This past month in Panama City our ministry was entirely relational. I absolutely loved it. I love making new friends and having intentional conversations with people. Here are the people who made ministry so special this month!
Shibu + family
Shibu was our ministry host for our month in Panama City, Panama. He and his wife, Lily, went above and beyond to make us comfortable, help us transition to a new place, prepare us for ministry, and love us well. Their three beautiful children, Lily, Timothy, and Sarah, quickly became our favorite playmates. Shibu and Lily have a huge heart for ministry and passion like wildfire for the Indian community in Panama City. They may have “real jobs,” but they are missionaries through and through and have given their whole entire lives to the Kingdom of God. I learned so much from them about selfless love, serving others, being in vocational ministry, and sharing the Gospel. I caught on to their wildfire passion for ministry to the Indian community fast, and am now praying for discernment as to whether it will be a part of my life calling and ministry. It was such an honor to serve and work alongside Shibu and Lily! They are incredibly hard workers in the Kingdom and they are doing good work. To donate to them and their ministry, visit www.omusa.org/give and indicate “Shibu Appukuttan.”
Aleena + Aneeta
We met these sweet, beautiful girls at our first prayer meeting. Their father is a dear friend and Kingdom co-worker to Shibu, and their family graciously hosted us for prayer meetings, Aneeta’s 16th birthday, and our send-off celebration! We quickly became friends and shared so much laughter together. Aleena lives in Canada and was visiting her family for the first time in 1.5 years; it was their first holiday season together in 5 years! On our last night together, we thanked her for graciously allowing us to share in her time with her family as precious and rare as it is. She told us that she believes God orchestrated her time in Panama specifically so she could meet us, which was beyond kind and so meaningful for us to hear. Aneeta is a sweet, sweet girl who loved us so well, invited us to her 16th birthday celebration, and taught us so much about both Indian and Panamanian culture. She has a heart of gold and loves Jesus so much. These ladies became our dear friends and I’m hoping that we not only keep in touch, but also have a chance to see each other again soon!
Bambi
We met Bambi in the wee first hours of our time in Panama; she and her mom came and picked us up at the bus terminal at 4am. In the car we chatted about her studies and music preferences, and when we got to the hostel, she offered to take us to the mall sometime. We reconnected a week and a half later when TL and I spent an afternoon with her. She had injured her knee on the Panamanian version of Ninja Warrior, which they call Calle7, and was couch-ridden at home. We got to know each other so well in our time together that afternoon. She asked about our tattoos and TL and I both got to share the testimony of the Gospel behind our respective tattoos. Her mom asked us about how we ended up on the Race and I shared my testimony of God calling me to break up with Jon and go on the Race, and Bambi asked to know more about Jon, so I shared how God was good and faithful through our breakup and in bringing us back together. Adventures in Missions has a saying, “storytelling is ministry,” and that expression came alive that afternoon.
After Bambi had surgery on her knee, I went over to her house and introduced her to the masterpiece that is Castle and we hung out all afternoon together. Her parents, Sareeka and Joshua, went above and beyond on multiple occasions to show us hospitality. They invited us over to their house for New Year’s Eve and we celebrated the new year with traditions from India and Panama and so much fun and laughter (and FOOD). One of our last nights in Panama as a team was spent over at her house, laughing and sharing stories. She is another dear dear friend that I hope to see again one day! It was so awesome to get to know her. I can see God’s hand in all her circumstances, even the hard ones like injuring her knee and not being able to go to school in Florida like she had planned. I hope my testimony of God turning my plans upside down to get me to the Race and show me His faithfulness spoke to her and encouraged her in those circumstances. I’m excited for what God is doing in her life and in her heart! He has such good plans for her!
Brenda
Brenda is one of the employees at the hostel we lived in this month. She was so easy to talk to (she learned to speak slowly and enunciate well so that I could understand her consistently haha). We spent many of her shifts chatting together. I loved those chats not only because they helped my Spanish improve more and more, but because I loved making her feel loved. It was so fun to become friends with her, and I hope that I made her time at work enjoyable and showed her the love and light of Christ.
