Right now I’m in Panama City, Panama. Aaron, Krystle, Jackie, and myself arrived last Saturday morning around 5am, after a good day of traveling from Bambu, Costa Rica. (Brandon, Cameron, Lindsey, and Jenn are still there ministering FYI). So we’ve been here for four days and we leave next Saturday, so we still have a good three days left here.
It actually feels like we’ve been here longer than just four days, because we have done so much in this short time. Our small group is working on setting up ministry for next month when our whole squad comes down. It can be frustrating to show up to a ministry site and spend your first whole week getting things set up. So basically, this trip is so that once the whole squad arrives, we can dive right into ministry.
During our week here we are staying at the local YWAM base. It’s located in Panama City, but the city itself is so big that we are about forty-five minutes to an hour’s travel from the heart of the city. The staff here has been extremely helpful in setting up ministry. We are still working with them to iron out all the details, but they have a ton of great opportunities that we are going to be able to partner with during our time here.
So what have we been doing with our time here? Well, when we arrived on Saturday we spent the morning at the YWAM base and then in the afternoon we took a bus into town to explore the city. We learned a good lesson that day: always bring a rain jacket. On Sunday we went to a local bilingual church in the morning and then spent the afternoon working on some logistics. Monday we were able to have a ton of great meetings with different people on YWAM Staff, a big leap forward in all the logistics of this week, and do some much needed laundry. Tuesday we went into town to scope out one of the local ministry options and purchased our bus tickets back for next Saturday. Then today, Wednesday, we have been at the YWAM helping out with a few things around the base and we had a meeting with the director here which went really well.
During the next three days we have a lot more logistics to work out, and hopefully we can visit some more of the ministry sites as well. We begin our trip back on Saturday night at 11pm. It’s an overnight bus, and we should arrive back in San Jose on the following day, Monday the 18th, around noon.
I’m excited to see everyone back at YWAM Costa Rica, especially my fellow seven:eleveners, and our long-lost teammate Sarah Lapp!! I have definitely missed you all during this week and I can’t wait to see all your bright shining faces ☺.
Keep our small group in your prayers! THANKS and God Bless!!
