This marks the beginning of a small series I’m doing of interviews with people who have been to the countries I’m going to on the Race. If you happen to know anyone who would be willing to speak to me about their experience in a country on my route, please let me know!
Danielle is a second-year student at Drexel University who has done mission work in Guatemala and Panama. She has an extremely passionate heart for our Lord and for spreading the Word of God, whether that looks like sitting and praying with someone who is hurting, or giving out prayed-over Bibles to strangers, or even rolling hotdogs. Danielle is several years younger than me, but I still get so blown away by all the wisdom God has instilled in her. She is insightful, knowledgeable and radiant with joy. I’m so excited for you guys to hear what she has to say about her time doing missions in Panama – it definitely pumped me up for all God will do while we’re there!
edited for clarity
EW: So, you were a missionary in Panama. Where in Panama did you go?
DD: We mostly stayed in Panama City and worked with kids in the inner city schools.
EW: What specifically was your ministry, what did the day to day of being in Panama look like?
DD: Well, it was a little different every day, our main goal of going down was this big boys and girls conference. During the week we were going down to schools and letting kids know about it, giving them tickets. It was a free event, but we wanted to bring awareness. We would do assemblies at schools, give out prizes, and just invite kids out. So that was during the week, and then at night we would go to the convention center for hours and hours setting up and preparing for the kids. It was really long days.
EW: What was your biggest takeaway from being in Panama and what did God teach you while you were there?
DD: That’s a really good question. This whole experience taught me a lot about serving. Since we were getting ready for this convention, there were a lot of tasks you don’t want to do that need to be done. Like, when the convention was going on, the kids needed to eat, so we were giving them hot dogs. We had to wrap all these hot dogs in aluminum foil, and I did not want to because it was going on while the conference was in session. I wanted to be watching the girls and taking pictures, and I make videos so I wanted to be filming these things and be able to remember this, but what I’m doing is sitting here and rolling hot dogs. So no one was in charge of me, it was all just volunteers delegating each other because the missionaries were inside. So, we just knew the tasks that needed to get done and put ourselves where we saw fit, and I happened to be in the group that decided they were going to do the hot dogs. I could have snuck away, because my friend did, and I thought I could just pretend I’m going to the bathroom and dip right out of there. But, I just kept hearing the Lord saying don’t you dare. Like, literally, audibly in my head saying don’t you dare.
My whole realization was that I was thinking that I wanted to experience this, I wanted to remember it, I needed this because I needed to remember what God was doing in my life, instead of being present in the moment and being part of what God is doing. And part of what God needed me to do in the moment is roll all these gross hot dogs in aluminum foil. I didn’t want to be doing it, but the kids had to eat and God put me in that position to serve. He could have used anyone, which is the great thing about missions, that you get to participate in what God is doing. It’s not about you at all, and that’s what’s great about it. He’s like I put you here to roll hot dogs and that’s the way you’re serving Me and you’re glorifying me and yes it’s not the most glamorous task and yeah maybe no one is going to notice if you go into the conference. But, you’re going to get so much more out of serving me in what I call you to do than you are out of just being there and trying to remember this moment when the moment is right here.
It was such a learning experience where He was like no, there are things that need to get done that are not pretty and no one is going to remember them at the end of the day and no one is going to thank you for rolling all these hot dogs, and the girls are probably not going to remember what they ate for lunch that day, BUT if they were able to focus more because they were fed or if they felt loved because they were fed, then that’s because God was in that. So, it taught me that it doesn’t matter what you’re doing for the kingdom, you glorifying God in this task is doing more work for the kingdom than you know by just being obedient. I learned a lot more than I thought I was going to, because I went in expecting this great emotionally moving instance that I had in my first mission trip, and it wasn’t like that at all. I had some emotional moments, but it was more God saying here are the basics of what it takes to serve Me, can you do it, and are you willing to do it?
EW: That’s good! So, what would you say was your favorite part about the missions trip/Panama?
DD: Well, Panama is just beautiful, and so that was a blessing in itself. And my favorite part was definitely coming together with so many volunteers from around the United States and we had all never met each other. I was frustrated by Satan trying to be like look at all these people, you are better than them because you are more experienced, you’ve been on another missions trip and you are superior. And what God did was humble the crap out of me that whole trip, which was one of my favorite parts, just watching Him keep humbling me and watching Him use all these people.
And then there was seeing the missionaries’ hearts for these kids. I never see grown men cry, and that’s just because there’s some stigma about men crying, whatever. But, when I was praying over the girls in one of these services I looked up because I was crying so hard I had mascara going in my eye and I needed to open it and I saw a missionary, his name was Gary, and he was just standing in front of these girls with his arms stretched out and weeping. Like, I’m talking crying so hard the tears were dripping to the floor. He was bawling over these girls and praying. It was just a taste of the way God loves us and a taste of the way God is placing people to do His work. I saw that pure love in His raw emotion at seeing these girls come to know Christ and I just want to feel that way for people who don’t know Christ. I need to feel that urgency for people.
EW: In three words, I want you to tell me what mission work is to you.
DD: In three words?
EW: I know, that’s hard!
DD: It’s spreading Christ’s love. That’s what it is. Because missions can be anywhere. Missions can be in your office, or in your home, and He’s teaching me that literally your mission is to spread Christ’s love, and that is the Great Commission.
EW: That was great! Thanks for talking with me!
grace + peace
If you liked what you read here and feel led to partner with me on mission – please feel free to support me by praying for me, subscribing to this blog and by donating! Just click the orange donate button at the top of this page or check out my store.