Julio
Julio is the owner of Hostal Cristiano, where we lived in Panama. He was so sweet and kind to us, and so gracious. One of our first nights there, he told me all about his life and family. He told me that he doesn’t like hot weather, so I asked him why he was living in Panama, and he replied, “Because God told me to!” He always called me, “linda,” a Spanish pet name meaning “beautiful.” He spent our last week and a half in Panama on vacation in Italy with his children, so I wasn’t able to take a picture with him, but I have his number on WhatsApp and he messaged me after we left telling me he would have liked to say goodbye but it was a pleasure having us at his hostel.
Julio also had a cat named… well, I don’t remember; we called him Toothless and I sometimes called him Hector. He made our time at Hostal Cristiano so sweet and fun. That is, until he started nursing on us, which was weird, or would attack our legs as we walked through the living room, which we got used to haha.
Taxi Drivers
One of my favorite things to do in the city is to befriend the taxi drivers (as you can imagine after reading Mi Hermano Favorito). We took a lot of taxis this month, so I made a lot of friends haha. One of these drivers I met is named Samuel, and when I told him about our trip, he told me he is also a Christian and showed me a Bible he keeps in his taxi! We proceeded to have a theological conversation about the life of David haha! This month, I started to say goodbye to all of my taxi drivers with “Dios te bendiga” – God bless you. I hope that my conversations and blessings showed them the love and light of Jesus.
Adriana
Adriana is a sweet young girl who attends the Navjeevan Christian Fellowship. We met her our very first night there and she was eager to practice her English with me and become my friend. But it wasn’t until our last night of ministry that she became really special to me. Our last night of ministry was a women’s event called “Beauty for Ashes.” In it, women have a safe space to share their stories. Adriana shared her story with us and wow it sounded just like mine. I sat down with her afterward and asked her more questions, listened to her stories, and shared wisdom and Truth with her. I was so disappointed that I didn’t know until the literal last day that she needed someone to mentor and disciple her; I could have been doing that all month if I had known! I’m trusting that God’s timing is perfect and He will care for her and send her someone to walk alongside her the same way He has done for me my whole life.
Anil
Anil is an Indian man who attended our Christmas program. He was very very kind and friendly and took time to get to know us all. He told us that he would see us again the next Sunday, and we were excited that he wanted to come back to the Fellowship! The next Sunday, he found out that he had work and he wouldn’t be able to make it to Fellowship. But the Lord certainly wanted him there because he got off work early and made it to Fellowship in time to hear Naomi share her testimony and TL share the message! After the service, he pulled me aside and started asking really good, really deep questions about God. Anil is Hindu and prays to many gods, but he wanted to know if God would answer him if he prayed to Him. It was a really incredible Spirit-led conversation and I was so humbled by the honor and privilege to be the one to have that conversation with him. He told me at the beginning of our conversation that the reason he asked me was because of my testimony that I shared during the Christmas program. WOW!! Our heart and our desire behind the Christmas program was to share the love, joy, hope, and peace we have in Jesus Christ with the Hindu-Indian community with the purpose of them asking more questions and finding answers that draw them to Christ! Hallelujah!! Please pray for Anil as he seeks to know more about God; pray that he would accept Jesus Christ and know Jesus to be the only source of love, joy, hope, peace, and salvation.
My Team
So often when we talk about our ministry on the World Race we talk about the new people we meet or the projects we work on or our official ministry site, but so much Kingdom work happens within our teams, too. This month was hard for us as a team. Lauren was in the hospital, Becks and Audrey were there with her, Ally and Soto rotated with them, and our ministry required trusting God to be in control and a lot of flexibility, which caused us a lot of stress. There was a lot of spiritual warfare against our team. We experienced a lot of disunity. There were small victories and so much more laughter than we have ever had before, but community was still really hard. I’m learning to press into “seek first the Kingdom of God” and I am learning that my team counts as the Kingdom. I am learning to see my teammates well, love them well, and flee from comparison, envy, pride, superiority, defensiveness, and self-centeredness. It’s a constant battle that I feel like I’m losing most days. We as a team are learning to give each other a lot of grace and constructive feedback. Right now we are transitioning into a new month in a new country on a new continent without one of our teammates. We are also experiencing the spiritual oppression and heaviness that comes with being in Africa. Please keep us in your prayers.
With that being said, we made it to Lesotho! It took 4 full days of travel on three planes (a cumulative 25 hours in the air), two busses, and a couple shuttles, but we made it! My team is in Maseru, the capitol of Lesotho, and we are partnered with an orphanage named Tholoana ea Lerato, or “Seed of Love.” More ministry details to come soon (:
xoxo Jess
