Our time in Panama flew by and we are so thankful for the experiences we had there. Here are some pictures to wrap up our time with Pastor Moran in Guabito, Panama:
Dustin and I lived on the front porch of Pastor’s house in our tent this month. We lived with two other teams (21 World Racers total) and shared one bathroom with them all! Oh how we all love living in community!!
This is Dustin and our wonderful Pastor Moran. He was a man short in stature, but big in heart! We had so much fun with him and learning what true servants of Christ look like. Please keep him and his family in your prayers as they continue to walk in obedience to plant a church in Guabito.
This is one of the many families that attended our church services. Their story is sadly similar to many others in Guabito: a mother with four children, a baby on the way, no father in the picture, and no food to put on the table. On this particular day, we struggled to put smiles on our faces as we ministered to this community while several of the children cried because of hunger. God truly made our hearts break for what breaks His by realizing that starving children are not just ads on TV, but they have names and beautiful faces, and they are people just like us.
Let me tell you a story:
This little boy’s name is David, and when he walked into church with his family (picture above) there was not a smile even close to his face. We got all the children to sing songs and clap their hands, but not David. He just stood there, not moving, not participating. So…I made it my goal for the day, my only goal, to make him smile. After singing, we had the kids do a scavenger hunt, and I pulled David outside and in my broken Spanish tried to get him to hunt for items on the list. Nothing. He wouldn’t walk with me or say anything, so I took him back to his mom, but I was not discouraged. Finally, about an hour later, I started playing tag with him, and to my surprise, he smiled!! Right at me! After that, I don’t think the smile left his face for the rest of the day. He was like a different child. He was actually getting to BE a child. We played and laughed the rest of the day and it is a memory I will keep with me forever.
Here we are sharing with a group about the life of Jesus by using an “Evange-cube”. It sounds kind of childish, but when you don’t speak the language and there are pictures involved, you will use anything to tell people about Jesus.
On Dec. 23rd, we visited a jungle tribe and took this wooden canoe (with a motor on the back) up the river to get there. What an experience!
This is a cacao fruit which is used to make chocolate. There are seeds in the middle and you eat the fruit around it, then use the seeds to grind up for chocolate. It’s really good!
This was our Christmas Eve service. We sang Christmas carols, shared the Gospel, and then handed out Christmas presents to all the children!!
This is Wilbur: He is boy that we met the first time we had church. He works at the Panama Costa Rica border shining shoes for tips. The amazing thing is, he does a great job, and all he uses is a toothbrush and soap. So for Christmas, we gathered all our toothbrushes and gave them to him so he would not have to spend money on more. He loved it!
Here is our team on Christmas Eve!
We had a great time in Panama and will forever remember what God taught us while we were there! Thank you for all of your prayers and support from back home and we hope you all had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
