This morning I woke up to a sound I usually love, but today was not a big fan of, rain. Now the reason I wasn’t the biggest fan of this sound was the fact that the last few days we have been working on reaching out to ministries and had finally found one that wanted us to go out and serve people with them. The sound of the pouring rain made me think the day’s plans were ruined. Luckily they weren’t. My team and I took taxis over to another side of town so we could take a bus with a Christian medical team (FCMS) going to provide aid for the body and souls of the impoverished on the outskirts of Panama City.
When arriving at the school, I was surprised by what I saw. A few concrete walls and a chalkboard pretty much made up the school. It had no running water and barely any electricity. We set up, prayed with the people running the aid event, and got to work. Work for my team varied from weighing and measuring people to one of my teammates assisting a dentist.
God had a funny way of showing up. The pharmacist that was supposed to come and hand out medicine was not able to due to heavy flooding. Guess who we happened to have on our team; you got it, a pharmacist.
One of my favorite parts of the day was playing with the kids. We played soccer and I introduced them to hacky sac. It’s pretty amazing how a ball can create a bond that reaches beyond language barriers.
At the end of the day we were asked how this day of work in this impoverished area changed our lives. It took me a second, but what I realized standing there in that broken down school is how grateful every person was. While they had little to nothing, they were so full of life and their smiles expressed happiness that money simply cannot buy.
