Hola! Bienviendo!
Well, let me just say welcome to my first “real” blog from the world race! Our team is in Panama this month [the ‘team’ consisting of the 4 other lovely ladies on the left side-bar of this blog; Jasmine, Jarin, Heather and Nicole). This month we are in Panama City at the YWAM base—it’s a big base with lots of dorms and a big kitchen/living/dining room areas. We’ve been living and working alongside the staff here at YWAM and also all of the other people here at the DTS (discipleship training school: find out more about YWAM and DTS here!).
It’s been great so far. Crazy, but great.
Crazy, because only 7 days ago I was in a comfortable hotel bed in Atlanta dreaming of what life in Panama would be like. Crazy, because less than 12 days ago I was sleeping in my bed in Illinois and trying to imagine how I would possibly be able to pack for a year-long journey. Crazy, because the hot, heavy Panamanian air shouldn’t already feel so normal. Because I shouldn’t already feel so well-adjusted.
It’s been beautiful, too.
Beautiful in how I’ve been able to use my Spanish to argue the case for Cristiano Ronaldo over Messi. Beautiful in seeing prisoners raise their hands to worship Jesus, and share testimonies where the joy and thankfulness are so contagious they touch everybody in the small, concrete room.
Beautiful to watch the community of people here at the YWAM base take such loving and thoughtful care of us.
And of course, it’s been inspiring.
Inspiring in the way our team of 5 ladies has opened up and shared secretes with each other that have long been begging to be set free.
Inspiring to see the hands of God at work in places of the world I’d never imagined visiting, and inspiring to meet a man who heard the call of God to make his son known to Panama still preaching at the church he started 37-years-ago on Sundays.
It’s also overwhelming in a lot of ways.
Overwhelming to think that the next year of my life is to pack, travel, settle, move on. Repeat. 11 times.
Overwhelming to finally see this race with my own two eyes, and reach out and touch it with my own two hands, and wake up and smell it, and go to bed and hear it and realize I’m going to be tasting it everyday for what seems like a very, very long time.
It’s overwhelming and hard to sleep when the air is heavy and humid, and it’s tricky to go to the bathroom when there’s no water, and it’s nerve-racking to go to a prison and perform a drama you only learned 20 hours previously. It’s weird to wake up to the sound of roosters at 4 in the morning and uncomfortable to hear every car honking at you as you walk to the laundry mat and stressful to have to teach the story of Lot and his wife to kids who can only speak Spanish.
So it’s been overwhelming in a lot of ways, but there’s been an overwhelming peace, above all else. A relief. A certainty. A knowledge that this place has been prepared for us. That He has gone before us. That I am not a helpless victim caught up in the waves of circumstance. That my life is more than where I am or who I’m next to or how I’m feeling. I would pray that you would know that kind of overwhelming too–the kind that’s too much but just enough. Jesus!
Love you all! Praying that circumstances are not match for you no matter the season of life you’re in. That you realize that perhaps you’ve been placed where you are for exactly such a time as this.
“When Esther’s words were reported to Mordecai, he sent back this answer: “Do not think that because you are in the king’s house you alone of all the Jews will escape. For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?”” –Ester 4:12-14
Un beso
Bree
