PANAMA! MONTH 9!
Month nine in Panama City was one of my favorite months so far. We worked with Campus Crusade for Christ (known as Cru) on a few different college campuses in the city. Once a week we would have a “missional community” where we gave students time to connect, share about their faith, and have a time of fellowship. I enjoyed this time every week because it gave us an excellent opportunity to build relationships with students. When we were not at a missional community, we would be meeting and socializing with other students to pray for them and invite them to our Salsa/Game night at the end of the month. We also had a few opportunities to speak in front of classrooms about what the World Race is, why we are doing it, a word of encouragement and we finished by sharing the gospel and praying for the students. Our presence on the campuses was very well received by the students. Often, we had people approach us because they heard us speaking English and wanted to practice with us!
Our Salsa/Game night went well, and our whole team had a lot of fun with the event. The staff of CRU shared more about CRU’s purpose and vision, and a few of my teammates who participated with CRU in their college years were able to share a testimony. We ended the night with dancing and a whole lot of laughter. Over the course of the month through college outreach and speaking in front of classrooms, we interacted with about 200 students, and 80 of them have accepted Christ! It was a great month of intentional ministry.
We also had the opportunity to hang out with our hosts a lot through going to movies (movies are so cheap in Panama, so I saw Aladdin, Men in Black and Toy Story!) through a trip across Panama to the Atlantic Ocean and I even got to visit the Panama Canal (I would highly recommend visiting!)
We stayed in a Hostel all month with another team on O squad, and it was nice to have that team around. We were on our own for meals in Panama, and we had air conditioning in our rooms as well. I enjoyed the month overall!
At the end of the month, our whole squad met at the airport, and we took a very short flight across the border to Medellin, Colombia. We started our month with a four day debrief where we have begun intentionally processing the last nine months. After debrief, we did a week of “Ask the Lord” (ATL). The purpose of ATL is to intentionally seek out opportunities of how God is working in that area. Our whole month of Ecuador will be ATL, and I hope to be working with Venezuelan refuges.
Finally, we got to celebrate the 4th of July as a squad, and it was a great day of laughter, singing the National Anthem, USA trivia, and having a BBQ. I won’t lie, I teared up a little bit singing the Star Spangled Banner, needless to say, I miss the United States.
I’ll be home in 52 days! If you have things in mind of ways I can make a few dollars when I’m back I’d very much appreciate it! I can babysit, house sit, dog sit… you name it! Please also be praying for my transition home, and for God to continue to reveal his plans for me after the race.
I love you all! Thanks for reading!
