In Panama we served with two different ministries.
The first week we worked with YWAM in the town of Chepo
We put together our own VBS for the kids in the neighborhood because they had a break from school
We had a new lesson each day, a bible verse, crafts, songs and games that all corresponded with the lessons we had for that day. We did this for 5 days
A few nights we did home visits and visited some of the indigenous women in the town.
The second and third week we worked with a ministry called MB Missions (Mennonite Brethren) that our YWAM contact set up for us.
We were living in a town called Yaviza, that was in the Jungle of the Darien Gap
The Darien Gap is the part of Jungle between Colombia and Panama.
It’s known to be incredibly dangerous because it is the road where drug traffickers are known to travel on when transporting cocaine from Colombia to the United States.
And this is where we were living…
In Yaviza, we worked with a kids club that was focusing on starting early and raising up disciples.
There was a family that worked with the kids club and they lived in the area we did.
This family was part of an indigenous tribe called Wounaan and they spoke a language called Woun Mao (As well as Spanish) The Husbands name was Robinson and the Wifes name was Ruth and they have Four kids Yanni, Kenny, Yaximar and Ronny
We learned a lot about the Wounaan culture while we were with them.
We were told that Wounaan are incredibly shy and they will not approach you or interact with anyone whom them are not accustomed to.
So, they waited each night after we were done using the kitchen (that we shared) for dinner before they would come in and cook their food.
They would not eat around us, they wouldn’t sit at the same table with us.
At first we didn’t understand what we did to make them hate us so much, Then we learned it was just their culture. Thats just what they knew.
They were always very polite and helped us if we needed it though.
Just spending time with them and their kids and going on adventures all together we started to build a relationship with them, there were days where Ruth helped us cook dinner and showed us how to make plaintains like she did.
One time we decided to have an “international dinner” all together so she made chicken, wounaan style, (WHICH WAS INCREDIBLE) Sandra made empanandas and we had rice, beans and salad as well and we all shared and ate together and Ruth complimented Sandra on her empanadas!
There were many days where we had big left overs and we would share them with the family and they would eat them for dinner.
Then one glorious day as we had just finished cooking dinner, Ruth came in and started making dinner as well. All of us noticed right away and we were SO shocked and excited but we didn’t want to say anything and jinx it so we all just sat there with big smiles on our faces incredibly excited that they were started to trust us. Then, they sat at the table next to us ate at the same time we did! Although, it was not with us, it was only near us, we were still so excited!
THEY JUST BROKE THEIR CULTURE FOR US!
They trusted us enough that they did something that was completely out of character for them, and culture is a BIG deal in indigenous communities!
When we left the family all had very straight looks on their faces (Which was not rare, Wounaan don’t show much emotion) and Ruth said “It is going to feel so lonely without you guys around here” as she started to tear up a little.
God, How incredible are you that you can have people from a very strict culture feel you in us and trust us enough to break their culture and put us first.
This is something I will always hold very close to my heart as well as the beautiful family
