How do I capture a month into words? It seems simply too much. I have been wrestling as to where to begin and considering what’s important. The reality is that all of my time in Panama has been important. Our month was to be one in which we were totally free to go make connections with ministries that may be suitable partnerships with future World Race teams. In no way did my team’s first month look like a “normal” month of the race. If there was such a thing as normal of course! We had no schedule except following where God was leading us.
We started with literally no contacts. Day one in Panama was extremely frustrating; this was due to so many different things. Not the way we wanted to start the race. Day two, we as a team started the day with prayer at a park. While praying, a teammate had a vision of children. Within minutes dozens of children arrived out of nowhere. We then met Vilma, a lady who connected us to a ministry called MUCEC in Colon. From that day onward God has been providing for us and leading us. Let me be very clear, most of the time I felt like more of a wanderer rather than someone following God directly. However, now that I look back I think of how God was all over our month in Panama. He was there in our 3-hour conversation with Marty as we shared the Gospel with him well into the wee hours of the morning. He was there as we spent time with Richard, a hostel manager that was incredibly generous to us. God was there as we weren’t sure some nights where we would stay. God was there in Pastor Ricardo’s driveway as we did church and sang songs of worship in “the red zone” a bad part of the city of David. God was all over our month.
If I learned anything my first month of the World Race it is that God is right where we are. We just need to stop and recognize it. I also learned that God is more about being than doing. Sometimes we are so consumed with doing things that we neglect to remember that as we live we should exist as people who find their identity in Christ, rather than people who find their identity in doing things. I am becoming more convinced that living out the Gospel, more often then not, goes without feelings of excitement, or moments where we notice significant occurrences. The Gospel is lived out in ordinary moments on bus rides, through smiles, and late night conversations in unlikely places.
