I’m going to attempt to summarize my month in Panama in one blog. I experienced and learned so much, that I’m bound to leave some things out, but I just want to give an overview of my time in Panama.
To begin the World Race, we spent 4 days in Atlanta receiving more training and preparation at an event that they call Launch. So we flew to Panama on September 9th. After spending the first night at a hostel in Panama City, we took a 7 hour bus ride to San Felix/Las Lajas, where we lived and did ministry for the month. Our ministry hosts, Danny and Heather Nelson, picked us up from the bus station (in the rain, because it always rains in Panama this time of year) and took us to the house we’d be staying in. Two teams were placed at this ministry location, so 12 of us girls lived and served together for the month. It was awesome. And Danny and Heather were so awesome about carting all 12 of us around with them (in the back of their pickup truck) to do ministry, and they were so intentional about building relationships with us and discipling each one of us. They poured so much into us–I feel so blessed by knowing them.
Our ministry for the month consisted of accompanying Danny and Heather to all the places they go to serve. We did something completely different each day. Each day they would pick us up around 8:00am, and from there we’d head out to our various ministry locations. Every day we’d drop 2 girls off at the children’s home to help with chores around the home and play with the girls when they got off school. We’d also drop 3 girls off with a missionary from Costa Rica named Mauren and they’d travel with her up into the mountains to teach Bible classes to the children there. We took turns going to the children’s home and with Mauren so everyone got to experience each. The other 7 girls would stay with Danny and Heather to do ministry with the Ngobe people in the Camarca (the reservation of land belonging to the Ngobe tribe). This included playing with the kids at their “kids club”, helping Heather with her sign language classes, digging a trench around the house of a family with a deaf child so the rain wouldn’t flood their house, sanding and painting a Ngobe school, painting and nailing wooden windows to a Sunday school building, carrying food up the mountain to an injured pastor’s house, sitting in on guitar lessons, teaching English classes, singing at the Sunday church services, and probably more things that I am forgetting.
I loved getting to experience so many different ways to love and serve the people of Panama. I built so many cool relationships with the people there, and I am so grateful for how they opened their hearts to me. One of the things that impacted me the most is getting to see how Danny and Heather live their lives. They completely live for others. They are so generous with their time, energy, and resources, it’s unbelieveable. They are out loving and serving people from early in the morning until late in the evening. They always bring practical gifts to the people (one of Heather’s favorites is a nutrition-packed fruit called pifa)and Danny is constantly stopping to pick people up and give them rides. It seems like they never even think about saying no to anyone, and they never turn anyone away. They are always 100% willing to do anything and everything they can for the people around them, us included. They are amazing examples of loving and serving like Jesus.
Aside from ministry, another blessing from this month has been getting closer to my team. I LOVE MY TEAM. My teammates are Megan Spradley from Illinois (our team leader), Megan Conners from Michigan, Britteny Kramer from Canada, Lindsey Ruff from South Carolina/Tenessee, and Jenna Orabutt from Illinois. (If you want to get to know them, you can read their blogs, listed on the left-hand side of this webpage). God literally hand-picked our team, because we function so well together. We are still getting to know each other, and getting to a place of comfort and vulnerability, but we have already grown so close in this first month. Our squad leaders have pointed out to us that a distinguishing factor of our team among the squad is our devotion to prayer. We pray as a team every morning before going out to do ministry. Whenever anyone is sick, injured, discouraged, our struggling with anything, our first response is to pray with them, and we are so quick to pray for people that we come across in ministry. I love it so much. And we are pressing in for more of God, and more of His Presence. I am so excited for what God has in store for us over the next 10 months.
Personally, God has been growing me and challenging me this month in reguard to some of the gifts He has given me. The verse “To whom much has been given much will be required” has been on my heart. Before arriving in Panama, I felt like God was telling me that He wanted me to step out and use the gifts He has given me with confidence, particularly my Spanish and worship. I have noticed that often the areas of our strongest giftings are the things that Satan attacks the most. I have tended to hold back in both my Spanish and worship in the past because I don’t feel adequate. I’m not 100% fluent, so I don’t speak perfectly, and I am just learning guitar, so I make LOTS of mistakes when playing and I have a fear of singing out freely in front of people. But I felt like God was telling me to be a good steward of the gifts He has given me, and that I needed to step out and use the gifts He has given me to bless others. So I have had lots of opportunities to do that this month. I did the majority of the translating for our group of 12 while in Panama and I led my team in worship a number of times, and even played guitar when we sang in church twice. I am still working on the confidence aspect, but I am stepping out in faith and obedience, and God is blessing the results. I even got to lead the whole squad in worship on Friday night. It wasn’t perfect, but it was encouraging because I could feel God’s Presence increasing whie we worshiped. That’s what it’s all about. I just want more of Him.
We left Panama on Wednesday. The past four days we have been in Jaco, Costa Rica having a debrief, where we have gathered as a squad for a time of relaxation, reflection, teaching, evaluating, processing, planning, worshiping, celebrating, and meeting one-on-one with our squad mentors who fly out to meet us at each debrief (which are after month 1, 4, 7 & 11). And since our debrief hostel is on the beach, I have also been learníng how to surf in my free time. 🙂 Tomorrow we will be heading to San Jose, where we will be living and doing ministry for the rest of our time in Costa Rica. (Disclaimer, this was written on Sunday, but I didn’t get a chance to post it until now. Sorry for the confusion, but that’s internet abroad!)
Thank you all for your love and support. I know your prayers for me are a huge part of why this past month went so well. I appreciate your continued prayers. I love and miss you all!!!
