Well, Panama has come and gone and its funny how things are not how you expect them to be. We were placed with a YWAM site which is Jucum in Spanish, and YWAM stands for Youth With a Mission. They did not necessarily have a lot planned for us to do, but they were able to hook us up with a church in Gamboa with Pastor Bill Wilburt. He had us on his radio show and we went with him to the Prision there in Panama. It was a really cool experience to go to the prison and kind of compare and contrast where I have been before in the prison in Omaha, NE. There were not a lot of men who came, maybe 10 or so, but they completely appreciated the time that we took out of our day to come and they prayed for us as well. we also were able to lead worship at the prison and at the church in Gamboa as well as at the YWAM base, so it was really cool to be able to work all together and have different people in the team play guitar, keys, mandolin and drums.
I’ll have to admit, that our ministry in Panama, well, although it is a great ministry, our team at times felt kind of useless. Sometimes the weed eating and things like that, although i know that they are important, they get hard when it feels like you are not making relationships and connections as well. No matter what the job though, I have been reminded that no matter if we see the results of our work, that God is using the work that we do to ecourage and to plant seeds.
My team continues to grow together and we are doing well. Much of our time on this trip is spent in community, which can be trying at times, but it is showing us how to live together and love one another and how to be understanding and work together even though we don’t always think alike. We learn to play off of one anothers strengths.
Side note, Panama is soooo HOT!! and Humid, 🙂
