8:38 PM
11-05-2019
Hey all!!! Sorry I’m late but it’s been ridiculously busy.
Super sad goodbyes in Costa Rica, but not nearly as hard as Nicaragua.
We got to Panama on the 31st late at night, so it’s been about 4 real days here. And it is absolutely incredible.
Days are super packed with ministry here. In just three days of ministry we have visited a nursing home, preached an entire sermon, led worship, taught a kid’s class, did a community cleanup, participated in an intercession, and my most favorite was about three hours ago: visited an indigenous reservation of tribespeople of Panama and taught the children.
After a seriously long drive up into the mountains, we reached Soloy. A reservation for a tribe of people not really touched by society. These people live in a much more primitive way than I’ve seen up close. We toured the village, and all of the shanty houses, where people live not just without electricity or running water, but without actual walls or structure for their homes. We were called up to one house (if you can call it that) to pray for an elderly woman. We timidly walked into the small space with dirt floors and tin walls barely holding it together, and laid hands over her. She was very small and frail and clearly ill in some way, but she was fiery as can be. She was completely blind but showed us all of the purses she weaves by hand, without her sight. After we prayed, we left and continued on.
As we got back down, we continued to spend time with the children. They showed us the river where they drank from, bathed in, washed their clothes, fished, and basically used as their entire water source.
We spent tons of time playing with them and they showed us their homes and their different songs they prepared. We also gave them a skit and a song. There were chickens and pigs and dogs everywhere, which were totally cute. The church was made of concrete and we had the opportunity to sit in for a few minutes of worship and then take the kids for their sermon. After hours of playing with them, it was time to eat, which is common here to be fed after church, a good incentive to come for people who are typically unsure of where their next meal will come from. While they stood in line for a bowl of rice, I noticed a few of the girls around 12 who held babies had round stomachs, more so than just excess fat. And I realized that there were girls out there much younger than me with multiple children to care for and other problems far greater than the things I tend to worry about back home.
It made me realize how unfair it is for me to be upset about anything first world when there are people out there who have zero control over their own lives. I felt ridiculously blessed to have been given the life I have and wonder everyday why God chose to give me all the blessings I have.
Not much but plenty more to come. Catch y’all on the flip side.
