Heat, wind, rain, sweat, prayer. Those five words could adequately describe all of month one in a nutshell. It’s been a heck of a ride getting to this point, but now after weeks in Panama, let’s reflect on what I mean by each one of these words.
HEAT
Always in the mid-80’s or 90’s and seemingly endless humidity, Panama is a hot spot for, well…heat. Doing ministry and locating potential contacts had its fair share of brutal stretches of being exposed to the physical abuse the sun can put on you. But it’s not just the physical heat that we will remember from this trip, because the spiritual heat was way more intense than just the weather. Remember the story of Shadrack, Meshack, and Abendigo, and how they were tossed into the furnace? That’s how we felt as a team at the beginning of this month. We had no idea what we were getting into with our Unsung Heroes program and attempting to locate different contacts that we could team up with. We had no clue what World Race was even supposed to look like because we had no experience in being in another country. We had no leads and we certainly did not know the language. We only had ourselves, the bags on our back, and a few dollars in our pockets upon arrival in Panama. Talk about feeling the heat. Where to start? Where to go? What to do? Where to stay? How to communicate? All of these questions began to arise as we began to feel the heat of the situation. Like an animal released into the wild for the first time, we had no idea where to even turn. And to know that we had to reach a specific goal in just three weeks time by finding potential contacts to host future racers in the coming months? That, my friends, is real heat.
WIND
There’s always a slight breeze here in Panama, and almost always it’s a relief from the heat. Sometimes, however, the wind only helps fuel the heat. With no initial plan and nobody to talk to, we were constantly blown around from location to location. Over the course of the past three weeks, we stayed in four hostels, a YWAM base, and a church leader’s house. That’s just where we set up camp and stayed during the night. During the daytime, we took many trips to and from cities, beaches, and other locations that took hours to complete. There were many times where we were blown into a certain location and we felt relief. We took a day trip to Boquete, Panama, a beautiful mountainside town with many rivers, waterfalls, and delicious coffee. Trips like that helped rejuvenate our group and allowed us to re-shift our focus back to where it needed to be. Other times, however, we would be blown into more stress. These situations helped fuel the already-present heat, and allowed more stress to seep into our every day activities.
RAIN
You would think that monsoon season is upon Panama by how much it has rained here. Every day of our ministry, we have encountered rain. Sometimes a little drizzle, and sometimes an outright downpour. Each time, however, this rain brought relief from the heat and the wind that fueled it. The same could be said about God’s rain that downright poured on us the entire month. Even though we had no idea what to do or where to turn to for the first week of our ministry, we all managed to stay safe, stay healthy, and get out of specific situations that could have been potentially harmful to both our spiritual and emotional health. Public transportation is very risky in Central American countries especially for travelers because local muggers tend to swipe items out of the luggage storage area on the bus once the bus arrives at its destination. We were very fortunate to not lose anything. Also, there was a miscommunication due to the language barrier on the price of one of our bus rides, and we ended up having to pay double what we thought the trip was going to take. Once it came time to pay, we tried to negotiate the price but the driver was very stern and demanded his money. He began to get vocal and physical so we quickly settled the situation by paying him the total amount he demanded. We only had a large bill which was well over the total, so we feared he was going to just take all of it and run, but he instead gave us back the correct change. God also sent personal raindrops my way at various times during the trip. At one of the hostels, I was missing home and missing my dog a ton. Then out of nowhere, a brown lab mix came walking up to me and sat at my feet. Come to find out, he lived at the hostel and he was the owner’s dog. We stayed there for five to six days, so having the dog (named Chaco) around help ease the load a bit. Little events like that allowed us to feel that rain God poured down on us during our time here.
SWEAT
Because of the severe humidity due to rain and proximity to the ocean, sweating is inevitable. There were mornings where we woke up in a pool of our own sweat because of the heat, and mornings where showers were pointless because even after an ice cold shower, you would begin sweating again as soon as you dried off. There were days during the first month that we felt that spiritual sweat as well. Working day after day trying to find potential contacts, trying to work out logistics, trying to listen to what God was trying to say, and trying to determine how to remain financially stable with the high costs of the city, all gets very taxing. It felt as though as soon as we determined how to solve one issue, another issue would arise. One day, we finally found a contact in a city we were interested in going to. We had been in contact with him for a few days. As we were gearing up to leave, we tried to find a place to stay for the night, only to come up empty. We ended up having to abandon that plan and settle for another alternative. It all worked out in the end, but little events like that made our spiritual side begin to sweat a little more.
PRAYER
If there was anything my team and I did more than anything, it was prayer. Whether spoken or unspoken, we immersed ourself in prayer each day of the month. We began to find that when we prayed, God provided us with things we never would have even imagined. One day, we sat in a park outside Casco Viejo (the “old city” of Panama) and prayed first as a team and then as individuals about what God wanted us to do. We felt lost so we determined it appropriate to pray. In the middle of our prayers, a group of elementary school aged kids came running through the park. As it turned out, they were on a little vacation from school. The crazy part? Many of us during our meditation and prayer time felt like God was telling us that our team’s spiritual gift was to reach out to children. So that was absolutely nuts. What made it even more nuts was the fact that after that point, almost all of the people that we came in contact with dealt directly with children. These past few days, we have been in contact with a man by the name of Ricardo. He helps run a local school in David, Panama, and needs some repair work done at the school. You can’t make this stuff up. It’s been insane to see just how impactful the answers to our sincere and authentic prayers has been this month.
CONCLUSION
As we conclude month one, I just want to say thank you to all of you who have been praying for me and for my team. It was a very successful month despite all of the trials and tribulations we encountered. We were able to reach so many people and build a good sized list of people that could use our help in the future. From meeting with fellow missionaries, to serving poor mountain communities with medical missions, God used our team in very big ways to both encourage those who are already children of Christ and to plant seeds in those who are spiritually hungry. Tomorrow, will be traveling to Jaco, Costa Rica to meet up with our entire squad. This upcoming month, our entire squad of 35 people will be working together in the same location to bring about change to a San Jose, Costa Rica ministry. Please continue to pray for me and my team and squad as we continue to advance God’s kingdom day in and day out.
I also am about $3,000 short of my next deadline on December 1st. If you would consider either humbly giving or praying about these finances, I would truly appreciate it.
Until next time, cheers to all of you, and I’ll be writing to you from Costa Rica as we begin month two!
– N.J. Shear
