After one week of the race, I am more convinced than ever before, that the spirit is like the wind. I can’t see where the wind blows but I can feel it, and I can look at a tree, and recognize it.
One of the most common phrases that our team has been saying is, “You couldn’t make this stuff up if you tried.” Why? All of our contacts with ministries and churches have all been connected in one form or another. We could make a web of connections if we wanted to. The wind of the Spirit has led us so spontaneously without much effort by us that I am surprised we have made as much progress as we have. When approaching this month, I pictured it to be a lot different than it has looked so far in a week. I envisioned a lot of time in the prayer room waiting on God to speak and show us where to go. There have been some times like that, but what God has shown me is that it is not so much asking where the wind is but recognizing it when its here. Like when you’re outside praying with your team and hundreds of kids start showing up, in which leads you to talk to one of the leaders who ends up telling you that they are part of a battered women’s and kid’s shelter named Mucec. Or when you searching the web for international churches, and God highlights one named LifeBridge, and after talking to them they tell you about an upcoming outreach to the poor. Both of these examples are one of many effortless leadings of the Spirit that happened. Describing each one is impossible but I do want to tell all of you about the LifeBridge church contact that led us to FCMS (Christian Medical School Foundation). This was a medical outreach that took place at a school in the outskirts of Panama City around the city dump where many indigenous people live in trash and unbelievable poverty. Right when we got there, one of the leaders shared with us that her pharmacist’s house had flooded and that she wouldn’t be making it. Well, one of our team members Courtney is a pharmacist! This is not luck, coincidence, or fate, but only the sovereignty of God and leading of His Spirit. My team and I helped out in different stations whether that was pharmaceuticals, dentistry, medical, or meausring body mass index. We all really connected with the medical school students. I especially found it so valuable to learn as much spanish as I could from them and in return, they practiced their english with me. As we exchanged languages, we both communicated the language of love to the people. This day was a manifestation of our willingness as a team to stay sensitive to the Spirit and when He shows up, all that He requires is that we recognize and acknowledge Him. God has certainly blessed us for that. God is doing big things here in Panama and we still have 16 more days here. I can’t wait to see how “windy” it gets here.
John 3:8 “The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”
Some of my teammates and medical students
The classroom where we measured little kids height and weight
If you haven’t noticed already or did not hear through social media, as of about two weeks ago now, I am fully funded. I want to say thank you all of you who have supported me prayerfully and financially. I am here in Panama because of you. Any money donated to me now will not go to me but instead the world race’s general mission fund. I want to instead invite to prayerfully consider financially helping some of my teammates who are still far away from being fully funded. Their blogs can be found here on the left side of the page.
