A week and a half down on this adventure and all the feels are starting to soak in. The emotions of excitement have washed to doubt and fear turned to confusion and back to excitement.
Our apartment: My team of seven is staying in a 200 sq. ft apartment piled on top of one another. We sleep in our tents, two tents in the bed room, two in the living room and one in our kitchen. We have no furniture, a leaky sink along with a toilet and a shower that are clogged. We are becoming friends with hundreds of ants, spiders, and cockroaches. Our neighbors include stray dogs and chickens. Without our good friend Josh, another missionary staying a few doors down, we would not have a rice cooker or griddle which has cooked ninety percent of our meals. The power goes out on multiple occasions and takes a few hours to turn back on. We have to walk across the way to Pastor Alex’s house to get a small wifi connection that goes in and out without notice, that currently has been out for 3 days due to a large storm we had. The water can also stop working without notice, leaving us with showers in the thunderstorms. The Lord has been stripping us of our comforts and turning some Americans that have lived lavish lifestyles into simplistic lifestyles and this lesson is not short of easy.
Our ministry: For our ministry we are working most of the week with a man named Ethan, helping clear his 23 acres of property. His ministry is Missions Beyond Aviation where they fly into remote areas to preach the gospel to indigenous tribes. Once the land is cleared it will house Ethan’s family, a runway and hanger for his plane, a children’s bible camp, a cabin for volunteers, and a bible institute. We wake up at six for breakfast and Ethan picks us up at seven. Upon clearing this property we have ran into snakes (The most dangerous in Latin American), spiders, scorpions, and many flying, stinging insects. The land is pure mud and covered in cow manure, making the work even more difficult. The work is hot in the humid sun and the bugs take some courage to get over.
The other half we are working with New Hope Baptist Church right across from where we are living. We have been helping clearing property here as well and will be assisting in building a fence surrounding the church. Here we have ran into multiple of one of the worlds most deadliest caterpillars, something new to the American kids that got to play with caterpillars for fun growing up.
Saturdays: Saturday is our off day from ministry where we get to adventure and explore Panama as a team. On our first off day we joined one of our other teams and went to their beach house. We spent the day in the sun, jumping waves in the ocean, walking along the sand, and picking up pink sea shells. We ate together at a small burger joint and had good conversation. The familiarity and comfort of some of our other squad mates was much needed.
Sundays: On Sunday we spend the day in worship. One church service in the morning in the mountains and the evening service at our church across the way. We split our team into two, one group went deep into the jungle with our ministry host Ethan to listen to him preach. I went with the other group and Brother Alex, the pastor’s son at New Hope, and went high into the mountains to listen to him give the word. The service and view were both beautiful, we were able to see the ocean that was miles away. God’s creation was showing off a little extra for us that day, it was such a treat.
Getting use to the bugs, the heat, the language barrier, and rice and beans for dinner every night has not been the easiest. However, I am getting my fair share of new experiences down here and am thrilled to see what God has planned for me on this wild adventure.
Much love & many blessings,
Rachel
p.s. I may be posting multiple blogs at once due to my lack of wifi ability. (It has been out for 3 days and I walked 1.5 miles and paid to post this) Read them as you please 🙂
