How do I even begin to tell you about this month?
We have been nestled in the mountains of Panama, just south of the border, in a little place called Caisan. By ‘just south of’, I mean we can see mountains of Costa Rica from our porch. Rainy season has officially begun, which makes me so happy–I have missed my rain and thunderstorms! Temperature generally stays in the mid-upper 80’s here during the day, which feels AMAZING (Honduras & Nicaragua were constantly a little over 100*)! The sunsets here are so beautiful! It’s also pretty fantastic getting to live up with the clouds. The natural beauty surrounding us 24/7 makes my heart long to just sit in awe and praise my Father!
Ministry this month was AMAZING! We had a variety of things to do, which always keeps things interesting. I’m going to do my best to summarize without leaving anything major out! We started the month off with a few days of manual labor. I was super pumped about this because I really enjoyed the manual labor we did in Nicaragua last month! The majority of our ministry was painting! So, what we think happened was that one of the churches in town asked us to paint a mural on the side of their preschool building–that’s where it all began. Word spread quick about a group of ‘gringas’ painting in town, and we were soon recruited to paint and do some manual labor (demolishing a stage–fun stuff!!) at another church. That was quickly followed by the main school recruiting us to touch up 2 paintings and create a mural in one of their rooms. Through these different opportunities that started as painting, God opened the door for us to teach English to preschoolers, play with children at the school, and build relationships with people in the community. We were also able to visit different churches in the community–sometimes we sang, sometimes we gave a message and sang, and sometimes we were there to learn because we were invited to just come to church. 🙂 We were also able to join in with the feeding program! We spent an afternoon packing bags with food, soap, toilet paper, etc., and over the course of the following week we were able to visit with different families in the community and distribute these items, as well as pray with them.
This month was a month full of favorites, so I’ll just pick my top 2 to share with you! 🙂
One of my favorite parts of ministry was building relationships with people in the Gnobe Bugle tribe!! 🙂 Our contacts have been building trust with a family in that people group for the past few years. We were blessed with the opportunity to be the first group to visit their home and spend the day with them–playing with all of the children, looking at handmade dresses that they make to sell, enjoying lunch together, being shown some of the traditional dances, learning how to make some of the items the wives make to sell (bracelets, bags, holders, etc). It was my favorite day of the month! God used our being able to go to their home and spend time with them on their turf to break down some more barriers. We were also able to have them in our home for 2 Sundays to share with them about the love of our Father.
Throughout the times with this family, I met my sweet, little Francisco! When I was visiting with his family for the first time, he came and snuggled up in my lap as we played ‘marbles’ with his brother. I also loved sitting beside him, watching him color pictures of the creation story from our Sunday School lesson, only to have him look up at me and smile with that beautiful smile of his that reaches his eyes. Getting to spend time with him was definitely one of my highlights of the month! And, oh how I pray for his heart–that he will know he is loved more than he thinks, that he will know and have a relationship with our Father, that he will know he was made for more. <3
Another favorite was teaching English! So, while helping with the feeding program, some of our girls visited a family who asked about English lessons. We were able to do 2 lessons with them over the past few days. The family is part of the Gnobe Bugle tribe (Spanish is actually there second language). I LOVED getting to talk with Thomas and his youngest daughter–teaching them English words for the things they wanted to know. It was really awesome for me, personally, because I realized I knew a lot more Spanish than I thought I did! I enjoyed being able to have intentional conversations, and playing the guessing game on the words I didn’t know. There was a lot of laughing throughout it all! 🙂 I learned even more Spanish through this time, and Thomas taught me some words in his original language! My mind was completely done by the end of the lesson, BUT I loved every second of it!! I’m so intrigued by their original language; the way their “c” makes our “n” sound.. It makes me look forward to the possibility of learning little things in other languages along the way. 🙂
Oh, I also loved being told, on multiple occasions, that I remind people of their niece or daughter.. 🙂
Panama was just a phenomenal month! I’m going to miss these people so much!
On the flipside, I am beyond excited about being back in Colombia!!! Although, not exactly the way I thought.. As one of my squad leaders told me–we’re definitely going to be “out there”…haha With that being said, I’m not too sure about how wifi will look next month, so this might be it for a while…BUT I can’t wait to tell you all about my BEAUTIFUL COLOMBIA! <3
With love,
Ash
