My month in Panama
Man I don’t even know where to start. I think I’ll start with I’m sorry it’s been so long since you’ve heard from me. I would give an excuse but it was just poor time management. One of my goals this month is to actually blog once a week like I said I would. Granted the WiFi is sometimes hard to find so they might be a few at once.
Okay back to my month in Panama.
It all started at 5am in the morning. Our host Shibu and his friends came to pick us up at the huge mall where the bus dropped us off. They took us to the hostel we stayed at and we crawled in bed like little zombies after our 15hr bus ride. We were given a rest day until evening church service. They only asked us to sing songs and introduce ourselves to the congregation. The Sundays after that we were asked to give a message, someone give a testimony, and sing worship songs, also lead some prayer. On Fridays we went with Shibu and his family to home visits, kind of like a small group study. And we gave encouraging words lead by the Holy Spirit, lead prayer, sang worship songs, and spent time in fellowship. We also did children’s ministry in a small indigenous community. It was an awesome day. We started with about 15 kids then afterward it probably grew to 50 – 60 kids! We did skits, games, songs. They enjoyed it so much. At first they were very standoffish but after some songs and games they were having so much fun! We also did another children’s ministry with a lady that Shibu’s family knew and worked with. We did games and songs. They were having so much fun and so was I! One of my teammates is a Beauty for Ashes coordinator. I explained beauty for Ashes in my last blog I believe. We had a Beauty for Ashes event in a house of one of the ladies that goes to Shibu’s church. The ladies really enjoyed it and Shibu’s wife wants to possibly start a women’s ministry now! One of the biggest things Shibu wanted us to do while we were there was to put together a Christmas program for his church so that he could invite the Indian community and they could hear about Jesus and the story of salvation. I’m going to go into a little more detail below.
Our month went a little crazy after the first week. One of our girls had to go to the hospital. When one of our girls goes to the hospital so does the squad leader that’s with you and the nurse teammate. So not only did we have to go on with ministry while worried about our Cster, we were also now 5 instead of 8. So through that we had to learn to work as a smaller group. We waited a while to put the Christmas program together in hopes we’d all be able to do it together. So we may have put it off until Dec. 24th. But thankfully our team works really well on last minute projects. We did the nativity story as a skit being narrated by one of us while we all acted it out. But we put a spin to it. We did personal, testimonies of Hope, Love, Peace, and Joy throughout the program, songs after the testimonies, and a message of the Gospel at the end. After the program they had a huge banquet of Indian food. As we were all fellowshipping afterwards we were told that we must really love our God. How cool is that! I’m so excited for the seeds that were planted that night!!
We built some good relationships while in Panama. One relationship was with a family that goes to Shibu’s church. They had 2 daughters Aneeta and Aleena that we got to know really well. We also met a  girl named Bambi and her parents. They actually helped pick us up at 5am when we arrived. Bambi completely destroyed her knee while we were there and had to be bed ridden. So some of us or all of us would go visit her as often as possible! And we were invited to their house for New Years Eve. While we were at their house sitting on Bambi’s bed with her, her father Joshua brought us cherry cokes and salsa and chips and her Mom made hummus and brought that with veggies. And while we munched on that Joshua was making all kinds of Indian BBQ. He brought us chicken, then beef, then pork, then 2 different sausages! We got stuffed and it was delicious! New years Eve is my birthday but I didn’t expect any special treatment. But they came back turned the bedroom lights off and walked in with a birthday cake with lit candles. I felt so loved and special! They didn’t hardly know me and did this amazing thing for me. I blew the candles out they turned the lights on and said to cut a piece of cake out so I did, then your friend or family member is supposed to hand feed a piece to you then you’re supposed to hand feed the rest of the piece to your family and friends. This was hilarious! But actually a tradition I may keep! Then a little before midnight they brought us noise makers and 12 grapes and my sparkling grape juice I brought for midnight. The 12 grapes is one of their traditions. And they also had fireworks and lanterns. I got to do a flying lantern for the first time on my birthday!!
The month in Panama has definitely grown me a lot. I now feel more comfortable singing and leading worship songs, and I feel much more comfortable sharing testimonies in groups or church settings.
Stay tuned for an update on travel days to Africa!
