My time in P
anama can only be called discouraging. At least this is how I have felt most of the time here. Its is not as easy as I thought it would be to set up ministry contacts. I don’t know why it has been difficult, but I know that each of us here, Aaron, Christie, Krystle, and myself have learned from this experience.
When we first arrived in Panama, we were taken to the YWAM base. The base is approximetly a 30 minute drive outside of Panama city. It is difficult to get into town and it takes a long time to make it to any place. We decided to stay at the YWAM base because it is a great organization that has lots of contacts. We knew that YWAM would be helpful in the set up process. The thing that happened is we had a difficult time at first explaining what our pupose was. We told them that we were in a larger group of 26 and were coming in a few weeks. We were trying to set up ministry opportunities and needed help. The thing that happened was miscommunication. Miscommunication is the number one thing that hinders a lot of organizations. A person thinks that what they are saying is right and the person listening perceives it in another way. We go about thinking they understand us, when in some cases you are both on a different page.
We were getting a few things organized and thought things were going in the right direction until Wednesday. We were helping YWAM by cleaning some windows and moving beds. We mentioned wanting to stay at a hostel because of the distance to town and it would be easier for us. We found out that we were on a totally different page and needed to do more work than first thought of.
We were able to get some contacts and call them. We went to downtown Panama City to see if we could help a church called Crossroads. I was discouraged this day. I thought we were going to get lots of contacts and we only got one. We left our contact to find a hostel. We finally had our first break through. We got a hostel for $5 a person a night. A huge blessing because it was in budget.
On Friday, we called a person from Crossroads and asked to meet her. She said she needed to get some work done at her house and we said that we would help her. We are doing set-up but we thought this would be a perfect opportunity to just be able to meet her and possibly get some contacts.
We arrived late. The bus was longer in getting there, which has been a normal thing for use here. When we arrived, she just started to give us contacts. We got about 5 or 6 contacts in the matter of 10 minutes. We were able to help her out a her house. I feel we were both blesed by the interaction.
I learned a lot of lessons this week. I have had to set up things before and have had to wait on God’s timing. It is just difficult and can be quite discouraging in the waiting process. We were hitting dead ends all week. It was getting to a point that I was scared to go back to San Jose and tell the squad what we found out. The thing is God just wanted us to truly trust him. He had us spend a week here for 2 days of truly seeing him work. I know that sometimes people will work many years for one or two days of God revealing things to them. I am just thankful that we only had to wait a week.
God thank you for this trip. Thank you for putting Aaron, Krystle, Christie, and myself here in Panama to be able to set up things for our team. Lord, you truly know everything and everything does get down in your timing. Thank you for your patience in our wanting to do things our way. I am more amazed by you every day. Thank you again God for all you do for me.
