Support Letter

Work day and outreach

Saturday we spent the day at Pastor Bill Wilbur's house cleaning.  He has been a pastor here for 35 years.  We have greatly enjoyed being a part of Gamboa Union Church and getting to know him.  He is a young 70!  He has written a book about his ministry in the prisons here in Panama called "Finding Freedom in Panama". 

He and his wife had to move and only 1 house was available in the area.  The people who had lived there previously had not cleaned at all.  When they were shown the house, they couldn't even see the floor because of all the clothes and garbage.  We came in and bleached every surface area as it was covered with mold and mildew.  The walls in the bathroom Luke and I cleaned were BLACK with mold and mildew.  The house is beautiful, though.  We were also able to put a coat of paint on the lower garage area. 

Our DTS will be breaking up into 3 outreach teams from April 11th-May 29th.  All will minister in Panama for part of it.  One team will spend 2 wks in Colombia as well.  Another team will spend 5 wks in Peru.  The team Luke and I are on will focus on Panama's indigenous groups, as well as spend 1 wk working with the Bri-Bri in Costa Rica.  We will be posting more about outreach as we find out more....

Iguana eggs, butt shots, and school

Yesterday a friend on base gave us a delicacy - boiled iguana eggs!  I'm so proud of myself that I ate it!  It just tasted like a very rich egg.  Our group will be spending a week in CHinatown in Panama doing ministry there the first week of outreach (April 11-15).  I'm sure we'll get to eat a few interesting things then!

As most of you have probably read on facebook, Luke had a tooth pulled.  It was abscessed and he was in pain.  WE have a month before outreach, and we didn't know if we should start the whole process of crowns, etc.  In the end, he decided to have it pulled.  I gave him a shot in the butt the first night for pain :)  The nurse gave him 5 cc of antibiotics in the other cheek earlier.  Poor guy.

Lastly, a cool opportunity presented itself - the private Christian school YWAM runs in the community needed help in the mornings for 2 wks while a teacher was on vacation.  It's only from 8:30-9:45, but I am substitute teaching!  I had wanted an opportunity to visit, and instead I got to jump right in!  I felt right at home :)

That's all for now - stay tuned for the next blog that will have more details about our practical/outreach phase....

***IF YOU READ THIS BLOG, PLEASE MAKE A QUICK COMMENT...I'M NOT SURE IF ANYONE IS READING THIS - FEEDBACK IS NICE. :)***

Embera Puru

For our week of classes on Redeeming Cultural Arts / Missions, our classroom was in the village of Embera Puru.  This is one of the 7 native tribes to Panama.  It was my responsibility to cook breakfast every morning, along with Brittany, the girl in the third picture also carrying a pot.  We had to take the pots down to the river to wash them with sand and Ajax.  They were so heavy that I incorporated some of the skills I picked up in Africa - it was so much easier to carry it on my head.  In the first picture Luke is helping us with breakfast cooking over the open fire - yes, those are hot dogs.  The second picture was the cooking house and sleeping area for most of us.  Air mattresses and mosquito nets. 

It was a great week.  I got a lot out of the teaching - wow.  Very impacting.  Perspectives on arts, redeeming, valuing cultures as part of God's creation, and just enjoying art for what it is.  We discussed all areas of the arts - music, drama, visual, literary arts, dance, story, etc.  It was a great setting as the people of Embera Puru welcomed us and we enjoyed their music, their arts, dance, body painting.  It was a perfect place to apply much of what we learned.  I enjoyed our time there.  Luke will probably post about our hike to a second village, eating monkey meat, and instead of hiking back, floating down the river for 2 hours. 

Thanks for your prayers!

valentine's day and a bridge

On Saturday the 12th Luke took me to the Causeway by the Canal for a day together since Valentine's Day was a Monday.  It was nice to get a little time together.  We walked along the ocean, looked at puffer fish and all kinds of other fish and birds, went out to eat, and to a Smithsonian Marine research park/center.  They had hands-on pools where we touched urchins, sea cucumbers and starfish.  We saw a sloth and its baby in a tree.  It was a nice afternoon. 

Friday (the 18th) we took a 3 hr drive and hiked a bit up a mountain to get to one of our DTS student's church and home.  Once there, the church welcomed us and we had a service together where we shared the Word and prayed for each other.  It was really touching.  Afterwards we went to Maria's house (in the last photo of the group she is the older lady in the front with a tan blouse & jean skirt).  She is a student here at YWAM with us.  They had just finished harvesting oranges on their farm and shared some with us - they were SO SWEET!   

The middle photo is the bridge we crossed to get to the church.  It looked great, but swayed a LOT once you got to the middle.  All I could think of was Donkey and Shrek....

We will be having class this week in a village and will be out of touch for a week. 

Zoo and Hearing the Voice of God

Today our teachers for the week (who are also the base directors) took us all to the zoo and botanical garden nearby to spend the day together.  We did some team-building activities that make you think twice about communication, hearing God's voice, etc.  I am not a new Christian, and it is so refreshing to be challenged by these teachings, and putting things into practice.  We are all different, and God speaks to us in different ways.  Sometimes in new ways that will help us communicate better with those around us.  Even when we were in sin, we heard God's voice calling us to Himself.  How much more should we hear His voice now that we are His children! 

It was a refreshing day - enjoy my classmates and staff here at the base so much already.  This week our book reports are also due and most read the book on hearing God's voice, so it is good timing for this teaching!  Fresh in our minds. 

classroom

This is one of the classrooms.  Duolos is a private school created for the Agua Dulce (Sweetwater) community.  It is a Christian school taught by YWAM staff full-time.  It is much more affordable than other private schools in Panama so it can be an outreach to the middle class families and disciple kids as well.  Brilliant, I think :)