National youth. CIEMAL, the South American Methodist Youth Organization, held its conference here in January 2003 with about 100 youth from nine countries attending. They helped with the logisitics of this conference. John taught the youth Sunday School in our local church. The Methodist Women of South America also held a conference and again the Eisenbergs were instrumental in the logisitics. John aided the workteams in construction, translation and transportation. John was Field Leader for Paraguay from 2000 until furlough 2007, and with Colleen's help, facilitated communication between church leadership, missionaries(American and Brazilian), and work teams.

2004-2007: John and Colleen were acting as mentors for the National Methodist youth programs. In 2006, the youth divided into two groups: those 12-16 years of age called the "adolescentes" and those over 17 called the "jovenes". They help organize regional meetings and the annual camp.

The Eisenbergs have worked with the Agrimissions ministry to set up pilot projects in agriculture and get more training and new varieties of crops for the rural pastors. Also in May 2006, the Methodist Men from five countries in South America met for a conference in Paraguay on May 4-5. They helped with the logistics for this conference. In May 2005, Franklin Graham held meetings every night for three days here and many came to know the Lord. They were very involved as counselors for Graham. Colleen has been involved in the Methodist Women. John has taught the adult Sunday School class off and on over the past three years.

John & Colleen also organize workteams from the US for the National church. John enjoys being part of the construction, especially when it comes to helping individual pastors. In the summers they are involved with transportation and translation for the many teams coming from the US and a few other countries. They returned to the US for a year to raise their support at the end of June 2007.

2009... Now they are back in Paraguay helping establish the ALPHA program with lay leaders in the Methodist Churches. Both Daniel and Elizabeth are in the United States. Daniel has graduated from Greenville College with a double major in business management and computer information systems. Elizabeth will start her Junior year in college doing a double major in Spanish and Teaching English as a Second Language. Faith is in Paraguay, starting her junior year of high school.